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

Hey everybody, it is August, no it's not November yet, it's August 11, I'd like to go ahead and welcome everybody back to the August Board of County Commission meetings. Before we get started, we're going to have the invocation by Samuel Lusley, yep, with the Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If everyone could please stand, and then after the invocation, if you could join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. Welcome. Our Father in Heaven, we are grateful to be gathered here this day as citizens of this community, to meet in relative comfort. We're grateful for the blessings of liberty that we enjoy here in this land, and we're grateful for the opportunities we have to communicate and discourse one with another and discuss the affairs of our community. We pray that a spirit of peace will reign here, and that the opinions and thoughts will be understood and taken into consideration, and that all will seek for the betterment of our community. We're grateful for all those who serve and spend much time in service, and our first responders, and those who help, those who are in need. We pray that as citizens, we will also seek to play a role in helping those who stand in need in our community. And we pray that the efforts to care for the needy will bear fruit here, that we might be able to help the weak, the young and middle-aged and the aged. We pray also that that will bless us and help us to organize ourselves to be in a position to help those outside of our community who may be in need, as there is much need and suffering in this world. These blessings and thy guidance we seek now, in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, and to honor God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I'm with pleasure for you. It's okay. It's good. All right. So let's go ahead and call this meeting to order. The first item is the approval of the regular and the consent agenda. I wanted to pull the Pine Hill Forest item. Pine Hills. Pine Hills Special Area Study and just defer that. I do also have one. It's a quick comment slash change on the agricultural farmer's market application, and that was just to give more wiggle room to have it, instead of it being $12,500 per, to have it be a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 20,000 with sliding scale based on the number of qualified applications. Do I need to pull it for that? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I think that. What item is that, Commissioner? It is consent item. It should be at the very end. Yeah, it's kind of at the end. 12A. Yeah. So do I hear a motion to defer item G1 and pull consent item 12A? So moved. Do I hear a second? Second. Motion is second to approve the agenda and the consent items with those changes. Is there anyone from the public who should speak to the motion? Okay, let's bring it back to the board. Before we do that, I need to read this disclosure on item 10A of consent. I am directly impacted by this item as I live near, I actually live on, Northeast 225th Street and Northeast 69th Avenue. My house is on the corner, which is a subject matter of item 26-00538, authorization to advertise a public hearing for a special assessment district. This item is only for the purpose of authorizing the advertising of the required public notice and hearing process and does not establish the special assessment district. I also want to comment that I had a call with Mr. Gavarrete, recommended that we have a community meeting out at the neighborhood prior to that vote. And so hopefully he can arrange that with some of the members that have expressed an interest, one of which is on your dais, and so we'll hopefully get whatever questions answered and everybody informed on that. Okay, any other discussion with that? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. And, Mr. Chair, you're requesting that the chair mark that item abstention for you based on that conflict. And, yeah, please mark that as abstention of the authorization to advertise, and I will, again, abstain on the vote. Mr. Clerk, you got that? Yes, sir. All right. Yes on all the other ones. All right. Mark, you're recognized. Good morning, Mr. Chair. Mark Sexton, Communications Director. Mr. Chair, we want to welcome somebody to the county family. It's my pleasure to introduce Shawnee Allman, who is our new Code Administration Director. All right. Welcome. And, Mr. Chair, you'll be glad to hear that she has complied with one of the manager's new requirements for new employees. She's already adopted an animal from the animal shelter. All right. Just kidding about that. Oh, no. No, she has, but it's not a new requirement. Okay. You're not required. You're highly encouraged, though, to do that. Wait, we can look at that, though. I love that. I think that's a wonderful idea. All in favor. Also, Mr. Chair, something remarkable happened at NACO this time. NACO has announced their presidential appointees to their various committees. And of the 67 counties in Florida, 24 people were appointed to these national committees. Seven of them, of those committees, are Alachua County Commission and staff appointees. Wow. Commissioner Cornell also continues to serve on a committee. But Commissioner Alford is the vice chair of three committees. Manager Lieberman was appointed. And Claudia Tuck and Ramon Gavarate. So, they're bringing a wealth of experience to the nation and learning a lot to bring back to Alachua County. So, congratulations to all of them. And Commissioner Alford is at the canvassing board meeting, but she will be here as soon as that's concluded. So, we'll remind her of that. Congratulations. Great. Also, Mr. Chair, we wanted to let the public know, they've seen it on social media, but we recently put out the third quarter update for roads projects. And it's quite impressive. Since the 2023, when the 10-year plan got started, the county staff and vendors have paved over 110 lane miles of roads in Alachua County. 42 have been completed. 12 are actively under construction. 32 are in the pre-construction phase. This update, we worked very closely with Public Works, Ramon and Stuart Cullen and Andrew Kaplan on my staff. It is a comprehensive update. You can see the projects, the new projects that have been completed. But under each of those three categories, you can go to a page that not only gives you all of the road projects and dollar amounts, but if you really want to dig down deep, you can go to the spreadsheet that's attached, and it will tell you detailed information on each one of those projects, including the type of project, the year completed, the lane miles. So, it's really good stuff for our residents. We know there is a lot of frustration being expressed about the road situation, but we are trying to remind folks, particularly ones that are saying, why don't you fix the roads, that this county commission is making an historic effort to fix roads. We understand that sometimes for every road we complete, there's another road that someone wishes we would complete, but we ask our residents to be patient. We've finally, after four tries, gotten the funding source that the state provides to tackle these massive infrastructure projects. So, it's taking time, but you're making enormous progress. Also, we wanted to let folks know that if you go to our homepage, one of the things that we are allowed to do when it comes to Amendment 3, the property tax amendment that will be on the ballot in November is to provide a website that has factual information about it. So, we've done that. You can click on the property tax amendment portal and you will go to frequently asked questions about it. And under each question, there's a, next to each question, there's a drop down. So, if you'd like to kind of work through some of the hyperbole that's out there and get to the facts of exactly what this amendment will do, that website is available to you. And then, finally, with the help of Public Works, Josh on my staff, Josh Massry, and the drone operator, Scott Fielding, from Fire Rescue, we took a visit to Newberry during the commission break, and we wanted to share that with you. We are opening our roundabout at the intersection of Newberry Lane and County Road 235. Historically, this intersection has a lot of crash history. It was a two-way stop for a lot of years that had difficulty with compliance with that. The traffic study showed that we have between 300 and 400 vehicles per hour coming through the intersection at the peak times, as well as when you talk about the four directions, you have a lot of opportunities for conflict, which the roundabout alleviates. Particularly in the afternoon traffic, this is a way to avoid the main light in Newberry, but it's also a main thoroughfare between Newberry and Alachua, almost really primarily the only one, and I guess we have our first person coming through the intersection now. The entire project was designed with Alachua County engineering staff and constructed with the majority of Public Works operations staff from start to finish in a less than six-month time frame. The total project cost is approximately $1.5 million. We believe that the actual construction cost is underneath that, split equally between the city of Newberry and Alachua County. The Alachua County portion is funded by the general fund. It is a city road and it is a county road, so it's a little bit of a unique situation, but I thought it was a great collaborative process between both entities. Check this out. This is how I can afford this Jeep Wrangler. And now we're from our sponsors. Sorry about that. All right. We've got Jeeps going through that roundabout, apparently. Those are the announcements. All right. Mr. Sexton, thank you so much. All right. Mr. Clark, I guess that takes us to our action items, Meridian Healthcare. Yes, sir. All right. So the Meridian Healthcare annual report and funding request, the recommended action is to receive and hear the presentation and then approve the funding request, which I believe has already been discussed in our budget workshops that we had the last couple of weeks. Ms. Tuck, welcome. You're recognized. Good morning, Chair and Commissioners. Claudia Tuck, Director of Alachua County Community Support Services. Annually in their contract, Meridian Healthcare is required to present an annual report to you, and today we have Lauren Cohen, the Executive Director. All right. Ms. Cohen, welcome. Thank you for being here and for all you do for our community. Good morning. Thank you so much for having me here today. I'm going to be highlighting. I'm going to get you in presentation mode. Thank you. Great. I'm going to be highlighting some of the progress we've made together over the past fiscal year, opportunities, and some shared successes as we've been serving Alachua County residents. Just an overview. I know I've been here before in front of you, and you're very familiar with what we do, but we've now been delivering behavioral health services for over 50 years, and next year it'll be 55, and we're honored to continue to partner with you as we emphasize whole person care. That's mental health, substance use, and primary care needs being treated together, transforming communities. That's 14 counties, correct? Yes. That is correct. The next one is just highlighting our core values. No coincidence, they spell heart, hope, empathy, accountability, resilience, and teamwork. These values are really emphasizing how we're showing up for our partners, the clients, and families that we are serving. The next one sort of gives an overview on the comprehensive continuum of care that we offer. And I'm sorry, the graphic is a little bit distorted, but it's integrated treatment, education and outreach, and supportive services. We offer this full continuum for kids, adults, families, outreach and outpatient through crisis and acute care. The programs are added and adapted based on community need, so it's not a one-size-fits-all model. Telehealth services, telehealth continues to become a critical component of our service delivery, providing access and flexibility for residents. Through this option, over 3,500 Alachua County residents have received over 26,500 telehealth services this past fiscal year. And that fiscal year is July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026. So it continues to provide increased access and a reduction of barriers like transportation or availability to get to in-person appointments. This next slide highlights the data on the range of age groups and racial backgrounds represented among those we serve, underscoring the importance of maintaining a comprehensive system of care that meets the unique needs of the community. The next slide is presenting a snapshot of the behavioral health needs of adults receiving services in our community. This helps guide our planning, staffing, and service delivery efforts. So you can see the breakdown of the needs for adults in our community here. The next slide presents a snapshot for kids. Again, underscoring the needs of children and adolescents in our community, understanding the needs of who we're serving helps us better adapt and inform service delivery and treatment and programming specific to meet these growing, changing needs. Do you all have any coordination with the school board and or with other, like, front-facing youth organizations that are providing? I mean, we're just seeing such an increase in the needs around our mental health in youth, and I was wondering. Absolutely. We do partner with the school board in offering our services. We also collaborate very closely with Partnership for Strong Families, specific on the child welfare side, not only children who are already in the system, but children who are at risk. Working with them, we meet with them at least once a month, if not more, to talk about the referral process, reduce any barriers, and what types of growing needs they're seeing, so we can make sure that our programming is matching those needs. Do you know anything about the work that they're doing in Collier County where they're working with, like, primary care physicians and clinics for pediatricians that are providing frontline care for anxiety, depression, ADHD, where they're seeing, like, need to manage pharmacology and, like, not having enough counselors or therapists or psychiatrists to deal with that? A little bit. And we're working with the behavioral health hub specifically on that type of model where UF Health manages that hub, providing some, and I'm venturing into things I don't manage, so I just want to give an overview of my understanding, but providing consultation to pediatricians and help improve that workflow and that referral process from primary care to more specific behavioral health and then back to primary care, right? So there are some people that, you know, come to Meridian or a psychiatrist, medications are well-managed, can return back to primary care, so that that process is always flowing and we don't see the stopgaps and the barriers to getting people the services they need when they need it most. Okay. Well, I mean, if you all have updates on that or sort of, like, how that's being implemented, that would be really great to know. Absolutely. Got some good information on that Collier County program and was really interested in how we might be able to expand that work here. I'll send some of that as a follow-up. Commissioner Wheeler. I have a question, too, about the kids. In the public schools, they've cut back on social workers that they have or the guidance counselors, you know, who actually help with some of these situations you're talking about here. I don't know, is there an opportunity that there can be a partnership to put someone in the schools? Absolutely. And some of our, and I don't have that information, but some of our counselors do go into some of the schools, but we are open to increasing that, providing more support and resources, so I'd love to continue that conversation and see what else we can do to better support the school system. Yes, thank you, because I know, you know, they're having to fill a lot of gaps, so if, you know, we could pull community members into the school, public school system, too, that might help fill in some of those holes. All right, thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. Okay, keep going. Okay, just making some notes here. This slide underscores our commitment to listening to the individuals that we are serving. For the first time, we have installed client feedback kiosks in our sites. What this has allowed us to do this year is to bring specific location and level of care data to these meetings instead of just overall organization. As we continue to grow, it becomes even more important for us to be able to pinpoint where the opportunities are by county, by location, and level of care, right, because that looks different. So we're dividing that up here between outpatient services, overall satisfaction, and inpatient and residential. This allows us to have more actionable data, so we can not only identify what level of care may be experiencing, some different opportunities, but what specifically we may be able to look at closer. So we're excited about being able to drill down across our organization this year. We're also providing here our clinical outcomes that we track, just to show effectiveness of the services. We want to look at engagement, of course, but also improved outcomes and effectiveness. So for this last fiscal year, across the organization, 79% of adults and 80% of children have demonstrated improvement in functioning and have reported a reduction of overall symptoms. With regards to the stars and the, like, have you, you know, I mean, I'm assuming that there's additional questions that drill down so you can get to, like, how do we get to five stars? Yes, yes, absolutely. So we know we have work to do. This is our first year at being able to parse out the information in so many different ways, which is fantastic. But initially, you know, think, oh, my gosh, yes, we've been presented with so much more data than we initially had. So what we're doing now is drilling down on those opportunities and working on our action plans by level of care, right? Because there's different questions we have for inpatient versus outpatient. The outpatient questions are focused on customer service, quality of care, facility, those kinds of things. And the inpatient has some additional questions that are related to food and sleeping arrangements and those things that are not applicable in an outpatient setting. So we have a unique opportunity to really look at the actionable items and the opportunities. So we're doing that now. This next slide breaks down the number served across our various levels and broken out by kids and adults. We've added this year our central receiving specific to Alachua County residents. So we're adding that level of care here to look at the number served by our various treatment components, central receiving, acute care, outpatient, psychiatric care, medication management, our residential, and our medication-assisted treatments. Children or children under 18? Thanks for providing that additional information. This slide is highlighting some of our housing and housing support services. We believe housing is a key part of the recovery journey. So through transitional housing, permanent supported housing, and housing support services, we help individuals achieve stability, maintain their treatment engagement, and build a foundation for improved health and long-term success. We've got the Lodge. The Lodge provides transitional housing to 78 individuals. We've got 67 HUD units maintained by Meridian. And then our New Horizons properties has Joyce House, which is an 8-bed facility, Transitions, which is a 15-bed facility. We've got 20 one-bedroom units and then 24 one- and two-bedroom units in our choice apartment. How are people placed in those units? We are referred and we work with the Homeless Continuum. COC? Yes. Okay, so it's part of that, like, one list, one pathway? Absolutely. We do partner with them. And then Central Receiving Facility. We want to highlight, although I know I've come before and have done a very detailed presentation on Central Receiving, so I've just included some highlights in this presentation about Central Receiving and continuing to provide that single-access point for law enforcement, voluntary referrals, individuals referred through the Baker Act, highlighting the impact, providing rapid assessment, stabilization, and connection to ongoing care. For this past fiscal year, Central Receiving has provided over 26,650 total service encounters to 22,289 unique individuals. 2,650 total. Yes, total service encounters. But I know we also want to look at how many unique individuals are coming through, and that was 2,289, unduplicated. And we've maintained an average law enforcement officer processing time of under three minutes for this fiscal year. And so we're really happy about that, meaning that these law enforcement officers can get in, we can receive the individual, and they can go back to the very important work that they are doing outside of our facility. For the 361 individuals that are recurring, are you coordinating with our law enforcement, our crisis center, your services, other services, to try to reduce the sort of, like, frequent flyer? Absolutely. We have an internal process where we look at individuals who have presented to Central Receiving more than one time, as well as other levels of care, too. So we look at those high utilizers and identify potential opportunities to connect with additional resources. If they're presenting to Central Receiving a second time or a third time, those care coordinators in Central Receiving are looking at what contributed to that readmission, what didn't go the way we wanted it to after the last time they were with us, what additional supports. Was it access to medication, housing, transportation? What are the barriers and the opportunities for us to look at what needs to be done additionally that time? And do you have data, I don't know if it's on the next slide or if you have it with you, but, like, on where people are ending up, like, what's happening to people who are coming through, like how people are admitted for inpatient versus start to receive outpatient treatment, that sort of thing? Yes. I don't have that in this presentation, but I have that in the Detailed Central Receiving, so I can certainly send that. And I believe that we're scheduled to come before you in a joint meeting, possibly next month, with that information. Great. But if that is not the date, I will go ahead and send that. Thanks. Just making some notes. Okay. So some of the other things we want to highlight for this past year. One, we opened in this last fiscal year a youth short-term residential treatment program. When I did this presentation, we had eight beds, but we've actually just increased it to 10 beds. We saw an overwhelming response from the community for this level of care and had a wait list, so we have been able to increase the funding and the bed capacity for this program to 10. This program provides services beyond a crisis stabilization unit. So often it's acting as a diversion from a statewide inpatient psychiatric program, as a SIP, when appropriate. And when we identify children who need something beyond that immediate stabilization, this program is an opportunity. The anticipated length of stay is up to 90 days, so they're moving from CSU into this SRT program. There's only a few in the state, so we're very excited to be able to bring this level of care to kids and families in need. Are you still seeing a waiting list? Yes. We still have a waiting list, but we just increased our bed capacity a week ago, I believe, and moved a couple people off the waiting list, so now we've got 10. But we knew there was a need, but it's really been even more of a need than we could have anticipated. So we're working closely with our children's services, our child welfare organizations on getting children that need to be in this level of care, in this level of care. Commissioner Wheeler? Is that local? Are we still sending kids to Lake City? No. We've got this SRT unit is local. It's on our Gainesville campus. Okay, great. And it is the only one we offer in our service area. But our CSU, our children's CSU, we've got a children's CSU unit also on our Gainesville campus, and we have a children's CSU in our Lake City campus. So we can keep our local kids local. Absolutely. We really want to underscore the importance of treatment, of family participating in treatment, and we know when they have to travel out of county, that makes that more difficult. Great. Thank you so much for that. Let's try to get to the end of the presentation. Yes. We also have highlighted our Coordinated Opioid Recovery Network progress, the core network. We want to highlight the collaborative effort that this core network is, a lot of collaboration with Elastro County Fire Rescue and Gainesville Fire Rescue. We're really working to reduce overdose deaths and increase access to much-needed substance use treatment. So we're really proud of the accomplishments that we've made this past year in those areas. This slide underscores the paramix for Meridian, understanding that most of the clients we're serving are falling at or below poverty guidelines, 92% at or below poverty for Alachua County residents that we are serving. This year, I also want to talk about an opportunity that we now have with Central Receiving Facility being open for a year. That allows us to access low-income pool funding. So low-income pool transforms local dollars into a larger federal investment that keeps critical health care services accessible for those who need them most. So providing a little overview on what the low-income pool program is. It's a Florida Medicaid funding program designed to help health care providers offset the cost of care for uninsured and underinsured individuals. Our Central Receiving Facility is eligible to participate based on the uncompensated care that Central Receiving Facility provides to the community. Participation in the program allows local government funds to be leveraged to generate additional federal Medicaid match funding that can be reinvested in services provided through Central Receiving. So just detailing here the process on how low-income pool funding works. Federal LIP funds can only be accessed with a local governmental match. Funds used to meet other match requirements cannot also be used to meet low-income pool match requirements. There is a letter of agreement that has to be executed as a part of this process. And then those LIP match dollars must be provided directly to ACA as an intergovernmental transfer, so the funds do not go through providers themselves. ACA receives the federal match for LIP distributions according to the approved LIP model. For the previous year, it was the state funds were 42.8 percent, and the federal funds provided 57.2 percent. Then those funds are, so the state funds are provided to ACA as an intergovernmental transfer, and then the state provides the funding with the federal match directly to the provider for those uncompensated services. This, again, leverages local funding to bring those additional dollars, maximizing the impact of local investment. So this year, to bottom line our funding request, we are requesting the same amount as last year to go towards our local match. That's a total of $8,95,556. But what we're asking for is for $200,000 of those funds to be used directly for a low-income pool match. Those funds would be submitted directly to ACA and then returned to us with the federal match funding, increasing the amount of funds that are going towards uncompensated care here. Great. I know that's a lot of information packed in this presentation. I'm happy to answer any questions, and I really just want to reiterate our gratitude for the partnership and the collaboration to thank Claudia and her team, who has been working with us on this. Okay. Commissioner, any questions? If not, I'll hear a motion. I guess I do have one question, and I'll make the motion. The question is just how are things going with recruiting people for, like, the co-responder teams and the coordination with the sheriff's office? I know we were having some challenges filling those positions. We were, and I have to say we had them all filled, which was great. And partnership is going very, very well. Everyone has been wonderful to work with, and we made some adjustments and were able to recruit several new individuals. We did have a couple co-responders resign. They moved out of state. But we have some applicants we're making offers to now, so we're expecting to be able to keep those filled. So this past year has brought significant improvement in the recruitment and the retention of those positions. All right. I move approval of the funding request for Meridian's annual budget, including the lit bench. Second. Motion has second. Any discussion, any public discussion on the motion? Here, none. Back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your presentation. Okay. That clock's really four minutes fast, so I'm going to declare it at noon, and we're going to go ahead and open up public comment for anything that's not on the agenda. If you wish to speak to something that's on the agenda because you have to leave, if you'll just identify what that item is. We are going to be talking about the resolution addressing the community concerns on law enforcement next after public comment. So if you're here to speak about that item, if you could just wait until public comment concludes, unless, of course, you have to leave, that would be great. So let's go ahead and do general public comment, not things related to anything on the agenda. Okay. Bert, welcome. Yes, good morning. I'm Bert Wetherington, and I'm Alachua County Community Activist, and I am the event coordinator for a big Alachua County 250th Anniversary of America event that will be held Sunday, November the 8th, at Turkey Creek Golf Course from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., to 10 p.m., and this event will honor all law enforcement, all first responders, and all veterans, both retired and present in Alachua County. This event will be a family fun day, and it will have bounce houses, a celebrity dunking boot. If you know anyone who is a celebrity who would like to be in the dunking boot, let me know. I know three people up here. Oh, okay. Yeah, you? Okay, that sounds good. Well, we would love to have you. We would love to have, you know, we're going to have a lot of fun activities for the kids. We're going to have law enforcement canine shows. We're going to have, you know, some special guests that may come, most likely our current Gator football coach and some of his players and coaches, former coaches, and some former players that are currently high school football coaches in our area. But we will have a live band. We will have a Texas Roadhouse dinner for $25 per person. All proceeds of this event will go to veterans of Alachua County, Special Olympics of Alachua County, and other charities here in Alachua County. This is a very big event for Alachua County. This event is sponsored by the Knights of Columbus organization. It is their 33rd annual golf tournament. But this is the first annual Family Fun Day that will be happening, and it is happening at Turkey Creek. We are looking for golfers, teams of four, for $400. You can have arts and crafts booths for $50, as well as sponsorships. If you choose to like to be a sponsor, you can be on our memorable T-shirt for $300 to $1,000. And $1,000, you can have a whole of your toys at Turkey Creek. We currently have nine holes available, and we are looking forward to this big event, approximately about 2,000 or more, 120 golfers, and very excited, and more details to come. As we look forward to this event, I will give more details and look forward to Alachua County, hopefully, definitely coming out and being involved in this big event. Thank you, Bert. Okay, appreciate that. All right, next speaker. My name is Tom Morris. I sent a letter to you and to the city commissioners back in July, and unfortunately, the letter to you was returned as undeliverable. So I came today and delivered by hand letters to you that weren't deliverable by the post office. And since I'm here to do that, I'd also like to read the content of the letters for public awareness. The topic is our inhumane treatment of immigrants. Evil wins when good people are silent. That idea has been expressed by several thinkers for many years. It is particularly applicable now. Powerful forces with megaphones, repetition, and threats of reprisal are silencing good people. That house of evil cards is rapidly collapsing. I know of no system of morality, ethics, or religion that does not require that we treat others as we wish to be treated, to love others as we love ourselves, to help others to help themselves. We are trading those principles for the most base of our nature, for suspicion, fear, misinformation, and hate. As a practical matter, immigrants are contributors rather than burdens, both economically and culturally. Defeating evil always requires some sacrifice. The right thing is our leaders and as good people. Stand up, speak up for the right rather than for experience. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Morse. Thank you for returning back. You said last time you were here that was your last day, but I appreciate your work. I think this was the last day, too. Well, you come back any time you want. Now, just as a reminder, if you do speak to the item that we're going to be taking up next, then when we take it up, you won't be able to speak again. So, if you're here for that item, hold off. If you just want to speak to us about that item because you have to leave, we'd love to hear from you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, commissioners. Chris Deutsch here again. You have heard members of my group speak about specific concerning issues at ACAR. I'd like to set the record straight. It has come to our attention that we are being characterized as having zero tolerance for any euthanasia at this shelter. That is absolutely false. None of us believe that is even possible. Humane euthanasia is and should be a part of any shelter or rescue, period. Is the humane part the sticking point or just meant to discredit us? At the last meeting, now over a month ago, citizens expressed dismay that the ACAR investigative report was substantively devoid of answers to the whistleblower letter. Conclusions were reported without evidence or citations, reducing them to prejudiced editorials. As the main pool interviewed were shelter staffed, and it appeared that some parts may have actually been written by staff, it can hardly be seen as unbiased. Those of us who requested an interview were treated as hostile witnesses. Our data presented from PRRs was later treated with contempt and not incorporated. But it was who wasn't interviewed that is so outrageous, the Animal Welfare Advisory Committee. Not a single member was scheduled for an interview. The committee members are professionals in animal shelter and related fields. They conclude Dr. Julie Levy, Professor of Shelter Medicine at UF. Chelsea Bauer, Executive Director of the Humane Society of North Central Florida. Melissa Jenkins, Operation Director of Operation Catnip. Perry Kuhn, ASO Deputy of Rural Services. Jennifer Webb, President of the Shakespeare Foundation. Jacob Schaefer, Liaison with Grace Marketplace. And Kristen Young, Citizen Member. How terribly disrespectful for those members. I have questions. Were they intentionally sidelined from the most important case in years? Why are they wasting their time if their advice, the purpose of their committee, is not considered relevant? How did that happen? Did no one tell Marchman of the committee? Or was it intentional? No, excuse me, commissioners should certainly drill down on that. It was infuriating to hear the board say that it was just time to move forward after reading the flawed report without requiring accountability. As a kid and a parent, accountability was followed by consequences. Otherwise, nothing changes and bad actions continue with impunity. I don't have time to go through each one, but I did come up with a list of some accountability items that I'd like to share with the clerk. I'd also like to say that 42 dogs were euthanized in July, the highest number since February that included euthanization. The dogs euthanized in the clinic that were added on it after the fact. Twenty-one of the 42 in July were classified as owner-requested euthanasia. That number has continued to escalate. And I thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Lynch. Thank you for your comments. Okay, next speaker. Welcome. Mr. Chair, commissioners, board members, my name is Heather Stover. I'm a third-generation Alachua County resident. My kids are now fourth generation. I'm a full-time rancher. I just graduated with my MBA from the University of Florida. It's my understanding that there is a vacancy for a citizen at large for the Land Conservation Board. I am highly interested. I ride these trails with my horse probably three times a week. We've crossed hundreds of miles of land. Although you heard everything that I've accomplished, my greatest accomplishment is protecting Alachua County and the lands that we have because I have a vested interest. These are the lands that my horses and I ride weekly. I understand that you all will be voting for a citizen at large soon, hopefully, for this vacancy. I strongly urge you to please vote for me. I have a keen eye for these trails. I understand everything going on daily, weekly in these trails, and I am more than happy to contribute back to my beloved county, Alachua County. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Stover. And do you have an application in? Okay, great. Okay, thank you. All right, next speaker. Dr. Grant, I came in last month. This month, I would like to come on behalf of the children from Lake Forest Elementary and on the citizens of Windsor County. So I brought a student with me. She was my student last year in fourth grade. She's my student again in fifth grade. And the reason we're here is because one of the things that we learned in our fourth grade social studies book, which I brought with me, was how important it is for us to advocate for ourselves as citizens for our roads. So she wanted to read two sentences from Chapter 18 that we read about the role of citizens in Florida. State in the law, government builds roads and maintain them. Citizens need good roads to live. And we need it to go to school. We need it for emergencies. Like my brother, he has autistic. He has seizures, and he needs to go to the doctor sometimes. So on behalf of the citizens of Windsor who attend Lake Forest Elementary, we have multiple students that go down that road with our school buses. And it is unsafe. It's over 50 years since that road has been paved. We are not scheduled to be paved for 10 years. I'm really excited that other roads in the county have been paved. Other roads that didn't really seem to have as much damage as our road is is being repaved, and our road hasn't been touched in 50 years. So on behalf of Windsor, and welcome back to school, children in Lake Forest in Alachua County. We're happy to be back in school. We continue to learn all these things that we're supposed to be doing as citizens in our county. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Grant. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please. How are y'all doing? Good. I'm Richard. I live on 234, and the road needs to be widened. It needs to be fixed. It's getting bad. I live there three generations, and I ain't never seen that road done. And I like to know where my tax money is going because I'm almost 70 years old, and there ain't nothing been done on that road. No ditches cleaned out, no road cover, no nothing. Why ain't it been doing? I'm almost 70 years old. Where did my money go? You know? Where is it going? Can y'all tell me? Y'all can't tell me because it's going out the door. Y'all going to work on the road and fix the road and widen it? You know, there's been 20 people killed on that road because you run off the side of the road, it drags you right into the ditch, right into a tree. 20 people has been killed on that road. What are y'all going to do about it? You know? Can somebody tell me? So when you're done with your comments and everyone's done with their comments, we'll respond. Do what? We respond to comments when everybody's concluded. Okay. I just, if you don't, I'm going to be back. Okay. Thank you, sir. I want to know where my tax bill is going. Okay. Thank you, Richard. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Faye. Hi, Faye. I also live on 234, and, you know, they fix the potholes, and as soon as it rains, it washes them right back out. So, I mean, it's like really no use. And like you said, the road is not wide enough. If a school bus is passing, you've got to get way over, because you don't want the school bus to get on the side of the road. But also, there is some teen drivers that live in Windsor that are starting to drive, and I'm really worried for their safety, because they really don't know how to drive on that road. It'll be because sometimes when you go down it, it just, you know, bumps or whatever, and it'll pull you, you know. And the other thing is, is when you turn into Windsor Road from Highway 26, the turning lane is not long enough. I am really afraid somebody's going to get me in the rear end, because it's not that long. I know they're doing a lot of road restructions, you know, like all around. I know they're doing some in Orange Heights, which is right down the road from us. The other thing is down there on 234 in Rochelle, they did the road from McAnopee up to the state's gate. The rest of it is not done, and it is awful. It will about knock you off the road going that way. But I just don't want to tear up my ride, you know what I'm saying. They're too expensive to keep fixing. So I would like to see something happen, you know, to keep our safety. Thank you, Ms. Fay. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Cindy Cowart. I live on 234 and close to 1474 across the street from there. On 234 south, half of the road has been repaved, which has been good. And then on 234 north, I believe that's going to be done as well. However, I live in the middle section of 234, and unless I'm mistaken, that's not even on the roster at all to be done. And my son, who works for transportation planning in Virginia, was looking all this up, unless I'm mistaken. And so my question is, why isn't that even on the roster? And there's three areas by Windsor Baptist Church in front of there that I've noticed that people have to actually go on the opposite side of the road, including myself, because it's just too horrible to even drive across that area. And there's also a daycare center next to me. The parents are complaining about the road. So we're all just very concerned about our cars being, not only that, it's just a hazard, really and truly, because people are all the time dodging the potholes and driving on the opposite side of the road. Thank you, Ms. Cowart. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Hello, everybody. My name is Gigi Tajali. And me and my neighbor, we live in Charmary Lake, which is right next to the Joneswood Park. And we're a little bit concerned about that road, that it's going to be in the future, the 30th Avenue toward Pine Hill, which is really concerning to me. I would like to have some update, if you can send me an email or something, because I don't get those emails anymore. And we're concerned about, because there is a sinkhole there. So if they want to build a road, that's going to be really inappropriate to me. And also there's a drainage, and also there is, you can show the picture, if you don't mind showing the picture, because when it floods there, there's so much water. So I can't imagine anybody building a road right there crossing to the other side. So I don't know if you know what I'm talking about, but no, okay. I don't. So. Yeah, it's on the back. It's on the eastern side of 30th. 30th. If you go into Jonesville Park and you keep going, that's where you're talking about. Right. If you keep going, that will eventually connect. So, and then also, I mean, I live right there. We all live in that area, and it's so lovely to see kids playing. And I just can't imagine that somebody would just do a road right in the middle of the park crossing to that subdivision. So I'm a little concerned about that. Okay. Thank you, Gigi. Yeah, if you will get Mark, your email, we'll make sure that growth management has that so that anything related to that area, you'll get an email on. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Gigi. Yep, next speaker, please. Hi, good afternoon. I'm Laura Holmes, and I wanted to speak on the same item, which is the Pine Hill Forest Special Area Study. We just wanted to request that you guys are sure to look at the sinkhole that is in Jonesville Park. It opened up several years ago. It was roped off with caution tape. A lot of rocks and other items, I guess, have backfilled in there, and then they've added trees and other items maybe to help absorb the water that's there. But we live on the opposite side of that, and the road is proposed to go between us, between our houses, which I think we have a 50-foot buffer between, which belongs to the neighborhood, and that's behind our property lines, to where the county land starts. And then on the opposite side of that is a giant sinkhole. So right now, which is what Gigi was discussing, is I took some pictures this past week, which shows how high the water levels rise, where that road would be. And so the concern is that if a road is built in that center area, where will the runoff go after that? I assume it will go towards our property and then also towards the sinkhole. And so we have grave concern about how close that is to our properties. I mean, maybe 150, 200 feet from our property is the previous sinkhole that was very large. So we're very concerned about our properties backing up to that area and the impact that the road, the weight of it, and just the construction will cause to that, like, lower infrastructure and whatever caused the previous sinkholes to happen. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Holmes. So that item was deferred, so these comments will be included for them to consider before that item comes back to us. Okay, great. And is that, that's the first study? Yeah, we deferred that item to a later date to give everybody a little bit more time to review the special area study. Okay, great, thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Holmes. All right, next speaker, please. Greetings, it's Ananaku. How is everybody? Good to see you. Good to see you. I came to just do a follow up on the Pecan Tree Route Back Porch Get Down for Porter's Quarters Community in collaboration with the village that's also landed in the community. I want to say that people ask me, was it a success? I say no, because I have a high standard of success, but it was victorious, and I'm grateful for that. I know every intention that went in. We listened to the lands, we listened to the spirits, we listened to people speak. And it definitely did do a few things that I want to share with you. I would like to see these in the schools. This is the new Friday shirt, I'm just telling you that right now. So we sent out a message. EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence According to the Gene Keys. A brother named Richard, I want to say Rudd, he wrote a book on this many years ago, but it's really a beautiful, intricate type of study. Maybe a meditation, so the Gene Keys, there's 64, and so we focused on Gene Key 49, and right now I couldn't quite, because there's so many. So we're creating technology. We're empowering our youth with the messages on the shirts, and it's a movement. So the Pecan Tree has become a movement. This is the first annual year. We're hoping that through the funding, through the support, nobody brought me any youth, but some did show, so I was a little disappointed at that. I had to pay for it out of pocket, but I had some support that I appreciate. People came in where they could, so we had to shave it down a bit, which happens, you know, once again, it was victorious. It was beautiful. We had yoga, we had music, we had local artists, a young man who had never shown his gift talents and abilities, put on his shirt and said he wanted to perform. So he got up and was embraced by his community, you know, and now he's working on his musical aspects of himself. We had capoeira. We have beautiful couples who are living on the land, so they travel to support community. We wanted to bless them as well. So basically, the movement is sons are to be protected, daughters are to feel safe, elevate your ancestors. It's evolutionary, elevate our youth, agro village culture. Because if we don't have food, and we don't have places to not only lay our heads but to feel safe, where we can really go, places we can call home. If we don't have villages, because it does take villages. If we don't have leadership, and what is compelling our youth to tap into their genius. As I continue to walk on these high schools that look like prisons, it's sad, it's disheartening. We do the work the sister spoke of, but we're indigenous practitioners. There are things that westernized medicine will not be able to recognize or even break through. So we're here, we're here in the community. I'm going to leave the shirt out just because whoever wants to take it is welcome. But if you want to contribute to more shirts, here we go, and thank you. So it went very well. Thank you so much. You're welcome, thank you. Appreciate you being here. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon, my name is Wendy Wood. I appreciate the opportunity to speak a little early. I'm on my lunch break, so I want to speak to the item about the resolution who's on the table here. Sure. So fear is how fascists win. We cannot cede our community's safety for the imagined safety that going with the flow might bring us. History tells us that silence leads to more abuse. You must be brave and pass this resolution to vocalize and put in writing that which we teach our children in kindergarten. That everyone will be safe and that when unsafe circumstances pop up, we will come together, talk it out, and problem solve. Today, and at other meetings and vigils across this community, over 2,000 people have signed a petition to see our immigrant neighbors safe and to see that their civil rights are respected. Now we have the resolution on the table that has been legally reviewed to ensure that it would not violate state or federal immigration law. You are in a position today of power to lead and to set an example that our community cares deeply, that law enforcement actions should comply with our residents' constitutional rights, that immigrants are welcome and are invaluable to our community, and oppose the well-documented illegal actions being carried out in the name of immigration enforcement. Let's look to communities who have already stood up for fair treatment of their residents, like Orange County, like the city of South Miami, like the city of Miami, like members of the state's own Immigration Enforcement Council. None of these have seen any type of retaliation, whether from increased enforcement or legislative action. It's time. It's time to take a stand for what is right. Take a stand to reaffirm the constitutional rights of all of Alachua County's residents. Please vote in favor of this resolution. Thank you. Thank you, Wendy. Thanks for taking your lunch break with us. Next speaker, please. Yes, sir. Good afternoon. I want to go back to the road, east side of county, 234. Yeah, if you could just introduce yourself. Frank Peterson, I'm sorry. Thanks, Frank. No problem. Long time resident, three generations, go back. The east side, county road 234 could be a scenic route. Used to have funds out there. We had, you know, the Zucchini Festival. That was a long time running. The road is horrible. Like, I mean, you've heard before, four or five people before, you can't even hardly keep your car in line on the road. Trucks are coming. Semi-trucks are not even supposed to be on that road. Now the school buses are in. There's very little room. I'm talking about if y'all would just spend a couple of hours a month out there on that road, y'all would see what the residents are talking about. It's horrible. There's potholes from 1474 to power back to the fire station. You cannot stay on the road. I'm talking about potholes that will eat your car up. You've heard we have to shift sides. Thank God it's only 30 miles an hour in there because there's horrible, plenty of room for it to be widened, plenty of room for it to be a scenic route. We'd love to see it be a scenic route out there. The oak trees are grandfathers. They go over the street. I mean, it would be, we're wasting. Please spend some tax money. Thanks, Frank. Thank you. Drove it on Sunday afternoon, again. So we're going to try to wrap up public comment in the next 10 or 15 minutes. Who else needs to speak here in the chambers? Two people? Okay. And then how many are on the call, Mark? Okay. We got a big agenda, and I want to get to the next item. I know a lot of you are here for that, so if you'll introduce yourself and give us your thoughts. I'm Kenneth Burke. I'm here to speak about item 26-00535, the special assessment district on northeast 225th Street and northeast 69th Avenue. I don't know if this was the best time to speak. I wasn't sure it was on the call. You can. It's been approved. We're going to try to have a community meeting out there before we actually discuss it as a board, but you're welcome to speak to it. Okay. Well, I've lived on the street for over 30 years now, paying taxes, which have doubled over that time. And I've been fine with the county fixing the potholes as we have to weave through them on the way home all the time. And I was happy for that to continue until they were ready to pave it, which I thought was about to happen now that the county's purchased the property. And we're very happy about the Black Lake Preserve. However, now the county owns the entire entrance road, both sides of 225th and one side of 69th Avenue for the majority of the road, and wants to open it up to public access. And we find it astounding that the county would now propose this and pave up to the entrance, but not pave to cover their access gates, of which there's two, one on 225th and one on 69th Avenue, which I'm sure they'll be using for land management with heavy equipment, timber contractors, and land-moving equipment, earth-moving equipment, and so forth as they manage the property over the years. And we just feel that a special assessment district is completely inappropriate for this type of use. This is not an essential district to be done for any kind of public safety or public health. It's imposing the same tax on our property tax for a person that's paying $5,000 a year of county property tax as a person that's paying $15,000 or more a year. They each pay the equal amount, which is very unfair. And we feel that, you know, this is not the right use to force. There's over 10 people that are objecting to it. Two of the yes votes that got it to this point have now been rescinded. You've been sent information from that landowner. So it's doubtful that there's even over 50% of people that are supportive of it. But we feel it's completely inappropriate to use this district and to involuntarily assess taxes onto people who do not want it. And, you know, we feel that the county would really be shirking its responsibility to the general public as well as to the property owners on the street to force this on people. And when there's plenty of opportunity for the county to find funding for the Black Lake Preserve and we feel if it's not taking advantage of the matching funds that are available, they shouldn't be asking that the citizen, the owners there, fund 100% of the road when the county owns the majority of it and wouldn't be paying any. So we're hoping you would, you know, they want to set up a voluntary fund. People can voluntarily put in money but shouldn't be forcing people who are not willing to pay for it. Thank you, Mr. Park. Thank you, Ken. Okay, next speaker, please. We've got one more in the chambers and then we'll go to the phones. Go ahead, Matthew. Overhead, please. If you'll give those to the clerk. Yeah, I want to talk to you about just kind of background information about the topic of tree protection developments. It's been in the news a lot, especially with the city clearing for the fire station property. And I think you all have heard from a number of the residents who live right near there. And what I want to talk about is the real driver of what I see as excessive tree removal and clearing and land development. And it's really the land development standards, the specific engineering design standards. So what I've done is I've put together an image from Google's aerials that show two adjacent subdivisions that are both approximately the same density but were developed about 40 years apart. The northern one is Greenleaf, built in the early 1980s. The southern one is Terra Vista, which is currently under construction. Both of them are medium dense, Alachua County's medium density land use. They're both four to eight units per acre. I believe Greenleaf's in about the five to six range and Terra Vista's about the, around seven. So they're fairly similar types of development. They're both attached housing of four and six unit buildings. And Greenleaf overall did a very good job of leaving tree cover. Terra Vista cleared everything except the tree protection area. You may remember we had a lot of discussion upon that. And the good news is the tree protection area did protect the three really large live oaks. The bad news is there's no shade anywhere else in the development. And the big difference is that back in the 80s, the roads were smaller, the utility easements were smaller, the retention pods were smaller. And there was a strong impetus at the time not to clear cut the whole site. They would only go in and clear for the roads and infrastructure first. They wouldn't clear the individual lots until they pulled a building permit for that. And so the net effect of that was to leave a lot more trees and a lot more uncompacted soil. The side yards, the rear yards were all not compacted. And as a result, you didn't have as much stormwater runoff either. The drainage ponds and Greenleaf, I'm pretty familiar with that place. And Greenleaf, the drainage ponds never fill up. They're smaller than what you would build now, but they never fill up because most of the water runoff is captured around the houses by basically their side yards, their rear yards, all that uncompacted soil. And I think the best thing going forward is to try to get back to some of the better practices back then of shrinking the infrastructure down, giving credit towards stormwater requirements and towards tree requirements for a tree cover that's left in side yards and rear yards, particularly in setbacks where it's not supposed to be, where nothing's supposed to be built there. It would probably need to be some type of formula based on what's there at the time, but that would prioritize leaving what's there instead of clearing it all. And in particular for individual subdivision lots, my suggestion is not to charge the tree mitigation fee if a tree is left in a setback. There used to be some focus on trying to move lot lines around, so if you had a heritage live oak and it was going to be in the building lots, but at least try to put a lot line right next to it so you'd have the setbacks on either side. That would protect most of the root zone. And my suggestion in that case is to try to encourage people to do that, to take that extra time to lay them out that way, is to not charge the mitigation fee in that circumstance. Thank you, Matthew. Okay, thank you for those comments. I think it'll be a discussion for further. Okay, go to the phones. Okay, Mr. Chair, we've got a couple of callers with their hands raised, indicating they want to speak. Caller whose number ends in 4703, you are in the room. If you would hit star six, state your name. You have three minutes. This is Patricia Antonucci. So I just wanted to comment a little bit on what Chris said. It might be tempting to dismiss the advocates as extremists or discredit our research. Hopefully that's not the case. But I understand that we have little time to address the board or present our research to you. The Animal Welfare Advisory Committee was formed by you to provide you with advice as to our county's animals. Please meet with them and get their input because this investigation didn't either. In the AWOC meeting on August 4th of 2026, Dr. Julie Levy noted that the community is not obsessed with numbers, but was trying to save certain animals who are capable of a better outcome. She mentioned that portions of the report are inconsistent with modern shelter medicine practices. She was surprised that the consultant vet did not author any sort of report herself. She noted some misinformation as one example that the number of cats safely housed at the shelter list is incorrect. She was alarmed that staff did not know how to use data reporting systems and suggested review of at least two years' worth of data and corrections posted to the website, which continued to just note that the staffs are incorrect without any adjustment. Melissa Jenkins and Chelsea Bauer both condemned the treatment of Sarah Gilley, praised their former colleague as throw, honest, and tuned in to the need for change where it's needed. They all expressed their offers to assist ACAR, which has in the past not been accepted. Many members requested increased public inclusion and access to AWOC meetings and transparency from ACAR. In turn, the county explained that they do not have answers as to how they will move forward regarding the investigation report and which, if any, suggestions will be implemented or when. They still do not know how to report how many dogs are getting out of the kennels and when, even though there is a system in place to track this. Again, I just want to reiterate, the investigators should have spoken to a lot of people who are left out of the process. Those who were interviewed at ACAR include field officers and a lead vet tech. That tech has since resigned, and the field officers have little to do with the allegations of the complaint. So they should have interviewed the kennel techs who are doing the majority of the work, former employees, AWOC members, ACAR partners, and volunteers. Again, euthanasia, we are not advocating no euthanasia. So we've actually suggested paths forward to fair and transparent euthanasia practices. Page 23 of the report states it is accurate that the board voted to include a behaviorist in euthanasia decisions, and that direction has been implemented. This is inaccurate. The behavior position is currently being advertised. It hasn't been filled. So I don't know how that conclusion was reached. Page 27 says, if not already doing so, provide regular training to ACAR employees on animal care and cleaning. I'm not sure how after a thorough investigation, the investigator doesn't know yet whether this training is being provided. I'd just like to know what the status of the investigation review is and when the public will have more than three minutes at a time to provide input. There is an AWOC meeting tomorrow regarding the finalists for ACAR director, but I haven't seen that advertised anywhere on the county pages. And then lastly, as I do support all who are oppressed, I just want to take a minute to applaud and stand with those who are present there on behalf of immigrants, right? We look forward to continued updates. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker, please. Okay. Mr. Chair, we have a caller whose phone number is not recognized by our system. I'm going to bring them in the room, allow them to talk. So, caller, if you could state your name, you'll have three minutes. Hi, this is Moksha. Can you hear me, Mark? Yes, thank you. Thank you, Mark. A lot of you know me, and this is ridiculous. I'm standing here with ASO right now. I just want to share, like, the stuff. It's on the agenda, but I did not anticipate this. I had something else to speak to you about, and you can hear it in my voice. I'm very upset because I arrived at 1130, and as a disabled person, and Mary Helen knows what I've gone through in this county, I literally had to drive around, and there's only three spots in the front, and I didn't know one spot said loading and unloading. So, Mr. Morris, who I know is a sweetheart, basically let me pull in his spot. Finally, after 45 minutes, he was coming out. And basically, as I was about to pull into that spot, the crazy MAGA person with the green shirt and khaki pants and glasses that spoke about kill all the immigrants came up behind me and started yelling and screaming at me and telling me that all the liberals are going to be run out of town, and we're basically all going to be killed, and am I Cheryl Eddy's friend? I don't even know who Cheryl Eddy is, okay? And I have something else to speak to you all about. He blocked traffic. The first question to him was, are you here for the ice something? I don't even know what he said. And I said, you know, I don't know who you are. I am trying to back into a disabled parking space. I'm a disabled individual that needs to get to a meeting. Can you please kindly remove yourself from my parking space? And he just kept following me around, telling me that not to park there because I'm going to be run out of town. I've never seen this person before in my life. Yes, I have Dave Jolly signs on my car. Yes, I have Angie Nixon signs on my car, and I'm allowed to do that. And this is what we are dealing with. We are dealing with this. We are being threatened. We are being almost run over at voting poll sites. I'm not even going to do the voting poll sites this year because last year we were almost run over. There was an instance where Prizia even saw something that happened at Mill Harper. We are not going to allow this. And then ASO is going to tell me, oh, let me call GPD. They can't do anything when they saw the guy. So this is what we're dealing with. And I'm glad it's on the agenda because we just had Chief Moya say on Thursday that, oh, only 20 rapes, only 20 more rapes. I'm sorry, Chief Moya. I would like the county to say something to him because has he been S.A.? Has he been S.A.? 20 more rapes is a big thing, okay? So we have a serious issue here. And this is not okay. I was not upset, and now I'm very upset because my safety, I cannot remove my stickers from my car, okay? I don't know if I'm going to go back and my car is going to be smashed or what because I already had another vehicle stolen here because I'm a community organizer. And we are doing nothing but being peaceful. We are being kind, and we shall overcome. But we need your help. We need your help, county, because when ASO and GPD doesn't do anything to actually protect and serve, and we are paying tax dollars, what would you like us to do? So I am calling on the county because I love you guys. I know you guys really care about us. And I'm calling the commissioners, and especially Mary Helen Wheeler, because when she goes, I don't know what's going to happen. So we need something to be done about this. And that guy was on your cameras, and I had something completely different to speak about. But I would like this on a longer discussion about our safety. Thank you, Mo. Okay, next caller, please. Okay, caller whose number ends in 9225. You're in the room. If you would state your name, you have three minutes. And hit star six to unmute your phone. Hello, good afternoon. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Thank you so much. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and the county commissioners. My name is Erika Gomez Tejeda, and I'm the organizing director for the Hull Community Center in Orange County. And one of the coordinators of the immigrants who are welcome here at Coalition. The Coalition is made up of 70 community, civic, labor, and social justice organizations and faith leaders who have come together to ensure our immigrant neighbors are welcomed here. Throughout the last year, our coalition has engaged thousands of activists to help enact humane and lawful policies in Orange County to ensure the rights of our immigrant neighbors are grounded by their very lived experiences. We have documented and publicized the story of scary detentions by masked men in our neighborhoods, as well as the heartbreaking story of passengers detained for ICE on their way to work. Local private attorneys successfully won habeas cases for more than 40 individuals who had been held unlawfully by ICE or 287G agents. Our community's trust enabled us to be one of the first organizations in the state to expose with firsthand accounts the horrible conditions our neighbors were forced to endure in the state-run inhumane detention center in the Everglades. Much like community leaders, like the Rural Women's Health Project and others in Alachua County, our leaders here have known that given the track record of ICE operations locally and nationally, we cannot be bystanders or enablers of the unlawful and inhumane detentions of our immigrant neighbors. Today, I am calling to support the board's efforts to strengthen public trust and ensure more transparency on local enforcement practices and also to urge you to further consider using your leadership in this moment to include your resolution in your resolution language that more fully addresses and rejects the development of any warehouses or detention centers in your county. We have all seen the disastrous results of state and federal detention centers around the country and our state. We need not look any further than the failed Everglades detention project with documented human rights violations, environmental violations, and financial failure, expending hundreds of millions of dollars for a job that is the legal responsibility of the federal civil court. Please be assured that your leadership's rejection of the development of warehouses and new detention centers is a welcome addition to the no new warehouse or detention center resolution already passed unanimously by the Orange County Board of Commissioners. In fact, the county commission did so even under threats from the state attorney because by January when the word came that DHS was considering to turn an existing warehouse into a detention center for 500 human beings, we were already seeing a surge of our immigrant neighbors being arrested without cause as passengers of cars with many with working pavers when it was reported. And so our community is mobilized weekly to reject this warehouse. Commissioner Wilson, who also sent you a letter this morning, led the board's effort to reject any new detention centers in Orange County. With her leadership, our community partnerships, and the emboldened leadership of our county mayor and commissioners, an unequivocal resolution sending a clear message that our community's rejected development of any warehouses or detention centers in our county. Eddie, thank you. While this bold act of leadership was seen by some of the community. Could you just wrap up your comments? I don't want to cut you off. I'm sorry. But could you just wrap them up? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. I was just saying close. Sorry. Did we lose her? Okay. Okay. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah, I certainly understand what she was saying. Okay, thank you for your comments, Eddie. Okay, Mr. Sherrod, that was the last comment. Okay, ready to get to that item. That'll close public comment before we get to the item, though. Are there any responses from our commissioners on the items? Commissioner Wheeler? About the Windsor Community Road. Yeah. I understand exactly what they're saying about that road. And we're seeing more people moving into Windsor. We're seeing the community build. And it is one of our rural communities in Alachua County that I think needs some consideration as it grows out there. There are new businesses that are coming in, though they're mom and pop or homegrown. But in any case, there are folks that are living out there that are working in Gainesville, but also working from home in Windsor as well. And I just feel like that we need to look at that a little more carefully. I don't know if it's a pass-through. I don't know if there's any trucks that are using that road to go from one main strip or not. I don't know if it's including the big trucks. But I do know that that community is trying to build itself up. And so that we probably need to give it some consideration as these people are sharing with us what their needs are. Thank you, Commissioner. Yeah, that road and then 234, I know we have talked about it multiple times. I know we're going to be meeting on that item on the 13th, which is on Thursday. I know this board has given direction to increase funding. The new item that I did hear, though, is about Highway 26 and the turn lane. So we can certainly refer that to our MTP or TPO. That's a state road, and I think that's a good suggestion. And the scenic road. And the scenic road is a whole new idea on 234. Because it is beautiful. You know, that takes time to do, but I think it's something, certainly, that we should continue to talk about. Okay. That was what I was going to say, and I think that covers it. I guess, can I? Yeah, I mean, I just want to quickly respond to the suggestion around lot clearing and sort of the protection of our natural resources. I think that's something that we have been bringing up a lot in our conversations with our growth management department. And as we're seeing more and more developments come in, like the fact that, you know, our older development patterns really weren't doing these grand swath, full phase, like clearing and bringing in sand. And to create their building and construction pads. Rather, they were just doing them for the home sites only. And what are the ways in which we can get back to more of that or at least limit the site clearing in common areas and rights of ways and at the lot level in order to protect both the soil quality and the trees and the plants that are already there. So, it's an ongoing conversation. It's something that we're very aware of. And we're trying to have those conversations. And it's just kind of challenging to identify what are the regulatory tools that we have in our toolbox to be able to work with the development community on that. So, no, it's definitely on our radar and something that we're trying to figure out for sure. I just wanted to say that. I have a lot to say on the immigrant issue, but that's coming up. So, I will leave that. And last but not least on the animal resources, I know there was a lot of things said there. But one thing that did come up for me in my conversations with folks was the idea of being able to understand better our foster numbers, our intake numbers, our numbers of animals going out to foster, our numbers of animals being transferred to other shelters, and the number of animals adopted. And that seemed to me to be something that I know we're tracking and should be an easy thing to provide publicly on a regular interval, like a weekly sort of counter on a website or something like that. So, I just wanted to refer that to staff if they could explore that idea of being able to provide that information to the public on a regular basis so that there's some place where people can get that information quickly and efficiently. That was one thing that came up. Out of conversations that I've had about that, there's other things that I think will come up as we continue with the audit. The full audit, yeah. But there's that and a few other things that I'll bring up later. Okay. All right. So, let's go ahead and conclude public comments. And now let's get to the next item. Mr. Clerk. Chair, up next is the resolution addressing community concerns on law enforcement practices in Chapter 908 compliance. Okay. And the recommended action is that the board is asked to consider and take appropriate action on resolution number 2026, expressing community concerns regarding law enforcement practices, affirming compliance with Chapter 908 of the Florida Statutes, and encouraging transparency in law enforcement identification. And I believe this is Ms. Torres' item. Sure. Mr. Chair, I'll present this item. You have in your backup a resolution, a draft resolution, that does a few things. It affirms the county's commitment to compliance with Florida Statute 908. That is the one related to sanctuary city policies and cooperation with federal officials in immigration-related issues. It also expresses your concerns regarding potential establishment or expansion of federal law enforcement offices and detention facilities in the county. It encourages transparent identification practices for all law enforcement, and it reaffirms the county's commitment to constitutional protections and community trust. The resolution before you, we have reviewed it. We do not consider it to be a sanctuary city policy. It says on its face that it is not a sanctuary city policy. That said, certain concerns have been brought to your attention regarding certain federal funding that may be impacted by the adoption of this or similar policy. What the agenda item says and what I would say to you is that on its face, it should not impact your federal funding. But there is a great deal of discretion in how the federal funding is allocated, and I cannot guarantee you that it will not impact your federal funding. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right, Commissioner, let's open it up to the board. And Commissioner Prizzi, you want to start us off? I mean, I'll start by making the motion that we adopt the resolution, but I do have a couple of quick language changes. I think it – I thought this was the exact one that I had reviewed, but I did notice on number four and number five, it seems like we – it looks like it says continue. Under number four, it says the board expresses it is essential to ensure arrest practices, whether immigration-related or otherwise, continue in such a way that are not indiscriminate based on profiling or otherwise destructive. But we do have evidence of racial profiling in some of the arrests that have been made in our county, and so I guess I would like, rather than it say continue in such a way, just to say occur in such a way that they are not indiscriminate. Same thing with number five. It does – it still says continue. I think just saying occur in such a way. I know that not all of our law enforcement agencies are using profiling or other things that are considered problematic or really just are awful in terms of the way that they're working. But I do think that we are seeing that happening, and so I would like to make sure that we don't – we're not saying to continue doing things the way you're doing, because some are doing the things we're asking them not to do. So the last is – I have a question, and that is in number 5.1. It says, clearly displays official identification and agency affiliation do not wear masks or other face obstructions when interacting with the public or local officials, except where law or agency policy provides otherwise. I guess I'm concerned about it saying agency policy prescribed otherwise, because that means that the agency could just pass something, and then all of a sudden it would be fine for them to do those things. For me, it feels like all of our agencies should be following the laws that are established when it comes to official identification and agency affiliation. So my hope is to remove that agency policy component of 5.1. But other than that, with those changes, I would move adoption of the resolution. Is there a second? Well, I want to have some more discussion, but I'll second it for discussion. Okay, we've got a motion and a second for discussion. All right, Commissioner Wheeler? Yes, sir. I don't know if this is the time to make my comments or not, but since our last meeting, because I was so involved in immigration and Anna, I got all this attention. I'm hoping you all are paying attention now that we are friendly discussion up here. Thank goodness for that. I met with some of the folks who have come forward. I've made myself available from the work that I've done previously in the past decade in immigration reform. And I got back in touch with Congresswoman Kamek. I had a meeting with her and her team right after we had this meeting and explained to her what is happening in our community based on what is happening in the state and the country. And she knows how I feel about immigration work because it's the reason I challenged her former boss when we were doing this work many years ago. I realized it was a much more naive time back then where we felt like they could really make a difference. This is a much more, it's a different time. And folks are afraid. I spoke with Kat and her team and we were trying to figure out a way where we could bring people in from the community to speak directly with her to understand her role as being on the Ag Committee where she stood with our farm workers, where our industry, the building industry, the tourist industry. And I was trying to work with her to set up an opportunity for people that had contacted me to come speak with her and her team. And I didn't have any luck getting folks from the community to go with me to do that. We also talked about the possibility because of fear. And I flushed it out and I understand that's what we're dealing with is a lot of anxiety based on coming face-to-face, even though the person's face that we would be coming face-to-face with is the person who could actually make an impact on what we were doing. So I was, you know, it's not the old days when I had Paul Ortiz and Sheila Payne and that group of folks who were doing the farm workers' work. It's a different day and I know that. I also had an intern who was working with me and was very out of Miami, South Miami. She was really interested in what was happening with the detention centers and got real involved with the one that was going on in Stark and tried to organize some of their students from the university to go with her to protest and couldn't get any response. People are afraid. The option is still there for us to have a community meeting and open to the community. We talked about that too because we had done that before. But I haven't been able to flush out the folks who would be willing to go do that with me. I've been in touch with some of the older guard that I worked with and before and I'm waiting responses from some of them about what they might be willing to do. And then I spoke with one of the Baker County folks who visits the Baker County Detention Center regularly. I even asked if our representative would be willing to go to one of those detention centers. There's one outside of Lake City too that I didn't know about. So I'm not even sure that we know what is happening in our community because we haven't gotten all the information together that we need. I do know there's fear. There's reluctance to come with me to engage the person who could actually help us. And I also know there is reluctance and fear coming out of our sheriff's department for the same reasons. And so that that is permeating this community makes me feel like that this is not a good time and not a good thing. This thing that came out of Orlando had to do with detention centers. It didn't have anything to do with the police, according to what I've read from the Orlando resolution. It had to do with not inviting these detention centers into our county, which I think we're perfectly good with that. I mean, that's where we would come from. But in terms of, you know, I've just got to say that as much time and energy and care that I put into this work in the past, it's disappointing not to find those who would stand and go with me to actually engage in conversation with the real people who might be able to help us do what we're trying to do here. And I'm concerned for our sheriff's department with the university opening up again. We have new students coming into the area. We have an election coming up. There's a lot of work that's going to be taking the concern, the attention of our sheriff. And I just hate to have to make decisions, you know, pitting one group against another. But we support the sheriff with our funding to protect the community. And if the community is not willing to go do more than hold signs in front of the Congresswoman's office, you know, I'm really having a hard time with this one. And I just wanted to share what I had done in laying the groundwork for all of this. And it's still open. If we want to have a community meeting with that team of people who are on that commission, you know, the ag committee, it's open. And so that's where I am. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner. Conclude? Yes. Okay. Commissioner Chessler. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I think I have a couple of questions, I guess, for the attorney or the manager in reference to, I know you stated the federal grants. Does that include also state grants? Potentially. We don't know? I mean, potentially. So, you know, two things on that. We know at the state level that, you know, we have issues, you know, on a regular basis with not doing what they would like us to do, potentially. I mean, lawfully, I don't know that we can point to specific things that say we know they can do things like withhold sales tax, you know, for certain reasons, not complying with things. But grants are somewhat discretionary on their part. So, you know, we know we get vetoed funding for appropriation requests, and we get – so how that impacts at the state level, I think that's probably just as – it's speculative. You know, well, I mean, it could happen. It may not happen, you know. From the federal level, again, the one thing at the federal level I think that we've been watching as well is there is some – although it's been delayed and put off, we're hoping that it won't show up. But there is a pending rule to move all of grant funds into a single process with their Office of Management and Budget. And that rule does provide that if any member of the public doesn't like your policies, even if it is related – not related to what you're receiving a grant for, they can challenge you as a county or as any local government. So, right now that's been put off, but that is a potential rule, which frankly may impact our federal funding for not just this reason. So, I don't want to say it would just be this reason if that were adopted. But it's really speculative. We don't know. It could or it may not. Okay, and then I think my next question would be in terms of how, if they do do that, how do we have the funding to, I guess, support what we're actually doing without those grants? That would – I'm just asking, do we have the funds or reserves to fill in? On a continued basis, no. You know, we may be able to cover some of those expenditures for a period of time through fund balance and other means. Or we may, you know, or we may be able to pay for certain things out of a different source. Of course, that may require a policy decision on what then we're not going to pay from that source to look at. I think the one federal monies that we receive, hopefully not on a regular basis, but FEMA monies, can be quite a high amount as well. But, again, these are all speculative, you know, as far as that goes. Sheriff receives funding through the federal funds as well. So, I can't say, yes, this is going to happen. No, it's not. Could it happen? Yes. And if it did, we would have to, you know, look at our budget and see how we would make up those monies. It is millions. And I guess my next question is for the attorney. Can this be challenged, this resolution? I'm sorry to put you guys on the spot like that. So, Mr. Chair, the resolution – I know this is not, but I mean it. The resolution itself, as in can someone come in and say that this board cannot take this action? Is that the question? Yes. Or is it if certain funding – I know you said non-binding at the end, but I'm just wondering can they can come back and – I mean, ultimately, it would make no terrible difference if they did. That what you could get, for instance, is a threat from the attorney general. There's a history of the attorney general sending out letters that say that what you've done is not within your authority or that it is malfeasance or misfeasance in office and that ordering you basically to repeal the action or threatening removal from office, threatening penalties, individual penalties, county penalties themselves. You certainly may receive one of those letters. Some of the communities have. I don't believe Orange County did for its last resolution. But I only know what's been reported. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay, Commissioner Parizia, and then I'll give you some statements. I just want to think that the threat of not receiving funding is very hypothetical. It's all based in conjecture and it's based in fear, and I think that we as a county have consistently stood up for the right side of history when it comes to the way that people are treated in our community and ensuring that laws are followed, that respectful treatment is afforded to everyone who belongs in our community, and that people should feel like they belong in our community. And part of that is their leadership standing up and saying that people need to be treated according to the law, regardless of their immigration status. They deserve to be treated respectfully and with the law. And so I don't feel like this resolution should incur any of the challenges that we're talking about it facing. It could. I mean, politically, you know, we're in a country right now that's really divided and there's lots of threats and there's lots of behavior that's, you know, political behavior. That's being thrown around in an effort to try to legitimize behavior that, frankly, is, you know, in my opinion, kind of abhorrent. But at the end of the day, all of that is speculative. And I think that our attorneys have done a really good job of working on a resolution that walks the letter of the law and makes sure that we're doing what we're required to do. And at the same time, does what our residents are asking of us, which is our job as elected officials to make a statement standing in solidarity with the community that's facing a lot of fear. And every day facing something that, you know, makes them question whether or not they want to go to school, rather or not they want to go to work, rather or not they, you know, can do the things that they need to do to go to the grocery store to take care of their everyday needs. Right. And we're just talking about whether or not we're going to have enough funding to, like, I don't know, pave a road or not. And to me, those questions are pretty immaterial, you know, when it's the difference between somebody's personal safety and their family's safety and, like, you know, funding that we could potentially find somewhere else or put off a few years until sanity is restored, hopefully, in this country. So, I just want to say that I think this resolution is well done. And I think that it only bears a small risk of potential impacts. And I personally feel that those impacts are worth taking, considering the impact that it'll have on the residents who elected us and asked us to be here and are asking us to pass this. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Wheeler, do you want to make another comment? Yes, I do. I want to talk about the impacts, too. I'm sorry. No, that's okay. I did want to respond to Commissioner Wheeler and say, yeah, I agree with you that we also need folks to stand up and push on all levels. And so, you know, I mean, you and I can't talk about things that we're going to vote on, but I can certainly go with you and talk to our federal delegation about the things that are concerning our community. I'd be happy to go with you to talk to Kat Kamak or to talk to any of our state or federal delegation about the issues that we're facing with enforcement of immigration and how it's impacting our communities on a day-to-day basis. And I think I would hope that the organizations that are working to protect and to support our immigrants would also be willing to go with us, depending on, you know, the conversation that's being had and the point of the dialogue. Right, right. Well, there is a big difference between an activist and an elected community leader. And this is, you know, I had to straddle that for a while until I realized, you know, we're also concerned about our employees that work through the sheriff's department who are also fearful and concerned. And I don't know, we haven't really talked about, you know, their input on this, but I do know that they've been concerned, you know, that if this goes, anything like this that might be implemented from our level of government, that it would endanger their positions as well. You know, we've seen people removed from office. We've seen that happen throughout the state. And I think this was a fear, you know, coming from our own sheriff's department. And so, you know, this is where I had to split apart into two, you know, where I thought we'd go and work with Kat as an activist. But, and I say that with all respect in my heart for her position, but we've worked together a long time. They didn't do much what I asked them to do or wanted them to do, but at the same time, I feel glad. I'm thankful for the open door. Any time that I've called. And I've even called on behalf of some of our people in the community who needed help and they were available and available to help. I just didn't know about a lot of them. A lot of them that these folks knew about, I didn't know about because I didn't, I didn't, I didn't know about them. But, um, I just, you know, as, as an elected community leader, I feel like that we have to, I have to support those folks who are working for us at the county who have expressed real concerns about this. There's only another few short months until we have an election. Hopefully that might change some of the environment in the state. We'll see. I mean, hope springs eternal. And I admit that I can be a little Pollyanna-ish at some time, you know, and, and hoping. But, um, I need for us to keep that door open to the person who can make a big, who can make an impact at a federal level. And she's in a position, the agricultural committee there. I don't know if she's chair or yet, but, but she's at least, she knows who the players are in the state. And she knows what the temperature is with the political leaders that are out there. And I would like her to be able to share that with the community personally. Um, and I want her to know who the players are here so that when we do call her, and I'm no longer on this board, Anna, I appreciate you taking, you know, taking that on because you will then have the clout as a commissioner, you know, to engage. Whereas anymore I won't, I'll have to go back to activism and then try to explain to my community of activists why I felt the way I did. Okay. Thank you, Mr. You'll always be Mary Hill. Okay. Commissioner Chesson, and then I'll make a few comments, and then we're going to open it up because we really are here to hear from you all. Yeah, I just wanted to state the reason I asked those questions, to get clarification, and to also let the citizens know that there is a possibility that can happen. And that was the point of my question. And I don't like bullies. I'll just be honest with you. I don't like bullies. And I'm not afraid of losing my position or anything, so that's not the point. The point is I just wanted you all to know what the circumstances are. And then if it does happen, then the cuts and the stuff we have to do, you will understand. By not explaining that, you would wonder why. And I just want to say I don't like bullies. I don't like what's going on in Washington either or the state. And the only way we change things, folks, is by voting, voting, voting, getting people registered to vote that are not registered to vote, to vote. That's the only way we're going to change things in Washington and in the state of Florida. And that's all my comments, and I ended that. And I will support the resolution. Thank you, Commissioner. So I've got some prepared remarks that I've been making a number of changes to as I've listened to my colleagues. And I guess it starts out with what I heard from Mr. Morris in public comment. He said, as a practical matter, immigrants are contributors, both economically and culturally. I completely agree with that. I completely also agree with doing the right thing as our leaders and as good people speak up, stand for what's right rather than expediency. And I think that's really what today is about. We're allocating a large part of our meeting today to hear from the public, to address concerns that we've heard, and to give this the time that it deserves. And so I hope the public is aware of that. I also know that our sheriff, as much as anyone, supports immigrants. I know that for a fact. I've had conversations with him. And I believe he is one of the greatest allies in the work that we are doing to keep our community safe. And I also know that he has asked us not to do this. And I think you can have the opinion of supporting immigrants and still believe that this resolution actually may be the wrong thing. So you can hold those opinions, and I've heard from a number of folks that also support immigrants that have asked us not to do this. So here's some of my prepared remarks. I just want to say plainly, in my opinion, what this resolution is and what it is not. For me, it's a statement of who we are as a community. What it is not and cannot be is a tool that changes federal immigration law. Florida law requires this county, like every county in this state, to support federal immigration enforcement and to follow immigration detainer documents. Our attorney has been clear with this board about that, and I want to be just as clear with the public that nothing in this resolution changes that obligation. Nothing in it could without putting this county in legal jeopardy. I took a note to follow the law, and I intend to keep it. But following the law and caring about our neighbors are not opposite things. They never have been. These are our neighbors, our classmates, the people we sit next to at church, in the ball field, on the farm, at the grocery store. Members of this community in every sense that matters, who also happen to be navigating an immigration system that is, by any honest measure, complicated and often unforgiving. Whatever someone's status, they are still a person. You've said that. They deserve to be able to call the police without fear when they're a victim of a crime. They deserve due process. They deserve to not be swept up by an enforcement action that doesn't bother to ask who they are before it acts. That's what this resolution actually says, that we expect law enforcement, all law enforcement, whether it's federal agents operating here, to identify themselves, to act professionally, to not treat indiscriminate enforcement as an acceptable substitute for actual public safety work. That's not a radical statement. That's actually the bare minimum of how this commissioner would want any agency to operate in this county and on any issue. And I truly think that we have a sheriff and we have municipal police departments, whether that's the university, the city of Alachua, the city of High Springs, or the city of Gainesville, that actually do that. I also want to address something that has entered the conversation in recent weeks. Literally all we have been talking about, and what most of us are concerned about, is Amendment 3. And that's because that's where a lot of our funding comes from. We also get a lot of federal and state funding. That's not about Amendment 3. And this has entered the conversation in recent weeks, concerns that passing any resolution touching immigration could put more than $11 million in federal HUD funding at risk. That's money that funds homeless services, domestic violence programs, sexual assault services across our county and the surrounding region. We've also been given, in our backup today, a schedule before us that identifies federal and state funding, which includes the $11 million, of $34.4 million in 2025. Courts now have repeatedly blocked the federal government from withholding grants over local immigration policies. And our resolution was drafted precisely to avoid being characterized as a sanctuary declaration. But it would be less than honest to stand here and tell you that there's zero risk. The manager has expressed it, Chuck, your questions are right to that point. And if this board statement, no matter how carefully worded it is, invites a funding fight that takes months to resolve in court, while services for our most vulnerable residents get caught in the middle, that cost falls on real people. I take that seriously, and this is, and I know this board does as well. And it's one more reason why this document in front of us was written the way it was written. I will also say that when this was first brought up, this was brought up, and I think, Mary Helen, you touched on it, that Orange County had passed this resolution, and they hadn't. What they passed was a resolution specifically about siting an ICE processing facility or a detention facility through the conversion of an industrial warehouse. I don't know if that's been an item in Alachua County. If there's anyone from the public that knows of that, that to me is a completely different issue, and I would stand with Orange County exactly with their resolution, and I would be happy to adopt that. I haven't seen that, and I feel like the folks that are asking me not to pass this are folks that feel the exact same way as folks that are asking me to pass this. They have fear that this will bring unwarranted attention and will inhibit the efforts that our sheriff and our police departments have taken to protect our citizens. So I will tell you that right now I'm not in support, and I'm not not in support. I'm not sure where I'm going to land on this. I know I'm going to hear from folks that are in support of it, but I am not ready to say that I'm going to support it, and that's where I stand. Okay, Commissioner Prizia, and then we will go to the public. Yeah, I mean, I just, I only want our sheriff to wait until it passed, and that did, and that time has passed, and we wait in. He also asked a chance to review it, which they've had a chance to review it and give us input. And so I think we did all the things that our sheriff asked us to do. They may still have the fear of the risks that we all are facing of potential, you know, comeback, if you will, on funding or letters from the attorney general. But again, I think our attorneys have done a really good job of making sure that this walks the letter of what sort of jurisdiction we have, which is not much. You know, I mean, this is really an urging. This is really a statement of our position around the way in which people should be treated as they're interfacing with law enforcement and the immigration world. I don't think that it's really actually, again, it's non-binding because we don't have jurisdiction over most of them. It is a chance for us to stand in solidarity with people in our community that are facing a lot of fear. And I think that we've done what our sheriff asked in terms of waiting. So I just want to put that out there as we listen. Yeah, and I want to respond back to you on that because you're exactly right, and I'm exactly right. That's exactly what he asked for. And since that date, I've also had another conversation. He's like, I wouldn't do it. The undersheriff has said, I also would not do it. You're going to bring – and we've also seen a lot of unwarranted attention in the Alachua Chronicle and around the press. We heard it from a person who came today to speak a public comment about the effect of us just having this conversation even had on her as she was parking her car. So I don't need a resolution for me to tell the immigrant community that I support them. I've said that since I've been elected. I will say that tomorrow no matter how I vote on this. And so that's not what it is for me. For me, it's about the fact that we are fueling a part of the community that passing this resolution will bring attention to that we're actually trying to help those that are against this community, similar to some of the things the mayor said across the street. And I think you can have support for the immigrant community and be able to say, but you don't want you to pass this today. I think you can hold that position. And that's what I'm considering. I want to hear from you all. You've heard my comments. I want to hear yours and how you would respond to that. And then I'll make a decision when it comes back to this board. We'll have some more deliberation, and then we'll take a vote. Anything else before we hear from the public, commissioners? Okay. Let's hear from the public. If you will come up, introduce yourself. You'll have three minutes. Green means go. Red means stop. And we will try to give everyone an opportunity to speak that has invested their precious time to speak before the board. Welcome. I have a very short comment. My name is Steve Provost. Some of you know I am a resident of Alachua County living in the Newberry area. And I just want to strongly urge you to support the immigrant rights resolution to be considered under your item G3 on the agenda brought to you by Ginny. I have lived in Alachua County now for seven and a half years. I've become very fond of the county and of your management of it. I believe this resolution is a crucial step in ensuring that Alachua County remains welcoming, inclusive, and protective of all its residents. Specifically, I support the county taking a firm stance against expansion of ICE offices, avoiding the harmful 287G law enforcement agreements, and reaffirming its commitment to the Gini concerns that they brought to you. Standing up for the safety, dignity, and inclusion of our immigrant residents makes Alachua County stronger and safer for everyone. And I thank you very much. I think you know, and certainly, Commissioner Wheeler, you've expressed it, there's a lot, a lot of fear in this country. I've traveled around the country, I have friends that live in other parts of the country, and we have never, I'm 84 years old, we have never had this kind of feeling in this country as far as I've ever lived. So I think we need to do everything we can to be positive in support. And I think this resolution does it. I think it's, from what I understand, it meets the letter of the law, which you're concerned about, Commissioner Cornell. So I would encourage you to support it. Thank you. Thank you, Steve. You look marvelous for 84. I hope I look as well when I reach that age. Thank you. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, I'm having a little trouble projecting. And I just want to mention to Mary Helen that please keep my name in mind, because I'll be there for you any time and any day. My name is Alice Gridley. I'm a member of two groups that have supported this petition, the Social Justice Circle of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and a group from Gainesville, the Baker Interfaith Friends, led by Joan Anderson. The Friends of Baker have been visiting those detained at the ICE Detention Center in McClenney, Baker County, for more than a decade. They used to go twice a month. The petition before the county is not about money. It's about humanity versus cruelty. It's a choice between allowing ICE to continue to bully, maim, and even murder, or for us to take a stand and require ICE to honor the self-proclaimed statement that it only arrests criminals. We all know if that was the case, they would have to start arresting each other. ICE arrests many innocent people whose rights are being violated. It's time to make them accountable. Even if the nation's administration attempts to cut funds to any agency, we would win in court. The Constitution and the law are on our side. If you are torn, I invite you to visit some of the detainees in the Baker ICE Detention Center. As an elected official, you have the right to go, and you can go at any time, day or night. I hope you will go and go unannounced, because that's when you really see what's going on. It's an experience you will never forget, and you will know that this is not America. I ask that you take this opportunity to stand for humanity, support this petition, make ICE accountable. And I want to thank Ethan and the more than 2,000 people who signed this petition, and to each of you for listening. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Alice. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Well, I'm 88. 88. It's good, too. Oh, my God. You look amazing for 88. My name's Abigail Paret-Genteel. I'm a Venezuelan-American, a former unaccompanied homeless teen in Gainesville, and an advocate with 11 years' experience fighting local poverty and health inequities. I am here in support of the GINI petition. Recently, I spoke at the city meeting for the same purpose. During the meeting, some officials offered words of consolation, but that's not good enough. Although authoritarianism has affected my family my whole life, my work with ICE-affected communities in Florida is equally traumatizing. Florida leads the nation in immigrant abductions, largely driven by 287G agreements and legislation that quietly enabled this terror. A few months ago, I went with a mom to her court appointment for a minor misdemeanor offense. Her family was there, afraid this may be the last time they would see her. Her daughter was a sweet five-year-old indigenous girl wearing a yellow Disney dress from Beauty and the Beast. In the courthouse, there was a man who had been detained for the same reason by local police. He had clearly suffered a medical event in the jail where half of his body was paralyzed. He pleaded just for medical help, not freedom, just medical help. But the judge said that ICE would probably come within a day, and they could not help him. Later, I tried to find out where the sick man was, but only a few hours later, there was no record of him anywhere, not in any facility. This is the kind of thing that is happening in droves all around us. When the bailiff took him away, the previously calm little girl realized what was happening and that her mom was there for the same reason and began screaming and crying in terror. She ran at me and wrapped her arms and legs tightly around me until I carried her out of the courthouse. All I could do was console her because that's all the power I had. But you all have the power to do more than consolation. I am watching pregnant women miss their doctor's appointments because their breadwinners are gone and they are too scared and too poor to make it. I know of children who won't go to school, who sit behind windows afraid of who may come down the street to get them. I have watched so many good, innocent people in terror every day of their lives just trying to survive. I can hardly contain myself, but because of the level of repression in our state, I must speak judiciously. Meanwhile, a false choice has come between supporting this initiative and our community, posing one suffering group against another. Nationwide, however, courts have repeatedly struck down punitive funding cuts, siding with justice. Furthermore, ICE escalated before the petition was brought forward, not as a result. The petition is entirely lawful, realistic, and fully actionable. A rising tide really does lift all votes. Again, I say consolation is not enough. Please support the GINI petition in full. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. Can you guys hear me all right? Yes. Hello, County Commissioners. My name is Adam Krupik, and I just want to say thank you for giving me the time to speak to you today. I wanted to offer perspective on the presence and potential rise in health care access and outcomes in immigrant populations. If the presence of ICE were allowed to increase within Alachua County and the rest of north-central Florida. A study I found looked at the impact of immigration enforcement in Everett, Massachusetts. Participants in the study who were immigrants shared that seeking out health care was an obstacle, as they feared of being tipped off the ICE when providing documentation required to obtain health care coverage from programs such as Health Safety Net and Medicaid. Inevitably, the fear these individuals face prevent them from seeking out emergency care in times of need. Another finding from this study was that fear of being detained or deported exacerbated chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, and mental health conditions, including depression and anxiety. Participants missed medical appointments, were unable to pick up prescription medications, and unable to take other crucial measures to manage their health. Unfortunately, these findings are a reality in Alachua County and would undoubtedly worsen with increased immigration enforcement. Community partners have reported that immigrants avoid the hospital out of fear of being detained by immigration enforcement. While others view the hospital as a place to receive life-saving care, immigrants view it as a place where they are in further danger. Immigrant participants in the study offered suggestions to reduce fear of deportation and ICE intervention, such as improving relationships between immigrants and local police, educating immigrants on their rights and responsibilities as residents, and holding sessions to improve civic engagement. As county commissioners, you each have the power to be a force of solidarity with the 33,000 immigrants in our community. Allowing our local law enforcement to adopt the 287G agreement would diminish any possibility of relationship between immigrant populations and our local law enforcement and our local law enforcement would increase widespread fear in immigrant populations and would worsen health care disparities that are already present in our local community. I urge you to vote in favor of the GINI resolution and take a step towards protecting our immigrant neighbors and our community from unjust immigration enforcement. Thank you. Thank you, Adam. Next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Abigail Fletcher, and I'm with GINI as well. As part of GINI's strategy to help ensure we are responsive to the needs of the community we seek to serve, we have started a new campaign to survey our immigrant neighbors on their biggest barriers to safety and inclusion in our community. At the moment, we have 37 responses to our multilingual survey, and we'll continue taking the survey until we reach 100. The questions we included were informed by focus groups we held with local immigrant leaders on the realities they and those they serve are currently facing in Gainesville and Alachua County. Those in our focus groups indicated the desperate need for a narrative shift around immigration on the part of our elected leaders to help create a more welcoming environment. Years of criminalizing, scapegoating, and dehumanizing language accompanied by the past year and a half of immigration enforcement actions that are clearly and reportedly indiscriminate and repressive have created a situation throughout the country, including our county, where our immigrant neighbors, regardless of status, feel they cannot reach out to local resources, law enforcement, medical care. While not under the impression that our local elected leaders can make substantial changes to the federal and state mass deportation agenda, there's still a clear call both on the part of focus group leaders and those surveyed for our leaders to use their public voice to stand up for their rights and humanity. I hope it comes to dismay of those on the dais that 90% of survey respondents do not currently agree that they can trust local government to fight for their interests. When asked whether they wanted their local leaders to demand that enforcement actions do not violate their rights, 92% of questioned respondents said yes. And some quotes from them so you can hear directly from respondents is, yes, we need help. Yes, it's really important that those who have the possibility to influence local decisions advocate and help the immigrant community feel safer and more protected. Yes, so that we can feel just a little bit safer. Yes, because we need a voice to support us against illegal actions from law enforcement. Yes, because it is the right thing to do legally and socially to create a healthy society. Yes, to help the immigrant community. We are fighting for our families. We are in our houses like prisoners. Commissioners, your residents have clear demands and are not expecting the impossible. We ask simply that you take a public stance in favor of our constitutional rights and a denouncement of the very real and ongoing threats and violations to them happening every day in our own county. It's so different to say you support the community, that you support the immigrant community, and it's different to actually take action. All right, so we ask you to take action and pass the resolution today. Thank you, Abigail. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello, good afternoon. Veronica Robledo. I'm here with Ginny as well. I want to address the unintended, quote, federal funding consequences that have been so discussed and, of course, should be of concern to lose all that funding. But I do want to say that this is an age-old and historic tactic taken by the federal government with the purpose of self-censoring and to prohibit and prevent those to use their voice to do what they are lawfully and have the right to do. Unfortunately, this is pitting vulnerable communities and community needs against each other for an extreme political agenda. And not only was the original proposed resolution crafted with that in mind, it was even watered down even more and more language was added to it to doubly, triply, quadruply ensure that we are not violating anything. And so what we are asking and what your community asking is not extreme. We want to know that our leaders are brave enough to take a public stance against the blatant disregard and violation of our neighbors' human and constitutional rights. Neighbors who continue to be unfairly targeted and terrorized because of the color of their skin and where they were born. Please take a stance today. We encourage you to vote yes on the proposed resolution, but we also urge you to take it a step further. I hear many of you say, you know, this is symbolic. Yes, it is symbolic. And you can take it a step further by reviewing what are our local laws and federal laws that these actions taking place in our county are violating. So I encourage you to direct your county attorney and the sheriff's attorney to look more deeply and creatively at what you can more tangibly do. And it's not an either or, Commissioner Wheeler. People should go talk to Kat Kamek. People should vote. People should do many things. It's not an either or. What we're asking is not an extreme ask. And there's a letter in your inboxes from an Orange County commissioner today, and it specifically talks about the funding of our programs, such as HUD and Head Start. They looked at similar jurisdictions, not in Florida, across the country, because we're talking about a federal threat. And there's a list attached to that email with at least a dozen jurisdictions that have taken similar or even more strong stances that have not lost their funding. So please be brave and also refer to the second-to-last paragraph of that letter regarding more tangible steps you might be able to think about and discuss, not only with your body but also with the sheriff, about ways you can lawfully put an end to this. So thank you so much for listening to our comments, and I hope you vote yes on the resolution with the amendments from Commissioner Prizia. Thank you. Thank you, Veronica. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. My name is Sylvia Paluzzi, and I have lived here in Gainesville closely soon to approach 40 years. What brought me to Gainesville was our commitment as a city to diversity, to really wanting to take care of our natural resources. You couldn't cut down a tree when you first came to Gainesville unless you were willing to give up your firstborn child. And also our commitment to creating a safe place. I'm seeing those values that I really came to love in Gainesville slowly eroding. I have an early childhood program that is about 36 years old. I serve over 55 children. I have nine employees. And I've been in this community, some of you know firsthand, your children have attended. And it is the first time in all the years that I have had a school that I have parents coming, giving me now power of attorney that they have been advised by legal counsel to give me because they are not sure that they will be allowed to pick up their own children because they will be detained at the grocery store or at Lowe's or at the doctor's office. They're not, this is not, this is not part of my enrollment packet. This is not something I am asking of them. But they're bringing it to me because legal counsel is telling them someone else in your community that is not an immigrant must be put in a position to get your children if you are detained and we cannot reach you. So I understand, Mr. Cornell, that you want to do the right thing like all of you. But I am telling you that there is what we think we want to do and then there are individuals who will choose to do something differently. And without a level of accountability that holds them to that, then we can't control the one or two that may go rogue that destroy somebody's life. And I also have families who are self-deporting because they don't feel safe here anymore. And that is not the community I came to nor the community I want to fight for. So I'm asking you to please take the capacities that you have as our leaders to review this and vote yes because all it will do is ensure safety for a population that does not have a voice, that does not have the capacity to stand up and speak for themselves. And I will tell you, as a firstborn generation in this country, it is a real thing when the color of your skin determines how other people treat you. And even if we want it to be different, it is a reality we live in. And you guys are in a position to do something to change that. At the end of the day, you only have yourself and your internal moral compass to look at. And I want you to please not make me a hypocrite and ask children to do the right thing, to share, to be inclusive, to bring everyone to the table because we're all important. And then the adults won't do that for them. Thank you, Sylvia. Hi, everybody. My name is Irina Schley and I live in Micanope. And I was not planning on speaking, so my notes were a bit of a disaster. But some of the chatter earlier prompted me to speak because it was upsetting. Some mentions have been made of public trust. And the revised language mentions it many, many times. I want to speak to that a little bit and say that the public doesn't trust you. So that the way the language is written, it says to continue to keep the trust of the public of Alachua County. Well, you don't have it. You don't have it because up to this point, there has been no public stance of any kind, of this kind of kicking the can down the road mentality, which for many people in our county is not a reality that we can live with. So we don't show up to these things. We don't speak up because when we submit information or we submit resolutions, the language is altered. You know, things are shifted. There's lots of fear being, like, brought up to all of the reasons as to why we should not. I think you listed many of them in your earlier conversation, which is what prompted me to speak. Sorry. There's another piece in the resolution that stands right now, and it talks a lot about following the law. And to a previous commenter's point, well, often the law is not being followed. And so there's no accountability for any officers in our county behaving in a way that is unlawful. There's no follow-through. And the way the language is written, it really doesn't hold anyone to account. Right. I want to mention that there were 2,500 signatures on that petition. That's not, like, five people. Those are voters. Those are people that show up. Those are people that protest. Those are people that would show up to meetings if they were invited. Those are the people whose trust you do not have right now and are asking for you to do something to earn it. These are the people that you are accountable for and accountable to and responsible to respond in a way that feels like you're willing to hear them, not in a way that feels like, I just want to shield us from this potential hazard or I just want to do – this is really talking about doing the right thing. Right. It's fairly simple. I have a 4-year-old. He goes to Morning Meadow with Ms. Sylvia there. And we often talk about doing the right thing, and, you know, he's 4, so he's scared of, like, everything. So often we talk about bravery and the definition of that and how even sometimes when we're scared, we do the right thing because that's the brave thing to do. And I think if a 4-year-old can understand that concept, I think that's something we can all at least hold ourselves to that level. Yeah. Sorry. I'm just going to see if there's anything I'm missing because I'm blabbering. Okay. Oh, that's it. Well, I just ask you to please do the bare minimum and pass this petition to at least say that you're willing to hear the people that are imploring you to speak on their behalf. Yes. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello. You can pull that down. Right. There you go. Hi. I'm Joan Anderson. I'm a resident of Alachua County, and I'm also a volunteer with the Baker Interfaith Friends who've been visiting people in immigration detention up in the Baker County Jail. It's only 60 miles north of here, and over our 10-plus years of visiting people there, I can tell you that the whole detention system is just exploding. And, in fact, now, 10, 12 miles west of there in Sanderson, again, right in our backyard, they have reopened the Baker Correctional, what former Baker Correctional Institute in Sanderson to house even more immigrants. This is a cousin to the Alligator Alley in the Everglades. It's a state-run extrajudicial facility. Anyway, that's sort of beside the point, except that it's happening right here in our backyard. I will tell you, last time I visited up there, a young man told me that he had been driving from – he was newly arrived in detention in Baker County. He told me he had been driving from Tallahassee to Tampa with his father, and on a road that cuts right through Alachua County. He said he was tailed the whole way by this Florida Highway Patrol vehicle and kept pulling up next to him and drawing back, pulling up next to him, checking on the darkness of his skin. Finally pulled him over, told him it looked like he had a dent in his car, and told him to get out of the car, took both him and his father immediately to detention in Baker County because of the color of his skin. I really appreciate today the opportunity you've given us for this dialogue. It's been such a treat for me to hear you all discussing this in a logical and friendly manner. I have been to Tallahassee this past January and talked with legislators who announced right up front, we'll just agree to disagree, which cuts off all conversation and leads to no compromises or understanding. So – and I appreciate this process that you all have allowed here. I hope that we are not compliant and complicit, and I feel hopeful about this because I think we're stronger together, and I think this is an opportunity to grow the good, which is my current motto. Let's grow the good together. Thanks, Jen. Thanks for your comments. Tennis shoes. I see you're wearing tennis shoes. My mom always told me to watch out for the ladies with silver hair that wear tennis shoes. She was the one – she was the one willing to go with me. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Ethan, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, commissioners. The resolution that the county is putting forward addresses only some of the concerns that have been raised by residents throughout Alachua County regarding the manner and threat immigration enforcement poses on community trust and safety. It was originally put together when we were under threat of a warehouse detention center being proposed in Bradford County and a request for information and request for proposals for an ICE office here in Gainesville, Florida. It is before you now when FHP has been tagged to create their own warehouse detention center, their own detention centers throughout the state. When we have countless anecdotes of immigrants being pulled over for failing to use their turn signal in time, not having their license tag lights on, not having headlights on during rain in the middle of the day, and so many other mundane reasons that the rest of us seem to get away with each and every day, current arrest practices are pretty destructive. When you have an ACLU report showing Hispanic and black drivers are far more likely to be stopped by FHP even before they had signed on to their 287G agreement, arrest practices are quite clearly based on profiling. When we have brought before the commission examples of arrests in our own county of immigrants with pending immigration cases, H-2A visas, and no criminal charge being taken and turned over to ICE, arrest practices have clearly been indiscriminate, let alone the other arrests that we hear of citizens in our own state being arrested or DACA students getting arrested. This is an issue that affects everyone. We thank the commission for taking the time and care to consider this resolution, understanding that it comes after over a year and a half of our invaluable immigrant community hearing nothing from elected leaders regarding the terrifying new reality they are living in. While the resolution itself does not have the power to change the arrest practices or federal government's immigration enforcement agenda, we as the community expect our leaders to lead by example and draw a clear line in the sand regarding what is and is not acceptable. We ask that you join the growing voices around the country and our own state to stand up for what is right. The resolution, as long as it accurately captures the reality of immigration enforcement, is a small but symbolic important step to show our immigrant neighbors that they are welcome here. And the time to pass it is now. Thank you. Thank you. Could you just introduce yourself for the clerk? Oh, I'm sorry. Ethan Maya Denido. Thank you, Ethan. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Caitlin. I live in Archer. I have prepared remarks about, like, the over 160 people taken by ICE and things like that. But I was really struck during your comments about this idea that Alachio County only has the opportunity to either help vulnerable communities or help immigrants. And I am formerly incarcerated. I was homeless for the first half of my 20s. I've been homeless in Gainesville, addicted to drugs in Gainesville. I've been on public housing through the HUD program. And I'm still connected to vulnerable communities, not because I, like, work for the homeless shelter or anything, but because they're my friends. And this idea that it's either us vulnerable people or the immigrants is just not true, you know? I mean, beyond this idea that, oh, you can sue for the funds back, I just don't think it's right to say, oh, we can't help immigrants because we're just focused on these other vulnerable communities. We're all vulnerable communities together. And the vulnerable communities in Gainesville have even more of an understanding of what it is to be afraid of the police, afraid of being over-criminalized, afraid of being taken to jail when you least expect it. And we are on the side of immigrant justice. We are not threatened by the idea of funding getting taken. And if you need to see more of us in the room, I can get more, you know, veterans living in poverty that have to be picked up by the bus to go to their programs and people living in HUD housing, people on the street addicted to drugs. We can get more of those people in here if that's what you need to see because it is not us versus them. And if it is us versus them, I'm sure a lot of people in vulnerable populations would want you to take this time to help the immigrants when they're most vulnerable and most in danger. It's not enough to say that you personally have a soft spot for immigrants. That's not what the resolution is asking. It's not asking for your personal opinions on it, you know? So, yes, just ask that you pass this resolution. Thank you. Thank you, Caitlin. Anyone else? Okay, let's bring it back to the board. We'll have our deliberations and then we'll take a vote. Commissioner Wheeler, I've got some comments too. Yes, just very quickly. I'm trying to understand what this resolution is going to improve. Is this resolution going to help counter some of the things that are going on in the community or not? And the stories, the arrests that Ethan was sharing, Ethan, you've shared with me a few of these incidences that are happening in the community. But I'm not, I don't, is there someone that is, do we, anybody at the county know about these? You know, you talked about the watermelon, the workers that were deported. I don't have those stories. And if I'd had those stories or one of you all with me to share, I'm not even sure that the congresswoman knows about these. It would be really nice for her to hear these personal stories of what's happening in her district that I don't have access to anymore. So I don't, you know, I, do we have anybody in the county that knows about the comings and goings? Because I know I'd ask Ethan if there was somebody at the University of Florida that is in touch with these students that are at risk or have been picked up, you know, whose parents expect that they're here at the university and yet they've been picked up. So do we have anybody at our level or at the university level who is keeping track of the folks in our community is what I would like to know. Do we, Madam Manager, do we have any way of knowing who these people are? From what I understand from the sheriff, when they come, they go very quickly and nobody knows where they go because there are, you know, there are processes that need to be followed. And I just didn't know if we know in our community who these people are and where, not necessarily where they're going, but who they are in the community that's left a hole. And I am particularly concerned about our college students who come here to pay money to go to school and then are left vulnerable to this situation that we're looking at. And I don't know, Mr. Chair, if you have somebody from the community who could respond to that. Because I would really like to know if the university is keeping track of these students that are being picked up or possibly deported. Is that all right, Mr. Chair? Yeah, I mean, we heard a number of personal testimonies from the public. If you're asking, if you want, Veronica. I can do a simple response, a general response. It is public record, those who go in and out of your jail. So we, as an organization, have been monitoring that. Statewide organizations are monitoring that. Some of your colleagues are monitoring that. We've been in touch with you. We've been in touch with the sheriff. We've been in touch with a lot of people on lots of levels. So, yes, there is statewide coordination to address this in a legal battle sort of way. So, again, it's not an either-or. This resolution is not an either-or to that. So, thank you. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Bronwyn. Okay, and then, like, let's see. And, again, you know, what I would ask us, you know, or hear what you all have to say about what this resolution would do to improve our city safety. All right, thank you, Mr. Chair. Done. Mr. Prithee? I just want to say thank you for showing up and thank you for putting a voice. I mean, I think I heard pretty clearly today from the people who are sitting in here what this does. I mean, everything that they just said. Everything that they just said about creating a platform for our immigrant communities to understand that their leaders care about them, want to keep them safe, want to hold the law enforcement accountable to following the laws, want to make sure that people are being treated fairly and respectfully and within the letter of the law. I mean, I heard what I think are the reasons why I made the motion, why I have been supporting this resolution since they first brought it forward in every format that it's been before us. And so, I don't – that's my answer to that question. Commissioner Wheeler? You want to start? Yeah, we just follow up. We – let's see, how can we hold our police accountable with this? I mean, it sounds like, you know, if the police are doing what the state is requiring them to do, we – They're not all doing. Pardon? So, they're not all doing what the state is requiring them to do, and I'll just say that this doesn't allow us to hold them accountable because we don't have jurisdiction over our law enforcement. Like, we don't have the law enforcement underneath us like GPD is underneath the city. So, we can't hold the sheriff, quote, accountable – not that I think that he's not following the law – but we can't hold Florida Highway Patrol accountable. We can't hold ICE, who might be in our community, accountable. But what we can do as a body is say what we want them to do in a very public and in a very official capacity, not just as individuals saying, like, I think this is what they should be doing. But, like, saying, as a body, that's what resolutions are. Resolutions are never – well, not all resolutions are not binding, but we have many resolutions that we do that are sort of about making a statement, right, of our support of something or our not support of something. And I think that's what this is. It's a clear message to any enforcement agency coming into our community that these are the things that we expect. And I think it may not allow us to formally hold them accountable, but it does at least let them know what we expect, and it provides the opportunity for a dialogue should it not be occurring. Okay. Okay. Considering, too, what our sheriff has asked us for and the undersheriff has explained to us, you know, the concerns, you know, does that not enter into your – It does. It enters into it very much so. But when I weigh the fact that I have immigrants who are being impacted by this every single day asking me to pass this, they are the ones that the sheriff is talking about when he talks about the work that he's doing. When they talk about what they want to see for their own personal safety and what they want for us to do, like, when I have to weigh the options of which impacted person or which impacted group of people, for me, it's always going to be the most vulnerable. It's always going to be those that are voiceless, those that don't have the opportunity to stand up, those who are the largest community that is being impacted by whatever it is we're taking up, right? And what I see in this room are individuals who represent the organizations who work most directly with those impacted by this, and they're asking me to do this. And for me, that's all I need, honestly. Like, you know, I mean, I had the conversation with the sheriff. I heard what they had to say, and I know that they're not wrong. And I've had those conversations with individuals in this community very directly, very, very directly. You understand what this could mean. You understand where this could go. You understand how this could play out. And every single one of those conversations has ended with, this is still your responsibility. And to me, that's enough. But is it our responsibility, if we really can't impact what's being dictated to us from the state, is it our responsibility, or is it our state reps and our federal reps? It's all of the above. It's all of the above. Yes, sure. Get in there. Get some votes. So, first of all, this guy's opinion matters a lot to me. Yeah. It matters a lot to me. And I'm having a deja vu moment of like a wildflower moment. You know, Caitlin said one word. It doesn't have to be or. It's and. And so when you go back and reread really what this is, and I think it's important to do that, a resolution of the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, expressing community concerns regarding the community impacts of immigrant-related law enforcement activities. Affirming compliance with Chapter 908, Florida statutes encouraging transparency and community trust in law enforcement practices and providing an effective date. If we don't have community trust, we don't have anything. So let's just start with that. But then let's go through the whereases. So I'm just going to summarize it because I think it's important, Commissioner Wheeler, that we understand these words. Because what's been in the press and what was initially proposed, it's all been changed for whoever the press is trying to speak to. But this is what it says. Whereas the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County is charged with protecting health, safety, and welfare. That's our job, health, safety, and welfare. Whereas Section 908 prohibits sanctuary policies. We don't control that, but it prohibits it. Whereas the Board affirms the county's commitment to ensure that all residents feel safe seeking emergency and social services reporting crimes. That sentence was what really got me going with Jenny four or five years ago. That we are less safe when our immigrants aren't a part of our entire community. Whereas the county could impose, let's see, the county enforcement facilities in the county could impose direct and indirect demands on county services, infrastructure, and public utilities. I don't want a detention facility in Alachua County. I've said that clearly. Bradford County changed their mind on it, so they don't either. Joan in her tennis shoes is probably convincing me that I need to take a trip 60 miles north, so I may have to do that so I can see it. Because if it ever comes before us, right now it's not allowed, but they may try to bring it before us. It's no different than data centers. I need to see it. That the Board supports law enforcement practices and promotes public safety, upholding constitutional rights, and maintaining community confidence. Yeah, I agree with that. That the Board urges all law enforcement personnel operating in the county to act transparently and professionally and to identify themselves. That builds public trust. So those are the whereases. The resolution then has six things. One, support for law enforcement. I support law enforcement. They're saying they want us to say we support law enforcement. Two, commitment to community safety and constitutional protections. Yep, I do that too. Express an urgent concern regarding federal immigration enforcement facility. Citing. I've already said I don't want it cited here, and I've heard the community's fear of that. Ethan said this is how this started. Concerns regarding indiscriminate or destructive arrest practices. I don't believe our sheriff is doing that, but I've heard firsthand account from now multiple people, not just today, but in the past, that maybe other agencies are doing that. And we have concerns about that. Identification of all law enforcement personnel. Nothing wrong with that. That builds public trust. And then the last one is that it's non-binding. It's an expression of we as elected officials who are expressing basically the community that we want to have. So, yeah, I'm going to join Chuck. I'm going to support the resolution. And I wasn't going to when I first got here. So those are my thoughts. Is there any other discussion from this board? Commissioner Wheeler. You have three votes from this board. And in solidarity with this board and also the community, I will vote with you. Okay. I think unanimous it speaks loudly. So all those in favor of the motion of Commissioner Prizia, seconded by Commissioner Chesnett, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes unanimously. Thank you all. We don't allow clapping. Just to let you know. I know this has been weighing heavily. I've thought a lot about this. I'm glad we've provided this space. I want to thank our attorney for providing the proper resolution that we could adopt. And I want to thank you all for being here. Caitlin, thank you. I'm still looking for folks. We're going to take a 10-minute recess and reconvene at 225. Our agenda, Commissioner, if you don't mind, I'd like to do some agenda management with presentations. Okay. We've got a guest here for the Town of Teoga Phase 22 Special Improvement District. I hate to do this to you, Travis, but I'm going to see if I can push 1 and 2 to after that so we could hear that item. Does anybody object to that? Nope. All right. So, Mr. Clerk, let's go to H3. You want to announce that? Yes, sir. It's the Town of Teoga Phase 22 Special Improvement District. All right. And the recommended action is the board to hear the presentation by the Special Improvement District Consultant, Sandra Nebarth, with Accenture. And are they here? They might have been expecting. Hopefully, they're here. Are they here? Sorry, Ramon. I was trying to help, and I should have told you that on the break that I was going to move you up. Yeah, welcome. All right. Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon, Commissioners. Mr. Chair, Ramon Gavarretti, Public Works Director. Is this on? Hello? Yeah, it's on. They'll fix it up in the booth. Okay. Commissioners, today we're here. We have a presentation. Our consultant is going to make the presentation for you first. And then in there, you're going to see also a recommendation from staff. The issue is how the assessment is being done for this Town of Teoga Phase 22 in the flat. So, I'm going to have Sandy come up here right behind me. Good afternoon. Sandy Newbarth with Accenture. Welcome. I have been working with your staff on these SIDs for several years now, and they called me after the last meeting where there were some concerns about the apportionment methodology, and they've asked me to come and address some of those concerns. So, a little background. You adopted this ordinance in 2022. It amended Chapter 37 and Chapter 407 of the county codes. This is to a process for establishing MSBUs. Once the county accepts the plats for residential development, it is only residential development. It's a funding mechanism. So, there's a dedicated funding source for the maintenance and repairs that are necessary for the roadways in these residential developments. Dedicated funding source can only be used for that area. It can't be used for anything else. And the rates are based on the types of improvements that are being asked to be provided by the county and the cost of those improvements. It also has you establishing the MSBUs by resolution. So, you're not having to amend the ordinance every time you create a new MSBU. And that resolution, so the ordinance is procedural ordinance. The resolution is what actually establishes the MSBU, identifies the maintenance and improvements that are necessary for that neighborhood, identifies the benefit area, the project cost, the life cycle, the time frame. All the nuts and the bolts of the MSBU is established by resolution. So, as a reminder, what is an ad valorem special assessment, a non-ad valorem special assessment? It's a charge imposed against property to pay for essential services and improvements provided by the county. It is a home rule revenue source, so it's case law driven, not statutory driven. And there's two primary prongs that must be met. First, it must benefit property. There has to be a special benefit to property. So, we have to look at the services or the improvements that the county is providing and see what kind of a benefit it is to those properties that are going to be paying for this. The second is it must be fairly and reasonably apportioned. It has to make sense. It has to be logical and factually driven methodology. It can't be arbitrary. It can't be made up. So, it has to be something that makes sense, and it's going to be based on the type of services that are being provided. That's why you have different methodologies depending on what type of services you're providing. The method of collection is going to be the tax bill collection method. And because you're collecting it on the tax bill, we use the property appraiser's data. It must merge seamlessly with the property appraiser, I mean, with the tax collector's data. The property appraiser manages the data for the tax collector to use. So, we use their data to develop the apportionment methodology and determine the units that are on each parcel that is going to be charged. The available information provided by the property appraiser includes the type of use for the parcel and the types of structures on each property. It does not include any household income, population of the household, number of vehicles, any of that information. So, that would not be an easy way to manage if you were going to develop a program using those. It would take a lot of staff resources. So, when you develop one of these programs, you want it to be fair and reasonable, but you also want it to be administratable. So, using the property appraiser's data that goes seamlessly with the tax collector's information makes it manageable. So, you also asked for some comparisons of the different methodologies and why you have different ways of apportioning those costs. Your stormwater, I've been working with the county on your stormwater since 2016. The benefit to property is equivalent to the runoff it's generated by that property. So, what we've developed for the stormwater is called an impervious area methodology. That doesn't mean that the county has to go out and measure all the residential parcels. It would be an administrative burden because the impervious area is not necessarily captured. All of the impervious area is not necessarily captured by the property appraiser. So, what we did is we create residential tiers based on a building footprint, and we did a statistical sampling and analysis to determine approximately how much impervious area is associated with each building footprint. So, that's how we manage that role. Your fire, I was not involved with it, but I do know you have a different type of a benefit. Your benefit is the availability of the fire department to respond to every property and the potential risk of loss. So, there's a different benefit that you would get from fire than you would from a stormwater, and that's why you charge in different types of billing units. So, your roadway, yours is for maintenance and improvement. So, it's better access to the property and enhances the value and integrity of the property. It makes that neighborhood more desirable to have functioning roadways that are being maintained. So, you can use for different types of roadways. So, now, it would depend on a roadway project as to what type of methodology would make sense. In a residential neighborhood, it makes sense to treat all residential the same, the trips. Single families, about the same amount of trips, so all single family would pay the same. If you had single and multifamily, you may want to do something different, but they're all single family. If you were doing a resurfacing, only resurfacing and, you know, done, you know, you're going in and putting a new surface in there, it's a capital assessment. Sometimes, those are on the front footage because it is equivalent to the amount of pavement that you have to put on there. Sometimes, we have some projects in Levy County that we do roadway maintenance in different neighborhoods, and we do it based on a buildable lot or a parcel charge. So, it just depends on the services that are being provided and the benefit that each property is going to receive based on how we apportion it. So, the town of Tioga, MSBU, consists of 29 single family residential parcels. And so, we look at the type of properties that are going to be going in there, and it was determined that based on trip generations, all single family generate about the same amount of trips. So, all single family would get one ERU. We realize not all the lots are going to be developed at the same amount of time. So, for any undeveloped lots, it still makes that neighborhood more desirable and the sellable factor for those lots. So, there should pay something, but maybe not the same as the single family, so 0.8. And so, we use that, again, based on the trips. That there is really no basis based on the size of a lot as to how much use of the roadway there is. And so, the trip generation statistics show that single family is about 7 to 10 trips a day. Multifamily is about 4 to 6. But this is all single family, so we don't have to worry about that single family. There's no basis for a 2,000 square foot house versus a 6,000. So, we're talking about the lot sizes, because we don't know what size houses are going to go on these properties. So, that's right. Now, you're establishing it. It's vacant land right now. We don't know what size houses that are going to go on the house. Well, you could know. You could know. You could say estate lots must be built greater than 3,000 square feet, and other lots are less than 2,000 square feet. So, if you establish that, is there any data that allows you to charge differently based on the size of the house? Well, you could look at that. But the thing is, there's nothing that says that they have to build a big house on a big lot. Well, the HOA could, yeah. And I know in this neighborhood, the HOA is the same for every house. They don't have a different HOA fee for small houses versus large houses. So, they're looking at it the same way that we're looking at it. It's a neighborhood benefit. Okay. No, I have seen HOAs that charge different fees for larger houses. This one is not that way. I see. Okay. Yeah. So, but I did look up some statistics looking for something that would support it. And actually, I found that the U.S. Department of Transportation and Highway Administrative found that those houses with one-and-two car garages actually have more trips per day than those houses with three-plus vehicles. I didn't make this up. Wow. This is, you know, who knows? They may just have more luxurious cars that they can do. I don't know. I didn't make the statistics up. I just found that. And it also showed that those households with a $50,000 to $100,000 income limit actually made more trips than the higher income limits. That's the opposite. I know. It is just the opposite. But that was what those statistics showed. So, I thought I would share them with you. Okay. It's not what we would think of, but it's what they showed. Okay. Now, it wasn't in Alachua County. It was nationwide, so just so you understand that. So, you also asked me to look at some other neighboring cities, I mean, neighboring counties and what they do. You specifically mentioned Citrus County and Marion County. Yeah. So, Citrus County is a little bit different because it's voluntary. So, the neighborhood has to petition and a majority of the neighborhood has to sign that petition and ask the county to do these assessments. There's two different kinds. There's a resurfacing one, and that is based on a front footage. Now, they have some concessions for those corner lots because, just because you have a corner lot and you may have more roadway, but does that really mean you benefit more? So, they have a little bit of concessions of that. So, that is a resurfacing, that's a pavement, capital, one and done, it's a seven year program, and once it's paid for, it's done. Is there any change from, you're at the front of the neighborhood versus the end of the neighborhood? There was not any. Okay. And it's kind of hard to do that because, you know, that poor person living in the back, nothing to say that the person in the front doesn't use all the roadways. Got it. So, and then the other one is the maintenance. Now, the maintenance, they have a little bit more of the 50% rule that if it's more than 60% developed, then it's only the residential that does the voting. So, it's the majority of those with the house on there. If it's not 60%, it's the majority of the property owners. And then that one is based on an analysis that's done by Public Works on each individual neighborhood, that they look at each individual neighborhood. So, it could be a per parcel, it could be a front footage basis, or it could be something else. I know in Levy County, we do theirs. We've been doing their road maintenance. I think they have about 30 or 40 of them. So, and theirs is on a per-buildable lot because they're all residential. Marion County, I found three of them there, the Deer Path Estates. Theirs is for road maintenance, mowing, and street lighting. The apportionment methodology is on a per-lot basis. There's a Mary Camp, and I don't know any of these neighborhoods. I didn't go drive them, so I don't know why. But this one is, again, for road maintenance, drainage, mowing, things like that, the right-of-way. And theirs is on a per-acre basis. So, I don't know if it's because they have a lot of large acreage or something. I don't know the specific details. That's why it kind of, I cringe when somebody says, tell me what my neighbors are doing. It's like, yeah, they might not be fine, same service or something. And then the Golden Hills Turf and Country Club appears to only be for street lighting because I looked at their budget, and it only had street lighting and other in there. And that one's on a per-parcel basis. So, it's kind of consistent with what we were looking at for the county. So, conclusion, we looked at these methodologies that you asked us. Look to see if there's anything that shows that the different size lots should establish a different ERUs. We could not find that. But we feel that the methodology that has been developed based on the ERU and the trip generation is fair, reasonable, and equitable way to portion the cost. And, you know, I mean, and we just, I skipped to the bottom part first. And we just didn't find any basis for the lot size determining the size of the house. Yeah, we may say that there's a bigger house going on there, but is it required? We don't know. Well, even if it was, it sounds like it wouldn't matter because you could have less trips in the bigger house. You could. You could. Okay. We've got a question, Commissioner Alper? I would go wait until she's done. Anyway, so that's it. We just, you know, the lot size doesn't establish how many vehicles or the frequency of use of the roads because this isn't just for paving. This is for maintenance. So it's looked at a little bit different than if you were to do paving or just paving. My first question is to ask Mr. Diaz what was the basis for the asking for the change? You want the bigger lots to pay more, smaller lots to pay less. Because? Because they. Sorry, Luis Diaz here. Yeah, if you give that to the clerk, he'll pass it out to us. Again, Luis Diaz. This is something a little different because we do have a history. We, this is our 30th year of doing with this development. So it's not like something that's a brand new phase that we started to develop. So we do have that. And then just so you know, what we were suggesting is that this is a TND. This is a new traditional neighborhood. So you have different lot sizes. And we do have, we're suggesting since the lot sizes, the bigger lots, created 60% of the overall lot acreage. We just create, decided, why don't we go with a 60-40 split? And again, this is about, has to do with affordability. It has to do with people who are in an average, in those small lots, are usually empty nesters, people on fixed income that don't have kids. And they're not having to go to recycles, to gym, to sports events. The other thing that they don't have to do, which big lots, we have 30 year history of this. They not only have more trips because they have more people who live in there, more cars. And those, and those, those actually from National Highway Administration, and also from the Department of Energy. It is, it is, come on, if you think about it, there's no way that a 6, that a 2,000 square foot home versus 6,000 square foot home has more trips. It just, just, just defies your logic. So, the one thing is that, also, you have in here, all the items, sidewalks, retention ponds, things of that sort. A bigger home will have more impervious surface, have more frontage, more sidewalk. In, in the case, also, on, on, on, which I'd like to respond, I'll have a response from, from, from the, uh, Boucher County Public Works. We have in the spreadsheet that created this dispense, about $260,000 for maintenance of the retention ponds. We have been there for 30 years, and we have, the county has not spent zero amount of dollars for maintaining our retention ponds. We take care of our retention ponds. So, I want to know what happens to this money when we're not, we're not spending it. Are we going to get it refunded for, for the residents? Because, I mean, all these amounts of money that are being collected, and, but yet, we have a history of 30 years where there has not been any, any use of the county, uh, efforts for that. Um, the, the, one mention of, uh, Marion County, the American market, they do per acre. So, they obviously are taking care of the size of the homes. The bigger, the bigger lot, the bigger, the, the improvements. Um, I think we, we have had impact fees and other things that are related to the value of the homes. So, I don't know what we are afraid of, of doing something slightly different. But if we're catering for doing TNDs, if you have a subdivision that is all monochromatic, same size lot, I wouldn't have an argument. They're all the same to me. But this is a slightly different, and I think it has to do with how we're going to progress for the next phases of the yoga. And that's what we're, I'm here for. Um, again, the, the, the reports that I give to you obviously state that, that, which agrees with your reasoning and your brain that, because the consultants here saying that, yeah, it doesn't make sense, but it, but it does somehow, that a small house has more trips. The other thing that doesn't account for, all those state lots that we have in yoga, not only have their own self trips, they have more trips, people coming in to take care of more landscaping people, more babysitters, uh, uh, maintenance people, people pressure washing. They, they're constantly parking in front of those homes, constantly every day to take care of those big state homes. So, again, you're not getting just only the trips, but people coming in, but people coming in to take care of those homes as well, it makes no sense. So that's what I'm suggesting that we do a simple thing, a 60-40 split between the large homes and the small homes. And that's what I'm asking for. Thank you very much. Thank you. And, and so the reason why I asked was, um, many years ago with the olden days before I was an elected official and I was on the, uh, utility advisory board, one of the things that I pushed GRU for was a difference in the amount of the, uh, charge for a new water sewer connection. Because they were charging the same amount, um, based on, uh, it had nothing to do with the size of the house. And when I questioned them about it, they said, all houses use about the same amount of water. It really doesn't make any difference. And I said, that makes no sense. It absolutely makes no sense. So after arguing for a period of time, they actually hired a student, did a study, and found the breakoff period at 1,400 square feet, where under 1,400 square feet, they used significantly less water than above 1,400 square feet. And they agreed to change the connection fee for those particular houses. And I feel like there is an argument to be made here in the same way. And, um, so I guess my questions are, um, you know, I was going to ask, could we collect data to make this case? But it sounds like Louise has already done that. And, um, and then I had another, if there absolutely is no, um, uh, way that we can make this happen. Is there a way where, um, the, um, developer could pay the, uh, the, um, special assessment district fees, and then he could assess them however the heck he wants? Well, they do until they sell a lot. But could that be part of the, um, part of the, uh, ongoing method as, I don't know. I don't know if that works or not. I know the developer likes to go away at some period of time. I would eventually like to go. But I, but I don't, you know, but there's still the entity that is the homeowners association, and they are still paying, um, homeowner fees. And so I didn't know. I think we have to have a basis that is dependable. Yeah, I understand. So if the county, if the county imposes it, the county has to be responsible for it, um, how he divvies it up, and then he puts it back to you, you're still responsible for it. If somebody, um, contested or sues, you're still responsible for defending that, so. Okay, that makes sense. All right. Well, I still feel like that, um, you know, I heard over and over and over again from GRU's consultants that, oh, it makes absolutely no difference. Everybody, every house should pay the same amount of water and sewer. And then when they actually really dug into it, they were, there was a very, very clear difference. With the data that Luis has provided, does that give you a basis? Did you not get a copy? I haven't seen it. And it's based off of his experience. It's, you know, so, I mean, if he's an expert and he can testify if you get challenged. Well, it looks like it's the Federal Highway Administration data to me. Actually, it's, like, it's not the opposite. I know, and I don't, I haven't seen that, so. But, um, but, yeah, I mean. As long as it's a defendable basis, that's, that's your opinion. Okay, Ramona, do you have a thought? We also want to be careful that you, you, um, don't let the developers pick and choose for their neighborhoods, too, because you're going to still be responsible. No, I agree with you on that. I don't want to set precedence on that. In this case, so, we have a neighborhood that's been around for 30 years. So, we do have data. Yeah. Ramon? Thank you, Mr. Chair. We have not had a chance to review what, Luis, I just gave to you all. So, I really cannot speak to what he gave to you all. Okay. Because we have not looked at it or analyzed where the data is coming from. Okay. Yeah, I guess I just want to point out that just because it's a large lot or a large house doesn't mean they're going to have three or four cars. I just want to be, I mean, like, the number of, like, this is based on the number of cars. And I'm not sure that that's directly tied. Like, the number of vehicles is not directly tied to the size of your house, right? Like, I know people who live in massive houses and have one car, you know? So, I just. That's true. And if I may, Mr. Chair and commissioners, you know, you just drive around the subdivisions. You'll see single-family homes that are barely 1,800 square feet. There's four or five cars parked outside. Right. You know, it really depends on the household, depends on everything. So, the thing is that you have to have a uniform method of assessment. That's the key, uniform. And like the consultant said today, it has to be defendable. So, you know, when the next developer comes in and says, I want a different type of method, then you're going to end up having different type of methods for any subdivisions. That's where we as staff are cautioning the board to go in that way. It's a little bit then thought. You have to have a uniform method of assessment. And ITE, trip generation, single-family homes is established across the country. And that's what is used in many places. In most places, it's not an acreage issue. So, we as staff are asking you all to continue assessing these subdivisions the way it was established at first. How many of these have we done so far, Ramon? I believe this is our third one. And quite frankly, commissioners, they're all in different steps. Like this one is just starting. There's others that, you know, roads have already been built and everything. But we haven't really collected that much, if any, on any of these new subdivisions. Okay. So, I don't know if there's no action being asked of us today, is there? Well, the developer asked you for an action. What staff is asking you is to stay firm with the method that has been selected. Again, it's a method of uniform collection that way. Great. So, moved. I got a motion and a second to allow staff to continue with the direction they provided. Is there any further discussion from this board? Commissioner Alford? I'd like to make a substitute motion. Okay. Go ahead. I would like to offer Mr. Diaz an opportunity to bring back a method that he feels like could work for the rest of the county that could be a uniform method that could be applied. And if he can provide that, then we could consider it. What do you think? I hear a second to that. To me, it's about uniformity. And we're going to start to do a lot of these. You know, it was a big policy decision for us to change, you know? Right. But it's about, exactly. It's about uniformity. And one of the things that we are pushing in this town is affordability of houses. And so, if there is a uniform method that we can apply that can affect the affordability of homes, then I feel like we should consider it. Do you think about having a smaller fee for a smaller house? I do. Yeah. Do I hear a second to the substitute motion? I guess I'm trying to understand. Your suggestion is that Luis come up with a plan for the whole county or that Luis propose a uniform method that staff could review? Yeah, if he could come up with a uniform method, staff could review it, and if it makes sense, we could apply it to the whole county. I just wanted to give him that opportunity rather than just say, hey, for this neighborhood we want 60-40. If he can come back and give us a justification that we could apply going forward to affect the affordability of all the smaller homes or whatever methodology he chooses going forward, then we have a uniform method. I second it for discussion. Okay, we got a second on the substitute motion, so how this works, commissioners, just as a reminder is we're going to open it up for public comment, then we will come back. We'll first vote on the substitute motion. If that passes, then the item's done. If that dies, we'll go back to the original motion, which is staff's recommendation. Okay, any further discussion from this board? Okay, public comment. Mr. Diaz. Luis Diaz. Are you interested in doing the county's work? Well, again, I don't want to complicate things. Again, the county is very strong about doing TNDs in traditional neighborhoods, and they're a different animal than most of your typical subdivisions. So I think we're catering something specific. These ordinances are specific for the particular phase of particular neighborhoods. So you're doing each individual resolution for those particular phases. So I'm not asking to do something throughout the county. I think we're just doing some of this common sense, because in the ordinances, it talks about equitable. Yeah, and I think that's the issue that our staff is having, is we want to make sure that whatever we do, we don't create a precedence that doesn't allow for a uniform application of these SIDs throughout the county. Yeah, I mean, I think what you're hearing is that legally we can't have your one neighborhood and one phase have it one way, and other neighborhoods and developments have it another way. We have to apply the same criteria to every development. Again, I think I disagree, because you have a history of having impact fees. There were talking about square footage, and there are different things there. So you have done it differently before, and I think we're afraid of something that we shouldn't be afraid of, to do something that makes more sense. The commentary about our homeowners association is one thing that we wish we had done it differently. We've done it equitable to everybody, but we didn't realize that we're going to have the kind of development that has larger homes and smaller homes. And to me, that's the way where you can... where you can actually change the affordability. Like, Commissioner Alfred, I'll tell you, at when I owned a condo in Creston House, which I don't have anymore, we had a fee, HOA fee, for one bedroom, then two bedrooms, then three bedrooms, and they ramped up. And so the smaller ones obviously cost less, less of a fee. So that is something that the developer can control with the HOA. It's a little late for me to do that. Yeah, I know. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. And I understand where he's coming from. I just feel like that's, you know, that is one opportunity I think that we could have. You heard him say he doesn't want to do the work. Yeah, well, if he doesn't want to do it, then we're going to have to stick with what we got. So you want to withdraw your substitute motion, or you want to vote on it? Well, we can vote on it. Okay. Any other public who wishes to speak to the motion or the substitute motion? Okay. Back to the board. Any further discussions from this board? Okay. We're first going to vote on the substitute motion, which is to ask Luis Diaz to do work for the county that he doesn't want to do. All those in favor, say aye. All opposed. I'll say aye just because I made the motion. All opposed. Aye. That motion fails. 1-4 with Commissioner Wheeler. Nay. Chestnut, Cornell, Prizia in dissent. I understand you don't want to do the work for the county. I appreciate that. Back to the original motion, which is staff's recommendation to keep the course. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. Luis, thank you. We will continue to try to work on this and keep trying. Sorry, Luis. Okay. We're going to move now to, we're moving north on the agenda. We're going to do the final report for the food system workforce development agreement. Keep Travis sitting over there. He's going to kill me. The recommended action is to hear the presentation. We do have some outside folks that are here for this item as well, so we'd like to give them the opportunity to go, and I appreciate the folks waiting for the public hearing. We did it so she could be here. I think she literally just came out. Okay, Bailey, is this one yours? Okay, Mark's getting you all set up. Yeah, I'll get it. We're going to do that one, and then we're going to do the items from consent. We're good. Yeah, you're good. You're right. All right, Bailey McClellan, Agricultural Economic Development Coordinator, and today with me, I have Shelby Dixon, Executive Director of Working Food, to bring the final report presentation on the three-year agreement between Alachua County and Working Food, which supported programs that strengthened the local food system and food economy, including shared use, commercial kitchen access for local farmers and food producers, and programs for local middle and high school students to enter culinary arts workforce pipeline. I'll let you shine and your team. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for having me. I just snuck out for a second to shove some food in my mouth, so if you see me swallowing, it's because I was snacking out there. Oh, there's a food presentation. There you go. You know? We're here to share everything that was accomplished over the last three years, and as Bailey said, my name is Shelby Dixon, and I'm the Executive Director of Working Food, but this agreement and contract was really a community investment in multiple different organizations, so every program that I'm going to highlight today was done in community with at least one other nonprofit organization. Over the course of three years, we did two consecutive years of youth programming, and we did three years of farmer development for value-added products. Over those three years, we engaged 69 youth in three different Young Chefs programs. We had eight food systems leadership interns that completed seven-month internships. We had four local farm businesses that expanded value-added production, and over 850 meals were prepared and shared with youth and their families in Gainesville. The first Young Chefs program was Young Chefs Kids, and this was an in-garden cooking program that really focused on an introduction to how to cook your own food in the garden. This program engaged students ages 6 through 15. We had 31 students participate over two years, and of those, 11 students returned for the second year for continuity. This resulted in 13 in-depth in-person cooking classes. I do want to add that our team prepares a large snack or salad at every single after-school program. So these were the classes where students were really making a lot of food to eat in the garden and take home to their families. And that resulted in 387 meals that were prepared and shared. The next program was Young Chefs Teen. Like Young Chefs Kids, this was done in community with the Greater Duval Neighborhood Association, but was also led by Chef Empowerment. So Chef Carl Watts taught these classes. This really took cooking to the next level, and it engaged teens in both middle and high school to create more in-depth meals and, like, really hone in their culinary skills. This also developed a lot of leadership skills and other soft and hard skills for teens. This program engaged students age 12 through 17. We had 19 teens total participate over the course of two years. The first year, we did all virtual classes other than the pop-up, so that was five virtual cooking classes. And the second year, we moved to in-person, and this was due to a request from students and parents, and it was just overwhelmingly far more successful. So we were actually able to do six in-person classes that year. Both years ended in a community pop-up restaurant where the students prepared and shared a multi-course meal with their families in the Working Food Community Center. And this program resulted in 276 meals prepared, and this is a reminder that these teens were making food for their entire families. So we did a family headcount at the beginning of every year, and they brought that many servings home after each cooking class. The feedback from parents was overwhelmingly positive here, so we heard that all of the teens were excited to show up every month and that they actually came home and talked about what they did, which is a huge measure of success for young adults. Families also reported that teens were cooking a lot more at home and that they were substantially more engaged in food production in their household. And that parents also shared that they just really appreciated the sense of independence, the friendships that were built over the program, and the life skills that students were helped foster. The next program was Young Chefs in partnership with Project Youth Build. So this really looked at culinary development with the hope for workforce development for young adults and teens age 17 through 24. Again, this was a two-year program. We actually piloted it in two different ways based on feedback from the first year, and it resulted in 19 young adults participating, 17 instructional sessions, and these were split between hands-on cooking classes and then study sessions for the serve-safe tests. 190 meals were prepared with these students, and of the 19 participants, 15 gained their serve-safe food handler certification, and two gained their serve-safe food manager certification. Again, feedback was really positive, and this feedback actually came from the participants, not from their parents. So at the beginning of the course, we saw a reported high enjoyment of cooking at about 42%, and that increased to 71%. And at the end, everyone reported that kitchen confidence increased, with a vast majority reporting that they either felt very or extremely confident preparing their own food. The next program was run in its entirety by Chef Empowerment. This was also a two-year pilot that this contract helped establish, and this was a more in-depth internship that really introduced teens to what it could look like to have a career in our local food system. These teens were aged 14 to 16, another two-year internship, and every teen completed a full seven months of instruction. This included 280 hours of hands-on education and 133 hours of paid work experience, and 100% of the students participating in this program earned their serve-safe manager certification, and all eight students are currently placed in jobs in a local food institution in Gainesville. So we have two at Sweet Berries, two at Chopsticks, two at Grassroots Community Kitchen, and two still working at Underground Kitchen. From parent feedback here, 100% of families reported that the program was a success and that they would recommend it to others. All of the students demonstrated increased self-confidence and practical workforce skills that they are currently using in their job placements. And one student loved the program so much that they actually asked to come back as an unpaid volunteer the next year because they wanted to do it all over again. So kudos to Chef Carl for creating a really beautiful and inclusive space. Before we move into Farmer Value Add, I want to share that every single one of these programs we just went over are still operating in the third year after the contract funding ended. So we are able to continue Young Chef's Kids, Young Chef's Teen. Project Youth Build had moved forward independently, and they did another class this year as an elective, and Chef Carl Watts has continued the internship. So this funding and partnership really allowed us to lay the foundation, strengthen these programs, and then put the use case out to community and other funders and grantors to keep this progress moving forward. The second half of the program was focused on Farmer Value Added Products. This ran for the first year was all information gathering, outreach, really understanding what the need was. And then we ran the program for a little over two years with farmers. Throughout that course of two years, we had five farms participate. Four were active at project completion. So we still have four farmers in the kitchen currently making products. These products include prepared meals, baked goods, elderberry products, artisan meats, seafood products, sauces, and preserves. And the engaged farmers participated between nine and 26 months, and that's because we had staggered start times for different producers. Over the course of those 26 months, we had 1,120 kitchen hours booked, 21,843 individual value-added products were produced and brought to market, and the farmers collectively generated $254,900 in revenue from value-added sales. Every farmer reported substantial growth. There was one outlier, and this was not due to a failure of product, but Mother Nature wiping out a vast majority of their available goods to value-add. So I want to be really clear there. Of the other four farmers, or three farmers, I should say, we saw between 100% and 500% sales growth. Every farm hired additional staff of those other three, and one farm in particular expanded into 25 new retail locations across multiple states, and that's because this was a shelf-stable value-added product. So we saw that that really could push products forward. And every new farmer, including the farmer who had a massive, massive loss due to back-to-back hurricanes, expanded into at least one new market. And in our exit survey, we had one farmer say that value-added products have given life back to their farm. Here are some examples of the products. So we had a meal kit from Bambi, a pepper jelly from Oyster Catcher Shellfish, and an elderberry balsamic vinegar from North Florida Elderberry. I also just wanted to share this because it really shows the impact of creating an opportunity to try something before you have to make massive investments. So in one of our exit interviews, a farmer shared, we are in the process of building a commercial kitchen on our farm, and the expected cost is $60,000. This program gave us the opportunity to bring our value-added products to market to test demand without a big upfront cost. We would not have built a commercial kitchen from the beginning without knowing if there was a demand for our products. We probably wouldn't exist today without this program. Overall, which I shared a little bit in the beginning, I just want to reiterate that this created lasting community impact, and it's because it was an investment into multiple different community organizations and local businesses that have their roots in Alachua County. So we are still engaging youth in after-school programs with hands-on culinary education. Chef Empowerment is still preparing for future food leaders running this program and facilitating job placement for the youth who are graduating from it. We have farmers who are selling more of their products and expanding into more markets. And we have more food going out to community. And I cannot, I just can't share how much of a difference that makes. When you know that you can have fresh local food and you can have enough of it and you know where to access it, it is the continuity of that that makes a lasting difference. So I just want to say thank you so much for this investment, for the belief in community organizations. It is truly an honor and a privilege to be an Alachua County resident and to see how you react and reflect to community needs, even when they are, you know, not traditional and sometimes difficult. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Shelby. Okay, commissioners, any comments, questions? Commissioner Alford and Commissioner Prezio. I wanted to start by congratulating Commissioner Prezio for, you know, starting us down this whole food path, which is pretty, pretty amazing. And I also wanted to note that I'm regularly buying food from a farm store where they started off producing sausage and other products right in your kitchen. And it's really made a huge difference to them and their expansion. So it's pretty, pretty cool. So thank you. Love to hear that. Thank you. Commissioner, Commissioner Prezio and Commissioner. Yeah, I guess I, first I want to say thank you for all that you've done to grow working food and to take the vision that I had way back in the day along with Melissa and like turn it into something that is sustainable and it is lasting and that has, I guess I'll call it balanced, balanced steps in the right direction, right? Like I think that you've really taken this really big vision and you've found a way to sort of like take it stepwise in ways that are bite-sized and achievable and it's beautiful and it shows. And the collaboration, I think it's definitely something that we always did really, really well, like being able to bring organizations together and seeing it in its full form is really, really beautiful. It like makes me cry. So thank you for that. I do have a couple of thoughts and comments that I want to share about the future of our food systems projects, but I do want to let Commissioner Wheeler. Okay, Commissioner Wheeler, then we'll come back to you. I just wanted to thank you for having the certification programs. It's really important that a kid be able to do something, you know, and I've been invited a couple of times for the meals. I've missed it. To be able to see the family sit down at a table that their kids are prepared was really exciting to do. But I really do, I think it's really important that they get the certifications and that you all have provided that opportunity for them. I really thank you for that. And I just want to add really quickly that I don't have the exact number, but I remember from one of our reports that Chef Watts shared that the students actually performed better on the Serve Safe Manager exam than the adults for everyone that he was administering the exams to. And so that really shows that, again, the care, the regularity, and everything that is put into those programs by mentors like Chef Watts makes a huge, huge difference. That's great. Thank you. Yeah, and I'll just say before we go back to Commissioner Prizia, you know, when you teach a young child how to cook for his family, and that is so empowering for just the whole family unit, not just the one child. And so I don't remember when it was that Commissioner Prizia was up here yelling at us. It was either 16 or 17, buy me a freezer, and let's create an infrastructure for, you know, and here we are, and you are doing it. Like you are creating the infrastructure for helping people take care of themselves, helping a local food economy. I love the fact that those farmers have 100% to 500% increase. I mean, those are real numbers impacting real families. Growing food in our community and keeping it in our community. So, Commissioner Prizia, I think it was a $50,000 grant for that freezer. When was it? 17 or 16? I want to say it was 2016. 2016. 2016, yeah. 2016, yeah. And I remember talking, I remember that meeting because, you know, Hutch and Mike were like, you know, we're going to create a food economy. And she's like, yes, we are. And here we are in 2026. You know, these things take time, but your work is really impactful. So thank you for the presentation. It was great. Commissioner Prizia. Yeah. Okay. So I have two asks, really, for my colleagues, not so much for you. I thank you for finding sustainable funding because I think that's what these programs are all about. It's sort of like the $50,000. It was a catalyst, right? It catalyzed the ability for you all to build these programs and then work with the community to find sustainable funding and to build on what they were to make them even greater. And I think, you know, when we had the bigger community food systems conversations, as this was happening, this got bigger. I got elected. And we started down the food systems journey as a commission. Sean and Deidre Houchen at the time when she was working for us had some community food systems conversations, right? It was sort of as a catalyst to the food, what ultimately now is this food hub grant that we're doing. And those conversations with the community were really powerful. We had Sean over 100 people, I think, at those meetings. Yeah, it was huge. I mean, it took up all of Bread of the Mighty's whole big front space. And the conversations, there were so many amazing ideas that were in that room that were, like, buzzing around. And to be frank with you, the conversation was, well, that's where we're headed with this food hub project and with this community food systems work. Like, we're headed in the direction of being able to support those kinds of projects. Like, that's where we're going. And, you know, it was a promise we kind of made to the community. And I think with projects like this and with the food hub, the grant, like, we're fulfilling that promise. But you're wrapping up, and I see all of this potential. Like, we had how many applications, you know, for the food hub grant, Sean? Do you know how many applications we had for the food hub, too? And how many partners were in that and projects were in those different proposals? Do you remember? A handful. A handful, yeah. And I guess I just – I want to bring to my colleagues' attention that I think that while they're wrapping up their funding, I think there really is a benefit to us finding – I mean, we're doing the farmer's market. That's really focused. We did the small farmers. That was really focused. We're doing the food hub. That was really focused. But doing Catalyst grants, these partnership food systems grants that provide opportunities for our local community organizations to work together to push education and advocacy and community engagement and capacity building for our food system is huge. And so I would love to see us find some funding to be able to do that because the community is waiting for that. They're seeing the food hub happening, and that's big. That's a big, like, meta kind of institutional food service level, right, getting our farmers to be able to provide food in those systems. And we have the farmer's markets helping our farmers really access new customers and new markets. But we don't have right now, with this wrapping up, is this kind of funding. The funding that's doing the education, the building of eaters, the building of people who are going to work in that industry, and doing the community capacity building and coordination of bringing people together so that they're not working in silos. Because what we're seeing in those dialogues in the community – and, Shelby, I guess, a question to you – is it with your work at the Food Systems Coalition and doing this? Like, do you see where there's additional needs for that expansion? Because, to me, that's what I see. I see all the work you've done, the work that the Food Systems Coalition is doing, and Grace Gross is doing, and Giving Garden, now Merge With You, is doing, and is building up all this possibility, but there's still a real gap in the resource availability to be able to fully build that out. So, I guess my request is that we ask staff to bring back, like, a Food Systems Partnership funding program that would continue to be able to support work like this in the future. Are you thinking in the current budget cycle or waiting until us to get past – doing this work so that once we get past November, we can look at it? I'm okay with waiting until November and seeing what – That's where I am. I'm fine with waiting until November just so that we know that we're safe. Yeah. You know, I don't want to wait until next budget year, but we can wait until mid-year adjustments when we know in November that things are good, and then – So, what would your direction be? And I'm talking, like, you know, $100,000 or so of funding to do a Community Food Systems Partnership Grant program where we would support nonprofit organizations or community-based organizations that are working in the food system and let staff kind of bring us back some recommendations on what that program would look like. Potential recommendations. Yeah, what that potential program would look like. Okay. We got a request. Do we hear a second? Second. Motion is second. So, this would be something not in the current budget year. Tommy is not here, but something that staff could be thinking about as a mid-year potential. Mo's here, though. Mo's here. Well, Mo's a no. I already got that. But when I said not this – Tommy always tells me it's no big deal. The other thing before – this isn't money, but the other thing that I want to bring up, and I think it's something that I would like to be able to direct staff, so a second part of that motion, is to direct staff to continue working with local entrepreneurs or at Santa Fe College and any other interested parties around the idea of a commercial kitchen incubator. We have some folks that are wanting to pick up the torch where working food left off with having that space available for entrepreneurs who are building food-based products to have space to do it on the hourly, and you just heard how impactful it can be. But I know that's not work that you all are continuing to move forward with, and so I'd like to make sure that we're keeping that conversation going and that they're bringing forward ideas to us if there are needs in the community for that kitchen incubator to happen. So we have a program like the industrial mechanics program with Santa Fe. If we could have a program like that for kitchen incubation and culinary – Second, are you okay with that? I second that, too. Yeah, so this is in Jessica's group, the economic development group, continuing that work. Yeah. So one is the funding for – or to bring back a program mid-year for a food systems partnership funding grant program, and then the second is to continue work on kitchen incubator partnerships for – Entrepreneurial. For entrepreneurial, yeah. Tommy, there he is. I heard his name. Any discussion? I just want to say, because one day you're going to see Mary's mustard on the show. Mary's mustard on the show. Yeah, I like that. All right, any public discussion to the motion? All right. Do you support this? I'll say, if it's – can I quickly respond? Yeah, I did. Commissioner Prezzi, I put a couple of questions in there. So the first being Working Food is only one organization in this work, and so, yes, I do think that there is a need for additional funding. I think that there needs to be more voices at the table to understand what that could potentially look like to be able to really fill that need. I also want to share that the reason that we were able to build success and bring on new funding was because of the multi-year funding that came with this. So I will just share that one-year funding almost never creates an established program that can stand on its own. We did a pilot before and then did two years of sustained programming. It changed a lot over those three years, and by year four, it was able to stand on its own. And so I know that that is a more in-depth ask, but I want to be really honest about the fact that the way that this works, especially with smaller, less-resourced community organizations, is a multi-year commitment. That's a good point, really good point, similar to the cap. When we move cap from the one-year annual, I call it the Hunger Games, to actually a three-year sustainable, let's try to change it, it really changed the game. Okay, anyone else wish to speak to the motion? Okay, back to the board. Any further discussion? I just want to know where the elderberries come from. I didn't even know elderberries grew down. Oh, they're everywhere. They're wild in our swamp. I need to know what they look like then, because I've been getting those products. They're really good. Okay, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is unanimous. Okay, shall we thank you? All right, we're going to move to the item pulled from consent, 12A. Is it 12A? Mr. Clerk, go ahead and announce it for me while I find it. 12A, the Alachua County Farmers Market Enhancement Grant Application. Okay, and Travis, if you're up next, the recommended action is to approve the Farmers Market Enhancement Grant Program, application materials, authorized staff to advertise the grant opportunity, conduct the application evaluation process, and return to the Board of County Commissioners in early fiscal year 27 with recommended grant recipients and funding recommendations for approval. Commissioner Prizio. Yeah, and I did want to move to approve the grant proposal, but I just wanted to make a small adjustment, and that is in the grant proposal, they have it as like a $100,000 grant program, which is the same as our small farms. It's just like migrating that funding over to farmers markets. But they have it capped at $12,500 an entity, which is like eight grants. I'm not, while I know we probably have that many farmers markets, I know we have that many farmers markets in Alachua County that qualify. I'm not sure that they'll pull it together to apply, and I want to make sure that we don't end up in a situation where we've got money left on the table or that we give an organization more money and they don't know what they're going to do with it. So I'd like to expand the grant application to have a floor of $10,000 and a ceiling of $20,000 and with a note that there'll be a sliding scale based on the number of qualified applications that come in. And so like CAP, they'll understand that, you know, they could get somewhere between $10,000 and $20,000 and hopefully they put together a $20,000 application so if we have enough funding, we can support them. And if we get eight qualified applications, well, then they might all get $12,500, but at least we've, like, set them up for success, you know, because I'd hate for us to have five really good applications that could have had $20,000 and then they only have all of them. Okay, so we've got a minor change. Minor change. Yep, with a second. Any discussion? Who would do the scoring on that? I think they have it set up. You have a score system? We do have a scoring system, Mr. Chair. I don't have individuals identified yet. I think it would be, we would pull that together before I bring the recommendations to the board. Okay, so what you're saying then, if there are only five that apply, then that amount of money would be divided amongst the five, all the five. Okay. Up to a cap of $20,000. We have eight farmers markets, so hopefully they'll all apply, but in the event that they don't, if someone applied. And they can get help with that application? Yep. It would all go, I'd be the point of contact for the grant program, so they would all come through me. I can assist them with any questions they have to fulfill what's needed in the application, and then I would not be in the evaluation committee once it goes to that phase. I think it makes sense. You know, you have, like, the one out of Tech City doesn't need shade, whereas another one might need shade, but they might need something different. So I think it gives some flexibility. It's a good change. All right, any further discussion? Okay, any public discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Thank you, Commissioner. All right, that moves us now. Mr. Clerk, are we back to the do-si-doe? Yes, sir, we're at the Facilities Management Master Space Plan. Can we go ahead and do the, if we can, do the public hearing, because I know the hospitals have been sitting here and they are not. Commissioner, does anybody object? All right, we're going to go ahead and do the hospital public hearing. Travis is continuously smiling over there. Travis has enjoyed spending his entire day with us. Yeah, so the recommended action is to conduct a public hearing, adopt the proposed amendments of Ordinance Number 2024-088, authorizing and levying a non-ad valorem special assessment on the participating hospitals to support the enhanced Medicaid payments. Hello, you are recognized. Mr. Chair, the item updates the Alachua County Local Provider Participation Fund Ordinance, which we adopted in 2024. This provides us a framework for non-ad valorem special assessments on certain hospital properties. The assessment is used to fund the non-federal share of Medicaid payments that benefit participating hospitals, providing services to Medicaid, low-income, and uninsured residents. The proposed revision provides greater flexibility for changes in federal Medicaid financing requirements and programs. In particular, the amendments recognize that CMS may approve health care tax waivers and that Medicaid funding may include the Directed Payment Program, as well as other supplemental or managed care quality incentive programs authorized by CMS. Staff recommends adoption of the amended ordinance to maintain Alachua County's Local Provider Participation Fund framework and provide the flexibility necessary to comply with evolving state and federal Medicaid requirements. I just have a quick question. Me too. Commissioner Halford and then Commissioner Prezzi. Okay. What does this look like on our budget? $65 million. It just is a pass-through? Right. From that perspective, it is $65 million. I wanted to say that out loud for the public because when we keep hearing that our budget keeps going up, they think that's all money that we have control over. This is yet another pass-through clause that shows up in our entire budget, but we don't even see it. It just changes the community, not the county budget. Yeah. And so I just want to make that point. Great point. Thank you. Very good point. It's not the billion-dollar budget that everybody says it is. $65 million and this is passing through to our hospitals to help. Along with so many other things. And we're going to look to see if we can present it differently with F&A. Okay. Thank you. We're working on that. Okay. Commissioner Prezzi. Yeah, my question was the administration of this. Like, how complicated and challenging is the administration of this? No. It's not. We write however many letters we have. Okay. They can talk about it. The first time we did it was four letters got sent out. The information comes as an invoice and then it gets paid. Okay. Just checking because I know our largest hospital is no longer participating. Right. And so I just wanted to make sure that it made sense for us. Not a person. We weren't bearing a large administration straight up early. Okay, great. Move to adopt the proposed amendments to Ordinance Number 2024-88, authorizing, levying, the non-av alarm special assessment on participating hospitals. Second. To support the Medicaid payments. To support the enhanced Medicaid payments. Yeah. All right. So we've got a motion and a second. Public. Let's hear from you. Thank you for your patience. I know we had some distinguished guests that had to leave. Share with us who they were and your thoughts on the motion. Through the honorable chair. Commissioners, we really appreciate it. We have a few systems here. They're very grateful for all that you're doing to support them. And as to the administration of that, there is a clause within the program that provides for it. And we continue to support county staff throughout the process. So that shouldn't be a problem. So thank you. Okay. Thank you for being here. And participating in our meeting today. All right. Anyone else? Back to the board. Any for discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion is unanimous. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. I've been waiting on Travis to give me some information. Last but not least. And I think we are now at the facilities, Mr. Clerk. All right. And the recommended action is to listen to Travis ask questions and hear the update. You are the most patient man of the day. Thank you, Travis. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, commissioners. I am going to present to you the master space plan, phase one, quarterly update. Remember, also included, I've kind of expanded it to all other projects that we have going on. So you guys have an update on kind of what your facilities management department is doing. That's what I say here. So we'll start with the actual master space plan. So the civil courthouse is the largest portion of that. We will be bringing a guaranteed maximum price to you all on the 25th from Ajax. You can kind of see some of the numbers there. It's been a minute to get to you guys. Mr. Crosby and I have negotiated that for almost, I believe, two months to get it to a number that we felt as good as we could get. And remember, that is a second amendment. The first one was for the early release package is why you see the cumulative guaranteed maximum price of $62 million. That includes the construction of the courthouse, any related site work that is with the courthouse itself, and the renovation of the existing fourth floor that we're going to be changing into judges' chambers. 22 months of construction. We have a tentative date of notice for receipt of 9-1-26. That's after August 25th. And then they'll start shortly thereafter. And then final completion of 10-20-2028. Okay. Big one. Big one. The energy plant, we're about 65% complete. We've got the building itself substantially dried in. Exterior yards, the finishes are underway. So they've got a CMU block up. They have to do the finishes on that. The pump skid and the ice tanks have been installed. They're working on the loop right now. So they're connecting basically all of the parts. So the skid with the tanks. And they're going to get it within five feet of where we're going to connect to the courthouse. And then we're also going to connect to the public defender's building itself. So we're going to... I saw that. I got you. Can I ask a quick question? Was the fourth floor renovation always part of this courthouse? It was. It was part... I would say that it probably came in somewhere midway when we're trying to find space. We developed the idea of, hey, if we renovate the fourth floor, we can move the judges' chambers over there. And it just gives us more space. But it's probably... It was in the 50% estimate. So we expect the energy plant to be done by November. And remember, once we get everything, all the infrastructure in place, I mean, it's not going to be operational until we get to courthouse. Some images, if you haven't been by there, that is actually where you can kind of see the tanks in there. And then the structure itself is where the pump skid is. And when I was there, these are kind of old. This is maybe a couple weeks ago. So getting some of the switchgear in there. Pump skids in. And they're making the loop connections now. You can see the condensing units outside. Again, just making connections. So they've made some good progress on that. Parking garage and the next part of that project. So footings are complete. They've got the elevator pit in. They're going to begin precast erection this week, hopefully. Or at least get on site. So they've got about a four-month timeline to put the parking garage together. And we expect somewhere November to be looking at final inspections. And then a CO or a certificate of occupancy in December. Travis, did we end up with any electric car charging stations? We have infrastructure in place. You have infrastructure in place? We do. I think we have five in place. Okay, great. Thank you. I wanted to show you guys kind of just what to expect as you're driving by. And you'll see kind of their process. And you can see 2nd Avenue is on the bottom portion. And kind of, you know, all those times I came up here and I talked about having to make way for a crane. It's kind of why you can kind of see the swing path. And you can see on the left side of this, you can kind of see where the pink area is. That's the energy plan. So it's going to be really tight by the time we get it all in there. They kind of work their way in, close it out, and then they'll get out. And then they'll leave. This is an image of the storm trap that we put in that is underneath the parking garage. It's pretty substantial in size. It is now being covered up, and that work is complete. And then you can see the footings. We've got a lot of those in place. I think all of them at this point in the elevator pit. All right. So moving from the courthouse to fire rescue headquarters and EOC, so the armory, we did receive our temporary CO. We are looking at, actually, we're moving some folks in there today, some of their stuff from their existing offices. They were walking, the architect was walking it yesterday for a substantial completion punch list. So they've already started working on some of that. I know this one's taken a while. They've got all the AV equipment installed, so hopefully we're going to have ribbon cutting in September. I was talking to Mark about it earlier, so we'll get some dates in front of you guys and then find some that work. We all need to go to that one, guys. It looks beautiful on the outside. I haven't seen it since you and I have it all up. I was there yesterday. Is that on the calendar? What is our estimated cost of that project? I want to say somewhere around 4.8. All right. Thank you. It's the exterior elevation, we have the building painted. It looks really good. We did get our emergency generator in. The neighbors say it looks a lot better. This is the actual emergency operations portion of it. Goodness, that is truly transformed. Oh, my goodness. I remember the superheroes. This is offices on the second floor. And, you know, before, I remember that was just handrail and open space. And then some additional offices. Did you guys design this? Did you, who designed it? Paul Strachsing designed it. Yes, ma'am. It's really very nice. Do you have any comments about the energy? And it struck me as not a very energy efficient building, but we did some things to it. We did. Can you talk about that? We did. Yes, ma'am. So, we replaced every window in there, which is probably the key to the entire thing. I also got pricing yesterday to shade all of them because, I mean, there's a lot of windows in this space. So, I think that's going to be a big key for us. Like the overhang or like? No, just actual shade. So, right now there's no window coverings on the interior. And I think we're going to need to do that. Yeah, when they. This is tinted glass. Oh, got you. But like with, you're kind of like actual shades. Yeah, actual shades. Because I think, I was hoping I had a picture in here that I could show you. But, well, you can kind of see the windows down on the image on the right side. You know, there's a lot of windows down, like the hallways. And, you know, sunny days, we're going to have a hard time keeping up. So, I want to make sure that we do our part. Do you know what the engineering, what am I trying to say, what did they assume when they did the air conditioning sizing and design? You're saying as far as? Yeah, in terms of, because when you do an air conditioning design, you assume a certain amount of shading on window coverings. Oh, yeah. So, that's why they tinted it. Yeah. So, that was their original plan. There was going to be no actual shading, not necessary. But, I mean, after getting it all in place, walking the site, I think it's important. Well, I think it'll be important for individual comfort, yeah. True that. Yeah. It might have could have lowered the tonnage slightly, but. Sure. Well, we also remember, we were going to reuse the two units that were overhanging. They were in this, you know, ceiling. That were already there, yeah. Yeah, but once we got them in and once we positioned them into the small space that we had, it didn't meet code because we didn't have enough space around them. And so, we, and also, I mean, the age of them. You know, by the time we got them positioned in that space, if we were going to, now would be the time to replace them. Or we're going to be doing it, you know, six to eight years from now. We're going to have a hard time. What did we do with them? The existing units. Hopefully, we recycled or resold them. Yeah, I want to say that, I want to say one of them sustained some damage when it was being lowered, which also drove us to make that decision. Would curtains, would curtains be less expensive? Yes, ma'am. That's what I was talking about. No. No, not in shades. You can do that. I have a terrible time with shades. We did a lot of them in the, I mean, speaking of tiny homes or the motels, I mean, we did a lot of those over there. Yeah. So, moving to the tiny home project, we are doing the site work right now, which included some work in, well, I mean, we call it a turn lane, but really, we're adjusting the median. And I'll show you some images of that. We issued notice to proceed in May. We expect to be complete in December. That's their contractual final completion date. I do believe they'll be done considerably sooner than that. Wow. So, they're about 50% done. They've got the retention basin in, and they were working on infrastructure last week when I was over there. So, that should get done pretty quickly. Wow, 29? That's awesome. That's for 29 units. So, that portion of the project, they're working on the scope right now. I'm not actually part of that, but I know that Ralston and some of my team members, they're working on, you know, putting together a scope that, you know, kind of captures everything that the board wants, you know, before we get it out. So, that should go out fairly soon, though. The median I was talking about on the left side, we had to extend that. So, before I believe that was a gore area where you could turn in, now we can't do that. Then you can kind of see some of the site structures, stormwater structures, and then the sanitary lines. Moving on to Sunrise Residence Inn, we completed the painting on both of those buildings. We did send that out through OpenGov. It came back. We vetted the contractor, and there were some missing components in their bid. So, we had to reject that, or they actually pulled it. So, we are revising that solicitation right now, now that we got it back, just to add a couple things, security cameras, additional ADA, things like that, so that when we get it back out there, we've pretty much covered everything that we want to cover. We don't want to have any misses. So, we expect that to go back out maybe end of this month, early part of September. But what it did kind of give us an idea of what a base estimate might look like as far as pricing was concerned. So, we saw about $85,000 a unit and about $400,000 in one-time cost. That's fire suppression for both buildings, those type things. Can you tell me how the security cameras are being managed? What does that look like? Yeah, so, right now, so, for these, they're going to be local systems handled by a lot of kind of housing authority. Housing authority, okay. Fire station 25, Tech City. We've gone through planning a zoning. We've got approvals where we needed all of that. The board exercised the option for the property back in July. You all did. We are required to close by December 31st of this year on that donation. As part of that document or the agreement to do that, we have to start construction by July 1st, 2027. That was earlier. We bumped that out a little bit. Leads to get passed through November. Just give us a little bit of breathing room there. We do have 100% documents, construction documents. And we expect to receive the guaranteed maximum price from Scorpio in a couple weeks. By the 25th, that is when we should receive it. So, these are the latest, greatest renderings that you can see. We have solar panels. You can't see here. But the awnings are solar panels. And we also have them on the roof. So, the facade is kind of meeting what is already out there. So, we have run this through Mr. Glaser and got his approval. Does this meet, you know, what you're doing? Landscape plan, building plan, all of that. Mr. Chair, is that the same design that we've used in Alachua? Yes, ma'am. Okay, that's it. For the most part, I'd say 85% of it is. Yes, ma'am. Okay. We'll tweak some. That makes it easier, doesn't it? Yeah. The one in Alachua improves off of the one by hail. And this one's going to improve off the one off of Alachua. Gotcha. And some of the things, when I was here last, we talked. And, you know, like this elevation was really plain. So, we added a few things down the side to kind of enhance it a little bit. But, y'all aren't really planting those trees and those bushes that close. No, no, no, no. Remember, just a render. We did run the landscape plan by them, though, to make sure that he was comfortable with it. Because, obviously, you know, what we do regarding irrigation and what they do are different. So, I wanted to make sure that the sustainable plants that we put in. Yeah, we don't do irrigation. We're not doing anything. We're not. So, what we plant is going to be different than what. Temporary. Yeah. We did add some windows. You can't really tell in this image, but on the, which will end up being the south side of the bay. So, you can kind of see we added some transom windows there to kind of break that up as well. Fire training facility hasn't really moved a ton since I was last here. We expect to have a survey completed by EDA in September. So, they're actually currently working on it now. We have gone through and Fire Rescue has looked at some options for the tower itself. So, we're going to have to put out a solicitation for that. So, hopefully, next month we'll have a nice plan that we can probably put together and bring it back to you all for review. Yep. Fire Station 23 renovations. It's a smaller project, but a project nonetheless. We are going to renovate some of 23, if you've ever been to 23, as one of our older stations. So, we're going to go in and reconfigure the lobby, replace some of the existing fixtures, that kind of thing. That's over by Archer Road? No, 23 is, so road, what's the road to the east of 98th there, that one. That's the one, that's the first group I rode with. Yeah, four-car, four-car. It needs some enhancement, so I'm going to replace some of the kitchen flooring, lighting, pictures, all of those types of things. That is one of my busiest stations. The bunk room, probably, is probably the most important for them, making it more individual. That's where our peak unit, I think, resides, right? It is, and we're going to start that. I think that is going into OpenGov next week or so. We just got the drawings back. I'm going to dig into the land conservation complex a little more in-depth today, because I don't know that we've gone over it in a lot of detail. So, we put it out. We received bids, nine total responses. Responses range between 5.7 and 6.9 million. I think that number was satisfying to us. It was a little better than I expected it to be. And we expect to have that in front of you all, the award, at the next meeting. I don't know what this is. This is over by the Three Creeks? The Land Conservation. Four Creeks Reserve. Four Creeks. Oh, okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah, so. 43rd. Gotcha. Yes. So, kind of this map, you can see left side of the map, 43rd Street, right side of the map, 441. And I think I put a star there. Yep. So, that portion where you see the star is going to be where the land conservation complex is as part of the trailhead for Four Creeks. They've only been waiting for 15 years. Oh, my goodness. Okay. So, the site map itself, 441, I'm sorry, 43rd will be on the left side of this image. There's a county office for the lands department. They have a shop that's connected to it. And then their operational stuff, nursery area, pole barn, that kind of thing. You see a stormwater basin to the far right, which will be on the back side of the property. A couple things I want to touch on, kind of some of the high impact things that you all might hear that we're out there doing. First thing is we're going to make some improvements on 43rd Street. And by improvements, we're going to have to make some adjustments to the markings on the roadway. We're going to build a turn lane coming in, heading northbound. And then you'll see a, you can see that marked out there area. We are doing a pedestrian beacon. And this is just the beacon in a little more detail. So, it's the one that goes across the entire nursery. To touch on landscape, just to kind of give you an idea, you know, obviously, there's a lot of pine trees on there now. So, we're going to have to go in there and remove those. But we have a really robust plan to replace. How big is the nursery area, Travis? 2,000 square feet. Not very big. No. And it's really a place, I think, for Lacey to store plants. The reason why I ask is, you know, big developers, when, like, like Tioga, when they're doing long-term projects, will buy a whole bunch of trees and will grow them up so that they don't have to pay for the big trees. And just, it's an opportunity. It's kind of similar to what we do, just on a smaller scale. Because I think a lot of this stuff is coming from what Lacey has been working on. Yeah. Okay. Cool. Thank you. The second half, I can fit it on one page there. This is across the street. We're going to have to go across 43rd to put in a force main for the sanitary. So, just to kind of make you aware, you can see the red line. That's where it's going to run on the north side of the street, which is 82nd Boulevard. It's going to be a big force main. It's going to tie, the connection is going to be right in the front yard. So, I bring that all up so you guys, if you hear about it, you know, what are they doing out there? We're connecting force main. Some elevation is not as pretty as tech cities. But west and east, so when you walk up to it, this is what you're going to see. Offices in the front. You can see the elevated portion in the back is the shop itself. It's the middle building. Yes, ma'am. And there's the south and north elevation. I think that concludes that portion. But we should be getting started on that pretty quickly. Once you guys get the award in front of you, we'll get started on that. So, that's not going to be endangered? It's not considered shovel? I mean, we've got shovels in the ground on that one? We're ready. We're ready. Okay, okay. So, we don't have to wait until November. That's coming to us at the next meeting? It'll be on the next meeting. Okay. If it doesn't make next, it will be on the 1st of September. Okay. We're waiting on one easement, I think, once we get that complete. Can I ask a technical question? Sure. So, you've kind of designed the building, but will the design be specific to whatever company is doing the middle building? Because the middle building is going to be somewhat proprietary. Yeah, so we worked through that. Actually, when we looked at the schedule of values, because we put a basis of design in there, and they brought an alternate. To save money? Yeah. They did. And Paul looked at it, and he's actually vetting it now, as we speak, to make sure that it meets. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Because they are. You're exactly right. Okay. And then, a lot of them are doing the same thing. And, I mean, some of them, they're all coming from the same place, but you have all these different distributors. Great. Are you able to say who it is, or not yet? We don't know yet. Who the manufacturer is? Yeah. I don't know off the top of my head. I don't remember. Thank you. So, moving to the Rural Collection Center. That's out in Newberry. So, we had a pre-app meeting with the city. EDA is submitting the plan this month. I saw they had some email traffic today. So, we should be getting that to them. We're talking about site utilities with them, because what Newberry is, we're going to get in there before Newberry completes their portion of the wastewater, and their site was going to include, you know, obviously, electric water, sanitary. We are going to their master stormwater basin. So, we're making some temporary decisions so that we can make sure that we can get our site ready, operational, by the time they get where they need to be. We have two structures on site, a 600-square-foot office building, and then a 480-square-foot donation reuse structure where folks can drop things off. It's a site layout. North side of this image is 337 Bronson Road. So, right as you get to the curve, this is going to be on the left side, and it's really just a large loop with a lot of, you know, you can see, it's hard to see on here, but there's, you know, dumpster locations, 20-foot dumpster locations. Buildings in the center. Who's building that? We haven't put that out yet. So, right now, we're kind of looking at a couple things. Depending on the building size and whether they can do it, I wanted to put one of the prefab concrete structures out there, and we don't, you know, maintenance, we don't have to worry about any of those things. But the size of these buildings is, could be tough. So, yeah, I've got them out there right now to see who can do it, and what's the cost look like. Does it make more sense to go site build, or can we get one of those delivered? With those, you go in there, you put the infrastructure in, build the pad, they come. Is it like tilt-up? It could be tilt-up. Some of them are prefab, and by building it 12 feet, you can go on a travel lane, so you can drop them in. Okay. Pharmacy renovation construction is, I don't know why I put it approximately, it is 100% complete. We have turned that over to Premise Health and Walgreens. They have assumed control of that, so they're working on cable installation, pharmacy stocking, staff training, et cetera, with a target go-live date of 10-1-2013. Hallelujah. Been working on that a while. That's a big one. Move on. For a clinic. Just some interiors. It's hard because I didn't add any photos of what it looked like before. But it does, you can kind of tell that it is pharmacy-ready. It's a full-size pharmacy. And last but not least, our preservation projects. So it doesn't meet a really grand scale, but we had a total of 63 projects somewhere in the range. I can't remember what the number was. Maybe 6.8 million. We have 46 that are closed and or in project closeout, meaning we'll have the project complete, invoicing in, and paid out by the end of fiscal year 26. We have 18 that are going to carry forward. Some of those probably, they're going to be multi-year projects, jail doors. Three of those 18 are jail doors. That is going to go maybe on the next agenda for approval. So we've got through the solicitation. And remember the- It was on this. It might have been on this one. It was on this agenda. All right. That's great. So what we'll do is we'll get that started. And again, that is going to be replacing a door, then another door. So that is going to be a multi-year endeavor for that. Chiller rehabs at the courthouse. We were replacing a chiller at the sheriff's office that a lot of this stuff just is dependent on lead times. I have a switch here that's for the CCC that I ordered end of September 25. And I just finally got an update that we were going to have a ship date of 10-5, 26. A year. So a year. And then start asking the questions of what were the alternatives? Could we have done something different? And then we go back and look at all the lead times in there. They're all similar to that. So we're having a hard time a little bit with that. But I believe that concludes our presentation. All right. Great update. Commissioner, any questions for Travis? Any comments? I kept asking him. But thank you so much for the very, very thorough. And it's really great. You always know the answers. You're really nice. It is. It's great. You know, a lot of people are like, well, I'll get back to you, which is also fine. But it's really cool. You always know when you know all the things. So thank you for being diligent. Okay, my friend. Thank you. Appreciate all your work on that. And that leads us, Commissioner, I think, Ms. Clerk, is that all of our items? I think so. All right. We're going to now open up for public comment. Anyone that wishes to speak to this board, this would be your time. Come on up. Introduce yourself. And give us your thoughts. Welcome. Hello. It's been an interesting day. That was Jay, right? That we were just on Jay, the public facilities? No, ma'am. No, we were just doing the facilities presentation. That was H1. Okay. We bounced around. Okay. We bounced around. Okay. So the main thing, I came to speak about something else. But the main thing, it's overall always going to be the same thing for me. I shouldn't be having to campaign on all this other stuff. But the most important thing, I know a lot of you are happy about the development, but those of us at Team Lorax are not. Because if we look at what just happened with the city telling us that 521 old growth trees of habitat for endangered species was okay to destroy for the new fire station without even having a town hall, I will, again, always say to the county, thank you, thank you, thank you. Because you allow us to come and speak. And you actually put notices. And, you know, sometimes you allow us to speak. And that is just sickening what happened. And at this point, a lot of us that are on Team Lorax, you know, are the earth keepers. We are concerned about this constant building. I mean, somebody might like those new buildings, but I don't see one tree. I hear we're going to cut down more longleaf pines. We're going to cut down more majestic oaks. And then we're going to plant them. Well, I just want to be mindful, and I know Mary Helen knows this, you cannot replant an old growth forest. You cannot replant endangered species. You cannot replant certain sacred plant life. So I would like you to think about this, as I know Commissioner Cornell has spoke about the climate refugees and people coming here. But really, let's think about this. We also have Graham Woods, that some of you are well aware of what we're facing with this. So, you know, I just want to really think about this little bit of life that is left. And not just life, why get window covers when we had trees, you know? So maybe less windows, maybe more trees, and just really thinking about those things. And I don't know if we're coming up to the Tara, but Tara needs to be stopped. He needs to be stopped. Because I just saw another area that I didn't even know he had developed kind of behind the 53rd. He needs to be stopped. Because I don't know when we are going to say enough Zionist capitalists, you know, that are ruining the land and just stop this corporate development and give more to, like, putting things into land trust. And I know I might be one of the ones here, along with Mary Helen and other people that care. But, you know, the earth keepers, one day people are going to realize they cannot eat money. And that's going to be it. And that's, I didn't say that, but an elder long before we were born said that. And we really need to look at these things. Because right now, you're well aware of what's going on in Post Springs. You're well aware of what's going on with Phase 3. So please think about that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else? All right. We'll move on to county attorney comments. Do you have anything, Sylvia? No, sir. County manager comments. Michelle, do you have anything? Actually, yes, I do. Hold on. Let me pull it up. We recently had a grant that was due prior to being able to bring it to the board as far as the application. And there is authority for us to sign those applications if we can't get it in in time. This application was for a $500,000 grant, the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention grant program in the amount of $500,000, which requires no county match. We will find out about the award in, I believe it's September, whether we would get that award. But it supports community-based organizations and local governments for suicide prevention initiatives that connect unaffiliated veterans with life-saving resources and improve access to VA health care. And so when we do that, I don't know that it needs a vote. I know I'm required to bring it to your attention. We can ratify it if that's – it would have to come back to you to accept an award. I think it's fine. Okay, so I'm just letting you know we've applied. Sounds good to me, yeah, get money. Is that all? That's it. Okay, thank you. All right, we'll move to commission comment. Mary, you have anything? I do. So I've been taking the time to drive around and look at some of the roads that residents are complaining about, and I installed a dash cam on my car so that I can actually record them, and I – yeah, I know we're talking about it on Thursday, but I have a suggestion that I think we might want to consider in advance of that. Citizen made the point to me that we have school buses now on a lot of these roads that have real serious pothole issues. I feel like we need to maybe talk to the school board and make sure there's a mechanism for school bus drivers to report things that may be endangering to the school bus drivers and students on those buses. I, you know, I think that's just a call to the school board and setting up a mechanism to make sure that they have a way to do that. Michelle, can you handle that? Can you call the superintendent and ask her if there's a mechanism for the school bus drivers to report in any unsafe roads that they're – Yeah, we can do that or Ramon can reach out to their staff, to their transportation, public works folks to do that. Yeah, I just want to make sure it's super, super easy for a school bus driver to do that and for us to prioritize those because I feel like this time right now – because I saw some pretty bad potholes on roads that are well-traveled by school buses, and I just want to – I just felt like that's something that we could – we should work on. Okay. Good suggestion. We'll have Ramon contact the school and set them up. Yeah. Anybody object to that? Okay. And then I was going to talk about that, but you already got it. Okay. So – what's that? Oh, oh. So I'm on the canvassing board with the judge that started this coffee with the court. No, it's Miller Jones. And it's – so they're going to be talking about sentencing, and the interesting thing about this is so when I went on – after the NACO conference, I drove to Hollywood and saw the Represent Justice films that two Gainesville residents produced, which was really, really cool. And one of them is actually about sentencing and is going to be shown right after this. So why don't you announce – or right before this, right before this in September. So I feel like if you can go to see both of them, it would be an opportunity to talk with the judges about what you see in the films that the folks that have been just as impacted have produced. So I think this is a really great thing, and I also think that that film festival, which is – I don't have the date in front of me, but is in September at Hartwood, actually has – Well, that's October 7th, though, right? Yeah. So this is after the film, so you will have a chance to see the film and then talk about that. So my – so actually, Judge Ferraro is actually in one of the films. Okay, cool. I think so. Yeah. That's interesting. Okay, thank you. Anything else? Nope, that's all I got right now. Anna, you have anything? I do. I just wanted to quickly chat with you all and ideally refer to staff, if everyone's okay with this, that for our Environmental Protection Department to work in coordination, I'm EPD-led, but work in coordination with Parks and Rec and our Springs Institute and anybody else who's a relevant stakeholder on exploring if we need to set carrying capacity limits or lower carrying capacity limits for Post Springs. I'm just – I mean, right now it's closed, so I think it's an ideal time for us to start exploring that and to kind of be thinking about, you know, what that spring might need for recovery once it bounces back and ongoing what it needs to protect that natural resource. I know it's a park and it's an important recreation space for a cost-effective place for people to get out of the heat and enjoy our natural resources, but it's also a really important water body and I just want to make sure that we're protecting it. So I just like to refer that to staff and ask them to bring back recommendations. That's my motion. Second. Motion is second to refer to staff carrying capacity for Post Springs. Been in the news a lot lately. Thank you, Commissioner. Any discussion? Any other recovery recommendations they have? Sure. Sure. All right, back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you. Is that it? Yes. Got anything? Mary Helen, you got anything? Just that they got 83 plus animals adopted out. That's all. Yay! At the big event Saturday. That's all. That's great. Yeah. I only have one item. Commissioners, yesterday at the Children's Trust meeting, I'd like to give you all a little update. We moved to terminate the relationship with the Boys Club. We had 109 applications and they're going to process 19 of them. So we have a termination clause in there. Won't affect this year, but it will affect next year's funding cycle. And we're looking to place those kids that are affected into other organizations that have capacity. And so the trust did that. More importantly, we got an update on the partner meeting on July 15th about the Alatra County Reads, Building Literacy. I've got a copy of that presentation in y'all's boxes so you have it. I did ask what are the four elementary schools that have committed and was told we got Rollins, Lake Forest, Williams, and Metcalfe, which are all good ones. And I wanted to share with you that because I remember I asked that question during the joint meeting. Would you go back to the information about the Boys and Girls Club? Is it the Boys and Girls Club? Yeah. So the Girls Club on 39th is good. Boys and Girls Club by Buchholz. That's right. So they've discontinued? So we have two contracts with them, a summer contract that just ended, and then we have an after-school contract. The after-school contract will continue to the end of this year, but we're going to for the next cycle, which will be October 1st through September 30th, we're going to try to replace those kids in the different after-school. Well, this is what I'm trying to understand. What is the status of the Boys and Girls Club? Because I know at one point that we're talking about selling the thing. Yeah, so there was actually a demand letter sent by Doug Johnson. Have you all seen that? No. Okay, that was shared with us. I'll get a copy and put it in your box. What I learned from that demand letter is actually their marketing, I think for sale, nine acres, but apparently they only own or were only transferred 1.6 of them. So I'll get a copy of that letter and put it in your box. It was given to us at the Children's Trust yesterday. Okay, so I'm still trying to understand. Does that mean that the whole place then is going to be shut down? No, no, no. Just a contract with the Children's Trust for after-school. Okay. But it's not in danger of being sold out through the Jacksonville people? It is in danger of being sold out and then marketing it to sell it. Are we involved in that at all? The county's not. The city? The city's not. Nobody? Oh goodness. No. Well, we have a statement that I objected to that. A personal letter. Right. Last year that's been in the news. And Doug Johnson made a demand in the letter that I'll leave in your boxes. But that's the update that I have. I don't have any other update. That's too bad. Yeah. yeah yeah Doug's actually asking that they give it back to the Alachua County Alachua County Boys Club group because I'm sure there was never understanding that that once they join forces with them that it would yeah in fact it was part of the it was part of the gift that they that they not leave and that they reinvest their resources back into the community do you know what they've got legal counsel at all he does have legal counsel okay that's who wrote the letter okay okay thank you okay anything else we will see you all on Thursday we've got a big discussion on budget tomorrow's meeting with the MPO what are we doing we're not it's not a meeting that's a no it's a it's an ongoing thing but are we coming or not some folks are signed up I'm not able to do that okay all right okay I just wondered how many of us signed up yeah me too great program okay anything else that we need to I just hated not to support our new all right we are adjourned