Regular Meeting @ 11:30 a.m. - Dec 09, 2025

Okay, good afternoon. I'd like to go ahead and call this meeting to order, but really before we get started on our business for the day, we have an invocation from Pastor Azio Patti, I believe, with the Gainesville Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church. Pastor, welcome. Thank you for being here. And then we'll do a quick moment of silence after the prayer. If you could please stay standing. Let us pray. Dear Father in Heaven, as we gather for this final Board of Commissioners session of the year, we pause to acknowledge your presence and to thank you for your sustaining grace throughout the months behind us. In this season, when we reflect, celebrate, and seek hope, we ask that your Spirit guide us today. Lord, bless each of our commissioners today. Grant them clarity of mind, humility of heart, and wisdom that reflects your justice and compassion. Bless their families as well. Grant them strength, health, and peace as they support those who call to the leadership. We pray for the entire community of Alasha County. Bless our homes, our neighborhoods, and every individual who calls this county their own. We remember especially our children and youth. Protect them, inspire them, and help them grow in character and purpose. We ask for your healing hand over those who are sick, your comfort for the grieving, and your presence with those who face loneliness or hardship. Lord, we lift up those who are incarcerated. Remind them that they are not forgotten by you. We pray for the homeless, the struggling, and all who are vulnerable. May they find shelter, dignity, support, and hope. Lord, strengthen the hands of those who work daily to serve and uplift these members of our community. As we look toward a new year, grant us renewed dedication to the work of justice, mercy, and service. May every decision made today be guided by your wisdom and bring blessing to all. We place this meeting in your hands. Lead us, unite us, and let your peace rest upon this board and our county. In the precious name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Thank you, Pastor. If you could all just remain standing, I want to do a quick moment of silence. We had, in the last month, three special folks pass away. Mr. Walter Ellis Wilson, Jr. He was from Lake Butler. He worked in our public works department, road and bridge. He was an equipment operator, too. He was hired on January 1st of 2020. He passed on November 29th of this year. He was 57. The county staff called him Walt, and I believe his son might be here. Robert, thank you for being here, Robert. Tyler Shane Norris from Stark, Florida. He was in our facilities department. He was a building mechanic. He was on the maintenance team. He was stationed at the jail for some time, and he worked downtown. He was hired on April 7th of 2025, and he passed on November 30th of this year. Tyler was 34. And finally, we have a very special man, Leroy Cleveland, Cleve Tuck III. He was the wife of Claudia Tuck. I'm sorry. Claudia was the wife of Leroy, and he was the husband of, thank you, of Claudia Tuck, who is the director of our community support services. Cleve passed on November 16th, 2025. He was 75. He was 75. If you all will please bow your heads and just take a few seconds to celebrate a moment of silence for Walter, Walt, Tyler, and Cleve. Thank you so much. Please join me in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of Liberty. Okay, thank you all. So I will now officially go ahead and call this meeting to order. Before we get started with the approval of the regular and the consent agenda, commissioners or Madam Manager, are there any items that need to be pulled from consent? Yes. We are requesting that the item on, I'm looking up the number, on procurement, the request to advertise on the upcoming procurement code be pulled for discussion. Staff is prepared to have that discussion with the board. And I believe that was it at this point. All right, commissioners, any other items? Sorry, I'm really interested. So we're going to make 9A item M1. Yeah, I just wanted to mention under item 11A, we don't need to pull it, but if I could ask for, if everyone is okay with this, it is the schedule of fees for the sports and event center. And I just noticed that the fee for food trucks and the fee, application fee for caterer vendors was pretty high. And I spoke with Jessica Kirov about it. She was okay with us reducing that. So I would ask that we approve that with the amendment that it be reduced to 10% for food trucks and a $50 application fee for the caterers and vendors. So is your motion to adopt the agenda? Motion is to adopt the agenda with the movement of item 9A to the regular agenda and item 11A being amended to reduce the food truck fee to 10% and the application fees to 50. Do I hear a second? Second. Got a motion. We have two seconds. Got a good chance of passing, Commissioner. Any other discussions? Anyone from the public wishes to speak to the motion? Mr. Blunt, come forward. Welcome. Good morning. I want to mention something on item 2A, and housing folks don't have a heart attack. I don't want to miss a chance to urge, to admonish, to demand. Y'all codify a set time to reevaluate what you have put in place with inclusionary zoning or affordable housing. You will remember that the voluntary sets we had for over 20 years got almost zero. Don't let it be 20 years again to decide if it's working. Codify what length of time, three years, five years, whatever, to decide if it's working and if it needs modifying. Thank you. Appreciate that comment, and I think our staff is moving quickly because that is on our discussion for this afternoon. All right, any other comments? Back to the board, any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay, Madam Clerk, we have an agenda. Right now, an announcement by Mark Sexton. Mr. Sexton, welcome. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mark Sexton, Communications Director. Mr. Chair, you know it's holiday time when we're announcing the release of our 2026 Save Our Alachua calendar. This is one of our favorite processes of the year, both the gathering the artwork, selecting it, and celebrating this. Not only is the calendar itself, you know, the work in the calendar itself works of art, but the calendar is a work of art. And Takumi Sullivan, who I demanded be here for this, is the one who is the creative force behind this, working very closely with EPD staff, who do an incredible job putting this together. The calendar contest has been tremendously successful this year. We had the largest number of submissions in the history of the contest this year, 639 submissions from 29 Alachua County schools. So we're very happy about that. We have calendars available right here, so anyone in the room who would like one, they can grab one. You can also go by, you know, over a dozen different locations in the community to get them, including the libraries, the tourism office, the county tourism office at 33 North Main Street, along with a lot of other places. So we just wanted to take a moment and congratulate EPD staff, congratulate Takumi on her amazing work for this great calendar this year. Congratulations. And then, Mr. Chair, a couple of weeks ago, on a Saturday, we celebrated the Climate Fest, which was a celebration of your adoption of the Climate Action Plan. An enormous amount of work went into this, both in getting to where you all approved the plan and the festival itself. So we wanted to share a little bit about the festival with you. On November 4th, 2025, the Alachua County Commission officially accepted the county's Climate Action Plan. On November 15th, the Climate Festival celebrating the plan was held at the UF-IFAS Extension Office in Newberry. We're here today to celebrate the milestone of completion and acceptance of the Climate Action Plan for Alachua County. Something humans are pretty good at is solving hard problems once we focus on them. We haven't really focused on them yet. Some of you have in this room. We recognize that with climate, our community and our county must build resilience and sustainability into the future. And so this plan actually is going to help put many of the strategies and actions in place. It's a good visioning tool to make sure that our actions and the programming we have in place and what the community is working on is also moving us forward to address our climate challenges. To guide, develop, and cultivate environmentally, socially, and economically resilient strategies and solutions to climate change for the whole community. The festival included panel discussions, exhibitors, food trucks, a performance by the Star Center Theater Youth, and a ceremonial tree planting. People are talking a lot about how they can make easy changes in their lives, like more energy efficiency upgrades to their homes, making small adjustments to their thermostats, thinking about the ways in which we protect and conserve our natural resources. We have to understand that our land connects us to everything else because when we get rid of our land, what do we, our agricultural land, what do we replace it with? We usually replace it with development. This is important work, and we are ahead of the curve in a lot of ways here in Florida, that we are actually leading the charge in addressing concerns of what the climate is going to be doing to our state and to our community. The plan, developed in response to the 2024 Climate Vulnerability Assessment, represents an important milestone reflecting the community's commitment to safeguarding the environment for this and future generations. We have 184 action items identified in the climate action plan across topical areas and chapters ranging from agriculture and food systems, to energy efficiency and security, to heat and health, to water resources, to flooding and infrastructure. It's a huge task to implement all of these strategies, but the next step is taking this written document and turning it into a living action document. I think the magnitude of the challenge to put together such a document was a little bit more than we anticipated. And that's why, you know, working with the community, I think making sure we heard the community's needs first and made that a focal point of the plan was a key component to us getting this done. The priorities that you are telling your elected officials are being heard, and the commissioners before us started it, and the commissioners after us will continue it, because that's what our community values. values. A big part of that is also leading into the resources that you have in your town. If you have community advisory boards, trust them to make the decision that they are making. I cannot tell you how thankful I am for the amazing staff that we have in Alachua County. They have worked with our citizens, worked with our community groups to come up with a plan that I think works for everybody, and will have an amazing impact going forward. It is really, really hard to change the world, and it's even harder to do it in a hurry. So we're going to need political change. We're going to need behavioral change. We're going to need technological change. I really hope that the rest of the world will follow your lead. Mr. Chair, those are the announcements. That's good work, Mr. Sexton. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Mark, who did the logo for that? It's really a beautiful piece. I've not seen. I don't know. Was that Takumi? Did you do the... I think it's our amazing intern. Wait over there in the corner. Jennifer? All right. Great job. I'm glad I know now. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Okay. All right. Let's moving on to the next item, which is a presentation of a proclamation recognizing December 18th as Matthew Louie Day in Alachua County and Commissioner Chestnut. I see we have a special guest with us today. Mr. Chair, first, we need approval. Move approval of the recognition. Second. Got a motion and a second to approve the recognitions. Any discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Thank you, Madam Clerk. You keep me in line all day. We've got a big agenda here today, so please continue. Declaring December 18th, 2025 as Matthew Louie Day in Alachua County, Florida. Whereas Matthew Louie was born during slavery December 18th, 1848 in Baltimore, Maryland. And whereas in 1863 during the Civil War, he enlisted in the Union Army, joining the 55th Infantry Regiment, and later became a militia officer. And whereas he graduated with distinction from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and went on to attend Howard University Law School. And whereas Matthew Louie represented Alachua County in the House of Representatives in 1882, serving on the Finance, Judicial, and Educational Committee. And whereas he married Bessie K. Chestnut in 1883 and earlier served as postmaster of Noonansville, present-day Alachua. From February 19th, 1874 to February the 6th of 1875, and whereas he has served as mayor of Noonansville from 1875 to 1877, and with fellow activists helped establish the Florida First Biracial Independent Party. And whereas in 1887, he launched the Gainesville Sentinel, later moving to Pensacola in 1894, where his newspaper became the Florida Sentinel and was recognized among the top 10 black-owned newspapers in the United States. And whereas Matthew Louie was named President of the National Negro Press, served as a principal of the Union Academy in 1881, and served as the Justice of the Peace for 1875 to 1876 in Noonansville. And whereas he established a law practice in Gainesville in 1881, and later led the successful Pensacola streetcar boycott of 1905. And whereas he later moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and his final resting place is at Mount Pleasant United Methodist Church Cemetery in Gainesville, Florida. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim December 18th, 2025, as Matthew Louie Day in Alachua County, duly proclaim this ninth day of December A.D., and signed by our Chair, Ken Cornell, and attested to by our Clerk, Jess Irby, as the Clerk. We would like to make the comments, but please step forward, and I present this proclamation to you all. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Chestnut. Thank you, Commission. This is our second year. We appreciate you all recognizing Matthew Louie and the great work that he did. I could have gone on, but you're only two pages, even printed big. I want to recognize Commissioner Chestnut. This is the first time that we have the evidence to show that he is a descendant of Matthew Louie. He never wanted to claim it until we could make sure that he did, because that's just the kind of person he is. So, thank you so much for allowing us to recognize your relative, like, uncle, granddaddy, whatever. And I also want to encourage you all, during your 200th year celebration, we were able to set up some information a couple times during your events. We have the 250th national celebration coming up, and I certainly hope that Matthew Louie, again, will be a part of what Alachua County presents as its history. We don't have to wait for the state to tell us we can educate our community. We can do it ourselves. So, I look forward to working with you and your staff to make sure that Matthew Louie and other heroes of our community are recognized. Thank you. Thank you, Nekwanda. Commissioner? Good morning. Or is it afternoon? Good morning. Chair Cornello, Commissioner Chestnut, to all of the commissioners, city attorney, city manager, and staff, This is such an honor. Thank you so much for all that you do to support us. As the chair of the Alachua-Newtonansville subcommittee, with all of these people, there's much. And I say to each of you, the best is yet to come. Get a quick picture, Chuck? Let's get a quick picture. Okay, thank you all so much. Okay, Madam Clerk, next item. To bring us to board and committee items, Alachua County Land Conservation Board appointments. Okay, so, Commissioner, I think let's go ahead and see if any of the applicants are here today. If so, if you could come forward, introduce yourself, give us a few thoughts, and then we're going to go ahead and have a little election here. Good morning, Mr. Chair, members of the commission. My name is Tom Myrty. I've previously served on the Land Conservation Board, and I'm here for a reappointment. I've been an Alachua County resident for 35-plus years. Also worked with both water management districts dealing with Alachua County. I think you've got my resume, so I don't need to go into that, but I feel I bring a strong water resource-focused experience to the board based on my past experience, and I've also got land management experience, and I'd love to be able to continue serving as a representative. Thanks, Tom. Thank you. Okay. Take care. Come forward. Hey, Paul. What's that? Hey, I'm Paul Lyrene. I'm a plant person, and my interest in land conservation in Alachua County started with my job as a blueberry breeder at the University of Florida. I usually think of blueberries as a northern crop from Maine and Michigan and places like that. The crop was first domesticated in the north about 1900, but the varieties that were developed there when planted in Florida didn't do because it wasn't cold enough in the winter to satisfy their chilling requirement. So in 1948, a professor, Ralph Sharp at the University of Florida, decided that he was going to try to domesticate the blueberries that were native in Alachua County, which are well-adapted to the climate here. And so he started this breeding program. He picked out the best plants from the forest. It started a process we call recurrent selection, where you make crosses, choose the best seedlings, use them as parents, make crosses again. And about the time he retired, he released his first three varieties, and that's when I inherited his job in 1977. And the varieties were successful. They produced very high-quality fruit, and the berries sold at very high prices, but they were hard to grow, and they didn't have any post-harvest life, so you couldn't pick them and ship them as a fresh berry. It didn't last very long. So I spent the first couple of years when I was here out in the forest, mostly Container Corporation of America, had a lot of land up by the Gator National Racetrack that had wild blueberries on it. And I picked out 10 of the best plants there during the fruiting season to use in my breeding program, and I crossed sometimes the northern ones and with the Ralph Sharp varieties, and continued for the next 50 years during this process of recurrent selection. And we ended up with blueberry varieties that could be grown throughout the peninsula of Florida, and started to ripen in March. So we added basically two months to the fresh harvest season of blueberries. But what happened to that then is that these were the first blueberry varieties in the world that could be grown in subtropical areas where there wasn't really any winter to speak of. They were then taken to Peru and Australia and to southeast China and to many other... Morocco is a major producer now. So Florida now produces 1% of the blueberries from the varieties we developed. The other 99% comes from other parts of the world. But at least it did a good thing for the consumers of the... So the... In 1970, when Ralph Sharp started his program, the world blueberry production was 2 million pounds or 20 million pounds per year of fresh blueberries. Now it's 2 billion pounds a year, and more than half of this production comes from plants whose grandparents came from Alachua County. So it's like a success story. But the bottom line here, the most important thing is that there... The southeastern U.S. was never an agricultural area. People were hunters and gatherers mostly. The only crops that were grown here 10,000 years ago, 5,000 years ago, were from Mexico and Honduras, like corn and beans and squash. They're all from Central South America or Mexico and Central America. And so the domestication of crops or the development of crops always goes along with agriculture because the farmers are the people who really domesticate the local flora. The bottom line is that most of the plants that are native in Alachua County have never been examined for their potential as crop plants, either medicine plants or food plants. We've got grapes and we've got pawpaws. We've got persimmons. There's a whole long list of things in the forest here that occur, many of them only here, that are important. And during my 50 years here working on blueberries, I've seen plants disappearing throughout Alachua County. They're just no longer available. If I want to go collect wild blueberries to use in breeding, there are very few places now where I can go and find them. So the bottom line is I think this is a really important project, and that's why I'm interested in being on the board. Thank you, Paul. Thank you for that information. Next speaker, please. Madam Clerk. I have a question. Oh, okay. Before. Hello. My name is Casey Harris, and I'm an environmental scientist with previous work experience in freshwater water quality and water availability in Florida, as well as ecological survey experience in several parts of the U.S. and I think land conservation, wise land conservation is probably one of the most important environmental protection measures we have, and I'd like to lend any expertise I can to the process, and I appreciate everyone else who is doing the same. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Harris. Next speaker. Good morning. Good morning. My name is Donald Forgione, and I want to thank you very much for considering for the Land Conservation Board. I spent over 30 years with the Florida Park Service, ultimately serving as the director. Unfortunately, that position's in Tallahassee. But I also worked my way up and have hands-on experience. I served as a district manager in north central Florida, which includes Alachua County, and I was also the park manager of Payne's Prairie Preserve State Park. These roles gave me a deep understanding of ecosystems, landscape, and conservation priorities unique to our county. Throughout my career, I've been responsible for identifying, assessing, and purchasing, managing conservation lands all across Florida. My work has included Florida Forever acquisitions, habitat restorations, natural resource management, and all sorts of collaborations with nonprofit groups to acquire these properties. I believe strongly in transparency, collaboration, and the wise use of tax-fated dollars to protect our natural and cultural resources that define our county. Alachua County's conservation program is admired all throughout Florida, and I would be honored and welcome the opportunity to contribute my experience and passion to its future success. Thank you, Donald. Thank you very much for what you do for our community. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay, we've got some amazing applicants. I think, Madam Clerk, let's start with the natural resource professional to pick our top candidate, and then we'll move down to the citizen at large. Okay, so I'll call on each commissioner for your vote. We have Tom Murty, Nicholas Filiano, Casey Harris, and Donald Forgione. Sorry if I missed up your name. Commissioner Prezia, can I start with you? Tom Murty. Commissioner Wheeler. Donald Forgione. Commissioner Chestnut. Murty. Commissioner Alford. Donald Forgione. Oh, you would do that to me. And Chair Cornell. Welcome to the chair seat. From Commissioner Alford. I'm going to go with Tom Murty. I move Tom Murty for the position of natural resource professional with a term ending 9-30-2028. I motion a second. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Seeing none back to the board, all those in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed, that motion is unanimous. Okay, next one. I did want to say we had some amazing folks applying. That was just really awesome, qualified folks that were applying for this. We do have a few other boards. Let's do this. Yeah, we have other boards. Okay, next we have the citizen at large vacancy. We have Paul Lirene, Julie Boker, Nicholas Filiano, Casey Harris, and Donald Forgione. Let's start with Commissioner Wheeler. Casey Harris. Commissioner Alford. Paul Lirene. Commissioner Chestnut. Lirene. Commissioner Prezio. Dr. Lirene. And Chair Cornell. Donald Forgione. Move Paul Lirene for the citizen at large position appointed to a term ending 9-30-2028. Second. Got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you all. If you were not selected, please continue to attend. And thank you for applying. Okay. I think, Madam Clerk, we are at the 12 o'clock hour, so we have two opportunities for the public to speak to us about anything not on the agenda. This is the first opportunity. If you could come up, introduce yourself. Green gives you three minutes. Yellow means 30 seconds left. And red, if you could wrap up your comments by then, that'd be great. And Mr. Blount, you're recognized. I'm Kali Blount, and I'm the vocalist of the Jazz Bandits. So I'm here to invite you tomorrow at Baby J's at 8 o'clock for a jazz show. And if you can't make that one, next week, Friday the 19th at 6 o'clock at First Magnitude. And I would point out that the program at First Magnitude is free, no cover charge, and plenty of free parking. So I hope you can make it. And we promise to make it a fun time. Nothing will be politicized. My band won't let me sing the ballroom song. So if you want to hear the ballroom song, you'll have to come and see me personally. But since I went there, I will point out, I will want to ask if any of you are going to attend the Constitutional Convention when it's held in the ballroom at the White House. Interesting. Thank you, Kali. Okay, next speaker, please. Hello. My name is Tara. I met you guys before from the Embassy Event Hall in Waldo. I promise today I'm not going to be as emotional as I was last time. I want to again, you know, it was just a trying time for me when I have invested so much in my business. I just had a lot of emotion, and I want to again not apologize, because y'all say I don't have to apologize, but it just was a lot at that particular time when I had just given up everything and moved to Waldo, and I just felt like things wasn't right. But I just want to let you guys know, since then, Kim and I have talked. One of the county commissioners, Monique, reached out to me. We're all on the same page. She lets me know anything I need, you know, to get with her. But it just was scary, you know, when I invested all my time to move to Waldo and felt like, you know, I wasn't being supported. But since then, everything is good. I just wanted to come here and bring out some good news, okay? So that's that part. And also, I'm having a free Christmas party. I'm like him. December the 20th, it is free, because business had been picking up. I took some pointers, invested in my business like I should with marketing. So December the 20th at 8 o'clock, free Christmas party at the Embassy Event Hall in Waldo. So please come out. Now, be going by 10, because we turn up at the 10. So FYI, I warn you, okay? So that was that. Like I said, again, I want to shout out Kim, the city manager, for reaching out to me. We had a sit-down talk, and thank y'all. I want to let y'all know she did step in and take care and make me feel like I was supported. So that's that. To Ms. Anna, I came here last time introducing myself about the Embassy, and you gave me some good information about my independent living house, because, again, I moved out of my home. Created that independent home and moved to Waldo to focus on my business. I got approved for that grant that you told me about, $15,000. And I wanted to come back to let you know that Janae and Katie, they really took care of me. And I got approved for that grant. They just started on it Thursday, you know, bringing in all the new refrigerator. We got dishwasher, dryer, so much stuff I can name. I don't want everybody to get jealous. But they took care of them, and I tell you, my residents, they are so happy. And I just want to come and let you guys know, I came here for one thing and got blessed for another, because I came out here and I spoke out. You know, I spoke out. And I just want to tell you thank you, okay? And that's all I had, December the 20th, at the embassy. Come, Christmas party. Thank you. Thank you, Tara. You might get the public comment of the year award for that. Appreciate that a lot. Welcome. Never good, thank you. Yes. Good afternoon, commissioners, chair. My name is Telford Cartwright, and I live here in Alachua County, Florida. Overhead, please. Overhead. Where do I put my phone? Okay. Right there. Yep. This is referred to as the GPS monitor placed on my right leg by a member of the Alachua County Department of Court Services. And this GPS monitor was placed on my leg when I bombed that of the Alachua County Jail back on October the 1st, 2024. This GPS monitor was made part of the bond, although the bond was $100,000, which was outrageously excessive, far beyond the reach of a reasonable, attainable bond, in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It was reduced to $10,000. Therefore, that being known, that being evidence, that there was no evidence that the bond was reduced from $200,000 to $10,000, that was indicative. Okay. So, the bond still being excessive because it was accessorized. Now, here's some more information I have. Overhead, please. There you go. Read. It says, at the top it says, incident investigation report by a member of the city of Gainesville's police department. It says, due to the conflicting statements from Camilla, Telford, and Tober, and lack of injuries to Camilla, I did not have enough proper calls to make an arrest. Proper call is less than evidence. Okay. All right. I still have the GPS monitor on my right leg causing wounds, by the way, putting my leg in jeopardy of being amputated. I've been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes by my physician. Overhead, please. This is where the alleged victim worked. We made false, filed a false criminal complaint against me. For some particular reason, the federal courthouse is in the so-called, or is in the exclusionary zone, which could be in violation of my state and federal constitutional rights. I have, here's overhead as well, I have paperwork here to attest to the fact of my intent to file a major civil rights lawsuit against the city and the county. That's page number 1. That's page number 2, motion to proceed in form of pauperous, or pauperous, pauperous. Mr. Carr-Ride, if you want to ask your comments. Here's the next one. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Carr-Ride. Motion to request an appointment of counsel. Thank you. Thank you so much. Yep. Next speaker, please. Come forward. The county is actively engaged. Yep. If we can get the overhead. Madam Clerk, if you could restart the time. Thank you. Hi. Welcome. Yeah, if you could just introduce yourself. My name's Tim Weissert. I live at 3204 Northwest 105th Terrace in the Meadowbrook subdivision. And I'm here today to ask you for help. And perhaps also after you hear my plea, you'll provide me some money or funds. We've been dealing in Meadowbrook since, actually, July of 2021 with the Meadowbrook golf course and issues of public or nuisance overgrowth and public nuisance, working in conjunction with Scott Krajewski in code administration and Missy Daniels. We have also been in work with the special magistrate on at least two occasions, and there are substantial fines currently being leveled against the Meadowbrook golf course. I would like that. The reason this is such a problem for us as a community, unlike maybe some zoning issues or issues of nuisance overgrowth that you would have if you were on a city street and perhaps have just adjacent neighbors that didn't comply and you would have a problem with them as a consequence, our community, as you can see, the green is the Meadowbrook golf course, which totally encompasses everything you see inside, and that is the Meadowbrook community. There are 277 families who reside there, and as a consequence, all of us are impacted every day by the nuisance overgrowth and the public nuisance problem that Meadowbrook golf course presents to us. There is currently some remediation efforts undergoing in conjunction with Scott Krajewski and with Missy Daniels. However, there are several that are not being addressed, and we believe that they should be, and I would ask you all to take a look at this. If this were your community and this were the entrance to your community, what would you think? Wow, what a great place to live, eh? Look at this. It's falling down. The fence structures are in total disrepair. We're trying to sell properties in this area, but this is the first thing that a person that enters our community sees, and this is not a part of the current remediation effort that's being coordinated through code administration, and I believe that it should be. Kaiser, if you could wrap your comments up for us. Yep, if you could wrap your comments up. Yes. So I believe it should be. I do have the presentation for you all, and I'd like to yield, if I may, to my neighbor to complete this. Okay, that'd be fine. If you could give your presentation to the clerk. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Tim. And we'll have some comments after public comment to address this item. Hi, welcome. Hello. Good afternoon. Thank you for your time today. We really appreciate that. Yes, sir. I'm just going to compliment what Tim said, and I only have three points that I would like to make today. You can just introduce yourself for us. I'm sorry. That's okay. My name is Jim Agert. Thank you, Jim. I'm a property owner in Meadowbrook at Gainesville. The first is that the bush hogging that has been directed by the magistrate has only been completed on the property to about 50% as of this date. Secondly, the tree branches and tree debris still remain on the property in various areas. Third thing is that there's a DRA that has not been trimmed, mowed, or given any upkeep attention during the last four years. And there are homeowners directly behind that DRA. It's been four years, as Tim said. What's a DRA? I'm sorry. A drainage retention area. Thank you. Sorry. You're welcome. It's been four years since the property was abandoned, as Tim said. And we've been working two years with code administration, and we certainly appreciate their efforts and their time to resolve this nuisance. And again, I thank you for this time today. I hope you all have a wonderful day. Thank you, Jim. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. This is Mohamed. How are you, sir? Hi. Welcome. I just stopped over here to make a request about the response from your city attorney. And I have a long meeting with the Honorable Charles Chestnut. I explained him what I need because I received that email from your county commissioner. That information I was knowing since 2010, whatever has been given to me, I was surprising. I have presented my research 15 years, okay? With documentation. I know that if it is not in your use, then you shall let me know that, Mohamed, we cannot take this property, this gift which you are giving to us. Then I will go ahead to the court. If even city commissioner, they are not responding to me back, then I will knock the door of the court and whatever the court decides, Mohamed, you take it or give it to any nonprofit organization, whatever. I just need a very simple letter from your city attorney, Mohamed, this is not under, we cannot take it. Very simple thing. Okay. Please expedite as lovely as possible. Thank you, Mohamed. Thank you, sir. Thank you. God bless you. I believe you'll get that response. I don't know if it will be in writing or not, but next speaker. Anyone else? Okay. Are there anyone online? No one online. All right, we'll go ahead and close public comment. Before we get to the meta book, so are you aware of the request of Mr. Mohamed? No. Michelle, I think I said something to Gina. Yes, he's been by before. I'm not sure that we completely understand. Okay. I think he's, yeah, I think he may have spoken to Commissioner Chestnut at one point, he said. Yeah, I believe he's, I believe that the title, the chain of title is different than what perhaps he understands it to be. So I don't think there's anything we can do. Is that correct? Nothing we can do? Yeah. I don't really think there's anything we can do. I don't think the attorney is going to write a letter. I know it's not appropriate because the attorney works for us and she doesn't work for the public. So it's kind of hard to get that across. So at this point, I think it's need to go to the courts, personally. If there's anything else, this matter is closed as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. Okay. Well, all right. Meadowbrook, Commissioner Prisio. Yeah, I guess I, I know. Oh, I see Missy's in the room. I guess I, I mean, now we're at manager comment. And if we could just get an update on what we're doing using our nuisance abatement tools, um, within the code to address that piece of property, um, similar to what we did at West End back in the day. That's where you prepare to address that right now. So, uh, Tim and, um, Jim, hear us. Mr. Chair, Missy Daniels, I can address part of it, a couple of the things they brought up I've been trying to ask Scott and codes about, but, um, so we have not come to you for nuisance abatement yet because the property owner hired someone to clean it up. And you saw in the pictures, a lot of it has been mowed, all of the junk around the buildings has been removed, the hazardous chemicals from the golf course have been secured in a building with a floor, um, which is what was part of what they needed to do for their code violation. I'm, I'm not sure if the fence actually got into the original and with this property owner, it has to be there. It's hard, you know, it's been a long haul to get anything cleaned up, but, um, Scott, our codes director and the code officer that's handling this went out there last week or the week before and met on site again with the contractor cleaning it up and talked about what was left to be done. I'll have to get back to you on that drainage retention area. Okay. Yeah. Bush hogging, trimming, and the drainage retention area. And then there's a presentation they gave us if you could get a copy of it. Okay. I'll get a copy of that. We haven't brought it to you because they were cleaning. And if we bring it to you, we need to know how much it's going to cost to do whatever is left. So we're trying to get them to complete it without having to go out there. Okay. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you guys for bringing that to our attention and we'll continue to work on it. Yep. All right. Anything else, Commissioner? Okay. Madam Clerk, we're back to the one more appointment. Is that right? Yes. We're at Alachua County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee appointments. Okay. So we've got two are either Mr. Mitchell or Ms. Callen here. Okay. Let's just pick one of the two. All right. So I'll call on each commissioner. You have Teresa Callen and you have Matt Mitchell. Can I start with Commissioner Chestnut? Callen. Commissioner Alford? Mitchell? Commissioner Prezio? Callen. Commissioner Wheeler? Callen. And Chair Cornell? Callen. Do I hear a motion? Yeah. I move Callen. Second. Got a motion to move Teresa Callen with gratitude to Matt Mitchell. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. That motion is unanimous. Thank you, Commissioners. All right. This will bring us to Environmental Protection Advisory Committee work plan. Okay. And the recommended action is just to hear the presentation. All right. Welcome. Summer Waters Environmental Protection Department. I'm the liaison for the Environmental Protection Advisory Committee, also known as EPAC. EPAC has had a very busy year and they've got big plans for the coming year. And here today to tell you all about those plans and accomplishments is Jay Rosenbeck. He's the committee chair. He was just reelected for his second year and we have actually two new officers I just wanted to acknowledge today. David Vena is our vice chair and our brand new member, Ian Kress, is our secretary. And I also just wanted to quickly acknowledge our intern this past spring was Campbell Alkafaji and you'll be seeing some of the results of her work in the presentation today. So, with that, I will hand it over to Jay. Thank you, Ms. Waters. And, Jay, congratulations on your reappointment as chair. Yeah, you're recognized. Chair, Commissioner, I'm Jay Rosenbeck, chair of EPAC for the next year. Under the heading of We Know You Know and So You'll Know We Know, this committee was established in 1984 for the purpose of citizen-guided protection of national resources. And thank you. The board extended the sunset to 2030 for this committee on Alex the 12th. We really appreciate that. You also changed the number of members and I think made it more effective with nine members and one alternate. We also appreciate that. Our work plan and our objectives. Can you move the mic over? Oh, sure. Yeah, go. Thank you very much, Mary. Our work plan and the objectives have been guided by certain categories of activity and certain objectives. The next two slides are fairly dense and I won't read them to you because you all read, but I will highlight the notion that water quality is one of our highest priorities and that we advocate for policies and practices that ensure Alachua County visitors, residents, farmers and ecosystems are supported by clean and adequate water. Land conservation, as you will see in an upcoming slide, is also an extremely important priority and we have outlined an objective in that next slide which essentially shows that we are supporting affordable, environmentally conscious development necessary to a burgeoning population balanced with the protection of our natural resources. And our main and perhaps yours of existence continues to be recycling and waste management and we will do everything we can with our expertise to support policies and procedures that help us manage that that particular thorny set of issues. We're, I think, very proud, especially of a relatively new emphasis, health and safety, although this has been touched on by previous committees, advise and support policies that improve and protect the health of all current and future Alachua County residents and so on. And I think there are health threats that you guys all recognize that our committee recognizes as well and we want to make contributions there as we can. And finally, our community outreach, which is part of the mission of this committee, we've changed it just a bit. We're now, I think, instead of emphasizing being talking heads, we're going to be listening ears. That's an uncomfortable analogy, but the idea is that we used to organize presentations and I think those had their uses and they were effective, but there's so much of that going on. So we're going to try to create listening sessions and I will give you the details of that in a little bit. We had a busy year, thanks to you guys and thanks to the members of this committee. Thank you. We asked a motion to support and expand Alachua County tree policy. We really appreciate the commission's lead on this particular issue and we unanimously supported a citizen-led effort to get scenic road status for Lakeshore Drive. And those pictures that you see on your right are provided, the first one is provided by John Moran, a friend of the committee and of this community. In the areas of land use and conservation, we also received review of progress and climate action plan. I really enjoyed that summary of the festival. I thought it captured all the high points and it featured the five commissioners and that's a good thing too. When we had our conversation, among the other issues we raised, there's an issue that I'm sure is important for all of you and that's Senate Bill 180 and I know that you know how people are thinking about that. I know what stands you are taking and I would just say that I was very impressed with 1,000 friends of Florida presentation where they said even if our state legislature tries to inhibit what you can do and we can do as citizens, we can at least rely on the strictest possible enforcement of the plans that we have presently and we will support that notion in the committee. And I know that this is a thorny topic especially, but particulate pollution and pollution in general and its threats to our health, including an increase in the frequency of Parkinson's disease in this state and in our nation and in fact in the world is something that will come up from EPAC because of some special speakers we're going to have, but that's just a preview of one of the things that the committee is thinking. And finally, we spent two sessions with Mr. Olmos, Director of Solid Waste and Recovery. We gave him some suggestions. I think he probably saved face for us by acting like some of it was new. I suspect most of it was stuff that he had heard, but the committee did take it very seriously and in addition, community input was reflected in that list. And so there are lots of people, as you know, who are very interested in this issue. It's always hard for a guy of my age to know what people of your age know about popular culture, but I thought the quote on the right from Pete Seeger was kind of interesting. If it can't be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, resold, recycled, or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned, or removed from production. Well, that's a wonderful goal, and I thank Pete for it, and I would just add it until then, EPAC will do what it can to help with this issue. We had a trainee last spring who did a wonderful set of questionnaires under extremely restrictive conditions, because when you combine the restrictions of the university and its students with what the county justifiably requires, it takes a long time to get a questionnaire, but just so that you know, the people who were surveyed thought that their environment was extremely important. The next most frequent classification was very important, and it turns out that only three of the people who were interviewed thought that it was not so important or not at all important. We know that. It's good to get it verified. And we had people rank the issues. Interestingly, as you can see, land conservation comes out as one of the greatest concerns for our community, followed not far behind by spring protection. Those are the kinds of things that I think motivate you, certainly motivate us, as we try to figure out what our priorities should be going forward. And that brings us to the goals, and we recognize that the goals, which I'm not going to burden you with in total but will only highlight, are ambitious. I also realize that people plan and God laughs, so that we will not accomplish all of this and other things that will come to the fore that will bump some of our favorite projects from the top of our priority list, but that's okay with us. We'll just do a few highlights. We're going to continue to advocate for the strongest possible policies and practices to protect our water. We're going to support BOCC efforts to improve collaboration of county and municipalities on water issues because you know better than I the difficulty sometimes of reconciling different approaches, different attitudes, and so on. Under land use and conservation, one of our priorities this year is going to be to encourage policymakers to support dark sky-approved luminaries program, and, in fact, we have a presentation coming up on that. We'll continue to support protection of our strategic ecosystems and efforts to build connectivity into our land preservation programs, which is, of course, a well-known county and even state objective. Resizing in waste management, we have a waste management guy on the committee now who's helping us, but I'll just say, I'm quoting again from Total Garbage, you swallowed 285 pieces of plastic today. Well, maybe since it's only midday. We're only halfway through, but by the end of the day, we will have done that. That's a huge concern, and it has to do with recycling and waste management, and I've already underlined our commitment to helping where we can with that. And under health and safety, assess the potential health impacts of environmental pollution of soil, air, and water. Provide recommendations for identifying and mitigating risk. This is a hugely ambitious project. It's not as ambitious, of course, as the Climate Action Plan, but it is a hugely ambitious goal, but it is one that our people on the committee really, really do support, and we will collaborate with county leadership, CCAC, if appropriate, to contribute to policies, procedures, and programs that address heat, especially because, as you know, when we ask our citizens what they're most concerned about, as we have done in relation to a variety of climate action activities in this county, heat comes out near the top, and you know that deaths are increasing from heat all the time worldwide. And the community outreach, I already stole from this slide, so I'll just say the emphasis is going to be on our committees going out to various places in the community and asking people what they're most concerned about and how we as a liaison between the community and you guys might help with that. We are formulating those kinds of plans as we speak. And in conclusion, this committee really appreciates you guys, and this chair appreciates being in a meeting with these kinds of people who bring such enthusiasm and concern to the issues affecting our environment. It is a real pleasure to be able to help contribute to that community and leadership-led set of activities. And I just want to remind you that this committee really works well. You guys made great choices. We're committed to thoughtfully and efficiently fulfilling EPAC's mission with your guidance. Thank you very much. Thank you, Jay. We've got some lights. We'll start with Commissioner Prizia, then Commissioner Wheeler, then Commissioner Alfred. All right. Thank you. First, thank you to you for your leadership and to the whole committee for all the work that they do. I know you all are ambitious, and I appreciate that. This committee has always been one that's been pretty proactive, which I love. I think that oftentimes our committees lie in wait for when we send something from on high. But I really, really appreciate the ones that step up and listen to the community and use their expertise and their experience and their skill set to bring ideas our way. So thank you for that. And a quick note on the night sky effort we have, actually, I think, under our EAR process, which we're working on, flagged night sky issues as something we want to add. So I would just note for our team out there in growth management that if there are things that are related to the goals that you all have, I hope that things that we're doing with the EAR will make it through your committee on its way back to us so we can hear your input to the ways in which our staff has applied those ideas in our upcoming edit to our comprehensive plan. Thank you very much. Yeah, there's a nice convergence of interest around certain issues, and dark sky is one. Yeah, and health, I think our health component, too, we're also looking at a lot of edits to that. So anyway, thank you very much for all that you do. You're welcome. Thank you. Mr. Wheeler? Thank you. Yes, thank you so much. This is, it's a big task, what we've asked you all to do, is to pinpoint all these issues and come up with some solutions. When you're talking about expertise in the community that you all are reaching out to, are we, does that include the universities, does that include retirees that are here who've worked in these fields maybe worldwide who might still be engaged in some of these activities that we could grab a hold of? The answer is yes. Okay, good. Especially we are interested in going to places where people congregate, for whatever reason, farmers markets and so on, to make sure to listen to their concerns because, and I know I'm preaching to the choir, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It is easy to get in a kind of bubble to think that what I believe or what that committee believes is or are the most important things, only to find out that there are a great many people out there in the world who don't get up every morning thinking about the environment who have other but related issues. We want to make sure that we are, to the degree that we can, as a citizen's voluntary committee, sampling that expertise, those opinions and those values. I know that there are people out there who've worked in these industries lifelong, you know, who are retired now in the community. They're still doing some research on their own. You know, they're not affiliated with the university anymore or they're, you know, they're congregating in places like in our retirement places where, you know, it would be really nice just to have some coffee talks, you know, with some of these folks around table. Coffee talk isn't a bad idea. Thank you. Yes. No, I, because I had meant to do that a few times to get out, you know, to some of the folks and just kind of sit down and pick their brains about what they know or what they're seeing that's currently being done worldwide. So that, that would, yeah, and invite me. I would like to be a part of that, too. Thank you very much. You have a standing invitation, but we'll get more specific. Okay. All right. And the other thing that I was, has any work been done on the National Heritage Site for the Springs area? I know at one point I think you all were going to look into that, your group, as a National Heritage, you know, at World Heritage Site, we passed that. Our waters are too impaired at this point for that kind of an acknowledgement. But there are national, world, national sites that our springs might qualify for. That specific issue has not come up, and we haven't committed to it, Commissioner. Okay. I thought somebody was looking into that. If it was a committee, it was a different committee from ours. Must have been. Okay. I've got another one. One of the things that I had presented to our climate and water group that includes both commissions of the city and the Gainesville was the possibility of putting more signage out where people gather, like you're talking about, where visitors are coming into our community who may not understand the fragility of our water systems here and how important it is to this county that we protect our water system because of the springs and the aquifer and all of that, that we're engaged, signage at the hotels or anywhere that people from out of the area who may not understand the area that they are visiting would know that we are focused on protecting our waters here and that we would invite them to do as well. I know that some of the parks out west, the big national parks, have signs all over the place about protecting water. And it seems to me that we're in the same position here in protecting the limited amount of fresh water that we have. So I don't know if that's a campaign that we could do or something. It doesn't take much. You know, even in Orlando, they talk about putting towels out, using towels more than, you know, one time so that they can protect the water. So we're not doing that, and I don't know the proper channel for that to happen. Your contribution is noted, Commissioner, and we'll put that here, and we'll bring that up because I'm a university professor, now emeritus, so education has been my life. I'm a big believer in education. We'll take it on. Thank you. Yes, thank you very much. And money's coming in. The governor has just talked about a lot of money coming in. If you all could keep your eyes on that, too, as to where those actually the monies are going to impaired bodies of water and that sort of thing. What a great invitation to keep an eye on the governor's wallet. I love it. Thank you. We're going to feature that next time. If there's money coming in, you know, we're in a position here with impaired waters that need to have that. I'll report on wallet analysis at our next summary. Okay, okay, okay. And you're mentioning particulate pollution, too. Yes. Because we have a number of sand mines, and recently we have a sand mine that's going to be coming in line across the county line just outside of Archer, and also concrete batch plant that's going to be there, too. You guys, just if you would, use your expertise to keep your eyes on that because... I've got... I'm sorry. That's okay. No, no. I've got two experts on this kind of pollution on the committee this time. I think it's the first time in a very long time. And I can tell you that as a result of that, of course, we have a high level of vigilance about that, and I appreciate that guidance. Thank you. That's wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Humphrey. Jay, thank you so much. If you would please take back my thanks to all the committee members. We do have a really great group of very dedicated, talented, and educated folks that sit on EPAC, and I know that it's a labor of love, but busy people are the ones that get stuff done, and I know a lot of those folks are also very busy, so I really appreciate the time and the effort that they put into EPAC. And I am so pleased that you all have continued the community engagement part of EPAC. Oh, yes. I remember when it was in the middle of Plum Creek, and when I was chair, we did community conversations about the future of development in Alachua County because I refused to make it Plum Creek specific, and I remember talking to Mark about it, and I believe that his face went completely white. You're doing what? Yeah. And it went very well, and I think EPAC has continued to have a good track record of community engagement in a healthy and productive way, and I really, really appreciate the fact that y'all are continuing to just go above and beyond what's really, you know, your charter and doing things to engage the community and to make good, positive change to the future of Alachua County. So just thank you. Thank you, Jay. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mary, and I'll make sure the committee knows that, and I'm going to make it one of my duties to see if I can make Mark's place blanch this time, too. Thank you. Sorry. And if I can do anything to help ever, just let me know. We appreciate that, and thank you for your time and what you do. Hold on one second, Jay. I haven't gotten a chance to talk yet. So I actually want to build on what Mary said. When I came on this board, that issue that Mary brought up and was leading the community charge was the issue. And I'll never forget when I was elected, you know, as a new commissioner, you get to learn about the departments, learn about the advisory boards, and the EPAC and the LCB and EDAC. Those were the three that I was just so incredibly impressed with, the work that was being done. And Summer and Jay, I just have to say, after serving now almost three terms, that you all in this committee have really kind of taken this to a whole other level. I mean, I really, and I don't, you know, I don't want to just say that. I mean, I really mean it. The presentation that you gave about listening ears, you know, when I came on this board, there were so many experts and talking heads versus listening ears. But our community is full of listening, full of experts that we continuously have to listen to and know so much more that can contribute to making Alaska County so special. And the fact that you've taken that approach, I just want to commend you. I want to reiterate what Commissioner Alford said, that you guys have really, are really impacting policy long term, which will be in place after we're gone, after you all are gone, but for our kids and our kids' kids. And I just, I want to express my gratitude and to this board for extending it to 2030. You can anticipate around 28, 29, another extension, I presume, and keep doing the good work that you're doing on the many issues that you heard today from Commissioner Wheeler and because they're important. You know, the information you gave us on Mill Creek, it was important and it continues to be important. And we rely heavily on EPAC and we'll continue to do so. So thank you, Jay. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner, anything else? All right. Let's back up a bit. Commissioner Prezio, thank you for reminding me. So we appointed Teresa Callen. I think we need to appoint the other four. Yeah, I just, we just, I guess we forewent the appointment of the four that were the only applicants for their specific categories. And all of them are existing members of AHAC and really wonderfully contributing. So I'm excited to make the motion to appoint Gil Levy, Julie DeCarmine, Janice Cruz, and Anne Ray to AHAC for their respective terms. Second. That motion is second. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Thank you for that, Commissioner. Back to the board. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. So we've gotten through one, two, three. Next up, Madam Clerk. Number four, appoint county commissioners to boards and committees for 2026 as approved by the county commission chair. Okay. Has everybody had a chance to review those? No. And do I hear a motion? Where was it? Did you get one? A copy? No, it was on the. Oh, on the computer? Oh, yes. I didn't print it off. Big one. Big one. Okay. I did, and I only have one request, and it's only, it's just a request if Ken is not feeling generous, he can pass it off. But I was interested in the possibility of the career source spot. So, I guess I would move and accept all the appointments with the change of Preziah to career source dual county workforce council. I hear a second. Second. Okay. I got motion and a second. So, Ken is, Ken has a very big plate. Ken has career, Ken has children's trust, Ken has library, Ken has a number of other things. Ken is happy to do that, but I would ask, Commissioner Preziah, that you spend some time with Mr. Forziano, some time with the career source attorney, and some time with Ms. Marty, because we have, as you know, a lot of, I mean, it's a big one, right? It's a big one. Yeah. I was on it. Yeah. It's not bad, no. Well, it's, there's just been a lot of changes. Right. And, yeah, and so, thank you, actually, because, so I, so as, as an aside, I have a meeting coming up next week, career source meeting, and I'm the current chair, the agenda review that Ms. Marty has scheduled for me, she's asked for two hours as an agenda review to go over the things. So, thank you, and it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a great and very, very important position, because it's one commissioner for each of the counties, so I will support the motion. Thank you. And I, I, what, you know, I'll say I looked and I noticed how many big things you had, and I, I've wanted to be on children's trust for some time, but I know you've been there and they need some consistency right now, given how many changes there's going to be on that board. So, I figured I would take another heavy lift off your plate, and then I'll steal children's trust. We'll have to fight for children's trust. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. I'll thank you for affordable help. You can have career source. Okay, so we are, we are into a discussion and negotiation on next year's appointments, in case any of you are not aware. So, let's talk about that quickly. Children's trust, thank you for that. I would like, there, you know, you have been really active in a couple of really big things at the trust when, when folks have reached out to you. Our strategic planning meeting is October, is January 26th. We're going to conclude that. I would love for you to come to that. And if you'll be open to, as things come up, that I think they're impactful with the idea that you will be taking over that next year as the chair. Unless Mary wants to say, you and Mary can negotiate that. Yeah, so, well, I guess what I would say is, if you could both attend those, those are, there's a lot of transition that will need to happen. And I'm very open to that next year and appreciate that. So, anyways, maybe we can have a policy meeting and talk about housing and children's trust, or, you know, y'all can negotiate that next year. Okay. All right. So, we've got a motion. The only change is to move Cornell to Prizio for career source. Any further discussion? Any public discussion? Back to the board. Yeah, you don't want to talk on this one, Stacey? Okay. All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. And the opposed motion is unanimous. Thank you, commissioners. All right. That moves us to now. Presentations. The first one is the Lower Santa Fe and Inchitucknee Rivers minimum flows with a recommended action to hear the presentation. Okay. Stacey, you are recognized. Good afternoon. I'm Stacey Greco with the Lachewa County Environmental Protection Department, and I'm going to give an update on the MFLs, the minimum flows and levels. So, brief overview, MFLs are developed by the water management districts and adopted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and really this is to set the water levels and the flows to prevent harm to the actual resource from water withdrawals. So, it has been a long process. We have been working on this update since 2018. We have sent many letters from staff, from the board, had multiple meetings, public hearings. We are at that final step. But what went into it before this was looking at what does the resource need? You know, how much water do we need for manatee passage, for recreation, for wetlands to get hydrated? Find the most limiting factor, and then that sets the level. And then there is looking at how are we doing and how do we get there. And I have told part of this story before, and it is connected to our water supply plan. So, this is the North Florida Regional Water Supply Area here, which is a much larger area than just the Santa Fe River and the Itchitucknee. But the portions of this MFL that I'm going to talk about today really take effect in this whole larger planning area because we recognize that the water does not follow our political boundaries. So, in this map, the green is St. John's. The yellow is Sewanee. We are split in the middle. So, the current components that I'm really going to focus on today, like I said, this is kind of the final step of it, is the DEP regulatory component and then the implementation plan. So, the regulatory component, there was rulemaking. They are going through that right now. There was a notice in November. We, along with the Florida Springs Council, called for a public hearing. That was last Friday. I went to it, and I spoke to some of our ongoing concerns that I've been briefing you on about once a year. We anticipate that this will go through ratification this year, which means there may be an opportunity to add language through lobbying efforts, and I'll loop back around to that at the end. The second part of this is the implementation plan, and this was adopted by both water management districts in November. And I'll go into more detail on both of these, and I'll start with the implementation plan. This does not go through a ratification process, and this is really the projects of how do we get more water in this basin, because I forgot to mention that as part of this whole MFL, we have recognized, and with the Regional Water Supply Plan, that we need to be reducing our use or having more water available through projects. And so, this final part of this MFL is how do we get there. These are some of the main projects. The one that are bold here, I will go into in more detail. So, the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project is 10 million gallons a day, and it's from Black Creek to the Upper Floridan Aquifer, and it's really to restore flows more in the St. John's portion of the area, and this was in the MFL for Lake Brooklyn and Geneva. This is a project that is moving forward, and it's currently funded at $119 million, but it was included in this MFL also since we're really looking at that larger region. The implementation plan continues to have agricultural water conservation. Both water management districts have cost-share funding for things like soil moisture sensors, weather stations, soil health, and that continues to be in there. Would you rather just hold our questions? Okay. For the agricultural water conservation, does it also fund irrigation switch? Like, if they switch from a boom or they remove their guns and put in other irrigations, would that be a funded project? Yes. So, like a retrofit going from, like, center pivot, like, getting rid of their end guns, or going to, like, micro-irrigation? Yes. Yes, it historically has. I imagine it still does. Okay, great. Yeah. Fully funded, right? It's like 30% or something? I think it depends on the basin, but different times I see the release, there's different cost-share requirements. Florida Water Star Silver Plus is new, and I'll go into that in a moment. And then there's existing projects that were in the water supply plan and in that joint facilities plan that we've been working on with Mike Castine and GRU, and we presented on sometime this year. So, the Water First North Florida, this is a big project. This is right now estimated to be $1.1 billion. This does not include land acquisition, and this is in the planning phase. And this is to take 40 million gallons per day of treated wastewater from JEA's Buckman facility to pipe it, route it through wetland treatment systems, and into the aquifer in the Santa Fe Basin. 40 MGD is big, so this is really what the plan is relying on to provide the benefit to offset impacts of current and projected use. Target completion is 2040. The Water Management District has reached out to me. They would like to come give a presentation, so we can invite them to come back to this board or joint water quality. The other new project in these implementation plans is Florida Water Star Silver Plus. If Florida Water Star sounds familiar to you, it is because it is a voluntary program that originally started at St. John's. It is for new construction to be built to a certain standard. We actually had rebates for this back in about 2013, where we were trying to get builders to participate. We had one builder participate. And then we moved forward, and we actually codified most of those requirements in our irrigation design standards. The Water Management District, they're projecting that this could reduce demand by almost 14 million gallons a day by requiring this program through utility service agreements and through local ordinances throughout that large planning area that I showed you. Our irrigation standards actually are more protective. Florida Water Star Silver, the plus, means no irrigation in backyards. We only allow irrigation of 50% of permeable area, so we're there. So as this moves forward, our county and our municipalities, since that is a county-wide ordinance, will already be meeting this requirement. So now I'm going to talk about the proposed regulatory component. So this is what DEP is doing, the rulemaking, and that will be going through the legislature. Currently, as it's written right now, it requires new landscape irrigation wells to get a no-fee permit. So it still allows those irrigation wells, and we've talked about these, that they're problematic because if you don't want to pay your water bill, if you are a high-water user, you can just put a well in, and then we don't know how much you're using. So it makes it very hard when you're doing water supply planning to know how much water is getting pulled out of your bank account. A 2024 draft of this rule had a prohibition on these landscape irrigation wells, and we were very excited about that, and we sent multiple letters supporting that, and we've been sending things for years talking about the need for this. So I was disappointed to see that get removed in the existing version. There are additional water conservation requirements for public water supply, which is our utilities, and for agriculture in this version that's going through the rulemaking. And it does have language that permits that impact MFL compliance points have to offset their impact or participate in a regional project. So, for example, they can pay into that Water First project if they don't have their own projects. Side note, but somewhat related, just wanted to notify the board, since I'm here, that GRU is going through their process, that they are requesting a renewal of their consumptive use permit. They do that through the St. Johns River Water Management District. Their current permit is set to expire 2034. They're asking for a new permit through 2045 with an increase in 2 million gallons a day, so to go from 30 to 32. I have verified with the Water Management District and DEP that if this permit is issued prior to the MFL being adopted, that they will have to meet all of those requirements within a certain time period. So next steps, already been engaging with our lobbyists, partners, water management districts, possibly utilities to limit irrigation wells. So can we get that language that was in that 2024 version back into this 2025? So that's something we'll be working on. Offer us up as a resource as the state works on that Florida Water Star Silver Plus in that larger planning area. We have been boots on the ground implementing that since 2016. We've learned a lot, so we'd like to help with that. If it is the pleasure of the board, we can invite Water Management District staff to present on that Water First North Florida project at a future county commission meeting and or a climate policy board. And then finally, we will be providing some comments to the Water Management District on GRU's consumptive use permit. And we've already been working with them on their water conservation plan. They actually point to a lot of our policies to show how they get their water conservation. And that is actually all I have today. Okay. Commissioner, you have some lights, so hold on. You can't leave yet. Commissioner Alford and then Commissioner Prizia. I definitely would love to hear the state presentation on the Water First North Florida project. I think that is, that's a really big project. It has, oh, so many good things and bad things about it. So I have so many thoughts. Secondly, you know, I've talked with a number of builders about Florida Water Star. And it always frustrated me that we saw so little engagement here. And I've tried to make the point that, you know, they're 90% of the way there in this area. It's just paying the fee to get the certification and having the inspectors that come do that work. Have we, are there any counties that are actually partnering to get Florida Water Star certification on homes? I know Tallahassee, Leon County had done some stuff with Energy Star, but I don't know about Water Star. Yeah, so when we adopted our irrigation design code, which basically got the irrigation part of it completed, we did look into can we just require Florida Water Star. But since it was a voluntary program, at that point, we were told by legal counsel, I believe by St. John's legal counsel, that, you know, we could not force a voluntary program. But since then, many counties and municipalities have done that. So there are places where they are requiring Water Star. I think our program, though, is now more protective that it would be challenging to go back to that strategy because we're somewhere between, I would say, Florida Water Star Gold and Florida Water Star Silver. Right, and I'm not suggesting that we require it, but my thought was is that we could, you know, I don't know, incentivize the certification because I think that by having the certification, when people buy a new house and they see that, it just sort of puts the thought in their mind that they have a house that conserves water. And I think there's psychological benefit to that in a lot of ways. So I was just curious if that was, you know, something that we could consider. And I don't even know if we have any, you know, raiders around here that are doing that work, but I didn't know if that was, you know, it could be a nice little side job for folks, you know, even as part of, like, the CWC or something. Yeah, and when we offered the rebates before, they weren't popular. And when I did talk to builders, why they weren't doing it, it was just they didn't want to learn an extra process of just going through that certification. Yeah, the whole thing is they're already doing it. That's what they don't get is, like, they already have the certification. They just need to have somebody do the paperwork. So anyway, and the inspections. Anyway, all right, thank you. Thank you so much, but I appreciate it. Thank you. Your commissioner, Commissioner Frizia. Yeah, man, I'm really frustrated by the fact that we're just going to let people keep using crazy amounts of water and then figuring out how to pay a billion dollars to put it back on our aquifer instead of figuring out how to use that billion dollars to conserve the water in the first place. That's really, really, really frustrating, especially because that billion dollars would go really, really far in terms of, you know, possibly incentivizing our ag folks to adopt some of the irrigation practices and other water conservation practices if it was paid for instead of just a cost-share program, and it would cost way less than that. But anyway, I'm sure I can't do anything about that, but I do think that I'm excited to hear that we're going to continue to lean in on the irrigation wells, and I fully support us working with our lobbyists and doing everything that we can to get that language back in. And I definitely would like to see the Water Management District present on the Water First project so that we can ask good questions and learn more about how that project is actually going to work. Great. Thank you. Okay. My only comments this year, thank you. You know, at the state level, FAC has gotten water at least on the guiding principles and in the policy direction. I couldn't agree with Commissioner Prizia more. You know, this billion dollars is a hope it works kind of thing, and, you know, Plan B is, right? Yeah. Hope it rains a lot. So thank you for your work and continuing to advocate for Alachua County. Thank you. Okay. All right. Let's move to our next item, Madam Clerk, which is? Land Conservation Projects, Alachua County Forever Agricultural Land Protection Strategy Updates. Okay. And the recommended action is to receive the updates, adopt the resolution, approve and authorize six properties. They're listed. But really, it's for me to stop talking and turn it over to Andy. Andy, you're recognized. Okay. Thanks very much, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Andy Christman, Land Conservation Program Manager. And I'm going to be running through a series of different updates on our agricultural lands protection strategy under Alachua County Forever. I've got them grouped into three main categories. Just as a reminder, when you passed Resolution 2481, you basically adopted the strategy goals and values, which are to acquire conservation easements on agriculturally significant lands, to protect water resources, rural economy, contribute to the local food security, and promote open scenic space. So we've been working to move forward on implementation of that strategy. The three main updates are a funding partnership cost share update, revisions to that resolution, and active acquisition list updates. So starting with the funding partnership cost share update, when we initially worked through the development of the strategy and had multiple meetings with you as well as with citizens, there was a lot of emphasis on cost sharing as a key part of land protection during easement acquisition for agricultural easements. We had initially thought and hoped that the two primary funding partners we'd be working with would be the USDA NRCS through their agricultural land easement program and the state of Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services through the rural and family lands protection program. Thankfully, we're able to work again with the federal government on partnering with USDA NRCS. Under an easement where we partner with them, the county would hold title to the easement values, and USDA would have minimum easement deed terms that they would be able to enforce. And our senior planner who's implementing the agricultural land strategy is Jean Willoughby, and she is already taking USDA out on-site visits to look at some of the agricultural easement candidates that we have here in the county. And she just joined us. So that one, now that the federal government's in place, is working as it should. And we're very hopeful we'll be able to partner with USDA. We did encounter some barriers to immediate partnership with the state. It's still hoped for but complicated. In an easement where we're working with the state rural and family lands protection program, the state would hold title and the county would fund under the way that the state has been operating throughout history, both with Florida Forever and with rural and family lands, their two main land acquisition programs. They have, to date, not shared title with any entities, even entities who are funding partners. So that created a challenge for us, a barrier that we're still working through with them. The opinion from the county attorney's office and the outside counsel representing the Infrastructure Surtax Oversight Board was that funding another entity's easement acquisition in which the county didn't receive any clear title to the property didn't meet the standard of acquiring land interests. That is what we had presented to the public and what was in the resolutions that you passed related to the Infrastructure Surtax. Andy, could a reverter meet that clause? You know, oftentimes, you know, we do the state stuff and they have a reverter. And, you know, maybe we could do the reverse subsidiary of the state with a reverter. I don't know. I haven't talked about this with Sylvia, so I probably shouldn't be talking until I have done that. But, Sylvia, you thought about the reverter thought? Not specifically. There are a couple options that are out there that we're looking at. I think the state may be open to them. We've heard recently that they are more inclined. We're not the only ones in the position of using surtax funds, which requires to have a property interest. Other funds, for instance, general fund might not require it. I think we, I'll give it to Andy. Okay. Yeah, yes, Mr. Chair. Actually, I will get to that. It's a very creative solution, though, not one that we had talked through with them in case what we're hoping. We're always dealing with it with the state lands. Right. And so, you know, no, they would own it. We would take the rights off. We would have an easement. If they ever wanted to do anything, we would have a reverter saying you couldn't without our proof. I don't know. Hopefully it won't be necessary. Hopefully it won't. So this slide just shares the ballot language. I'm not going to read through it, but for anyone that was curious exactly what that ballot language was and what the commitments we made to the citizens were, as well as the language in Ordinance 2208, which did lay out the usage of that funding to acquire and improve lands for conservation and protection of natural resources or public recreation. And then similarly also acquire any interest in land, so that inability to share title was the barrier to acquiring the interest in land that met the standard that our legal opinions had indicated was needed. So I guess this is a good point to say because, as the county attorney just mentioned, we are not the only county utilizing surtax funds or other public funds to acquire conservation lands. There has been enough partnership challenge on part of the state amongst their hoped-for partners, because they have the same hopes that we do to partner, that they are currently reviewing language to adjust their practice and policy. Their policy allows them to share title, but their practice currently has not been to. So they are actually reviewing language through their legal office to allow shared title with entities who cannot otherwise partner with them. Now, that has not been finalized. That language has not been released. I did just speak with the director of rural and family lands earlier today, and he indicated that he hoped maybe within the next week I might hear a more firm update. But they actually are trying to change their practice, it seems. So that would be an excellent update, but it's not something that's finalized at this point. Do you have off the top of your head the counties, the other counties? I don't. I'm sorry. Yeah. One of the ones that are in the book that Ramesh gave you all the thing, he has a number of those. From that presentation that you gave it back? Okay. Yeah. I can look it up. I will say that rural and family lands has already acquired their first two easements in history in Alachua County this year. So utilizing their unprecedented funding levels, they are actually now working in our county, which they had not previously done. And so that's very exciting just as an independent update. And they have, those two that have been acquired, there are 22 more on their 2025 ranked project list. And the cycle for farmers or landowners to apply to be considered through rural and family lands is opening soon for 2026, if anyone listening has an interest in pursuing an application for their property. So that's a novel update for us this year, which is great. I guess I can pause there and say that is the main partnership funding update that I have right now. So to simplify, USCA seems really positive, rural and family land hopeful, but we don't have final word yet. Are any, are of those 22 additional properties currently on their list, are they also on our, are some of those also on our active acquisition list? Half of them are on our active acquisition list. Fantastic. Yeah. Great. Okay. Moving forward, resolution 24-081, which is the resolution that you passed when you authorized the strategy. In implementing the strategy, we found what we expected to find some things that needed to be improved. So one, we found some Scrivener's errors in the resolution language. Some, we have through some excellent partnership with the county attorney's office, also tried to rework the language so it flows a little bit more practically for a citizen reader of the resolution. The main change that is a, a real update change aside from streamlining is that we are changing the, we're recommending that you change the process for property review that's done by the citizen board, the agricultural land conservation board. So, um, two main changes, one is just the flow, the workflow, and the other one is, um, adding a, a cost share list that's similar to what you already see in the land, the regular original land conservation board workflow. And I'm going to show you a graphic on this. So this is the workflow that we gave the, the ALCB to work through for their decisions. So you can see it's quite compliment, complicated where they review a project. They can say, oh, it's not eligible, or if it is eligible, they have to put it in one of three categories that were all related to cost share. And because there are so many things that are not known about cost share at the time that these properties were going to the citizen board, it was creating a real challenge for them to evaluate and consider that practically your resolution already direct staff to emphasize cost share in all ways possible. And so, um, the, um, the determination was made for, for simplicity sake to revert that responsibility to staff, but to, because this is what was happening to the citizen board, um, there, so we are now recommending that, that this workflow, which is the workflow that you've seen many times before is what, uh, is now in the recommended changes in the, in the resolution. They review a property, they can choose to place it in the eligibility pool, and they can choose to place it in the priority pool. They don't have to decide between category one, two, three, and four, but they will have the opportunity to require bargain share, just like with the environmentally significant land workflow, except that this bargain share level is 25% rather than 50%. Um, because 25% is, um, the lower threshold or not the lower, it's the threshold of partnership bargain share for some of our partners. Um, so that's the recommended workflows basically do the original workflow, the LCB workflow. Um, and that's the substantial or the substantive change in that resolution. And then I can, I'm sorry, go back if there are questions. If there's any questions on that. No, I'll just say thanks for getting this, you know, done quickly. I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense to have that sit with you while you are the ones doing the negotiation and understand the best way to leverage our dollars with all the various properties you've got working. So, um, I appreciate this shift and change and making it easier on our board to do the job that they were set up to do. Yeah, that's the key, the key change in our second recommended item for the motion. So that's good. Okay. And then, um, the last of this set of three main updates is the active acquisition list update. Um, and so I've got just some bullets here that I'm going to bring some highlighting forward on. So, um, the structure we've utilized is to have one active acquisition list for both environmentally sensitive or significant lands and agriculturally significant lands all on the same list, but with an agricultural easement category added to that list. So, um, the blue outlined property on the Eastern side of the county is the first property that you added to the active acquisition list in that agricultural easement category. That's the frog song organics farm. When you authorized the strategy, the, the three properties that have kind of brownish circles around them. Um, you authorize those three properties to be considered for agricultural easements. Those are the shires, Roger Davis and Richardson brothers farms. Um, so those are already from your 2024, um, authorization of the strategy considered as agricultural easement candidates. So they're in that cat category as well. And we are now recommending following ALCB, the agricultural land citizen boards recommendation that five more properties be moved from or moved into the agricultural easement category on the active acquisition list. So these five properties are already on the active acquisition list. We're recommending that they be considered as candidates for agricultural easements. And I'm going to run through those quickly. The first one is the Santa Fe river, Charles Davis property. Um, for each, I'll have a couple photos and a, and a map, um, that's an aerial image. And you can see on that aerial photo, it's, it's all agricultural pretty much. So it is a working farm, um, adjacent to the Hitchcock conservation easement. Um, 513 acres. And it is one of the ones that's on the F tax roll and family lands list. And you can see where it is in the county, um, north end of the county adjacent to the Hitchcock conservation easement. Uh, the second one is the lock loose slough flatwoods, Daniel hall property also on the active acquisition list. This one is on the Eastern side of the county in the Florida wildlife corridor on the aerial. It is more wooded in appearance, but the working parts of this property are, um, improved pasture and cattle grazing. And, um, it's also adjacent. I'll move forward to the next slide. You can see it's the red property here. It is adjacent to Alachua conservation trust health conservation lands. So it's adjacent to some conservation lands. Um, then we have the lock loose a connector wood property, um, directly across a road from an existing county conservation easement. The wood conservation easement with a different part of the wood family. This one's a bit smaller, 41 acres, um, improved pasture and cattle grazing also in the Florida wildlife corridor. And you can see where that is very near orange lake. Um, the lock loose a connector Powell and Sanborn property. Um, this one is a standalone parcel, 165 acres, um, being managed by, um, the Richardson brothers farm, but owned by other family members and also improved pasture and cattle grazing. See a recurring theme here. Um, this one is on the rural and family lands list as well. And, um, the watermelon pond decubulus property. And, uh, this one is obviously on the other side of the county. Um, this one is one of the, the, um, USDA NRCS partnership properties that Jean has, um, already been working to try and move forward with that partnership. And you can see where it sits within the network of lands that we've been able to protect within watermelon pond in the red there. And then finally the Roger Davis property, which you had already in 2024 said, yes, we could pursue an agricultural easement on, but it had originally been on the active acquisition list as a bargain share property. Because it came forward as an agricultural property prior to the creation of the ag land strategy. I'm just recommending for clarity that this not be on the bargain share list for environmentally significant lands, but be a full price agricultural land property. Um, so in, in case we have a question in the future, public records request about the workflow, I'm trying to get this one fully in alignment with the other ones that we just presented. So. Okay. Great. And that's also where that one sits. And unless there are questions on that. A couple. Yeah. So we've got, uh, Commissioner Alford and then Commissioner Prizia. Thank you communications for adding names. It, it's moved from numbers now to actually names I can read. So thank you. I have my cheat sheet here, but you fixed it. Commissioner Alford, go ahead. Yeah. Uh, the last two that you mentioned, both were, um, uh, previous sandhill properties. Mm. So when we look at the value of maintaining an agricultural farm in an area, like just looking at it, it's like, yeah, there's cows, but that's very much sandhill property. How are we weighing the benefits of maintaining it as agriculture when that is such an ecosystem that's in such peril? Yeah. Um, excellent question. Right. We, we keep reiterating that every time we bring up a watermelon pond property, the importance of sandhill. Yes. Thank you. Well, I grew up with sandhills being so, you know, ubiquitous and seeing their loss now is really. Yeah, absolutely. Um, so this particular property, we've been hoping to work with, um, USDA on a subset type of easement called grassland grasslands of special significance, which does allow for, um, cattle grazing and would have its own easement deed terms that would require, um, maintaining a certain amount of grassland cover on the property. Um, so not changing it to row crops or something of that nature, but still allowing this kind of dispersed cattle grazing operation that the landowners have on site. Um, the feeling within our office is that this property could have gone either way. It could have either gone forward as a, um, an environmentally significant land or an agricultural land, but because it qualifies for this grassland of special significance category, we'd like to try and move it forward that way to get the additional protection that comes with the USDA easement deed terms, um, added to the property. Now, yes, I, you can see just looking at the two parcels here, the Northern parcel is kind of looks more developed. The Southern is more wooded and has that portion of that wetland that bleeds onto the other parcels that are adjacent. And so those, you know, those resource values would stay in place within the structure of what we write for the easement deed. Um, but it's a, it is always that balanced question between those uses. Um, the only way to restore this would be to buy it and restore it. Or many of the land, I'm sorry, go ahead. They, they really love their property. They have a massive species, species list that they've been tracking species on site. These are landowners that really love this property. That makes it feel better. Yeah. Yeah. And they're, and, and they're intelligent, like very informed landowners. So, you know, we go through this conversation series with our landowners, regardless of which type of easement or fee simple, um, project we're working on. And part of our assessment is, you know, of the landowners themselves and what kind of partners they'd be for the county. But, um, we think it's most important to get the property under some kind of conservation protection. I agree. Rather than, um, try and direct them away from what their goals for their property are. And I, you know, I, I guess if the property ever became, um, untenable financially for agriculture, that, that we still have those restrictions, which would allow us to convert it into something different. Right. Or buy the underlying fee. Right. If at some time the landowners wanted to sell that. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. I just want to say a big thank you to Jane and Andy for continuing to find the ways to make this program successful and to see how it dovetails and coordinates and intersects with our conservation program in ways that allow us to stretch our dollar the most and make the most out of protecting ag and conservation land. So, thank you. Um, and I was going to make the motion to, um, adopt the resolution, um, 25 XXX repealing and replacing resolution 24 0 8 1 to amend the process for selecting. And acquiring agriculturally significant lands. Approve and authorize addition of six properties to the agricultural easement category full price list of the acquisition and, and of the active acquisition list. Um, and they are listed in the recommended action. So all of the ones that staff has presented today. Second. Okay. Got motion a second. Any discussion? My only question is, um, relative commissioner Alfred's point when, when we go through with these acquisitions of the easements, do they stay on the list for a potential fee simple in the future? If something were to change with the, the property owner, the family, the heirs? Um, right. Properties are never taken off the active acquisition list in a, in a like resolution language sense, unless the landowner comes forth and asks that they be removed. So even when they've been acquired or, or a portion of the interests have been acquired, um, we still from an operational standpoint can go back and require acquire the other interests. Okay, great. And they're on a, a list of things that were okay. Okay. Yeah. And then with regards to the registry, these don't go into the registry. Is that right? Easements do not, unless the landowner wants to. So we haven't done one yet because the landowners have not intended to. However, the watermelon pond Howell property, that easement that we did, um, last year was, is the, probably the first case where the landowner wants to protect their easement. So that is something that we ask as a question and then, okay, great. Perfect. Okay. Any other questions? Any public, uh, discussion to the motion on the floor? Come on, come on for just introduce yourself and give us your thoughts about the, uh, about the motion on the floor. Welcome. Thank you. Hi, everyone on the commission. Happy holidays. I wanted to be here before the end of the year, just to show our face again. My name is Bracken camp and I'm a resident of Southeast Gainesville. And Bracken, this is to the motion. Mm-hmm. Well, it's, it's all that's been going on in the last, since we've been here. So I'm really, really happy to be here today and hear about, um, EPAC's presentation as well as when Stacy presented about the water, because all of this has to do with why we've been coming for so long. And that we've been, I guess it's three years now that a number of Southeast residents have been coming and talking about the dump. And what I really want to just highlight today is that the springs. I live right between Boulware Springs and Payne's Prairie. And if you go out there, I don't know how often people go there. There's plaques there that show what, you know, like the history of, of the space and place. So if you go to Boulware, you'll see that it's because of Boulware Springs that the University of Florida came to Gainesville. And it's sacred, sacred waterways. And I'm not a geologist. I don't come up here as a professional. I come up here as a concerned resident that knows that we live on top of, and, and please, Mary, or someone that knows these words. I know we live on top of limestone and anyone who knows about limestone knows that all that water is porous. It's porous. I mean, water is porous, but I'm saying that limestone is porous. So all of the toxic stuff that is on the surface goes down. And we have a dump that's sitting on top of that, that is across the street. It literally across the street from Boulware Springs. So we have Boulware Springs, and then right on the other side of my house is La Chua Trail, which is precious. Anyone who's been out there knows that it's probably one of the places that people come from all over the state to see how many gators are out there any, any specific day. We got hundreds out there every day. There's all of the, the wildlife, sandhill cranes that keep being mentioned. So you go out there, and there's a plaque that talks about, in the middle, it's an educational plaque that talks about the water from Boulware goes all the way over there. It drains there, and then you know what it does? It drains in from that sink to the Santa Fe River. From the Santa Fe River, it goes to the Suwannee River. From the Suwannee, it goes out to our ocean. So we're in this, this space that is so, so fragile and so sacred. And I just want to bring the educational part of that to the table and have that on the docket, have people who are listening know where this dump is. It's literally across the street. Anyone can go and see it. Thank you. Thank you. I support all the things that have to do with EPAC and environmental because this is a zero waste. Y'all pass zero waste, and that's what we're here for. Thank you. Thank you. Have a happy holiday. Next speaker to the motion. Okay. Let's bring it back to the board. Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. That motion is unanimous. Andy, thank you for you and your staff for all the work. A lot of work went into that and for Anna for getting us down this path. So, okay. So, next up is item K. And Madam Clerk, it's is the fiscal year 26 budget amendment. Okay. Recommended action is to conduct a public hearing to adopt the resolution and approve the budget amendment. And we've got Mr. Crosby. You are recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Tommy Crosby, Budget Fiscal Services. So, as I'm starting to look, I have a brief, just a few slide presentation to kind of go over the highlights of the budget amendment. I do have on the screen for anybody watching at home just a link to what communication has done. They've done a very good job of the sense and sensibility trying to put our budget into a framework that our citizens can easily understand. Done by chapters. I think it's been very well done. We appreciate Mark and his team's efforts on that. Anybody wants to scan the QR code, it's there. They'll send you straight to it. I have been, I've actually been called by some people in other locations. They're like, hey, can you send me a copy of that? I said, it's online. We don't print stuff out like that anymore. So, but it's there for them to look at and it's really an excellent job. So, we appreciate that. Summary of your budget amendment is beginning fund balance is changing $34.7 million. That is rolled over fund balance that was not used in prior year. More of it. You know, we had some in our last budget amendment to handle invoices rolled over. Well, this is more of unused, mostly project money. I would say the majority of that is for projects. Revenue adjustments are $5.6 million. The transfers in and out or inter-fund transfers don't have a real impact on the budget other than make it, actually in this case, make it smaller. Reserves have increased. So, most of that fund balance, half of that fund balance went into reserves of the different funds. And kind of make a distinction. We have a reserve for contingency and we'll probably clarify this in our next set of budget policies. Those are what we set aside mainly in the general fund and the taxing funds in case of unknown events, disasters, et cetera. These reserves are all reserves. So, these are just a grant came forward. We don't have it allocated to an expenditure yet. So, we put it in a reserve expenditure account. So, half of that money is going just into those funds, individual fund reserves. We have expenditure increases of $23.5 million. Those are mostly projects, again, rolled over from the prior year. And then our reduction in the transfer out. The revenue highlights are mainly in non-taxing funds. We had a $26,000 ad for a wellness rebate. As you can see, the things in parentheses are only the primary examples of that fund. But we have drug and all these are grant funds, drug and law enforcement grants. Meta is a big one. So, $1.2 million rolled over from that from last year. Environmental funds, most of those are your petroleum program that EPD runs. Emergency services, 37,000 housing. Those are your CDBG. Coronavirus grants rolling over. That's one of those is really big, $2.93 million, something like that. So, again, these are all grants that we have that are either rolled over or brand new that we're just recognizing the revenue. Excuse me. Interest in the debt service fund. Our ship grant rollover. And then our transportation trust. We actually had recorded the projects in the original budget. And staff thought they needed to be recorded again in the carry forward. So, we're actually undoing that. That's why those are negative. So, they're not double counted. So, we have $3.4 million that was already in the budget for FDOT. And we rolled over too much fund balance in the MMTM fund. So, we've got to roll those back out to make those funds more balanced. Again, project carry forward in transportation is about $4.4 million worth of projects that were not completed that we need to roll over. On the expenditure side, in this we're focusing on the general fund only. Again, most of it is carry forward. Homeless prevention, $420,000. That's the money that Grace asked for last year or City of Gainesville asked for, I'm sorry, to help with last year. The Gainesville step out. This is the step down money from the CRA where we're rolling back $100,000 every year until we match their contribution. And we're setting it aside to be spent to stop or to house the homeless with supportive housing. Sunrise Inn renovation carried forward that project $450,000. The county attorney had some different outside counsel to assist with some projects that we're carrying forward. The biggest part of that, almost all of it is Mill Creek. So, we're just setting that money aside again in case there's an issue there. We originally didn't put in the original budget. We were hoping we wouldn't need it. But the board indicated we would like to make sure that money is set aside in case it is. Financial and Facilities Resource Management RE-ORG. That's my new area that you approved the FTE today. I know it says $200,000 in budget neutral, which sounds like a contradiction. It's coming from other funds. So, some of those positions were funded in gas tax, solid waste, some of the other fiscal staff. But it needs to be moved to the general fund. Clerk's office. All of the requests we have made of the clerk to mainly support outside entities. We've taken over MTPO. As you know what we've done with CareerSource over the last several years. Taking back over the Sports Event Center. Children's Trust, our assistance with Children's Trust and what we do with them. So, all these are demanding resources. So, he has finally asked for an FTE. And if the clerk ever asks for anything, it is probably a desperate need because the clerk never asks for anything. They usually manage. They manage the best they can. So, we are asking for that FTE there. And then EPD, the small scope expansion that EPD requested for the air monitoring contract. So, those are your expenditure highlights. And if you have any questions. I hear a motion. Commissioner Prezio. Yeah, I guess I would move the budget amendments as presented. But I also, I guess I just wanted to take this minute to highlight that I think, you know, I know we're going to be doing kind of a totally new budgeting process. Like going to zero-based budgeting and looking at everything. And both because we have a new strategic plan, I think, and because now we may also have some unique financial challenges depending on what happens at the legislative level with regards to property taxes, et cetera, et cetera. So, I guess I just wanted to let my colleagues know and the team know if my colleagues are on board with this. But, like, I really do want them to know that, like, we will, I, for one, like having more budget meetings. I enjoy having the conversations about our budget and having the time to dig into it and take enough time that we don't feel rushed through and that we can use that time to really understand where our money is going. And it became really clear to me in some other conversations I was having with Tommy and Michelle about procurement and stuff like that that, you know, that really is the time for us to dive into it versus, you know, some other times like when we have a certain contract on the agenda and it's kind of too late to really even say anything about it because it's already gone through all the processes it needs to go through. So, I just wanted to say I know we're going to be doing kind of a new round of how we do our budget and I hope it's a time that we can think about the way in which we do those meetings such that we can do deeper dives and take the time we need to really do it right and educate our public about how our budget works and where our money goes. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. Do I hear a second to motion? Second. Got a motion and a second. Okay. So, Commissioner Prizzi, let me just respond. So, before I do that. So, Tommy, it's safe to say we've reduced our millage rate for nine out of the last nine years and we are sitting with reserves, fund balance and reserves of over $50 million. Yes, sir. Great job to you, your team, to our department, to the county staff. That, to me, has been something that I've been able to communicate around the state at the FAC meetings. The highlight of the most recent FAC meeting, which was our legislative agenda that we did a couple of weeks ago, was property ad valorem taxes, what's going to happen. Apparently, the House is moving all seven proposals forward. The Senate and the governor can then decide. I saw a press. I saw a news conference with the governor where he's talking about homeset and making, you know, making those taxes go away. And all the county commissioners around the state come to me and say, you know, what are you all going to do? I was like, we're going to be good. I mean, we're good. We've got a budget director that has prepared our county for this. We already have 67% of our properties on the tax rolls, which the state average is 84%. So we're already used to not having ad valorem. Thank you to the University of Florida and Santa Fe and all of the tax exempt properties around our county, which is not a complaint. They are a feature to our county. It just shows that we are a very fiscally conservative and aware of how we spend our money county. And then when I told them, and this is great, when I told them a couple of weeks ago, you know, we've got the best staff in the state, in my opinion. Our OMB department is unbelievable. Yeah, we're starting our budget process with this zero-based budget concept, presuming it's all going away. They were like, wait, what? I was like, yeah, we've been talking about this for over a year. And knowing that we're prepared for that. And they were blown away. And so, Tommy, I want to also thank you for that. And Commissioner Prisio, when someone asks a CPA, let's have more budget meetings. I mean, you know, like I'm getting excited now about what's about to happen because it's kind of a weird thing. But that's your, I love that. And I'm happy to do that. And, yeah, so, so anyways. If I could just, you know, it's obviously a reflection of my team. And the board and the manager have supported my initiatives like the one today to get somebody in place to, because we're always trying to improve. We do believe in a continuous improvement model. We're always trying to do things better and more effectively and efficiently. And so my team is a reflection of that. But thank you for the kind words. But I want to make sure they know that as well. Yeah, 100%. So thank you for your comments, Commissioner. Thank you, Commissioner. The light of the manager's on. Michelle, do you have a comment? Yeah, I was just going to say, to Commissioner Prizia's point, I think particularly in this year, more so than even in past years, it's important that we detail out each and every part of our budget because it is an opportunity for the public to understand how it works. And that, I think, is going to be critical in this upcoming year. So we definitely take that into consideration because I do think it's important for us to continue to make sure the public understands what exactly parts of our budget is their property tax and what happens when that goes away. And I will add to that, Commissioner, as I start to plan out with the mayors around the county or joint meetings, this is going to be front and center. You know, they're at the long budgets as well and how are they dealing with the challenges that are coming forward. And so we're going to know a lot more in about two and a half months. We're going to know a lot more. But I'm with you. Let's let's let's show the public how that kind of has done it and how we're building our budget in the upcoming year. You want to respond? Go ahead. I'll just do it later. Okay. All right. Any other comments, Commissioner? Anyone from the public would speak to the motion back to board? All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed motion is unanimous. Tommy, thank you. Thanks for spending a little bit more time on that this time. Okay. Next up, Adam clerk. We have public hearing for unified land development code amendment for inclusionary housing. Okay. And the recommended action is for us to convene as land development regulation commission, find that the amendments are consistent with the Alaska County comprehensive plan, and then we will reconvene. So motion and a couple seconds for us to convene as the ULDC. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Back to the board. I'm sorry, the land land development regulation commission. Yeah. Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Chris Dawson speak to the land development regulation commission. So, Mr. Chair, thank you, Chris Dawson, principal planner for development services. The amendments that we're bringing for you today are to adopt some regulations related to inclusionary housing. These are based on the comp plan amendments that the board adopted in May 2025. Those policies in some cases were clear, but in others left some implementation up to the land development regulations. We're creating a new article in Chapter 402 of the land development regulations titled Inclusionary Housing. This chapter generally requires a land use restriction agreement for certain development plans, those that are providing affordable housing consistent with standards in the land development regulations or comprehensive plan. Establishes a methodology for calculating the number of required affordable units for certain kinds of developments that are in the comprehensive plan. And it creates standards for affordable units to ensure that they are generally the same as market rate units that would otherwise be within a development. In the T&D and TOD section of Chapter 407, we are putting in language that allows the substitution of affordable units for non-residential square footage. And that substitution rate varies with the level of affordability. So for units provided at 60% or below of AMI, it would be one unit per 500 square feet. And at 80% AMI, it's one unit per 1,000 square feet. So the more affordable, the more you get to buy down your non-residential. The code would also allow a density bonus of four units per acre, an additional four units per acre. Ten percent of those must be affordable at 80% AMI. And the affordable units don't count towards the required non-residential. So when you get those additional affordable units, you're not then having to provide more non-residential to balance them out, which is one of the things in our T&D TOD is that we require that equivalency. That's what I have to say on that, Mr. Chair. I can answer any questions. Our recommendation is to convene as the Land Development Regulation Committee and find the proposed amendments consistent with the comprehensive plan, then reconvene as the Board of County Commissioners and adopt the ordinance amending the ULDC. I just had a question about the affordability component. And that is, like, in the LARA, is that affordability in perpetuity? Most of what we've looked at to this point is 30 years. It's not perpetuity. So there could be a different standard, but it's not always specifically spelled out exactly what that timeframe is. The LARA may come back to different approvers. So for some types of applications, that agreement will come back to the Board. For some types of applications that will go to the manager because the state says you can't be involved anymore. So I guess, you know, I think that when we do the LARA's with regards to some of our incentive programs or, you know, some of our other reasonings for people to do something where they're doing affordability, I understand the 30-year cap, but in an instance where they're getting land expansion, they're getting essentially more units, they're doing a forever project. And so in my opinion, they should be committing to a forever just, you know, requirement on their end. You know, so if they're getting the units forever and they're getting to sell those houses for millions of dollars and realize that profit, I guess, for me, it feels like they should have to keep the affordability. Because otherwise, in 30 years, we're going to be back in an affordability crisis because we've, you know, we've maxed out the density in these places, we've increased the densities. I doubt in 30 years we're going to see redevelopment of those places into high-rises with more affordability. So I guess, I don't know, I'm just feeling like, and I know that's not in this necessarily, but I just want to bring it up that I feel like in instances where we're doing increases in density or we're doing things that are related to negotiating land use for affordability, those things should be in perpetuity. And I don't necessarily disagree. My only pause would be sometimes the financing may prevent something like that in perpetuity if they're doing a financing stack. But, because usually that's tied to 30-year mortgage appreciation over 30 years. But do you need any direction for that? I think we need to kind of see how this goes. So, Mr. Chair, I will say, you know, we've had some discussions with the Attorney's Office about this. We've looked over some Laura's. I know we have a couple applications coming that will be subject to this. For the public, define Laura. It's a land use restriction agreement. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Appreciate that. And that's basically a long-term deed restriction that will identify what those requirements are. We've had some discussions with the Attorney's Office. We haven't talked about something more than 30 years, and I think I'd want to have that discussion. Like I said, there are some applications that are coming in the near future that likely will require this process. So, it's probably something that we would want to talk about. I could just refer to the Growth Management and Attorney's Teams to have a discussion about and bring back some recommendations with regards to how we apply the affordability terms on various affordability incentives that we're now offering through land use. So, that could be part two to the motion. Part two of my motion, if that's okay with the second there. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So, that's a good part two. Oh. Okay. I only made the convening part. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think to the extent we get those recommendations back, then it would be at that point that we would then amend the ordinance. Correct? We'd want to look at that, Mr. Chair. I'll have a definite answer for that right now. If we need to put it in an ordinance, we can. I mean, you don't want us to. Okay. I see. I would move that we find the amendments consistent with the County comprehensive plan and when we get back as the county commission. Okay. So, we've got a motion that we've got the proposed amendments are consistent with the comp plan. And we have a second. Got a second. Any further discussion? Any public discussion? By the board, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion's unanimous. We're going to reconvene now as a Board of County Commissioners. Now, I would move that we approve the ordinance amending the Unified Land Development Code and authorize the Chair's signature. And that we refer to our growth management and legal teams to bring back recommendations regarding the land use restriction agreements and affordability terms. Excellent. Two-part motion. Do I hear a second? Second. Got a motion. A couple seconds. Any discussion? Any public discussion? Seeing none, back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Chris, thank you. Thank you for that. I know that was a lot of work. Commissioners, are we okay? Or do we want to take a quick break? Are we good? Okay. Let's keep moving. Okay. All right. So, we're moving to quasi-judicial. We're going to need to ask her when she comes back about any stuff. But, Madam Clerk, next item? Quasi-judicial? Yes. Next item will be quasi-judicial, Tyrone, private landing, strip, special exception. Okay. Mr. Chair, in the next two, these are quasi-judicial items. I have a little script for your quasi-judicial items. All persons wishing to testify or present evidence during this hearing will be sworn in prior to speaking during this proceeding. All persons have the right through the chair to ask questions, to seek clarification, to respond to comments or presentations. All persons who present written materials to commissioners for consideration must ensure a copy of such material is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's record of proceedings and official minutes. While we welcome comments from all persons with an interest in this proceeding, Florida law requires that the county commission's decision in a quasi-judicial action be supported by competent, substantial evidence presented to the board during the hearing on the application. Competent, substantial evidence is such evidence as a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion. There must be a factual basis in the record to support opinion testimony from both experts and non-expert witnesses. Persons presenting testimony may rely on any factual information in the record to support their testimony. In a moment, the clerk will ask for persons other than staff and the applicant who wish to participate as parties, who should identify themselves and explain to the board why they believe they are parties. I don't believe we have any party requests at this time and I don't know if there are any late party requests. Anyone seeking party status? Anybody new seeking party status? That has not been already granted party status. And that's other than staff or the applicant. Yep. Okay. Great. Is that it? That's it? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I have not. I have not. We'll ask Commissioner Prizy when she comes back in. Okay. That's fine. At this time, anyone wishing to address this item, please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Yes. Okay. I think all the fun stuff, Mr. Bendakar, is completed. Let's get started. Thank you, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. This is Mehdi Bendakar with Alachua County Growth Management, and this agenda item is Z25-000-021, which is a special exception for the Tyrone private landing strip. This zoning application is located at 3828 Southwest Wakahuta Road. This slide shows the location of the site. It's in the southwest portion of the county near the intersection of Williston Road and Wakahuta Road to the west of I-75. This aerial shows Dr. Tyrone's parcel. It's 170 acres for the entire parcel. However, the area of the special exception has been restricted to where you see this diagonal hatching here in this portion of the site, and that landing strip area is about two and a half acres. The future land use designation for this parcel is rural agricultural, and the parcels to the east, south, and west are as well. To the north of this site is Paynes Prairie, and that's shown here with this preservation land use. This slide shows the zoning with similar agricultural zoning on this parcel and parcels to the east, south, and west, and to the north where Paynes Prairie is, is C1 conservation zoning. Background information about this application. We don't really have so many private landing strip special exception requests. I believe there's only been one in the last 30 years. But it is indicated in the rural ag land use policies that is ancillary to ag uses and allowed with a special exception approval. No construction is being proposed. It will simply allow the applicant to land his private bush plane on his property. And there are also approvals that will be needed after this special exception if this is approved. Florida Department of Transportation and the FAA also have approvals that are required for private air facility. This slide shows where the bush plane will be kept in this hangar here. This slide shows what the landing strip looks like if you look to the northwest. And this part of the parcel has enough area that's cleared where the plane will not have any obstructions. And this is looking from the opposite direction towards the southwest. This slide shows what that bush plane looks like. These are smaller planes. It's a smaller plane and it does not need so long of a runway to take off. I believe that runway that's been proposed is about a little over 800 feet. So we're not talking a very long runway here. The staff has bases for approval as shown in this slide. The first of which is that private landing strips are considered as ancillary to rural ag uses. And the zoning use table specifies that landing strips are allowed in ag zoning with special exception approval. And then the third basis is the special exception criteria for approval found in the Unified Land Development Code section 402.113. And also the environmental resource assessment that was required for this application. We had staff from Environmental Protection review this application and found that the proposed special exception is consistent of the protection of resources as mentioned in policy 3.4.1 of the conservation and open space element. Proposed conditions are shown on this slide. The first is to allow this use, the private landing strip. Restricted to that area is shown on the parcel. And there's a legal description that corresponds to where the plane may take off and land. The second proposed condition is to restrict this use to daytime only. The third is that any other necessary approvals will be required before this can begin operation. The fourth condition is that aviation field will not be stored on the site. And the fifth is that this private landing strip shall not be paved. Our staff recommendation is for the county commission to approve this special exception application, Z25-000-021, with the conditions basis as shown in our staff report. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bendikar. Before we hear from the applicant, are there any questions for staff? Commissioner Alford and then Commissioner Wheeler? Yeah. Thank you. So there's already a hangar on site and were the photos of the plane taken in that hangar? So I believe there is an ag exemption on this parcel that's classified as ag, so that's officially an ag building. It's not considered a hangar. I just, it seems like it was already happening, so I was just curious. Yeah, I believe Dr. Tyrone can speak about the status, but I believe he's building it himself. Okay. So that's why it's been shown in halfway built. Oh, okay. It looks pretty cool. The, my second question is, is while there's a restriction on storage of fuel, there's also a lot of other maintenance that would, can take place on planes, based on my other friends that I've known that had planes. Are, would there be any restriction on other maintenance fluids and things like that, or would that be considered, is that taken into account by environmental protection? I, I'm not, we didn't, we didn't propose a condition, but we have environmental protection staff here that can speak to, you know, any kind of hazardous materials they would expect to see, if there's any need to condition it. I, I don't know. I just, you know, if, if there's any maintenance taking place on the plane, if it's happening inside the hangar where there's a concrete floor and things like that for cleanup, I'm okay with it. I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything happening on the ground. But I, do you, does EPD want to speak to that or do you? Anyone from EPD, Mr. Brown, you want to see if that came up during your discussions? Chair of the Board, good afternoon. Mark Brown, EPD. That was brought up on our discussion, but we're considering Dr. Tyrone's, you know, the type of plane he's working with, we'd want to anticipate that. If it was to change in, as far as land use or different type of equipment, that he would be responsible to contact us as well as FAA and allow us to know what, particularly hazardous material may be on site now to properly store it. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Good clue. All right. Thank you, Commissioner. I have a question for Mr. Brown. Well, let me ask you too, Sue, about have there been any concerns from neighbors about the application? Mr. Chair, so there was a neighborhood workshop that was required as part of this and there were some questions, you know, from neighbors, but I believe they've all been addressed. All right. And at the Planning Commission, I don't believe we had any concerns that were brought up. And I don't see anybody here too, so that, thank you, thank you. Thank you. And then, Mr. Brown, I'm going to ask you about as close as it is to the prairie, and it looks like to the, I can't talk about the map, so I don't know if that's east or west, but close to the area where that runway is, it looks like it's a green forested area? Oh, right. It's quite a bit, Mr. Chair. Elevation change, the front strip is really high on the property compared to the prairie. It's also in the east-west alignment, so taking off and it goes much higher elevation than birds usually fly, and so at the same time, it's not, you know, in terms of flying right over the prairie as much as east-west alignment, so that, you know. That's what I would have thought. There's a lot of bird activity probably in and around there because of the prairie and also, you know, green space there too. So that's, you all have looked at that. We looked at that and also the daylight hours because most of your flights, you know, bird flights in the dawn-dust, you know, feel comfortable with that. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. Next, we'll hear from the applicant, Dr. Tyrone. Thank you for being here and welcome. Thanks for having me, Commissioners. I'm happy to answer any questions. I don't know if there's some concerns about that. We did have a neighborhood meeting and a lot of people thought this was going to be like John Travolta's landing strip with jets coming in. That's not what it is. Essentially what this is is the state of Florida requires you to have a permit and a landing strip to land on private property. A lot of states you don't even need this. You can just go straight and just land on the property. So it's just a formality from my perspective, but it's not going to be an airport. I'll be the only person using it. As far as answering your questions about the fluids and stuff, these engines are like a small car engine basically. It's just oil changes and they're air-cooled so there's not even coolants or anything like that. So it's just oil changes and basically street gas that goes in them. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Tyrone. Madam Clerk, did you want to ask about ex parte for these two items? Yes, ma'am. Have you had any ex parte communications? No, ma'am. Okay, great. Thank you. Mr. Chair, may I ask a question? Yeah, please. Commissioner Wheeler. Is this, can you carry this behind your car? Is it small enough? The airplane? Yes. Can you transport it? Well, I built it at my house until my wife got upset with that and that's why it's out there at the barn now. So, yeah, I put it in a trailer and took it over there. That's what I was wondering. If it's small enough that you could do that. Not in your car, but on a trailer. Right. That's what I mean. Yes. I had an uncle in Oklahoma who built one like that and drove it every summer up to Alaska to use. Yep. They're very common. A lot of people were surprised with this application, but it's actually pretty common nationally. Gotcha. Yes. I'm familiar with what you're doing. So that's pretty cool. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Chair, I move staff recommendation. Second. Okay. We've got a motion in a second. My only comment is, you know, I am not a fan of special exceptions. I'm just, for me, I don't like to ever really approve them. In this case, I have no problem with it. It's just something that I appreciate you going through the process and so I will absolutely be supporting the motion. Okay. So we've got a motion and a second and a further public discussion. Back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for being here and going through the process. Appreciate staff's work on that. All right. Our next quasi judicial public hearing is a request for a minor plan development amendment to the Jonesville plan development. The recommended action is staff recommends that the board adopt the resolution Z25-09 approving the request requested minor PD amendment. I always wonder how we determine it as minor versus major, but maybe someone can. Mr. Chair, I'll get into that in a second. All right. I'll tell you how it's done. You are. And there's more art than science. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair. Jerry Brewington, senior planner, Alachua County Department of Growth Management. For the record, I have been sworn. Copy of my resume is on file. And also for the record, both quasi judicial items were properly advertised and proof of publication has been provided to the clerk. One housekeeping item subsequent to the submittal of the item into a scribe. We've gotten some additional comments. So I'm going to hand these to the clerk. We've gotten, I think, six additional, five additional comments. Anyway, these are paper copies. I'm going to hand to the clerk. Madam clerk, if you wouldn't mind at some point getting those copies, I'd like to read some of those. It's multiple lines. Oh, sorry. Okay. There's 10 copies there, so there should be enough for everybody. Thank you. Jerry's on it. Mr. Chair, again, good afternoon. Jerry Brewington, senior planner, Alachua County Department of Growth Management. This is a request for a minor PD amendment. This actual item, I don't know if it set a record, but I went back and looked. If you look at the cover page of your staff report, this is actually the fifth time this particular item has been heard by the board. 2006, 2008, 2013, 2018, and now 2025. And I think my name was on all of those staff reports, which means I've been here too long. So this particular item is actually for those of us who've been here a little longer. This was the Rose Peddler site. It is now a site of a Dollar General. It is a mixed use PD located on the south side of Newberry Road, just east of Jonesville. This is an aerial view of the property. The property is in two segments. There is a commercial portion of the property with a commercial land use on approximately one acre on the northern side of the property, which is where the Dollar General is now located. There is also a portion of the property located on the south side of approximately two acres. That has a low density residential land use designation. The site has a PD zoning district. And again, there's an implementing PD right now in effect with a zoning master plan, which I'll get more into in a minute. And there's also the commercial land use on the northern portion with, again, the residual portion being a low density residential land use designation, which allows one to four dwelling units per acre. The most recent plan development approval for this, as I stated earlier, was in 2018 ZOM 318. This, again, has included a series of changes over the years. The PD zoning master plan at present permits retail uses, which is the Dollar General up front on the north side of the property and up to eight residential units, which is single family on that portion of the property designated for that purpose on the zoning master plan. I would note for the record, Mr. Chair, that that eight unit threshold, which is four dwelling units per acre times two acres, has been present in all the iterations of this PD over the years based on the land use. So from 2006 all the way through to the present time, the property has had that low density residential land use with eight dwelling units. So the applicant is not actually asking for any change to the entitlements to the property. It was eight units. It is going to continue to be eight units. And again, the PD application provided a note in the 2018 iteration that says that there was a minimum lot size. It was 10,000 square feet with an 80 foot lot width. This minimum lot size was not required by code. We have not required minimum lot sizes. And since 2005 in our residential zoning districts, but was adopted as part of the PD approval in 2018. It was a condition that was proffered by the applicant included on the zoning master plan and approved by the board at that time. The minor amendment that's being requested would remain the eight residential unit limit. And it would maintain the single family residential requirement, but would eliminate the minimum lot size. That is the extent of the requirement or the, excuse me, the request with this application is simply to get rid of the minimum lot size. The eight units that were there before are going to remain. That has not changed. And again, our unified land development code does not require minimum lot sizes elsewhere in the county. When straight zoning districts, this is something that was strictly proffered by the applicant. When the application was considered in 2018, staff said fine and the board approved it, but that's not something that staff again required. And certainly our code does not require it elsewhere for residential zoning districts. The request for the removal of the lot size minimums from the zoning master plan is considered a minor amendment as the proposed scope of the PD is not changing. To get to your question, Mr. Chair, the scope of the project remains the same. It's the same number of units. There's no increase in footage. There's no increase in entitlements. The only thing they're asking for is a elimination of the minimum lot size. The code in a chapter 402 over the code specifically says, if you're not increasing the scope of the PD, you're just asking for a change that does not affect the scope. Or if it reduces it, I would suppose it is considered a minor amendment and therefore this is a minor amendment. They are not changing the scope. They're just removing the minimum lot size. As I've stated earlier, we don't have minimum lot sizes elsewhere in residential districts. There will be no additional impacts resulting from this request. There's no level of service standards that are going to be violated. It's the same scope, just with the removal of the minimum lot size. And again, just to emphasize, there's no change to the proposing housing types. It's single family residential before it will still be single family residential. This is the zoning master plan that exists right now. And if you see in the development standards down at the bottom right hand side, it says, again, the minimum lot area is 10,000 square feet with an 80 foot lot width. And I've kind of expanded that a little bit and highlighted it. That's where it shows, again, the minimum lot area at 10,000 square feet, minimum lot width at 80. And if we could get the overhead for just one second, I just wanted to show the board included in the resolution will be the revised zoning master plan. And I know it's going to be hard to see, but bottom right and pointing to it right now on that zoning master plan, those two. And I'm trying to do walk and chew gum. There we go. There you go. Is it says none now. So it's just the removal of the 10,000 square feet with the 80 foot width. That zoning master plan otherwise is remaining the same. And that, again, it's going to be included in your resolution should this item be adopted. That concludes that presentation, Mr. Chair. Staff recommends that the board of county commissioners find the proposed amendment consistent with the Alachua County plan and code. And that you adopt resolution Z2509 approving the request. And that concludes staff presentation unless there's any questions. Okay, Jerry. Thank you. Before we get to the applicant, we've got Commissioner Alfred and Commissioner Prezio. Oh, no, I'm good. I just was going to move for a staff recommendation. I forgot about the applicant. Okay. Well, Commissioner Prezio. I wasn't around for the original process, but it seems to me that there's considerable conversations. This has happened a bunch of times and there's lots of input. I remember hearing that from staff, actually. So I guess I'm just wondering if that was a condition of the original PD, there was probably a reason for it at the time. And I guess I'm just interested to know, number one, why it needs to be moved if it's the same number of houses in the same place and nothing else is changing. Why do they need the minimum lot size removed? And secondarily, like why was the condition added to begin with? Because I, I, I feel really uncomfortable going back on something that was negotiated with conditions during an initial set of hearings with regards with, I had a lot of controversy. Mr. Chair, the, it's an excellent question. It's an excellent question and certainly the app, this again was an applicant requested. We staff did not request the minimum. Again, we were going to go consistent with the code. They have requested the minimum lot size. Um, I, you would have to ask them and I'm sure they can speak to it further. We do not require minimum lot sizes. We'd never would have in a PD required something that as elsewhere not provided for in residential districts. So I would just simply say that this is nothing that staff was looking for. Um, the applicant provided that they want, they were going to have that minimum lot size. Um, we did look at the old, the meeting from back in 2018. This was this particular aspect was, there were other aspects in the conditions that were discussed specifically. The two story restriction, uh, the fencing, there were a number of other items were that were discussed. This was not particularly an item that was discussed at the previous approval in 2018, but it was part of the PD zoning master plan. It was approved, but it was not seen as something that was integral or key to the, the conditions that you see in the resolution or in the previous staff report for the zoning master plan were all things that were discussed. And again, I remember specifically the two story item. They didn't want two story people, you know, they didn't want a second story. There was a height limit restriction. There was a fencing restriction. Those were specific things that were discussed. This was just something that was added in the zoning master plan. I don't recall any great discussion regarding this particular item, but the applicant can certainly speak and fill in any blanks. You know, something I may have left out or misspoken. I certainly don't want to do that, but I do not recall anything. Thank you, Jerry. Before we get to the applicant commissioner, thanks for asking that question. I can tell you my recollection because I remember this meeting 2018. I was the, I think the loan descent. I don't know if you were a no, you might. I don't remember. I think it was a four one. Um, and my issue was compatibility with the existing area. And at the time, uh, the, the focus was not on these lots. It was on the dollar general and was that a compatible use, uh, surrounding. If you look at the map to yoga and the jockey club, it's switched right in between there. Um, there were a lot of folks, uh, that didn't like the dollar general. That's done. That happened. Um, from my perspective though, uh, from a compatibility standpoint and, and I understand our code is allowing aid. And I know that it has allowed aid for me, the lot size is a, is a, was a significant negotiated point. I don't remember if I raised it. I would probably, I probably didn't. Um, but I am familiar, very familiar with that street in a jockey club and that street in town at yoga. And, um, I think the lot size is important and it was negotiated and it is a PD. And so I don't think it's, um, consistent with the surrounding area, even though our code says we want more density there. Mr. Chair, if I, if I hold on one second. Oh, sorry. And so, um, I, I do, I am curious too, as to why the applicant is requesting this. When I look at the, the emails on page five, you know, halfway down, maintain low density, residential character, ensure compatibility with existing surrounding communities. That to me would be a basis for denying this. Um, but I, I want to hear from the applicant first. So those are my thoughts, Jerry. Did you have a comment? I'm yes. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Um, the attached single family housing, you go across the street, West End. There's a single family attached. There's, there's, there's across the very street. Well, town of Tioga, I believe there might be some too. It's pretty small. And so lots. Yeah. So I don't, I would say that staff did not view the housing type of being attached. Even if it's attached, it doesn't say it has to be attached, but it could be small lot sizes. It doesn't have to be attached. Um, but we did not view that particular housing type as being inconsistent with what else is in the area. And I'll, I'll just leave it at that because of those examples, we saw others in the area that were similar housing type. Right. Okay. Um, okay. Let's hear from the applicant and maybe they can address, uh, some of those questions and we'll hear the why, I guess. Mr. Diedenbach. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, members of the commission, Madam attorney, Madam city manager, or county manager, uh, Jerry Diedenbach, NV5. I was the presenter and we did this in 2018. When we presented this item at the time, we thought that there would be a subdivision of that residual. And Jerry, if I can use, we thought that there would be a subdivision of that property and be able to fit lots in there. Um, between 2018 and present Sergio and clay over at EDA tried to do this. The property was actually gifted to a church and the church wanted to build some homes in there for people. And they were unable to subdivide that because the retention basin, which sits in between here is taking up almost all that area. So the only practicable way to utilize this for the eight allowed units on there is to build basically two townhomes of four units each. And as you might remember, some of you who were here, when we presented this in 2018, we actually showed attached housing in there. But when EDA came in to actually try to engineer it, they discussed this with staff. Staff said those would have to be on lots. And while the end caps of a four unit building might be able to have 10,000 feet of dirt, the ones in the middle couldn't. So we were asking now to make this a practical use of what we depicted in 2018, which were two four unit buildings in there. We want to remove the lot restriction on there, which requires to have 10,000 feet of dirt underneath the residential unit. So this isn't again, as Jerry stated, it isn't a request for any additional density. It is to allow the units as were depicted in 2018 to be built as two single family attached units of four units each. Yeah, it was just kind of it was envisioned as townhomes. But when they came back seven years later, a subdivision of that is just not practicable because that B area is only 80,000 square feet or 70,000 square feet. When you take parking out there, you can't divide it up and get the density. Is this map accurate? Yes, Mr. Chair, that map looks fairly accurate. Are there any protected trees in this area now? It looks like a big tree right in the middle of it. I do not know if they have done a tree survey on that present, but they would certainly have to do that because, again, seven years of growth there may have allowed those species along that edge. There is a condition in there where there needs to be a buffer around the perimeter. So that has been maintained in there. Yeah, and it's got seven years more growth on it. I'm sorry, I'm asking questions before you all. Is that okay? Does the PD that currently exists, I mean, if that is a large live oak right in there, how would that affect based on our new tree regulations and the existing PD? Mr. Chair, Chris Dawson, principal planner. So, I mean, it depends on the size of the tree and the rating of the tree. But it's still subject to our regulations. Yes, because that's a 90-inch tree. Well, I'm going to be careful with that and just say I don't remember what the preliminary was approved for on this property. So this, in our code, when we adopted our new tree protection code, we provided an exemption or an allowance for projects that had had a preliminary development plan approved prior to that adoption date to use tree protection consistent with that approved preliminary. I don't remember on this site if the preliminary actually included all of the residential area in the back as well or if it only included the commercial portion of the front. I just don't remember. So what I would say is it depends. If that preliminary included the property to the residential property, then they would be able to proceed consistent with that preliminary development plan. If they were to come in and they don't have an approved preliminary for this portion of the site, then they would have to do tree protection consistent with our current code, which could mean that they are not able to get those full eight units if that tree happened to be in the way of doing it. Who can answer prior to the end of this quasi-hearing that question? I will sit down and take a look, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Other questions? Commissioner? Mr. Offer. I just wanted to say this is an area I've spoken to several business owners in Tioga, and there's a real need for housing for, you know, workforce kind of housing there. And so I, while I understand, you know, the neighbors wanting things that are just like them around them, one of the things that we have been pushing for is more diversity in our neighborhoods and this answers to that. So that's why I will support staff's recommendation and make the motion to approve staff's recommendation. Got a motion and a second? Okay. We've got motion and a second. Commissioner Wheeler. I just was going to say the same thing. You know, we were looking for a wider range of possibilities out there for housing. And, you know, I just feel like it's an okay thing to do. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Now we're going to go ahead and open it. The commissioners have had their questions answered. We've asked, well, except for one that we're researching. But now would be a time for anyone from the public to come forward and give us their thoughts about the motion that's on the floor. If you'll come forward, introduce yourself. You've got a light system there. The green light says go. Yellow says you got 30 seconds. And red says let's wrap this up. Thank you for giving me the opportunity. My name is Eric Dambitsky. I'm the neighbor to that property on the southeast corner of that property. And I was part of the discussion back in 2018 about how to merge the commercial and residential part. And the requirement for 10,000 square feet was to guarantee that there will not be more than eight units. Okay. So now since big part of the two acres remaining outside of the dollar general were taken up by the retention pond, roughly only about acre remaining for allowing 10,000 square feet lot. Therefore, in practicality, you could maybe put four houses in there with the change, which is called minor. I disagree that this is minor change. There would be eight units. So therefore, you double the number of units that practically per the development from seven years ago was agreed to. I am really confused about how can someone make statements and agree to 10,000 square feet requirement for the lot size. And then a few years later, ah, it's still okay because we said, by the way, it's not eight units. It's up to eight units. It's a big difference. Four units falls within that requirement. So please, we already had, I had stolen stuff from Dollar General dropped on my property. There was the vandalization of the fence that is there, and I am really concerned who is going to be taking care of that fence when the houses are built there. Is there going to be a homeowner association looking after that? Because, you know, many people who are living, I believe, both on Tioga side and north side of Newburgh Road just like to go to Dollar General and then go to Tioga through that property. But that's the problem I hope we'll be taking care of. My issue is this is not a minor change. It's going from four houses to eight houses. Please consider my, I tried to sell my house three years ago, and people were already looking. What's out there? What's going to be happening to that area? Well, I could tell them at that time it's going to be quarter acre housing per, a lot per house. Is that no longer the case? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Okay. Let's go ahead and close the public comment. We'll bring it back to staff. Chris, would you ever find out anything? Yes, Mr. Chair. I was able to find out something. What were you able to find out? So, Mr. Chair, the preliminary development plan and final, it was a couple of questions. And final, it was a combined application was for phase one. Phase one included sort of all of the improvements that would go along with the development. So, it included stormwater. It included the access part, parking, the dollar general. The conceptual locations for the residential are shown on the plan that was approved. But I don't know that we necessarily approved like that whole thing. Can you show us that? Are you able to pull that up? Yep. I'm going to do my best, Mr. Chair. There is a tree in the middle or in that area generally. I don't know what kind it is. And I believe that it's shown as to be removed already. So, it's sort of, Jeff's going to try and point to where that is. There's a tree right there and that's the one that you can kind of see in the aerial. What's the size? It doesn't have the size? I don't know that. I don't have all those plans in front of me right now. So, there is the potential that that would require some kind of preservation today. But I cannot answer that question 100%. That just would take me some time to figure it out. If it's a tree that meets those standards, they're going to have to preserve it. The majority of the tree... If it's a tree that meets the standards, because we haven't already approved a preliminary development plan, whatever it would be. So, in those situations, they have to meet the code. I mean, that's... When you come in, you have to meet the code. Now, there's a couple ways that they could meet that. So, that's why I can't tell you right now which way that will be. The majority of the trees that were preserved on the site are within the 40-foot buffers that are to the north, and the existing buffers that are around the perimeter of the property. This property was largely already used. It was a single-family home site, and it had some agricultural-type activities on it. So, it had mostly been cleared already. So, it's not like there's tons of huge trees all over the site. And it's one way in, one way out. There's no connectivity, correct? That's correct. It does appear as if it was presented as two-floor unit. That's... At preliminary, that's what... Yes, that's what they were showing was that general development area. I wouldn't say that it was two-four units. I don't know that it really says that, but it shows where those development areas would be. The retention pond, where is... That's basically two... Originally, I think as Jerry said, it was a theoretical neighborhood with four houses. 10,000 square feet, lots, minimum lot size, which were smaller than Jockey Club. I mean, you can look at the map. Jockey Club, it's like four houses versus one house. Tioga is the same way. It's like one, you know, two houses versus four houses. So, it was already more dense than Tioga. Tioga has an apartment. Right. I'm talking about just on the street. I'm sorry. On this street, these lot sizes were, you know, half the size of... Twice the size of what was being proposed. Four houses on this, just as the individual said. And two houses on a quarter of an acre here, or on an acre here. And the Jockey Club has one acre, one house per acre. So, it's one, two per acre, four per acre. And now, it would be eight. So, which is our code. Which is our code. It would be four, no, four houses. Four units per acre. Four units per acre. Up, as he said. Which is the same land use designation as Tioga and Jockey Club as well. So, it's... And in our comp plan, it anticipates detached and attached single-family uses for low-density residential. So, it's... It may be different than exactly what's constructed across that stormwater basin or down the road where Jockey Club is. But in terms of our comp plan, it's the same future land use designation. That's that one to four dwelling units per acre. I just remember this PUD because of the commercial dollar general thing. And I just remember being a no on it, but... Okay. Commissioner Wheeler and then Commissioner Prizia. And we've got a motion on the floor. I'm just trying to clarify. How much land is it... How many acres are they looking to develop for housing? So, Mr... Not just one, so... Share the entire property. The entire PD is about three acres. Okay. About one of that is commercial future land use designation. That's generally the front corner that's up by Newberry Road. And approximately two acres has that residential future land use designation, low density residential. The exact area where they would develop is smaller than that. And how much is retention upon of that acreage? A good bit. I don't know exactly how much, but a good bit. Okay. The parking lot and the retention, I'm going to guess, is about an acre. The dollar general is about an acre. And the developable land is about an acre. About like that. So they're still looking at eight units then on one acre? Yeah. I can see why people might be a little worried then. Right. Yeah. I get it now. Go ahead, Jerry. May I add one thing real quickly? While Jeff is doing the master of graphics here, could you pan that up just slightly? One of the main points too, when you all approved this in 2018, and Jeff, if you can put the little hand, the stormwater basin for the Jockey Club is right there. Okay. So this backs up to a stormwater basin. And respectful of that, we tried to get the stormwater basin on the back of this. There is a compatibility buffer and an opaque fence there. So you do have not only the opaque fence and the compatibility buffer on this property, it's backing up to Jockey Club stormwater basin. And it was depicted as two buildings. I gave the presentation showing you two townhome buildings in there with four units apiece. And that's what was carried forward in the PDP. So again, this is not a major change. It is allowing the practical use of this property for the intended purpose of getting eight people to be able to live here on this. Thank you. Where it's the gentleman's property. Yep. He's, I don't know, like, he should have requested party status. He's using lot seven. Right there? Yeah. Yeah. Lot seven to the southeast. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I'll give you, like, ten seconds, real quick. Pictures is one thing, numbers on this plan. Do the microphone, sir. If you could just. Pictures are one thing to show what was planned versus the numbers here, 10,000 square feet and 80 feet wide is another thing. So which one actually counts? Pictures or these statements? I was engineer all my life. If I was doing something like this and then a few years later somebody got hurt, I was in heavy equipment and medical equipment. If somebody got hurt and said, well, sorry, you know, I was just wrong eight years ago and something went wrong. Okay. Why? Why are we doing this? Okay. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. All right. Back to the board, Commissioner Prizia, and then we'll take it to a vote. Yeah. You mentioned the worker, like, the need for workforce housing in that area. Is the intention to have this be available as affordable housing? Is there any kind of affordability component to the project? Mr. Chair, as I stated at the time, Concept gifted this property to a religious institution. They wanted to build attainable housing in there. We weren't using the words workforce and affordable back then in 2018. I believe that the individuals that the church is trying to help out here with first-time either home ownership or housing is geared at being very attainable. It's certainly not being elite housing. It's meant, you know, and I think even in 2018, we were hoping that maybe somebody who worked there at the Dollar General or worked in Tioga could have a walkable residential unit right there, approximate to employment areas. Yeah. Okay. Commissioner, any other questions or comments? No, sir. Sorry. Yep. Thank you, though. Any other comments? All right. We've got a motion on the floor, which is to accept staff's recommendation. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. Sure. That motion passing. 4-1. Commissioner Cornell in dissent. Okay. Thank you for that. You and I. You and I. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Jerry. All right. We are now to item M, which is items pulled from consent, which was the former 9A. Procurement Code changes authorization to advertise and signature authority resolution. Okay. And so the recommended action is to advertise a public hearing to amend chapter 22, which is the electronic procurement code for the adoption with the recommended changes and schedule consideration of proposed resolution 2025, which clarifies and streamlines the guidelines on signature authority and for execution of contracts and agreements with the same meeting at which the board will consider the amendment. So if we could really get a highlight or a presentation as to the changes and then we'll have questions. Is that what you wanted, right? Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. T.J. White. T.J. White, Procurement Manager, Alonso County. Do you have any questions about the highlights of the actual changes or would you like to discuss? Maybe the presentation would have been as if this were a regular item. But, yeah, I think at least the highlights of the changes. Okay. So some of the highlights, I'd like to just address right off the bat. In House Bill 2024-80, they're removing government minimum wage, which is requiring us to have that into effect by 930 of 2026. So this is addressing removing and sunsetting the government minimum wage as part of the procurement code. Another thing that we've also highlighted and added into this was the local preference One of the things that was discussed with legal during the edits and amendments to the code was that adding the policy Requirements of local preference in the actual ordinance instead of what's in practice on an RFP So including that language and making sure that's codified in the code The next thing that we also amended in this code was the SP language that was made as a motion of the board in January of January 14th of the beginning of this year The SBE small business enterprise language to remove the present the $50,000 cap on the preference that we could give them for the bid preference So we removed that Also, we've added the signature authority To fall in line with what this board direction is for operational efficiency mirroring Leon County and other counties around the state and then also with that signature authority including This board the language in there currently about contract and amendments and contract renewals When the board approves those original contracts and includes terms and lengths with the amount that those original agreements were signed for We've included that at language in there so that the county manager has the ability to Operation operate the way that this board is directing her those are really the big highlights From an over from a 5,000 view if there's any questions anything else I could help you out with be more than happy to address All right, we've got commissioner presia, so I got five major items and as a reminder This is an authorization to advertise to bring back for a future hearing so TJ will take whatever comments he is hearing from today and Into the yeah, I guess that's that's why I asked have it pulled I mean typically I don't know how this ended up on consent But I would just ask them in the future when we're doing code amendments the authorization to authorization to advertise Is usually when we have we usually have it on the agenda so we can give you feedback and that way at the hearing We're not giving you this massive substance feedback and then you have to go back and amend it and then we have to advertise it again And then do the hearing again, so Um, and I I have a lot of well not a lot. I have a few substantive comments. I guess the first is I'm I you know I I voiced my concern about Jumping such a huge jump in the signature authority early on. I still have that same concern We had 50,000 now. We're going to 250,000. That's like a that's a huge jump And while I understand it creates efficiency opportunities, and that's what our colleagues are doing and we haven't changed it in 30 years I you know that doesn't that doesn't necessarily mean that that's the best practice just because it's what other people are doing Like I know that that's something that you lean heavily on what are other counties doing but to me? It's sort of like what is best practice for transparency and and what are the what are the implications? So I guess I would just ask that before we make that decision We look at like how many contracts do we have under 250,000 like what are those things that we would be doing? And I don't know if that's easy for you to do or if that's a huge laborious task But if it's easy I guess rather than just trying to strike some kind of random line in the sand You know you have those 125 250 and then above 250 things a category one two and three You know my inclination was just to say category one that still is a almost a doubling almost a tripling 125 or you know we could bump that to 150, but I don't again I'm not trying to be arbitrary about this I'd rather us look at you know how many contracts we have What are the substance of those contracts in those various categories and take a look at those in time for the hearing? I had of the hearing so that we could take a look at that and then make that call If that's okay with my That would be the first part of my motion would be to ask them to bring that information back for consideration regarding the signature authority the second is it also has the ability for Michelle to sign renewal or any manager it's not Michelle really Any manager to sign renewals of contracts regardless of their size And for me, that's a bit too much carte blanche You know, I understand that there are renewals that we approved to begin with But I feel like we should have some heads up as to the renewals when they're coming and What I'm realizing in conversations with staff is that maybe maybe the code isn't the place to do that And maybe we need to amend our resolution so that we have better processes for how we see those contracts in enough time So I'll talk about that in a second Regardless, I still think that carte blanche of all scale of all contracts is too much So again when we see those that list of contracts Maybe that will give us some sense of what makes the most sense in terms of a signature authority for renewals without coming back to the board And I'll be prepared at that time during the hearing, but I just wanted to bring it to your attention And when it comes to the resolution side, I wanted to add to the motion or suggest that we Review our resolution and come up with a have staff come up with some recommendations of strategies for how we might Bring contracts back to us if we are going to do automatic renewals or even if we're not One thing I'm realizing is that most of the time by the time they're on our agendas It's too late like staff have already done all the work to get them on our agenda Like it's too close to when we would be signing them for us to then bid them out in time to actually Get them back in time for it to meet the Deadline so we're really not seeing things in a timely manner for us to make changes anyway And so I would love for our team to bring back some recommendations with how we might change a resolution such that for Major contracts or contracts that affect and impact the public that aren't just internal like we're buying paper You know that we have a process where those are Brought before the board at some level either they're emailed to us for review and then if we want to We could want to agenda than we can or they get agenda if they're major contracts So that we're actually seeing them in time for us to make a change, right? So like the example I like to use is the jail phone contract if the jail phone if we had not seen the jail phone contract until The time at which it would normally come on our agenda there would have been no time for us to read that it Right it came up because we were talking about fees and phones and all that and we were able to see it and then make the determination that we wanted to Rebid it, but I think for major contracts we should be having that conversation every time they come up We should be looking at them reviewing them having a discussion about the things we think are good or bad about them Things you'd like to adjust about the bid before it goes out right rather than it just going out And then it coming back to us as final approval on our agendas, and it's kind of too late to do anything about it So you're good with the government minimum the local preference in the SBA know that the third is yeah So so those so that my recommendation is asking staff to come up with some resolution changes that would allow us to Have time to review large contracts before renewal or rebid comes about the second is that we ask for the contracts that are under that 250 threshold so that we can review the the idea of automatic renewal and with Michelle's signature authority and Signature authority to approve those contracts and I feel like those things should line up her ability to renew a contract should line up with her signature authority to approve that contract not have it be regardless of Funding I don't know how you all feel about that They line up and my last is the local preference I I really appreciate the work done on it, and I think it's great, but I don't understand why it's not for bids We have bids for SBE we do bids for other things. I don't know why bids weren't included in this one I I would like to see this be and it's only for category three So they have only have it at the highest level which most of our small most of our local businesses aren't the kind You know a lot of them aren't the ones that are going to compete at those big level things They're the ones that are going to be for the smaller contract So to me it seems like it should be for all levels and it should be for bids as well I know we have to we have to eliminate certain things because if it's state money, we can't do it But I would like to see us expanding the local preference to include all contracts that aren't statutorily limited And so those are my comments Okay, let's see the rest of us say Commissioner Wheeler I just you know, I I really trust our staff, you know to take care of business I'm not a business person. I'm not sure most of us on the board, you know Have the expertise needed to actually do all that you're Anna I know you know, this is part of your expertise. It's not mine So I think whoever is on the board at the time Would be leading the charge on that and it seems to be almost micromanaging You know what what our staff is is presenting to us as a way to move forward and and I know we trust Michelle Because we've worked with her. I also am concerned that they know the next new person coming on You know may not be able to be as is Reliable as Michelle isn't when it comes to to taking care of our money, but I just I don't know I just feel like that our staff is pretty capable of taking care of these things Whereas this board may not this board may Bog it down to the point where we don't really get the the progress that that you're saying that we could have by Actually looking at these things and negotiating from this dais We current I know I just but but I want to add another question too Are we also are we also? Are we also? Still accepting the lowest bids when they come in and say I'm just not sure that that's always the best business either I understand the need to Make sure that we're managing people's money well, but sometimes taking the lowest bid is not the best management of money Especially if we have to redo or are not getting the quality You know quality should probably be more an issue for us than the amount of money that we're putting out for it So I you know, that's one of my concerns But in terms of actually having the expertise on this board to override what our our staff is presenting makes me a little nervous Yes, thank you. Mr. Chair. Thank you, Commissioner. So we'll do Commissioner Alford Commissioner Chessnaut. Oh, we have some input and then we'll start back with you. Is that okay? Okay I know I just want to give everybody their opportunity to To kind of weigh in and then you can then You know prepare a motion if we have one well after after talking to staff about this I I feel like we should go ahead and pass the procurement code changes today and then move on with different ordinances to Make whatever more specific changes that we want to make in the future a lot of the ones that you were yeah That's that's all I wanted to say I just I I would prefer that we just move forward with this and then have a more substantive discussion about How we want to address any changes in terms of local procurement and all those things at a policy meeting? Okay, thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Chessnaut then I'll come out and then we'll be back to Commissioner Prezio. Thank you Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chair. I have no problem with Doing a little bit more studying on this to be honest with you Because it was on this consent agenda and I'll just be honest with you When items on the consent agenda, I do go through them, but I don't go through them with a fine Microfying glass to to go through it But this is a big jump from fifty thousand to two hundred fifty thousand dollars And I just want to know more about the items and more of it How do you come to this? Conclusion that's all that's all I want to do is to go a little bit further with it. That's all I'm not against it But I just want to get a better understanding of why we jump from fifty to two hundred fifty thousand dollars and Just because it's compatible to what other counties are doing. I don't know if that's the right thing for us to do so, I mean, you know, so so some good points have come out and I just think that I need to look at it a little bit more so I don't know where I'm at and where I'll be So that's it. Thank you commissioner so I'll give you my thoughts Anna on this so I hate the government minimum wage thing But you know, I also understand that we're kind of preempted from that so I don't have a problem with that one on the local preference I I would like if we are able to give as much local preference as possible Really starting at the smaller end of moving our way up So I kind of like where you're going on that the small business language. I think we've already addressed it on the signature authority and on the Contract renewals I am kind of where Mary is on this is that I want to move that forward However, I would like to look at and and the phone contract was perfect example I would like to look at Staff bringing back recommendations for when we have renewal of major contracts giving us some time Prior to the renewal of those contracts so that if they're the policymakers want to have input into Changing those or renewing those that we do have time for that. So that's one where I don't mind moving forward But in in the meantime as Mary said at a policy meeting staff could bring back Here's how many category ones twos and threes. Here's when they're renewed. Here's what we would recommend to give you all enough time And I'm I'm happy to kind of move forward now as long as we're working on that over the course of the next year So I don't really know If we have consensus of three for all your items, but why don't we oh and the lights just well Let's go to the manager and then we're gonna go back to Commissioner Prizia and then we'll go back to output Well, I didn't turn my lips. Oh, you're gone. Yeah, okay. We'll go back to Chuck Yes, mr. Chair. I just want to remind the board again. We're not approving anything today So we will be bringing this back So we're not asking to you to approve anything today and we can certainly bring back anything that the board asked for I would also and I will I will Mention this again when we we do bring this back, but the jump from 50 to 250 It has not been for lack of trying just since I've been manager. I think we're on the third or fourth effort We've tried interim steps. We've tried doing things to bring that up. That has not been successful Inflation being what it is we're up at the 250, but you know every time we bring this back and prices have gone up and inflation has gone up and we get the same then You know, so I just want to you know mention that this has not been for lack of trying to try to change this This has been the number I think for about 30 years now so Yeah, no, so I I guess I I just I guess I want to That time to do this is now because once we advertise and we and if we make such major substantive changes We're gonna have to readvertise and redo this thing and so to me now is the time to provide that feedback and had this been on the agenda We would be having a substantive conversation about it because there's been a full presentation and I guess it frustrates me to say now We're gonna kick it to a pot We're gonna approve what's already there and change the code and then kick it to a policy meeting instead of having the conversation that that that that to me Is just like I I hear what you're saying and I feel like now is the time we have those conversations before we change a whole code Based on something, you know that we don't necessarily But it's a start and I think we're just trying to so it's just trying to I think that's okay. I just I think the bog down a process. I'm not trying to bog down processes I'm not I understand that there's a need to bump that like $50,000 is is a really really low especially with the cost of goods today But I think that there is a probably a line in the sand somewhere That's a happy medium that gives the staff the ability to move things forward more efficiently But that also allows us to have the transparency that's necessary for the public and for us to feel like we're doing our due diligence and our duty that we were elected to do to protect the public's money and to make sure that good old boy networks don't stay in place and that you know deals don't get struck behind the scenes and I'm not saying that that's something that happens and I think that our county actually with the Transparency that Tommy has in our fiscal processes and that TJ is created for and listened as procurement issues have come up I think we have a good processes for that and I just I think that changing these major things sometimes Causes those things to start to go down that path and so I just want to have the data I'm just asking that we ask staff to bring back that information so that if we want to change that level from 250 to the The category one which is 125 or maybe we bump that one to 150 or whatever we have the opportunity to do that at that hearing and we can look and actually look at the types of contracts We would be turning over a signature authority for right? I mean it gives us the chance to actually look at instead of just arbitrarily picking a number and being like yeah that number sounds good So that's what I'm asking for is that data and then I think that aligning her renewal authority with her signature authority makes sense You know rather than it be contracts of any size. I understand that those renewals come and they need to they want to keep moving them through But we probably shouldn't be having annual renewals on contracts that are that big anyway We probably should be reviewing them. I don't know. I I know that that's probably giving Tommy some heart some heartburn, but that would be my second comment The third is when it comes to the local preference. We've asked for this local preference. It's taken over a year for it to get in here We've had multiple policy discussions and in every single one I think we were really clear that our goal was to try to get maximum impact for our locally owned businesses and our to have our money be spent with the businesses that are here in a lot to a county and The way that it's written right now staff wrote out no bids and only at the top levels That means only contracts over 250,000 and no bid contracts only the RFP contracts, which to me makes no sense Why would we not include all contracts and why would we all not include the ones that are less than 250? When probably those are the ones the majority of our local businesses want to bid on because they're small So I just don't understand why those were left out and I guess that's a question for Tommy like why why not those? Be and I would like to see those put back in because I think that's gonna be the majority of where our local businesses could have impact Tommy you have now have a question I've got some responses. Yeah, and so wait hold on you ready for responses. Sure. Yeah, all right So I will start at the end of that conversation kind of work backwards. So Yeah, it's just been a year since we discussed small business enterprise and local preference and it's taken us a year to get back in front of you I think one of our concerns is to Mr. Alford's point is We're trying to get the ball. We need to get the ball moving if we're going to accomplish any of the board's requests that y'all been making of us I would say the point of the renewal again You you this was touched on mr. Chair is the budget process Is when the board goes in what is what are y'all doing next year? What are you asking us to do? What are you what are we going to appropriate funds for staff to accomplish to meet our strategic goal? which we talked about earlier as what the path we're going this year it's not at the end of the read of the end of a contract process where We're already putting out the bid or we're already making recommendations. We've done all this work and now we're going to talk about Oh, well We wanted to look at this contract or that contract or we didn't want it to be renewed again Without discussion perfectly understandable the time to do that is let's talk about the budget con the budget discussion Major contracts make sure your departments are answering your questions that you have at those meetings to say hey What's coming up when's the solid waste contract coming up a new river when's the asphalt contract coming up when's the phone contract come When's the food agreement with the jail coming up? Those are big Concerns and issues that y'all want to address so that's the time we should do it If you've decided during the budget we're going to appropriate these funds for this Then it's up to us to follow the code to reaward it correctly And if that includes things like SBE local preference, etc. Then we I agree that needs to be in there. We have not traditionally Done the bids just because construction contracts aren't allowed. Those are really we don't bid a lot of other things Most of ours are in your RFPs and annual contracts, etc. We don't do a lot of hard bids We can include that that's that part is not a A big concern. It's going to take a little work with legal to make sure we are not Trying to do something local preference is not allowed to be done if you will So we want to protect against that and make sure we're marching that on the renewals again If the board direction is don't do ten-year contracts with a five with two five-year renewals So it's basically a 20-year contract that no one has any say so over because it's pre-approved You know a board two boards ago with only one current commissioner doing that We understand that and we need and we can build into that What we would recommend is to follow that process of that kind of stuff Let's put that in a policy so that if we go down and you want to refine that policy It's easier to do if you're saying you know what these interlocal agreements with the city of gainesville You know, they're going to be renewed forever. They're part of what we do this one with with this this Specific company on telephones or the technology is different or whatever We want to process we want staff to provide us a recommended policy that says How are you going to present this transparently? How are you going to make sure we have the information so that things aren't running behind the scenes? Like you said automatically with no guardrails completely get that we would recommend our recommendation is We've been working on this quite a while not only the signature piece when you why did it go from 25 to or 50 to 250 Four times since i've been here. We brought this forward Feedback we got back from various boards not just this board but from previous boards too was What are what are others doing? What are similar size counties doing? Why are they doing it that way? So we've come back we surveyed leon county's at 250 st. Johns county's at 400 Other counties are in between 125 etc. You're right. We we didn't do it arbitrarily TJ has statistics of where our contracts is etc. Are seem to be 250 shit Was that number for a signature authority being a category two for the size organization? We are for the number of po's we put out and the contracts we put out Um, you know whether you tweak it to 200 150 or 300, you know I don't think that's as relevant as it is to understand that um As we do business We we want to make sure the guardrails and the code are set up So that what whatever we do Is just implementing your policy in your direction and doing it in a competitive fashion While you're right, maybe it's not a hard bid only number It's best value. It's what's in the best interest of the county So it may include sbe it may include local preference. It may include whatever else we've built into the code But at the same time we also have to Continually if it's not that that we're not Providing a benefit to someone unfairly so that the competition isn't fairly all vendors need to go in with a Understanding of this is how this is how things are going to be fair We are going to give some credit to look some small business We're giving credit to local enterprise put your bid in but if it's not within five percent You can be awarded as a large vendor or a large outside contractor So, you know, we want to be fair to everyone as well as well as protect our dollars so what we're asking is Um, we've been working on this just this part a year since the last meeting the board kind of gave direction almost a year ago Before that we've had 2020 was when we did a whole revamp of the entire code Um was our last time that took us two years to do that And this time we were just going to bring local and sbe back We were going to do this in pieces to try to Get things moving along and after a year ago. We're like we got to do this We need to get the signature authority. We're into a new fiscal year We're talking about going into a new budget process of where we're doing almost zero based budgeting We're going to come to you about every budget item dig in deep to do all that We're trying to get those guardrails in place All i'm telling you is regardless of the intent and regardless of what we should be able to do If we kick this can down the road To tweak it even and we hold the whole thing to tweak it I will probably be back here in another year having this conversation trying to get So i'm not asking to hold it i'll be on i'll be clear i'm fine with us advertising I just want you all to hear that i'd like the data with regards to the contracts and how that 250 was Achieved and where we're going by doing that 250 versus the 125 the cat like how many we have in category one and what they are generally category two and category three Um, so my motion would be to approve the authorization to advertise with that data coming back to us ahead of the Hearing that we include the bids and category one and two and our local preference Um that we um Include the local preference categories wanted to categories wanted to and bids in the local preference and that Um, we asked staff to come back with policy recommendations for our resolution to be able to look at timelines for renewals to look at bids versus rfps to and to look at Signature authority levels for contract renewals and things like that so that we can have a substantive conversation about our policies and how often we want to see Contracts and a timeline for seeing them before They go out to bid so that we can have input I don't i don't think it probably i mean again i want to be careful of the of the um Expectation to make sure that resolution is finalized that last one Because sometimes that takes time to make sure we're complying with any legal requirements that we may have So we will do that as best we can that last part where what we may have to that last part and kick it down the road a little bit to a policy Meeting to get into that kind of detail. Yeah, that's fine. That doesn't have to be at that hearing. That's just a second That's another piece of the absolutely Yeah, that's something that actually I think you and I talked about a couple weeks ago and then again today I do I would ask though that in the near future we do get An uh an email with the major contracts that are renewing coming up in this year So that we can make sure we're talking about those before they go while we're having the policy conversation Absolutely, all right, so we have a motion a second tommy are you is this something that you um Can get us back I I I I saw TJ respond when she said bids he that's when he was thinking and I look at the she says two included I'd say look into the option to include it In in bids and categories two one would be under which is the p cards All of those things that are in the small purchase categories two would be this bid thresholds And then three would be the ones that would be going to formal solicitations and things of that nature So I just want to make sure the clarification there when we talk about category one Including sbe or local preference On that conversation, so I just wanted for clarity. Mr. Chair. We don't do bids for category one So there wouldn't I'm saying Right now the way you have it written is that the local preference only applies to category three Because that's where we do bids That's you don't have it under bids you have only rfp. So you have the local preference in category twos are We can include bids with category three. That's where we know We don't do bids in category one, right? So we can do bids I'm asking to do both and that we include all three categories And that we include bids not we don't right we don't do bids in category one So we if we can't include it where we don't do bids we don't do bids in category two I'm I follow what you're saying. I don't I'm not asking that we include bids in category one I'm asking that we include of local preference in category one and two Right as well as as well as three including bids, right? Yes, I think we're all saying the same thing Yeah, I'm just I'm not particularly sure how we do that in category one because that's literally our p card because we go to Publix to get, you know, um Some danish for you know a board who meets or I don't know. I'm just just just for clarification Local preference has been in practice for alachua county on rps since i've been here This is being added in at a request just for clarification So we just took what we were doing in practice to put it in to codify the code and to make sure that it was included So these have been in the procurement manual and the rfp documents actively So we're not changing anything from that standpoint adding it into bids When it's hard bid dollar values and adding a point system Or trying to figure out a way to how that end is not what we're currently doing, but we can look into doing that So i'm we do it for sbe because we're giving them a dollar preference on the five percent of what we're doing as a local preference And they are certified as an sbe so we can look at doing and adding in there no problem whatsoever But I just want to clarify that it's not new It's been in our process and we have been doing it It's just saying that now this is a policy so it should be in our code versus not we've been doing in our procurement So it's not anything special We're used to doing local preference on our rps It's just a score evaluation factor and now we've identified that it's a five percent on the score evaluation factor So we identified that it was 10 points out of 200 if the points go up to 400 Then it's going to be 20 points. It'll be five percent instead of identified as a number. So all that's being clarified in this code Um, same with you know those other things. So that's why we're trying to clarify Same with yours commissioner chestnut addressing the dollar values and information from hillsboro and leon and St. John's and then also going through manatee miami-dade palm beach, orlando broward Those are all the areas that we've looked into as comparable communities to ours and how we're evaluating and editing this code So just want to try to get some of those clarifications out there So naco classifies medium-sized counties as 100 and 100 000 and one person to 500 000 large is above 500 000 small below 100 000 so I appreciate what miami-dade does, but I don't think it's relevant. It's too, you know, leon lake Scambia those are those are the comparable from my perspective Dave did you want to add anything to this discussion? Yes, day four zanna with the county attorney's office As I understand the board's proposed motion to include category two and three Bids into local preference just want to clarify that there are some limited circumstances where law Albert if it's a local preference, okay, so it's federal law there's some state law exceptions And of course there are some grants that would prohibit it as well So that's the language you generally include in the code except we're prohibited by those types of categories Thank you. Dave while you're here dave anna anna dave career source. Yes We've already spoken on it. Yeah Latoya's already sitting up a meeting and i've already contacted uh Rochelle and phyllis and we're setting it up, which by the way though, you're still on the hook for next week Understood i'll do whatever i'm told to do by By the attorney's office. Thank you. Okay, very good. Thank you. All right. So one last item The sbe as tj just pointed does have a percentage for rfps. It also has a Percentage points it also has a percentage for bids So I don't know if at some point tj is going to have to present to you all what you want to do with the uh with the local preference Right now. There's a there's a preference of a percentage Points that would be added But we need to figure out what we're going to do with the bid side of that if you're going to include that Is it going to be a five percent local preference on bid prices? Or how else you want to address that there's a lot of different ways of addressing that some ordinances and other counties have a tiebreaker Where if both of you have the same bid price? The local preference vendor would get it some have a percentage so that You're if you're a local vendor you'd get a five percent Presumed discount on your price for the purposes of award So there's more than one way of addressing this and those are some things that that's a policy discussion Yeah, we all just policy discussion Because it looks like we're tying them up in a knot. Yes Yeah, no, I think to Mary Helen's point to Mary Alford's point I just want to get clarification on what you expect to come back But we're going to need to publish notice of this for the next hearing for the for the hearing that's coming up I presume in January So if you want the category two and three bids to be included in this round There'll need to be some policy decision on how you want that reflected because right now there's it's nothing there Do we kick that to a policy meeting? Yeah, they did We'll follow the motion on the floor and the direction will bring back those recommendations at the meeting for the local for category one and two as well as Local preference on the bids prior to advertising prior to advertising or after we advertise After advertising, okay at the public hearing with that other recommendations second or good with that. Okay. All right So we've got emotions every understand emotion any further discussion from the board Any public discussion to the motion back to the board all those in favor say aye aye any opposed? Okay, that motion is unanimous. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you for Coming in and having that discussion and we look forward to Helping you move things forward that we have asked you to move forward Okay, so that was the item pulled from consent Um commissioners, I would like to do a manager comment commissioner comment. Is that okay? Can we do that now? Yeah, sure Okay, let's knock that out. So is there any attorney comment? Mr. I do not have anything to do any manager comments. I do not. Okay, um any commission comments Let's start with Mary Helen none. Chuck. None. Uh, yeah, I do. Okay. Uh, okay I know are you surprised? Okay, um, I guess one thing I had was I was hoping That we could have a brief meeting about or a brief Time at one of our policy means to talk about the joint meetings and agenda items for those joint meetings because I think there's been a lot of things thrown around I think different staff have different things where we've said when we should have that at all the joint meetings or you know And so just having a quick conversation What is going to be on those joint meetings or what the plan is for those? Yeah, so we've got one on wednesday So that our next policy meeting can we just have a discussion about joint meetings with the city of gainesville and all the other cities And all the other cities and all the other things that we've already flagged like staff could just pull the things we've already I know we've flagged some things for the bank up Yeah, okay, so okay I could add a next policy at a next policy meeting in january and then from there Latoya can schedule the mayor chair meetings with each of the cities and we can get on the agenda one of the things That I want to talk about with all of the cities is, you know, avalorm and what we talked about earlier But yeah, so but I'm thinking like forward focus would be in the eastern ones Of course we have like, you know There might be updates about wildspaces public places or there might be like there's different things that we've flagged about different places So there's any objections adding that to a policy meeting? No, I didn't think about it. Yeah, okay, you got it uh next is um the Mechanism we we made a motion a while back about um putting the rebate funds from the solar into the fund for the empower program And I I i'm pretty sure that that rebate has come through Betsy's no longer here, so I don't really know what the pro But I know that I had a call from the one of the empower coalition folks and we were just chatting and then they at the end of that call We were they asked me do you know how we access like once we're ready to access those funds how we go about that? So I just am making a flag for stuff that they may need some Support on that thing That's an email on that Michelle can we get an email on yeah, or they can just go directly to them They work with the empower coalition just connect with them about that process. I don't yeah And then the last is uh the rail trail the high springs to newbury rail trail I was hoping to make a motion that we refer to staff to explore opportunities For funding sources for match for that project. I know we don't have an exact number right now, but I think given I it's a 50 match It's a 50 match that they asked they don't have a they don't have an actual appraisal price yet But I think us exploring if tourism development money would be an acceptable bucket or where we might find except if we have any acceptable buckets Of funding for that rail trail match Um, because I know that once they do get that those final numbers it's going to move pretty quick for that to staff Yeah, right here a second for that Emotion a second. Yeah, I have a lot of concerns about that just because of the history of how that all fell apart and then um funding sources What are we looking at because we've got a master parks plan we got a conservation? Yeah, I mean I think tourism is pretty much the only money we would probably be able Yeah, so I I think once staff if this motion passes once staff fulfills that request Um, I would love for us to have a policy meeting where we can then look at some options and just kind of bang that around Are you okay with that? Yeah, adding that to the motion? Yeah, you okay with adding that second? Okay, so we got a motion a second to refer to staff the high springs rail trail essentially funding potential funding sources and then Once staff has done that then to include that into a policy. Great. Okay, it would be good to hear too that this this team this that our board is Is fully behind this or you know how far we're willing to go with that? Yeah, I'm fully behind Well, I can just tell you right now I'm fully behind as long as I understand what we're leaving behind if we do it Okay, and I don't know what that is I did the tour with Erica and Marzella and that group Yesterday was it yesterday and they're working on getting private funding to do due diligence on what the mitigation would cost and appraisals and things so that They can have a real price to negotiate with the state the idea is the state would own it we would they would ask us to manage it and That they would that they would take on the liability and that but that they and they wouldn't do the mitigation and clean up But that we would manage it and that they would be looking for match on the purchase price Yeah, so to me That's the only question because I remember at the time previously when we had a discussion We didn't have a parks and rec master plan and we had only allocated 10 percent We now have a parks and rec master plan and if that's no money there. It doesn't matter. So then if it's tdc Um all we have really that it's committed is the event center. I would love to know when that Policy meeting has is how far are we paid down on that that where are we on that whole thing? Yeah, so I think that can that can all come back in the policy. Okay, so we've got a motion a second any discussion Any public discussion all those in favor say aye Any opposed the motion passes unanimous. Thank you. Yep. Is that it? Okay mary you got anything? I sent myself a note to about what I wanted to talk about and I can't remember and I can't find my note Well, we'll be here tonight So if you want you want to bring it back up tonight after the meeting you can bring it back up my I only have one item I mean other than we'll do the you know, happy holidays everybody, but tomorrow is Michelle Lieberman and missy daniel's birthday And so I just wanted to publicly wish you happy birthday Maybe you can get a new boot. Maybe you get a new birthday. You forget birthdays. Yeah, that's funny. Happy birthday. No, it always follows mine, michelle So yeah, um, uh, no, i'm a i'm a scorpio november 1st, but um Yeah, we had the same we're the same age. We keep getting older. Yeah, um me older than her. That's the whole thing. Okay. All right All right, so with that we will stand in recess until 501