Regular Meeting @ 11:30 a.m. - Feb 24, 2026

Thank you all for being here. It's nice to see so many faces on this cold Tuesday. Thank you for braving the weather to join us. Before we get started with our agenda, we will have an invocation by Dr. Donna Schaefer from UCG, I believe. If she would like to come up to the mic, if everyone could please stand for that and the pledge, and then we'll get started. Let us pray. Good and gracious God, you whom some call Allah and others call Jesus, you whom some call Christ and others call breath, you beyond the captivity of any human name, draw near and bless our work today in this wonderful county where nature and culture meet, where we meet each other and where we meet you. Blessings upon us all. Amen. Okay. All right. With that, I know, Madam Manager, do we have any changes to the agenda? Okay. Any other? Okay, great. Other than those, does the commission have any requests? No. Okay. Seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. I move approval of the agenda as noted. Excellent. A motion and a second. Are there any comments from the community to the agenda? No. Hearing none. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, like signed. Next up, we have announcements. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning. Adam or Josh, could you bring up the projection screen, please, or bring up the image? Thank you. Madam Chair, just a reminder that there's a great deal of information on our homepage. On our spotlight story, you can be reminded that our burn ban is still in effect. We got a little bit of rain last week, but it wasn't enough to impact that. Our sense and sensibility budget guide is there, and our download My Alachua County app is there. You can use that QR code to download a very, very useful app. But today we wanted to, we just have one announcement that one of our favorite annual events is coming up, which is the Alachua County Youth Fair and Livestock Show. I know county commissioners frequently get involved in that and compete with one another. That's coming up on March 5th through the 10th, and on our homepage, you can find this press release that has a great deal of information. Normally with events, we say it starts at 9 and it ends at 5, but with this one we encourage you to go to the press release, and then to, you can visit the Livestock Show website, and once you get to this website, you can look at the schedule of events, and as you can see, it's a wide variety of times and events, and this gives you really a comprehensive look at all of the different activities at the youth fair, and it is truly a wonderful event at our agricultural and equestrian center, and we encourage all of our residents to drop by and see what these amazing young people in our community have done, and Madam Chair, that's the announcement. Excellent, thank you. Yes, the youth fair is totally worth going to. You get to see all kinds of amazing animals, rabbits and chickens and pigs and cows and ducks, and all sorts of things that the kids have raised, and they have some really fun activities. They have some really fun activities as well, including the one where we get to compete doing ridiculous things like herding pigs or showing cattle or whatever else they make us do. So join us there. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. All right, next up we have approval of recognitions. If I could get a motion to approve. Okay, move the approval of recognitions. Second. Excellent. And I think first up we have the recognition of our 2025 Leadership Academy graduates. I believe that's with our age. Excellent. Come on. Okay. Good morning, Madam Chair, Commissioners. Everyone, thank you. Yes, we are here today. Alicia Cash, Training Manager. Thanks for having me. We are here again for the third year in a row. I'm very excited to acknowledge and congratulate our graduates of our annual Leadership Academy. So I'm going to go ahead and get started. We have, we're going to be calling all of their names off. We have a large group of them here in the room. So they'll be coming up to get their certificates. All right. Would you like us to come down so we can do a photograph? At the end. We've got it working. Yep. Yep. Yep. So Taman Ayyup. Matt Barker. Ray Billingsley. Shannon Broom. Did Shannon make it over? She's working. Yeah. There she is. Erin Burt. Andrew Kaplan. All right. Michelle Clark Feeney. Let's take these out. If you'll give me a pause. Fox is fighting me. Ariel Drescher. Kristen Ford. Sarah Granger. All right. Chris Hall. Bridget Johnston is not here. Beth Neiser. All right. Michael. Is Michael here? I don't think Michael. Lammy. Lammy. Well, congratulations. And Ethan Long is not here. Oh, congratulations. Amanda Mash. We had some back and forth. There's Alicia Cash, Amanda Mash, Amanda Cash. So when we were first getting to know each other, I was emailing Amanda Cash a lot. Amanda Mash. Helen McNeer. Helena. Helena. I'm sorry. Helen McNeer. I think you're not late. No. Jesse Natwick. Looking at these. Amber Peacock. David Keaton. I don't think he was here. Ciro Perrone is also not here. Taylor Rolishson also was not here. Amazing person, Taylor Rolishson. Sarah Shires was unable to make it today. And Corey Stewart. And I'm super proud of these folks. So as I've talked to you before, this is very much a soft skill-based leadership academy. So we've worked through a lot of different conversations. We're building those skills. This is a wonderful class. I'm very proud of them. I always joke that I feel like a grade school teacher at the end of these years. And I'm sad that my classes are ending and ready to start a new one. So congratulations, everyone. We have a – yeah, I was going to say, if you all get in, we'll come down and take a photo. But before that, we have a couple of comments, I believe. Commissioner Wheeler and Commissioner Chestnut? No, I don't have – Oh, no. Okay. No, this is – but I will say it. It's really exciting to see all of you all up there because these are – you all are folks that we work with every day. And some of them – some of you we get to see every day and others we don't. So it's nice to see your faces today taking your job seriously and continuing to show up every day. So thank you all so much for your work, even though we don't get to see you as often as we'd like to. Yeah, we really appreciate your dedication to making the extra step to take a class that goes above and beyond the everyday so you can learn to be better leaders for us and for our bigger community. So thank you. We'll come down and take a photo with you. Okay. All right. Next up, we actually have a proclamation, which I get the joy of giving, so I will do that from here. Okay. We will be declaring April 25th as the Great American Cleanup Day in Alachua County. Whereas Keep America Beautiful is the nation's iconic community improvement organization envisioning a country where a community is clean and green and beautiful, to advance this vision, the organization established the Great American Cleanup as its signature national initiative engaging Americans nationwide in the hands-on effort to improve their local environment. And whereas Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup is the nation's largest community improvement program, mobilizing millions of volunteers and participants each year, driving positive change and creating a lasting improvement in our communities. And whereas Alachua County is dedicated to protecting its natural resources and unifying the community to transform public spaces into beautiful shared spaces for all. And whereas the Board of County Commissioners recognizes Keep Alachua County Beautiful's commitment to engaging citizens and government leaders and businesses in working together to end littering, improve recycling, and beautifying America's communities. And whereas Keep Alachua County Beautiful and the Board of County Commissioners are committed to elevating the importance of volunteerism and inspiring members of our community to serve as stewards for the environment. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, I do hereby proclaim April 25th as Great American Cleanup Day in Alachua County. And I have this beautiful proclamation signed and sealed by all the appropriate entities. And I don't know if there's anybody here from, come on up, please. I'm sure with us a few thoughts. And we're just, we're really grateful to have Keep Alachua County Beautiful here as a member of the Great Keep America Beautiful program. They do so much to make sure that the litter is cleaned up along our roadways and our creek sides. And I will pass it over to you so you can say a few words. Well, thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Alachua County Board of County Commissioners. This is truly an honor. In partnership with the city of Gainesville, we host this annual community-wide cleanup across multiple sites throughout the city, bringing together more than 200 volunteers who collect thousands of pounds of litter in just a few hours. At our main event location, it's going to be Massey Park again this year. We'll be also hosting a tire roundup event simultaneously to help remove additional waste from our communities. This year's event, as stated, will be taking place on Saturday, April 25th in the morning. So definitely keep your eye out for more information for this large event. I think information was just posted on our website and on our socials yesterday. Again, it will be taking place in the morning. And we would like to, again, extend our sincere thanks to the board for your continued support and leadership. Because of that support, we have already completed over 90 cleanups this year, engaging 815 volunteers and removing already 7,751 pounds of trash from our environment. We've also diverted over 300 pounds of recyclables. Last year alone, we mobilized close to 2,000 volunteers, collected just under 20,000 pounds of litter, and helped save approximately $150,000 in labor costs for the county and the city. We would also like to recognize the county's solid waste and resource recovery team for their ongoing partnership and assistance. In addition to this event, similar large-scale cleanups will be happening in other municipalities across the county. So definitely keep a lookout for that. Opportunities as they arise around Earth Month. And then, again, anyone who wishes to get involved, they can just call or email. And, again, my name is Carlos Gonzalez, the executive director, and it's an honor to help out our community in this way. So thank you all again. All right. I believe next up we have a recognition of hazardous materials awareness week in Alachua County. These two are appropriate to go together, considering how many of those hazardous waste materials end up in our community. Alachua County, Florida, proclamation declaring February 23rd through March 1st as Hazardous Materials Awareness Week in Alachua County, Florida. Whereas the safe use of hazardous materials is essential for the well-being of citizens, business, industries, and local governments to maintain economic stability and public health, and whereas Alachua County recognizes the importance of protecting our community from both accidental and deliberate releases of hazardous materials, and whereas it is essential to increase community preparedness so that both public sector and private sector employees know how to safely protect themselves and those for whom they are responsible during an accidental or deliberate release of hazardous materials, and whereas Alachua County is committed to working collaboratively with local agencies and organizations to provide emergency response training for key personnel, including firefighters, emergency medical services, law enforcement, and other public safety workers, and whereas citizens can be assured that emergency responders, emergency management, all levels of government, schools, and businesses are working together to ensure that our community is as prepared as possible to protect all citizens from both accidental and deliberate releases of hazardous materials. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim February the 23rd through March 1st as Hazardous Materials Awareness Week in Alachua County, Florida, duly proclaim this 24th day of February A.D. 2026, and that's signed by our Chair Ken Cornell and Jess Irby, and I'm going to offer it to you, and you introduce your crew, and have a few things. Thank you, Madam Chair, Commissioners. We thank you for the Board and for the continued support of the program over the past 35 years in Alachua County as we continue to protect the county's air, soil, drinking water resources for its communities and its citizens. The Hazardous Materials Section conducts compliance inspections for hazardous materials and hazardous waste handling, storage, use, and disposal of approximately 1,200 facilities currently in response to hazardous materials complaints within the county in response to 24-7, all 9-1-1 dispatched hazardous materials incidents within the county. We do recommend to the citizens of the county in that that the county's Household Hazardous Waste Collection Center, which offers all the Lachua County residents free disposal of all chemicals and electronics, which assists in the county reducing the amount of chemicals that enter into improper waste streams, such as into the trash, down the drain, or dumped into our environment in our communities. Again, the Hazardous Waste Center is located at 5125 Northeast 63rd Avenue off of Northeast Waldo Road and can be contacted at 352-334-0440. Thank you. Thank you. And our team, this is our hazardous materials team. Madison, Eric, Risa, and Julie make up our hazardous materials team for the county. And Madison, Eric, and Julie are our inspectors for the county that are in the field every day. And Risa is our GIS analyst that helps coordinate all the wonderful maps that you guys request from us. Awesome. And we thank you for the opportunity. Well, thank you very much. We really appreciate your services. We know that you don't only serve our county, but the counties that surround us. So we appreciate all the work that you do. And for the citizens out there and residents of our county, if you need to get rid of hazardous waste, we do have a wonderful household hazardous waste collection facility at our LaVita Brown Center. So you don't have to dump it down the storm drain or dump it in your toilet. You can bring it to be safely disposed of at our LaVita Brown or any of our transfer stations around the county and rural collection stations. Thank you so much. Thank you for what you do. Okay, next up is the presentation. The presentation of Newspaper Education Week in Alachua County. Lots of fun things. And do we have someone receiving Newspaper Education Week? Okay, excellent. If you want to join him up there, thank you. The proclamation declaring March 2nd through March 6th as Newspaper and Education Week in Alachua County, Florida, whereas research shows that the most effective way to help children discover the joy of reading and becoming lifelong readers is to engage them early and often. And whereas fostering a child's ability to learn to read and to develop a love of reading significantly improves students' chances for success in school and beyond. And whereas research shows that students who use newspapers as an educational resource are more likely to become lifelong readers as well as informed and engaged citizens. And whereas Newspapers in Education is an international program that encourage the use of daily newspaper as a living textbook for students from primary through adult education levels. And whereas local newspaper organizations support educators, students, and families through newspapers in education programs by providing printed newspaper for classroom uses. And whereas Newspapers in Education Week is commemorated and celebrated annually during the first full school week in March. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioner in Florida, I do hereby proclaim March 2nd through March 6th as Newspaper and Education Week in Alachua County, Florida, due to proclaim this 24th day of February, 2026, signed by Chair Ken Cornell and attest to by Clerk Jess Irving. Thank you very much. I'm C.J. Gush. I'm the Senior Editor for Main Street Daily News, and this is our Membership Coordinator, Natalie Mitchell. Main Street for the last couple of years through our Ad Marketing Director at Jantelyn Papel and then also with our publisher, J.C. Derrick, who kind of spearheaded this. We've been providing papers in classrooms through the Alachua County Public Schools in the elementary ages because we feel the importance of literacy for obviously starting young is what's really important. So I just want to acknowledge, too, our staff who provides the amazing content for Main Street Daily News, starting with our Associate Editor, Seth Johnson, our Rural Reporter, Lillian Hammond, our Education Reporter, Nick Anschultz, and our Sports Director, Mike Rideout. With this team, I feel we provide the community a good service, and we also want to just continue just to be a partnership with the Alachua County Public Schools and just help improve literacy. Great. Thank you. Commissioner Wheeler. Yes, I just want to tell you, while you are taking your picture, that I agree with everything you said about literacy and having the paper in the schools, it's important for them to be able to have something to hold in their hands besides this stuff, you know, that they can have a bigger piece. Go ahead and smile for your... Because you know I'm one of your biggest fans. I've been to your site over there and had the tour, right, and I've met several of your reporters, and I know several of your reporters, and I really do appreciate the work that you're doing for the community because you all truly do report what is local, and I really appreciate that. You know, and it's not just for the young readers, too. I've got to tell you, one of the best parts of being a retired teacher is hearing the bells ring out in the distance and be able to sit with a cup of coffee and have the paper in hand. You know, that's really a luxury. So thank you all so much for putting that effort out. I call your reporters regularly if I find something and I feel like needs to be put out there, and they always respond with great professionalism, and I appreciate the work you're doing for this community. Thank you. Thank you very much, and we appreciate your support, and we greatly appreciate our relationship to you with Mark over here. He always keeps us in the loop on things as well, so thank you very much. Yeah. Ditto. Thank you to you, to Main Street Daily News, to WUFT, Alligator, to all of the reporters who spend their days trying to get the information out to the public so they can have the information they need to make good decisions in their lives to be in the know about what's happening with our government, with our community. Thank you so much for all that you do. All right. Next up, actually, it's noon proper, or just about, so we will go to public comment. So everyone has three minutes to comment on anything that's not on the agenda today, and if you are unable to stay for an agenda item, you are also able to spend three minutes commenting on an agenda item, but that will be your comment on that item for the day. We'll take in the room first, and then we'll go to our phones. Madam Chair, Jim Connish, I'd like to overhead. I have the conversions of newspaper and hazardous waste. These fine people reported, if you mind putting it up on the screen, that GRU is getting ready to spend $54 million to replace their worn-out pumps at the Murphy Wellfield. Unfortunately for the community, our elected officials didn't do anything about the copper site until it's too late, and this EPA Superfund site, the pollution has leaked into the aquifer. GRU currently withdraws 21 million gallons a day, according to Bob Knight, who I spoke to recently. The impact is on 600 square miles, and they're sucking pollution into the site from every single direction. They're depleting the Santa Fe River, which is pitiful. So I think you guys need to pull off my farm and take a look at the implications of not only withdrawing 21 million, but withdrawing 30 million gallons a day. I've watched Lake Geneva disappear. I've been sitting out there on the Santa Fe River since 1980, and it's bad, compounded by your refusal to enforce environmental laws, which I will address myself. As if that is not bad enough, your cronies who looted the utility have left us 1.9 billion in debt, 1.8 billion in depreciated assets, 1.8 billion in debt. They're unable to pay down the debt at all. The rates are not frozen. They're still going up, and they have four power plants worn out. The kelly pant right over there was six times the legal limit for CO on a short stack. That's going up your nose. And everyone working downtown are being assaulted by these poisonous gases. You do nothing. Absolutely nothing. They spill sewage all the time. You do nothing. Zero. Nothing. We're going to have to talk about the fact that 51.3% of GRU's energy capacity is worn out, that they have no firm availability on the transmissions lines, that they're really deep in debt, and the idea of just pumping millions into dirty, uneconomic, unreliable power plants is going to bring the state in here in a much bigger way than they've already come. And you failed to mention the lateral chronicle. Which is the best source of news, but you don't like them because you're partisan. Thank you very much. Any other comments in the room to items on the agenda or not on the agenda? Good afternoon, Commission. Brian Bisher with our City of Alachua update. Right? Because last Thursday was the deadline for the Terra April project to be appealed. And no one seems to know if it was or wasn't. The city manager last night was asked about it, and he wasn't sure. He'd have to look into it. So business as usual with the City of Alachua and knowing how to proceed. Unfortunately, Sylvia isn't here today. I was hoping she might have some answers related to that so that we know what the next particular step is. I do want to commend the county EPD, Stacey Greco, for following up with the City of Alachua issue related to their spray field. They've been out of compliance with nitrates plus nitrite, nitrites plus nitrates, whichever direction that goes, for a number of years. And they've been noticed by FDEP, and they're currently working on a consent order with FDEP to sort out the increase, or at least not the increase, but the overage for nitrates plus nitrates on their spray field. So they can't really add more development to something that is supposed to be 10 milligrams per liter is the limit, and they, for the last four or five years, have been 16 to 19. So big deal there. But just want to give you that update, and thanks so much for all your support related to all things Alachua and having ideas for smart growth for our county. Thank you. Any other comments? Please come forward. Good morning. Good morning. Chair, I'm like confused there. Chair Presbya and commissioners and staff, my name is Tamara Robbins. I am here to thank you, and I wish that Commissioner Cornell and Commissioner Alford were here as well, and as well as Ms. Torres, for your taking the charter amendment that the voters granted to the Alachua County to protect the water quality and quantity in the entire county, that you take that stewardship seriously. And it was very clear and so appreciated in the presence that was at the public hearings. The county DEP staff is amazing, as you know, and the legal team, the whole planning department, all of the county staff and elected officials, some of you were there too, was so appreciated, really. But as Mr. Brisher stated, that we do not know and have not learned whether there has been an appeal file to that planning and zoning board decision. Also, there is also a portion of the land that is on that Terra April parcel right there to the northwest of the sink that is currently zoned community commercial, and that stands to be developed probably by Wright, even though I believe it was a spot zoning when it was done years ago for a couple of hotels. And so it's also in that very sensitive area, the cars, it's in the whole thing, right? It's there. So we will be keeping you updated. There hasn't been any notice sent out about a permit application for that specific parcel or any notice of whether there was an appeal or not. And so thank you again. And since it is hazardous materials week or day or something, what you just designated, I just learned that the city of Alachua also has a new company that's going to be taking over an abandoned facility that is a pharmaceutical manufacturing company. And I'm really concerned about what will be put in the wastewater pharmaceutically-wise because they are not treated out, and then they would end up on the spray field. And as Mr. Bisher said, there's already a problem with the nitrates. So very concerned about whether the county gets involved with any of that, if they're considered hazardous materials, and if show who monitors what is going into the waste treatment system of Forever Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals. And if someone could clarify that for me, I would appreciate it. Thank you. Hey, any other comments? Please make your way. No. Good afternoon. So calcium carbonate is 48% oxygen. Do you know that? So you have CaCO3. So calcium is Ca. I forget what it is, but CO3. So C is the carbon. And then O3. O3 is, I guess, it's 8 or something in the scale. And that's actually 16 in total, but because you have oxygen and whatever. Anyway, so 3 times 16 is 48. So calcium carbonate is 48% oxygen. So we're standing on 48% oxygen. Isn't that wild? That's why it's so porous. The molecular structure is 48% oxygen. Karst is CaCO3. It's a chemical compound. And 48% is oxygen. That's why it seeps so easily. So whatever you put on top of it, eventually it's going to go down and end up, you know. That's why it springs. When I was young, I remember going to Itchduckney. I was like 15 years old, and it was blue. It was truly blue. And the grasses were green. And now it's all green, and it's slimy. And it's heartbreaking to see that the manatees, and there's these big slimy things, and they're just trying to – they're choking almost on this stuff. And that's now, and the population, when I got here, was about, I think, just over 200, 220 or something. Now we're at 320. Are we almost 300,000 here? 250. Anyway, so 40 years, only a quarter of a million people, and we went from literally blue springs to, like, slimy green springs. Wait until another 100 years. You've got to catch all of it because it's going to go down, down, down, down, down. So it's really important. I came here for something completely else. So it's about little guys and little flying things, and then the fact that we have about eight years. So let's say that we start something, you guys start something, we start, you know, using roadside maintenance as a platform basically to maximize the agricultural and the economic output of this county. We use it as a platform to communicate to the people at home, hey, you could do this too. So even if we did that, we only really have eight years for it to become sort of like a popular thing where people are doing it at home because they see it. They're going to work, like, 200 times a year, you go this way, 200 times a year, they come back that way, and eventually they go, oh, my God, I could do this at home. Hey, honey, what do you think? And they start copying what they're seeing. So let's say you started, like, this year. You know, it still takes, like, two or three years before people, before it hits critical mass. So you have 20, 26, 27, 28, 29 before it hits critical mass. You don't have much time. We don't have much time. Thank you. Spring of 34. Hey, any other comments in the room? All right, we will go to the phones. Mr. Sexton. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have two citizens in the meeting. One has their hand raised. Citizen whose number's ending in 2890, if you want to speak, please hit star 9. In the meantime, caller ending in 4703. If you would hit star 6 and state your name, you're in the room. Yes, good afternoon now. My name is Patricia Antonichia. I've been before the board previously with issues regarding the Alachua County Animal Resources and Care. We cannot be there in person today, but I did want to bring to the board's attention that within the last couple of weeks, three critical A-part numbers comprising three-quarters of the outreach team have destinations. The shelter is now functioning without any of the following, an experienced shelter director, a shelter veterinarian, an experienced outreach provider, and an experienced outreach coordinator, and a small tech recently assigned. The latter six positions vacant or seem to be vacant all within approximately two months. The remaining staff and the vulnerable animals. I may add some of their... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We heard the first part of your comment, but you're breaking up so badly we can't hear you any longer. My goodness. Let me see if I can step outside. There, you're better now. Okay. So I start from the beginning? No, we heard you through, you talking about the staff that were lost and the positions that were gone. And most, the last, only a couple seconds. We can add 20 seconds. Okay. So I was saying that I'm particularly troubled in advocating for the outreach team to have say in decisions regarding euthanasia. I may have inadvertently placed a target on their backs. The timing of the resignations feels somewhat suspicious, and I hate to think that I contributed to a contentious working environment for anyone at the shelter. Due to all of these changes, I would request the Board of County Commissioners under an immediate moratorium on euthanasia, except for circumstances where a veterinarian will sign off that euthanasia is required to prevent medical suffering. Behavioral euthanasia should cease unless an experienced or independent behaviorist is consulted and given time to consult a thorough evaluation of the animal at risk. I understand that there are some new outreach members, one of whom was appointed or promoted from the position of Kennel Tech. This individual has actually been an exceptional Kennel Tech, but I don't know if they've been given any training regarding euthanasia evaluation from persons experienced in the animal welfare and rehabilitation techniques versus those experienced with animal control. Perhaps community stakeholders, including certified behaviorists and trainers, could be brought in to assist with getting them up to speed in this regard. Finally, volunteers recently learned that 10 or more dogs, including multiple long-time residents like 50 Cent and Lily, were taken into rescue. This is exciting news. However, we were also told that the name of the receiving and transporting rescue could not be disclosed. While we understand that this may be permissible from a legal perspective, the optics are certainly poor. I cannot recall any prior situation in which a rescue wished to remain private. Indeed, why would any well-intentioned rescue want to avoid the goodwill and donations generated by announcement of their saving dogs in need? We are concerned that such a rescue is even considered, never mind selected. Ma'am, you need to wrap up your comments. Thank you so much. Okay. In conclusion, I'd like to ask the county commissioners to make unannounced visits to the shelter to see exactly what is going on. Okay, thank you. Okay, caller, whose number ends in 2890, if you would hit star six and state your name, you're in the room. Go ahead, caller. Caller, go ahead. Yes, sir. This is Lieutenant Swig from Town of La Crosse Fire Department. I'm in the process of getting the mayor on now. Excuse me, sir. Are you wanting to do a public comment? It's the mayor. He's trying to connect her. Oh, okay. Okay. Mayor La Crosse. Mayor Doberly, are you on? Can anyone from La Crosse hear us? Yes, sir. We're having connection issues with Ms. Diane, but I can go ahead and speak to what she was going to refer to. Okay. Okay. Please do. So, Town of La Crosse Fire Department has had their 2006 fire apparatus out of service now due to electrical and transmission failures that caused the engine to be commissioned permanently. The Town of La Crosse has submitted a request for approval on the joint infrastructure surtax. I believe that meeting will be on March 10th for a purchase of a 2014 Rosenbauer Commander Fire Engine. The total purchase for the fire engine is going to be $149,000. We're requesting the 50,000 or the 50% infrastructure surtax, which will be a total of $74,500. We understand that the meeting will be held on March 10th with us having a letter of intent for the purchase expiring on February 27th. So, we're just requesting a confirmation for the support for this purchase. Okay. Thank you. We'll put that to manager's comment. Any other callers? Chair, that was the last caller. Okay. We'll close public comment, and I have a few comments. First, to Mr. Bisher. Thank you for being here. I don't believe that our staff at this time have had any updates regarding the appeal for Tara. Is that correct, Madam Manager? Corbin Hanson, Senior Assistant County Attorney. We have been in contact with the City of Alachua asking them if there has been an appeal. They've not said there has been an appeal. We also have ongoing public records requests that should turn up anything that is a written appeal. As of this point, we don't have any reason to think it has been an appeal. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. What's the deadline again? Corbin, what's the deadline again? The appeal deadline? Off the top of my head, I don't know the exact date, but I believe it's either passed or it's right around the corner. It was like yesterday. Yeah, I think it passed yesterday or the day before, which is why they're asking. Okay. Thank you. I also was wondering if we had an answer to Ms. Robbins' question regarding who oversees hazardous materials that may be in our wastewater system. Is it the health department that permits that? Maybe, Steve, I see you're here. Thank you. Mr. Hofstetter. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Steve Hofstetter, Environmental Protection Department. Yeah, our health department would probably be the entity that would oversee that. We can verify that as well, but it would be the electrical and health department. Okay. With regards to spray fields, if someone's using that, are there tests that DEP conducts or anybody conducts with regard to chemicals that may be found in spray fields beyond nutrients? Or is that, again, the purview of the health department? Again, that would be the health department that would do that, but that information should be being done as part of the monitoring for that site. Okay. Thank you very much. And then I guess I will refer to a manager for manager comment regarding our staffing plan with the shelter, if there's any updates on that, and also the request from La Crosse for us to go ahead and approve the match funding from Wild Spaces Public Places, given their short time frame. Okay. Wonderful. All right. We will move on to our board. Madam Chair. Yes, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Commissioner Wheeler. I guess I wanted to follow up, too, with Steve, a question about when does the health department get involved to do these evaluations? Is that something that is requested from the public, or how do we invite the health department in to make those evaluations? Madam Chair, again, Steve Hofstetter, I can look into that a little more. They should be being notified of any of the monitoring requirements, but I can inquire as to how they go through that process. I think that would be interesting because, you know, the question that Mr. Connish has, too, you know, about the river and watching all of that, what's happening into the water system, you know, if that's us or if that's the health department, and at what point do we invite them in? Or will they engage, is what I'm trying to find out. That would be great. And then. We do have, may I address that for a second, though, Steve? We do have monitoring wells around the copper site, correct, to track the plume? Yeah. Yeah, and specific to coppers, EPA is, the U.S. EPA is the one that oversees the agency that deals with that, but we have collaboration with the health department as well, and we're all being provided that information on a regular basis. We do have monitoring wells. And are we seeing the plume move towards our well field, or? There's, my understanding is that there's no evidence of contamination from that site into our well, our system. Thank you. And the new company that we've got, and one of my concerns, too, is the growth of these pharmaceutical companies in Alachua, and if anybody's really watching them carefully, are we watching them, or are these states? Yeah, so when it comes to the facilities like this new one that's coming to Alachua, they are regulated. We will regulate them as one of our 1,200 sites that we regulate in Alachua County for hazardous materials. So we will be checking on them, making sure they're meeting their parameters to properly contain and store hazardous materials. So, yes, we'll be the entity that will be watching over that. Great. Thank you. That makes me feel better. And in terms of the animal shelter, I've spent time out there this past week, and the coming and going of the staff, they are perfectly legitimate reasons for people leaving. Yeah, I know. But the public doesn't know, and this is, I just want people to know that, you know, we are watching, that we are watching, and that we're paying attention to the needs out there, and the public is stepping up, and we're stepping up, you know, to help until we get these situations in hand, but I don't have any concerns about the leaving of the staff. We have new staff coming in, actually. I trained with one of the new guys last week to clean cat cages. So, you know, just, they've got it under control. Thank you. Okay. Any other comments? Okay. Moving on, we will now go to board and committee items. And the first up is a presentation of Economic Development Advisory Work Plan. Good morning, Madam Chair. Sean McClendon. I'm the Economic Development Manager, and I will be presenting a brief overview of the Economic Development Advisory Committee, EDAC's annual report and work plan. Our chair, Dr. Rockwell, unfortunately, she could not be with us today, and she sends her regards. To begin with a bit of context, EDAC was reestablished as a special committee through Resolution 2164. Our current roster consists of nine voting members, one alternate, and six representatives from local institutions. Those include University of Florida, Santa Fe College, and the City of Gainesville, some of the members. EDAC's primary mission is to provide this board with policy recommendations to foster sustainable high-value economic growth. And it's important to note that under our current resolution, the committee is scheduled to conclude its current term on December 31, 2026. So staff will be returning to you in the coming months with a new enabling resolution to ensure that our work continues without interruption. For the 2025 accomplishments, it was a big strategy year for the committee. In the past fiscal year, EDAC has acted as a collaborative catalyst for several landmark initiatives. Some involved working in close proximity to the Tourist Development Council. They had a meeting at the beginning of the year, last year, that worked to unify economic development and tourism goals, aligning to our visitor economy with our core economic competencies so that they're mutually reinforcing. As a highlight, they also helped with the EcoLoop land use alignment. Recently directed staff to go back to the community and talk about the PD. The committee recommended amending the enable uses for the EcoLoop for the PD. And the shift was critical as it moves us away from not only looking at waste-based models, but also opens the door to some of those other non-smokestack-type industries like aerospace and semiconductor manufacturing. So we're very pleased with that, and the board moved forward with that. They also provide policy guidance to staff to provide guidance on the Airport Gateway Project as well as the forward-focused eastern Alachua County study. So it gave us feedback on that and on how to proceed. Looking forward for this year, we're moving towards an evolution towards the three pillars that we discussed with the county commission back in September of last year where we talked about the new economic element that we're developing. So part of this work plan is that realignment of the committee's composition and relationship to that and those three central pillars. And broadly stated, as a reminder, those pillars, they touch on innovation, heritage, and vitality. And by using those words, I'm talking about the innovation that comes from our world-class research, education, and health care sectors, heritage related to our food systems and our farms, and then the vitality, the things that are a big part of our quality of life here. So that makes us unique. So our nature, our culture, these are our big business attractants as well. So those are all core to how we're thinking about the reworking of the economic element. This realignment will ensure the committee remains in lockstep with the board's strategic economic development priorities as the county expands its role and as the community's primary economic development organization. And just to close out some of our thoughts, the Space Florida Academy MOU. So I want to talk about that briefly because this was something that initiated with your EDAC. In May of 2025, EDAC started a conversation with the UF Australia's program as well as UF Innovate. And part of that discussion that they had in Midtown there, it sparked an exploration of the space economy around opportunities for the K-12 educational engagement. Following that initial discussion, a team that included county staff, career source, as well as, of course, most importantly, the Alachia County Public Schools, they took the lead to follow through with Space Florida and their Space Florida Academy program that recognizes local school district curriculum that is in alignment with critical skills for hiring workforce in the aerospace and aviation industry. So I'm very proud to quietly announce that this collaborative effort resulted in a Space Florida MOU, which was formally agreed to by the Alachia County Public Schools this past January. We're still waiting to hear back from Space Florida. They have to countersign. But once we have that in place, we'll issue a broader press release and talk about the impacts that it'll have on our community. But by doing this, this program will provide our high school students with access to one of the most high-tech industries in the world and reinforcing that Alachia County is truly Florida's intellectual capital. And in closing, I just want to thank you for the trust you put in the committee, and we look forward to another productive year at EDAC. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? I just have one question. In addition to the three pillars you talked about, I think one of the big things that this commission talked about and we've sort of had discussions about when we were talking about the EAR and about the economic development chapter was sort of circular economy and the focus on not just innovation and all of those pieces, but thinking strategically about how we're investing in businesses and attracting businesses that are thinking strategically about how their waste streams impact our communities and the ways in which they're innovating, I guess, in that space. So would that be under that innovation pillar, or is that sort of just an overarching sort of lens we're using? And does EDAC have information about that? Have they been integrated with the folks at UF or others that understand sort of how the circular economy works and where it stands with regards to innovation in our community or across the country? I think you're going to find that whether the circular economy occurs as an objective policy or a goal, you're going to find these elements woven in at various levels. Some are going to be more emphasized, like how do we deal with climate issues. So some of that's invested within the economic element, but the prioritization of it and how acute it is within the language of it, you might find more of it within, say, the solid waste element or within other land use elements. So there's some interweaving and interplay between all of the elements, but yes, it does inform the narrative that's coming back to the Board of County Commissioners. Well, a thank you to the EDAC for their service and their commitment to the county in thinking about these issues, and I would just ask as they think about their work plan for the year if they can potentially have the opportunity to interface with faculty at the university or thought leaders in the area of circular economy in ways in which we could advice they might give us on ways that we could better prepare our county and make our county attractive to those sorts of organizations and or support existing businesses to move in the direction of thinking about how they can have a more circular programming for the services and products that they deliver. We'd really appreciate it. Thank you, ma'am. You've heard that one before, too, haven't you? Thank you. Okay. Next up, Citizen Climate Advisory Committee. We don't normally have two of these on one agenda, but occasionally we do, and since we have a little bit of a lighter agenda today, we've decided to put two on one agenda. So come on down. Hello. We have a presentation also. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Good afternoon. Thank you for your time. Do you need help pulling that up? Yeah. Mark? I think they might need help. Thank you, Mark. Thank you. Good afternoon again, Madam Chair, and I really appreciate this opportunity to share an update, an annual update on the Citizen Climate Advisory Committee. I would like to thank the board for your support of this committee and the development of the climate action plan that underpins the work of the committee. I also, as the, I'm Jenison Kipp, a resiliency specialist with the Environmental Protection Department, and I took over as the liaison about a year ago where I started taking over, but I also want to thank Steve Hofstetter, our department director, for all of the work and stepping up that he's done working with the committee as I've transitioned into this position in the last year. And before we go into the presentation itself for the committee, I also would like to extend a warm welcome to our, the county's new sustainability manager. Mr. Matt Williams joined us in January, the position that had been vacant for a few months after Betsy Riley left. Mr. Matt would like to just provide a few brief comments. Why not? Welcome to the team. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. I am thrilled to be part of the team with the county. I have familiarity with some of the commissioners and less with some of the others, but to give a little bit of a background, I have come in with about 20 years of experience in higher education sustainability across a whole range of operational sustainability areas. I grew up in Alachua County, spent about 60% of my life here, and I am just absolutely ecstatic to be able to help and support serving the role and help the vision that the board has created, as well as staff and our residents as well. So just thrilled to be here, and thank you so much for your support. Welcome. Excited to have you. Thanks so much, Matt. Welcome. We're happy to have him here. Yeah. And so I want to note before I go on to the next slide, I'm going to be co-presenting this with our current, CCA Chair, Mr. Terry Clark, and the last annual update for the CCAC we provided in June of last year. So this will cover a little bit of the fiscal year 25 as well as fiscal year 26 accomplishments and then work plan looking forward for the CCAC. So just a reminder of the original resolution that was established, that established the Citizen Climate Advisory Committee and what the purpose of the committee is. So really in bold, these active words, it's to, you know, provide guidance and recommendations to the Joint Water and Climate Policy Board, which also has representatives from the city of Gainesville and our smaller municipalities. Also to assist and advise the county on the climate action plan. And key in there is providing these bold and innovative adaptation and mitigation strategies, policies, and target goals. So really, you know, pushing us to think about all the opportunities out there in the breadth of the plan. Engaging with stakeholders in the community. I really see the CCAC representatives as ambassadors to the community for this climate initiative work and also voices to bring back what the community cares most about and who, you know, who's most vulnerable. And that ties in with the next bullet on ensuring that the neighborhoods most impacted by climate change and most vulnerable to the effects of climate change are taken into account as we adopted the climate action plan and as we developed it and as we move into the implementation phases. That's very critical still as we go forward. And then assisting in the promotion of greater community awareness of the climate-related issues affecting our county today, not just into the future, as well as government initiatives, county initiatives, and our, you know, fellow municipalities within the county on what the work that's being done every day to protect our, you know, our people, our natural resources, and our economic, you know, the foundation for our economic base. And quickly, I'm just going to introduce the fiscal year 2026 members shown on this slide. And again, I mentioned that Terry Clark, our chair, will be giving the rest of the update after I go through the membership. And we, importantly, last year, we also updated the resolution and expanded the membership for this committee. So it now has 10 members, which includes an alternate. And we're very proud that we have our first, I believe, CCAC was the first to have a youth member representing on an advisory board. So we were very excited to have Oliver Flanagan join us as a youth member last year, last fall, and Richard Devereaux as an alternate. Both of those individuals have already played active roles in the climate events. Oliver spoke on an intergenerational panel at the Climate Summit in 2024. And Richard, in his role with O-Town Compost, helped divert 51 pounds of food waste from our climate festival last fall in November. So they're stepping up beyond the CCAC commitments themselves. And this is the last slide I'm going to share. I am going to read from my notes because this is a heavy slide. So Bill Quinlan was a climate champion in our community who we were thrilled applied and was appointed to the CCAC last fall. As chief meteorologist for 27 years with the local WCJV-TV20, he was a trusted source of credible and timely information that helped our neighbors in Alachua County stay safe through both literal and figurative storms in their lives and our lives. In his application to the Citizen Climate Advisory Committee last summer, speaking to the contributions he felt he could make if he were selected, he wrote, as a trained meteorologist with over 30 years of experience, I would be able to bring an unbiased scientific perspective and understanding to the potential climate issues that could have a lasting impact on our local businesses, citizens, and the environment. Throughout his career and into his retirement, Bill was dedicated to both raising awareness of and advancing real solutions to climate change here in this community. The photos on this slide show, Bill, in 2024 at the Alachua County Climate Summit, which was reviewing the draft climate action plan. In the photo on the left, you see him in the front listening to another speaker. In the photo on the right, he is presenting at the podium the details of the climate vulnerability assessment that had been completed a few months prior. And what he was really doing, you know, he was translating that assessment into real-world impacts that we could all relate to, everybody in the room and everybody beyond the room, like why this matters, why this work matters. So county staff, CCAC members, and I were all extremely honored to work with Bill as part of the team. No, I can read this. But he passed away suddenly last month in his home, just a few days into the new year. So we, I apologize, we're working to honor his memory and legacy and identify ways that we can carry that on. So I'll pass it to Terry. I'm sorry. You know I'm an emotional person. But this would be hard, but we wanted to acknowledge Bill's service. Yes. Thank you, Jadison. And hello, board, chair. It's my pleasure to give you an update from a member perspective of the CCAC. We're looking at slide six. And if you start at the top, this is the flow chart we have to have, mandatory, I think, for all planning projects. We started with the listening and communicating. And that really has flowed through the development of the CCAC. And happy to say that we're at the bottom of the chart now. So if you see the climate action plan, and then the two smaller points there are identify and prioritize actions and then develop an implementation plan and even begin implementing. So we're winding down the planning part and we're going into implementation. And I think a couple of key points on this for me and the committee is that we're now really transitioning from development of the plan into implementation. And part of that involves prioritizing some of the items. And we've already had some pretty lively discussions on how to do that. How do you prioritize? Where do you focus from the beginning? And don't eliminate or forget about the long-term efforts that we need to maintain. So that's a big part of our discussions. We're not looking at this as a shelf plan. This is an implementation document. Living, breathing, we anticipate that we'll probably see some changes along the way, working with the board and other planning documents. Also, I do want to recognize the board, and I'm going to do this a little bit later when I talk about the members of our committee. But I want to recognize your support and really appreciate it. That's been a driving force for all of us on the committee. Slide seven. Our three goals for 2026, and you can see our flyer from the November Climate Festival. But I do want to highlight a couple of items on here. One is that from the top we're providing strategic guidance and technical input. So this is from the perspective of members. So we do provide, like I said, strategic in the way of formulating what are going to be the strategies and the priorities. And we also have some really technical folks on there, too, that can provide technical input. Participate in and provide feedback. That's been a big part of our effort. Ongoing meetings throughout 2024. And then collaborate. And we already had input from a couple of our newer members to revise this last point to include the latter part of the statement to address climate concerns and what citizens and organizations can do to advance these goals. So, again, it's not just highfalutin policies. It's how are we going to actually make this stuff happen. And that's a big part of this. So if we could move on to slide eight. I guess I'm going to hit the right arrow here. And you see a lot of names here. A big reason for putting on all the names of the people who have been involved is we wouldn't be where we were today if we hadn't had a strong committee member and input prior to where we are. We're kind of standing on the shoulders of a lot of those people. And we moved it forward. And we hope we did a good job of it. You can see our current members with the present and part of their duration. And I also want to make a comment to the public that we're going to be accepting some new applications, too. So we have some vacancies. We're going to want to fill those over the years, over this year. And I also want to make the point, because it does relate to us as members, is we do bring in our own perspectives and maybe some priorities. However, I think it's really important to hear from people who may not have a direct input or a direct, obvious relationship to this topic, because I know I've learned through this process. I've learned how the climate change can affect young people that I'd never thought about before. The education component of that is really important. And the mental and emotional health of the public related to climate change never crossed my mind before I started on this committee. And we're representing those perspectives on the committee. And I think it's really important to have that. So anybody who wants to participate, I'd encourage you. And, again, just to give you an idea of some of the discussions we've had, we've said, do we want to break out the chapters and have small subgroups? And we decided to not do that, because we all felt that as members of the committee, we need to be knowledgeable of the document and the discussions. But I think it's also good to have a fresh perspective, too, of people who aren't engaged in this on a day-to-day basis or a professional basis. There's a lot to be said for that. It's been a pleasure for me. I'm no longer trying to build my resume. I'm retired. And I'm not doing this to try and get a job or to affect business or even professional relationships. I'm doing it as like our other members because we want to and we want to contribute. And that's where I want to thank the board, because, again, for me personally, it's been a growing experience, and I think I'll probably grow more over the next year or two. But it's also, I would say, what I wanted to mention is that the members, in my experience, are decent people trying to do the right thing. And that's hard to find a place for that nowadays. And that's where I really do want to thank the board for creating this environment, for creating this opportunity, for kind of regular people to get up here and provide some input from our perspective. And it's been a real pleasure working with the members on the committee who really don't have hidden agendas. They're not trying to build a resume or get a job or benefit in some, you know, alternative way. They're really trying to do this because they want to and they want to contribute. And I think that's really a recognition of the county and the board in particular. The next slide, we wanted to acknowledge a lot of input from our interns and temps. And these are three who were really active in the past 12 to 14 months in development of the plan. They did a lot of the legwork, a lot of behind-the-scenes work. Sophia, Ava, and Tupelo were really instrumental in kind of pulling a lot of random thoughts and input. And you can imagine how many comments we got, both from members of the committee as well as members of the public. And they made some sanity out of it. So we really wanted to recognize them. And they do represent our next generation. You know, a lot of us on the committee have been around a while. And so it's nice to be able to move on. And their engagement and enthusiasm for this subject really was contagious. It really kind of rubbed off on us. And really, it gives you a good feeling to see that this is carrying on in some ways into the next generation. As Jenison said, we have a young person also designated on our committee and has already provided a lot of good input from that perspective. I want to move on to slide 10, which talks specifically about the climate festival in November. Again, a couple of pictures of the activity there from the actual meeting. John Nix just stepped off of our committee, but he was really instrumental in providing a really good perspective from the agricultural community and multigenerational, too, which was really important to get that perspective. I think Jenison mentioned Richard Devereaux, who is now on the committee. He participated and actually helped with a lot of the kind of the nuts and bolts of the waste management of the session. We had over 150 attendees. There's a lot of work that you can imagine that goes into that. And I want to appreciate the input of that. And that was, of course, after the plan was completed, and I believe it was after you accepted the plan as well. So now we're moving. That's part of that transition from development into implementation. And that festival is kind of a nice milestone accomplishment to move from. Another slide here, 11. So, again, the focus of our efforts have been and will continue to be stakeholder collaboration through the implementation. 16 community organizations, 7 county programs were at the festival. And, again, we're using that as a stepping stone to further implementation through these groups. There were 23 exhibitors there. A couple of members from our committee were there and served as important liaisons. And, again, it was a major milestone for us. And to kind of close the chapter on the development and move towards implementation. Okay. So, really, that wraps up my part of the presentation. And we'll be happy to answer or respond to any questions, comments you may have. Great. Thank you. Do we have any questions from the board? No. Thank you. Thank you for the important work. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, a big thank you. I know this is one of the committees that has a bit of a heavier lift than some of our other committees. You know, you have a lot of documents to read, a lot of people to interface with events that we've been hosting. So, we just really appreciate you all leaning in and taking it seriously. And please let us know how we can help you with recruitment for your seats. It's always exciting for us to get the word out and help recruit good folks to be on that board that, like you said, want to be there for the right reasons and who really care about these issues and about making our community a better place. So, thank you so much. No, you're welcome. And, again, thanks for the opportunity. Okay. And welcome to Matt. He and I have worked together for quite some time at the Office of Sustainability at UF, so it's exciting to have him on our team. We have a real expert here who I think has an understanding of institutional bureaucracy and innovation, which are two things that don't always go hand in hand. But we're giving him the challenge of figuring it out here at the county. All right. Next up, Madam Clerk. City of Gainesville, Lockwood County Community Gun Violence Prevention Alliance Five-Year Strategic Plan. Thank you. Hello. Welcome. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Member of the Commission. Carl Smart, Executive Liaison. Here today to present to you a brief presentation on the strategic plan for gun violence prevention. This commission has asked that we would get a strategic plan in moving forward so we would have a road map on how to put together a strategic plan, how to put together the efforts on gun violence prevention for the entire county. So this is City of Gainesville and Elachua County. It's for the entire county and not just one part of the county. We have city representatives here. Our Brandy Stone, who's the public health director, and Brittany Coleman, that we know used to be with the county, is the gun violence prevention and intervention manager. And so I wanted to show that we are an alliance still, and we are operating as an alliance, as you directed, as we agreed with our memorandum of understanding. And Santa Fe College is still a part of that alliance and helping us to stay on task. We're meeting monthly, the second Monday of the month at 530, usually there is a meeting of the alliance with the stakeholders. Usually it's at the Blount Center downtown, Santa Fe College. But we've been moving out into other different areas. We've met in High Springs. We've met in Newberry. You know, we're moving around some, and so that we give everyone an opportunity, those who may have transportation challenges, give them an opportunity to meet with us. Today, I'm just going to go through the same presentation that was given to the City Commission a couple weeks ago, February the 12th. And the City Commission heard the presentation, the same presentation that was made by the consultants to the alliance and the stakeholders. The City Commission approved the, at the end of the presentation, approved moving forward with implementation. And so that's our goal today is for you to receive the information. And I think we're looking to have discussions coming up during the budget process. This next slide shows the consultants. Renee Scott and Rosalind Rice comprise an organization called DPI LLC. And they're out of Tampa and South Florida, but they have strong connections here in Alachua County. They both went to, they're twins, and they both went to school here at the University of Florida. And they both own property here in Alachua County in Archer. They've helped work the farm out there. And so they have a strong connection here. And they met with not only the stakeholders, they met with the City Commission. And, of course, they had an opportunity to meet with each of you individually and to actually do a brief, to meet with you collectively as a commission. They've also met with all the stakeholders. They had town hall meetings. They had meetings with community partners. They met with law enforcement agencies. They met with the Black-on-Black Crime Task Force. And so they got a chance to get a lot of input. I know there was some concern. They met with a lot of community folk. But they tried to incorporate, too, with our stakeholders and with the Black-on-Black Crime Task Force. We had chief of police and sheriff and state attorney and other experts that were there to also provide input. But we know that we've still got a lot of work to do. And the strategic plan will outline that work for us. This is the framework. It has an executive summary, introduction, summary of engagement. In particular, the framework and what we're going to go through today, the 10 objectives of the plan. And that's the real meat of the plan, if you will, the 10 objectives. And then how would those objectives be met? One of the things they did with us, they looked at success measures, starting early with our kids, with prevention, prevention, helping the young men to build strong futures, those coming in, coming out of the criminal justice system, how to reintegrate them into society, looking at education and literacy. Literacy came up a lot, particularly talking with community as well as experts, that literacy is an important factor that helps to lead toward gun violence prevention. Working with families and supporting parents. Parents need help in raising their children and making sure that they understand how to handle and how to safely store away weapons, guns, particularly. Looking at anger management, conflict resolution, data is a big factor here, and how to collect the data and have access, have the data be readily accessed by the public. The Alliance did a SWOT analysis, but also the consultant came in and did a SWOT analysis with us. And there were some strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats identified. Some of the strengths are that the city and the county are working together on this effort, along with the college. Strong partnerships with some of the departments. She particularly mentioned police, law enforcement, fire, and nonprofit agencies. They also mentioned some of the efforts, some of the early efforts that were started by this city, including the violence interrupters and the BOLD program that were started sometime before this alliance was even formed under a previous police chief and the credibility that it has with public institutions. Some of the weaknesses is that there are some gaps. There are some other agencies that they identified we need to bring in to the effort, one of them being the University of Florida and getting them involved, health care, hospitals, getting them involved. The school board was identified, got to work closer with the school board to reach the children, and working more with the business sector. We have data presented at every meeting from police and from the sheriff, but they identified that it's fragmented, that it's isolated, that it's got to have a way to bring the data together and be able to link it up and make it accessible to the public. But there's opportunities, opportunities to do more with prevention systems, to strengthen partnerships, to expand youth and art-based programs, to build transparent databases and diversify funding. Right now the funding is a little fragmented, and so there's opportunities to do that. The threats, the number one threat that they identified is reduced and inconsistent funding for gun violence prevention. They also identified instability, particularly economically and somewhat politically, leadership fatigue and burnout that may occur, and public disengagement were some of the threats that were identified with that SWOT analysis. These are some of the strategic expectations that through this, with this plan, we should be able to achieve shared accountability and data transparency, system-wide integration of gun violence prevention efforts, early prevention and continuous care for youth and for families, identify more leadership and get youth more involved in leadership, and have sustainable investment in gun violence prevention. So here are the ten objectives that were identified, and this is, again, this is the main part of the strategic plan. The number one is to deepen and sustain gun violence reduction, firearm-related injuries, look at how we can reduce firearm-related homicides, assaults, injuries, and we might add suicides, too, since we know that suicides often outnumber homicides. And so they mentioned about a 20% reduction, also reducing juvenile arrest, young folk who are going to jail usually for possession of firearms, illegal possession, and also in shootings that occur, and a decrease in stolen firearm reports. So if we can deepen the gun violence reduction and the injuries, reduce the injuries, then that would be a number one objective, if you will. Some of the suggestions for programs is create a coordinated data and response system, expand and strengthen existing programs, come up with a safe and secure firearm storage program campaign, and one of our grantees is already working on that. The League of Women Voters is working on that kind of a program, and also look at implementing a safe firearm certification program, which would be a voluntary program where people would get certified in safe firearm ownership, knowing how to handle, knowing how to use, knowing how to store, and handle firearms in the proper way. The second objective is institutionalized gun violence prevention across city and county systems, and basically just kind of integrated into the mission of departments. A key performance indicator, KPI, would be by year three, at least 75% of city and county departments would integrate gun violence prevention or trauma-informed practices into their departmental mission and their policies and their plans, and, of course, into budget allocations. And also look for a reduction in recidivism. Those persons who come out and sometimes end up being repeat offenders and go back into the criminal justice system, and that's something that we're all kind of working toward, reducing the recidivism rate. And that's part of that second objective. One of the programs they suggested is the homicide review team, where you have persons of different law enforcement agencies, multi-level, multidisciplinary, multi-agency come together and review homicides, look at how they occurred, why they occurred, and what can be done to help prevent reoccurrence of those homicides. And so that's the program certainly we can take a look at and discuss with our law enforcement agencies. Objective three is to establish a coordinated system of care for school-age youth, and that would, of course, require working with the school board, the school district to put together that kind of a coordinated system of care. I think we've already identified there is one that's operating now, but maybe expanding that program and having city and county representation, working with a county-wide system of care. What does that, can you explain what that means? And what, like, I don't, I guess, what do you mean by a coordinated system of care that exists? What, what is, what is, what is that, that currently exists in? Putting together a program that provides resources to parents and, and to the, and to the students. They suggested maybe having a program K through 8, specifically for those young, those young kids, and then another one for the older kids. Resources that will help them as far as looking at, looking at housing, looking at food, looking at literacy, whatever they, whatever the needs are, and having that go through a single office, a program, a system of care. Haven't, they suggest maybe having an entry point for services for families with children and connect schools, have after-school programs, community partners that would provide wraparound services for the children and, and for the parents. So, like, social workers that would be embedded in the schools that would provide navigation services and support? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. The school social workers working with our county, some of our county social workers. Great. And other agencies, nonprofit agencies, working together to make sure that every child is provided those resources. Thank you. Can I ask a question? Sure. Where is the school board? Well, that was one of the gaps that was identified, that we need to work on getting the school board more involved. And I was talking with Missy earlier this morning. If we have on our agenda a joint meeting with the school board, there would be a good time to have some of that discussion. But in the meantime, we're also going to reach out to the new superintendent and have that discussion because we really do need to bring them in. We had already talked about it, even before the consultant identified it, but the consultant confirmed that, yeah, you need school board involved in this thing so that you can reach those children at an early age. So that's an excellent point. And the reason I kind of brought that up was because when you read and you see things saying that our students are not reading on grade level, I mean, that really disturbs me. And it bothers me because this day and time, one would not believe that kids are not reading on grade level because the opportunities are there, but something is happening. Something is not happening right in the school system that these kids are being passed on and can't read. You know, that's sad to me, and it's disturbing. So that's what I'm saying. Where are they in this process? Because they've got to be in this process if you guys want it to be successful. You know, and even with after-school programs, making sure that there are programs that they can refer parents, their children, to attend to make sure if they, especially if they've been referred to the dean or something like that from behavioral issues and stuff like that. So you can address those issues early on so it doesn't get into the streets, and then they get guns and want to kill each other. So I just want to think that that is a very, very important issue there. And then when you all talked about it, I'm just jumping ahead now so I don't have to ask any more questions. You guys talked about data sharing and all of that stuff. Where is the sheriff's department in there? I didn't see the sheriff's department in here at all, but they did attend the meetings. They were there. I saw them. So they've got to be a part of this too to make it be successful. And that's it. I mean, that's some of the questions I had. One thing, we had a crime task force meeting at the sheriff's department last month, earlier this month, actually, early in February. And the sheriff was able to outline a lot of the community program, community-based programs he's putting into place. And they were impressive. They were impressive. And he has certainly agreed to work with us. He has a representative to come to each of the meetings and provide data on where they are, how many shootings, how many shots were fired, how many guns they were able to seize, and how many guns were turned in, that kind of a thing. So he's on board. He's on board. And I think you're going to see more community programs coming out of the sheriff's office now. We really haven't had a whole lot of that before, but we look like we're going to have more now. Even a reentry program, talked about a program called Change, that will be operated in the jail before people come out, so that when they come out, they've already got some... Skills. Yeah, some direction on how to access resources. Oh, yeah. So, yeah, good question. The sheriff has got to be a good part of this, along with other law enforcement agencies. Right. GPD, Santa Fe College, police, Hot Springs Police, Alachua Police. New up. University police. Moving on to objective four, advanced healing-centered systems. We know that we have to be operating in a trauma-informed way. We're dealing with this is a very emotionally charged subject. We're talking about homicides and suicides and injuries, violence, basically. And so looking at making sure that staff train in trauma-informed practices has got to be a part of all that we do as it relates to gun violence prevention. And so making it a part of, says a couple of things to do, make sure that these practices are trained and are part of agencies that are dealing with these issues, that residents are referred to counseling and victim services, and family support services after incidents, that a number of the schools in community centers also have trauma-informed practices. We've started doing a program called Community Care Callout, and Community Care Callout is putting together a group, if you will, a team of social workers and go out into the neighborhood that has experienced a gun violence incident. And they've done it in several neighborhoods where there have been shootings and people shot, people killed, actually. And talking to the neighbors, seeing how they've been impacted, seeing if they need help, if they need referrals to certain resources, or they just need to talk to somebody. And so that, I think that program is working well, I asked, at the last meeting, the police chief was talking about the incident that occurred on East University Avenue, that shooting, that killing, that happened over there, two people killed. And, but that was in a commercial district versus a residential, a lot of these happened in residential areas, either apartment complexes or single-family residential neighborhoods, but this happened in a commercial district. And the chief and Ms. Brittany Coleman was able to talk about how they went out and were able to talk to folks in the area to make sure that they were okay and see if they needed any resources. So I think moving in a trauma-informed way like that is very important, a very important part of this overall strategy. And is that the community care call-out, is that a structured program that has funding, or are the social workers, where are the social workers coming from? Are they people that are in the community paramedics program? Primarily, thus far, they're coming out of community support services. So it's our folks? Our folks. Okay, great. Yeah, and victim services. Great. And the police department and sheriff department. Okay, great. Thank you. Objective five is the youth, increase the youth voice and leadership. And, of course, this is a very important part here, where they're recommending that youth and residents with lived experience, those who've been impacted directly or indirectly by gun violence, are certainly a valuable resource in these discussions, and not just discussions, but in providing leadership as we move forward with this strategic plan. We know that the city of Gainesville already has a youth advisory committee, the youth steering committee, and that is going well, and the county is setting up also a couple of youth steering committees that we hope to bring in youth leadership from around the county to do likewise. They're also suggesting that we increase representation on decision-making bodies, like on the advisory boards, and on the alliance committees and local policy workshops, make an extra effort to bring in young folk, to bring in youth and get them embedded in all the prevention efforts. They're suggesting, for example, a youth civic leadership fellowship program for high school and college-age students where they're paid. There's a year-round program where they're paid to provide leadership, coaching, and working with city and county departments toward coming up with gun violence prevention programs and efforts and creating a pathway, if you will, a structured pathway to connect young people to local government. And I think there's already some efforts underway, city and county, to do that and maybe just expanding that. Also, bringing in nonprofit organizations and other advisory boards to look at having a specified representation, if you will, for young folk, for youth, where that's available. Objective six is expand reentry pathways and access to employment opportunities. And I kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier with the Sheriff's Department change program. But, of course, we've contracted with release reentry, and so just expanding on the reentry programs for adults and for youth. One of the things coming out of the crime task force was a team of clergy that's been going to the juvenile court on Wednesday mornings. A juvenile court meet usually at 9 o'clock and then 1 o'clock on Wednesdays. And the number of young people that are going through that court and having to be disciplined by being sent off to different sites, and then they're being brought back into the community. And when they come back, they don't always have the resources readily available to help them to reintegrate in a positive way. And so looking at expanding reentry programs in order to deal with that for youth as well as for adults. And I know that we're somewhat ahead of the curve with that contract, with release reentry, but continuation of expanding those programs. If I can, I think it's really important to highlight that. I think the youth need a different approach than many of the adults. And I think release reentry is not support, like they do not focus so much on youth. I mean, I'm sure if a youth was referred to them, they would. They don't really have the structured supports that are associated with DJJ requirements or with the mentorship and the hand-holding that's necessary to keep a juvenile from sort of reoffending and moving into a system where they keep, you know, in that cycle. So I do think that that's a really important point that came out of this report. It's something that I highlighted as an important note that we do need to think about how do we create structured mentorship programs that are paid and supported and reentry support programs that help them with the social work navigation stuff that you were talking about, not just in the school day. Many of these students either aren't in school or, you know, are working on their GED. So I just wanted to bring up, I don't think the change program or release reentry are really targeting the population that oftentimes is at the heart of this gun violence work, the young people, anyway, that are in the heart of the gun violence situation. So I do think it's something we need to think about more strategically, and I'm glad to see it's part of the strategic objectives. Yeah, absolutely. I think you're right, just release, reentry, and the change program, they're kind of targeting the adults who are caught up in the criminal justice system, and we need something that's more designed to help the young folk, the young people dealing with those issues. So I think that was an important point that came out in this strategic plan, but we'll be looking at that. Madam Chair, may I ask you a question? Yes, please. Do you remember the GOME program? What happened to that program? Which one is that, Commissioner? GOME? I don't know what it stands for, but I know that we used to take young people in a bus out towards Tuckawilla, that there was a program out there where we would take some of these young guys. It was an alternative program. Yeah, right, yeah. I'm not familiar with that program, but I'll definitely take a look at it. I just don't know what happened. I know often you can see the bus taking, you know, a group of these young people out in the woods, out from the lakeside, and did their schooling there. And I just, you know, those programs like that, I used to work in a residential treatment program for girls like that, out in the woods in Fanning Springs. And sometimes, you know, maybe we need to look at some of those kinds of programs that we can reinstitute, you know, to get the kids out of town and into a setting that's a little more healing. Right, absolutely. But I, okay, I'm sorry, I don't want to stop you, but I do remember that program, and I'm amazed you remember it. I remember it, yeah. And that anybody else in here might, raise your hand if you know that program. It was before Cuskawilla, before we bought Cuskawilla. That's right, okay. Let me hear someone else who does. Thank you. And this very important point, then there are other programs out there, too, that are currently operating, you know, that are working with youth. And the challenge here with the strategic plan is to look at those, identify those, and expand them and help build capacity. A lot of them just don't have the capacity to do, you know, to do as much as they would like to do, as much as needs to be done. So this strategic plan, I think, is an opportunity for us to be a model as far as gun violence prevention. The next objective is, objective seven is just looking at economic and geographic equity and resource distribution. This kind of reflects back to the equity study that was done a few years back by the Friendship Seven. And it clearly pointed out there are some differences, major differences that need to be addressed. And I know there's been progress over the last few years. There's been progress. And so the challenge here with the strategic plan is that we need to continue that, that resources are not equally distributed, economic opportunities are not equally distributed, employment opportunities, those kinds of things. And so that is something that we need to work toward with this plan. The plan itself mentions priority zones and a percentage, like having higher percentages of the funding dedicated to those priority zones. Is that a map that I missed, like where those priority zones are? Yeah. I don't think they, I don't think we have a map. But there was clearly those areas where that are low income, if you will, and areas that where there's been a high incidence, high incidence of gun violence and violence in general, gang activities, those kinds of things. And so the police department has been pretty good about using heat maps to identify those areas, even police and sheriff. And so, you know, we pretty much know where they are. Well, I guess it says identified priority zones. So I think having those mapped out for all of us to understand where they are and be able to think through, you know, for the organizations, too, that are going to apply for the grants that we're providing and the mentorship programs that are going on. And if they know these are the priority areas that we're trying to target and make sure that they're aligned with those, that would be useful. Great point. Absolutely. Yeah, being able to target our funding toward those priority zones so that we are maximizing the impact of the funding. They suggest maybe a resource impact tracker for a dashboard where we're tracking the use of that funding and tracking how effective it is in our neighborhoods. As it relates to data, I guess we're coming up with data here shortly, talking about how we can put together a dashboard that the public can access as well as staff can access and be able to see where the problems are, where the incidents are occurring, and be able to help strategize efforts to deal with those areas and those incidents. Can I ask a quick question? Yes. How is that conversation, like the conversation, and maybe this may be a question that Brittany, I'm just wondering about how that conversation about that dashboard is, like, linking with conversations we're having? Because we're having so many conversations about data transparency lately and about metrics, like the county's working on whole new, you know, sets of metrics that align with our strategic plan and a dashboard for that, and we have the climate action plan, a dashboard for that, and I just feel like we've got these, like, dashboard after dashboard after dashboard for the public to have to interface with, and so I'm just wondering if we're maybe talking about having one singular, you know, dashboard, at least on the county side that would, or at least a single page that would drive people to the right spaces to look for this, rather than, there's a dashboard over here that's the Alliance dashboard, there's a dashboard over here that's the, you know, climate dashboard, and be really confusing for folks. I've had a conversation with the manager about that, and we talked about having our experts to work through that and come up with a solution where you have the county experts on IT and city IT and sheriff IT, police IT get together in a, you know, cross-jurisdictional team and work out what is the best way to put that dashboard together and look at what information can be shared publicly through that dashboard and, and so that we, so that we have the experts to put it together, you know, but we know that there is a need, and the strategic plan points out the need for that kind of, that kind of data to be made available. Right. I know, I know what you're saying, there's multiple. Yeah, I guess I would just ask, yeah, the folks that are working on our, I can't remember what that new wiki page is, Zen City, and that are working on the idea of our strategic plan for the county, if we can make sure that whatever is developed in this intersection Alliance around this, that we figure out how it at least integrates or has a link to it, so that when people are going to county data for information, they can find it easily and it's, you know, it's easy for them to understand. I just want to make sure that people, you know, when there's so many pages to go to for information, it gets overwhelming, so I just want to make sure we have, like, at least the direction on our end to get it to the people that want it. How to make it easy to find, easy to navigate, yeah. Citizen friendly, absolutely. But we're certainly going to have those discussions with IT and if they're working with Zen City or some other group, including them into those discussions. Yeah, and that's Objective 8, strengthening the family stability, working with families. Obviously, that's an integral part of dealing with gun violence is to work with families. Families have needs a lot of times that are not necessarily being met, but there are lots of resources out there to help families. From the county standpoint, our community support services department has a lot of resources that are available, and so making sure that we get that information out and we connect families to essential services, child care, housing, transportation, employment, food security, all the different services that families need so that that helps to help keep the family stable and so we don't end up in situations where it's conducive to violence, particularly gun violence. When they say Family Connect Centers, I'm assuming they mean the Family Resource Centers that are funded through the Partnership for Strong Families and the Children's Trust? Yeah, I think for us, the Family Resource Centers is the Connect Centers. Great, thank you. Objective 9 is enhancing cross-sector collaboration, data transparency. We've kind of discussed that already, some way to strengthen the local systems that are working toward gun violence prevention, law enforcement, health care, education, housing. How do you get folks working together? I think the alliance, when we put the city and the county and Santa Fe together, that is a great start, if you will, of providing that collaboration that is needed. We've found that there are obstacles, but we can work together, and we can get things done working together. And we're continually bringing in other agencies and other partners into the alliance with our stakeholder meetings, and certainly looking at bringing in school board, University of Florida, and our health care community, for example, I think is going to expand the impact, if you will, of our collaboration. And we talked already about dashboard and data transparency where possible. Obviously, there's HIPAA concerns, so some data can't be shared, but that data that can be shared. A lot of the police department, the law enforcement, is providing data every month that can be shared publicly. So I think that we can identify that which can be shared and get it out in a transparent fashion to the community, to the public. It's going to help. Our credibility is going to help develop and continue to maintain trust with our community. So we'll just continue to do that, looking at Objective 9. And then lastly, Objective 10, increasing community capacity. And I guess we talked about this one a little bit, too, but looking at the grassroots organization and those organizations, community-based organizations that are already out there working and how to help them build capacity and making sure that they are properly funded, properly staffed, and properly trained in order to make the most positive impact that they can in the community, in our county. I also talked about establishing a blended public-private philanthropic financing model to help get stable funding for these organizations. Right now, it's short-term funding. We'll fund you for a year. We'll fund you for nine months. And we're fortunate that we have the Children's Trust. We are fortunate. And Children's Trust has stepped up. And, in fact, they provided the funding for the consultant for this strategic plan and funding for a number of community-based organizations. But we have to look at the plan challenges us to look at our budgets, city, county budgets, and see how we can stabilize, if you will, funding for these kind of programs, gun violence prevention. Can I say something on that? I think one of the things that I'm... I love the idea of the public-private partnership. I think one of the challenges is, like, a lot of these grassroots organizations that are closest to the problem are the ones that need to be addressing it because they understand the real challenges, and many of them have lived experience themselves. I think of strong-minded mentors is one that I've really appreciated working with in the community that I think is doing amazing work. But I know there are others like that that are there on the ground working with these young people and providing them with productive things to do, exciting opportunities, you know, and really just even just being there for a phone call to check in on them, make sure they're making their probation dates, et cetera. But those same organizations are often built around that individual's life, and that individual or that organization's, like, structure is built in ways to be nimble so that it can respond to those individuals. And oftentimes government funding doesn't align with that kind of nimble organization. And so I think, I hope that there's some problem-solving that can happen with the alliance and or, you know, sitting down, or individuals from this group, our county and city folks sitting down with folks like Dural and others who are doing that work on the ground to find out how can we best structure programs so that they get the capacity building they need and we're not squashing the very structure that makes the program work. Because I think so often that's what happens. Like, to line up with the funding that exists, you have to kind of undermine the actual, like, way the program works, which is in itself the important part to be able to meet these young people where they are. So I just, I don't, I know that doesn't make a lot of sense because I'm not being specific, but I just want to make sure that as we do this work of capacity building, we're not putting so many parameters, that we're doing parameters that make sense to make sure that the funding is getting used correctly and appropriately, but that we're not putting so many structures around it that we kind of ruin the intent of working at the most grassroots level and with people with lived experience to begin with. Like, I think about our peer programs. We had all these peer programs we funded and we created and we promoted, and then none of those peers could even get into the jail to work with the people in the jail because of all of the rules that we have about people's backgrounds and what they're allowed and not allowed to do. So it's like we've sort of, like, shot ourselves in the foot, right? We want to do peer-related and lived experience folks working with people, and then we don't allow it to happen because of some other piece. So I want to avoid that kind of thing as we're moving into this new area, and I just, that's just a kind of a, I guess, a cautionary word, slash a place that I'm interested in helping and supporting if I can as we move into this next phase. Yeah. Commissioner Chestnut? I just wanted to add, I think that one of the great programs I thought that the city had was the Riker House for young men and youth, and Rosa Williams also wanted to do something for young ladies in the community also. But shortly after that, I think the Riker House closed to help those kids were disadvantaged and to get them back on the right track. And I think the Riker House was doing a great job with the males to get them back on track. But she wanted to do the females too, but it never came to fruition. So, you know, it's one of those sad things. And then in your report, you guys keep talking about university and the health care, where are they in this process? Are they, have they been reached out to or are they involved in this process? And has the chamber been contacted in terms of their participation in this gun violence stuff? I think that that's important too. And some outreach needs to be there because they can provide summer jobs for some youth in the summer too. So if they're involved in this process too to give that opportunity for folks that are disadvantaged. So I just wanted to add that to it. And, you know, it's just, I think that it seems like a good report, but a lot of this stuff, I want to know how it's going to be achieved. One was to achieve a 20% reduction in firearm related homicides and stuff. And then, then it says to reduce juvenile arrest justice referral by 15% in targeted areas through expanded youth engagement and earlier prevention programs. Where are we there? That sounds like additional programs that need to be added. So I'm just kind of curious of how all of this in this report is going to get done. That's all. Absolutely. That's my question. Yeah, absolutely. A plan is nothing but a plan. Right. Unless you come up with some implementation. Right. Take some action. Take some steps. And that was made clear in our discussion with the consultant. And so they made some suggestions for next steps. And so I'm glad to move right into that and talk about that. But let me also respond to a couple of points you made. The Rikert House is one. And yes, they, I think the city of Gainesville kind of closed that program down. Yeah, financially, I think. Yeah, there were administrative financial issues that they were dealing with. But it's not, it's not, it's not dead. But the Rikert House now is known as Baxter's Place and still some after-school activities going on there. And there's a partnership that's been created and still in development stages, partnering the Baxter's Place with AMI kids. You know, AMI kids that come before this commission before and they were having difficulties and they needed some special assistance. And so now you've got AMI kids actually located there at what was the old Rikert House. And so they're working together to try and be stronger together and survive that way and still provide programs for kids, particularly in that area, but kids around the county. So that's still going on. And additionally, you mentioned the chamber. I think that's an excellent point to have some talks with the chamber. We have had some talks with Teresa, Dr. Teresa Beachy. And I think she's under contract with the Children's Trust to put together a strategic plan for literacy. And so she's working on that and we've had some discussions with her on how that might integrate with the Black-on-Black Crime Task Force, Baxter's Place, AMI kids. And so there are some talks going on there, but still opportunity to talk more with the chamber and see about making sure to get them involved too. So I appreciate that comment. As far as next steps and implementation, they suggest that there be some prioritization done. Yeah. Ten objectives with, like, multiple KPIs and three strategies or four under each, it's like it's a lot of work. Right. Yeah. Yeah, prioritizing which ones need to come first. Right, right. That was their suggestion. Don't try to do ten objectives at once. You won't get any of them done hardly. But prioritize which ones should come first. And so in order to do that, and there's a couple of ways to do that, and the alliance, work in the city and county and college is working together. We'll be working together to look at that prioritization process. They suggest maybe a two-day retreat where you bring a lot of stakeholders together and have those kinds of discussions and come up with priorities as far as these objectives, adopting these objectives and prioritizing which ones should be first. And looking at how to maybe get some early victories, if you will. What might be low-hanging fruit that you can get something done and get some success and build upon those successes? And so those would be the kind of things we'd be looking at as we take the next step. If we recall, one of the ways that this whole program started was a summit, a gun violence prevention summit that the city kind of took the lead on organizing and implementing, and I think some of you were able to attend. And so that got it going, and that was a two-day process, and so maybe something similar for prioritization and for implementation steps that need to be taken in order to make this strategic plan come alive, if you will. And so that's our next step is to figure that process out and come back to these and to communicate that with the commissions as well as communicate it with the community. I think one of the things that would be really helpful is there was an inventory done of everything that's kind of like already been done and that's happening, and then there's the strategic plan that has a bunch of objectives, but I don't know like how what's being done aligns with the objectives, so it would be helpful if the alliance or if county and city staff could take the time to, okay, we have these things that are already happening and they fit under these objectives. And so, like you're saying, to get early wins, like we could, you know, under this objective, we already have 10 partners doing 10 different things, and if we coordinated with them all. You know, like I think about the one with the family resource, the family connect centers, and like an early win could be giving the family resource centers additional resources to focus on youth mentorship and employment and connecting them with career resources or something like that. Like I just, I think about the things that are kind of already, how do we take what we've already got going on and we know already happened with the inventory and what we are planning to do and then that would help us prioritize because I think having that event is a great idea, but if we don't know where we already have the tools and the resources to be successful, I think each of us has a hand on a piece of that elephant but don't really know the whole elephant. So having those two things lined up when we do that event would be really, really helpful. And I think that's a great suggestion and maybe if we were to do something like a two-day retreat, that kind of event, start with that. Start with identifying what's going on with each of these objectives because there's a lot of programs already underway. The city has its impact GNV, the interrupters, the BOLD program. We've got our grant program. We've got, you know, what we're doing with the crisis center and victim advocates and all that. You know, what do we already have going on and then what are the needs in order to supplement, if you will, augment what we already have underway. So maybe starting with that might be a good idea. Okay, I see the city shaking their head. So yeah, maybe we would do a presentation. We initially thought there might be, we might be doing a presentation to the joint city and county commissions, but that's not on the agenda. But if we do the retreat, we can make sure that we provide that. Thank you. Yeah, I think also, I know the city and the county both have a lot of these other strategic plans and a lot of these objectives are in there somewhere and we've already allocated some funding to them. So that would be helpful to, you know, like we would be able to ask our teams to sort of say, okay, well, you know, we're already allocating X dollars to family resource centers or to peak literacy for literacy initiatives or this or that and like where, how do those align with what we're trying to do and so we can, not so we can abdicate responsibility putting more money to this because I want to be very clear. I think this is a priority we all want to see funded well so that it can be successful. But a lot of it outlines that gun violence is an issue of the social determinants of health, right? It's an issue of the structures that you all put forward when you held the summit, which is that people need to have places to live that are safe. They need to have education so that they can advance themselves. They need to have employment opportunities so they can have the money to pay for things. They need to have quality health care, quality child care, all the things that most of us who, right, food, access and when they have those things then they're not going to be inclined to make poor decisions. It doesn't mean that nobody's going to commit crimes that has those things but you're much less likely. So it underscores the initiatives that the city and the county children's trust are already investing in and I think it highlights the opportunity to find the gaps where it's not reaching these individuals and then pump up the resources in those specific spots. It certainly was important when both the city and the county commissions declared this a public health crisis and so approaching it from that standpoint as well as a criminal justice law enforcement crisis and so we're not just one-sided. We've got both strategies coming together and so I think that's going to really make a difference in dealing with this issue. It's not going to be easy. It's going to be a big challenge. Well, when will we get an understanding? You mentioned the sheriff's doing a bunch of new sort of community-based programming or I mean it would be really interesting to understand what that is because I mean that's half of our total budget goes to the sheriff. So understanding what that budget is doing and how that budget is contributing to these efforts and I know that I know that our sheriff is very focused on the idea of community policing and the fact that if we can alleviate some of these challenges that families have maybe their job would be a lot easier. So I'd love to I don't know if that's possible to either incorporate into that or if we should invite them to come and talk to us the way they did the alliance about those programs they're getting ready to do. Yeah, I think definitely another presentation. I was very intrigued by the presentation they did for the Black-on-Black Crime Task Force either inviting them here to do a presentation to you to this commission or our Anne inviting them to the stakeholders meeting to do a presentation there at the alliance stakeholders meeting because I heard some things that I hadn't heard before from the sheriff's office and so we certainly need to get that information to you. Well, I know Missy, I believe that the sheriff is coming in the not-too-distant future to talk about jail programming if this is a presentation they already have because they've done it to the Black-on-Black Task Force perhaps we could incorporate I don't know how you all would feel about that but perhaps we could ask them to just do both their community programming as well as their jail programming like sort of what are their plans in that front so we could have both. Yeah. Are you okay with that, Commissioner? Yeah, absolutely. Okay. May I... Yeah, please. We went to talking about community capacity I'm thinking in terms of building communities that work together to work with their children this is happening already in Gainesville in a lot of our communities but we were at the funeral for our good friend in Archer and her son made a beautiful speech in honor of her memory but he was also acknowledging the women in the community around him and around his mother that supported and I told him he ought to publish the thing because it was quite really beautiful in terms of building community support systems you know and a lot of that was coming from the moms you know who were watching after everybody each other's children you know and I think we have that going in communities here to a certain extent but it wouldn't hurt to celebrate that you know and make it a big movement you know I mean the dads are important too but you know moms stay pretty close to the hearth these days you know and in the neighborhoods and keep a watchful eye on everybody but you know Roberta Lopez I'm sure was quite a formidable mama but according to her son indeed but it wasn't just her it was the community and when we're talking about community capacity you know I have to think that we could engage you know groups that we can empower you know with the health and well-being of our children I know we have men's groups that are doing that too and are celebrated but it's those mamas too that very quietly start to nod in you when you need it and look after your neighbor's kids too so I don't know that's what I was thinking about when you you called my name because it was a beautiful wasn't it wasn't it a good one no it was yeah so you know just support the whole community that becomes the safety net for you know these folks too the it takes a village concept but focusing on specific members of the village too you know that yeah I mean many of those mentor youth mentorship organizations know the moms and the aunties and the grandmas in the community that are the ones that are holding that thread you know who are keeping the fabric of that community kind of together and who act as sort of those matriarchs and if they are people we can lift up or support or build resources around it's not it's a great idea absolutely and lastly commission just want to say that the plan is meant to be a dynamic living document where it can be changed it can be added to 10 objectives but you know you've already put out some ideas that could add to the strategic plan and so it's certainly a living document that will that can be adopted and added to as needed what we wanted you to do today is to let us know if you want us to move forward or not that's all we need to know and then as we move forward we can come back the manager can come back during the budget process for a more detailed discussion on any particular specific program you might want to add I mean I guess what I would say is it's hard with only three of us here to be like yes you know because this is such a big initiative I think and I mean you're not asking for money at this stage you're just asking for support I think that I for one definitely support us continuing to focus on gun violence as an important issue and honestly really to me it's focusing on the social determinants of health that help support our most vulnerable communities and create equity and how resources are distributed in our community which is what I think this report ultimately says and I think that to me is something I'm absolutely in favor of and hope we can continue moving forward in this collaborative fashion and I'm also very supportive of the idea of an event that tells this story to the broader community and does a little bit of that prioritization before we move forward with adopting anything formal so that we know what we're prioritizing and how much resources we need collectively and then we can rock paper scissors with the other institutions over who's going to cover what how much money have we committed already what was our commitment to county funding I guess I'm just going to say I don't know that we could answer that question we have the money that we dedicated just to the grants and to the gun violence prevention specifically but we also have all the things we're funding for literacy community resource centers like a lot of these priority strategies that's why I wanted to see like the things listed under these strategies that are already going on at the county and the city and the children's trust so we sort of have a sense of what are we already funding that's sort of getting at these and where are we missing the mark with that funding or do we need to add to that funding you know what I mean I don't know how to answer that question but we didn't put money specifically towards this project I thought we did yes but that's what I'm asking is how much how much have we a couple years ago initially you put forward $150,000 and the city of Gainesville did the same in addition to other monies they may be putting through their BOLD program impact GNV program that kind of a thing and then the children's trust came along and also added funds for grants and added funds for this other programs for the city and for the county and the monies were distributed to the city and distributed to the county just to give me an idea about you know what kind of commitment we've made early on I think it was pretty modest early on it was really just about coordination of the ideas but I think ultimately the funding we're putting towards this is pretty significant when it comes to I think what the city and the county have committed to and the children's trust around social services community paramedics programs you know literacy programs after school programs family resource centers like I think there is a significant amount of resources we've put towards these strategic goals already and I think that that's going to tell a really important story to the community as well as we have this event which is another reason why this event I think is a good idea because it starts to showcase the ways we're using tax dollars effectively to deliver social services but also to identify those gaps where we could do a better job so I don't know if we need a motion right now or were you looking for a motion or were you just looking for kind of a general like yes keep going like a cheerleading support what are the desires you're right it's three but a general consensus or a motion something that gives us an idea that you're okay with us moving forward okay I'm okay with you moving forward but I think that you all going to have to bring the other two commissioners that are not here up to speed and to also find out what the sheriff offices is recommending too because I think that's important too so that we're in the school board get everybody together to find out how do we move forward the chamber everybody and if the university is available and I guess the health care profession you know those are some of the things that they stated in the report so I mean but are you thinking about I'm with moving forward but you know we're still short of two individuals I don't know how they feel or what their concerns are either so I guess I wonder if that event or that whatever you all decide to do if it's not the event or whatever it might be in terms of that prioritization might be a step at which it would give us then the like impetus to say okay you know that would be a motion I'm like yes we adopt those priorities and then commit to funding them with the budget and those sorts of things I just that's around the corner yeah it is around the corner but yeah I think again Commissioner Wheeler well that's what I'm just I'm reading yeah I'm just reading the recommended action here to authorize staff to continue planning and collaborative efforts those are the efforts we're talking about towards implementation of the strategies I mean to me it's towards prioritization of the strategy because I feel like I don't feel comfortable saying implement all these strategies this is huge and they're massive and I think saying like yes to all of these that would be like handing over our entire budget over to this this one initiative because of the amount of strategies that are there so I think that prioritization what word would you talk what talk authorize staff to continue planning and collaborative for prioritization of the strategies outlined in the plan so we have a set of priorities coming from the plan that's community led and then gives us like the information we need to then put money towards it because I mean at the end of the day that's what it's going to take time and money well I can move that authorize staff to continue planning and collaborative efforts towards prioritization of the strategies outlined in the plan second okay we have a motion and a second does the city I see the city staff here Brandy and I don't know if you got Brittany did you all want to say anything about no okay and I will open it up to other public comment does anyone from the public wish to speak to the motion for us to continue these collaborative efforts with the alliance around gun violence prevention hearing none all those in favor say aye any opposed let it sign motion carried madam chair just so I don't forget the sheriff will be here on April 7th at 10 a.m. for that presentation for the jail program so we're asking to add okay yeah that would be appropriate if not we can do it at a different time and I can make a motion to have them come back I just know it takes a lot for them to marshal the resources to show up at a meeting so I didn't want to make them do it twice if they would prefer to just do it at the same time for us that's good okay madam clerk we are on to public hearings public hearings chapter 72 animal co-revision for animal enforcement good afternoon Gina Peebles assistant county manager chief of staff today in we're asking that the board consider revising our ordinance to include a definition about the sheriff's animal resources bureau and that would allow them to issue citations when they respond to what we originally thought were to be criminal calls and complaints so rather than calling in the county they would just handle all of it while they were there on site excellent are there any questions for Gina regarding this no but I move staff recommendation we have a motion and a second are there any comments to the motion on the floor hearing none all those in favor say aye aye any opposed like sign motion carries thank you very much may I just ask Gina very quickly Gina you got my text yesterday about the chicken I didn't know if anybody was reported that chicken or not that was running there was oh you didn't get my text there were several citizens who spent a good hour trying to get a chicken out of the intersection of 16th and 30 what is it 23rd 23rd no and I just wanted you to know that there were a lot of really good human beings in this world because that little chicken spent I mean just about the time we'd get her off the road you know she'd fly right back out into the traffic and people were giving us potato chips to give to this chicken to get it out we tried and she would fly I think she was a game hen I really do I don't know if there's anybody doing cock fighting in Gainesville or not but this is what she looked like as an escapee from a game farm I know exactly who to ask a little hen well I just want you to know and everybody listening that there are really a lot of good people in this community who were willing to stop traffic completely for this little chicken that was running across the road so you didn't get my message I sent it to you and said is there any field person out there who might could come by and then I got to thinking well maybe that's a deputy thing you know to stop traffic to get round up this chicken but there are several of us out there chasing this little bird but thank you for that I just want you to know there are good folks out there who care about our animals even if it's just a little chicken thank you all right next up I think we have a quasi judicial hearing so we will need to go through all of the lovely steps and I'll turn it over to our county attorney 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 of staff or other speakers to seek clarification of comments made by staff or other speakers and respond to comments or presentation of staff or other speakers all persons who present written materials to commissioners for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials 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 expert 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 to identify themselves and explain to the board why they believe they are parties to be a party a person must show that he or she would be more directly impacted or more substantially impacted by the board's decision today other than the public at large if the board determines that you have party status you will be permitted a reasonable opportunity to present testimony and evidence and to ask questions otherwise you will be permitted to testify as a member of the public is there anyone wishing to seek additional party status at a time please let us know why you haven't already requested party status and why you would like to have party status today please my property adjoins the property that is being discussed today and and why weren't you able to file for party status before now health issue okay any comments oh do we have any other parties already yes is he with you no he's a neighbor your name ma'am okay i'm all right now i meant her and her oh i'm sorry were you asking yes ma'am your name and where your property is located it's a barbara henry property 1001 southwest 143rd street newberry florida 32669 thank you don't sit can we get him a chair for the microphone room here so he'll be i'm okay i'm okay i'm okay well for the staff my name is riley dogfus fisher and i'm speaking for the fisher family trustees my main reason here today is sir hold on for one second right now you don't have to state your issues we just need to know where you live and why you want to be a party to the to the hearing will be a party i live in jonesville approximately 300 feet from this from 4412-135 okay my property is on a farm that's been there for over 60 years yeah i know that farm well keep it as a farm now i've been having we have a lot of buildings going around okay we'll get we'll get to that part i promise we'll give you plenty of time to speak i just can you tell me why you weren't able to claim party status before now like when our staff originally contacted you about this hearing the reason i'm 90 plus that's a good reason i just thank god i'm alive i don't care what how this work out i'm with or without i intend to still make it okay thank you sir okay do we have a motion to include them as parties okay we have a motion and a second to include them as parties is there any comment from the public hearing none all those in favor say aye aye okay you two are party so we'll have the staff and applicant present and then and or and then you all have a chance to present to us about your feelings about the rezoning thank you and if we could get him a chair for that when that happens that would be helpful thank you madam madam chair anyone who will be testifying will need to be sworn in yes you will need to be sworn in we haven't done that yet but when that happens if you will stand up and be sworn thank you can inquire commissioners if you've received any ex parte communications and if so disclose them i have not no all right at this time anyone wishing to address the item if you would 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 of the truth thank you has the uh ex parte discussion yeah thank you uh good afternoon commissioners this is madey bengatar from alachua county growth management this is a rezoning request the application number is z25 000 028 it is a rezoning uh for mr taylor's parcel the request involves a rezoning from re1 which is a single family residential zoning district which has a density range of 0.5 or 1 dwelling for 2 acres up to 2 units per acre up to 2 units per acre up to the r1a single family residential zoning which has a density range of 1 to 4 units per acre which has a density range of 0.5 or 1 dwelling for 2 acres up to 2 units per acre up to the r1a single family residential zoning which has a density range of 1 to 4 units an acre if this rezoning request is approved there could be a residential development up to 20 units per acre up to the r1a single family residential zoning which has a residential zoning which has a density range of 1 to 4 units an acre if this rezoning request is approved there could be a residential development up to 20 units on this parcel the slide shows the location of the request it is on southwest 143rd street south of jonesville the aerial image shows that this parcel is undeveloped and some other developments in the vicinity as the laureate village traditional neighborhood development and terra estates these are under development currently the future land use map existing shows that this has a low density residential future land use designation and you can see that bold black line indicates the urban cluster so this is near the edge of the edge of the urban cluster but it is within the urban cluster this parcel and the surrounding parcels that are shown with yellow have that low density residential future land use designation and outside of this urban cluster line you can see the lime green color is the rural agricultural future land use the existing zoning map shows that this parcel has re1 as i mentioned it is a little bit of a lower density range than r1a and so the request is to raise it to the r1a which has a range up to four units an acre and uh the majority of parcels in the vicinity have that that are within the urban cluster have that r1a zoning proposed map shows that this would change to the r1a staff has analyzed this rezoning request and these are just some points to to share with you the r1a zoning does implement low density residential future land use the site is on a county maintained road southwest 143rd street and it is within the urban cluster this increase uh would be uh would be from a maximum of 10 to 20 units an acre it's a five acre site so um at the maximum there would be 20 units our environmental protection department has looked at this uh rezoning request and found that the rezoning would be consistent with the protection of natural resources this slide shows our bases for approval of the rezoning policy 7.1.2 of the future land use element which provides criteria for rezoning policy 3.4.1 of the conservation and open space element that's the uh environmental resource checklist that's submitted as part of the application section 402.77 of unified land development code again with criteria approval for rezoning and table 403.07.1 which shows residential zoning and what the r1a zoning would allow our recommendation to the county commission is that they approve z25 000 028 the basis that we have in our stock report the planning commission heard this item last month and they had a recommendation also to approve this rezoning request that is our presentation i can take any questions can you show me on the map where the two our parties property is located so madam chair uh miss henry's parcel is this one that still has that re1 um and mr raleigh i believe is further um to the east here i'm not sure if this parcel that i'm hovering on is his but he is in that vicinity and he's also uh he also attended the they both attended the planning commission thank you yes where are the the tara development i know i know this property pretty well um i've spent quite a bit of time out of there uh the tara is right north of that yes is there any and you say there's more were there more than just that one um so this is tara estates and then there's also uh the laureate village tnd this actually goes all the way up to newberry road right this is the southern edge of it right i know they've really been fighting hard to keep that rural area up there because they're historically black farm areas you know and i know that that's been kind of something we've had our eyes on in the county as well but i also know we have to have legal reason to deny right did you guys was in did any of that come up at all our zoning is our zoning they have to have they have to have a legal reason to approve i i guess my feeling is i guess i'm interested to understand what staff's perspective was around the fact that we have our urban cluster so close and we've we essentially when we were creating our zoning categories tried to create a what i would call a buffer right sort of a a slow structured way to move towards rural so you didn't have these confrontations with rural and urban density and so i'm interested to understand and looking at that as an important part of the conversation why staff if staff considered that when they recommended approval yes madam chair so there are lower density residential zoning districts such as a state residential and those are found on the periphery of the urban cluster such as by pains prairie or next to those peripheral areas of the cluster this area already had r1a zoning so when staff was analyzing it looking at the compatibility of the request with the surrounding area this is part of the basis for approving the request and chris wanted to hello hello good afternoon madam chair i want to um if i can pull up a little bit different view because i think being that zoomed in so yeah it's so zoomed in i'm like it's really hard to thank you so madam chair chris dawson principal planner uh for development services i know that we sometimes talk about that idea of the step down from the core of the urban cluster um out to the rural area the step down is our low density residential um land use so we don't we don't necessarily implement that step down with the zoning categories i think if you look at the future land use designation you're going to see a very different picture right so it's that yellow that's the one to four dwelling units per acre and for most of the boundary of our cluster especially in this area that is the edge of the cluster and then it's the green ag that you see right on the other side so there isn't sort of a moderate step down along that boundary um and i do want to just point out you know we've got tioga that's right over here we've got the tioga south portion um that's right just south of this we've got laureate village as as matey mentioned which down in this portion may be closer to that you know two to three units per acre but certainly as you move up includes multi-family you've got the jonesville activity center that's right here this this is all within about a quarter of an acre of the property or a quarter of a mile of the property so these aren't huge distances that we're talking about and again just to sort of look at the zoning um while this is a sort of holdout of that re1 um zoning in that area that was applied primarily to a farm um historically it's the only re1 that's in this area the portions around it all maintain that r1a zoning district and those aren't recent changes that's things that we've that have been there historically for a long period of time so i think in this instance um i'm not sort of disagreeing that that historic sort of farming use was there um and it it can mean it can continue to be there um for those portions that are but it's it's not as though we necessarily have sort of eked out a huge area right here um for that at the edge of the cluster what is the size of that lot of that property five so the the property that we're discussing today madam chair is about five acres and you can see similar size lots across the road um so yeah that are undeveloped these are single-family homes oh they are single-family but they have the ability to do they have r1a now so they could build up to 20 homes today okay so tell me one more time how many per acre are we are they proposing so madam chair the underlying future land use designation is not changing that's one to four dwelling units per acre the zoning district is what we're talking about changing the current zoning district allows up yeah up to two units per acre and they're proposing a zoning district that would allow up to four units per acre which is again consistent with the surrounding um ladies there's no there's no current proposal for a specific development on the site but the zoning would allow up to that twice as many units on the site for a single member single family yeah these are single family zoning districts yes we're not it's not changing that so a possible of 20 homes on that five acre lot maximum but given the land use and the zoning manager thank you no okay okay are there any other questions from the board okay all right um if the parties would like um you can take some time you have i think typically we offer like 15 minutes or so did you want to hear from the applicant first oh yeah the applicant wishes to speak yes the applicant can speak that way they can hear that before they i didn't realize the applicant was here sorry me that's okay i'm eric taylor good afternoon madam chair and board um i'm not gonna get into too much uh in in the way of details of the uh presentation that staff presented because i think they covered it all i'll just let you know that my father uh purchased this property in 2006 from uh miss welch who i believe was you know in some way maybe related to um some of the folks here today not sure exactly what that relation um was but um you know we purchased the property with the intent to to buy and hold and one day rezone the property um from day one and talking with the um staff they've always been supportive verbally of the uh rezoning of them you know supporting that um so it's you know long been our intention we feel like it checks all the boxes as far as being consistent with the comprehensive plan with the future land use um and uh i'll be happy to answer any questions if you have any but that's any questions for the applicant not at this point well i'm yes very quickly you don't have any idea about how once you get this zoning done would you all be the ones carrying the development forward then or were you holding it uh it's a one day one step at a time you know as far as you know we're concerned i gotcha i gotcha um because my my real concern you know is like i say for the folks in this particular area you know who have traditionally farmed that area and and it's a it's an old old neighborhood historically black neighborhood too and we really have tried to focus on making sure that um you know that these folks are not because i know about the tower development right next do uh miss henry's property and it butts right up to the road and it's you know it's really well it's just destroyed the whole is that the office park you're speaking of no no no it's the housing development oh okay okay yeah and it has really destroyed the whole sense of rural that that way and and i was really hoping that if you had something in mind that what we would really like what i'd like to see is you cluster those homes away from the borders you know so that they could still maintain some some sense of rule uh that these folks have enjoyed and and that the folks across the road enjoy still enjoy because i know they've had a lot of wildlife in those areas over there right big time wildlife well all i can tell you is we we don't have any plans drawn up for development of of the site we're strictly here to you know just rezone the property as we've intended to do since since we've owned it we've just kind of waited for gotcha growth to come you know any thoughts to sell sell one more question because i know this is pie in the sky but i'm coming off this board soon and i just would kind of like to have a sense of where you're going because i won't be here to to ask you those questions down the road would you are you thinking to sell off these acre lots individually or sell the whole thing if that or develop the whole thing right that is totally up in the air to be determined okay you're not there you don't have a definitive plan all right this is it is there a reason that you're doing this right now um well like i mentioned it's been 20 years and it's always been our intention so the the timing is right uh my father's 83 um okay so he's ready ready to do something with the property i get it okay thank you madam chair i just want to say typically if you want a rezoning when you're going to buy a property you buy it contingent on the rezoning it's you can't really buy a property assuming that you're going to get a rezoning just as an fyi for the future um it's not something that's guaranteed in writing ever when you buy a piece of property so it's definitely something to consider next time you invest in real estate i'm well aware of that well aware but i know there's you know there's no foregone conclusion no slam dunk and like you know while while staff has always been supportive um at the same time i think the term was there's no slam dunks there's no guarantees you you know so we're aware thank you okay um if you would like to approach and share your perspective you can use either microphone cheer uh usually we give our parties about 15 minutes it won't take 15 minutes i just want to say mr eric mr taylor said what he said they have not been forthcoming in what they were doing there was a meeting called at the public library by we received notices 43 members there were only four of us that attended i know that he knew that there were four because when he walked in he didn't realize we were there he set out four chairs our questions were not answered he asked for signatures which i still have that paper because the four of us said no we would not give him because what we asked was not answered this the property that adjoins my property there is no way and when we were at the last meeting here they said 10 so i'm hearing now that said no there could be four to five houses per acre that's not what was stated or not what i heard in that meeting that evening my property adjoins the front 143rd street as does his and there is just no way it's going you've got to have a way in a way out there is no way there are deer i i sent um i have pictures of the deer and tortoises walking this week daily they have nowhere to go i'm always having to stop people from coming and wanting to hunt and if you're saying put residential housing as you have in front of me i'm stopping people every single day from entering illegally on the back end where clay electric and gru have to have access and so i'm i'm always afraid that a bullet's going to come from somewhere our child's going to come just watching the beautiful animals and get hurt on private property i do have labeling i do have but i want you to know that i am a henry that was henry farming i am still there and this what they're asking is just not for the good of that area and i hear what they're saying about the houses they said there was open road from 143rd street back to 122nd that road has not been open in years and there is a house from 122nd that is built in the middle of what used to be the road so there is absolutely no way to get from 143rd back to 8th avenue and 122nd on property that belongs to the county just saying so are you saying that there's no ingress egress opportunity to the property the county person said that there was eric said that there was i've asked for the proof i've not seen it i do see with or without my glasses that there is a house built in i grew up there i've been there for 70 plus years you can't drive through a house the road is not open going from mr fisher's property on that all used to be opening and connecting that property is now sold so i just don't see i've had to give right away for clay electric bell sound gru all from me not from whoever owned what's adjacent and what is now the subdivision that he's talking about okay thank you just wanted you to know that thank you can staff address the ingress egress issue if there is any issue with the i mean if there's 20 houses proposed on this property how would they create their two entrances and exits to be able to it sounds like there's blockages of roadways in that area madam chair at that number of units there wouldn't be the requirement for a secondary access okay so once you're over 25. so the road frontage on 133rd street would suffice the primary yeah okay thank you there you go sir okay it looks like you might have some things to share on the overhead or are those just for your talking points sir are those things you'd like to share with us that you have in front of you would you like us to see that on the screen okay yeah okay is there and we have it over here on this big screen as well okay okay okay floor is yours i just want you to share with us um any information you have evidence or support or um or opposition to the proposed rezoning okay my main reason is to not have a rezoned i live on a farm out to see the elevation of my farm and the elevation of this property five acres it's because some of it is on what i call on a pretty well on a level it may be off an inch of two or three foot not over no six inches maybe the most when they get to the west end of the property that's the furthest point away from me the elevation rises up on the north west end then it drifts back down to the south west end i'm not a guess progress because i'm a progressing man then all over the united states and some other places working building gamesville one of our main places a building back to farming i what i would actually even rather i believe in winning and losing we can talk about both sides of it because most things have two sides just in case if it be rezoned i would have i would ask him to fix it the way he have to put his drain pipes and all his whole digging on the south west or the northwest of his property as far away from my property as he can get on his property if it be rezoned if it stay just leave it as is you come be your house you don't upset nothing i'm well pleased with them houses all around they're building all around me like 12th place where i live on we used to go all the way to the parker road you can't go no further than the power back to the power line that's all the further we can go and i'm already having problems with farm equipment coming down the roads see this disc i have a 12-foot disc that i pulled behind my tractor back i got it home the main truck when he was gone then i said mister i pay road taxes because i was running farming trucking too i said but i don't pay no road taxes to get to my house because he was putting the fence up and i explained to him how it laid out i said on the west end the road is on your property when you get to the the east side the road is on the property that's on the north side and he's just talking like we he said i'm gonna fix it the way you will always be able to go home that's all i want but we got to get people they don't care whether you go home or not i'm not a handler what i hear you saying is you're not against the rezoning but you want to make sure that the storm water and the drainage stays on the property if he can do that without upsetting that see this table here sitting still if he can do it without upsetting anything i'm not against it elevation is you know elevation do this i don't want no digging on the east in his property because it upsets my farm that's against but i would prefer that leave it like it is and let the people come and just build their property and everything is lovely even with the animals i hear you unfortunately they already have zoning for up to 10 homes so there could be digging there either way but they do have a mandate to make sure that the storm water for any project they create stays on site on the property that they own and doesn't go on to your property but see by the water if see when you dig oh like this table up here you go down here you dig in the hole you're upsetting mother nature to me and my farm over here that's what happens with that i understand about the water and the stand on the people they just built a string of houses 20 foot from my property but they put all of the they let the ground stayed the same next to the easement when they put all of their drainage and everything and dug their holes on the north inside their property which was a good thing i don't have no complaint about them doing it none whatsoever but i want them i respect them for them to respect me and my farm not for me but for factory they've told me to tell my grandchildren to keep that place of farm see i can't eat anything chemical foods kill me i just got my papers from the army january the 20th because i wanted to know what they was treating me for and what how they did me in the army not that they helped me the master did a wonderful job for me because i'm still here working and helping young people today man wants to promise to come to the house this morning but i don't blame him for nothing well thank you he wants to learn how to farm okay told him i do what i can to help you okay thank you sir i think i understand your position thank you plus what they do build a building we it takes everything away from me i would say go see when the buses run we could see the bus coming to let the children on did you have anything did you have anything you wanted to say about the thing on the overhead was there something you wanted to share specifically about that i see barbara can you point to where his place is can you right here on the screen right here just point on that screen just point i don't can't keep all that in my head the numbers on the thing my house 44 12 7. all of that is mine now see they didn't connect it all with mine together now and this is property okay thank you thank you sir a question for the applicant it sounds like your neighbor's concern is around where you might put stormwater infrastructure in a future development um maybe you could speak to that i know you don't have a specific plan but perhaps you'd be open to a condition that keeps the stormwater infrastructure on the western side of the property yes madam chair um i don't have any specific plan uh drawn up the the property itself is relatively flat um so there's no um dictation if you will from a topographic standpoint as to where the stormwater um would be put on on the five acres um to me uh theoretically it makes sense to put stormwater close you know on the western portion of it close to 143rd street but i'm not a civil engineer i'm not going to be the one to actually come up with any kind of you know residential development plan for it so that you know i don't have an engineer at my disposal right now i haven't you know hired one or consulted with one to uh get any kind of plans going at this point i do very quickly um i can tell you from experience that miss henry is very calm easy calm cool and collected but she's not today this i've never seen her like this but she's feeling like that you're not being forthcoming with the information that she has can you explain why she's hearing something different than what you're saying now yes thank you for asking i wanted to you know rebut what she said um we had a neighborhood workshop back in october um i had no no idea how many people were going to be there i did pull out four chairs and the first thing i said was well that was a good guess um you know this was at the tower road library and stuff so i had no no idea how many um you know folks were going to show up um i had a slideshow presentation um she asked for a copy of the slideshow presentation i said yes i'll i'll give it to you and i sent it to her uh the following morning so i don't know what question she asked me that i didn't answer i don't know what information she asked for that i wasn't forthcoming um years ago i i went knocked on her door and nobody was there i left my you know business card for her i followed up with phone call we had several phone calls you know i just wanted to be a good neighbor and say hey we're we're going to make application for rezoning uh i invited her to be a part of it she she declined you know didn't want to be a part of rezoning but i feel like i've done everything that i can to be forthcoming and proactive to address the neighbors and be neighborly um you know so and you so you understand the sensitive area you're you're you're working with right uh absolutely that's that in terms of our neighbors oh yes thank you thank you madam chair i did have a question for miss henry miss henry barbara let me come back to the chair is miss lee's property close to what yes she's on the same side as mr fisher and then uh there's a um mrs hankerson yes rosa miss rosa yes she's next his her property adjoins mr fisher's okay and the reason i can ask the questions and yes i am very emotional about it i was born on the property that i'm in now my father elmo henry was a worker a farmer full-time farmer he died at age of three our mother mozella dovey henry who he purchased he and his wife purchased the property from her have been there all that time i have always worked i gave 48 years of dedication to the alachua county public school system i am a graduate of the university of florida and florida a m and i am dr barbara henry thank you did i answer your question yes ma'am you did and i just wanted to make sure that all those neighbors that i have worked with there they know i am i am a child under all of them the families have been there they have worked they have done whatever needed to be to keep the property to farm we farmed as i said i i did what i could do mr fisher was very implemented instrumental in helping to make sure that we farmed and did what the property was intended to do the 143rd street the property for that was not donated from the east side from the west side the property owners we gave the property for the road any if you go back and look that the road was just a dirt road then a lime rock road but they wanted to pay they said they had not enough room nothing was given from the other side it was all given from us because we were the ones having to utilize it and as mr fisher said having to go in and out as farmers he had trucks and tractors i had a car we took our peas and brought our peas to sell and our greens to sell using our cars so we were happy to have a paved road is that road still that the road is it still gravel road that goes the back way that you would to go to school when you were going to newberry that back road we always used the front road 26 did not go the road that go and it is still they that is a private road oh that's right that is a private road that goes back to the horrible road 241 to archer um and yeah it's always been that way and the thought the people who live on that road wanted to stay there are horses there we're so accustomed to we were we had pigs we had horses we had cows we had tractors i grew up farming i still know farming i still have the things that i taught and incorporated into my professional life because i didn't just read about it i experienced it the property that's behind miss rosa i'm trying to remember the gentleman's name he farms there too um mr fisher mr fisher is that you that's rd yeah well i've been hearing about you for a long time i know i've been here and i some people call they call him mr fisher i knew him as rd all right so okay okay well i'm glad to meet you sir yes i've been hearing about you a lot these ladies talk about you a lot absolutely yes sir mostly yes sir because i love that uh fact i do the yesterday i run i have run my tractor yesterday it's too cold to get up this morning and bother with it i need to do something i know i saw that big field of greens you had back there well i still yes sir good produce for the people you know and yes like a lady told me she said you can't fool them little children yes sir no you can't fool them when they eating good food they ain't gonna eat yes sir bad food they bite off whoever they throw it away barbara i understand your dilemma okay uh miss henry you you stated that when you all went to the neighborhood meeting or wherever it was uh that the zoning change of the number of houses were never addressed no they were not mm-hmm that's what i thought you said i just wanted to make sure it was not mm-hmm and you know hearing is not an issue for me okay gotcha thank you all right thank you question for staff do we have a copy of the presentation that was provided at the neighborhood meeting you would have that i can pull that up yeah i guess i would like to see if the number of units maybe it was on the presentation it didn't get said out loud or something i'm just trying to make sure that there was actual actual information presented to the neighbors did other neighbor did any other neighbors send in comment to this i didn't see any in the backup i may have missed that no there were no other comments if i may there were some neighbors from dusty trail the road that goes back 241 um they said that something was going on it kept sending back and they were going to find try to find a way to get their comments here but there was attempts by them because they were working and they could not be here so so they tried to send an email and it bounced that's they they didn't use the word bounce i'm i'm not the techie person so but they it would not yeah something was going on with it and they were trying to find someone a representative from the dusty trail to be here today but apparently they were not able to get someone you're welcome questions or comments from the board well i i just i have a question for for legal i guess in terms of what it is we we are required to do by um what we what we are required to do we are required to we are required to have or deny the right well but that we'd have to have a reason to deny right we have to have a legitimate reason to deny every reason okay but i didn't do so it but if it was challenged in court we have to have a reason to deny yes am i right or wrong anybody sorry i'm sorry madam chair i was doing one thing that was taking all my mind so i missed the question please feel free to ask again okay sorry okay no if if if we were to deny this zoning if it was challenged we would have to have a reason madam chair what i would say is that the state statute requires that if the board takes an action in denial that you state your reasons for denying that application we have very specific criteria that are listed in the staff report about what we review when we review an application for a rezoning and certainly you can consider all of the competent substantial evidence that was prevent provided to you today both by staff by the applicant and by the parties and you could use any of those materials if you've heard something that you think is inconsistent with those requirements you could vote to deny but you would need to state what those reasons were for denial was this reviewed with regard to neighborhood character and equity issues as laid out in our comprehensive plan and zoning so yes madam chair we use the specific criteria that are in the comp plan and the code to consider all of our zoning applications and all of those items are detailed in the staff report the specific items that were required both by our comp plan and our our land development regulations to consider okay i want to i want to say some well actually i guess we need a motion on the floor um well i guess no go ahead and say go ahead and say what i guess i want to say is this i i i think that there's an unfortunate reality right now and that unfortunate reality is that for a very long time in our country's history there was a process of slowly divesting black families from their land and those things happened for numerous reasons and in many many ways and slowly but surely the little land that was afforded to black families has been chipped away at and somehow in our zoning and land use over time we drew a line in the sand that was this is the line of development inside this line urbanized development outside of this line rural development and your property unfortunately fell inside that line rather that was a mistake or not when it was done i cannot tell you um but what i can tell you is that as a result it has urban zoning already already 10 homes could be built there tomorrow and um and 20 homes per this rezoning application and that to me is an unfortunate reality that we now it's just board are basically forced into because of those historic decisions and i i it's very frustrating to me and it's a it's a reality of the history of the culture of racist land use policy in our country in our county and i'm really sorry that i don't really see a way out of this rezoning because it meets all of our criteria and all of our categories for all the things that are in the boxes because you all are inside our urban cluster you're in a place where there's urbanized development all the way around you there is nothing particular about that property that makes it undevelopable in terms of natural resources or access and i believe that this board has left no recourse but to approve the rezoning but i sincerely want to apologize to both of you and to your families and to the property surrounding for whatever part history or this county's government played in eroding the historic land uses in that property and i want to offer up that we do now have heirs property supports through the property appraiser to help protect the land that's left we have supports through the property appraiser to help with that and we also have an agricultural easements program that will help buy development rights from farmers so that they can realize the development value without having to sell the developers or rezone their properties and we'd be happy to put both of those folks in touch with your families if those things are of interest to you and that's that's what i wanted to say i just miss hendrick i believe um when you said that it was not stated in terms of the number of houses i i believe you i don't think that you would come here and falsify any information i i just don't think the uh property owner was really being fair with you guys to really really tell you the truth but as commissioner prisius stated that you know legally we're we're bound to follow our rules and regulations and one of the things is that they have the right to sue us and i guarantee you if they sue us we would not have the capabilities of winning in court and so we would be sued so uh those are our policies and regulations that we have to follow but but i get it and i i get the frustration uh that you feel and uh the gentleman feel in in reference uh to this because you guys have been there for a very very long time i you know it's probably longer than i've been alive but but but anyway it's just one of those situations that we're in that our hands are tied and uh to be honest with you i don't really support it but you know just i have no reason at this point i totally understand i'm credits away from a law degree but anyway i totally understand that what we really we know the zoning went forward forward right but we don't want to see 20 don't see how 20 when we were here it said 10. gotcha and now they're saying something even totally different and moving forward which we knew at that meeting at his meeting that had the two of us and three more people there that it would oh he wasn't there he wasn't at that meeting physically um there were four of us there and that is not what was said that is not what was stated and i don't mind being referred to it's him saying that i have an attitude yes i truly have an attitude and yes i did have an attitude when he left a note on the door because my i have a gate i have a gated property it was open yes because i live in the country and leave it open um but i did re speak to him but not with what he wanted and what he wanted he came with the intent of i guess bullying me into selling him what had been so the adjoining property he thought that i would be as easy and as cheap as the acres that the 5.1 acres that he purchased and that was not me and it's it's not going to be me and yes i do understand the law and i do understand what we're up against but i do serve a god yes madam chair up to go back to the question that you had if i can have the overhead please so this is the this is the slide from the neighborhood workshop so this is what was shown at that neighborhood workshop it's not showing the number of units per say it's showing the density range from re1 to r1a is there but there's no calculation of what the difference is not in the neighborhood workshop it's showing the the number well the range of the density for r1a which would be four on five acres so that would be 20. did you see did you were you able to see that slide during the presentation i know you're looking for a promotion because i really want to vote against it there's three of us there's only three of us if i vote against it and you all vote for it it fails um if there were five of us here you know that we could have a more robust discussion and i mean the reality is they're just i i don't i don't i do not see a basis for denial i wish that i did believe me i you know you have three commissioners up here that you're basically forcing into a rezoning i just want you to be mindful of that moment and realize that you're none of like you know i mean not all the neighbors are here though and not all the neighbors are are arguing against this i will say that i mean so there are neighbors that are part of this that didn't come and that we haven't gotten comment from but i just i think it's important to note that as you move forward in this development process to recognize that you know it's important to be a good neighbor and i hope that you'll think about that as you think about the ways in which you lay out the development um and bring forward development plans for the property um if you are the developer although i imagine it's probably you'll sell it to a developer right um so and our it'll be our staff's responsibility to make sure we do it responsibly so um yeah i i do need a motion on the floor and unfortunately again i do i i mean staff have done the study um all of our questions have not led to any new evidence that creates a basis for denial that i can see um madam chair i move the approval of z25-00028 with the bases as listed in the staff report i feel the same way but okay i second the motion okay are there any comments from the public about the motion on the floor further approval of a rezoning general public comment to the motion hearing none all those in favor say aye aye oh did you want to speak sir any opposed motion to rezone is approved my apologies to families but i will be there in the audience when this thing comes forward i may not be on the board but i'll be there in the audience all right wonderful notes uh we move on to the next item which are items pulled from consent madam clerk this will be items pulled from consent um first item fiscal year 26 fee schedule update for fire rescue public works and animal resources thank you hi tommy how are you um i i pulled this item i have a couple of questions about the um and i'm i have questions about a couple sections of it some of which were redlined some of which were not um i'm gonna let them go so um my first question is um with regards to animal resources it currently states that uh a rested of like a reclaiming your animal fee is only is 20 dollars for a unfixed unsanitized animal i'm confused by that number and i want to be clear that they would also have to pay all applicable breeders licenses before that animal is released to them well that's people's land services thank you gina people's assistant county manager and interim animal resources director so uh with the reclaim fees it's actually a combination of all of the uh fees so the addition is whenever uh your animal is still intact that uh now we would charge an additional 200 whenever we went to the animal welfare uh advisory committee to ask about a consideration for redefining the breeders permit that if if your animal is intact you're a breeder um there was not support for that at this point in time so what they did ask is that we report back to the uh update the fee schedule that if the animal comes through the shelter and it's intact that it's essentially the the fine for the breeders permit so it's the 200 and the reason why the uh animal welfare committee was concerned about it is because it's very difficult to enforce so we're not likely going to go door to door that's okay it doesn't have to be enforced but i do think that if you have an intact animal and you're considered a breeder and if that dog comes into the i don't know how my colleagues feel but i would like to change that fee to be 200 plus the reinstate fee which i think is 20 so it would be 220 and that they would annually be responsible for that permit fee in the future okay i mean it's not a it's not we're not able to enforce it if the dog's in their home but if the dog is if they're letting their dog run loose to the point where it ends up at the shelter then yeah madam chair i was in that meeting when they discussed this and it really um the 200 because of the chair and his his position with the sheriff's office uh was feeling like that this was going to be really a hard one to sell and uh that you know that 200 to be able to get your dog out because it's not been neutered i think was really a problem well they they have the option of paying the 200 breeding fee or paying the 100 sterilization fee and getting their dog fixed but this was this fee every year so currently no it was uh that for example my dog is intact it's been taken to the shelter because maybe it was running at large and so they would charge me for all of these uh charges that would be applicable plus the 200 because the animal was intact if my animal was already spayed or neutered that 200 would not apply but if i understand the chair correctly she's saying now we know that my animal is intact and so i would be subject to pay that 200 annually so that would be that would be a bit of a change of what's currently proposed in the fee schedule okay i just i just know it ran into a nobody was excited about that it's only if their animal it's like their animal honestly i don't care if their animal gets loose and their animal is intact that is a breeding dog and that dog is able to be bred and they need to be paying a breeder's license or they need to have their dog spayed or neutered and so they have an option they could spay or neuter their dog we have a fee of 95 to have that dog spare neutered and have the dog released to them or they can pay the breeder's license fee 200 and the 20 to get their dog back which i believe is accurate it depends on the combination of fees so if we did intakes and parasite treatment so it depends gotcha yeah so whatever they need to pay in addition to the 200 for the breeding license and then they would now be a registered breeder they have an intact dog i understand i understand but you have these committees that are set up you know and then we don't listen to them well and i i hear them on every dog that's intact right because many people control their animals when they're intact and they're able to keep them leashed and fenced and taken care of and they're not breeding them but if you're not managing your animal in a way that it's able to be restrained and maintained on your property and it's intact then i think a breeder's license is the obvious way to go because that dog is breeding and the one nuance that i have to remind the commission is that currently the definition allows up to two litters per year so that was the initial thought that let's update the definition so that if your animal's intact you're a breeder but currently the code allows two litters then that's the current definition of a breeder yeah i mean i would like to lower that to any i mean but obviously if you're breeding if you just have a litter or two we're not going to know it like they said i mean most of these things most of our codes are complaint based it's not like just because we have a code it's like we're always enforcing it codes are often complaint based and you know we are dealing with an issue where we have a lot of problem with stray dogs running loose and over populated shelter and we need to find ways to ensure that people are managing their animals responsibly and one of the unfortunate ways that we have to do that is with regulations and fines and fees i don't want to have to impose fines and fees on anyone i mean i was the one who made the motion to get rid of our jail fines and fees i don't want to impose fines and fees on people well how many dogs will be left at the shelter then because they're not willing to pay that 200 because they're not you know just because they're an animal that is i mean we have a lot of dogs that are owned by people who are houseless too you know if their dog gets away it's intact and they don't want to have it neutered or spayed then well they need to have it that's what we would say i'm just just saying i'm just wondering how many dogs would be left at the shelter if they realized they had to pay 200 to get their dog out you know hopefully they would be smart enough or care enough to have the dog neutered and cleaned up and all that why their dog end up at the shelter to begin with there are a lot of dogs running loose in this community if you look on facebook you see a lot of them loose and that's my point that's not a responsible dog owner their dog's running loose intact in the neighborhood okay and if it gets picked up and taken to the shelter that those people may not go get it if they have to pay 200 to get it out and they don't want to get there are a lot of people who feel really weird about getting their dogs neutered their male dogs particularly i just they just are um but that's you know this it's a it's i'm just saying that that discussion came up and the deputy who was who was in charge of doing our roundups and also on our board was totally absolutely against it there was but what did we say what did what did we say so i got around that somehow so that that's where uh this suggestion came forward um so if the board will oblige me for a moment so chair coon dissented citing concerns about imposing ideals on property owners which led to a spirited debate kristen young stated that she was not opposed to rewording the ordinance but expressed concerns about enforceability perry coon suggested implementing vouchers for veterinary services and chelsea bauer noted that vouchers combined with grants could be more effective however chelsea also raised transportation as a potential barrier and expressed skepticism about the overall effectiveness of vouchers melissa jenkins recommended focusing enforcement efforts on reclaim situations at 2 31 pm kristen young motion to recommend that the board of county commissioners adjust the reclaim fee schedule to impose higher fees for intact animals and consider waiving or reducing fees if the owner agrees to have the animals spayed or neutered chelsea seconded the motion the floor was open for public comment during which commissioner wheeler requested clarification of the motion the vote passed unanimously okay so none of that is reflected in the fee schedule what you just read is that we would waive all fees if they agree if they have an intact animal that they agree to have spayed or neutered and that we would otherwise charge the breeding fee and that's not reflected in the in the current fee schedule as it's written it doesn't have that it doesn't say that you would be charged the breeders fee if an intact animal is relinquished is is caught correct it's just something a little different than what what was put forward so they they were just saying to adjust the reclaim fee schedule to impose higher fees for intact animals and that's for the two hundred dollars that's before you today and consider waiving or reducing fees if the owner agrees to have the animal spayed or neutered and then that's the uh like hundred dollars i believe the the the current reclaim fee is not adjusted the reclaim fee is still twenty dollars in your fee schedule and it doesn't say anything about having to pay the breeders license fee if your animal is caught intact there's none of that's in the fee schedule currently correct yes we had not considered then it being an ongoing two hundred dollar annual fee up until this moment so that was not well even if it's not an ongoing fee i'm saying we didn't we didn't increase it at all so we haven't followed that motion yet to date so i guess my goal is to at least follow that motion and if you're okay with that i understand what you're saying you don't want to go as far as to make it an annual 100 yeah two hundred dollars a year to have keep your dog intact that's that's pretty that's pretty drastic i think but they do need to i'm sorry i'm confused the addition of the intact animal on the fee schedule isn't that what we're talking about yeah okay that's in here it's in there as twenty dollars no it's in there's two hundred dollars to add so is that a one time two hundred or is it currently in this it's not a breed animal i.e unspayed unneutered is two hundred dollars as a proposed fee that's kind of fine i mean they pay it once and then if they are good at keeping their dog after that they realize they need to restrain their dog better they don't have to pay the fee again right complying with this then they're complying with the restraining and reply with the motion right okay are you guys okay with that yeah so move okay uh well i have other yeah that's okay um the probation and court services oh yeah um for probation for the um that's not on here it the whole fee schedule is on the consent no ma'am we're only asking to make the the changes to um animal resources i realize that but i have questions about other fees that are on the schedule okay um the level one and level two probation fees are those state statute i'll need to i'll have to have uh miss act fine come in and discuss okay for court services i had a client assistant county manager and interim court services director i'm going to say yes i believe they are they're the only ones that we could not alter all board could not alter and how do how do we assess or screen for indigency well the that's a good question because we've actually been talking about that recently initially the court the court does determine indigency so when they go to first appearance they ask them some basic questions about their ability to pay they're then provided a public defender if they want one and then a few days later the court then has them fill out an assessment that you know has all their financial information and if they have other means of support so indigency does you may not have a job but you may live with your family and so then you would not be considered indigent so the court then determines indigency and then tells us so it's not under our control if someone is considered indigent or not it's the court determines that okay interesting okay and then what does what counts as community service like how do we determine what counts as community service hours who can who can do them um for most things you can do unless the court um the judge says no like you could be assigned to the work crew and for most things in court services you can do um community service hours there are some things that aren't i don't know all of them but most of them you can and we do have a lot of people who are using community service hours instead of so if somebody if an organization wants to be considered a site for community service hours they apply to court services and court services makes that determination okay and then but the judge can say no about the site or the person either one i don't think so about the person yes but that would be rare okay no we determine the sites okay and can the electronic monitoring and the tads also be converted to community service hours if they're indigent no i i do not believe so no those those you're required the agreement is you're required to pay pay is that ours or is that the courts no i think that's the court agreement the agreement that i saw just recently in fact it does say that they're making an agreement with the court that they will instead of being in jail they're willing to be on the gps monitor and so that they are responsible for paying for it i don't know if we can then i don't i honestly know the answer i can look into it if we okay waive that but the agreement they signed with the court says that they have to they are responsible for paying for it including any treatment also yeah if we could look into just the opportunity of shifting any of those treatments or monitoring to community service if the person is found indigent yeah thank you my last question is the growth no is park rentals we did earlier in the year we approved hourly rentals for parks and rec but i only see them i don't see them anymore i didn't see the hourly except for for um the sports and events center i just want to make sure we still have that i didn't know if that was something that didn't work out or um and then for the sports and events center jessica's not here so she you may not be able to answer this but it looks like our minimum hours for rental is nine hours yeah um whatever was approved back in december i'm not sure okay well we'll have an opportunity to look at this fee schedule again during the budget process is that true okay i'll i'll bring the rest of this up then thank you all right um can i get a motion to approve the fee schedule with the changes to the animal resources and fire rescue so move and public works second motion a second is there any public comment to the motion hearing none all in favor say aye aye aye any opposed like sign motion carries okay the other one was seven b this is well path i also pulled this one um i i was looking at the contract and um i guess that under 9a in that contract um it talks about best industry standards um i just um one i want to um ask if in by industry standards we mean health care industry standards or if we mean jail and prison industry standards um and if so i guess i want to um i i want to point you all to an article that i passed out to you gave to the clerk i gave a copy to the attorney and the manager um this is an article um in the journal of hospital medicine that was written in march of 2023 there's several other articles that are referenced in the back up to this article but it talks about how there's not a lot of standards around policies and procedures when it comes to jail medical and um i so i guess my hope would be that we could change the language in that um to make sure that they must deviate as little as possible from health care standards for non-incarcerated persons and ideally i would like for us to be able to see their policies and procedures um attached especially when it comes to physical comfort health privacy and informed decision making when they're being transported to a medical treatment facility outside of the jail because in that instance they're going to be interacting with doctors and there's a hipaa potential violation because the guards are having to stand there you know and listen to this privacy medical information and um it's been shown in a lot of sort of national studies i'm not saying our well path is doing this or our hospitals are doing this at all i'm just because i don't know what their policies and procedures are but i would like to dig into that a little bit um i don't want to hold up this uh contract renewal necessarily um but i do i i would like to include in the motion that 9a include um language that by industry standards we mean they must deviate as little as possible from health care standards for those of non-incarcerated persons i don't know how my colleagues do it now on the agenda it's on consent it's a two and a half million dollar contract with well path boy that would have been nice to have a presentation from them right this contract this is an amendment to the contract this contract was signed in 2022. okay yeah this is a renewal yeah it's not an amendment it's a renewal so this isn't this one isn't new now in terms of changing that language i would have to ask tj i don't know what i don't know how we go about doing that tj white procurement manager we can get it we can get this language added in there and then route it around for signature back to the vendor for re-signature and then route it through the approval process like we normally have in this language in here so with these edits we could make that edit to the contract and move forward that direction of course they have to accept it and make sure it's good with that but standard process to get that changed okay so okay so i guess uh maybe i will pass the gavel um so that i can make the motion that way it's clear okay um i i move that we adopt the well path contract with a change to the provision 9a that rather than just saying best industry standards we ensure that that's best industry standards for healthcare and that they must deviate as little as possible from those of non-incarcerated persons particularly with regards to physical comfort health privacy and informed decision making i would also like to ask that they provide their policies and procedures for these things in writing we have a motion are there any further discussions i need to clarify okay if we can so this contract there are two contracts one's the sheriff's contract and one is ours yeah so our contract is prior to booking so they're not considered incarcerated just want that clarity in your motion i understand what you're trying to get to i don't want to be a confusion okay so i will say is those those from non-arrest or detainees non-detained individual non-arrest or detained okay arrested or detained individuals my apologies i'll change my motion to that as little as possible from those of non-detained or arrested individuals yes okay yeah that's good so you got a motion and a second any further discussion are there any public comments to the motion that's on the floor yeah it really would be though good to hear from these people you know yeah i mean i think this is an example of why i think it's important when contracts or when we're renewing contracts that are large that it not just be considered an amendment or a renewal that it's the time when we get presentations of these so that there's an opportunity for the public to know where their money's being spent how it's being spent and an opportunity for that vendor to come forward and us to be able to ask questions if we have them i mean that's that's what i was trying to say back when we were doing the procurement code and we were saying we just wanted to be able to renew all these things and you know i was kind of like no that this is why because these sorts of things can just go quickly they're on consent they just sort of go on by and we don't even realize that and oftentimes these contracts will have five renewals or or or so and that means if it was a five-year contract and there's three or five renewals you know 20 years can go by with the same contractor being renewed over and over again without any thought or changes and sometimes that's a good thing because they're a good contractor and they're doing great work but sometimes when we have questions i think as public officials we i know we are supposed to be responsible for reading every single thing that we get in front of us on the agendas and and but we're all individuals and we all are busy and we all sometimes only understand parts and pieces of what we're being presented until we ask the questions and so i do i do agree with you i think having these things and i originally wanted to pull it and have a full presentation um but i realized that it was going to be a lot to do at the last minute also we only get a gender review on thursdays for tuesdays and that's a lot to ask staff to put something like that together quickly and get the vendor here quickly so i i settled with this for now okay but i guess we could make them add to the motion if you're okay with it to have the next renewal come before us for a presentation in a time to be able to read it if we need to just to make sure that yeah that's fine that i second that yeah yeah my concern is anything that has to do with the welfare of human beings and our care we need to give the best services possible mr chair yes could i suggest that in this particular case we use this vendor because the sheriff actually put out the bid for this and receives the larger contract actually with the sheriff for the serve for the services when they are after incarceration or after they've been booked um the sheriff will be proposing a budget that they submit in may and instead of waiting until next year to have a it doesn't seem to be very helpful to have a presentation just to the board about this particular contract when there's another bigger piece that it would be more appropriate to do it during the budgetary process and maybe that when the sheriff is here and the vendor we have a conversation then instead of saying next time it comes up yeah i actually had in that's good commission comment to ask that we make sure that we have a comment conversation with the sheriff about both the food contract and the health care contracts prior to next year's budget well if your change could include that instead it would be probably more helpful okay i'm okay with that change okay so to the clerk for the part that we were adding about the contract the second part is rather than just having it come before us we have it come with the sheriff and the commission during budget um for a conversation about the health care contracts and the food contracts of the judge good thank you coming are there any public comments back to the board those in favor of the motion vote by signify those opposed same side motion carries okay so we've gotten through our um i believe all of our agenda items madam clerk yes now we're at um i'm sorry manager comment that's right and attorney and a couple notes uh county attorney i got any any comment i have nothing madam chair county manager i know we had the fire truck request that we wanted to talk about essentially i see chief bs over there in the wings yeah um madam chair when why don't you do public comment oh yeah oh yeah thank you good call okay we can do that before the county manager comment do we have any public comments see none okay hearing none we'll move on no county attorney county manager hey there gina peebles uh assistant county manager chief of staff so with regard to the lacrosse request for the fire pumper engine staff would like to request that the board refer this to the oversight board for discussion the issue is that it is an allowable purchase per state statute however our ordinance is more narrowly defined and so it may not allow the purchase of the used fire pumper so if that's okay with the board that staff's recommendation at this point to request the oversight board to look into it and i realize that lacrosse has a timing issue but i'm hoping that if they discuss with the vendor that you know we the board has made this recommendation to ask the oversight board that they would extend the the timeline for them can you i guess i'm interested to understand what we think the issue is i believe the city of gainesville is also using theirs for fire infrastructure so uh city of gainesville is building a fire related building building yes and so with this being equipment that's where the the nuances or because it would be used on non uh so i i can't remember exactly the verbiage from the ordinance but it says that it could be used for roads it could be used for public safety infrastructure and a pumper truck is not infrastructure i got you okay yeah maybe oh thank you thank you attorney i heard and i started running down the hall uh good afternoon dave forziano with the county attorney's office um your surtax ordinance specifically provides that the it splits the surtax the penny into half penny for wild spaces which is parks and conservation and ag programs and the other half is for other infrastructure and those include uh specifically the repair of roads and improvement of road safety uh to construct and renovate fire stations and other public facilities which are basically buildings and other public infrastructure and also there's a couple of other things for affordable housing and economic development for workforce housing but the statue or the uh the ordinance is specific to public facilities which are buildings and land not fire engines or fire trucks the statute would allow that but when the board adopted the ordinance it narrowed the scope so that not all the things you could spend money on under the statute are permissible under our ordinance so just to tie a little bow on that you can use this money to build a fire station you can't use it the question becomes whether you can use it to buy a fire truck no so we need to refer this to the oversight committee yes yes i move to uh send it over to the advisory board for their comments i guess or second yeah we have a motion a second to refer this to the uh service oversight committee are there any public comments okay hearing none all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed like sign motion carries unanimously okay the other item i had was a staffing update on the shelter we have anything to report with regards to director search or um incoming staff yes so um with regard to the director search we just had interviews last friday and our top three candidates have been invited in for in-person interviews with the county manager also take the opportunity to tour the shelter meet with staff so that's coming up in a couple of weeks with regard to our veterinarian an offer letter has been extended so i'm waiting for that to be signed and returned so if all goes well that person can start in late april early may um as far as our outreach division um as commissioner wheeler had indicated all of those uh folks did leave on their own accord and we do have a very amazing staff that have taken the lead and as a matter of fact as of this morning um for the month of january our live release rate is 93.71 and as of this morning for february 93.79 so i'm incredibly proud of the work that the shelter staff do and i have all the confidence in the world in the team that they're they're doing the right thing for our animals thank you okay are there any other county manager comments do you have any questions did you have no madam chair no did you have a question no no no no okay i just have something to share okay on to commission comment okay go ahead commissioner wheeler okay you all maybe saw the request from high springs for help with uh payment for space evidently over the years their um volleyball team has used the elementary school there uh gym and now they're having to pay whereas before they were just doing the cleanup and the maintenance of it yeah and the city they i mean they've gone through the the city commission and they've also gone through the school board and they're they go to the school board themselves or just to stop i couldn't tell if they had actually spoken with the school board directly directly or i don't know when i asked her it was a general question a general question to know this is for funding yeah yeah but they they need nine thousand dollars to pay for the rental space of the of the elementary school the school board is charging 150 each date that they use it for custodial services and they've waived it in the past but they're not waving it anymore and i can understand the school board's in a tight place funding wise and so i can understand they may not have the means to waive it anymore but i didn't know if they had asked the school board but i i took it upon myself to reach out to a couple people that i know that are that may have some businesses that would want to sponsor i know they have some business sponsorships for scholarships and things that are small but to me this is a pretty high impact low cost sponsorship for a large-scale corporation or a large developer or real estate company in the community to be able to support a lot of families so i'm kind of seeing if i can hunt down a sponsorship that would at least well it would be nice if each of us you know or whoever would 150 dollars i can do 150 dollars to take care of one night you know that maybe we could find others who would be willing to do that too to make up any difference that we couldn't get from big bucks yeah so i'm i was trying to work on it that way in the meantime because it sounded like it was a pretty immediate and urgent issue it is it is and i don't want them to be without being able to they're ready to go they're ready to go but they don't have any facilities in high springs to accommodate that and uh so so i mean we can at least yeah put up the the money for the first couple and try to find a sponsor in the meantime but i do think like this is an issue that i would hope that they've brought to the actual school board so if you could i did well i was trying to get clarity on that before we had this discussion but i'm glad you saw but i do understand you know it's there's the school board is in a very tight place right now with regards to finances and so i can understand them not being able to waive fees but they've never gotten a bill before they've always they've always done in kind like they've gone ahead and like cleaned up afterwards and they've taken care of it and so it's been this and they've built a big program a new bill that they they um received and they yeah and they only they only make it with their registrations and all of everything they only spend about eight thousand dollars a year nine thousand dollars a year and this bill was for nine thousand for which is more than their whole program costs so it would have it would more than double the cost of the families to have to charge this so well they they're offering free to a lot right so i don't know if that's something that c-tech would take care of you know i'd refer them to children's trust to marcia and christie to see if they might have they have some emergency funds that they also have for things like this that when there's a problem and they're they have an emergent need so i'm hopeful that marcia and them may be able to step up with that thank you for doing that thank you um and i'm i'm hunting around for business sponsors but in the meantime yeah that'd be great and the only other thing that i was going to ask our legal folks or our managerial folks if you all are following the anti-dei bills that are going through tallahassee right now and the impact that that would have on us as commissioners if we tried to support any of those things from what i understand we could be removed but if you all are following it that maybe you can give us an update later that's all i'm i'm thinking when everybody's here um yes we can certainly give you an update on all the bills we're following a lot of them but that one specifically and i know there's an article about what gainesville just did okay great there are several out there i was on a zoom this morning and it looks like that the league of cities has has gone as a body against these bills i don't know what if back is doing anything you know um or not but the league of cities has come out in in mass against it senate bill 1134 and a house bill 1001 i think i'm not sure what fact has done with it but we'll we'll let you know i've been following the growth management closer i don't know what they've done with those bills but we can give you an update on all of it thank you thank you madam chair that's all i have i have one in reference to um i got an email uh asking that each commissioner write a letter of support of naming the archer community center after roberta c lopez okay but i was thinking maybe a chair letter because they want they want all of us so the chair will do that so they're asking for a chair letter uh to uh be written before uh march 4th uh for the march uh 9th uh city of uh archers uh meeting so i have a second to that motion second yes i have a motion a second for a chair letter to name the archer community center after roberta lopez right and get that to the community by march before march 4th right thank you any public comment to the motion hearing none all those in favor say aye aye aye any opposed like sign motion carries yep i have a couple things one is um i would like to request a list of um the locations and number of offline units with the um blacktower county housing authority and the gainesville housing authority how many units they have that are not currently available and rentable gotcha like that aren't functioning at the moment um the second is um i don't know if you all saw the article there's an interesting article in county news naco's publication that talks about a florida county taking a nimble approach to overhauling transit it talks about seminole county um and they're they're kind of starting a little bit of like a jitney kind of ride share type service in their county i'm not sure that it's a solution but they're a rural county it has a lot of the same issues that we have with people needing to get around in areas where it's not really feasible to have large buses and this is an approach that they took so i was hoping we might refer to staff to look into this model and other models that counties are taking to provide transit in um rural areas or yeah non-urbanized areas um that are taking a novel approach to that so um folks are okay with that referral um and that can come back to us whenever they've had the time to do the research i'm not in a giant hurry for that but i know transportation continues to come up as the number one challenge an issue for everything from gun violence prevention initiatives to resource centers to health care and i know we're already looking at a potential td partner ada transit partner and i know those requirements are very different than regular transportation but perhaps there's a way we can fly two kites with one string there so anyway i just want to put that out there and ask that we look into that and that is all i have so i think if there's nothing else then we are adjourned