Regular Meeting @ 11:30 a.m. - Oct 27, 2026

Good morning, everybody. It is, what is today's date? It is October 27th. I'd like to go ahead and call the Laster County Board of County Commissioners meeting to order. Before we get started, the Reverend Graham Glover with Abiding Savior Lutheran Church and School is here to give the invocation. If everyone would please stand and then join me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity. Very happy to see our friends from Westside here today as well. On behalf of the members and 190 preschool, 185 preschool students at Abiding Savior with a big old pumpkin patch out front right now on Newberry 98th, we are so very pleased to be here today. Let us pray. Almighty God, your mercies are new to us every day and though we have deserved not your goodness, you abundantly provide us for all of our wants of body and soul. continue to direct the doings of this commission, that they may be lifted up by your holy hand to do your will. For this commission and all those who serve this great county of ours, for its citizens and all who are so very privileged to live in this area, God, give us your mercy, your forgiveness, and your strength. Especially with our state and our nation and this community next Tuesday, it goes to the polls. Bless us as we seek to do your will and share your glory with all those with whom we encounter. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. Thank you. All right. So before we adopt the agenda, Madam Manager, are there any changes? I am not aware of any requests for any items to be pulled. All right. I don't have any items to be pulled. I just wanted to say a few things. One is a huge thank you on the Farmers Market Grant. I know that was a big labor of love and I'm really excited to see all the funding that we have coming out into the community to help support our local farms and our farmers markets. And for those of you that don't know, we have well seven and plus farmers markets all throughout Alachua County. We hope you'll visit them and support your local farms. And I also just wanted to mention, I love the new agenda system. It's so awesome. And I know there was a lot of work that went into implementing that. So I wanted to say thank you to the whole team that put that together. It's great. I'm very excited about it. And is that a motion? I would move agenda and consent agenda. Okay. Second to adopt the agenda. Any discussion from the public? Back to the board. All of the favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. All right. We've got an agenda. And the consent items approved. Mr. Sexton, announcements. You're recognized. Okay. Mr. Chair, Mark Sexton, Communications Director. And I think the most exciting announcement today is to introduce your new Animal Services Director, who you just approved on consent agenda. And I just wanted to say welcome to Meredith McLean. Meredith, please come forward and tell us about yourself. We are so happy that you are here. I'm very excited to be here. Thank you, commissioners. I don't have to say anything, but I'm excited to be in this community. I really do promise to really put the priority, you know, make the animals the priority as well as the community members that support them. And I think we all know that, you know, good communication, transparency, and good collaboration with our community is what we need moving forward. And I look forward to working with, you know, all the staff here, the staff at the shelter, and the community here. So thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. And Mr. Chair, we have assured Meredith that we are at her service. Yes. Mr. Chair, we wanted to remind folks, and you can go on our website to see this press release, that we have our sixth annual Operation Green Light for Veterans coming up. We're proud to be a participant in this nationwide effort from November 4th till the 11th, Veterans Day. County buildings and landmarks will be illuminated in green lights to honor and show support for our veterans and make, raise awareness of the resources that are available in our office. So you can get more detail by going to the website on that. Also, Mr. Chair, we wanted to give you a, what is now a regular, recurring announcement, which is our pothole update. I am now also Ramon Gavarate's private, personal publicist. And the numbers, I have to say, are astounding. In the last week, we repaired 1,200 more potholes using 42 tons of material. We have strip mill and resurfaced 6,000 linear feet of roadway using 243 tons of material. In addition, we have our outside contractors who have done another 5,525 linear feet. And last week, for the first time, we partnered with Columbia County to bring one of their crews over, and they repaired another 283 potholes using over 4 tons of material. And just to give you a kind of a look at the cumulative totals, since we started reporting this about three and a half weeks ago, we have done over 7,348 potholes using 238 tons of material. We have stripped mill and resurfaced over 15,000 linear feet of road. And our outside contractors have done another 13,000 linear feet of road. So that's very exciting stuff. And, Mr. Chair, those are the announcements. Can I make a note of something? Yes, please. A foot, I mean, a mile is 5,280 feet. So if you translate that, that's quite a lot of miles of road that we've stripped and filled. So that's a lot. And, Mr. Chair, I'm glad you brought that up, because I should never take for granted that people know what strip milling is. That's where you take a section of road that's in particularly bad shape. It's not time to completely mill and resurface the whole road, so you do that one section. And it's very effective. And, Mark, what I was going to say is, while I always love your announcements, having Meredith Animal Services veterans and pothole updates is really, like, one of my top three for you in a long time. So thank you for those. That's okay, as long as the manager, you know, remembers that during evaluation. Yes. Yes, sir. Good job. All right. So that is announcements. Next up, we will take a motion to approve the recognitions. So moved. Second. I motion a second to approve the recognitions. Any public comment? Seeing none back to the board. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay. We have approved them. I think we're good to go. Why don't we go ahead, Madam Clerk, with the first one. Yes, the first proclamation, a presentation of a proclamation recognized in November 11, 2026, as Veterans Day in Alachua County, Florida. All right. We've got Commissioner Prizia, who's going to make that one. Hello. All right. I get the honor of declaring November 11th as Veterans Day in Alachua County, Florida. Whereas the United States of America's veterans have served to defend our country, our values, and our interests since the first day of our founding, and the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, fighting ceased in Europe, ending World War I, and ever since, this solemn moment has been honored by the United States. On June 1st, 1954, Congress designated November 11th as Veterans Day so that a grateful nation may pay appropriate homage to the veterans of all wars. And on November 11th, 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower called the nation to solemnly remember all those who have served to preserve our heritage of freedom and reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting enduring peace. Alachua County is home to more than 17,000 veterans who have answered the call to serve in times of war and peace and whose continued contributions strengthen our community each day. Whereas on Veterans Day, we pause to pay tribute to all who have profoundly worn our nation's uniform. They have selflessly placed their lives, well-being, and the security of others before their own. We enjoy the privileges of peace, prosperity, and freedom because of their service. And whereas our county has undergone much change and progress as we continue to strive for improvement, support, and inspire those who have served our nation, we pause to remember and pay tribute to our American veterans whose courage, sacrifice, and leadership have secured our freedom, liberty, and enable our community to grow and thrive. We in Alachua County recognize that our veterans have made immeasurable contributions both during their service and afterwards, as many continue to serve in roles that strengthen and support our community. And whereas from November 4th through 11th, county buildings and landmarks will be illuminated with green in support of Operation Greenlight for veterans to show support and raise awareness around the resources available at the county, state, and federal levels to assist our veterans and their families. Whereas each year on November 11th, we set aside this day to recognize and honor the selfless sacrifice and steadfast dedication of our American veterans who have valiantly served our nation. Now, therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners, I do hereby proclaim November 11th, 2026, as Veterans Day in Alachua County, Florida. It is signed and sealed, and I'm going to deliver it to our Veterans Services Director. Let him say a few words. And I just, for those of you that don't know about our Veterans Services Office, really is such an amazing resource. If you know of a veteran needing services, if you know of someone trying to work with the federal government to get better services, please reach out to us. We have an amazing team that's here to serve you. Good morning, everyone. Mr. Chair of the Commission, Olajuwon White, Director of the Alachua County Veteran Service Office, and it is a pleasure to stand here before you this morning on behalf of the veterans and the families throughout Alachua County. Thank you for your continued support with the proclamation and also our veteran initiatives to include the Operation Green Light. Your continued support demonstrates that honoring veterans is more than a single day of recognition. It is an ongoing commitment to ensuring we are seen, we are supported, and connected to the benefits and services we have earned. Now, as the proclamation recognizes, Alachua County is home to more than 17,000 veterans, each with a unique story of service, sacrifice, and of strength. Last year alone, more than $183 million in earned VA benefits came back to our county to the veterans and their families. These earned benefits represent more than just financial security. They help improve lives, support families, strengthen our local economy, and create a lasting impact throughout Alachua County. The Alachua County Veteran Service Office is proud and honored to serve this community every day. Our team takes great pride in providing knowledgeable, compassionate assistance to veterans and their families as they navigate the benefits they have earned through their honorable service. Now, joining me this morning to receive the proclamation are some familiar faces that our commission might recognize, and I'm pretty sure that the commission joins me in thanking them for their service to our country, but also to their service to our community and to the county operations every day. The uniform did not come off after the service. It just continued to our daily operations throughout the county. So we thank them for their service to the country and continued service to Alachua County. Last but not least, I would like to send a personal invitation to the community to join us for our annual Veterans Day celebration, which will be held on November the 11th at Veterans Memorial Park. We're going to start the day bright and early with a free Veterans Day breakfast at 7 a.m., which will lead into our Veterans Day Community 5K. Registration will begin at 8.15, and the race begins promptly at 8.30. After the race, we're going to lead into our family fun events with our Veterans Row, canine demonstrations, parachuters, and special appearances by the University of Florida, Nascott, Albert, and Alberta. So this is a free family fun event, and we welcome everybody to come out to join us to celebrate our Veterans throughout the county. And again, I thank you to the board for their continued support of our Veterans, of our office, and just the community at whole. So thank you very much. All right, let's get a picture. Commissioner Prizio. Yep. And I'd just like to say to those out there watching that, you know, the VA is one of, if not the largest hospital in the southern eight states in our community. And veterans are a huge priority of this commission. And in my 12 years, I can't remember a time where it was run so well. And Director White is doing just an amazing job as well, as are all of the folks in our Veterans Services. So let's give them one more round of applause. Thank you. Okay. I hope I see a few of you out there on the race course. I'll be running, so come join me. Yep. And Commissioner Prizio will be leading that celebration on Wednesday Veterans Day. So thank you. All right, next up, Madam Clerk. Next, we'll have a presentation of a proclamation recognizing November as Homelessness Awareness Month in Alachua County, Florida. And we've got Commissioner Alford giving that, and I see a number of our special folks that we would like to join her. Right. Yes, if you're here for the Proclamation for Homelessness, feel free to join me up here. And I will start by reading a proclamation declaring November as National Homelessness Awareness Month in Alachua County, Florida. Oh, here comes a bunch of people. Okay. Awesome. Whereas homelessness affects individuals and families and communities throughout the nation, including Alachua County, and stable, safe, and affordable housing is fundamental to the health, dignity, security, and well-being of every person. And whereas National Homelessness Awareness Month provides an opportunity to increase public understanding of homelessness, recognize the experiences and needs of adults and children experiencing housing instability, and strengthen community efforts to prevent and end homelessness. And whereas individuals and families may experience homelessness for many reasons, including the loss of affordable housing, economic hardship, unemployment, health challenges, family instability, domestic violence, and other circumstances that can place safe and stable housing beyond their reach. And whereas addressing homelessness requires sustained collaboration among local governments, housing and homeless service providers, non-profit, and faith-based organizations, health care and behavioral health providers, educational institutions, businesses, advocates, and residents, and whereas the Task Force for Ending Homelessness plays an important role in coordinating the community's response to homelessness by bringing together public agencies, non-profit organizations, service providers, people with lived experience, and other community partners to identify needs, coordinate resources, improve access to housing and supportive services, and advanced strategies designed to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring. And whereas Alachua County recognizes the dedicated works of the continuum of care partner agencies to prevent homelessness, connect people experiencing homelessness with appropriate services and housing opportunities, strengthen the local homeless response system, and promote effective, coordinated, and compassionate solutions. And whereas raising awareness of homelessness encourages greater understanding of the challenges faced by our neighbors without stable housing, and reinforces the importance of community partnerships, evidence-based practices, and long-term solutions that increase housing stability. Now, therefore, through the authority invested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Alachua County, Florida, I do hereby proclaim November as National Homelessness Awareness Month in Alachua County, Florida, duly proclaimed this 27th day of October, A.D. 2026. And I want to say a few words here, because in our community, there is often a perception of homelessness as being the man that you see on a street corner with a sign. And while, yes, those are homeless individuals, our community is also home to many, many homeless families, many, many homeless children. As a matter of fact, one out of every 30 kids, that's one kid out of every classroom, is unhoused in our community. One out of every 10 children in our public school system is what we call underhoused. These are children that are sleeping on floors, in cars, and other inappropriate and unsafe places. I want to read something just real briefly. There is a link between vulnerably housed children, homeless couch surfing, doubled up, living in cars or hotels, and absenteeism from school. There is a link between absenteeism and not achieving reading, math at grade level. There is no literacy curriculum or testing regime that will help vulnerably housed children read at grade level. They need housing first. So while we look at all the other problems that our community faces, addressing homelessness is one of the things that we need to prioritize if we're going to achieve our other goals. And I want to thank all these folks for being here and offer up an opportunity. If you would like to speak, and I have two proclamations here. Who's accepting these? You've got one, and I'm not sure who's getting the other one. Okay, you come up here now. All right. And I'm going to offer you a chance to say a few words. I'm a little nervous. I haven't done this. So, Mr. Chair, Commission, thank you so much. My name is Kiana Johnson. I serve as the Continuum of Care Director here at Task Force for Ending Homelessness. For those of you who do not know, we serve as the HUD-designated lead agency to oversee the homeless response system here in Alachua County, as well as six other counties surrounding this area. We just want to thank you all for recognizing Homeless Awareness Month. Your acknowledgement, you know, kind of helps shine a light on homelessness, you know, raise awareness that we need here in the community, and also to remind our community that everyone deserves dignity, respect, and a place to call home. We still have a lot of work to do. We want to continue pushing forward and leading the charge here, as we always do. However, we know that we cannot do this alone. This takes a collaborative, cohesive effort. And, again, we just want to thank the Commission and the Board for recognizing, you know, the work that we do here in the continuum in the community and also for recognizing Homeless Awareness Month. So thank you again. Well said. Well said. Thank you very much. Good morning. I'm Claudia Tuck, Director of Alachua County Community Support Services, and I also serve as your representative to the Homeless Continuum of Care, where I serve as the chair. Mr. Chair, commissioners, thank you again for this proclamation. And I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce you to your staff, who are out there every day working with our unhoused individuals, and just give you an idea of how many years these individuals have been serving the unhoused population. So if you'll bear with me a minute, Sarai Cabrera. Sarai has been with the division for 10 years, and she has been working in Homeless Services for 26 years. Wow. Raise your hand and wave as you. Next, I have Shante Williams, Thomas Williams. She is the Homeless Services Program Manager. She's been with us for nine and a half years and has been serving homeless individuals for over 16 years. James McDonald, he is a Permanent Supportive Housing Case Manager, PSH. He's been with us for five years and has a total of seven years serving unhoused individuals. Nicole Bartlett, she is a Permanent Supportive Housing Case Manager with us for five years, and she has a total of 15 years serving unhoused individuals. Heckmarie Alberti, another PSH case manager, three years with us and four years total serving homeless individuals. Sean Coleman, one year with us and a total of seven years. Mavia Ostry, she is a Rapid Rehousing Case Manager. As you see, we have a lot more PSH client services than Rapid Rehousing because that's where the need is. She has been with us for a year and a half, and she has a total of four years serving homeless individuals. Jacqueline Buford, she is our Forensic SOAR Case Manager, and she spends most of her time working with individuals who are in the jail or recently released. And she has a total of two years with us, more years because she came to us from court services, but then three and a half years serving homeless individuals. Tyler Zimmerman, he is an Outreach SOAR Case Manager, and he has five months with us, one of our newer ones, but a total of four years serving unhoused individuals. And Kayla Smith, she is a Housing Resources Coordinator, one and a half years with the division and two years serving the population. And just to give you an idea of the magnitude, combined they have over 88 years of experience working with unhoused individuals. And lastly, I'd like to recognize we have Mark Bonner with Grace Marketplace joining us, and Lee Scott with Family Promise. Thank you, Lee. Thank you, Mark, for being here. All right, I'm going to try to do a picture. Yeah, let's do a picture. I'm going to have to get in really tight and scooch into the middle there. Commissioner, did you want to make a comment? I'll let them do the picture. I just want to say thank you. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you to all of you for the hard work that you do in our community every day. Okay, Madam Clerk, next item. Next, this is to bring us to Citizens Disability Advisory Committee Disability Friendly Employer Award. Okay, and Ms. Lieberman, who do we have for this one? Jackie, Ms. Chong? Okay. Ms. Chong, welcome. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chair, commissioners. I'm Jacqueline Chong, Equal Opportunity Office Director. And today I'm happy to introduce to you a member, well, the chair of our Citizens Disability Advisory Committee as we present our Disability Friendly Employer Award. This is an initiative by the committee, and this is our second year. During that last year, we were pleased to present the award to GrowHub. This year, we have UF Health, and Christy King, our chair, will say a few words, and we'll present the award. Thank you. Okay, Christy, thank you for being here. In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the Elijah County Citizens with Disabilities Advisory Committee is proud to present the second annual Disability Friendly Employer Award to UF Health in recognition of this year's theme, Celebrating Value and Talent. The committee recognizes UF Health for its commitment to hiring, supporting, and including people with disabilities, as well as advocating for disability inclusion. This award celebrates the importance of creating inclusive workplaces where people with disabilities have meaningful employment opportunities and can contribute their skills and talents. Congratulations to UF Health, and thank you for your commitment to disability inclusion and employment opportunities for people with disabilities. The applications that come in, they are scored by the advisory committee, and we have three categories, bronze, silver, and gold. So UF was awarded in the silver category, and I'd like to present that plaque to them that says, in recognition of your commitment to disability inclusion in the workplace, and promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities. I just want to say a few words. Thank you so much to the Board of County Commissioners and the Citizens Disability Advisory Committee for this recognition. This award reflects the work across all UF Health to create a more accessible workplace. We're so grateful to the many team members and community partners who contributed to this recognition. We're proud of the progress that we've made, and we remain committed to building an inclusive place for everyone to work, and we're going to continue pushing on. We're going to go for the gold. So thank you so very much. Thank you, DUF Health. Appreciate that very much. Let's get a quick picture. All right, Madam Clerk, next item. I don't know if we can get this one done. Let's just see if anyone is here to speak. Comments first. I think we can get it done. Thank you, DUF Health. It'll be board and committee items, Arts Council of Elachio County appointments. All right, are any of the applicants here that would like to speak to us? That would be a time. Come on forward. Yeah, just give us your name and just a statement or two about why you'd like to serve. Good morning. I was not sure I was going to be able to be here this morning, so I did send you a written statement, so I'll be brief. It would be an honor to continue to serve on the Arts Council. For those other applicants that applied and to the general public, our meetings are open to the public the first Monday of every month at 530 here in this building. Your presence is needed and wanted because, obviously, we serve you, and we would like your feedback and input as part of the community. So thank you for the opportunity to previously serve and hoping to be reappointed and continue to serve, and this is definitely an honor to serve along with my fellow board members and neighbors. And can you just introduce yourselves for the folks? Sorry, David Ruiz. Yeah, thank you, Mr. Ruiz. All right, next speaker. Good morning, Mr. Chair, Commissioners, Carol Velasquez-Richardson. I'm currently a board member with the Alachia County Arts Council, and I am up for reappointment. And my reason for wanting to serve on the Arts Council is that I just really believe in the power of the arts for transformational communities. I've been part of the Arts Council since its inception. I really believe that when we make the arts, public art, cultural arts, a commitment in our community, we grow through economic development, through a quality of life. And so I like being part of that. I'm really happy. I have a couple programs since I've been a part of the council that I particularly like. One is making the art accessible for local artists. And when I mean local, I mean Alachia County. We do not have a lot of space in the county that we can showcase artists. So one of the programs that we started was the Art for Loan program, so the beautiful art that you see in this chamber as well on the first floor. This helps our artists, and it puts them out there and gives them an opportunity to make money. Some artists do it for just the love of it. Some of it, this is what they do for a living. So I like the fact that our Arts Council is leading the charge not only in the city of Gainesville, which I think is an amazing community for the arts, but also encouraging our other municipalities to make this an initiative. So I know that the city of Alachua has adopted public art and cultural programming in their comprehensive plan as well as the city of Newberry. So I believe that the Arts Council has the ability to take that charge and to help all of our communities in Alachua County be thriving so that we're just a great destination for arts and culture. Thank you, Ms. Velasquez. Appreciate it. All right. Madam Clerk, you want to go ahead and we'll, I guess, do our top two on the first one? Top two appoint two citizens at large member positions with terms ending September 30, 2030. Okay. And then maybe, and then also, how about the four below as well? So we can just do them all at the same time, yeah. Okay. All three appoint one youth member position with the term ending September 30, 2030. If I can start with Commissioner Wheeler. Yes, thank you. David Ruiz and Carol Richardson. And I've got to tell you guys, I've looked at the young people's applications, and two of them, they're really very, very strong. I really hate to just put one kid on. You know, if there was any way that we could put at least two, you know, as a backup, you know, for the one that couldn't or to work together as a team, as youth people, I don't know what we would need to do to change that. But Kiana, Lacey, and Jubilee, I thought were both outstanding applicants. And it was hard for me to decide which one. I was hoping one of them would show up today so that we could, but they're students. Yeah. And so I, you know, like I say. Let's pick one, and then we'll certainly, they can attend. And if we want to expand that board, we can do that later. Yeah, I think we need to try to do that. And that's even hard now, too. I don't know if it's Jubilee or Bumzai Wauklu, if that's how we pronounce his name, but that's what I'm nominated. Okay, Jubilee. Commissioner Affleck? David Ruiz and Heidi Stein, and I want to thank Carol Richardson. I believe she served eight years on the board, and I believe that this is a board that we should have some rotation through. So I'm not saying that she's not a great board member, but I'm going with Ruiz and Stein. Then youth member? And then for the youth member, Remy Backman. Okay. Commissioner Apresia? Gosh, that's a hard one. I'm with you on the rotation stuff, but I also know that Carol's experience is important. So, oh, God, that's a hard one. I will go with David Ruiz and Richardson and Remy Backman for the youth member position. And Chair Cornell? I will go with Ruiz and Richardson and Kiana Lacey. All right, so I guess I would move Ruiz and Richardson for the citizen at large member positions. And Remy Backman and Remy Backman had the most votes, am I right? Yes. For the youth member position ending 9-30-20-30. Second. Okay, I got motion to second with gratitude to all the applicants and asking them. They are certainly welcome to attend these meetings and keep their application current. And maybe we'll expand those in the future. We'll see. Okay. Any more comments? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. So, Mr. Ruiz, Ms. Richardson, thank you. And Remy Backman, congratulations. All right. I think that takes us to, it's right at 12 o'clock-ish. So, this is a time that we have public comment. So, we do public comment twice during our meetings, one at the beginning at 12 and then one at the end of our meeting. If you are new to public comment, the way we work this is if you'll just come up, introduce yourself. The light will be green. You'll have three minutes. When it turns yellow, that means there's 30 seconds left. And when it turns red, that means the person behind you is ready to speak. And if you'll go ahead and finish your comments. And welcome. Yeah. Commissioner, it's Chris Deutch. I'd also like to say how excited we are for Meredith McLean to be our new director. Before we get started with her new term, though, I think there's some loose ends that I'd like to kind of put together before that. Last meeting in the BOCC, I asked about the promised follow-up of a report to the unauthorized vaccine clinic at ACAR. On August 22nd, I obtained that report by submitting a public records request. It has not been released to the public yet. While rigorously detailing the investigation and concluding that two former ACAR employees knowingly conducted the clinic without a vet present, it did not address a remedy for citizens' pets who received rabies vaccine but no certificate. A certificate of rabies vaccination is required to obtain the required county license. Did the pets need to be re-vaccinated by a vet to get that certificate? On the subject of investigations, I would also like to know if there was ever a report, either collectively from the commissioners or the county manager's office, that addressed the conclusions of the ridiculous and farcical investigative report of the whistleblower letter. I believe the $53,000 price tag deserved more than a let's move on statement. So specifically, I'm asking if there was any report, memo, or other correspondence following the release of that report. It certainly seems that the lack of accountability for some shelter staff created the environment that actually led to the unauthorized vaccine clinic. Commissioner Alford wrote in her evaluation of the county manager, quote, regarding public perception, I'm not sure what to do here. I want Manager Lieberman to be as loved by the public as she is by the commission. That really struck me because that's not where we are as advocates for the shelter. I feel like it can shed some light. From my perspective, our advocacy group presented the board with great concerns about events and policy happening at the shelter. We presented evidence gathered from public records requests, that is, the county's own evidence, that actions and policies that upper shelter administration were putting vulnerable and voiceless animals at risk. We were repeatedly treated dismissively by the county manager almost every time we spoke. The one person who wielded them, all the levers of power, chose to protect those really concerning individuals, despite information from the county's own records. I don't know why the false records surrendering the euthanasia clinic, the attempt to hide the identity of the rescue that was paid $1,925 to dispose of dogs, including Foster's 50 Cent Lily and committed Humane Society pulled Don Julio, or the use of the lynching lady's epithet wasn't the end of it. Would Bruni, Justice, Pepper, Brioche, and countless others have been given a second chance? Commissioner Alford, I hope this helps. Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Okay, next speaker, please. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Carla Ganley, and I am a sixth-year joint MD-PhD student at the University of Florida College of Medicine, and I serve as the executive director of the UF Street Medicine team, which is part of the mobile outreach clinic under Dr. Grant Harrell. I have up here with me Melanie Rodriguez, who is our program coordinator for our hepatitis C treatment program. For the past five years, I have worked directly with individuals experiencing homelessness in Alachua County. I'm here today to raise concerns about the practices of universal comprehensive health care services, a mobile health care organization providing HIV, hepatitis C, and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment to individuals experiencing homelessness in our community as well as in our county jail. I want to emphasize that expanding access to health care for this population is critically important. However, the care being provided must be safe, evidence-based, and coordinated with existing services. Our team has encountered several deeply concerning situations. First, patients have reported being offered gift cards to enroll in health insurance plans without fully understanding the consequences. In one case, a patient's insurance change disrupted a scheduled surgery, delaying the medically necessary procedure by five months. Second, we have identified concerning medication practices. In one case, a patient living with HIV reported being taken off BICTAR-V, which is a complete antiretroviral treatment medicine, and placed on Discovia alone, which is not appropriate treatment for HIV. Separately, our team has directly verified hepatitis B prescribing practices that deviate from clinical guidelines. Third, this organization has repeatedly engaged patients who are already receiving treatment services through our street medicine team or the Alachua County Health Department. In one instance, a patient undergoing hepatitis C treatment was retested, received a negative test result, and was told she did not have hepatitis C. A negative viral test result does not indicate that the patient has been cured, nor should they be removed from ongoing treatment. Finally, multiple patients have told us they believe this organization was affiliated with either the health department or our street medicine program. This raises serious questions about whether patients fully understand who is providing their care and what services they are consenting to receive. These are not simply concerns about inefficient duplication of services. They are concerns about patient safety, informed consent, and interruptions in medically necessary treatment. I am asking the board to take action to prevent universal comprehensive health services from continuing to provide health care services in Alachua County. Specifically, I ask the board to examine every avenue available to the county and to work with appropriate state regulatory agencies to pursue this outcome. Our patients deserve the standard of care, transparency, and protection that we would expect for everyone else in this community. Thank you. Thank you, Carla. Appreciate that. Okay, next speaker. Hey, good afternoon, commissioners, Mr. Chair. My name is Mark Bonner. I'm the CEO of Grace Marketplace. I'm also here to share concerns about universal comprehensive health care services, which we understand are providing services in the Alachua County Jail. A few months ago, their van began appearing on our campus and along Northeast 28th Drive on the Takatalee property. Their staff began dropping off prescriptions with Publix gift cards attached to them for Grace staff to distribute, despite having no established agreement in place or coordination. I contacted their chief clinical officer and requested information about their services, clinical oversight, medication delivery, gift card incentives, and insurance enrollment activities. I also notified him in writing that they were not authorized to provide services on our property while we reviewed that information. Their response left important questions unanswered. So we consulted our established health care partners with the MOC. They raised serious concerns about continuity of care, insurance enrollment, and follow-up during hepatitis C treatment. On September 30th, Dr. Grant Harrell advised us to discourage clients from engaging with this company, and he reported concerns about practices that were not evidence-based and were harmful to patients, and stated that the health department was also pursuing a complaint. They did also personally tell me that they were involved with the health department, and their staff continued appearing on campus and meeting with people along Northeast Drive after we have asked them to stop. We instructed our staff at this point to contact law enforcement if they return to the Grace property. I am asking the county to review the company's involvement with the jail and coordinate with appropriate oversight agencies to address these concerns. People receiving care in the jail and after release deserve reliable treatment and appropriate follow-up. I can provide correspondence documenting our experience if the board would wish. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bonner. Thank you for being here. Next speaker, please. Hi. My name is Abigail Paret-Genteel. I work for the Mobile Outreach Clinic. Yearly, we serve about 3,000 uninsured patients in the area, including many people who are experiencing homelessness. We've been here since 2010, funded by grants and the generosity of our local community. This past year, through a SAMHSA grant, we cured 50 people and treated 60 more for hep C with our community health worker program. That's a 2,400% improved cure rate compared to other local programs in previous years. I've spent 12 years working with people experiencing health inequities and have witnessed insurance scams firsthand. When working for Grace, I regularly had to warn staff about predatory insurance brokers, similar to body brokers, who would sneak onto campus and flee when spotted. During the pandemic, when the shelter was under strict quarantine, I once found in one of the dorms one of these people claiming, Abigail said I could be here. However, despite my efforts to keep them out of our community, clearly these deceptive scammers have found another gatekeeper. However, this current scam operating out of the jail and targeting homeless people in our community is far more organized than these other small groups that came to Grace, partly because communities like ours have unwittingly enabled it. The executive director of Grace made me aware of it when he shared that they were trying to broker a similar deal there as they had with the jail, and he saw some red flags. I shared it with my boss, who did some digging, and we eventually found out everything he shared in the letter to you all recently. When vulnerable people lose continuity of care, they die. This is despicable because the platform they are using is care for people with HIV and Hep C, the very pathology is so intricately related to poverty, marginalization, and captivity. Florida is ground zero for insurance and body brokering scams, which also target vulnerable populations like people with addiction and mental illness. This is just another iteration of that, but instead of selling patients to facilities, they sell them to subpar insurance agencies for profit while they lose access to the legitimate care they need to live. UFMOC can do better, and we can do it without both the economic and human cost. I would be remiss not to mention that jails, shelters, and rehabs attract these scams for a reason. Some don't just attract them, they are them. While body brokering, treating human beings like cattle to generate wealth is often illegal, sometimes it's also performed through legal loopholes and other times in state-sanctioned ways. I hope that, regardless of what comes from this advocacy, we will also look at the other ways we broker the bodies of vulnerable people. We should continue to ask ourselves, why is this endemic within certain systems? Getting universal comprehensive health care services out of Alachua County would be a great start. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Abigail. I would like to follow my way. Guys, if you want to clap, you just do this, and then we'll know that you appreciate it. Thank you. Lee, go ahead. Hi. My name is Lee Scott. I've been working in the homeless community in Gainesville for about seven years. I'm also formerly a systems-impacted person myself, so I get this from both sides. Much like Abigail, I've spent years when I was at the shelter running off these scam insurance companies. Often they have blue shirts. They look like they work for Florida Blue. They do not. Sometimes they do. Sometimes it's just to collect people's information and then sell it. They usually have $10 in cash, $5 gift cards. Spent years running these folks off. So I was alarmed to hear from Dr. Harrell that this had popped back up in so many different spaces in really insidious ways. The three most silent populations are our homeless community, people that suffer for mental health, and substance use. They're often discredited. It's one thing to be able to check a box and say, we serve 14,000 people, but it's the quality of care. And I would, conversely, Grace Healthcare, UF Mobile Outreach Clinic, UF Street Medicine, it is some of the best care we have in our community. They're compassionate. They're open-minded. They're kind. And then there's other systems that serve those communities that are not that. And I think those side-by-side comparisons have been really telling for me. So I'd ask you to look at the practices of UCHS and other practices that mimic that. Often at the behest of, you know, saving taxpayer dollars, we kind of get bottom-of-the-barrel food services, bottom-of-the-barrel medical services. And that's not what vulnerable and marginalized people deserve. So I'd ask you to take a look at that. Thank you so much. Thank you, Lee. Next speaker, please. Dr. Murmur, welcome. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commission? Bobby Murmur, coordinator of the Alachua County Labor Coalition. We're here today to add our voices and bodies to the previous four or five speakers. UCHS is a danger to public health, to our working class, to our most vulnerable populations, both out in the community and in the Alachua County Jail. Unfortunately, right now, they have been able to form a base or establish a base here in Alachua County because of their relationship with the jail's contractor, WellPath. Importantly, not blaming the sheriff's office or the jail for this. This is a relatively new company. This is a relatively new company. I think it's only two, three years old. So they were able to sort of fly under the radar. But now that we know what they are doing, know that they are taking advantage of people who are HIV positive, HIV negative, taking advantage of people who are homeless, close to being homeless, putting them on insurance that they might not be able to afford in the long term, preventing them from accessing public health insurance like the Ryan White program. This is going to lead to a disaster because their base of operations here in Alachua County was established in the jail. We are asking the sheriff's office and asking this commission to work with the sheriff's office to ensure that UCHS immediately cease operations in the jail to protect our public health. prevent a hep C or HIV outbreak, which is a real risk if they are not prescribing properly, let alone testing properly, and prevent financial ruin from coming upon our most vulnerable residents. So the next couple of speakers are going to be from the ACLC, and I thank them for coming as well. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Marmer. Next speaker, please. Hi. I'm Diane D'Imperio, and I'm the chair of the Health Justice Committee for the Alachua County Labor Coalition. I'm a retired public health administrator with the experience in community-based health care for vulnerable populations. We have information about health care that we need to bring to your attention. The evidence is anecdotal but has been consistent and is compelling. An organization called Universal Comprehensive Health Care Services is roaming around Gainesville targeting unhoused individuals. They offer gift cards to be tested for HIV, hep C, and other sexually transmitted infections. When someone tests positive, they offer them a coupon for one month's supply of medicine. They also incentivize them with a gift card to enroll in low-quality health insurance. These activities put people at risk. They put their health at risk. They may be switched from a medicine that they've been prescribed or prescribed a medicine that's not appropriate. There is no plan for ongoing health care or medication management. If they sign up for health insurance, there is a risk that they have committed to pay for something that they can't afford, or the enrollment may disrupt ongoing health care or make them ineligible for other benefits. UCHS combines lab services, medication, and health insurance enrollment in an unorthodox and disturbing way. These activities are suspicious, inconsistent with standards of medical practice, and potentially dangerous to the health and welfare of the person involved. UCHS has been prohibited from coming out to the property of grace. The health department director has been advised that he does not have standing to issue a cease and desist order, but he's filed a complaint with the attorney general of the Agency for Health Care Administration. I'm here today because UCHS is providing medical services to people in our jail where they continue the kinds of questionable activities that they offer in the community. According to a review by a UF College of Medicine faculty member, they are providing substandard care. For example, people who are being treated for hep C are being tested when they're not supposed to be tested, and then they show up negative because they're being treated, and then they stop the medication. Individuals then are encouraged to enroll in the health care plan when they leave. We are urging the Board of County Commissioners to end any involvement with UCHS. Could you repeat what Mr. Meyer has done? I heard you say it briefly. Okay. He wasn't able to come today. He's out of town. But he, I hate to imply, but I'm assuming that he consulted with the attorney for the health department. He was thinking about or wondering if he could issue a cease and desist order. And they said no, that he didn't have standing, I guess, because the health department isn't actually being hurt. Okay. But that he did file a complaint with the attorney general of the agency for health care administration. And he talked to Dr. Harrell, who's the, you know, one sort of the one that identified all this. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. Thank you, Diane. Next speaker, please. Hi, I'm Dr. I'm Dr. Kay Drew-Stouffer speaking today as part of the ACLC. I'm the current board co-chair, and I am a recently licensed health insurance agent in the state of Florida. So hearing about this, I was concerned for a couple of things. First off, health insurance agents are required to be acting in fiduciary capacities for their clients, which means you're getting the best for the client. This sounds to me, I'm very new to the situation, but it sounds to me on the face of it that they are absolutely, the people at UCHS are not doing that. And there are several ethics requirements with the state of Florida to be licensed. So one other option is perhaps to look into the licensing if it exists for these folks. Otherwise, I just echo what everyone else has said. It sounds like this is a really predatory practice, and I encourage the commission to do whatever they can to get it, especially out of the jail, but out of our community in general. Thank you, Dr. Stouffer. Thank you. Next speaker. Anyone else in the chamber before we go to the phone lines? We have one over here. Mark, come on up. Is there anyone else after Mark before we go to the phone lines? All right. Mark, welcome. Good afternoon. Hello. That was super fascinating, man. I have no idea. I wonder what the total number is, like, statewide. Like, how many people can you snag into this sort of thing? Good morning. Hi. Or good afternoon. I was going to talk about, like, awareness and then familiarity, and then there's, like, I don't know what the last one was called, embodiment or something like that, or personalization or adoption, I don't know. But so there's, like, awareness is where you know something exists, and then there's familiarity in which you kind of, like, know the components and how they interact. And the embodiment is what I'm calling it, but it could be something else. It's, like, where you begin to do it, and you begin to, like, actualize it. And so, for example, we talked about these Japanese kids. They'd learn how to, you know, clean their own classrooms, the hallways, et cetera, and then it becomes part of them. The last part is where they embody it. And so I have these tenants, for example, that, you know, they come out of who knows from where, but they don't even know how to use, like, a washing machine, like, for clothing. They don't know how to use it. Or a dryer. And so they've spent 12 years, you know, in school. They make it to college. Amazing. You know, UF is not that easy to get into. They don't know how to use a washing machine. So it's kind of fascinating how we have this entire trajectory, and kids, you know, come out, and they have to, like, I don't know, you know. And so anyway, so the kids that are in school that are 12 today are going to be 19 when the white thing goes away. And the whole thing after that is going to come down to food and shelter. And so there's going to be a day in which you go to, you're not there yet, but there's going to be a day in which you go to the school board and you say, screw algebra, teach the kids how to grow food. Now, it sounds dramatic right now, but there's going to be a day in which you go, oh, my God. And whether the schools have grounds, they can learn how to grow there, or we use retention ponds or whatever, but somehow they need to be, do they know? So kids, believe it or not, are very aware of climate, probably more so than their parents or their grandparents. Then there is, like, the familiarity with, like, which components do they need to know? Like, what are they? So, for example, we have a climate action plan, and you want to communicate that to them. There's various pathways. They have a whole social online media structure. You could, you know, he's so cute. You could use those pathways and make them familiar. But then also the embodiment, where they actually become, like, personally prepared for this, is, like, something that, you know, requires, I know, a plan. I know, a very tall mountain to climb, but it's doable. I know it involves a school board, and it's not a tricky thing, but there's enough land here to play around with. So, anyway. Okay. Thank you, Mark. And your little guy met the new director for animal services. You pass, Meredith. Yes, you pass. All right, Mark, anyone on the phone lines? Mr. Chair, nobody has their hand up, but in recent weeks we've gotten a couple of complaints from folks that they thought they were. All right, anyone listening, put your hand up, and we'll recognize you. You need to press star 9. Star 9. If you want to speak, we have two guests, three guests that I don't recognize. Okay, we have one whose hand just went up. Great. Good job, Mark. Caller ending in 0523. Please hit star 6, state your name, and you're in the room. My name is Dr. Laura Geyer, and I'm joining you to speak about the issue with a predatory organization that's operating here in Alachua County. Go ahead, Dr. Geyer. Thank you. So I'm here as a representative of the Alachua County Safety Net Collaborative to express deep concern about the predatory practices of an organization that's called Universal Comprehensive Health Services, LLC. I'm going to abbreviate it as UCHS, and they are also known as Your Health Status. UCHS is operating out of Green Acres, Florida. The company is listed in Coral Springs, Florida, and the nurse practitioner who's writing prescriptions remotely for illnesses like hepatitis C and HIV and their medications lives in Plantation, Florida, so you recognize they're operating out of South Florida. In Alachua County, UCHS approaches unhoused individuals on the street who offer gift cards and entice them to be tested for different chronic illnesses like, again, hepatitis, HIV, and other STIs. But they are endangering the health and well-being of our most vulnerable Alachua County residents using fraudulent, deceptive, and unscrupulous business practices. And I want to share just a couple of examples of what our residents who are patients and clients of safety net organizations, and these examples have come from the Mobile Outreach Clinic, from Dr. Grant Harrell, and from Swanee River AHEC. Here's what's happening. Patients at the Mobile Outreach Clinic who are being treated for HIV have had their medications changed by the nurse practitioner who is working remotely in Plantation. If the person tests positive for HCV, they start them or change their medications. They use coupons for treatment for 30 days and automatically start all patients on an antiviral called Discovy for an inappropriate indication, which would be prevention of hepatitis B, which isn't an actual thing that medical providers do. The source of that information is Dr. Grant Harrell. So what happens is UCHS doesn't develop a clear follow-up plan with our residents to become their patients. One MOC patient, Mobile Outreach Clinic patient, who reported that UCHS misrepresented themselves to them during the conversation as saying that they were from the health department. UCHS is also operating in the Alachua County Jail when they test patients who are on treatment for hepatitis C. Laura, could you just wrap up your comments? Yes. If they get a false negative, they stop treatment. So this is putting people's lives in jeopardy. Swanee River AHEC is reporting that people who should be getting health insurance from navigators under the Affordable Care Act are encouraged to sign up for health care plans that don't provide adequate services. So I'm going to urge you to seek appropriate legal action, and we're here to support you in any way that's needed. Thank you, Dr. Keier. Anyone else more? Mr. Chair, we have two other people in the room. You have just a moment to hit star nine if you want to speak. So I believe that was the last call, Mr. Chair. Okay. So we'll go ahead and close public comment, and we're going to have Commissioner responses. So Commissioner Pratt will be recognized, and then Commissioner Wheeler, and then Commissioner Balfour. So I have been in conversations with Dr. Grant Harrell and several of the service providers on this issue for some weeks. I had contacted the Sheriff's Office a few weeks ago about it, and I know that they were kind of looking into the issue. It was new to them as well. Given the information that we've been given today, the anecdotal information that we've been given today, I really am very concerned about this problematic and potentially unethical issues that are happening without, with the lack of coordinated care, lack of evidence-based practices, and interrupting safe and reliable sources of health care, both at our jail and in the community. And so I'd like to move that we have a conversation with the sheriff, since he's here today, about exercising their 30-day out option and to find a new health care provider for testing and treatment of HIV, Hep C, and any other services that they are currently providing at the jail, and to send a chair letter to the state attorney, the medical board, the Office of Insurance Regulation, ACA, the Department of Health, the Inspector General, and the Department of Health and Human Services regarding our concerns and the anecdotal evidence we have about this company's operations in Alachua County. Second. I got a motion and a second. I've got a question about that one. Okay, Commissioner Wheeler, you recognize? Thank you. The, this is new to me, you've known about this for a while, but I don't know if anybody else on the board was included in this. I've learned about it over the last week. I mean, they've been emailing us all week. Just a couple of days, yep, just the last few days, that's what I'm saying. But if you all have been working on this for a while, you know, why would we not have had our staff involved earlier? We did. We have, I've had a conversation with our attorney about it. We do not have standing, we don't regulate this type of work, right, and neither does the health department, unfortunately. Like, we don't, ACA regulates clinics, the Department of Insurance regulates insurance companies. They seem to be representing themselves as a lab, they seem to be representing themselves as a pharmacist, potentially. We don't know. I just know that there's conversations and anecdotal evidence that they have been potentially prescribing medicines, potentially filling prescriptions, potentially signing people up for insurance, all of those things. So we don't regulate them, so I was speaking with our staff about it, and there wasn't a lot we could do. I was speaking with the sheriff's office. They were looking into it. This company was purporting to save them a lot of money because I think they're billing this insurance company. They're signing people up for this medicine, medicines that may or may not be necessary or standard of care for treatment of these things. So I think we just need to get the people who do regulate these areas of health care to look into the practices and see what's going on. And in the meantime, cease our relationship with a potentially problematic company and look into the opportunity to work with existing. Our health department is able to provide these services and does for DOC, and I know that Dr. Grant Harrell and the Mobile Outreach Clinic has also offered to be able to provide at least parts of this service for hepatitis C and testing services at the jail free of charge for the next several months while we explore our options. I'm just, I know I'm coming off the board, but I've been out of this loop, and I'm surprised because I talked to Dr. Harrell last night myself and talked to Dr. Murmur. This is the first I've heard about it, though it's not, and so that's why I'm saying, are we out of it? If we're out of it, then why are we engaging with our staff without the whole board knowing? I can't talk to you. Yeah, but our staff can talk to us, and I had not been, you know, informed or had any kind of, when we were talking about this at all, so I feel, you know, like I'm not prepared, as prepared as you all are. I just heard about it yesterday. Well, thank you. Yeah. That makes me feel better. I literally just heard about it yesterday. I mean, there's e-mails that I was catching up on. E-mail, we've been getting e-mails since the last week. We just heard about it last week, too. And that's what I'm saying, this is a very new thing that's happening. It's been happening for a couple of weeks in our community, out in the community. It was only, we were only made aware that they were operating in our jail like a week ago. Thank you, because I misunderstood. This isn't, like, a long-range thing. This is something we all are just coming to realize. And I misunderstood what you said. I thought you all had been working on this twice some time. No, I just spoke with, I think I spoke with Under Sheriff Cruz about this a week ago or so, two weeks ago, is when we first started the conversation. Like, I started getting awareness of these, this company operating in our community. Would our staff and us not be in support of what the sheriff is trying to do in terms of... My motion is to ask the sheriff to... Because we are related. I don't understand. I guess I'm not understanding. Are you having, do you have an issue with my motion, or... No, no. I'm trying to, no, not at all. I just didn't know if we needed to include in your motion our involvement as a staff to further understand, but you say you've already talked to staff about it. Well, read the first part of your motion. The first part of my motion is to ask the sheriff to exercise their 30-day option to get out of a contract with UHCS and to look at other options with the health department and other providers in our community. And the second is to write a chair letter to the regulatory agencies and the state attorney and the attorney general and the inspector general about what the practices we, anecdotal data we have about the practices going on in our community so that they can actually do the investigation. I just didn't know if the chair was well enough informed. I haven't, you know, to write a letter like that without the support of staff. Well, I'm going to ask for the public to speak to the motion, specifically the sheriff, before I vote for it. But that's what I meant because we're in collaboration with the sheriff. Yeah, okay. And we need to be in unity with them in terms of whatever support they need. Yeah. And if it means that's all because this is new to me. And, of course, we've seen this scam before. We've seen it with roofing. We've seen it with van vapes, vaping vans that have come through here. So this is not unfamiliar to us. And I have no problem supporting the motion. I just want to make sure that everybody is informed. Right. When I heard, Commissioner Wheeler, from Diane, and I also heard from the manager that Paul Meyer was drafting a letter to ACA, I trust Paul Meyer, and if he's against it, then I am. I'm with Paul. Commissioner Alford? Thank you. I understand that, you know, the sheriff has saved a lot of money with this contract, which is part of why this was compelling to him. However, I also want to say that, you know, the sheriff's circle of his concern is different than ours. I mean, he is concerned about the jail, and we are concerned about the health and well-being of the wider community. And if the practices – what's up? I was like, he's also – I know. I know that. But, I mean, just in terms of, you know, what his jail personnel was looking at when they were looking at this, you know, I don't think they did anything on purpose to try to hurt our community at all. I don't think that was ever their intent. But I think that they were looking at potential money savings. And we are looking at something that if the viral load increases in our community for HIV, for hepatitis C, numbers that have been historically going down in our community will start to rise. And that will cost all of us, including the jail in Alachua County. So I have more to say, but I see the sheriff is at the podium, so I would love to hear what he has to say. Sheriff Scott, thank you for being here. I know you're here for a different reason, but thank you for being here. I'm ready. Thank you, commissioners, chair, attorney, city manager, county manager. I just would like to say this. Based on the information that we have received here today, I plan to work very closely with you guys to find the best solution for our jail and our community. Thank you. That's all we need to hear. Thank you, Sheriff. Yeah, and just to continue briefly, the Ryan White Program was mentioned a couple of times. And for people that don't understand what that is, the Ryan White Program is a federal program that provides funding for the treatment of HIV AIDS. This is a disease that, if anybody that is my age remembers the 80s, was horrific. And we have watched our numbers drop in our community. I asked the health department for these numbers yesterday, and our numbers are continuing to look better and better. This could change that if this isn't addressed, not just in the jail, but with this van out in our community. So I encourage you all to remember the name of this company. And if you see this van in our community, let folks know. Or, heck, I don't care. Go harass them yourself. Anyway. Or take a picture. Anyway. I just, I don't, I don't, I'm just really disturbed by this. But back to the Ryan White Program. The part that really, really is concerning to me is when people are taken off an HIV medication, it's very much like the hepatitis C. They can't, they have, if they go back on, they have to go on a different, more expensive medication. They can't go back on the medication they were on. It doesn't work the same way. And if you get insurance, Ryan White Program is for people that are vulnerable like our homeless populations or like folks that are, you know, financial, not able to work or financially stressed. And if they get insurance, then they are no longer eligible for that government program, that program that is helping our community. And so this is really, really important that folks hear this. And I'm hoping if you are in contact with any vulnerable population, please warn them to not, to be very careful about who they engage with, with respect to insurance. I think it's really, really important that people do not lose the benefits that they have that are literally saving their lives and are helping make our community healthier. So I just wanted to say that, and I also wanted to say that Part B is the Brian White Program that helps individuals with HIV AIDS. The Part D of that program is the part that affects women, babies, children, and youth. And these are also people being affected by this program, and those numbers are going to rise. When one side rises, the other side rises. And we have to be very, very careful. So I just – sorry. I went off. So you support the motion. I absolutely support the motion. So I just felt like people needed some of that background information. Okay. So we have a motion. Commissioner President, do you have another comment before we go to public comment on the motion? I just wanted to say that there has been other examples of this kind of activity in our state and other lawsuits in South Florida and other places with regards to these kinds of seeming kinds of practices. I mean, we don't have all the data and information, and we haven't done a full investigation. So I appreciate the sheriff being willing to work with us to get the information that we need and to make sure that we have quality health care. I think the manager has spoken with the health department, and there are some opportunities there. So I hope we can just dive in and start exploring that, and in the meantime, get those who do investigations from the regulatory perspective and the criminal perspective to take a look at this and make sure that we're protecting the most vulnerable in our community. Okay. Commissioner Wheeler, then I'll make some comments. And then if they are – if this organization is here or if anyone wants to speak to the motion, you'll have an opportunity after I speak. Commissioner Wheeler? I think that was my question, if there was anybody here from this organization, and if we'd really done any kind of in-depth investigation as to who these people are. I know that Dr. Harreld has done some. He has tracked them down to find out who they are and where they're located in our community, but I didn't know that any of us had. And if this is a conversation that's been going on for a while, you know, then we should know exactly who it is we're dealing with. Right. And I don't know who would be doing that investigation if not us. Right. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chief. Okay. Thank you, Commissioner. So I'll just give my comments. I've learned recently about this. I have a deep trust of the folks that spoke before us, Carla, Melanie, Mr. Bonner, Abigail, Mark, Abigail, Lee, Dr. Murmur, Diane. I have a deep trust for Paul Meyer. I have a deep trust for our sheriff. And the reality is we are responsible for public health along with the health department. But more importantly, we are also responsible for the public's trust. And whether what is happening is true or not, I have heard that this organization has lost the public's trust, which is why I support the motion to end the contract. They want to regain that trust. They have a lot of work to do in our community. And without public trust, nothing else matters, as far as I'm concerned, commissioners. If we lose that or if our sheriff loses that or if our health department loses that, then we have to kind of start over. So if they are here and they'd like to speak to their practices, they are welcome to. Try to change my mind. I'm ready to support the motion. And then we'll bring it back and get back to our agenda. Do you mind if we get, I would like to hear what our attorney thinks about anything to do with the motion before we ask for public comment? No, I don't mind. Madam Attorney, any problem with the motion? No, Mr. Chair. I think, speaking to Commissioner Wheeler's concern, the questions that were asked of me and my office were related to whether Alachua County had any real role in this. And Alachua County does not have a contract with this provider. And Alachua County does not regulate this provider. So the question was, what can we do? And that's what this motion is. We can draw this to the attention of those who may have the authority to regulate. Thank you. All right, let's go ahead and open it up. Is there anyone from the public in which to speak to the motion? You're kind of getting a second bite here, but that's okay if you haven't spoken yet. But go ahead, Diane. Be brief for us if you could. It's really quick. Yeah, go ahead. I'm Diane D'Imperio with the Health Justice Committee of the Alachua County Labor Coalition. And I just want to say how proud I am to live in a community where the real people who live in the real world are listened to and have the power of their belief and their experience. So that we've got people who are dealing with people on the street who like are telling us what's happening and we're believing it and we're translating it into policy. So I just want to say thank you for bringing everybody's awareness and thank you for listening. Thank you, Diane. Okay, thank you. That's very nice. Very kind. Good afternoon, Chair and Commissioner. My name is Joseph Succo. I represent Universal Companies of Health Care Services. Oh. First of all, let me say this. I was deeply saddened to hear some of the allegations that were brought forth and we take that extremely serious and we would definitely consider having a conversation with these individual cases because some of these allegations that were brought forth are certainly not who we are and what we do and the community as well as the correctional facilities that we're in. We pride ourselves to making sure that we have adequate CDC, WHO, and HIV.org policies and procedures in place so that we can continue care for patients that are inside the facilities, correctional or not, methadone clinic and so on and so forth, in the community as a whole. We do have follow-up appointments for our patients in the community. Regardless of where we stand right now, I have to mention this. I've sat there and heard Alachua County as a whole to make a statement that we care so much about homeless and it's commendable. It's who we are. It's what we stand for. And we do not want to cause more hurdle. And for these entities that have concerns and brought forth to our attention, that to this day, this conversation that transpired within the board was just brought to our attention last week. We were not even last week, this week, for that matter. We were not even made aware of any of these allegations. And we would love to sit down and discuss this with every board member, every patient. Chairman, you brought it yourself. You said that if our community lose trust in us as providers, absolutely. We definitely want to sit down and make sure that our patients know that they are number one in our life. We're patient-focused. We thrive to make sure that our patients feel and know that our practices are based on CDC, WHO, and FDOG, DOH policies and procedures. And regulation, that matters. So we are open to having constructive meetings so we can make sure that everybody involved in this come together so we can come up with a resolution. We're not a health care insurance company. We're a health care provider. We have absolutely no parameter on to what health insurance company the patients are enrolled through ACA. Our position is to provide resources to the patients that are most vulnerable in our community to make sure that they have those resources and they can get the better care they need, whether it be to the four walls of Alachua County, the city of Gainesville, and beyond. We trust the committee. We trust the city of Gainesville and Alachua as a greater community. Again, I can't emphasize enough how important it is that we sit down and have a constructive meeting so we can find common ground and build bridges to make sure that our patients get the best level of care. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hi, everyone. I'm Kimber Tuff. I'm a social worker working with homeless people. I also work with prisoners across Florida. I think that it's important to highlight that there's a reason this company works with those two populations. They're both incredibly vulnerable, and I'm unsurprised to hear that the sheriff's office is motivated by cost savings instead of quality care. Homeless people in our town are very incredibly vulnerable across the state, but I think it's important that this room expands that to include people that are incarcerated. The populations overlap greatly all the time, and this conversation would be great to include the harms that WellPath provide nationally, and we've brought that to the board before. They spend millions of dollars on malpractice lawsuits every year across the country. Why are we working with them? Why is our jail providing privatized health care at all? We should be, especially if there's all these UF providers here, that should be a public service that expands to work inside of our jail as well. And just to also say that children are also in our jail too. Thank you, Kimber. Anyone else to the motion? Okay, we'll close. I'll come back to the board for discussion. Commissioner Prizia. Yes, it's United Health Care. Oh, dear. Thanks. Are you signing people up for insurance? You do not sign anyone up for insurance. You can come up to the mic. You can come up to the mic, please. Our position. Thank you for the question. Are you promoting insurance policies? We link our patient as a referral for additional services. One of those services. Do you do paperwork for insurance policy provision? Yes, we do. Do you recommend policies to your patients? No. But you're doing referrals. Do you get benefits for those referrals? No, ma'am. We do not. You don't get any financial benefit for those referrals? Absolutely not. Are you prescribing medicine to these clients? As a provider, yes, we do. Are you filling those prescriptions? Yes, we do. Are you a pharmacy? Licensed pharmacy? No. Are you a licensed insurance broker? No, ma'am. Are you a licensed clinic? Yes, ma'am. You are? You're licensed by ACA as a clinic? No, not by ACA. We're a private entity that comes into the county. So you're not licensed? We're not accredited by ACA, but we are a medical provider. Okay, thank you. Who does regulate you? At this point, as a private entity, the only person that will come up and take place is for the Department of Health. No, the Department of Health does not regulate you. Okay, thank you very much. Of course. Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Alpert? I just want to say, while I appreciate the UCHS showed up, I feel like if their real concern was our community, they would have introduced themselves as a partner in health care provision services rather than doing it the way that they've done it. Because if you are a health care provider in this community, you are part of a consortium of care that provides care from a lot of different directions. And you don't just come in and unilaterally begin upsetting the balance that we've worked on in our community to try to solve problems. And I feel very strongly about that. Okay, thank you. And Mr. Sakara, I'll just make one comment. Our meetings are recorded, so you'll have an opportunity to go back and watch and learn from the folks that spoke at the meeting. From my perspective, if you are genuine and sincere about your desire, you will have a conversation. I just circled, like, my top five. Carla Gainley, she spoke first. You'll have a conversation with her. Mark Bonner, head of grace, you'll have a conversation with him. Abigail, who is on the front lines, you'll have a conversation with her. Dr. Grant Harrell and our health director, Paul Meyer. Until they tell me that they trust this organization, I have no desire to continue the contract. And our sheriff, you heard from him directly. So we're about to hear from him in the next presentation, and I think we're ready to make a vote. All those in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, that motion is unanimous. Thank you all for that. It was an unagended item. I'm going to do a little bit of agenda review, agenda modification. I see a lot of folks here from Westside, and I want to thank you all for being here. And I see the sheriff has the presentation next, so if it's okay, we're going to do the sheriff next. Then we're going to move Westside up to follow that. So depending on how long the sheriff has, we'll get the pastor and Westside out of here as quick as possible. I don't think it's a long agenda item, but the sheriff's been waiting as well. And so let's go ahead and do, Madam Clerk, that's the next item. And I'm sorry, real quick to interrupt. I need to return to the canvassing board. Oh, and we're losing commissioner. All right. I apologize. That's okay. Thank you for... We still have a quorum, so that's good. All right. Thank you all for being here. All right. Madam Clerk, next item. I'm going to text her and see if I can say a little more. Okay. We'll just... If you have to leave, you have to leave. Candidacy board's kind of important. We have an election going on right now, in case you ever noticed. I voted. Yep. Go ahead. Okay. Next item is to bring us to presentations, Department of the Jail quarterly update. All right. And the recommended action is to hear the presentation regarding the Department of the Jail quarterly update. And then that item will be followed by our quasi-judicial Westside Christian school. Is that okay, commissioners? Yes. Okay. All right. Sheriff, you are recognized again. Thank you for being here. Always a pleasure to see you at our meetings. Once again, I'm honored to be here. Honored to be your sheriff. At this time, I want to call up Under-Sheriff Cruz to start this presentation. Okay. Thank you. Under-Sheriff Cruz, welcome. You are recognized. Good afternoon, Board of County Commissioners, General Counsel, County Manager, Chair. Thank you for your time. Uh, it's my privilege to introduce the newest addition to the Alachua County Sheriff's Office leadership team. But before doing so, I'd like to give you just a little bit of background. As you're aware, our jail currently houses more than 950 inmates, and it has approximately 450 employees. So, our total human count managed within the jail conservatively hits about 1,400 daily. In the spring of this year, our former deputy director announced his retirement. The sheriff, being sensitive to this board's concerns about the jail and motivated to make strides by way of reducing recidivism and improving services within our jail, recognized that we had a huge amount of responsibility falling on one director. Doing some research and looking to the Florida Sheriff's Association for guidance, he discovered that many jails utilize a two-director approach in circumstances where the numbers make sense. After much thought, conversations, and evaluation, the sheriff decided to divide the jail responsibilities into two distinct divisions, mirroring that of our law enforcement leadership. The sheriff utilized that vacated deputy director full-time employee position, recycling that position, and creating a second director position. With that, we divided the jail in two, and we now have two directors. One you're familiar with, Major Dorian Keith, who is responsible for security operations, and then our newest director, Major Laura Vera, who is responsible for support services. As the major over-support services, Major Rivera is responsible for the Booking Support Bureau and Transportation and Facilities Support Bureau, as well as our contract manager. Major Rivera, she joined us in July of 26. Major Rivera is an accomplished corrections executive with over 23 years of dedicated leadership experience right here in the state of Florida. She began her distinguished public service career in 2002 with the Orange County Correctional Department. She moved through the ranks, building extensive management and leadership tenure, both with the Orange County Department as well as the Osceola County Corrections Department. Both, if you know, are quite a bit bigger than us. She is a Florida model jail inspector who has served over a decade ensuring facility, safety, compliance, and operational integrity. She is a statewide assessor for the Florida Corrections Accreditation Commission. She additionally holds certifications and credentials from the National Jail Leadership Command Academy, the Certified Public Manager Program, and the Certified Corrections Manager Program. Her education also includes a Master's of Science with criminal justice leadership and management from Sam Houston State University, and she is also a graduate of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Leadership Academy. During a nationwide search, the sheriff chose Major Rivera specifically so that we could improve and enhance areas directly in her chain of command, such as inmate programming, inmate services, and management of our medical and food service contracts. Additionally, Major Rivera brings firsthand experience with jail technology, such as tablet integration and body-worn cameras, both of which we are trying to bring into our jail as we speak. This is something that our current staff had no experience with, so it was kind of a huge addition. Major Rivera brings a deeply collaborative, standard-driven approach to correctional management. Please join me in giving her a warm welcome as the newest leadership member for the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, Major Rivera. So, Major, just so you notice, see, we get the clap for you. So that's great. Welcome aboard, and it's great to see you again. Thank you. Pull that. There you go. Good afternoon, Chair and Board. Today, I will provide an overview of the Department of the Jail, focusing on our operations, performance, and priorities moving forward. Our responsibility extends beyond the housing, individuals, and custody. We must maintain safety and security and provide appropriate care, managing resources responsibly, and preparing individuals for their return into the community. I want to highlight our operational demands, areas of progress, ongoing challenges, and the work underway to strengthen the department. See if I can work this right. Our mission guides the work that we do every day. Maintaining a safe and secure and humane environment requires coordination across every area of the department. Staffing remains an important priority. While we continue working to fill vacancies and move candidates through the hiring process, we must also retain qualified employees and ensure that daily operations remain effective. Our population is diverse, with varying needs and lengths of stay. These differences affect how we approach classification, housing assignments, and service delivery, and release planning. Understanding the composition of our population helps us make informed operational decisions and anticipate the resources needed to manage the facility effectively. Right now, we are operating very close to our rated capacity, and our population periodically exceeds it. We utilize temporary beds when needed, but we recognize that this is not an ideal long-term solution. Managing these fluctuations requires careful coordination of housing, staffing, and essential services. At the same time, our transportation, booking, and release responsibilities continue throughout the day, adding to the demands on our personnel. From a financial standpoint, our current cost per inmate is $152.80 per day. This reflects the significant resources required to operate the facility and reinforces the importance of managing capacity, staffing, and services responsibly. Safety and security remain central to our daily operations, and during this reporting period, we experienced one suicide. Following this incident, we conducted an internal review and discussed factors and opportunities to strengthen prevention and intervention in coordination with our health care and mental health partners. Our incident data also highlights areas requiring continued attention, including use of force, assaults, and self-harm. We will continue monitoring trends, identifying individuals who may need additional support, and reinforcing practices that promote the safety of both our staff and the individuals in our custody. Health care is a substantial part of our daily workload. Our team coordinates ongoing medical treatment, medication management, outside care, and mental health services while balancing the demands of jail operations. We will continue focusing on timely access to care, appropriate follow-up, and effective coordination with our health care partners. Moving on to our programs, we offer a range of educational and behavioral programs designed to support personnel development and rehabilitation. However, there is a difference between individuals who qualify for programs and those who are actually enrolled. We need to continue examining access, participation, and completion to better understand our impact and identify opportunities to improve engagement. The change program helps individuals identify needs and connect with resources before returning to the community. Reentry planning must address practical barriers, including housing, employment, identification, transportation, and substance use treatment. Our focus is on making these connections before release whenever possible, so individuals have a clearer path forward accessing support in the community. The inmate resource fair gives individuals approach and release an opportunity to connect directly with community service providers. This morning, the fair included additional community partners, expanding the range of resources available. These direct connections can help individuals understand their options and begin planning for their return to the community before they actually leave the facility. We continue to develop initiatives that respond to practical needs within our population. Our wellness fair brought community organizations together to share mental health and recovery resources. We have also expanded literacy support through friends of the library, and we are continuing to pursue opportunities to help individuals. These efforts complement our existing programs by addressing the needs that can otherwise become barriers to accessing services and rebuilding stability after incarceration. Our community partners help extend the resources available to the individuals beyond what the jail can provide on its own. Through collaboration across education, behavioral health, employment, housing, and other services, we can better connect individuals with the support during incarceration and after release. We appreciate the organizations that contribute their time and resources to these efforts. And as we move into the next quarter, our priorities are to manage population and capacity pressures, strengthen recruitment and retention, and continue addressing security risks. We will also focus on improving how we measure program participation and reentry outcomes, strengthen connections to the community, and advancing technology initiatives that support more efficient operations. It is our goal to maintain a safe, accountable, and effective department while continuing to improve our operations and services. I appreciate the dedication of our staff, the support of our community partners, and the opportunity to share this update with you. Thank you. Thank you, Major Vera. Okay, we've got a couple of questions. Commissioner Wheeler, and then Commissioner Alpert, and then Commissioner Prezio. Welcome, Major. I'm just glad to see you here. I, you know, and Sheriff, thank you so much for letting us meet these folks that you all were interviewing in the spring. I wondered who actually got the job. I didn't follow through to find out who did, but I'm glad to see it's you. Thank you. On the side, I'm going to ask you what you do for fun, too, because it sounds like you've been really busy building a career. Yes, ma'am. And we're glad to have you here. I just wanted to ask you, I know in the past we talked about the possibility of work programs. We did have work programs before for the jail, but now we're trying to have another discussion about using work crews where we can actually pay and have, you know, income that would help people when they leave and that sort of thing. So, you know, that might be a discussion that this board will probably continue to have with you after I am no longer on the board. But I know that's something we've talked about. And another thing that I have talked about because I've been involved with the animal shelter is, you know, the program Dogs on Parole or whatever. Paws on Parole. Paws on Parole. Thank you. One of those things. I knew it was something like that. But in any case, you know, we do need, you know, we need help at the shelter and we, you know, in terms of getting some of our animals out and about. And I know that we have folks that are working with you all over there who would enjoy having access to an animal, too. So, you know, that's something to continue to look at down the road. Yes, ma'am. We are actively working on some sort of agreement with animal services. You know, and I had an interesting observation. I have a son who's teaching in middle school right now. And the experience that we've had in the public schools, the slide that you had that showed the number of incidences that were occurring in the jail, it would be really interesting to see how they compare to what's happening in the public schools, too. Because I know we've had behavioral incidences and things that we're considering in terms of trying to address behaviors in the public schools. And it looked like, to me, some of the numbers that you had listed there might, it would be an interesting thing to see how they correlate, you know, in our public schools. I'd be open to have that conversation. Yeah, I just, from what I was seeing in terms of assaults and fights and that sort of thing, my son came home with a black eye one day, trying to break up a fight between two little sixth-grade girls, you know. So these are the kinds of incidents that would be really interesting to compare and contrast. Yes, ma'am. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner, I know Commissioner Alford has to get the canvassing board, so I'd jump there if that's okay. No, I'm just kidding. Go ahead, Commissioner Alford. Okay. Welcome, Major Rivera. I went to a yoga class at the jail a few weeks ago, and Major Rivera stepped in at the end of that yoga class, and we had a good, long conversation. I really appreciated your forthrightness and the conversation that we had, so thank you for that. And the yoga class was really good. I'm glad you enjoyed it. The inmates, the women inmates that were in that class really, really appreciated that class. So I have a few questions. One number that I've been interested in that wasn't on the presentation was what percent of the population are unhoused or at risk of being unhoused. I see that the average stay is about 61 days, which is two months rent, two house payments, which, you know, often puts people at risk of losing housing. And so that coordination is of importance to us, particularly today as we're talking about housing. And I think it used to be around half, but I think in recent, the last year or so, that number has gone up. And I don't want to give you misinformation, so if you'd give me an opportunity, I will research that and get that back to you. I appreciate that very, very much. I also had a question about the initial mental health evaluations. I saw that, I can't remember the number, it was around 700 or something. And yet, during that same time period, we had a few thousand people come through the jail. I understand some of them only stay a very short time. What is the criteria for receiving a mental health evaluation? And I'm concerned about that because we did have, you know, five events of self-harm or suicide attempts, and we did have one successful suicide in the jail. So I want to make sure that we, you know, have the resources that we need to do, the evaluations that we need to do to manage that. If you don't mind, I'd like to have our... Uh-oh. Never mind that. Our health care administrator was here, so I was going to have her speak to that. Oh, okay. But many of those are through referrals. So an inmate can request to see a mental health provider if they feel it, or if when they're meeting with the doctor, something is said during intake with the doctor, they can be referred for mental health services. Okay. So that's, so would staff ever recommend mental health evaluations? Yes, they may come in with the Baker Act, and that will be another time that they are being seen for mental health services. And we work closely with Meridian, which is one of the providers. Right, and we got a real good report from Meridian at the CGM-SAG meeting last week, so I appreciated that. How, on the resource fairs and the wellness fairs, how are inmates, how many inmates are allowed to attend those? How do you, how many folks can go through that process? We just had one today, so I will let our program coordinator speak on that. Okay, great. It's always good to see the other folks from the jail, too. So repeat that question for me one more time so I can respond to my process. So you've had a wellness fair and a, what was the other, the resources fair? And an employment expert. Yeah. How, how, how, how many inmates are allowed to attend those? So depending on the response that I receive, so I have the inmates sign up through the jail library. I also send out a blast to our caseworkers, and then, of course, I'll go around and get some signups as well. So, for example, I had about four pages this quarter for our resource fair, so I will try to get between 15 inmates per group. So this morning, it was about four hours, so I had four groups, two males, two females. And so out of that 15, we are hoping all 15 show up for per group, and so that's the amount that we try to get. Wow. Okay. That's, that's, that's not as many as I thought. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Oh. Yes. There is a criteria. Yeah, I understand that there is a criteria. I do seek out our sentenced inmates first, and then I will follow up with those who are not sentenced to attend the fair. Gotcha. I understand. Okay. All right. Thank you. The next question I had is, so one of your goals that talked about was, let's see, what monitor population trends, capacity utilization, operational workload. How, how, what, what, if any, control does the jail have over its population? We don't really have control over the population. And I, I just wanted that to be said for the public, because your numbers are so huge. Yes. We are at, you know, whatever comes in, we're just going to monitor what we have and try to classify them, categorize them, and try to see if we can observe any trends. All right. And finally, can we, two more things, can we get an update on the tablets? That, I assume, is what you're referring to with advanced technology initiatives? Yes. We are currently working on introducing the tablets, and once I have all the specifics on what that will include, I will be happy to share with the board. All right. And then the last thing, you weren't here then, so not on you, but I would love to get an update, and this probably won't need to happen here, but I would love to get an update on that last inmate death. We were supposed to get some sort of feedback about that, and I haven't heard anything yet, so. And you might not be done with the investigation, but I'd hear about that. Okay. Thank you so much for being here, and thank you for the presentation. Thank you, Commissioner. And I'm going to have a motion at the end of this. Okay. Hang around then. Okay. Commissioner Prudio. Okay. Forgot to do that a lot. Hello. Welcome, Major Rivera. I've appreciated getting to know you a little bit. Hopefully, we'll get to work together a lot more in the future. If we can go to the slide that has the population, let's see, it's a safety and security quarterly slide, and then the medical and mental health, we're just after that. Essentially, I just want to, I guess, when I'm looking at these numbers for the medical services, the mental health services, and the safety and security, one more. No, keep going. Go back, I mean. One more. Perfect. There we go. That one, and then the one after it, I guess, what I see there is a real opportunity, maybe, or maybe it's something that you're already doing, is an opportunity for us to do more, like, potential case management for high-risk and high recidivism or complex cases. I'm just wondering, do we have a case management committee with, like, victim services, community support services, service providers, like, released in your changes program? Do we have a case management committee with, like, the folks that are coming in and out a lot or the folks that have complex medical issues or the folks that are, have harmed themselves or are at threat of harming themselves to kind of sit down together and discuss the case and to think about the ways in which we might intervene to help those people, you know, kind of shift out of the same in and out of the jail or in and out of self-harm or in and out of complex medical situations? Is that something that we're currently doing or something that we could start? Sure. So we do have a review that we do, and I have received some feedback from members in our community offering suggestions, so we are exploring some opportunities there. Okay. Awesome. Well, I love the idea of being able to plug in with our victim services, our community support services folks, stand ready to support. We have, you know, a housing program that supports a lot of unhoused individuals who end up in your jail regularly, being able to have them on a team along with people like Release Reentry who we're contracting with to provide you all with input and feedback about their experiences with those people, I think, would be a huge help to us in the NU and the goal that you have of helping people with successful reentry and not seeing them again and again. So especially when it comes to mental health, suicide, and the reentry process. A second is on your programming side, it talks about how many inmates have participated. Are those unique inmates or are those sometimes the same inmates? Sometimes it could be the same inmate. Okay. And that's in a whole quarter? That's in the quarter. Okay. That's a really low number, like an extremely low number. We have over 900 people in our jail. To only have 100, less than 200 of them, participating in programming is a little concerning. Hopefully they understand. Is that eligibility criteria issues? No. Or is that interest? We have an eligible population, which is the 424. However, those programs are voluntary. So if they don't want to participate, unfortunately, we can't make them. How are they told about the programs? We have our program staff going around. We have flyers up. We are trying to engage them. Any incentives? Incentives? Do they get gain time for successful programs? They get gain time for some programs. Some of them, they get certificates for completion. So there are some incentives, but it is completely voluntary. I mean, even 424 in a whole quarter eligible out of the, I mean, at 975 with over 1,900 you've processed. I mean, 424 is a really low number. Or what, can you send me, not today, because I don't want to belabor this, but can you send me the eligibility criteria? Like, what is it that people have to do to qualify to be part of a program? I will send that to you, ma'am. Okay, that would be awesome. I mean, hopefully they're not there long enough to participate in the program because we're getting them back out. There's some of that. Yeah. That would be great. That's the goal. That would be great. It would be great if, yeah, many of them had low enough bails that they could afford them, and then they could come and just get their sentence taken care of instead of sitting in our jail. But, you know, right now that's not the case. You mentioned the tablets. I'm really excited. I know you all have been working a little bit on the pilot with Emilio. It's exciting to think about the possibility of that expanding, having a nonprofit company that really cares about the way in which they're implementing programming through tablets at the jail, and that offers, you know, the opportunity for us to stop having conversations about for-profit incentives for communications companies to make money on the way in which people are learning or communicating is really great. So I'm excited to learn more about the tablets program and how things are going with Emilio. And I know that Internet has been a real issue for you, so I just want to let you all know. I've mentioned it in a couple of our meetings. I mentioned it during our capital improvement conversation to let our staff know and our facilities director know that we need to stand ready to do Internet improvements at the jail so that we can help support the implementation of the tablets more broadly. But I'm excited about learning more about how the Emilio pilot's gone and where we stand to go with tablets in the future. You mentioned gain time. I did, and you said they do get gain time for successful participation in programming. Programming, yes, ma'am. Okay. That was one question. And my other question is, do we currently have an advisory committee for the jail? Do you all have an advisory committee that provides you with engagement or input from families of incarcerated individuals or impacted individuals? Not necessarily a committee, but, you know, the community does write us. That was one question. Great. But we are in contact with the community. They're ready to contact us, and we respond to their concerns, comments. Okay. So there's, like, a process that they do to submit input, or they just contact you? Yeah. Okay. They can call. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you as well. Is that it? Yep. Okay. So, Major Bear, welcome. Welcome to Alachua County. And just a little bit about me. I've been campaigning because I've got an election coming up in a week, and so I've been talking to the community a lot. And for those of you that have seen me out there, you know that my personal opinion, Amendment 3 is a scam, and I don't think it's going to pass. I hope it doesn't pass. It might pass. We'll see. I don't know. But it's going to affect our future conversations after this week based on whatever happens in a week. That being said, I am really excited to know that coming from Orange County and Osceola County, that you have a plethora of best practices that you intend to implement into our community. And I hope you will really engage with our community who is really vested just so you can hear from some of the questions and some of the issues that are at least local to us and whatever you can bring to help us. You know, we've got many, many programs up there. You know, I've always looked at programs as I really don't want so many programs where, like, they're doing a six-month. I want them back out and doing the programs outside of the jail. That's where I ultimately am because I think, you know, under the state kind of guidelines, county jails shouldn't have people for more than a year. If they're more than a year, they should be at DOJ. And so, you know, county jails are kind of meant for short-term things that we can hopefully have folks not repeat, and then we put them back into the community. They put themselves back into the community. The community brings them back into the community. And many of the programs that Alachua County has, and much of the time, effort, and capital that we spend is to try to reduce that recidivism. We've got a pilot program right now that I think is working really, really great. There's obviously lots of improvement, but that's where we are spending kind of our time and capital. And so I look at this triangle of community, sheriff, the judges as really critical. You know, we've spent a lot of capital in the central receiving facility, in the brand-new criminal courthouse, in what we're building now, the brand-new civil courthouse. So we need our judges and our sheriff and our community working together to make sure that if folks need to be put in jail, great, but if they made a mistake, we need to get them out, and hopefully they don't come back. And that brings the numbers down. The big discussion that we've had for the last decade is the facility. It's awful, terrible. It's difficult for us to tell you to do a good job in a facility that's aging. But to replace it is a half a billion dollars, and we also don't have that. And I kind of end this conversation with how I started it, with Amendment 3. And so we're working with you all to figure out how can we create a facility that services the needs of this community. And I hope that the community, the judges, and the sheriff can all kind of work on that together so that we are not filling it up, and we are also getting folks that want help, the help that they need. So from my perspective, on the last slide that you have, strengthening, recruiting, retention, and staffing, that was a huge issue when our sheriff was elected, and he's been making great inroads there, improving measurable connections to housing, employment, identification, and treatment. Commissioner Alpert kind of honed in on that. So I'm really glad you're here. I'm really glad the sheriff created kind of this dual position. We are a community that works well collaboratively. So to Commissioner Wheeler's point, you know, your safety and security slide, those stats are what, she's a schoolteacher, former schoolteacher. So, you know, we see the challenges in the school board, you know, we think they are, there is some connection there. So it's probably a lot. You probably have heard most of it already, but thanks for being here, and thanks for working with us to improve the conditions. I appreciate it. Thank you all. You have a wonderful afternoon. All right. Mr. President and Sheriff, did you want to add anything? Yes. Just real quick, I just want to make sure that you guys also understand that we appreciate working with you as well. As you know, we've really been working really hard with the question of the population and the recidivism, reducing recidivism. We have created conversations with the judges talking about it. We've created conversations with our deputies to help with this issue. So like you said, it is a collaborative effort to bring this together. So I just want to say thank you guys as well. Thank you. And can we thank you for Katie? I know she sometimes gets in the thick of it, but she has done a really good job of, I think, helping create this good relationship between us. So thank you for that. Thank you for creating that position. Okay. Commissioner Prizia and then Commissioner Alford. I guess I just wanted to echo what you were saying about the population and the fact that, you know, if we can work together with our public safety officials, our court systems, our community support services, and our external advocates and service providers, I think we can reduce the jail population. And when we reduce the jail population, it gives us the opportunity to help renovate and potentially identify the places where we could put new resources into the support systems that are needed. So rather, you know, much of our jail is being filled up with people that have mental health and substance abuse crises. Jail is not the place for those people. Those people belong in mental health facilities where they can get the support that they need, in substance abuse programs where they can get the support that they need, and in, you know, support programs for workforce development and training so that they can get jobs so they can support their families, not locked up. And so if we can identify how we reduce the population in our jail, then we can start putting those resources into the programs that are really needed in our community. So thank you for continuing to do that work. I know you're having those conversations, and we appreciate the push. I hope the Public Safety Coordinating Committee can keep supporting that work in whatever ways we can be helpful. And I just wanted to put that out there because I think at the end of the day, yes, our facility is old, but we can't renovate it when we've got it full of people. We need room to be able to make those renovations happen. All right. Okay. Commissioner Alford, what you got? Okay. Yeah. So today has really brought to my mind a need for something in our community, and Commissioner Prizzi alluded to it. Whether it's being an interface, I think, also with judges talking about populations, whether it's dealing with a health care issue in the jail or food in the jail or programming or housing, there is an opportunity, I believe, for us to look at having an inmate welfare advisory board, where we would include impacted individuals, formerly impacted or impacted families, people that are potentially offering programming in the jail, service providers in the jail. I know that there is a board that is required by law that is in the jail itself, but I believe that, you know, I've received about 15 letters this year from inmates or inmates' families about issues at the jail. It would be wonderful to have an advisory board to be able to refer some of those issues to them. And since the, you know, and work some of that out, I don't know how the sheriff feels about that. I would be interested in finding out, but I think that that is something that would be useful to us to get that feedback about and to, you know, possibly solve problems that we aren't necessarily able to solve ourselves. So oftentimes when we, if I could, when we create an advisory board, we kind of refer it to our staff to bang around and bring us back recommendations. In this case, I think you should refer something like that to the sheriff to work with our staff to bring back a recommendation. He just brought on someone that's got some best practices in some big, big areas. Maybe they've done something like that. Maybe she's got some different ideas. Would you be opposed? I'm not at all. That's why I asked to find out what the sheriff thought about that, because I feel like this is an opportunity to do that. And if the sheriff's okay with it, it would, you know, I think it would help us. I don't know if it would help you, but. Well, it doesn't matter. I mean, anything that you guys want to do, that's fine. If you want to have a discussion about it, I'd be willing to have a discussion about that. Okay. And to see how it fits. Okay. All right. Well, then I'll take that and bring something back. Yeah. Yeah. Let us take that back and just have a discussion about it. And I'd be willing to have a discussion with you. Okay. All right. I appreciate that. Thank you, sheriffs. Okay. Thanks. Okay. All right. I don't think we need a motion. I think that's fine. We've got a referral. That's okay. All right. Okay. All right. Anything else on this one, Madam Manager? No. All right. I think then we will conclude this item and get to the church. Madam Clerk, next item. Okay. Get the church on time. And I just got notified by Kim Barton that my services aren't needed anymore at the campus board for today. All right. So hang out. I'm good. I'm there. Okay. All right. So we've got a quasi-judicial item. And why don't we have the attorney start? And then we'll have the clerk do some swearing. And that's very. Mr. Chair, anyone wishing to testify or present evidence during this hearing will be sworn in prior to speaking. Through the chair, all speakers may ask questions, seek clarification, and respond to comments or presentations of staff or other speakers. Anyone presenting 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. Florida law requires that the county commission's decision in a quasi-judicial action be supported by competent, substantial evidence presented during this hearing. Competent, substantial evidence means that the board's decision is based on enough credible evidence that a reasonable person could agree. Persons presenting opinion or factual testimony may rely on any factual information in the record to support their testimony. Opinion testimony may be given by people qualified to give such an opinion. I do not believe we have any party requests, Mr. Chair, but, of course, they can ask today. All right. Any new party requests? Okay. None. All right. You want to do? Ex parte? Yeah, ex parte. Can I inquire commissioners if you have received any ex parte communications? And if so, please disclose them now. Yes, I did. I met with two representatives from Westside Baptist Church about some changes that they've been able to make to the plan that they originally presented to us. I also met with them when they shared with me how they were going to address the concerns that we raised at the last hearing and let us know that they would be working on those. Same. No. Okay. Let's go ahead and now swear folks in. At this time, anyone wishing to address these items, if you will please stand and raise your right hand to be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Thank you. Okay. I think we're ready to go ahead and get started. So, Jacob, you are recognized. Mr. Chair, Jacob Stout, planner with Growth Management. I've been sworn in. My resume is on file, and this item was properly advertised. It's the preliminary development plan for the Westside Christian School. It was originally heard at the May 26th, 2026 Board of County Commissioners meeting and was deferred. The plan proposes up to 63,500 square feet of institutional uses for a private school at an existing church property. It also has a request for the extension of water and sewer beyond the urban cluster line. The property's address is 3200 Southwest 122nd Street or Parker Road. It is just under 10 acres. The property has institutional future land use and is in the agricultural zoning district. So, this is the location map. The site outlined in red adjacent to the Parker Place subdivision. This time I highlighted the urban cluster line so everybody can kind of see clearly where that ends. It's across the street from the Oakmont plan development and some other residential subdivisions that have existed for many years. This is an aerial view of the existing conditions. So, there's a large church building and office structure that will be converted and used for the private school, along with some other classroom space that will be added with the final development plan should this be approved. These are the existing conditions. Looking at the entrance from Southwest 122nd Street or Parker Road onto the site, there will be some improvements required with the final development plan for traffic safety, turn lanes, those kinds of things at final development plan. And then approaching the site from in the southbound lane on Parker Road. All development must save a minimum of 20% of the existing tree canopy. And the plan identifies just under 60% for retention. And this is the preliminary development plan, as we discussed in the hearing back in May. Private educational facilities are allowed in the Institutional Future Land Use designation as a limited use per table 404341. Limited uses must meet standards outlined in Section 40434B and C related to access, traffic circulation, buffers, setbacks, and lighting. The facility has access to Parker Road, which is a major collector road that satisfies the collector road access requirement. The applicant, one concern was that the required multi-use path would not connect to the adjacent subdivisions. And there are no, we talked about that there are no existing sidewalks within the Parker Place subdivision to the north, but the applicant has gone and worked with GRU so that the multi-use path can extend off of the property through their easement and connect to, what is it, Southwest 31st Avenue there, which is just off the plan here. It kind of meanders up and then connects to Parker Road. So there will be a connection with that multi-use path to the street there. They require a 25-foot medium density buffer and agricultural zoning district setbacks are identified on the preliminary plan. The landscaping for the buffers will be evaluated with the final development plan, and then any building placement would obviously have to meet the setback requirements at the final development plan as well. There was a memo included in the backup regarding traffic circulation. That was another question that the board had, how would a school this size have appropriate traffic circulation within the site? And so the pickup and drop-off area has been identified a bit more clearly on the PDP. It's that pink line in front of the buildings to the north of the driveway access, and I have a little bit more info about that on the next slide as well. And then as far as the lighting, there's no lighting for the sports field proposed at this time. This traffic circulation exhibit was included with the analysis provided by the memo done by a traffic engineer for the pickup and drop-off. The drop-off area in pink is 225 feet long and can serve nine vehicles at a time. And then the queuing area is, well, the green is, sorry, the queuing area is the green here, and that doesn't show up on the next plan sheet. So, again, that queuing area here is about 240 feet long. My understanding of the memo is that the tool utilized to do the analysis assumes and is limited at four spaces or about 100 feet based on the spacing used in the analysis, which is less than, obviously, the 225 feet and nine vehicle spaces identified on the plan. And the analysis indicated with fewer vehicle spaces that there's sufficient queuing storage for the pickup and drop-off. And then also in May, the PDP proposed connection to water only and utilized septic for wastewater. The PDP application has been amended and includes a request for both water and sewer so that a connection to water and sewer can be made at the final development plan. The board must base approval of water and sewer extension beyond the urban cluster on criteria in subsection 402.139B. And the highlighted portion there, the extension serves an institutional use consistent with the future land use element. And then this slide is the proposed routing of water and sewer across Parker Road from the Oakmont subdivision. As stated in May, staff has no concerns of sprawl implications. The size of the parcels adjacent to these routes is not permissive for development under the comp planning code that would trigger statutory requirements for connections. And GRU has indicated in correspondence that it does not require anyone outside the urban cluster to connect, even if those facilities are available. And with that, the preliminary development plan is consistent with the Alachua County Comprehensive Plan and Unified Land Development Code. And staff recommends approval of the preliminary development plan for Westside Christian School and Resolution DR. 2611. That concludes that presentation. Okay. Any questions for Jacob? Okay. Does anything different that the applicant wants to present to us or talk us out of the staff's recommendation? No, Mr. Chair, thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. Good afternoon, Board and Chair. We can't thank you enough for giving us the opportunity to continue to work with staff to meet with us individually and ensure that we've met your concerns. So with that. Yeah, we appreciate you working with our staff after hearing our concerns. All right, commissions, any questions? No, move staff recommendation. I'll second that. I just had one comment. One of my initial concerns was traffic on Parker Road, backing up if there was traffic. Since that time, I've had the opportunity many times to pick my 10-year-old grandson up from school in Archer, where they have a very similar arrangement where they direct cars around a field and then come back through the pickup line. And if they can manage that, I'm pretty sure you can manage this with that arrangement. So thank you for indulging me with that. But I think what you've got will be – because that will be a nightmare if it backs up traffic on Parker. So thank you for fixing that. And I appreciate you all listening to Commissioner – I think it was Commissioner Prizzi's concerns about hooking up the sewer and wastewater. So thank you for that. All right, anything else? One more question. You said right now lights on the field, not now. Do you see that in the future as being a possibility of lighting that field, and would it impact any – there's not a lot of people around you, are there, that – There are, I believe, three residents to the left, or to the west, that live in the Parker Place subdivision that we haven't had that conversation. Okay, make one to schmooze you with your neighbors, you know, when you get ready to do that. Thank you. Thank you. So we've got a motion on the floor to approve staff recommendation. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to speak to the motion? I'll bring it back to the board. And I'll just ask, who's in favor of the motion? Maybe do this? All right, sounds good. All right, any further discussion from the board? Well, there were some young people out there, too. I was hoping they were going to come forward. Yeah, I'm glad they're here. Advocate for the board. All right, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay, great job, guys. Thank you very, very much. Jacob, thank you. Thanks. All right. So thank you all for coming down and seeing your government work in action. And Madam Clerk, next item. This will bring us to your action items, fiscal year 26, Administrating Officials Performance Evaluation. Okay, and the recommended action is to approve the fiscal year 26 performance evaluation. Recommend a merit increase for the county manager and county attorney. And Daniels, you are recognized. I guess, yeah, you'll cover this one, right? Yes. Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and Commissioners. I am happy to be standing in for HR this afternoon just to present this item to you. You have in your backup the four, there were four evaluations each for the county attorney and county manager, and you have those. Yeah. You have outstanding administrative officials. They both received near perfect scores, 4.7 for the manager, 4.9 for the county attorney. And the recommendation is to approve the evaluations and merit raise for both of them, as they did not receive one last year. Okay. Do I hear a motion? So moved. Second. I got a motion and a second to approve the reviews and the merit raise. Any discussion? This may be the last one. Don't get them in the three. Can we take a moment and recognize that our manager just returned from a traveling to receive the award that we recognized her for previously? What was that? Manager of the Year? Come on, Michelle. Let's talk about this. Tell us. Tell us. She hates doing this, by the way. I know. I'm even blushing now. I don't like it. It was the inaugural award of the National Association of County Administrators, National County Administrator of the Year. And I will say, of both of our administrators, they oftentimes give all of the credit to the folks that work for them, who continue to make their jobs look easy, and it's very, very difficult. I see many of them out in the audience today, and I appreciate the attorney's staff for walking in and giving us kind of the thumbs up. So, okay, back to the board. Is there anyone for the public who wishes to speak to the motion? Okay, back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? I motioned unanimous. Okay. Thank you all. And I see that. Okay. Y'all just trying to keep them up here. Get out of here, Dave. Nice to see you. Okay. All right. Next up, Madam Clerk. Next, it'll be approved fiscal year 27 nature, culture, destination enhancement funding recommendations. All right. The recommended action is to approve the fiscal year 27 nature and culture, destination enhancement grant award, totaling 1.5 million as recommended by the scoring evaluation committee, authorize county manager or her designee to execute the necessary paperwork, including necessary agreements with each grantee, including those that were funding in excess of 200, and make a legislative factual determination that the events, venues, and activities recommended for funding have as one of their main purposes of the attraction of tourists, as evidence and as set forth in the respective applications. And at each grant award, inclusive of allowable operations, the marketing expenditures is primarily related to the advancement and promotion of tourism, which we need to do kind of every year we make these grants. Are you doing this one? I am. Mr. Sexton, you recognize. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mark Sexton. I'm here in the capacity as the chair of the evaluation committee that scored these grants. I wanted to thank Jessica Huroff, who was also on that committee, and Carol Velasquez Richardson from the city of Gainesville, who also scored. These grants, just so you know, because you all deserve a lot of credit, they are a model for how counties in the state of Florida fund the arts. It's important for the public to know that these are funded through bed tax that are paid by visitors to the county, not from property tax. Mr. Chair, you've seen in the backup the recommendations that we made for requests, and part of this is asking you to approve those requests. But there is one request that we did want to bring to your attention. It is from Heartwood Soundstage and their grant. In listening to them at the end of the grant process and the issues that they brought up, it was my feeling that this grant needed more scrutiny, so I did a deep dive into it over the past week. And Heartwood is here, and they can certainly speak to you about their concerns and desires. But I did want to take something that is kind of complicated and throw out just the factual events that happened, just so you have a strong understanding of that before Heartwood comes up. So the September 2025 grant process was Heartwood's first entry into this program. They went from a for-profit business, producing shows, to a non-profit. The way this grant program works, though, is each year you're asked to provide the 990 from the previous year to determine what you're eligible for on your request. Heartwood did not have a history as a non-profit at that point. They understood that to be eligible for this grant, they had to become a non-profit, which they did in September of 2025. The way they were brought into the program, though, to come up with an initial request was by providing a profit and loss statement, which they did for the first eight months of 2025. And that was about $850,000. That was what their first request was based on. They became a non-profit in September. And fast forward to this current grant process. What we ask each organization to provide for the 2026-2027 process was their 2025-990. Heartwood only had four months of history on their 990. So what they provided was a tax form called a 1065. 1065, and I can't believe I'm trying to explain income tax to you. I'm impressed. Or math in any way. We're watching you sweat. But, so they provided what is called a 1065, which is the same income that they used for their very first time. And it's not that they did something twice. It's that that's the period we want it again. Now, they have been a non-profit for over a year, but we didn't ask them, what is your revenue from the last 12 months as a non-profit? We asked them for 2025 figures. So they provided those figures. And, by the way, those figures match up completely with the profit and loss statement they provided previous year. So, you know, in my view, I feel like I kind of dropped the ball here as a evaluator for this because it was just different. It was a little quirky. And we went with the, you have to base it on your 990. We'd already made an exception to that the year before I met. We're asking for revenue for the same time. So those are the facts of the matter. And in your discussions, you know, we have some thoughts and recommendations. But, you know, I will decide on what they'd like to do next. Okay. Thank you, Mark. All right. I guess that from my perspective, I mean, I'll say a couple things. First, I want to say thank you to Hartwood Soundstage for the miraculous work you've done, honestly, in some ways to create a destination for both our community and people across our state and country to come and enjoy live music and highlight Gainesville in a really beautiful way and turn it around because I know there was a lot of challenges just making that venue sustainable in a town that has busts and booms when the students come and go. And so I just really appreciate all the work that you've done and that you've made really wise investments of the government money that we've already given you. I've seen the beautiful work that you all have done with the CRA, the SOD grant. It's just fantastic. And I know you all went way above and beyond your match there to make that work happen. And I think you've made a really wise investment of the money that we gave you last time. In a way to really bring nationally renowned artists here and to really begin to attract people from out of town to come to our venue for special events. So thank you. I think that it makes a lot of sense for us to score it using the numbers that are the actual revenue that they generated and to go ahead and, you know, dip into reserves or the additional funds that we have. We have money set aside. We did better than we thought we were going to do. I don't want to penalize any of the other organizations and the funding that they need by trying to shrink that by counting their full dollars, but I also don't want to limit their ability to get the funding they need to operate and continue to generate those tax dollars and continue to generate the energy that they have for downtown. So my motion would be to staff's recommendation plus the utilization of reserves or other tourist development tax dollars to make Hartwood whole. Second. How much is that for Hartwood? The number was in our old agenda item, and then it just disappeared. Mr. Chair. There he is. Just for Hartwood. Reserves just for Hartwood. Yeah, so that their application is reviewed the same way the other applications with the full 12 months and that they get the full amount they were asking for. But it's because... Staff's recommendation plus that one change for Hartwood. Yes. That they're eligible for. How much is that, TJ? Overhead, please. Yep. Let's see if I can put it around. I just don't want to... Sorry if that's too small for you guys. I can read the numbers. Would you like that? Read it? With including the original amount of the total request that they were allowable for, which would move up to... Excuse me. Get that number for you. It would be an additional $123,829.21, based on my calculations of keeping the same ratio of 98% and not reducing the reduction from any of the others based on the ratio we had. So that would be just including that total. So the total award would be $1,623,000? $123,829.21. And how much would that leave still in reserves? I don't have that answer, but I can assure that budget will get that information to you. How much is currently in reserves? I don't have that answer as well. I did speak with the budget office and the budget manager, and she said there were enough reserves in here to handle this increase if needed in the direction of... I just want to know how many of you have in reserves. There you go. I can find an information out for you. Okay, Commissioner Alfred. Yeah, do we have a list of the folks that aren't receiving a grant? I was trying to find... I was told that we had three organizations that weren't receiving a grant, and I don't know if that's exhaustive, but there were... Oh, and I wasn't here at the last meeting because I was a canvassing board. Okay. So we're doing a whole... We're going to talk about it again? Yeah, we're doing... All right, well, I'll table that since we've... And I know there are DEI issues, but my question was as if, you know, what kind of guidance we gave to the folks that were doing the application on... That's the December... The December conversation? Okay. Yeah, we are our attorney. All right, very good. All right, thank you. Sorry about that. I missed that. I forgot that that... I watched the meeting, but that went over my head, I guess. Mr. Chairman. Okay. Yes, Mark. No, Mr. Chair, I was just going to say to Commissioner Alford's question before I thoroughly understood it, that everyone who made it through to the system... Right. ...is receiving funding. Yeah, right. Thank you so much. Okay. Do you have an answer? Still waiting? Okay. All right, we got a motion and a second. Is there anyone from the public that wants to speak to the motion? Maybe we'll have my answer when we come back. Joe, you here for me? It's not. It may be at the next meeting. We'll see. But thank you for being here. Okay. Back to the board. So do you have an answer for me on the reserve number? Mark, was that part of your research in terms of the monies? Mr. Chair, I'll try to get that number. If I have to, can I tell you tonight, if we don't get it before you break? And also, when I talk to Tommy, it's not necessarily reserves. Tourists doesn't do it quite the same way you do your budget, so it's tourists' budget that has the extra money to be able to fund this. Right. But I'll find it. Not reserves. Not reserves. Oh, it's not CDC reserves. Okay. We'll talk about it. All right. All those in favor of the motion, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion is unanimous. Okay. Great. All right. Thank you, commissioners. All right. So, commissioners, would it be okay if I moved to manager comment, commissioner comment, and attorney comment from tonight to right now? Yes, please. Is it all right to do one little tiny public comment? From what? Since Joe is here to talk about parking garage? Well, we're going to do public comment at 530. Oh, you're going to make him wait three and a half hours? I think I know what Joe's going to say about it. He's in favor of it. Yeah. Okay. Manager comment? I don't have any manager comments. Attorney comment? I do not have any comments, sir. All right. Mary Helen, you got anything? I just went to the coppers presentation the other night. We had some of our staff people there, not so much from the city, but we were there to listen and understand what's next, and that includes a lot of tree canopy coming down in order for them to do the work they need to do, and that caused some consternation in the neighborhood that had gotten used to that tree line there. Yeah. You know, but it's going to, it's where the liner has to go. That's right. It has to go there. Okay, Commissioner Alfred. So, y'all keep following that. That's all I'm saying. Sorry. Got anything? No. I do. I have a few things. First, I guess, what is the date that we are going to be discussing in the parking garage? Did we come up, is that our next regular meeting, or is that further along? Is it the 10th or the meeting in December? I think it was the meeting in December because of, you know. I thought I heard December. Regular meeting? No. I thought I, oh, special. Well, we're doing the DEI on December 1st. And we're, okay. I thought it was going to be the first regular meeting in December. Yeah. I thought so, too. I'm just making sure. Yeah. Let me double-check while you're doing that. I'm sorry. That's okay. I'm coming back. I think we're talking about backgrounds and DEI December 1st. Right. And then the parking garage December 10th, maybe, or whatever that first meeting is. Yeah. I just wanted to be sure. No, I think you're right. Lots of people keep showing up, so I want them to hear the date so they can come back. Yeah. I know DEI was already planned for December 1st before your last meeting when it was brought up. When I told Tommy about it. The backgrounds were added at the last meeting. And then I think you are correct in December. Yeah. All right. Well, you can just, when you find that. Okay. The next thing is I have a lot of little, like, mini motions. So, guys, forgive me. I wanted to make a motion that we pursue Spaceport System Territory designation. I was at a meeting. It is a designation. It's just, like, basically a piece of paper that the state gives you. But it's a designation that then allows you to qualify for certain grants and opportunities with the high-tech corridor for attracting economic development and businesses that work in the aerospace industry. We do not have that designation. We have not pursued that designation as a Spaceport System Territory. It's just a specific designation. I was at an event with UF, Australia's Institute, and the high-tech corridor folks. And they mentioned this designation and communities that had it that they were working with. And I was like, wait, is Alachua County one of those? And they were like, no. And I was like, okay, we need to get on that. Sean and Jessica had already been working on that, I believe, so I will get with them because I think they're already working on that initiative. Okay, great. Fantastic. Mitch Glazer, too, is working on something like that. Is there any other? Well, this is like a we have to do it as a governmental territory, yeah. Yeah, there's certain partner agencies we need to get. There's a list. So they've already been working on that. Okay, great. Well, if we could just, yeah, continue, I guess, and let us know when that happens so we can continue to promote it when we're out and about. And then on that, I also wanted to ask that at an upcoming city-county meeting that we get a presentation on the progress and opportunities around the airport gateway project, aerospace coordination in the corridor. It was just a real topic of conversation. And while aerospace is not my thing and I'm much more interested in what we're doing right here on this planet with regards to how we do things, I do think it's clearly a growing field and something that UF is taking very seriously and that there are going to be a lot of technologies coming that we could attract really good, well-paying jobs that don't necessarily require a degree. So I'd really love for us to stay on top of that. Yep, and I know Sean is working with them on that, too, that he's part of that. But I will, and I just found out that our meeting had been canceled for December for the city. That's two meetings. I guess if that's true, I would like for that to drop back to us. It was taken off our calendars. For us to put a chair letter to the city of Gainesville, because that would be the second city meeting. The next city meeting we're supposed to have is the downtown area. Right. Which we were going to have after November 3rd. Yeah, we had one on the calendar for December, but as I understand it, that one was removed. Yeah, I don't know if the mayor did that or... I don't know. I was just informed of it a couple days ago. Because I was trying to schedule around it. If it's canceled or not, and if it is canceled, reach out to the city to get one scheduled as soon as possible. I mean, we can't... Those coordination meetings are really important. I know they can be a little exhausting because they're long, but the downtown conversation really needs to be had. And this airport gateway is kind of relevant because it's not downtown, but it's definitely east side redevelopment. It's a major investment opportunity for us to coordinate with each other in that area with the military concentration site, with our eco loop. So they're talking about Takatale and some of the opportunities there. So I just, I think they would go well hand in hand. So I'll plan to put that on the agenda, but I thought it was going to be December. I guess maybe not, but as soon as possible, hopefully a meeting with them. Okay. The next thing is our meetings. I think, I don't know if this is better for our reorganization, but I really feel like we need to bump our meetings earlier so that we can get through all of our proclamations and our... I'd be in favor of going to 11. Yeah, I was thinking 10.30 or 11. Give us an hour before public comment. I would suggest 10.30. That gives us an hour and a half before open public comment where we can, if we do time certain, we can get through resolutions, awards and proclamations, and advisory boards. Because a lot of time we do have members show up for advisory boards that want to speak to you or the advisory board, you know, annual reports and those things. We can at least give kind of a time certain that between 10.30 and 12, those will happen, and then everybody else doesn't have to show up until noon. If we get a break before noon, we get to have something to eat. My only issue with that, though, is that when we have evening meetings, that makes for a very, very long day. Right. Because for me, it's an hour for me to drive home and back. I like 11 to try that, and if it doesn't work, go to 10.30. Okay. I mean, largely. 11 is okay, but 10.30 sort of, like, make it start to be a really. So why don't we try it at 11 and see if we can make that work for you. I mean, really, this is going to be for whoever our next chair is. I mean, and ongoing. I mean, it tends to stick for a while, so I guess I would move that we adjust our meetings to 11 a.m., but I also have a second part of that motion, and that is I really want our agenda process to move up. Getting my agenda packet Friday afternoon and trying to read it all and have meaningful conversations with staff in time for a Tuesday morning meeting, to Mary Helen's point, is almost impossible. I end up calling staff on the weekends and bothering them on the weekends. I end up harassing them, and I understand the issues. We can get people to the moon. We can get people to the moon. We can figure out how to get things approved faster, how to get things approved more streamlined. Maybe they don't need to go two times in front of every department that needs to review them. I don't know. I don't know what we need to do, but I want my agendas by Wednesday. I want my agenda packet no later than Wednesday at noon so that I can read that agenda packet, and I have two full business days before the week of the meeting to have conversations with staff and conversations with community members and be prepared for the meetings. And I don't think that having three full days is too much to ask. Basically just moving it up one day? No. We get it Fridays at noon now. We have a gender review on Thursdays, but we're not getting the packets. We're not getting the content to read until after our usually 24 hours. My agenda is always on Wednesdays. Yes. But you don't have the packets. But you don't have the packets. You're seeing what they're seeing on Thursday. Yeah. I'm not asking for the agenda review to get bumped up. I'm asking for the agenda packet. So can staff do one more day earlier? We'll figure out how to make it happen. You know, I mean, we could just get the draft maybe if that's. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's. Yeah, I don't mind. That was. We can have an internal like publication date and an extra. I'm not saying that we have to release it to the public on Wednesday if we're not prepared with all the final details of the agenda and that's too hard to do. I do think we were doing it Thursday, and I think that's fair for the public as well. I think us pushing it back and back and back to Friday afternoons. It just means less gets put on there because if it's not ready, it gets bumped to the next meeting. And so it's better to. Well, then we need to. Well, I mean, I. The initial deadlines are three weeks or approximately three weeks before the agenda today. Yeah. The way they sit, we will we will work harder on and we will bump more things if they're not ready. I mean, originally that that is what was happening to enforce those deadlines. And they've kind of, I think, fallen off as of late. And we need to get back to ensuring that. But if we need if you want to publish Wednesday at noon, we will or or at least in a format that you all can. No, I'm here saying Wednesday at noon. It will happen before then. You don't mind changing when it's published to the public. No, I do think we need to we do need to get it back to what we were doing for the public. It was supposed to be Thursday by two. Yeah. Thursday by two. Was what it what it is supposed to be today currently. And that has not been happening the last several agendas. Yeah. I think. For a variety of reasons. But but it should be happening by Thursday at two. But if. But I hear you that you want it no later than Wednesday at noon. So we will make that happen. OK. OK. So I would move that. Yeah. That we move our meetings to 11 a.m. And that we move agenda packet release for commission to Wednesday at noon. The week prior to the meeting. Second. OK. Motion to second. Any discussion? Staff's good with this. We will make it happen. They're groaning. I can hear it. Now. Now. Yeah. Now I will tell you, though, we have an agenda that is in process right now. So that one may be difficult because we already are operating on the current deadlines. Starting by the time we reorganize the new. Yeah. Because that would be the first meeting in December. The first meeting in December. Right. OK. We'll reflect. We'll have the first meeting in December reflect the new time and the pushed up agenda dates as well. Because without a second meeting in November, that's a good time for us to. Push it all up. To get it all pushed up a little sooner, too. OK. Good. But then the election will be over. You'll have your new people in place and, you know, and hopefully, you know, the dust will settle a little bit so that you can get back to a routine you're looking at. That includes special meetings and, yeah, that includes special meetings and any of the other meetings, policy meetings, or anything where we have agenda packets. Yeah. OK. Great. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? OK. OK. Last is I wanted to refer to staff the review of our. You know, you can't make motions as a chair. So you better get them all out right now. You're telling me. Exactly. Well, I can pass the gavel. You may not be accepted. We'll see who the vice chair is. Mary. Let him finish this. Let her finish her thing. I just have something I want to add. OK. I wanted to refer to staff for a review of our right-of-way permits and the possibility of creating surveillance permits and ask them to develop a surveillance permit, look at developing a surveillance permit process that would provide transparency for the public on what technology is being installed, where and for what purposes it is being installed in the county, and to bring that back to us for consideration. Oh, this is for the Fox stuff. Yeah, I like that. Did I hear a second to that? Second. Yeah, I had to think about it for a minute, but second. Yeah, so this is basically taking ownership of our right-of-ways. It's our right-of-ways, but it's also to what extent can we create a permit process for surveillance technology in our community? But you're referring it to staff. But I'm referring to staff to look at it and come back to us with recommendations. Right away, but it's still in our county, right? Exactly. OK. We've got a motion for a second. Got any discussion on this one? Any public discussion? Back to the board. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That's good. Aye. Nephi will be glad to hear that. I know. He inspired me. Yeah, he's an inspiring young man. OK. Yeah, so I just had one thing, and that was I have, I am on social media probably a little bit too much, but I just wanted to note a trend that the last few weeks I have seen so many positive comments about our roads and potholes, and I wanted to, I saw Ramon back there. Ramon, you hear that? And I wanted to acknowledge the hard work of not only our public works, you know, director, but also all of the staff that have worked so hard to manage that process. People that I've never, ever heard a positive thing about the county from have said positive things about the work that we've done over the last few weeks, and I just thought that that should be brought to the attention, and we should thank staff for their hard work. OK. Thank you, staff, and I couldn't agree more, and I like the announcements where we're getting the update, and we're actually putting the data out there. Yeah, me too. And again, today's was great, Mark. You did a great job on that. So, Ramon, good work. Tell your staff good work, and let's keep it up. You know, we got, you know, I don't know if you felt this way two years ago when you campaigned, but this has been the, again, one of the big issues, certainly in the last six months that we've had to deal with. So, all right. I saw it coming. Yeah, yeah, I know. All right, so we're going to recess until five o'clock tonight. We've got Everly tonight. I think that's all we, is that all we have? Yes. Yes, they have two items. Yeah, yeah. The zoning. OK. All right, so with that, we are adjourned until five. Missy. Missy.