City Council - May 12, 2026

to the city of jacksonville's city council meeting it's tuesday may 12 2026 time is 5 p.m and i call this meeting to order thank you mr president our first order of business is the invocation and pledge of allegiance please recognize our council chaplain council member kenemar mr chaplain the floor is yours thank you mr president mr floor leader tonight our invocation is being delivered by pastor wade c mask senior he is the senior pastor of wayside assembly of god in densmore he is ordained in the assemblies of god he's been in ministry at wayside since 1986 he's married with three children and has lived in jacksonville for more than 55 years please receive pass the way for tonight's invocation the stirs gives all the information and she says when the oxygen mask drops because of cabbage loss pressure first put the oxygen mask on yourself and so i want to encourage y'all because if you're flopping in the floor like a fish you're no good to anybody but if you'll put that spiritual oxygen mask on first every day keep it on continually when you're serving the citizens of jacksonville and serving your own family if you'll put your spiritual thing as the priority and it'll help you be in line so you can hear from god and make the decisions that need to be made for the citizens here so always put yours on first let's pray father we thank you for these folks that spend day after day caring about others dear lord we thank you for this city we thank you for the certainly this state and this country we we thank you dear lord for the freedoms that we have and the freedom to assemble outside right now there's someone talking about something there is every meeting but we have that freedom and we have the freedom to pray like we are now dear god let us never take that for granted but god i ask you to bless these folks that that are entrusted with with making decisions for the people of this city god i ask you to bless their homes and their families and their marriages dear god god touch their bodies dear lord and god we ask you once again that you would help them to hear from you that they wouldn't hear from other sources dear god but what you put on their hearts what you speak and especially through your word that that would be the decision maker and we'll always give you the glory and you the praise that no flesh would ever glory in your presence in that sweet name of jesus amen amen amen i pledge allegiance roll call mr president all right roll call 18 present all right and i'm gonna turn it over to the vice president for a quick announcement thank you mr president i do have an announcement thanks for recognizing me um i want to thank you for discharging bill 2026-0326 from finance committee that's the winn-dixie bill uh and i wanted to let everybody know that in discharging that bill it's moving forward in the agenda tonight so it will be just before public comment but there is public participation on that bill so if you go into the atrium to the table and fill out a public participation card you can still speak on that bill and it will be coming up quickly tonight keep in mind uh people have also had a opportunity to speak on this before there was a public hearing on it last week during finance committee and again during uh councilwoman pitman's special committee on friday believe me when i say this the voice of the community was heard loud and clear from last week those concerns from the community are reflected tonight in the floor amendment that you will see later when we discuss the bill from councilwoman pitman simply put this community's involvement has made this bill stronger and by voting on it tonight we'll also eliminate the uncertainty that winn-dixie employees have had to endure during this whole ordeal so i think all parties will be pleased with this bill as amended and as voted on tonight and i'll reserve my specific comments for the bill um during the discussion later in the agenda thank you all right thank you mr vice president mr president next up is the approval of the minutes from the regular council meeting of april 28th i move the approval got a motion and second on the approval of the minutes all in favor of approving the minutes signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the minutes have been approved mr president we have seven communications from the mayor's office and others would you like them read or filed with legislative services we're going to go ahead and get those filed with legislative services very well we have one presentation tonight honoring and congratulating the providence school stallions varsity boys basketball team on winning the 2026 class 2a boys basketball state championship mr teal please read the resolution resolution 2026 234 the providence school stallions varsity boys basketball team finished its 2025-2026 season with a record of 29 and 3 17 consecutive victories in a district 3 state championship the stallions led by coach jim martin dominated the regional playoffs with 33 55 and 27 point victories over bishop snyder rocky bayou christian and the first academy before defeating north side christian 59 to 43 in the state semifinals to reach the class 2a state championship game junior forward nolan nelson led the stallions with a dominant double-double performance of 18 points and 13 rebounds junior guard ryan guanto added 14 points including two critical three pointers in the fourth quarter and senior guard marvin christie made an inspirational return from injury to contribute to the championship run the stallions overcame a hard-fought defensive battle to defeat miami country day 51 to 43 and claimed the 2026 fhsaa class 2a state championship in front of a hometown crowd at the university of north florida becoming the first jacksonville team to win a boys basketball state title in its own city the victory ended a decade-long championship drought for northeast florida's boys basketball as no team from duval nassau or st john's counties had won a boys basketball state title since bowls in 2016 the championship marks another chapter in the remarkable legacy of longtime head coach jim martin whose fourth state title more than 25 years of coaching and more than 600 career victories have established him as one of the most accomplished high school basketball coaches in florida history now therefore be it resolved by the council of the city of jacksonville the jacksonville city council hereby honors and commends the providence school stallions varsity boys basketball team on winning the 2026 fhssa class 2a boys basketball state championship and extends to the players coaches family friends and boosters of the providence school the city's best wishes for future academic and athletic success in the years to come thank you colleagues for supporting this resolution congratulations to the providence stallions the resolution speaks for itself coach martin congrats on your fourth state championship to go along with your over 600 career victories that's amazing thank you and uh gentlemen a 29 and 3 record with 17 straight wins that is awesome so just congratulations on a great season and they had to travel a long ways to get there everyone knows providence is off of hodges they had to load onto the bus take a ride on beach go all the way down to kernan to play for the state championship so it has to be one of the shortest drives to a state championship and i'll also point out all accomplished within my council district so again congratulations great job and uh hopefully a repeat next year so congrats gentlemen and coach if you want to say a few words yes thank you so much uh providence thanks you this basketball team thanks you uh and we also thank you for all your great work and being great leaders in the city as as as a coach um and having relationships with these young men i hope someday that these guys can follow in your footsteps and be leaders in their communities as well uh this is the fourth fourth time i've been here it never gets old and i'm hoping i'm back here again next year for my fifth time but thank you guys so much for all the stuff you do it's a great honor thank you and i know some of my colleagues have providence connections feel free to come down if you'd like for the pictures i think we're going to get a picture all right well said coach and congratulations to all your success while we pose for the picture we're going to take the time to recognize dr johnson fill some space right i was just going to say mr president through the chair we'll look so tiny down there with all right so while we are taking the photo allow me to take a quick moment to recognize our page for tonight also from the providence school in jacksonville so thank you to riley rogers for coming out and volunteering tonight we want to recognize you if we could give riley a round of applause right as our floor leader makes his way back to the podium we will ask dr johnson for a poem nope words of inspiration from mr amara the chaplain no recipe for barbecue ribs from chief white nope or we can proceed i'm back all right floor leaders back thank you sir all right thank you mr president mike testing it is on all right so thank you for your support again colleagues and with that we're going to go on to page five now and take up quasi-judicial items these items we are now taking up do not include public hearings as they were thoroughly reviewed at the committee level where public hearings were part of the decision making process council members are reminded to clear any ex parte communications item number one 2026 208 i moved the amendment we've got a motion second on the amendment there's no one in the queue all in favor of them all right housewoman clark murray is in the queue and she's recognized and she was kicked out again thank you i rise to declare ex parte on the 8th of april i spoke with mr herzberg regarding this particular bill and talked about what the applicant or why the applicant wants to rezone the property and the appropriate paperwork has been filed with legislative services all right thank you very much no one else is in the queue all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries good the bill as amended got a motion second on the bill as amended there's no one there's no one in the queue we are going to pause for some updates on the software all right so we didn't get a song we didn't get words of inspiration we didn't get a recipe colonel miller maybe a story from service overseas no let me know when you're ready and open the ballot and record your vote 18 a 0 nays by your action you've approved 2026-0208 item 2 2026-209 move the bill got a motion second on the bill i've known in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 18 a 0 nays by your action you've approved 2026-0209 i'm three 2026-210 move the amendment got a motion second on the amendment there's no one in the queue all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries move the bill as amended got a motion second on the bill as amended no one's in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote 18 a 0 nays by your action you've approved 2026-0210 mr president we're now on to page seven to take up the consent agenda colleagues if you want to be as a co-sponsor on any item please reach out to legislative services as council rules prohibit items from being pulled for this reason mr teal would you please read the bills 2026-241-244-259-277-286-287-349-361 mr president i have a pool on item 2026-277 so with that i move the consent agenda with the exception of item 2026-277 we've got a motion second on the consent agenda minus the item mentioned by the floor leader i see people in the queue you're not on the consent agenda vote are you all right i'll open the ballot and record your vote 18 a 0 nays by your action you've approved the consent agenda minus the item mentioned by the floor leader item seven a little lukewarm i guess i'll move this one 2026-277 we've got a motion and second on that item the queue got cleared out but i saw council member diamond was in there and i'm not going to spoil his joke because it's a good one uh it's i promise i wouldn't do it public can i do it publicly all right i won't uh move a council amendment second got a motion second on the council amendment we'll do the joke private all in favor of the council amendment signify by saying aye aye you both say nay the council amendment is passed move the bill as amended got a motion second on the bill as amended miss clark murray was in the queue too there everyone's just popping in and out of here okay for the exact same reason council member amaro thank you mr president i just wanted to congratulate philip i uh i think our decision tonight is right choice i think he's going to bring the kind of leadership to this position that's going to steer the ship into the future and and he's worthy of this uh promotion so all right past president carlucci recognized thank you mr president uh this is a um somewhat of a i'm not sure how to describe it except to say this philip is the first council auditor uh that we've had that was not hired by bob johnson uh the bob johnson brainstem has gone down all the way to kim taylor so uh and then i'm getting to uh your next door neighbor who i'm sure will be uh perhaps council auditor one day too um but but philip did not get hired but but what i want to say though is that the the culture um and i almost hate to use that word because it gets thrown around now in ways that uh are not always so good but but indeed that the the culture of bob johnson and the expectations of what the council auditor is expected uh to bring to the table and integrity and and just bringing the facts and providing us the material and the information that we need to to know in order to make good decisions um has been second to none i think they are the finest office in city government and i've always thought that way and uh philip is going to fill that role so well and i'm so proud of him but i just thought uh that's just a little um trivia that maybe some of us didn't know uh and i've counted the council auditors that have come down from bob johnson uh all the way down to kim and now it's philip and he just fits that mold so well i talked to bob johnson about philip the other day when we went to lunch he just thinks the world of you philip and he's uh got high expectations for you and so uh with that that's uh just want to give him a big congratulations as well and i think my name did get put on this if it didn't i sure want it to be so oh we did the council member that's right thank you ken so um that's all i have to say thank you very much all right councilwoman pitman recognized the chair it is indeed my honor for you to get this promotion um ever since i've been here almost eight years you've always took time you always dig deep to find out whatever we want to do and especially in my district which has been a distress district for a while and you have been able to find resources that i need and so i just want to say thank you i'm proud of you um you always have a even spirit i don't care you nobody can't shake you you just manage to run this council and give us what we need and i just want to say kim thank you as well because he is as good as his leader and i just want to say we're going to miss you as well but he's walking in big big shoes but i know he will be just fine but just thank you so much for what you've done now i got a few more months so i i still look forward to you taking care of district 10 all right thank you all right mr floor leader yes sir uh so i've worked a lot of finance people in this city and uh philip uh and kim are both among the best uh philip i just hope kim let you know how many times i text and call her on nights and weekends and uh hope you uh are happy with what you got here so congratulations again all right did we already vote let's open the bell and record the vote 18 yay zero nays i actually have approved 2026 dash 0277 he's not in the queue so no speech colleagues with that we're going to jump all the way towards the end of the agenda item 55 under unfinished business item 155 2025 872 and i believe council president you're going to recognize the bill sponsor yes past president salem you are recognized on item 155 no i i was standing up on uh 2025 872 that's item 155 yes sir okay i'm sorry if i've confused it uh thank you mr president uh on 2025 872 mr fackler has indicated a verbal approval of of the opinion but uh i would he's indicated to me that in two weeks he will have a written opinion which i think most of us would like to see and be able to read and digest before voting on this bill so i'm asking for a two-week postponement on 2025 872 i want to do it early in the meeting so those that were here for that could could go home second all right motion and second on the postponement president so the motion is to may 26 2026 it needs to contain the date so i just want to clarify that all right mr florley don't put that on the record i move to postpone to may 26 and a motion and second on the postponement to may 26 we have council member peluso thank you mr president i stand to ask why would we not just re-refer this back to committees and that way we can kind of digest this in the committee process rather than have this back in city council night and this could go long and this can go i would just assume that we'd want to re-refer this back to committee and i want to see if that might be of an appetite to you mr president and to the body a rhetorical question are you asking me directly i'm asking you directly yeah it already went through committee so i'm happy with the uh postpone all right no one else is in the queue so we'll do that on the ballot is that right all right for the postponement open up the ballot record your vote 18 yays zero nays by your action you've approved the postponement on 2025 0872 colleagues we're now going back to page 31 item 62 2026 0326 as mentioned at the beginning of the meeting the council president has discharged this from the finance committee the first part of this we'll take up is public participation i do have five public participation cards if you want to speak on this bill go ahead and come on down while i call the names wells todd katrina spencer lydia bell amina sharif and denise scott i also now have trey ford kelly frazier okay mr todd you're closest so you can go first and it is three minutes per person on this item my name is uh wells todd and i'm a member of take them down jacks um address please sir file thank you i was at the uh financial meeting regarding uh this situation with win dixie and uh win dixie demanding x millions of dollars to stay in jacksonville when it's been here forever and has made i'm sure millions and millions and millions of dollars off the community it's very interesting that this committee spoke mostly in terms of the money issue i remember especially um the uh representative at the beaches diamond the crucial issue here is whether or not this city is going to allow another food desert to exist with the departure of win dixie now i've heard that win dixie has uh decided to to stay i could care less one way or the other but this city council cannot allow a food desert to spring up these corporations have done this not only in jacksonville but across the country where they blackmail and threaten a community or a city that they will leave unless they get x amount of millions of dollars to stay when their pockets are already full i think it's important important that we understand and i'll say this more than once tonight the needs of the community people need to be put before profits i don't know if you really understand what that means but what it means is people need food they need shelter they need health care that's just the basics and the way this country is going today more and more people are finding themselves in a position where they cannot do any of those things so i believe that if win dixie is going to stay here and they keep the store in the black community that that needs to be written in ink and signed by their owners thank you thank you next up is katrina spencer and just as a reminder please speak to this bill which is the economic development agreement i'm katrina spencer my address is on file and i live in the community where you want to take the win dixies away the harvest is empty we need food in that store asap asap the community there's no other store in that area and we really need that grocery store and we need to have a pharmacy and at the meeting they were saying they wasn't going to have a pharmacist in there we really need a pharmacy in that store even if they have to bring somebody else in to take over that pharmacy but we really need that store there because you're building the two new senior buildings where are they going to go to the grocery store they roll their wagons and they look carts and the cars not stopping farm you don't have a walkway where they can walk through so they dodging cars so we really need that store right there in the community and we do not need to be paying winn-dixie uh incentive to stay here miss lydia bell good evening lydia bell address is on file i've been going to that store since the 70s i have a great niece and a great great niece that works at that store so that lets you know how entrenched that store is in the community i find it very troubling that you have this two humongous senior citizen buildings uh being built right in front of the store so to move that store from that area is a travesty people need to be able to get fresh food fresh vegetables anything that's going to uplift our community in Brentwood as you all know we've been coming down here fighting since 2023 but i appreciate councilman pitman who has stepped in and tried to talk to the winn-dixie officials to negotiate to find a way to keep that food store there my interest is any store could be there long as it's not a full desert it is much needed in the community and it's something that we want and at one time we were like well you all have listened to the community one time but we'd like for you to listen to the community again and we need that store and let's look out and as you know Brentwood is where the first shopping center was ever built it's a old neighborhood and more seniors live out there so we need that store to remain in the community and we hope the people in uh winn-dixie officials know that that store is needed thank you thank you next up miss amina sharif and it'll be denise scott trey ford and kelly frazier hello amina sharif address on file my concern is that it was just last week that the community uh that a meeting was held regarding the winn-dixie situation last week we uh the fact that it was the first discussed with the community last week and here it is a vote supposed to be done today on whether uh you would approve giving them 12 million dollars uh to stay something's wrong with that process it should have been more it should be more time spent on making a decision like that something is wrong with the process we we need to you need to really consider more time spent on making such uh strong decisions thank you thank you miss denise scott is next and trey ford kelly frazier good evening my name is denise scott my address is on file um i'm just here to say please don't rush um to vote on this amendment since friday were you all able to just make all the necessary changes that were discussed i personally believe that winn-dixie is distorting this city saying that if you don't if we don't give them 12 million dollars then they'll move their headquarters out of the city winn-dixie is a for-profit company they don't they don't seem to have problems keeping their stores open in other areas of the city we're told that the stores the store on main 48th and main is a profitable store are you willing to let another grocery store close in 32209 the committee meeting that was held on friday seemed to be very productive there was a lot of conversation good conversation too there was a lot of questions asked so since friday i'm sure you all haven't answered all those questions um the company claims to spend over 65 million dollars to do whatever um upgrades they're going to do for their headquarters but the jobs they're talking about continuing to create won't be able to help a lot of folks in that community because they said they're going to make sure to sustain the jobs that's going to talk about cost over a hundred thousand dollars a year i think that they're extorting the system as i said in that meeting before i don't agree with too much of nothing how grand wizard over there says but he said if they want to go let them go i agree with them on that issue only thank you next up trey ford and their last speaker is kelly frazier trey ford my address is on file but i do live in the grand park agricultural district um i was at the meeting on friday and as it relates to economic development i do feel uh perturbed that when dixie is able to play chicken uh with our city council budget as far as you know if if you do this then we'll do this uh i think that that money would be better spent or something that should be put into the bill uh is uh money for things like dev store to to be created uh throughout town and opening up the free market because uh it really does feel like a monopoly that when dixie does have over jacksonville and their ability to kind of force our hand in this way uh so with that being said i also want to push to start farming mentorship which is through duval soil and water as well as the free to garden act which will allow us to uh take matters into our own hands and be collectively sustainable uh sans big corporations thank you thank you sir kelly frazier is kelly frazier here oh and i apologize kelly frazier put i do not wish to speak but supports 2026 326. mr president we do not have any more public participation cards so i move the finance amendment we've got a motion and second on the finance amendment i know we have a floor amendment that is marked but i have some people in the queue on this amendment miss pitman you're recognized on the finance amendment or you want to wait until after that all right councilman lane ends on the finance amendment thank you mr president i just want to speak on the finance amendment in finance there are actually three separate amendments there's a technical amendment there's an auditor recommended amendment and then there's the lane amendment and mine uh when i reviewed the economic development agreement there are some things that i wanted changed and so what my amendment did is section 3.1 it creates a more aggressive job creation schedule and also establishes annual goals they have to meet in order to get the next retention grant which is really a job creation grant again these are 200 additional average of a hundred thousand dollar jobs so 20 million annualized payroll coming into our city that they have to meet these uh hiring goals in order to get the first tranche of money secondly it gives us more protection once these payments are made originally there was no real protection on if they did not keep all the jobs they created uh there's now a better callback clause that if they do not keep those 200 new jobs that were paying out the grants for 1.3 million over five years we get it back that was not in the original economic development agreement uh every up everyone up here knows my view on cash grants i wish this would have been talked more about a job creation grant because really the business case here was the 200 new jobs not just retaining the 500 existing but i appreciate the fact that they were they accepted my changes we now have a more aggressive job creation schedule essentially the job creation schedule uh they have to prove to us that they've had at least a million uh 1.5 million in new payroll in our city before they would get that first 1.3 million and then they have to keep on stepping up each year and if they don't keep those jobs over the course of the entire rev grant we start getting our money back if they don't keep that commitment so because of those changes i am supporting this the bill as is i'm sure i'll support the miss pitman floor amendment as well all right all in favor of the question for the finance amendment council member areas thank you mr president uh to mr leanon so how are we going to be able to track that i'm assuming the auditors will get that information and it will come to finance committee every year and if so when will be should we expect that yes so through the president to a council member areas i know mr randolph mr randolph is out there and he probably nodded thumbs up but i believe that within the eda the reporting from winn dixie has to go to oed be vetted and then working with the combination of the cfo's office and our auditors no cash will leave the door until we have verified that just like any other all right my question i guess is when should the body the finance committee expect to receive those every year because it should be right before the the budget right yeah well the the gentleman could uh speak to the chair i know you're right next to each other through the president to council member areas uh the economic development agreement we're probably going to need to get mr randolph up here uh but the way it's written is it's every october if they meet that they have to create the jobs by december 31st of each year however if by october they're ahead of that deadline we would then pay it out thank you mr president all right so we're gonna go ahead and vote on the finance amendment and then i'll call on councilwoman Pittman to introduce the floor amendment all in favor of the finance amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries councilwoman Pittman first of all before i get started i'm going to ask phil or someone from ogc um to talk about the new um amendment and after you do that i'd like for someone to come up or either add or someone from when dixie um to make sure we're agreeing all on the same thing thank you through the president to the council uh so council member pitman's floor amendment would add language that when dixie shall use commercially reasonable efforts to maintain the store at 201 west 48th street through the term of their expiring lease which doesn't expire until february of 2029 and or facilitate a replacement tenant to operate a grocery store at that 201 site within a quarter a quarter mile radius of the site it also amends section 10.2 regarding the default clauses that in the event they do not maintain a store at 201 for the duration of their existing lease once again through february of 2029 the company shall promptly repay the city 100 of the headquarter retention grant that was bit that had been dispersed to the company up until that time uh referring back to council member alaynon's comments that's 1.3 million each year during the term of the agreement thank you very much so i'd like for mr randolph or someone to address one that you agree with that amendment as well ed randolph oed through the chair to councilman pitman and to the body uh yes winn dixie is an agreement with all the amendments just stated on the record uh they're here in agreement to move forward with those changes okay so to my colleagues i'd just like to say a few words um do i need to oh okay um i want to thank each of you all for coming to the meeting and i want to thank winn dixie um within i think 24 or 72 hours we were able to have a meeting and then on friday this past friday we were able to hear more voices um from the community you know i must say that the store on 48th street um it's a lifeline i want y'all to hear what i'm saying it's a lifeline and we want to make sure that our senior seniors our working families and the residents um within that area to make sure it's not a food desert community i think we've had enough a food desert pharmacy desert and we have new development coming to that area and so as i said in the meeting i was very interested just in keeping the store that's what our meeting was about keeping the store and keeping the um leased agreement until 2029 and secondly um to make sure that winn dixie comes back and report to us most important i gotta say i appreciate when dixie's staying in our community they're interested in staying so at this point um i hope that you all can that you're saying something miss mary uh through the president council member i think you put that last piece on the on the um record that i was going to refer to yes that they would come 18 months prior to the expiration of the lease and make a report to the yes ma'am and then they agree with that as well right mr randolph that was part of what they agreed yes yes and then mr president you'll need to call for a motion and a second on the floor amendment before you take up a vote okay thank you all right do we have a motion second on the amendment second we have a motion second on the amendment we'll open up for discussion council vice president howland sorry about that thank you mr president um just to clarify that if anyone didn't hear the last thing that was said by mr fopolis was one additional concession from winn dixie was uh that they would report to the city council 18 months prior to the february 2029 expiration of the lease at 211 west 48th street and why that was important was because miss pittman raised a concern on friday that what if winn dixie rolls up to the end of their lease in february 29 and leaves um it would leave the neighborhood eye and dry and it would create that food desert so therefore winn dixie was happy to give that extra concession that they notify council of their intent 18 months prior to that february 20 29 date that is also in the pittman floor amendment with this floor amendment i think this deal is a win win win it's a win for winn dixie it's a win for the city of jacksonville and it's a win for the community of brentwood as part of it we noted already the store on west 48th will stay open for three years that was a huge concession from winn dixie and also jacoby negotiated that extra 18 month notice period ahead of the expiration of the lease i think that's a very reasonable ask so in return what winn dixie asked was let's end the uncertainty there's been a lot of uncertainty for the company and quite frankly for the employees at that 201 west 48 street address there are 60 employees there and winn dixie had already served notice of termination several weeks ago when they see a deal being made last week that the store stays open and then potentially that deal on the rocks later it creates a lot of uncertainty and not just for them but for the 500 employees and their families at winn dixie's headquarters and their distribution center who are watching and reading the news and wondering where winn dixie is going to be in the future so this should be a pretty easy choice if we approve this amendment and the bill is amended there's a hundred percent chance that 500 employees stay here the west 48th street store stays open we hire 200 new employees in jacksonville and winn dixie invests 65 million dollars in capital investment otherwise as mr lane and went through the clawback procedures we get our money back if we don't approve this tonight the only thing we're 100 sure of is more uncertainty and that the west 48th street store will close so i'm grateful for my council partners um in this effort in particular uh councilman lane for keeping a sharp focus on protecting taxpayers and uh most notably uh councilwoman pitman for fiercely advocating for the neighborhood and its residents i'm also grateful for the community whose voices were clearly heard and who made this bill better and to winn dixie's leadership team it's become very clear to me how much winn dixie treasures the jacksonville community so if all goes according to plan winn dixie will remain part of the fabric of our city for decades to come and jacoby you deserve all the credit for that thank you all right councilmember diamond forgive me nick but i disagree entirely and i don't think this floor amendment gets us there at all first of all i could drive a navi through the size of the loophole in this like they can go in two years they could use reasonable best efforts to stay this is not legally going to get us anywhere no wonder they agreed to it okay so this doesn't get us where we want it to be which was to guarantee the store stays open and that there's a winn dixie there it also doesn't help anybody who's next to another winn dixie store which is also being shut down all over northeast florida okay so this doesn't do it this is extortion all the uncertainty that we're trying to put to bed is because winn dixie is giving us the uncertainty they're the ones shutting down the stores they're the ones saying yo we love jacksonville we grew up our entire company here we are the history of jacksonville but we're going to leave if you don't give us cash it's all from them this is corporate extortion this is corporate welfare whether you're on the left think about what you could do with 12 million dollars to help people in your district if you're on the right imagine giving six million dollars of taxpayer money back to the people who elected you because that's what they want you to do jacksonville does not want this ask them i guarantee you you enough you love doing these polls ask them do you want to give 12 million dollars to winn dixie a profitable company the answer is no this doesn't do it i'm voting no on this voting no in the bill i asked my colleagues just just don't do these cash grabs anymore because it's just going to encourage the next company the next company the next company to come up here every bank is next and the next one is going to come up look i don't mean to pick on winn dixie i like winn dixie they had a sip store on my one in neptune beach i loved it it's great so it's not a winn dixie problem it's a corporate welfare problem and we have to stop i've got several people on the queue including our attorney mary did you have something to say or do you want to let everyone speak okay all right councilwoman clerk murray thank you president you know some things need to be decided based on head the things that council member diamond just discussed have to do with his head there are other things that need to be decided with your heart and more specifically in this case with your stomach so let's think about the community and the fact that they need a place to be able to go and buy groceries to be able to feed themselves and their children they need a place where they can buy medicine so that they can sustain their lives and have good lives so disregard what he said because he's thinking about his head and not his heart and specifically about the stomach of the community who want this particular grocery store to remain there and once just like he said winn dixie is an institution it's an institution in this particular county and we need it and there is a reciprocal type of giving so in this case we're helping to fund them but they're helping to fund the community and they don't just have grocery stores they give away turkeys they do other things to support the community so they're not just buildings in our community they're institutions and they help the community and in this case the community need this needs this we don't want food deserts and if we have the opportunity and we do have the opportunity to solve this problem we should solve it and not create more problems that's that's all of our jobs our jobs is to serve people and solve problems for people thank you that's president carlucci thank you mr president um i support the bill for all the reasons that have been stated but i can't sit here knowing what i know about winn dixie about the davis family and listen to a young man who has no idea what he's talking about who has no idea of the history of winn dixie and the davis family in this community and what they have meant for decades upon decades and use the word extortion and i'm like i just cannot let that go go unanswered this is a beloved family it's a beloved grocery store it has meant the world to so many people they have fallen on some difficult times but they have gutted it out to stay and i don't remember in all my years of public service a whole lot of incentives that have gone to winn dixie but i can tell you this they have done a lot for this city now i know extortion is going to get you in the headlines good for you but winn dixie for so many years and their family has done so much for this city and not because they wanted to give headlines but because they wanted to give back next time you hopefully i hope you don't have to go to mayo clinic but if you ever do well then you think about winn dixie so let's quit it with this kind of nonsense talk and let's think about what people do for this community that have been around for a while maybe it's our time to help them out a bit so stop it just stop it councilman aries thank you mr president so um i'll speak on the amendment and then later on i'll come back to speak on the actual bill itself because i have a lot to say on that um so miss pittman the amendment that you had um the 18 month coming to council i know that when we had our public notice meeting on friday that was one of the concerns i had it's like i want to make sure the community is still involved in this process so the fact that you negotiate 18 months kudos on you awesome job on that because now the community will have a chance to meet with us once again i don't want to win for to have winn dixie and just us meet i want to make sure the community has plenty of time for participation so 18 months is more than enough time one of the things though that i don't see here is that myself and councilman peluso we talked about um the time frame uh for 18 months if should winn dixie decide to stay they would have 18 months to then build a store councilman peluso and i were talking about potentially making it six months um i'm assuming because we're going to have the conversation 18 months prior we would know so there shouldn't be an 18 month gap my point is i don't want to have 18 months of no stores there should they decide to stay and renew the contract with that whatever landlord it is right so um mr randolph if through the chair um if you don't mind coming up here um if winn dixie decides to stay uh that 18 month gap for them to build a new store is that still a possibility or because they're going to come 18 months prior to negotiate with us or talk to us whatever the case is um will there be a gap in service uh through the chair to councilman areas um i will need to defer to the company representative uh however collectively for any of the stores right now in the agreement that are located in an eda including this one if they were to go ahead and close within that 18 month period it's stated in there that they need to find another store not necessarily construct a new store but you know we originally looked at doing a six to 12 month period but understanding that it's a large footprint of a store to find something of similar size in you know in the area in the neighborhood may be difficult so that's why the 18 months was in there i'm understanding but collectively it really depends on um them finding another store within an eda so it you know it really depends on the market uh what's available at the time as it relates to any specific store but that 18 months was given um as the time period just because it may be difficult to find a store that's you know 20 30 40 000 plus square feet um to to to make an in-kind replacement all right i and through the chair i i just see it as a total of um 36 months is what i'm looking at then 18 months prior and then 18 months again is that what you need to find a new store um through the chair to councilman areas no i think right now it's stated at eight within 18 months so if they close the store it's within 18 months a new one needs to be um reopened so it's strictly 18 months now this new uh amendment speaks to the store that they're keeping open now so you're going to get an 18 month you're going to get a report 18 months before that lease ends so you're going to have that 18 month heads up as to whether they've negotiated an additional that's what i wanted um extension or whatnot so that that specific provision relates to this new store so this was the new amendment put forth by councilwoman pitman okay well i still have my thoughts on the bill itself but i definitely will support this amendment it's definitely a small win for for our community but i still have my um my comments left for later on so thank you all right councilwoman pitman and this will be her first time she introduced the bill and now she's speaking on for the first time so the full four minutes well first of all i want to just follow up um this amendment is a win about keeping this store open it's a win um what i want to share with you councilman diamond you may not have ever lived in a stressed community or you may not have if you're going to speak directly to council member diamond if you speak through the chair yeah thank you chair through the chair but i i was just so anxious to talk about this um i've represented this community for many many years and when you haven't lived in a community that's dispersed dispersed or have issues you can't relate to that right and to hear people come who live in that residence and stakeholders to the finance committee um it made a difference so you know i i gotta say i was a little bit taken back about what you just said and hurt and i think the people who are here um are hurt as well and i just want to say a couple things about the davis family um when i worked at the ywca they spent a tremendous amount of resources for low-income women to get them in college in college to provide access to programming as well as non-profits in this community that wouldn't exist today if it was not for the davis family and i knew miss flo personally so tonight i think it's a win and i just want to share to all again um this particular amendment is important but not only that we didn't say that winndix is also spending a half a million dollars in that store i want you all to hear that a half a million dollars right so that means having those two new apartments that are in that area transportation that jta has expanded because i've asked them to because the seniors don't have transportation they can't take an uber all the time so i just want to say again as we vote on this tonight not only knowing the culture the history of that store and what it means we need it i don't want another food desert in my community i really don't and y'all know my heart and how i care about people i need you all to support this amendment and this bill thank you dr johnson thank you mr president uh very quickly uh through the chair to council member diamond you mentioned a loophole could you be very briefly specific about the loophole that you believe that's in this amendment i jumped on the queue to do that but i threw the answer it's three years and close it in three years thank you council member through the chair to someone from ogc um i'm assuming that all of these things were run through ogc can you speak to that uh what the council member brought up that there were issues and there are these major issues that are glaring uh has the ogc i'm sure i know the answer to it but i just want to know has the office of general council worked through this and has this agreement been put through whatever testing that you all do so that we're we're sure that the loopholes that have been alleged are are not going to be something that hurts this uh legislation through the chair to council member johnson so i'm not wholly understanding of what loop he didn't really get into specifics as to what loopholes he was just addressing um i can tell you that when it comes to development of an economic development agreement such as this the client department in this case office of economic development works in coordination with john sawyer a member of his team in our government operations department to develop an appropriate contract based on the business terms and conditions that are negotiated between the client and the prospective recipient of the city incentives so there is ogc involvement through every step of that process but at the end of the day the business terms are the subject of that negotiation that occurs between the economic development agency and the entity that is receiving the incentive thank you and i'll wrap up mr chair mr president by saying you know this is par for the course i do believe our office of general counsel and our amazing attorneys do the work to ensure that when they bring something to this body that it has been vetted it's been worked through and all the specifics are there i was in the audience at the meeting on friday and i literally heard many of the things that were being said it's important that we can do whatever we can to ensure that that community not just have representation but also have food quality food and that's what's trying to happen here so i will be supportive of this amendment tonight thank you mr president i thank you council member gay thank you mr president um here here in the amendment the floor amendment then and that's what we're on right now um i'm in supportive of the of the floor amendment that would bring more protection to to the city and to that community and so at this point i'm i'm supporting that uh when we get to the to the bill i'll have some more conversation on that but i will support this amendment at this time thank you all right we have several members on i believe that are for the second time dr salem have you spoke on the amendment yet so dr salem for the first time thank you mr president 54 years ago my first job was at win dixie at the corner of uh at casset and uh i-10 grew up in the area of this plant but i have a couple questions i want and my heart wants me to support this and i intend to support this mr randolph can you come up i've heard a couple things i just want to clarify in my own mind the 18 month uh part of this amendment are you suggesting at that point when they come 18 months from now they will have an indication that we've tried to extend this lease and we're not going to be able to so therefore we're going to be looking for another location is that your understanding uh to the chair to councilman salem um in uh correct so at that point they're going to give an update again it's market forces that are going to drive their decision to either stay in that location based on their conversations with their landlord um their store profits again so there's going to be a handful of things but you are correct in general in 18 months prior to the expiration of that which is in roughly 18 months from now um that conversation they'll basically disclose where they're at and what their um path forward is but there's no distinct um you know they're not going to at this point it's not written in there that they're going to give you a definitive answer i think they're just going to explain as to where they stand from a business uh decision perspective i i through the chair i would hope they would give the community some indication at that point what their plan is um but i hear what you're saying through the chair to councilman salem and that's the message that we've driven home to them at that point just to give the community comfort that um they know within 18 months you know what where they're headed so hopefully at that point they're going to give a decision that they're going to extend it or they're looking at another location but not leave the neighborhood without a food store through the chair to mr randolph that's different from the other stores in this agreement where they can close the store and then they have 18 months to find another location and that's whether they're impoverished areas or in in other areas of town that's for all the stores as i understand it through the chair to councilman salem no that's just for economically distressed areas where there's less of a saturation of other stores so we um so that's that that's what we agreed on so economically distressed correct the other two there's one one at uh at uh college park is one of those correct correct and where are the other two um it's listed in the that's okay yeah but the the ones that are economically distressed areas um are the ones that are subject to that 18 month you need to have a replacement in-kind replacement within that 18 month period but they could close it two months from now and then they have 18 months to open another one through the worst case scenario correct and again um as much as we wanted to put in so many safeguards just from a business decision standpoint that was one of the concessions okay i just want all of us to understand that as i said i'm going to support it there's risk here guys there's risk here but but uh i think keeping that store open and and jacoby's area is the primary objective here and we got that and i think that's important thank you mr president uh i'm going to let the vice president respond to that uh thank you mr uh president i just want to say if this deal does not get done that protection doesn't exist that protection only exists because of this deal it's a rider to this economic development deal um if this deal doesn't get voted on there's nothing stopping them from closing any store and they don't have to put another one up within 18 months so that's a positive um protection for the community thanks all right councilman diamond for the second time okay sometimes i can be guilty of not explaining myself very well so i'm going to try another crack at this um first of all and first to the author of the amendment i don't want a food desert either and i commend the effort to try and make sure the store doesn't shut down that isn't my problem my problem is that for 12 million dollars we should get like a 10 year agreement we should lock it down that was my issue that this isn't good enough for 12 million dollars that was my only issue with the amendment that's why i'm not happy with it we're going to spend our money to make sure there's no food amendment i'm using my head because my head tells me this isn't good enough and that's my service to the city to be able to read the agreement and say we could do better i don't think ogc screwed up to my other colleague on how they drafted it i just think the negotiated deal isn't good enough that's my problem three years secondly the davis family hasn't owned any part of winn dixie since 2005 so if we're having this debate in 1996 yeah maybe my opinion is different um but it's 2026 and in 2026 a bunch of people who don't live in jacksonville own winn dixie so that's the facts right okay so i don't owe anything to whoever owns winn dixie today and so i understand the point of the amendment i'd like it to be a little stronger to get what we actually want i feel like we rushed i feel like winn dixie could do more to give you more of a guarantee if we're gonna spend 12 million dollars and let's be honest y'all are gonna give this money away so you might as well get the best possible deal out of them now and not just this one there's like three or four other ones you should ask for to not shut down for like 10 years if you're going to spend the money look i don't think we should be in the business of telling people to open stores or close stores i'm personally against that but if you're going to do it at least get a good agreement thanks all right i think i have councilman peluso now in here for the first time is that right yep you're recognized thank you mr president i stand hating these words i tend to agree much with what councilman diamond just said um i expected this to go to committee like it was agreed upon the other day i'm very uncomfortable that we are doing all this right now at this last minute pace because there's still a lot of work there was an amendment that i want to offer as well i have the exact same concerns councilmember salem has i'm very concerned that in a couple years this store does close and we're not going to have an answer for how to how to put another one there to the point of even what councilman diamond said i think he's right too we could have had a better amendment i'm very concerned um i'm very happy that we have the 13 stores that will remain happy about the headquarters which is in lakawanna getting support i get all that um but one of the the amendments that i wanted to offer in finance that's not ready for prime time right now right was that i wanted to make sure that we had a project or a program ready to go as a rider to this bill so that makes so we make sure that there are no more food deserts in all of 32209 i want if we're going to talk about grocery stores in this body the way we have been let's continue this conversation to talk about all right how do we make sure economic development can work to make sure that that the food desert program which right now is underfunded we have no money in the food desert program so this is an awesome opportunity to put a rider on win dixie to say open up another grocer or two in the next couple years that was an amendment that i wanted to do um i'm very uncomfortable with this bill i i i don't love corporate welfare either i do feel like other companies are going to come to us but i am excited that we're keeping uh uh the store on main i just wish we have more time i want this to go back to finance and i really wanted that i would traditionally vote this down uh unless i get an assurance from someone in leadership that we are going to continue to talk about food deserts moving forward i want to have a notice meeting and i want to to to make sure that we have a program in place that's funded in the years to come to make sure that we help solve the food desert issue because right now we've neglected it for many years and while we have win dixie here we could be getting more from them i think um so so i i think that i might i don't know how i'm going to vote right now i'm looking for for help from leadership so hopefully someone speaks up councilmember gaffney for the first time thank you through the chair i have some concerns as well i guess for me um i'm gonna propose an amendment that when did see they guarantee us tonight or whenever that they'll stay open for the next five years um i just want to pick some type of i guess support on this amendment um i'm concerned as well i mean i love you councilwoman pitman i know i understand 18 months but my biggest fear 18 months we're gonna be dealing with this situation all over again and i feel like we could deal with it right now by putting a guarantee and extending this contract at least the five years so we won't be dealing with this the next two years i really think we're gonna be dealing with this in two years because they end up closing down again so i want to make an amendment that win dixie you know stays open the next five years all right so just so we're in the proper posture i'm gonna let mary explain it mr president i didn't hear a second on the motion i would just point out that this is a rented space they do not own the space so to require them to guarantee that it stay open for five years beyond the current term of their lease i don't know that winn dixie would be in a position to do that because they don't own the space so they would that would that would they could be in the position where they would not be able to comply with that requirement if they could not successfully negotiate a new lease or an extended lease with the current owner of the property at the end of the three-year existing lease all right councilman gaffney you still have the floor so thank you through the chair do we know if when this is here out of um the individual who owned the building is here so the representative from winn dixie here so the individual who owned the building uh who represent i guess who owned the shopping center you just have to ask for that that's not him the landlord for the building is not here okay yeah because i wanted to speak towards the lease when is the lease end of three years correct through the chair maybe ask the gentleman from winn dixie so the lease in the three years through the chair correct that is correct sir okay yeah i guess my question is suited for the individuals who own this building i mean i understand they rent it to winn dixie but i wanted to get their perspective tonight to see what their long-term plans are for this shopping center but it's hard for me to make a decision they're not here so um yes it's an amendment on the floor i mean well a motion on the floor do you have any other questions for anyone else mr gaffney okay so was there a second on mr gaffney's amendment there was so you have a motion on the floor to amend the amendment to add a requirement that they remain open at the 201 site location for five years i know we can't make a guarantee because the owner of the plaza is not here that's why i wanted to speak with him if the owner of the plaza was here i think that would kind of um solidify my i guess my motion so i know we kind of making empty promises because we can't speak for the owner of the building all right so to council council um council member um peluso point i really think this needs to be deferred i understand we want to keep them i understand that but i think we need all the parties here tonight the owner of the plaza need to be here before we make the decision i mean so i'm waiting on yeah that's it okay the entire council is on the queue we we we do have an amendment to the amendment that we don't know if we can actually legally vote on uh i think our lawyers told us we can't so why don't we just vote on that amendment and um first on that amendment is vice president howland thank you mr president this is the reason that this deal almost went off the rails on friday night so this deal came before finance committee on tuesday and the community came and rightfully expressed their concerns about the store at 201 west 48th uh the finance chair deferred the bill so councilwoman pittman the district councilwoman could meet with the the community in winn-dixie and hammer out details of keeping that store open that happened friday uh councilwoman pittman brought uh what is most of this floor amendment to a special committee meeting on friday and during that meeting uh much of the community was happy with it but a number of extra concerns came up about food food deserts in different places whether winn-dixie had things at pharmacies in all their stores stocking levels and things like that issues that got away from the core of this economic development agreement which was retain 500 members in the headquarters add 200 members 200 new employees at 100 000 a piece invest 65 million dollars and now keep a store at 2101 west 48th street open when the additional requests started coming it was too much for the business that was just trying to work an economic development agency we're a local government we're not in the business of telling individual privately owned companies how to run their portfolio stores how to run their businesses and in any event they gave a big ask when they agreed to keep that store in brentwood open so the way that we salvaged this deal was uh miss pitman negotiated one thing out of that friday meeting and that was the 18-month heads-up notice on the 201 west 48 store in return for trying to vote it out tonight why because voting out tonight eliminates that uncertainty and it gets winn-dixie what it needs it gets the brentwood community what it needs and it satisfies and it's a big win for the city so if we start on the floor adding a a number of additional requirements on a business without the business being able to truly meet those they are not the landowner on 201 west 48th so the landlord would have to agree to that um they don't know uh and can't make business decisions on the fly where they can open up stores to address other food desert areas so they can't answer that what they can answer is the deal we agreed now which is a good deal and as i said a win-win-win to mr peluso's concerns i hear you for years you have been working on trying to address food deserts and we we accomplished that here we just reversed a food desert that was about to happen by keeping up the 201 west 48th street i will work with you in the future and have notice meetings to see what we can do um to address other food deserts in the city but trying to now put extra mandates on this business um to achieve individual uh requirements of council members is not what this bill zero three two six is all about zero three two six is exactly what we stated before retain 500 employees at the headquarters add 200 employees at the headquarters at 100 000 add 65 million and retain 201 west 48th street that's a darn good bill as i said before it's a win-win-win thanks all right with the full queue on an amendment which we've been told is illegal i have a suggestion that maybe we just vote on that amendment maybe you can vote however you like but we can get it off uh because if not we're just going to go through the whole queue and talk about the amendment or else someone could move to withdraw it of order mr president all right we got a point of order for mr carlucci if we have if we have an amendment to the amendment are you saying that we can't discuss that we that's illegal to he just withdrew it he's made a motion to withdraw it you withdrew that i can't hear what anybody's saying but i'm just trying is that been pulled so we're just on an amendment i heard a motion from mr gaffney jr council member gaffney jr to withdraw his motion i did not hear a second on okay okay so mr president on the floor now is a motion to withdraw his amendment to the amendment let's take that by showing hands on the motion to withdraw mr gaffney's amendment raise your hand who wants to keep it yeah okay all right so the amendment has been withdrawn okay no one else has been reckoned whenever i am i want to speak to that amendment you're back on the pitman amendment mr okay so we're going to go back to the queue his point of order is over and your bill's been withdrawn so get back in the queue we're going to go through i gotta maintain order here okay so council member salem we're just going back through it everyone's on the second time as far as i know oh he's not here actually i see joe carlucci on here so for the first time joe carlucci because we're back on the pitman amendment so basically everyone else is for the second time all right thank you mr president um sorry my head's a little spinning right now yeah support the pitman amendment look guys this is we're over complicating this this queue should be zeroed out right now look council member peluso um i completely agree with you and what i would want to do because the what we brought up in the friday meeting with the food deserts is if we attach it to this bill it's just really attaching it to winn dixie what i would propose is we look at it from all the other grocers in the in the in the city and and that's a bipartisan issue i mean i think we would all agree that food deserts are not a good thing and but but some districts don't have them so that's why i rely upon my other council members to know what can i do and i'm and i'm happy to work with any of y'all to do that so all that to say i think we don't address that here at this meeting i think we pass this out and then we start tackling that issue and luckily we have a three-year runway runway now um so that's that's my proposal again i'll make the request because i know the council president won't i think we've belabored this and we want everyone to have a chance to speak everyone has kind of spoken i think we all need to get comfortable with this vote and then we'll take up other issues later thank you mr president thank you for advocating but i will respect the queue so next councilman areas i believe for the third time councilman areas second i got plenty of things to say uh yes mr president so um all right uh once again on the amendment because i really want to talk about the bill itself i hate it but um the amendment the 18 months uh mr through the chair to mr randolph you don't mind please coming up here i know you're negotiating things right now but um for the 18 month period my concern would be um if win dixie which let's be real they're probably gonna say we're getting out of here are is the the store going to be fully stocked to the end to the three-year mark what i don't want to happen is exactly what they're doing right now taking things off the start of the shelves way too prematurely because at the end of the day you may have a store called harvey's but if it's not stocked it's a food desert nonetheless so can we also ensure because i don't see it here in this uh floor amendment that that store will be fully stocked all the way to day number one uh the last day in february 21st of 2029 it's sure through the chair to councilman areas i know it's talked i'm saying till the end because they come in 18 months prior say we're not going to renew our lease what's going to happen is my question sure through the chair to councilman areas i know that was brought up last friday at the meeting um that very concern um i will have to defer to the uh winn dixie representative to speak to that i mean you can offer it up in his amendment but as it relates to their agreement to do that um i'll ask um for winn dixie to um speak to that please sure it's i'm sorry you guys are killing my time right now all right look very simple the store was not stocked because you guys were closing you guys just restocked the store thank you if you guys come back 18 months prior to the lease renewal and you decide not to renew the lease i want to make sure that in this amendment it's it signifies that you guys will keep the store fully stocked to the end i know it's currently stocked but to the end when you come back 18 months they killed my time five seconds yes or no i think i think the way the amendment's written is that it requires us to run it like a grocery store until the lease expires so that would include keeping it that keeps me happy thank you all right is salem back dr salem we're on the pitman amendment you were at the top of the queue you missed all kind of fun stuff you good all right council member uh past president carlucci then uh thank you mr president uh first of all i've been around here a long time i know the davis family doesn't own this anymore but we wouldn't be here talking about winn dixie had the davis family not owned this for decades and had they not been so ingrained in this community so uh set that straight second uh we need to pass the bill and make progress i'm supporting this uh i think finance hammered out the best possible bill they could and we're talking about we've been talking about food deserts for so long since i've been up here and now we have a chance to do something about it i don't want to quibble up here about you know six more months another year um let's let's just get it done and as the finance chair said and the vice president have said through the chair uh we can hammer out other issues and other details later but i'm voting for this i'm not going back let's vote for it be done with it and move on with our agenda but i congratulate uh uh the way that the finance committee tackled this it wasn't easy and i congratulate uh uh council member pittman and you've got my full support on this and let's let's uh let's get some food out in the community that these people have been waiting on for a doggone long time thank you all right for the first time past president white yes sir thank you i call the question on the amendment the question has been called on the pittman amendment all in favor and we have a second from the floor leader all in favor of the question being called on the pittman amendment raise your hand it passes nobody left the bill as twice amended we have to vote on it oh on the pittman event i'm way ahead of myself i apologize council president it was before the president got to speak on it i support the amendment the bill may be different all in favor of the amendment raise your hand the pittman amendment pittman amendment passes again apologies on that mr president i now move the bill as twice amended i have a motion and a second on the bill as twice amended i'm going to go to the floor leader could someone clear the queue because we had six people on from the pittman amendment so let's just get back in uh thank you council president i think council member joe carlucci has the quote of the evening and that we have complicated this this economic development agreement uh again it was a big agreement applying to lots of stores and we got store specific and i'm happy that we were able to help council member pittman out but if we just back up about what this agreement does and why i'm a yes on it after the land amendment and finance this is a 65 million dollar capital investment minimum that's tied to a five and a half million dollar rev grant over 20 years and again rev grants are usually win-win we're going to get additional property taxes because they're investing more so that's that part it's 200 incremental on an average of 100 000 a year jobs that we're creating again they're retaining 500 okay great but they're adding 200 that was the business case for me so that's once they ramp up to it in five years which again they have to meet certain goals each year to get the next tranche of that 1.3 million each year that's 20 million in annualized payroll that's just the present value it's going to keep on growing from that as well so that 20 million times 20 million or 20 million times 20 years that is the money that's going to be coming in because of those new jobs this had an roi of greater than one when it came to us i didn't ask oed to rerun it but with the finance amendment i had it's only going to go up uh and so i think we need to vote this up i think this kind of sets the standard for what will get us to say yes for grants like these uh and again i don't think we need to defer this we've had plenty of time to ask our questions i think oed for always being available when i did have a question and so i hope that we support it as twice amended and can move on with the rest of the evening thank you council member peluso thank you mr president i'll be quick uh though i am still frustrated with this process and i did wish it got re-referred to finance i'm very satisfied with council vice president hallen and council member carlucci for their commitments to do a notice meeting with me these food deserts we have a program now it's just underfunded and the program probably needs to be updated so i really want to make sure we tackle that it must be tackled this year we've been talking about food deserts more in the past week and a half than we have in years so i'm grateful to that but let's take this opportunity to actually do something with it and i feel like a lot of us now know more about this topic than we traditionally do so so it's my expectation we'll have this notice meeting soon enough and we'll uh we'll hopefully get some more resolutions and more uh grocers opening up in 32209 and elsewhere thank you all right dr johnson thank you mr president i was just trying to get some clarification of because i think i understand this properly uh i just want to make sure and mr popolis thank you and mr harvey thank you both for explaining that to me that uh i want to make sure that if this store does leave or there will always be something in that geographical area and i think we need to make sure that we understand that mr president that there's got to be something in that area based on the way the amendment is written the pitman amendment is written there will be something if that store closes so this area will always have that in it um that's the the winning point for me while i certainly understand um the four leaders um the way of looking at it and you're absolutely right and all those things work for me but i just want to make sure knowing people who live in that area and driving down that area seeing it that they have access to food that is so important to me and this does that for the long haul so i'm a yes thank you all right thank you councilman arias thank you mr president um i think um if i'm not mistaken you're incorrect mr johnson because this agreement was drafted through the chair through the president after they agreed to this deal this store was already slated to close prior to this agreement so if they decide to leave they are not forced to stay or even relocate anywhere else that area will become a food desert because they're not mandated that's one to clarify that all right um that was brought up on friday's meeting so now we're talking about the bill um here's the thing i'm going to support this bill because i feel my hands are handcuffed right now i am being forced to support something because otherwise we will have a food desert here's the thing i'm going to give credit where credit is due when dixie they restock the store they're going to stay open for three more years we cannot force them to stay there at the end of the day they're they're a private business we cannot make businesses do whatever we want them to do however this if people come up to us for money this is a negotiation room so i think that it is in our part to make sure that every bill which they do they bring it up to us we negotiate and we advocate for our community in this case this bill is drafted as an economic development agreement for our city not just for the brentwood community it just so happens that if they were to leave that's what we talked about this or there would be a food desert so at the end of the day what i'm trying to get at is that every deal that comes to us we need to negotiate as hard as possible to make sure our community has a voice and that's exactly what happened here today um i'm going to be fully supportive of this just because as the economic incentive package uh the new jobs that it creates the economic revenue i think it's a win-win for our city um most importantly for me the biggest win is the 65 to 85 jobs that we're going to keep at that one dixie for the next three years moving forward um so i definitely want to support this to mr peluso's credit a hundred percent i'll be a part of those conversations because this bill was created in 2019 uh 2019 245 the food desert program and that bill that program is underfunded so this if anything to the community out there what this was a created the conversation to create the conversation that started now so we as a body are going to fight for you all just like we did today i think this is a huge win for our community bringing hot keeping winn dixie on board with us um and making sure that you guys have your stores they're fully stocked and moving forward we will make sure that the food desert program is also fully funded as well too hopefully in the future so um i feel really confident about this bill and at the end of the day um once again um i just i'm here to support it thank you councilmember gaffney jr thank you through the chair councilman areas you said you felt like your hands were being handcuffed i guess my question is to the committee why are we rushing what's the difference why we can't wait two weeks versus tonight that's my own and i think that's a fair question why we can't wait two weeks versus tonight you just heard one of your fellow colleagues he said he said he feel like his hands was handcuffed and here we are rushing to give away 12 million dollars i'm just trying to figure out why we can't wait two weeks from now it's a fair question you got directed at somebody councilman areas thank you mr gaffney i do appreciate you um through the chair thank you mr gaffney through the chair i do appreciate you um recognize me on this part uh my hanks i feel handcuffed not because of the the urgency of this bill mainly because of uh of that we have to approve this i think it's i think that the due diligence on our part has been already met because of the the public notice meeting um i think taking it up tonight is a fair deal i feel handcuffed because once again we are doing something because the threat of a food desert that's why not because we haven't had enough time to debate it i think taking it up tonight won't make a difference in two weeks thank you for that though for looking out but um i think moving forward any economic development deal needs to come through full finance and we need to negotiate on behalf of the city thank you thank you to the chair i mean like i said my questions there remain why not wait two more weeks i'm not sure if the um community is happy with this i mean i know the councilwoman is but i'm not sure what the community i guess they satisfy just know after 18 months when ditsa can leave so you know and i you see the community what they're shaking their head you know they so but anyway um i support you councilwoman um hopefully we won't be dealing with this in 18 months you know my biggest fear is when dill when ditsa getting their 12 million dollars and then bailing you know i guess it'll be left up to the council members who these individuals um elect the second term to deal with it so thank you council member gay thank you mr president um just looking at this thing what this has turned into is a quagmire you know i i look at when you're a successful business and you've got a successful store why would you want to close it and then we take in parallel that to oh here's a bill that we're wanting to get 12 million dollars for that you know we need all this money to create all these jobs but we've got a a good store that's that's performing but we're going to close it and it kind of puts us in that posture as councilman area said that it's it's not it's not a good place for to sit here and negotiate a business deal from the city's perspective because we we're being held hostage and forced that if we don't support this then we we are sitting here enabling a food desert i look in look at my my district um i just did a uh groundbreaking with a grocery store that's coming in and the the uh the amount that they were asking in incentives and round figures was zero they're coming in and doing it and so you know i look at a profitable store that's been admitted that the owns uh grocery store has admitted that it is a successful store and no i'm sure if the davis family still owned it we wouldn't be having this discussion that we would not be put in this posture and yes the davis family has done a lot for our city and that's not what we're dealing with right now and it's it is it's unfortunate that we at this time are looking at drawing together two different scenarios uh sitting here keeping a store open that's potentially could be a food desert if it's not kept open to what is filed in this bill and it's it doesn't make it mean make it make sense it doesn't make sense that it would have been the right way would be to come in to say we've got x number of stores that we are needing support on keeping open not to sit here and say well if we don't get 12 million dollars we're going to start closing these stores where it's going to hurt the most and that's what we're forced with now is giving 12 million dollars or being subjected to where it's going to hurt the most and that's where if if i'm still undecided about this if i want to hold my nose and vote for it uh it's just it's appalling that that we were put in this situation thank you mr president all right councilman aries for the second time on the bill all right no one else is in the queue so open the ballot record your vote 16 yays two nays by reaction you've approved 2026-0326 councilwoman pittman go ahead i just want to say thank you i really appreciate it and we'll save the community and the lifeline that these residents are depending on and thank you vice president um for being my sidekick and making sure and to um oed and win dixie um i look forward to you taking us to the finish line which i know you all will thank you thank you very much mr floor leader where does that land the plane at president we are now ready to start public comments ladies and gentlemen if you wish to speak you should have filled out a green public comment card no cards will be accepted after six which i just realized we are well past that council rules call for an allotment of 90 minutes for public comment and given the amount of cards everyone tonight will get their full three minutes i'll announce five speakers at a time when i call your name please come down to the reserve seat to the front row while waiting your turn to speak your time will not start until you arrive at the podium and remember to state your name and address before beginning or you may say my address is on file a speaker may be invited to the green room for further discussion at a council member's discretion i'll read the first five names now so they can begin to make their way down and then i'll have mr teal read council rule 4.505 regarding disruption of meetings the first five are miss kathleen pereira gary smith wells todd vincent barone and katie elizabeth uh legislative services please note the start time as 6 37 and miss pereira floor is yours i apologize mr teal read please read the council rule i missed that part council rule 4.505 disruption of a meeting any person who disrupts a regular meeting of the city council standing committees special or select committees subcommittees or any other public meeting presided over by a city council member may be forthwith barred removed or otherwise ejected in the discretion of the presiding officer from further attendance at that meeting if necessary due to the nature of the disruption the audience may be cleared from the council chambers or meeting location in the discretion of the presiding officer any person who refuses to leave the city council chamber may be subject to arrest thank you mr teal legislative services note the start time is now 6 38 and miss pereira the floor is yours my name is kathleen pereira my information is on file the 2045 comp plan and planning codes do not sanction over development or encroachment and yet it seems as if they are easily ignored just to ruin the character of well-established neighborhoods sometimes neighborhoods prevail in saving themselves from an oil depot or slaughterhouse but most neighborhoods haven't been so lucky this time disaster may strike the windy hill and fox chase willman station neighborhoods which directly bordered the proposed 15 000 seat soccer stadium multiplex in st john's town center that will also destroy the productive big island swamp and wetlands how does the good for for the all and the we can't stop progress and the more tax revenue arguments work here when you cows they expect these neighborhoods to get flood insurance for the first time have their septic tanks overtaxed they're well water contaminated except to plummet in their property values or war shed never have a good night's sleep again from the noise created 365 days a year from concerts games and events not to mention that several residents will have to plan even more time just to get out of their neighborhood because of the incredible increase in traffic this project will cause in an already congested area instead start focusing on slower growth with the least bit of hardship and impact on already established neighborhoods their homes may not be as lofty as yours but they are havens that each of us deserves and want to preserve and i would like to see you as passionate with keeping this project from and from the saint john's town center as you were keeping winn-dixie open thank you thank you next gary smith are y'all doing this evening uh my name is gary lewis smith senior my address is on fire line i am the self-proclaimed mayor of ocean wave you guys heard from me before first i'm going to give honor to god for being the head of my life and if this is what is happening because you are our elected leaders at the local level where they say politics starts at the local level and then you go to the state level then to the federal level is this the way y'all conduct yourself about winn-dixie a dog on grocery store i see why the news is the way it is right now when it's the last sometimes about a bennett winn-dixie because the people back behind me saying that winn-dixie is not stopped right what is the person that actually has the building shouldn't they be at this meeting what are we doing here now i know why djt is has a 22 foot stature with the fist in the air and he has purple on which i last time i checked he's not a pharisee right and he got somebody touching him he's praying with a bible y'all guys got to do something it starts at the local level if we can't solve a doggone grocery store right giving them money from the davis family wherever the hell that is probably don't even own it it's shareholders rich people stock people that owns that grocery store and one guy said that i'm representing a new store now and they didn't want any money so why are we giving people money to help a desert community and then somebody over here said something about what that guy said somebody don't even know about culture culture is very important very important my grandson first one 12 granddaughters one grandson i'd be doggone if i don't come here and address you guys because it all starts right there but if this what we got to come and listen to y'all fight over a grocery store that should have been solved for these people spent their time coming in here tonight that should have been working out and the winn-dixie guy he's not giving y'all no answer why should he sit here commit to anything when he's dealing with y'all like this and y'all keep calling the guy with the tan suit the winn-dixie guy they stand this far from the mic because they don't want nobody to hear what the hell they got to say come on your guys elected you got family people in here too you got a a reserve person here retired military an evangelist over here come on i know you know better i'm just a citizen i ain't no deacon ain't no pastor but i know what goes in the mouth is good for man what comes out of mouth is defiled matthew chapter 15 forces verses 13 to 14 right so y'all need to get your ass together wells todd name is wells todd i'm going to take him down jackson my address is on file i guess we got a good lesson this evening on who controls america and that's corporate america um first i want to just say i know sooner or later the jail question is going to come up again and we do not want that jail to be built in a predominantly african-american neighborhood that should have been made clear to you guys a long time ago second you continue to refuse to demand that the charges against the three young people who were ripped from their seats and charged with a felony you refuse to call for those charges to be dropped and that is just ridiculous nobody else has ever been arrested in this chamber not even ben frazier when he was dragged from this podium and the reason you did it was because of the question of israel and the support the design this community gives you guys let's talk facts the rest of what i have to say is directed at blake harper my name keeps coming out of his mouth maybe what we need to do is have a debate it could focus on the campaign that he is leading to ban books by black authors it could focus on the support the genocidal government of israel that he gives it could focus on the support of the overthrow of the cuban government or how about this one your support for the lunatic right-wing convicted felon in the white house your choice if you don't pick one keep my name out of your mouth mr blake harper next vincent barone hello my name is vincent barone my name should be on file i thought i was going to come in well i knew i was coming here tonight but let me start with this you're fighting over 12 million dollars for win dixie when i found 65 000 a day being burned through our health insurance pension plan it is a trap that nobody has discussed that's been hidden since 20 to 2022 all this is on public record i went through and i did a forensic analysis on it i saw that the executive i'm called the legal branch that does all the accounting for all this have held our premiums down because they didn't want to raise the premiums on the people so now you're burning 65 000 a day which by the way that's a 10 million dollar premium in which blue cross blue shield pays nothing you're naked on it which means you're self-insured well where do you go with that well i looked at our last bond issue you never disclosed it the legal counsel held you sign off on it and it was never disclosed in the prospectus i have the numbers i have the pages what does that mean that means that the underwriters would never have given you a five percent bond rating knowing that that naked exposure was there now let's go to the next step in that bond that bond made 36 million dollars with the premium that you guys got where'd the money go it got washed to wash the last bond that you guys played it and i know you guys but whoever's in those back offices on the accounting doing this because they're not telling you this you know why because if they were telling you this you guys wouldn't be fighting over 12 million they close these silos you have to have those silos open and i believe that starts with the mayor i think the mayor has to put an executive order freeze the executive council uh the executive um the legal council and the accountant and you need an auditor well one of the things i specialize is that's the people i bring in my people come in to a clean sweep allow you to see where all the money is hidden which you guys don't you're not allowed to see okay and once you get to see it then you get to have a conversation as where does it go why you got shans 54 million dollars it's a hole nobody goes there there is not one dollar of support because you guys are worried about oh this i'm working worried about a broker you don't need brokers you're buying everything at retail prices you paid on the bond four million two million in the prospectus and then another two million that you didn't see the fees you guys are getting ripped off all over the place and blue for cross food shield you're paying them ten million dollars to administer something i can drop that 50 percent doing one thing for you guys 50 where you guys aren't dealing with this and then i could straighten up thank you sir straighten up on chance elizabeth and then after miss elizabeth thank you amina sharif lydia bell katrina spencer sally barnes and nathan valentine is katie elizabeth here amina sharif i see her walking down so it'll be amina sharif lydia bell katrina spencer sally barnes and nathan valentine katie elizabeth was here to speak about jea mast mast account issue ignored for over a year amina sharif address on file okay there's a double standard when it comes down to public comment there's a problem at the beginning of this session you had you were whatever recognition you were given for the young men what have you you you you stood up applauded and what have you no problem nobody was threatened to be arrested and whatever but in the comment public comment section you got people who are facing criminal charges for clapping for snapping their fingers something's wrong with the with with with that's double standards if clapping is wrong it should be wrong all together you don't clap for what you're acknowledging and public comment should be just as open for people to support or disagree with whatever's being said no one is being hurt you shouldn't be going to court or threatened with jail for coming to a city council meeting all right now the other thing about the jail situation someone made a comment just the other day about the condition of the jail house it wasn't in the area where the prisoners were this was the condition of the jail in the lobby whoever is responsible for keeping these jails up to uh uh standards human conditions or whatever these people should be forced to hire enough people to keep the facility clean or give the inmates incentives or keeping their areas clean or whatever the case may be all right the other issue is the forensic lab we're still fighting that fumes that are coming out of those four vents on top that's still an environmental issue that should be addressed we are being the victims of whatever chemicals are coming out of that building and what have you thank you thank you miss lydia bell's next and it'll be miss katrina spencer and miss sally barnes good evening lydia bell address on file first i like to say i stand with councilwoman to run a clock murray in her situation if she's removed then anybody that's being investigated should be removed secondly i was at the court when the city spent all this time and all this money prosecuting a young lady for uh resisting arrest without violence i'm curious of how much money was spent for that case the next one has been dropped but now connor collie got to go to court for two felonies i was told that they supposed to bring a film there to show or have an expert to show how he attacked the police they're apparently coming with a ia tape because i know what we saw and the young man was just standing there but no charges are brought against the police who grabbed him around the neck pulled him across the chair and could have killed him but connie is the only one those charges need to be dropped now going back to the morgue and the forensic lab we are suffering out there we need to deal with this environmental mental crisis that has been upon us we shouldn't have to like me i shouldn't have to step on my back on my front porch 12 o'clock in the morning and then back back in my house because of the odor this is an environmental crisis that morgue that forensic lab need to be moved out of our neighborhood it never should have been there but to do that to the citizens i like that the fact that when dixie and they're working with the 12 million dollars incentive but i find it rather ironic that when we brought up the issue about the more the statement was well if we stop it it'll cost us five to ten million dollars so you mean to tell me to keep a store here for 12 million dollars but you won't use our tax money to save our lives because that industrial building shouldn't be in brentwood at all and we're going to have to find a way to have it removed because we got to live out there i would right across the street from a school you all should have stopped that but you didn't ten million dollars but when dixie get 12 so we're going to continue to fight against it we're going to fight for our lives because it should not be there it got to go thank you thank you katrina spencer katrina spencer my address is on file i want to discuss the trash being picked up off the city property i called to report trash is in the street that's the city property if it was on my property they would find me and i would have to pay that fine i was told that that's not my responsibility to call in on that and the yards need to be cut and the trash need to be picked up and another thing the morgue y'all call it the medical center it's the morgue you could smell the scent when you come out your door late at night so undoubtedly they're doing whatever they're doing late at night when they think everyone's sleep and that should have never been in our neighborhood no one will want to be smelling the scent that's coming out and it's a loud scent and they saying they're not doing cremation and everything over there undoubtedly they're doing something with those scents and that need to be checked on our lives are important to us and it should be important to y'all thank you thank you miss sally barnes good afternoon my name is sally barnes my address is on file my concern is when the developers come in here they speak they take as much time as they want and they can come back and readdress it several times but we are given three minutes my concern is that they should be given a time limit too instead of taking up all this time to go back and rehash what they've already went over back and forth back and forth we're here we want to go home too and we want to address our concerns i think something should be done about that if we get three minutes they should have a time limit and they can put what they they plan to do within a certain time thank you very time thank you nathan ballantyne is the next and then the five after that i believe this is william upham addison patrick felix von venture monique sampson and kiana blaylock please come in down uh mr ballantyne good good evening my name is nathan ballantyne our farm overalls farm is growing at 125 east 7th street once upon a time back in 2018 i met with all the city departments at once in a round table hosted to help entrepreneurs start small businesses in jacksonville you see i had this neighborhood farm dream planning development code enforcement building fire all the folks all the city folks were there i shared i want to start a market garden in my backyard to feed my neighbors this panel of city bureaucrats looked around at each other and finally said well we can't tell you you can do what you want to do but we also can't tell you you can't do what you want to do so um go ahead and i said well you know that sounds dangerous at the very least would you advise me of any pitfalls so that i can avoid them and they mentioned traffic permanent structures and general nuisance concerns we grew our subscription you pick neighborhood farm with this advice from the city central to how we operated and developed our farm which all began with a community farm raising and a kids garden workshop in 2018. from the beginning we sought to grow food in the midst of our neighborhood and cultivate community in the midst of our farm by 2020 we had so much interest we started a wait list by 2023 we'd opened overalls farm two in the side yard of another neighborhood business the week of farm two's farm raising when a hundred of us joined hands to build the farm we added as many people to our wait list as farm two would serve so we soon started looking for commercial property for overalls farm three to continue feeding and fostering our community along the way even as we wrestled with over two years to secure our certificate of use to operate legally our wait list grew to over 500 families across jacksonville and beyond the evident urgent need for food people can trust expressed by our wait list the yearning for sustainable green space and the need of opportunities to connect with others in community are only growing for these reasons i'm here again to encourage the behind the scenes moving and shaking that is advancing the free to garden act that will make market and community gardens permissible right thank you so much i look forward to working with you thank you next up william upham can you please restart his clock thank you good evening ladies good evening gentlemen my name is william upham address on file i'm here to tell you that i'm running for florida's fifth congressional district my campaign you uh you can't do that here sorry mr yeah if you need an explanation from ogc yeah but you can't come in here and campaign for yes sir understood you can still take your time and talk about something else though uh no i'll pass thank you sir appreciate it all right thank you uh next up addison patrick all right uh good evening mr president and members of the council my name is addison liberty patrick and my address is on file i have a few items this evening before i forget definitely support the free to garden act um number one i believe the biggest barrier to civic participation in this or is this alphabet soup of government to help i've developed a quick guide to city council to explain the general process the land use and zoning codes and the lengthy agendas that we see here number two we need a council that encourages a variety of professional backgrounds on our citizen advisory committees not just to check a box but to ensure our decisions are vetted by real world expertise number three when we lack that perspective we lose sight of the basics in the new town area at barnett and state street west for a time frame of at least two months there were and may still be cones in the middle of the street for either a pothole or missing manhole cover a hazard that should not take that length of time to address looking at ordinance 2018-295-e as in edward the city mandates that 20 percent of our one cent gas tax must go to pedestrian improvements yet the code explicitly states quote no funds shall be used for sidewalk repair projects we are legally mandating the construction of new sidewalks with these funds while our existing infrastructure in neighborhoods like newtown is literally crumbling under our feet i hear regularly that people fall while walking on our sidewalks that's the definition of a broken system unfortunately it gets worse for the taxpayer under munisic code section 799.101 we have a six cent gas tax running through 2046 but then there's section 799.201 the five cent tax passed in 2021 which is actually part of that 12 cent uh local total and it's set to drain the pockets of jacksonville drivers until december 31st 2051 between federal state and these local ordinances jacksonville citizens are paying close to 60 cents in taxes per gallon obviously taxpayers in jacksonville are struggling with rising gas costs at the pump and current ordinances prohibit using some of those funds to fix the sidewalks we already have therefore we don't need 30 year tax mandates we need a repeal of the additional six cent gas tax and a common sense approach to maintenance even president trump is talking about helping relieve federal gas tax temporarily who is committed to giving the citizens of jacksonville some immediate financial relief by spearheading a six cent gas tax repeal thank you thank you next up felix bonventure and then monique samson will be after my name is felix bonventry and my address is on file i would just like to say that i think it is ironic that i just sat through an hour maybe over an hour i wasn't keeping track of argument over whether to spend 12 million dollars on a grocery store when this council has decided that jso's yearly budget is six six hundred thirty million dollars and and in 2025 jso shot seven people who are experiencing mental health crises jso should not even have been on the scene for those crises i don't understand why 12 million dollars for a grocery store can be argued about for an hour 630 million dollars for the police can be passed but we don't have the money for any kind of professional mental health task force that is separate from the police that does not carry guns into situations that does not create violence where violence does not already exist that's all i have to say thank you next up is monique samson is monique samson here uh kiana blaylock okay so monique samson did not write about what she wanted to talk about kiana blaylock wanted to uh talk about police accountability uh so with that the next ones please come on down jamal davis sarah posey brian jefferson shane tremblar and connor cavley please come on down if i called you i said the order i called was jamal davis sarah posey brian jefferson shane tremblar and connor cavley is jamal davis here he's not here okay thank you he did not write what he wished to speak about what about sarah posey it'll be sarah brian shane and connor good evening um my name is sarah posey my address is on file i wanted to start by saying that the mic is not loud enough for the people in the back it's been really difficult to hear everybody speaking so whoever's running sound tonight um i'm here today to discuss the conditions in which the council conducts its public comment and some concerns i have regarding the safety of the public in these chambers both physical safety and the safety of our rights on may 27th 2025 three peaceful participants of the city council meeting were arrested and put in jail one of the participants connor collie who was only standing there filming the arrest of leah was violently thrown over a row of chairs right back there all three of the folks arrested spent over 24 hours in jail and were brought up on various charges which have been followed by a year-long legal battle leah grady the first person arrested that night is still experiencing nerve damage and one of her wrists from how tightly her hands were cuffed the cited reasoning for these arrests was that there was a disruption of the meeting in the form of clapping that particular night there were many instances of clapping by many members of the public but the only only the three people but the only three people who were arrested so sorry only three people were arrested and brought to jail um though it was argued that these three people were not singled out we know them as engaged outspoken members of their communities members who at the time were regular attendees at city council who brought the fight for free palestine to these chambers it concerns me and it should concern you too that it seems not everyone is treated equally during public comment why is it that everyone else who clapped that day got a warning but leah's clapped resulted in such brutality in addition to these confusing this confusing selectivity during the trial of leah grady a handful of city council members claimed that officers serving as sergeant of arms in these chambers receive special training to do so when two of the arresting officers aliaga ruiz and davis were questioned at the stand about the special training they confirmed that they had not received such training now both arresting officers davis and aliaga ruiz have previously received domestic violence injunctions these are people with a history of violence which we saw happen in front of us that evening it was also claimed by city council members that when escorted out of the chambers constituents are brought to a secondary room with screens to watch the remainder of the meeting yet the arresting officers had not heard of such a room and so it seems that the overall communication between the council and the sergeant of arms have been subpar to the point of threatening the safety of the participants in these chambers i want to believe in good faith that you have no true interest in selectively silencing participants from exercising their right to freedom of expression and that you yourself want these chambers to be safe for the public and so i urge the council to consider these threats to the democracy thank you next up brian jefferson my name is brian jefferson and my address is on file in 2025 there were seven jso shootings related to mental health crises that's seven lives that were unnecessarily lost at the hands of jso brian gillis was one of them and i'm going to tell you a little about brian gillis he was about 30 years old and he had a history of mental health struggles he had been baker acted multiple times in the past but no criminal history his mother called 911 requesting a mental health evaluation not an arrest a mental health professional arrived on the scene officer caleb boom garner saw gillis 60 or 70 feet away boom garner dropped his taser and fired seven shots at gillis as he ran away a former federal prosecutor called this shooting horrific gillis's uncle asks you knew he had mental health issues why couldn't you tase him even with a mental health professional on scene jso still exerted excessive force and broke their own policy brian gillis should still be with us today brian gillis should still be with us today and there are thousands of people who live with mental health issues here in jacksonville they're your friends they're your family they're your neighbors and their families are put in a difficult position when one of their loved ones has an episode and they have to call for help because jso does not de-escalate situations like this we have seen time and time again that they fear for their lives and they shoot a mental health crisis agent or officer should be there to respond to these situations rather than a police officer who's going to issue their own death sentence the community deserves guaranteed precautions ensuring the actions of these officers and that they will not engage in such violent acts when dealing with people who are clearly struggling with their mental health jacksonville needs to create a permanent mental health emergency response team we need protect professionals and not patrol cars we need to require officers on mental health calls radio confirmed de-escalation and non-lethal force only we want to see real consequences for officers who use excessive force and we want to see the families who are affected by these killings get closure we want to see them get the records immediately within seven business days because imagine having to sit on this for months if not years after already losing a loved one and lastly we're demanding that you demand that the charges are are dropped for connor and leah clapping only leads to violence when city council representatives sick the police on citizens shane trembler i'm sorry maybe tremblay good afternoon council my name is shane tremblay my address is on file i'm here today to address what i would consider to be the hostile environment of city council meetings that jeopardizes the democracy and free expression that can take place in these chambers on may 27th 2025 three peaceful participants of the city council meeting were arrested and put in jail one of the participants connor collie was violently thrown over a row of chairs the cited reasoning for these arrests was a disruption in the form of clapping there are many instances of people clapping that night including tonight as well but only three people were arrested and brought to jail that night those argue that these three people were not singled out we know them as engaged and outspoken members of their communities and people who brought the fight for free palestine to these chambers all three spent over 24 hours in jail were brought up on various charges which were followed by a year-long legal battle leah grady the first person arrested that night is still experiencing nerve damage in one of her wrists because of how tightly her hands were cuffed during the trial of leah grady a handful of city council members claimed that officers serving as sergeant of arms in these chambers received special training when two of the arresting officers aliog and davis were questioned at the stand about the special training they claimed to know nothing about it there's a discrepancy here if these officers aren't given special training it could explain why aliaga decided to throw a non-violent person over a row of chairs both arresting officers davis and aliaga had previously received domestic violence injunctions these are people with a history of violence violence had expressed itself that evening three individuals who were behaving no differently than others in these chambers were singled out physically assaulted put in jail and are still dealing with the resulting legal battles i believe this sets a dangerous precedent for these meetings and what may happen to participants if they meet some unknown criteria that deems them worthy of being arrested i urge the council to consider these threats to democracy and physical safety of your constituents and to make the necessary changes to undo them to start dropping all charges against connor collie and supporting the appeal process for leah grady would show good faith in restoring this trust officers with known violent histories should not be serving as sergeant of arms and special training should be required for anyone tasked with keeping order and safety in these chambers and in the spirit of safety i also stand with all of the demands of the jacksville community action committee and for officers not to be responding to mental health crisis and instead we have mental health professionals doing that thank you next up is connor collie and the last six speakers please come on down blake harper denise scott trey ford kelly fraser charles barr and john noonie mr collie my name is connor collie address is on file last time i was here is to invite everyone in this room to my final trial which has just been moved to may 19th i want to once again extend that invitation to anyone who wants to join the fight against repression imposed on the working people of jacksville by our leadership facing 10 years for simply speaking out against a genocide what was done to me can be done to anyone else in this room tonight that's what i'm here with jpsn to speak about speak about today officers donovan davis michael aliaga ruiz are not only allowed to remain in the positions here at city council as sergeants at arms after violently flipping me by the neck over a bench and causing permanent damage to my friend leah's wrist but we're hired to that position with a past history of domestic violence that's right instead of fostering a safe and democratic space for the constituents city council hires these violent cops to intimidate and attack us instead of listening to the needs of the people just like the jcac have said we need care not cops stop dumping our city's budget into a violent corrupt police department and hiring cops who beat women to intimidate us at these meetings instead focus on better mental health solutions for the city like i said i'm facing up to 10 years simply for attending one of these meetings i know the council knows that's wrong so we demand that the council urges the state to drop these trumped up charges once again i invite everyone here to help us pat the courtroom on the 19th this wasn't just an attack on myself and leah but on all the working people at jacksonville who struggle to have their voices heard we'll continue fighting those charges and we will win next up blake harper can you reset the three thank you good evening council members council vice president uh my name is blake harper information on file first of all i have to apologize to you i broke out in a glorious gleeful response when wells todd mentioned my name i guess i am actually now the 20th city council member as he ordained me to be because he's attacking me to his response about a debate i'd like to share with you something that thomas soul once said excuse me let me find it here we go it is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are enjoying a sense of moral superiority and their ignorance that ends ends that the word for the day is gerrymandering the word for the day is getting elected uh elected districts to correspond to what martin luther king wanted or claimed for us to do and look at the character of the person not the color of the skin it started with mississippi where mississippi ended the um into the racial gerrymandering then virginia tried to reset their entire state saying it was fair to have 10 democrats and one republican well if you take a look at what we have here we have eight states who have over uh twenty percent of populations republicans but they have no uh representation they have no suffrage then of course there's illinois that has 53 has 53 percent of the votes but they have 82 of the states there's this nonsense going on about about what's going on with uh gerrymandering and race and redistricting the reality is turnabout is fair play and the reality is is we are now looking at a situation where fair is fair it wasn't fair before ten to one wasn't fair um eighty three eighty two percent of the house seats going to in illinois to democrats when they only held 53 percent of the vote the eight eight states uh typically in the northeast who have over two uh two million two hundred thousand republicans not getting any any votes that's not fair it's about time we got things fixed and by the way god bless donald j trump next up denise scott and then after miss scott will be trey ford kelly frazier charles barred john nanny you're next mr ford after her good evening my name is denise scott and my address is on file um racism has always occupied the throne in this country race racism has always been the front man and fascism is the play everyone knows that racism is why we needed a civil rights bill and a voting rights bill and now we all know that racism is why we no longer have these protections we get it the gop has a war on black americans and guess what we're gonna fight with everything in us and we won't quit and we definitely won't surrender there's a strong movement taking place in america that is attempting to erase black history whitewashed slavery suppress voting rights favorably preserve the confederacy cipher the democratic process undermine the constitution and eliminate diversity the main reason is because the united states never properly condemned the confederacy had they all um had they all put the confederacy in front of that firing squad as they should have when they surrendered we wouldn't have maybe we wouldn't have so much hatred here in 2026 i heard a young man ask the question if white supremacy is so supreme why is it that you're always working so hard to make everything so difficult for black people it seems like instead of wearing the white robes and the hoods some of you now wear the suits and ties ja has this faults of their own i get it but how dare this council try to investigate them when some of you are under the investigator or should be investigated the fox cannot guard the chicken house i'm still waiting on the outrage from that um text that infamous text from council president to the j board member he's being investigated um i'm waiting on the outrage from um areas isn't he being investigated just because you stepped down from that finance committee does it you're still on the committee the definition of integrity is to be honest ethical and having a moral principle even when no one's watching well that was what clock murray did she self-reported the incident to authorities before the property authorities can complete a thorough investigation we got our resident grand wizard diamond already calling for her removal where was he calling for removal for his other colleagues but then the question becomes have you been thoroughly investigated concerning your charity speaking of our grand wizard um diamond now he says that because of what the supreme court did last week that jacksonville account city council should withdraw their map we draw the maps this has always been a majority republic council in this city how much more republican majority can you get i'll say this if you want to redraw the maps let's start with getting rid of these five at large seats they're useless next up trey ford uh trey ford my address is on file grand park agricultural district once again and i really just want to talk about the uh 12 million to win dixie one more time i know it was said that it was a win-win um you know i would say maybe pass fail it was a c for me i want to commend uh councilman gaffney uh councilman gay uh councilman peluso for pushing back a little bit because i do think that we could have gotten more uh from win dixie uh and really we're being very reactive uh the fact that it's going to all of a sudden become a food desert um you know where was that three four or five years ago when it could have been addressed proactively uh and proactively is things like the right to garden act proactively is refunding duval soil and water conservation district who does a start farming mentorship so that again citizens can take matters into their own hands this council has a lot of fight in them um let's stop playing not to lose and play to win thank you thank you kelly frazier and colleagues this is the two card warning if you're in the green room hello my name is kelly frazier address on file and i am the president of the north side coalition of jacksonville as trade just mentioned we can be proactive as we have three years to come up with a solution to the win dixie ordeal i am a resident of the north side and as president of the organization founded on the principles that this community will no longer be the routinely ignored section of the city i am here to talk about the future of the duval county jail while the city looks for an area to pin this facility on we ask that you do not consider the north side liquor stores morgues and food deserts plague the north side but as my father benjamin frazier used to say we are accepting the baton in a relay of civil rights history and that race does not include us running backwards into further marginalization marginalization marginalization my father often spoke of the difference between political cowardice and political courage it would be an act of political cowardice to place a billion dollar jail in a community that has already been fighting for basic needs like a grocery store true political courage would be choosing to invest in our people rather than our incarceration we know that there is money to invest in things like jobs affordable housing finding and agreeing on ways to illuminate food deserts in the areas that have them and positive activities for our youth and finding solutions for jso addressing mental health i ask that you invest in these revitalization of the north side of jacksonville i would also like to bring attention to a piece of legislation coming tonight the ordinance 2026-0364 this ordinance is a direct assault on the rights of every citizen in this room regardless of what side of town you are on this bill seeks to strip away the public hearings and hand over ungoverned power to a single non-elected administrator it creates the developer fast track that allows for automatic approvals if the city fails to act in just 30 days this is an invitation for backroom deals that leaves every neighborhood in the dark the appeal process this ordinance creates a fee of 650 for many people in jacksonville 650 is a month's worth of groceries a car payment or money that could go towards the utility bill by attaching 650 to this you are ensuring that only those that can afford it will have a voice in our city's growth this fee is a deliberate economic hardship designed to silence those who can't afford it do not price your constituents out of democracy stop this ordinance and please understand that the community members of the north side of jacksonville do not want the jail on the north side thank you thank you mr charles bar good evening charles bar my information's on file good evening mr president vice president council good to see you guys you know uh i know most of you guys personally talk to you i speak to all of you at some point in time and i just want to say my hat's off to you for sitting up there you take butt chewings all the time i think that in my role that i play and you get you guys know what i do i catch heat from right and left sometimes but not near as much as y'all so my hat's off to you whether you're on the left side or the right side of the aisle y'all got an important job you put up with the stuff that you put up with look here i know you guys are considered part-time you get paid a certain amount but let me just say i'll be the the first one uh to push to get you guys double your pay you deserve it well some of the stuff you put up with and to the officers here officer gay and these other officers and tk uh sheriff tk waters i want to thank them for the job they do look sometimes they mess up we all mess up uh and sometimes it's bad but they put their life out there on the line officer gay here and the other one they're standing here protecting you guys so some some fool comes up here rushing you they're going to risk their life for you and i want to thank each and every one of you guys for that and since i'm up here and i got a two minutes left i think there's a bill 2026 265 it's got to do with apprenticeship you know there's some people that go around town and they complain about everything every single bit of the money that's spent and and i'll tell you i'll be the first one that complains about some wasted money and i've seen some wasted money come out of this council and other and other departments and i'll be the first one to tell you about that but not everything that y'all vote on is wasteful and this one here's got to do apprenticeships so i went through apprenticeship 42 years ago councilman gay something like that somewhere around 42 years ago i'm an electrician by trade i'm a 38 year member of the ibw a 32 member year member of the teamsters and there's nothing like apprenticeship we need we need uh construction workers we need those tradesmen out there trust me this the the country is lacking in tradesmen you can see uh i forgot his name the guy on tv that always talks about trades we need that and if you guys can vote to help the trades help to help the electricians plumbers i know lance is back here somewhere with the sheet metal workers every one of them we need to support those trade schools because what they do is they produce construction workers or tradesmen i work at an industry they they produce people that can work at those industries who can make a good living not everybody is cut out for college not everybody can afford college or pass tests to get into college some people go to trade schools and we need that support and i hope that you guys will unanimously vote for that bill or whatever it is when it comes up in a little while because we need to support the trade schools that little bit of time i run for council a few years ago i went all around the district talking about how we need a trade because there were so many young men that didn't have a job and they could have become electricians or plumbers or carpenters or whatever so i'm asking for your support on that thanks thank you mr bar our last public commenter is mr john nooney hello i am john philanthropic jelly roll a good boy resiliency nooney 8356 bascom road jacksville florida 32216 i'm in city council district 4 cpac planning district 3 school board district 3 governor ron de santis pardon nooney you know 2024 0107 now that was the 3.5 million dollar direct contract for ju you know i missed the ribbon cutting ceremony now it was the ju college of law now you can pull the tape but i wanted to see the college of law now i was trespassed and warned jso told me that tim cost and ju can remove the trespass it's real it's lifetime now the next topic ethics is gone in duval county jacksonville now at an ethics commission meeting with kirby oberdorfer dylan reingold i asked we have six seat packs representing the entire city of jacksonville the mayor's disability council you know the wheelchair gang the council on elder affairs the senior citizen gang you know robin lang donnie olton why is ogc the office of general council not represented at these meetings now these meetings i mean it's the wild west right now raymond day is the chair of the true commission and is the cpac-3 representative and has destroyed the public trust okay next topic okay you know we're making a movie you know oed the office of excellent directors just down to a minute you know we've got you know ed rambo randolph gregory jsep grant todd red carpet rubin i mean if you have a shirt you're in the movie you know there's gonna be uh yeah also you know we're coming out with the with with our hats you know here's a play this is uh you know play off the fwc the fish wildlife commission you know fishing with council fishing with congress fishing with chris you know uh fishing with charles scooter bar i mean you'll have to get him a shirt you know but right now just down to 30 seconds but what i really want to share with you is that public access on our waterways it's the worst ever here's the northeast florida regional council you know uh and here's the resilient jacks you know i'm in this thing four times only down 10 seconds filled out a bunch of speaker cards but when it comes to tourism open up our waterways thank you for listening mr president those are our last speakers i'm going to read into the record a few cards did not wish to speak tony langles uh vote no on 2026 364 ian face care not cops dropped the charges on connor cavie loretta patterson put do not wish to speak and then did not fill out anything joseph moore the use of force on jacks citizens is unacceptable and needs change dan cordy passed the people's budget fire officers with histories of violence james edwards vote now on ordinance 2026 364 and i believe this is avery holbrook tax dollars should be used to help our community and people in crisis that concludes our public comments and with that mr president it's now time for public hearing starting on page 11 council members should declare any ex parte communications anyone wishing to speak on the following bill should have completed a blue speaker card and you will be allowed three minutes to speak you may say your address is on record but you are encouraged to be specific with your location as that may impact the weight given to your comments like public comment a speaker may be invited to the green room for further discussion at a council member's discretion mr teal please read the bills 20 26 273 274 275 276 307 308 309 310 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 320 321 322 323 324 325 325 327 328 329 330 333 333 334 335 336 337 358 362 363 364 2026 122 123 126 127 168 and 169 these public hearings are all open i'm 12 2026 273 one speaker card brenta durden questions only public hearings closed i'm 13 and 14 2026 274 275 no speaker cards these public hearings are closed item 15 2026 276 one speaker card questions only annabelle susie public hearings closed item 16 2026 0307 one speaker card questions only annabelle susie public hearings closed item 17 2026 308 questions i have two speaker cards bonnie smart and denise jernigan bonnie smart or janice uh denise jernigan and ladies and gentlemen if you wish to speak on anything else remaining on tonight's agenda we just ask that you move forward a little so when we do call you up you can get to the podium and start your three minutes sooner good afternoon my name is bonnie smart my address is on file we got a letter for rezoning for entrance to a piece of property that is being cut off of our neighbors i would say but they don't have a right of way to our street our street is a private road has been like that for over a hundred years nobody ever give them access off of our private road to start out with now they're wanting to cut a new driveway through there to make it for some property that they have uh gave to one of their family members but the letter that we've got in the map that was sent to us this is not correct this is not how the the land goes on ours you can see where we have a pond in the back on there you do not see their pond and the property that they are wanting to rezone is a pond over half of that property that they're wanting to put a resident on is the pond now i do know for a fact that they use davidson farm road and they're not supposed to but they have been bringing tractor trailers down through our road flatbed trucks all the deliveries for their company which is our road is just one way in and one way out it's a dead end it's only a one lane road most of the people that live on this street is family a lot of them are disabled and we have a lot of medical vehicles that have to come in and out we do not need a business ran and their vehicles running up and down our street blocking our way to get in and out which that's happened quite a few times they run off the ditch because they have if anybody tries to go past them that somebody's got to go in the ditch and that has happened covoits are being smashed in our road signs at the end of our private road has been tore down our stop signs is being tore down this has to stop this is not what this street was made for it was an easement for the family that live on there not for someone that has property that runs beside us to come in and make them a driveway to property that goes to the back of their property it's being given to a family member so they can get their access to what they're using now which is to be yellow bluff road that is their address not davidson farm road this is a disgrace to the ones that live on that street because they're having to deal with all the deliveries all the backup you have to wait they get done unloading their equipment for their company or whatever it is they're running to get by and it's uncalled for thank you thank you denise jernigan i apologize if i mispronounced your last name there good evening everybody my name is denise jernigan address on file i am also one of the residents that live on davidson farm road which is a private dirt road that the property owners are responsible for maintaining we are formally opposing the request for the waiver of road front road burnage road frontage sorry about that emails were sent to councilman gaffney from a lot of the residents that live on our dirt road there's maybe 20 families all opposing this as well the application that was submitted states that they have access to an easement that allows them to use davidson farm road the applicant if that is true it was given back in 1985 and now that the applicant has an established and functional entrance directly off of yellow bluff road which is their address the usage of davidson farm road is no longer valid we will also be issuing a voluntary request to terminate the existing easement if there is one on file due to it no longer serving the purpose that it held when it was originally given in 85. at this time we ask that the application be denied thank you thank you and mr denise miss bonnie your district council member of reggie gaffney jr would like to talk to you in the bob johnson room along with miss abney from our planning department if you'd like to go through there thank you i have no more speaker cards it's public hearing is closed 2026 310 i have four speaker cards come on down if you're here to speak on 310 i have a robert reinhardt a megan starts with a g i cannot read the last name a jamie crawford and a i believe this is richard michael smith so if i called any of those names here to speak on bill 2026 310 that is the bill taking place in district 12 please come on down i'm going to call these names one more time i do not see anyone walking down robert reinhardt megan starts with a gr cannot read the rest jamie crawford or richard michael smith are any of those here okay just for the record all four of those people oppose this ordinance and i have no more speaker cards okay it's closed i'm 20 21 22 20 26 312 313 314 i have no speaker cards these public hearings are all closed i'm 23 20 26 315 one speaker card john nooney mr nooney you are next three or four cards please speak directly to the bill that you're up there to speak on hello i am john j nooney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 i'm in city council district 4 cpac 3 school board district 3 and address mr nooney 83 56 bascom road jacksonville florida 3 2 2 1 6 it's off mills south side um really back straight up to pottsburgh creek okay uh this ordinance approved the harbor waterway dependent special district and you know it's in neighborhoods and finance but not in waterways you know waterways meets tomorrow you know at 9 30 you know these used to always go to waterways and when you open up the uh uh you know for those that are here you open up the agenda to page three city council auditor purchasing cards p card audit report number 904 received april 28 2026 city council auditor council district discretionary fund second quarterly report you see april 29 2026 well the reason i'm just bringing this to people's attention because the next bill also has to do with special districts and with waterways we're creating more and more of these special districts so anyway you know if it came before waterways you could see how some of these special districts are they being successful they're not successful you know we were in a meeting earlier with with two different uh cra's you know the king sutel and renew arlington you know you put things in place but you know what a couple of years later things may not be working out the way you would hope that they would work out so here is an opportunity for the city council representative to go and maybe pull some money from you know uh because i'll tell you without p cards you you know like that you got millions right there they were talking about and so anyway uh i just want to get on the record you know i'm only just down to 40 seconds but you know uh again this should be in waterways everything used to go to the waterways commission and i can i'd be more than happy to show everybody you know past agendas on this stuff okay that's it and uh i'll speak to the next one thank you more speaker cards public hearings closed i'm 24 20 26 316 one speaker card john nooney all right i am john jay nooney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 i'm in city council district 4 cpac 3 school board district 3 8356 bascom road jacksonville florida 32216 you know it's a dead end street there's uh sandwiched between two private roads uh backs up to pottsburgh creek okay this is miller's creek dependent special district you know uh be also nicest to have the council uh districts i know this one you know i would i'm thinking it's right down off of uh beach boulevard but uh same thing it's going to be in neighborhoods and finance but not waterways you know you want these to go before waterway you want to hear the success or the failure the good the bad the ugly and the public access that all these waterway uh special districts are fortunate to have so uh anyway uh again if you just go and look there's two potential actually there's lots of money around so uh and just for the record in the past anyone can make a motion and here's other evidence if you'd like to the chair that these could be sent to waterways and uh i just hope that would be a consideration all right thank you for listening no no more speaker cards and no motion public hearings closed i'm 25 20 26 317 uh no speaker cards public hearings closed i'm 26 20 26 3181 speaker card john nooney i'm the only speaker on this all right i am john jay nooney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 city council district 4 cpac 3 school board district 3 83 56 bascom road jacksonville florida 32216 this uh wow um are we we're going to be adding a filing fee of ten dollars for violations of the jacksonville ordinance mr nooney you're reading what's written down well i i wasn't reading all of it i i mean gosh all right well let's increase it to 20 bucks okay do i hear 30 can we go back to the p cards we got a couple million in this one you know i'm just uh you know okay mr nooney if you don't know about the bill don't come up and just ramble come on but this is a big fee i mean you know it's in neighborhoods rules finance you send that this one to waterways you know um but okay you know again a ten dollar and we're going to add a new subsection for assessing a filing fee for violation the jackson ordinance code i know we're getting ready to change everything everything so uh all right i'm just surprised i'm the only one speaking on it all right i have no more speaker card i'm 27 2026 320 two speaker card john nooney does not wish to speak but he supports it vincent barone are you still out there come on down i like to vincent barone jacksonville i like to explain the difference between a guarantee and an if i was in atlantic city my friends would go in one hotel to another and a bunch of prostitutes came over to our car and they said oh come on honey come on i said no no sir let's get on the bill quick i am i am let me finish the story let me finish the story i get out the thing so anyway so so anyway the girl says to me she says what's the matter honey you didn't want to pay for it and i point at my wedding ring and i said i already did that's the guarantee that that's the if that's the versus the guarantee when i'm looking at the way this pension plan is set up susie wiles put this plan together to for it to be guaranteed the lock box was picked by the executive branch and and the general council so now you're leaving the deficit um almost 60 percent that these firemen and fire people in the future can have an if just like social security and you took away the guarantee and you guys aren't addressing that because you're worried about how you're going to get it i'm telling you guys if you don't open up and start looking at the boxes they're gonna rob the money from you if you have a guarantee you take the guarantee you don't tell them the the financial areas to put it in bond issues where they roll the money into another it's like it's like when you refinance your credit card debt that's what they do we have 36 million dollars in profit on a bond that was issued where's the money where is the money the reason why is because they took that to wash the other bonds they keep rolling it out to 20 years in the future well let me tell you what 20 years is that's 300 million dollars in interest payments that we pay on it so you want to stop me from saying something that's that's that you may think that's inappropriate there's nothing more inappropriate than taking the money from the people you guys are in the districts and miss pitman i'd like to talk to you for a second you have a flyover country these people can't give you the money because it's in silos it's there it's there you can't get to it because the executive branch not the we're supposed to be on the tells you tells you you don't have an option to get to it and that's not right the the the mayor has the right to open all this and i have the team that can get together and that we're getting open up all these things thank you i have no more speaker cards i'm 28 29 30 31 and 32 20 26 321 322 3232 324 325 i have no speaker cards all these public hearings are closed i'm 33 2026 3271 speaker card john newney hello i am john jay newney jacksville city council resolution 2023 0819 and city council district 4 cpac planning district 3 school board district 3 ocho trace 5 6 bascom road jacksonville florida 32216 backs up to potsburg creek which really believe it or not connects to the emerald trail so here we're going to be appropriating 12 and a half million dollars from the emerald trail hogan's creek to the river walk other construction costs i mean this thing is massive and it's uh and here again it's neighborhoods rules teu finance but it's not in waterways and you look at what it's going to be doing you know we're you know settlement of claims and suits you know we're um my gosh you you know it's yeah that's a ton of dough and uh so anyway we're going to authorize the chief of the real estate division department of public works you know the direction of engineering you know this is this is some you know big stuff but you know here's the bottom line when this goes through the committee ask where today on hogan's creek you can launch stand up paddleboard a kayak launch legally and uh uh you know and i'm serious about that because there's every piece and i've got dozens of pieces of legislation that i can just share with you and you know what remember this too we just created a parks trust fund 2026 0004 and then also we just passed 2026 0024 you know that's uh fwc fishing with clara you know and uh you know there's more of this but i'll be speaking on on it i'm just down to 40 some seconds but again you know uh no this is waterways stuff and you know uh well open our water waterways please no more speaker cards public airs closed i'm 34 35 36 37 20 26 32 8 32 9 3 3 0 3 3 1 no speaker cards these public hearings are all closed i'm 3 20 26 3 3 2 1 speaker card john noonie hello i am john philanthropic jelly roll good boy resiliency noonie 8356 bascom road jackson florida 3 2 2 1 6 city council district 4 c pack planning district 3 school board district 3 governor ron desantis pardon noonie all right now this is one okay authorized the mayor the corporate secretary this is a second amendment to the agreement with ju to renew the agreement now you know this is a neighborhoods finance okay this is the it is in waterways but remember this you know the environmental protection board you know that these used to come before the environmental protection board and i'll tell you something you know uh the reason i want to speak on it you know uh you know public hearings with the environment they don't happen anymore and the reason i also want to speak with it is you know i really do need that pardon because with ju mr noonie your pardon has nothing to do with this bill well it's ju you you know and and and the the whole thing is you know when we are whole you know handing out all this money you know to protect some of these not-for-profits or special interest groups yeah you better be concerned about it all right thank you for listening no more speaker cards public hearings closed i'm 39 40 41 20 26 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 5 no speaker cards public hearings closed item 42 20 26 3 3 6 one speaker card mr john noonie does not wish to speak but he supports this public hearings closed i'm 43 20 26 3 3 7 i have no speaker cards public hearings closed item 44 20 26 358 john noonie does wish to speak hello i am john jay noonie jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 ojo trace 5 6 bascom road jacksonville florida 3 2216 city council district 4 cpac 3 school board district 3 now again here's another one neighborhoods rules teu but not in waterways you know again and i'll tell you this is big stuff storage of vehicles or vessels vessels and you know you you know you got uh the coast the sponsors council member gay and co-sponsor council member pelusa you know waterway guys you know and so again you know this should be in waterways this is massive you know it's the state of florida this is big stuff when it comes when it comes to the watercraft and uh so anyway you know i just wanted to get on on the record you know uh again i'm surprised that no one else is filling out cards on this stuff thank you for listening stay there mr noonie i have no more speaker cards public hearings closed item 45 20 26 3 6 2 1 speaker card john noonie hello i am john jay noonie jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 8356 bascom road jacksonville florida 32216 and city council district 4 cpac planning district 3 school board district 3 now this one you know address mr nini 8356 bascom road jacksonville florida 32216 and so okay i got two minutes but here's an ordinance 5 200 000 from the general fund operating youth empowerment this is kids hope alliance stuff and you know i was at last night's greater arlington cpac meeting and and here's kids hope alliance right here and the guy we fund programs we don't operate them now the reason i've been going to the kids hope alliance is because you know and when you read this you're looking at benefiting youth what i want everyone to understand and this only happened a year ago but there are three potential find that's a florida inland navigation district they're meeting this you know this month mr nooney find has nothing to do with this bill whatsoever actually you know it has everything to do with it you know and the same thing with the northeast florida regional council and no that that doesn't track either mr nooney we're going to go ahead okay well okay well several times you're done on this one next one mr president that's my only speaker card no no no no this is jseb stuff this is not jseb you're done sit down item 46 2026 363 mr president the next two i do have a about 10 each for these two i have a combination of those that wish to speak that i'm going to call now i'm going to call on council member diamond first to make a quick announcement regarding the next two bills thank you uh so as far as number 46 i don't have an announcement but just so everybody knows on 47 these are unrelated bills just to be clear they're both kind of luz bills but they're unrelated uh number 47 that's the administrative deviation bill i've got a lot of feedback on this and so i'm i'm hearing what people are saying i'm listening to their concerns so i'm going to tap the brakes on that and defer it for at least one month at least i promise it'll be at least a month have a public hearing about a substitute bill that addresses people's concerns and then only after we have another public hearing just on this uh will i uh let the bill go uh for committee hearing so just everybody knows 47 gonna tap the brakes hearing people out i'll rewrite parts of the bill and then i'll let that one go thank you mr diamond all right thank you mr diamond so i'm going to call the ones that do wish to speak so you can come down uh wells todd ruth nelson peoples lydia bell katrina spencer amir sharif and john nuni those that do not wish to speak it looks like they're all opposed uh joanne d'angelo last name barnett i think it's tommy barnett and sally barnes they all oppose mr todd uh we are on 46 2026 363 and then when we get to item 47 i'll call the cards and if mr diamond's comment has changed your mind you do not have to speak mr todd my name is wells todd address is on file and we'll take them down jacks uh just for some clarification um mr diamond are you saying that what you are creating or what you want to create is a private path to uh permitting for developers is that what you're holding off on you can speak to me no i mean he can see you in the green room if he wants but that's his choice he can't speak no no no no we're dealing with the democratic uh stuff going on here i don't go to the green room so if i'm speaking to it it appears that what mr diamond wants to create is a path for permitting uh for developers a private path uh he argues that compared to the city's planning department private firms take on more risk in improving site plans so private firms should take the place of jacksonville's planning department um what i do want to say is private firms take on the risk as part of the capitalist system this would appear to sidestep uh a number of things including the neighborhood bill of rights uh private firms are always going to look at what makes profit for them not what is best for the community profit motive never takes into account what is best for the community for the community input in your plan mr diamond do you want to dismiss the neighborhood bill of rights that's the question that i have this is exactly um one of the reasons why mr diamond is involved in setting up turning point usa clubs to reinforce the philosophy of putting profits over human needs thank you thank you next thank you next is miss nelson peoples please mr todd um council member peluso would like to speak with you if you're open to that yes go ahead miss go ahead miss nelson peoples please uh good evening council members my name is ruth nelson peoples and my address is on file um i just want to quickly say something about what councilman uh diamond said um because i didn't quite understand that 0363 and 0364 were not related part of the reason that i didn't understand that was that we were unable to access this information um through the legislative gateway and even though i emailed the council piocoj.net um and requested information on this that those emails i didn't receive any information on it so that was really the only reason that i didn't i guess i want to say there's no way we could have understood it because we couldn't get access to the information thank you thank you next is miss lydia bell please lydia bell address on file what manner of government this ordinance 2025 036 or 0363 without legislative review can reduce lot size yards land scraping increase height lot a lot of things this is just a bad bill and i'm glad that in 2027 elections are coming so we will see who will vote for this horrible bill downsizing the participation of the communities several things amazed me about this bill the councilman who submits this bill lives on the beach that will not affect any of his constituents but only the people who lives in jacksonville but you have a 31 year ordinance neighborhood bill of rights that we had over 100 concerned citizens to come to that neighborhood bill of rights that's what you should be working on to ensure that citizens are properly represented because like in brentwood you had the drive-through liquor store 300 body more forensic lab 100 unit apartment for homeless people and then came back with the liquor store and made it into a jsa b not one planning hearing not one thing did we hear but now you coming up with a bill that would help private businesses no official transcript entered into public record and uh evidence for a lawsuit no requirement for public notice this bill sidesteps the florida sunshine law which holds legislators responsible for not giving notice of meeting not giving citizens excess excess not discussing business outside of the chamber i feel understand why this is even coming up because what it does it derail the neighborhood bill of rights like when we weren't notified about the liquor store we were told we should appeal how are you going to appeal the decision that you don't even have a notice that you're having a meeting things got to change here in jacksonville for some reason it's gotten off of rail that more concern is for businesses but not the constituents and citizens that are paying tax why this bill is coming up i don't even know and maybe the council person can explain it to me and my address i'll send you my address my email so you can send me a true response to why this bill is even coming up this is the worst bill i have read in a long time and hopefully the elections will get us the right people in order to do the right thing thank you next is miss spencer please miss spencer here okay she she opposes um next up is amina sharif is she still here amina sharif address on file city council members we have to do better this bill speaks clearly to what has not been happening in the communities what has not been happening in the decisions that have been made for the constituents that you have been elected for all we're asking is that you do the right thing so that you can be appreciated for all the hard work that you do bills like this take away what you supposed to be trying to do all we as your constituents want you to do your job and for us to show you the appreciation you deserve this kind of bill by not including the uh residents by not making it clear or plain what is supposed to be happening in the future that's your job you're supposed to notify us you're supposed to keep us informed of what's coming or what's going on all we ask is that you do your job and that we can appreciate you thank you thank you next up is mr nooney hello i am john j nooney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 8356 bascom road jacksonville florida 32216 city council district 4 cpac planning district 3 school board district 3 now uh this it's going to be in rules l-u-z but not in neighborhoods finance or waterways now what i wrote down here and the public hearing will be continued to may 26 26 but i wrote down here the rory diamond subdivision public park with private providers on potsberg creek 2025 0019 all right thank you for listening i have no more speaker cards uh this public hearing is closed an additional public hearing will be on 5 26 26 on a 47 20 26 0 3 6 4 uh we have wishing to speak kathleen pereira ruth nelson peoples katherine delray blake carper trey ford ed rat ed radloff and john nooney and while they're coming down i'll read into the record those that do not wish to speak joanne d'angelo opposes tommy perhaps it's chartwell opposes sally barnes opposes keith langenberg opposes kelly frazier opposes and reverend gundy opposes miss prayer go ahead my name is kathleen prayer my information is on file excuse me now if we could be certain that all council members would answer every email or phone call attend all their cpac meetings and call regular and when necessary special question and answer town hall meetings with their constituents about all development plans in their district and if citizens could be assured that the the competent substantial evidence they have presented against the project would be seriously considered and given at least equal or even more weight than the developers and if citizens were confident that procedural due process would be fervently followed then this ordinance might not be so controversial it also doesn't help us to think positively about this bill now the city's website is being upgraded until june and citizens can't fully review any ordinance without having to depend upon an email response from the city that may or may not be timely or complete therefore given the current record of how things are being done this bill can only be viewed as the city's attempt to stifle public awareness comment discussion and debate when their neighborhoods are suddenly encroached upon big developers developers in fact this bill which would encourage reckless development is the perfect reason why the council needs to codify the 1995 neighborhood bill of rights loopholes were mentioned in uh an earlier bill concerning the winn dixie this has a great big loophole itself vote no on this bill thank you next up ruth nelson peoples i don't think she's here katherine delray oh i'm sorry ma'am i see you now uh good evening council members my name is ruth nelson peoples and my address is on file this bill is not simply about feet on a map or technical notification requirements it is about whether the public still has a meaningful voice in decisions that shape their neighborhoods and quality of life public participation is one of the few safeguards ordinary residents have in the development process citizens do not have teams of attorneys consultants engineers or lobbyists representing them our ability to participate begins with being informed in fact as i mentioned earlier part of being informed in jacksonville is the ability for us to use the legislative gateway uh to access proposed ordinances um as i mentioned earlier as well my email request for uh information on this ordinance was not answered and it's been a week i have a number of issues with this ordinance which include reducing the notification radius from 350 feet to 300 feet which weakens notice requirements and moves us in the wrong direction instead of expanding awareness and encouraging engagement it narrows the circle of people who even know a project exists entire streets neighborhoods and residents could be excluded if anything the notification area should be expanded to 800 to a thousand feet so communities truly affected by growth and rezoning decisions have an opportunity to participate before decisions are finalized public input is not an obstacle to overcome it is a critical part of responsible planning residents often identify concerns that they may never fully appear in a staff report or site plan local knowledge matters because the people who live in these communities experience the consequences long after hearings are over this ordinance attempts to weaken public participation weakening public participation weakens accountability and when fewer people are notified your questions get asked your concerned or fewer concerns are raised and projects move forward with less scrutiny that may make the process easier for development development developers but government's responsibility is not to make development easier at the expense of the public's voice no resident should learn about a major development only after the trees are cleared the wetlands are filled or the bulldozers arrive thank you thank you katherine delray okay she opposes blake harper she opposes the ordinance she does not oppose blake harper sorry i said that all at the same time well as todd is blake harper information on file one of the great things that that i feel that i have with the people on city council is the ability to work together when we agree on things but also work work in a respectful manner when we disagree on things and i'm just so thankful for the fact that i have that kind of relationship to be a sponsor of this bill there's a serious problem out there my thought on this is this this this issue of uh administrative deviations is a what they use during covid it's an essential public service i'm not one for taxes but uh going for crazy social programs but i am one for taxes for providing expanded essential services i think one of the things that you may want to consider is how to expand throughput um when uh when whatever the uh whatever the parameters were set up for administrative deviations it was done with the idea that there was a certain amount of uh uh input a certain amount of consideration a certain a balance and uh i i don't know if lauribori had anything to do with it but i just had a great appreciation for the fact that much of the uh these types of policies and procedures are founded in in rational rational uh outcomes so my suggestion is as you're looking at this however you find however you i'll look at trimming it or trying to uh and uh speed up the through throughput without sacrificing public uh public uh uh con um involvement and without sacrificing the quality of neighborhoods you also need to look at allocating more funds to this department so that they can i can process more people can process this that's very simple this is one of the things that we need to use taxes for and uh keep the burden down for the for the uh general public thank you thank you trey ford is he still here and i'll see him he opposes ed radloff and then john nanny will be the last speaker on this uh good evening everyone ed radloff uh name and address or name and address address on file um it's been a while since i've been down here but i appreciate uh council member diamond pulling this back for more talk um i oppose 364 as someone that has been down here fighting zoning issues listening to the people here fighting zoning issues you're basically looking at doing away due process there's three requirements of due process notice an opportunity to be heard and a fair unbiased decision maker and sitting here and taking away hearings for people to come and speak to the planning people to city council is just not right too many times we are having stuff shoved down our throats and i can go back and show instances in our area of arlington where things have happened and now we're having to live with the consequences and we need to have a process where we can come together as a community and speak our concerns our reservations on some things we had an instance uh where we fought a zoning and uh we ended up coming to agreement well they have not moved forward with the project because they wanted to put more um homes on that piece of property we came to an agreement but it still sits on on um developed so um i do oppose this but i do appreciate council member for diamond and uh we will follow us along thank you thank you john newney our last speaker on this item hello i am john jay newney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 otro tres cinco seis bascom road jacksonville florida three two two one six i'm in city council district four cpac planning district three school board district three and you know what i wrote this will be the rory diamond non-conforming lots structures public park on potsberg creek a true find and you know it's in neighborhoods rules l-u-z but not in waterways and i just want to remind everybody i'm next to a no array twenty twenty four zero zero zero three four fema house it should have been demolished you know and so you talk about hitting all the different boxes but anyway i just want to get that on the record uh this will be continued to five twenty six twenty six thank you for listening no more speaker cards public hearing is closed an additional public hearing will be on five twenty six twenty six it's now time for public hearings on land use amendments and certain companion rezonings starting on page 24 items 48 49 50 and 51 20 26 122 123 126 and 127 i have no speaker cards these public hearings will be continued to 6 9 26 i'm 52 20 26 168 i have a number of number of speaker cards here those that wish to speak sally barnes go ahead and come on down when i call your name uh benjamin and i cannot read the last name and i believe this is sean shaw actually he has written i don't wish to speak at the bottom so i think the only speakers i have are sally barnes and benjamin last name i cannot read uh sally barnes before you go let me read uh these into the record we have carolyn gaitlin who opposes this legislation does not wish to speak and manuela roberts who opposes and does not wish to speak uh miss barnes go ahead hello my name is sally barnes my address is on file i am here to speak against this because this place has a septic tank on it and it's really not enough space there but my concern is i pulled off abandoned septic tanks and there's a possibility of explosion if it's not checked out and done right they have to have someone according to the rules they have to have someone come in and check it and make sure it's safe they say they also have a risk of falling into a sinkhole out there because it's been abandoned they don't know how bad it's been been abandoned and there are also health risks associated with that septic tank i did research on it and it's really bad it's not worth taking a chance on somebody their houses right next door that thing butts to 2370 commonwealth avenue that property that septic tank is not too far from that there and it's been abandoned for years from what i gather now this is something that we got children play on that sidewalk they're running up and down that sidewalk and it says that these things have a lot of toxin in it and there's a chance that it will explode if they don't know but they recommend that it be checked out to see what is actually there and if it is a possibility of explosion there these houses are right next to there one's right next to it one across two across the street one across the street on on the other side of the street with children little kids run up and down there if this thing is open without being checked and somebody's kid get killed who that call who that call i'm asking you all to just make them check this thing make sure this septic tank is taken out properly according to the rules of florida because right now it's not and it's not really that big and they keep saying that they're going to do whatever they're going to do they're going to put apartments duplex or whatever but it's not really said they're not really saying what they're actually going to put on there but my concern mainly is that septic tank because i live down the road i'm not right across from it but i don't live too far from it and i don't want my i don't want anybody's kid getting killed and nobody else for that matter they need to check it out make sure it's safe and then come back this is my opinion and i'm hoping you all will agree with me come back make safety first don't just take a chance on somebody getting killed because this thing explodes if they go out there and start working on it you can't get back a life once it's gone it's gone so i'm asking you all to just make them check it make sure they clean it up and come back and do whatever they need to do i walked over there in the weeds in the weeds myself when i saw it my neighbor told me about it i walked over there and that septic tank is still there it's a huge mound is there so it needs to be addressed it needs to be taken care of before somebody lose their life if in case that thing explodes thank you thank you uh the only other speaker uh benjamin cannot read the last name zip code three two two one eight is anyone here meeting that description this person supports this ordinance and then sean shaw does not wish to speak opposes i have no more speaker cards public hearings closed oh wait i moved the is this oh i apologize are you uh mr shaw benjamin oh benjamin okay go ahead uh i don't wish to speak unless you want me to so you're here for questions only sir no mayor we're good he's not he does not wish to speak okay no questions you can sit down okay as soon as we clear this up mayor we're good all right councilwoman clark murray thank you president um through the president to actually um mr zabarinda just have a seat for a moment and then miss barnes if you would come forward i'm gonna go ahead and reopen the public hearing thank you i actually uh to the president i thought you had reopened it but thank you okay so miss barnes um just give your name again i might ask you a couple of questions okay just give your name again my name is sally barnes the address is on file all right thank you so you mentioned about a septic tank on the property is that i know that this property was once used as a tire shop so is that oh okay it was once used as a tire shop i know that for a fact it's not a question but i got the wrong one okay tire shop is a different right i'm just so the septic tank is it actually a septic tank or was that where they they also used to they worked on cars on the property as well so are you sure it was a septic tank or was it where they used to sort store oil and other fluids from vehicles okay i stand corrected the one i thought this was the one on commonwealth i didn't look at it when i brought it down here because i have pictures for the car the car place i have pictures for that one but that car place also i met with him in this room back here yes he asked me to come back and you told me to come and talk with him and he told me that he wants to get it zoned uh for yes ma'am yes ma'am and i and i know what the zoning change he wants to make but i need to ask i'm asking these questions to address your concern okay thank you miss barnes mr zabarinda if please let him come up first and then i can call you back miss barnes come on thank you through the president so mr zabarinda do do you um have you investigated this aspect that miss barnes mentioned on the property about the septic tank are you aware of it there's not any presence of septic tank that i know so far okay so thank you for that because i am not entirely sure because i did not walk the property or go on the property i'm familiar with the property so the one thing that i'd like to um want you to consider is if there is um an issue and i and i'm not sure mr um harvey i'm going to rely on you for this through the chair to mr harvey rely on you for this one if i can put a condition when we go to the next bill so um so if i'm going to ask for a condition in regards to that particular aspect of this property okay i just want to let you know so you start mulling it over okay i don't know that's why i said i don't know i'm gonna find out all right so thank you thank you okay i'm done thank you chair both you can have it can sit down just sit close thank you all right we're gonna close that public hearing i move the bill we've got a motion second on the bill no one in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 18 yeas zero nays by your action you've approved 2026-0168 2026-169 i have a couple that one uh wish to speak miss sally barnes come on down she wishes to speak and sean shaw uh does not wish to speak uh but opposes this legislation and then i also have a mr benjamin who's still here supports this does not wish to speak carolyn gatlin opposes this legislation and does not wish to speak manuela roberts opposes this and also does not wish to speak uh so miss barnes you're the only speaker okay my name is sally barnes my address is on file this is about the lot on mcduff avenue we talked about this right there he said that he wants to get it rezoned that he wants to fix that tire shop used to be a tire shop he want to fix that to be an apartment that people can rent out and then he said he asked me about the one the already 60 behind there and i told him it's residential so i'd like to keep it residential he's talking about putting an apartment back there and i asked him well you know what kind of apartment you're going to put back there he says he didn't know he said he was going to he wanted to get it rezoned i have a witness right here that was with me when we talked to him he wanted rezoned that rld 60 back there and because he didn't have any money to do anything with it right now so i we don't have a problem with him developing his whatever up there where the tire shop was but to rezone this and he said he might consider putting an apartment back there it's not enough room for an apartment back there and if you have five or more units back there it's considered commercial now what is it going to be that's what i'm saying and this is really she right there he came in and she heard him too he said he he don't have enough money to do anything with it right now but why rezone it i told him this i said if you don't know what you're going to put back there why don't you just get the one you'd have get it rezone for what you want and then come back later when you decide when you know what you're going to do and then represent it so he told me okay well if you think you can get it passed get it however you want to get it done do it so he challenged me to come up and tell you that my witness is right there she can tell you the same thing he don't know what he's going to do with it because he said he didn't have the money so this i say no if we don't have a problem with him making that apartment up there whatever he's going to do do it but you can't put that back there because the rules say that you can't put commercial property right next to a fence line those pictures show that that property right there the fence separates and you're going to try to put apartment in there no how y'all feel about that but i really think if you don't know what you're going to put there you're going to wait years later after you got his own then you can do whatever you want to do because it's already been rezoned so i'm asking you to say no if you want to put his make the tire shop into an apartment we don't oppose that but that next night we prefer you leave it rld 60. thank you ma'am i have no more speaker cards while the public hearing is open miss clark murray did you want to ask questions okay thank you chair or president um mrs abarinda if you would come up please so when i spoke with you in regards to this particular rezoning first of all i look at the fact that it is going from from a more intense use to a less intense use with the cro and then you spoke with me about the fact that you're not going to change the the footprint of the building but you're more looking more to have an apartment uh at the top level and then have some kind of office at the bottom is that or is that true or not that's still the case i am only confused about uh the statement that she made uh saying that the rule says we cannot put the the commercial building next to a resident that is about the lot in the back of the already commercial and that lot is still residential we're not making that commercial but i don't know i want to first of all uh clear that confusion yes for the building that needs a total rehab i'm looking into uh having it result from ccg2 to cro so that i am able to install kitchens and uh potentially rent it as residential if i'm not able to secure uh renters for the building as uh offices thank you thank you for that please have a seat please have a seat um through the chair miss miss barnes if you would come forward with the time that i have yeah once again please don't sit so far back so we can go ahead and have these um hearings and then we can move on to vote on the bill so with that discussion do you understand a little bit better with what he plans to do with the property so the idea is that with the existing building and you know what the existing building looks like he's going to rehab it so that there's an apartment up top and so that there are offices at the bottom the things that i was concerned about is whether or not there's going to be an increase in traffic and whether or not he was going to have additional vehicles on that lot which according to what he said today and when i spoke with him that is not the case no it's not he told me and like i said right there my witness is right there she came back there with me as you know and we talked to him yes ma'am i know he said he's going to put apartments there and he want to rent them out so if you're going to tell me one thing get here and tell you something else and i have a witness to prove what was said we i mean really we have testimony i'm sorry to interrupt i'm running out of time the clock there running out of time so i just want to make sure that you understand he's not building additional apartments he's going to use the existing building and he's changing it to the mda and to the cro so that once again he can have perhaps a occupant up top on the top floor and then offices on the bottom floor but what he told me he wants to get it all re-zoned that's what he's saying my problem is not with that building my problem is with the existing property behind there being changed i told him it needs to stay rld 60 because really it's not enough space back there it for anything there except the house he and i asked him i said well what are you when are you going to do it he said i don't know because i don't have any money that was his word quote unquote yes ma'am to us he didn't have any money to do anything with it right now he was thinking a few years later he would decide what he want to put on there and my thing is if you don't know what you're going to put there you don't need a zone you don't need a reason yes ma'am i i do understand that thank you so much i appreciate that um so through the to the president i would like to put a condition on this yeah and i and i if i'm not mistaken so i cannot put a condition at this time on this particular on this portion of the rezoning through the president to go yeah go ahead mary clark murray it's a conventional rezoning and you can't condition conventional rezoning at all okay all right so thank you for that so with that being said if you could give me just 10 seconds please yes please bring it on thank you believe you me i wanted to be here tuesday i was unable to be here and believe you me you all know that i'm normally here especially when i have something in my district anyway so with that being said so mr debarinda so the one thing you can stay there that's fine the one thing that i do ask that you do and i asked this of you when we met a couple of weeks ago is that fence that fence is in such disrepair and if you would be a a um amenable and a good neighbor to us and miss barnes and the robinson's addition uh neighborhood association to put an opaque fence there i'm and i'm just telling them i can't put it in writing but i'm asking for you to be honest and forthright and just follow through to put a fence that is opaque meaning that a vinyl fence that is is uh well structured and uh well uh complements the property thank you thank you all right thank you i'm gonna go ahead and close public hearing i moved the bill motion and second by mr areas on the bill um all right council member clark murray on the bill thank you for bearing with me colleagues so first of all ex parte i met with mr zabarinda on april the 24th uh upstairs in our council suite and once again we discussed our plan he discussed his plans for the property i talked about traffic and how this his property abuts a single family home and i asked him about replacing the fence because it is in disrepair and he did say that he would be amenable to replacing the fence i also met with mr zabarinda sally barnes and carolyn griffin tonight uh in the green room and i just brought them together so that they would have an opportunity to explain to one another their concerns regarding the property and i have filed one of these um communications with legislative services and i'll be sure to file the one for tonight with them as well all right no one else in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 18 yays zero nays by your action you've approved 2026-0169 mr president it is time for third reading so we'll start on page 27 with our only third reading resolution for action item 54-2026-270 i move the bill got a motion and second on the bill council member boyland thank you mr chairman i just wanted to comment a i i was not aware of the circumstance uh surrounding mr chavez with respect to his some history there uh and looking at his uh the foundation's website and i i applaud them for doing so and i'm sharing this because i didn't vote for this resolution uh out of ignorance uh at the rules committee meeting but it says on here to the survivors we believe you we honor your courage we are very sorry for the harm you have carried in the shadows for so long so the foundation stands on there i just want to clarify today i will be supporting this resolution thank you mr president all right thank you council member peluso thank you mr president uh i think this is a really bad precedence i think if we're going to denounce former resolutions other people are going to ask us and wonder why we're not denouncing former resolutions this is a bad precedent we're gonna get more people coming in here we're gonna get more of that distraction that we've had in the past we should just never do this type of resolution again i don't know why we're specifically denouncing an old one i think we just don't do it again i think it's over i i move to withdraw this bill motion second on the withdrawal no and council member diamond uh mr president i oppose the withdrawal i'd like to pass this resolution i agree we shouldn't do this very often this is an extremely unique situation where a bill was kind of ran through a couple of years ago and then this stuff comes out that this guy was raping people and so as a matter of my own personal request of the council i don't want my name on that anymore and i don't think anybody who was there wants their name on that anymore and this is literally happening across the country as the facts are coming out so i would ask that you oppose the withdrawal vote for this i promise not to introduce another one of these again council member actually clark murray first time wow wow i'm just just totally just blown away by the uh introducers um comments that is just amazing um we do live in a day where we are finding out more and more about a person and so the question just like council member boylan talked about the fact that do we what do we do what do we do in cases like this he was a good man during the time that he fought for rights for hispanics fair pay fair pay for workers specifically farm workers what do we do in this case when there's more information i mean i kind of use my reference point as columbus day columbus day at one time schools throughout the land we didn't go to school on columbus day i've got to call a point of order mary can you explain what you just explained to me which makes you being able to speak on the withdrawal not relevant because the withdrawal might not be legal so okay through the president to the council so rule 3.106 with respect to withdrawal of bills states that any bill may be withdrawn by the introducer at any time before amendment or putting to a vote with a consent of a majority of the council members present thereafter except as provided in subsection 2 which talks about a bill where that is administratively withdrawn after pending for two years a bill may be withdrawn only upon recommendation of a committee of reference and with agreement of a majority of the council members present therefore i don't believe it was in the proper posture for council member peluso to offer a motion to withdraw on the legislation absent an acquiescence by the introducer who would want to withdraw it all right as a presiding officer i'm going to invoke that council rule so the withdrawal is dead so we're on the bill still mr peluso you are in the queue if you want to speak on the bill so um you can get back in the queue for the bill but you were speaking on the withdrawal which is moot now okay so uh i want to get back in the queue then okay all right okay sure all right we'll just go back to you then on the bill thank you remember clark murray you recognize so thank you so much president carrick so as i was stating that there was a time when we celebrated columbus day and then research revealed all the atrocities that were committed by columbus in conquering lands so we don't anymore and it's it's very rare i won't say that so in light of the new information and in light of the fact that the caesar chavez foundation does support the information that has come to light i will be in support of this withdrawal because when we know more we should do better and should i'm sorry what is what's the issue there's no withdrawal so you're either supporting the bill all right so the so the bill so the bill is going to be i'm sorry he's rescinding the bill correct this the resolution what is the okay so this there was a resolution in 21 and he wants to revoke the resolution correct okay i'm sorry i just used the wrong terminology i understand what we're going to do so i'm going to support mr diamond yes you all can probably fall out right now because the rights of women and the abuse of women is important to me and i want to stand up wherever i can for women who have been in this type of situation and it's very rare that i will do this but i'm going to do it today thank you council member peluso thank you mr president and and as much as i love and admire my council colleague uh miss clark murray i fully agree i believe that any victim must get their their day in court and should be believed especially because the the chavez organization has concurred with that however denouncing a former resolution is a bad precedent because we all know who's going to show up and mass over the next year and a half of our lives why would we do that to ourselves people are going to come back and say we say again huh let's not talk across the days please it's just a bad precedent because that was something that we would that i would often say like hey you know what we did we we supported as a body in the past and i don't like going back and denouncing or rescinding old bills based on anything else we just shouldn't do anything involving mr chavez anymore let's vote this down that way we're not creating the precedent otherwise more people will be asking us to come and try to rescind or denounce former resolutions that this body has made i think you all know what i'm talking about let's vote this down let's not create this precedent council member diamond questions been called by council member diamond all in favor of calling the question there's a second by the floor leader raise your hand if you want to call the question phil council member leaning yeah please add me as a co-sponsor i'm surprised the amount of discussion uh discussion we're having over this thank you all right no one else is in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 17 yeas one nay by your action you've approved 2026-0270 item 55 2026-258 i move the amendment got a motion second on the amendment no one in the queue all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries move the bill as amended got a motion and a second on the bill as amended there's no one in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 18 yeas zero nays by your action you've approved 2026-0258 i'm 56 2026-260 i move the bill got a motion and a second on the bill there's no one in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 16 yeas two nays by your action you've approved 2026-0260 go blue devils 57 2026-264 i move the bill and a motion and a second on the bill no one in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 17 yeas one nay by your action you've approved 2026-0264 i'm 58 2026-265 i move the amendment got a motion second on the amendment all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries move the bill as amended got a motion and second on the bill as amended councilman areas to be quick thank you mr president just want to uh clarify one thing for all you guys this is part of the uh the 15 million dollar legislation that we passed back in december um it was uh six million dollars for unf uh one million for nefa five for fscj um 325 000 for workforce and does a training center and then uh two for ew i've seen all of these already come to fruition except i'm still waiting um from the administration to find out about what's going on with ew um so i'm glad that this 675 is being voted on today but two million for ew is the last piece of the puzzle so miss norris if anything can we have that conversation at some point um i want to know or actually mr president can i even though it's not on the bill it's still part of my this is part of my 15 million dollar legislation it's your time you can do whatever you want with it if you don't mind yeah sorry about that just i signed up here and i want to make sure that all 15 million dollars are good to go after this i have one oh okay do you want me to respond no if uh if we're good to go miss mary then we're good to go through the council president council member aria so a bill was filed um i i can't recall if it goes to committees next cycle or the one after that that addresses the funding agreement terms with ew as well as the joint use agreement that the council placed a condition on the funding that there be a joint use agreement that is pending on the agenda and should be coming to committees next week so that is why they haven't been able to move forward on that because there is the pending legislation that changes some of those okay well that's all i have thank you mr president all right council member mac carlucci uh just vote my name added please all right please add past present carlucci as a co-sponsor there's no one else in the queue put me in the right posture did we vote on the amendment we are ready to vote on the bill all right the bill has been properly moved and seconded as amended there's no one in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 18 a zero nays by your action you've approved 2026-0265 as amended 159-2026-267 i move the amendment got a motion second on the amendment no one in the queue all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries move the bill as amended got a motion second on the bill as amended no one's in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 18 a zero nays by your action you've approved 2026-0267 as amended i'm 60 2026-268 i move the amendment got a motion second on the amendment no one's in the queue all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the amendment carries the bill as amended got a motion and second on the bill as amended no one's in the queue please open the ballot record your vote 13 yeas five nays by your action you've approved 2026-0268 i'm going to pass the gavel to the vice president item 61 2026-0288 council president i believe you or correction i moved the finance amendment yeah before we move the amendment we would like to my gut was right then you need to recognize council member or council president carrico yes sir let's recognize council president carrico thank you mr vice president i rise to abstain from voting on this legislation as my employer the boys and girls clubs of northeast florida has in the past received dollars from the opioid settlement grant to help kids stay away from drugs and we could apply it to future funding so in order to avoid a conflict i will just abstain from the legislation and the dialogue of the bill thank you sir over to councilwoman pittman the chair i also rise to abstain from this legislation because i work with the homeless at the clara white mission and we are planning on applying for the funding for this bill thank you and it's already been submitted thank you ma'am and finally mr gaffney thank you through the chair i also rise to declare abstain from this vote my father who runs community rehabilitation center i'm in a health organization he may or may not apply i'm not sure but be on the safe side i make sure i abstain from voting on this legislation thank you sir that's it i move the finance amendment we have a motion and a second on the finance amendment there are no speakers on the queue let's take this vote verbally all in favor of the finance amendment indicate by saying aye aye all against saying no the finance finance amendment passes we have a motion and a second on the bills amended no speakers on the queue let's open the ballot up and record your vote call it right 15 yeas zero nays three abstention by your action you've approved 2026-0288 not sure if your mic's on that is giving me a budget night flashback i think i went through three three of these uh mr teal please read all the second reading bills 2026-326 has already been uh addressed earlier this evening 2026-338-339-340-341-342-343-344-345-346-347-348-350-351-352-353-354-355-356-357-359-360 uh 2026-289-290-291-292-293-294-294-295-296-297-297-298-299-300-301-302-303-304-305-306-311-319 thank you mr teal we do have a couple public participation cards the first 2026-351 john noonie hello i am john j noonie jacksville city council resolution 2023-0819-8356 bascom road jacksville florida 32216 city council district 4 cpac planning district 3 school board district 3 now this is a resolution uh you know for ernest smith the third now the reason i just want to speak to it you know uh he uh previously was uh if you remember there was a big issue and that had to do with the king sutel cra well he is also currently the chair of the urban core cpac and what i want to share with all of you and i've said this before but uh last night i went to the greater arlington cpac and not on the bill mr ninny this is on a appointment okay well it's on mr smith you know miss you know you should be going to washington and uh but to his credit now you would like as i said before you know i went to an ethics commission meeting our cpacs they're out of control it is mr ninny wild west you're talking about cpacs please talk about this mayoral okay well 2026-351 okay well i well i'm just trying to share how i think he's a really uh i would be voting yes he recognizes you know uh people after you know when you follow an order with these cpacs i'm just going from you know the you know the um the different agendas and how you know he you know hill the bill okay all right well i'm trying yeah all right well okay hey mr cartlucci said it all you can sit down mr nooney i think you're done uh all right well okay we'll see you on the next report it all right mr president the next one item 80 2026-356 i have june kemp and kelly frazier june kemp or kelly frazier i do not see them coming down uh june kemp opposes and kelly frazier supports this bill uh with that we are going to we've already took care of unfinished business so we are going to go to the addendum which is on page 56 i move the addendum got a motion second on the addendum all in favor the addendum signify by saying aye aye any opposed to any the addendum has been moved mr president we have one action item 2026-0417 i move the emergency and i can also speak to the emergency all right got a motion second on the emergency mr lanon oh yes mr president uh on friday a constituent reached out to both myself and council member gay uh this constituent captain edward frolic he was a former commanding officer of mayport back in the late 80s and then once he retired was very active in the community uh so the family and constituent reached out to us the funerals on thursday and so the request is to have this on emergency so we can get this resolution to the family uh to coincide with uh with his funeral service all right mr peluso can we vote out the emergency that i'm calling all right all in favor of the emergency signify by saying aye aye any opposed to any the emergency passes with the bill as an emergency motion second on the bill as an emergency council member peluso thank you mr president i uh i'm really sad i didn't know about this beforehand um mr frolic was my sophomore american history teacher oh uh he was a really great man he loved history he loved the navy he loved swirling his mug we all thought there was probably bourbon in there he was a funny guy uh he was a good he was he was someone who loved his community and loved his country um i just i'm really i'm really upset that i didn't know that he passed away and i'm really grateful you did this um and now i'm i will i will move a council amendment second all right all right motion second on the council amendment all in favor the council amendment signify by saying aye aye any opposed say nay the council amendment has been approved i move the bill as an emergency as amended got a motion second on the bill as an emergency as amended no one's in the queue please open the ballot record your vote i didn't i didn't know he passed away i wish i knew i'll try to be at this funeral 18 yeas zero nays 2026-0417 has been approved as an emergency mr president that concludes uh today's official business all right that's great we're done any announcements mr lane yes i have i think my first ever announcement i wanted to congratulate one of my constituents in district three who won the congressional clays competition in washington dc today so our congressman is now once again the the best shot in washington dc so i thought i announced that he won that today since he is a constituent all right i'm going to go ahead and do roll call and then we got a couple more announcements roll call 18 present all righty councilwoman pittman we have two birthdays cory armstrong um his birthday was may the 5th and he is the eca uh councilman carlucci and then we have heather pinnegrin um birthday is today and she's um in the vab um department i do have an announcement so i might as well go ahead and do it at the same time just want to remind you all about miracle on ashley street we're expecting about 1200 people so i would love to see your face in the place um it's going to be a lot of people there so several of you all have had an opportunity um to participate i will need to know by tomorrow i really need to know by tonight because we have to make name tags and aprons and all of that all right thank you so much all right mr vice president thank you mr president i just want to wish our colleague uh councilman raul areas good luck in the very first inaugural iron man triathlon this saturday good luck my friend i think we should clap if he makes it back to the next meeting after the iron man uh council member boylan thank thank you mr president i just want to let everyone know my eca uh sonia's on her way to her daughter's graduation from way uh from law school uh this next couple of days so congratulations to washington and lee you know law school all right well if we're bragging on folks uh jacoby's son who many of us know winston just graduated from ju so he's ready to go conquer the world i must say with everything i've been going through with my family um he graduated with a double major in sustainability um geography and environmental service slash film so i am so excited about this young man i think you all have known him since he was a little tight so thank you for all your um accolades for him i'm just i'm just glad we got him to the finish line all right and there are three sole survivors here that look like they came for something is what are they here for i couldn't hear okay all right is there any public hearing remaining on that because we've have we have closed out is there anything left that can come to luz or any other opportunity to speak did we already vote yeah it wasn't up for a vote so you can't come down to the podium now the the the no it wasn't it wasn't voted on and mr white or someone can can see you afterwards yeah it's still got some time in another committee three minutes here we're told and dixie took too long so they were going to push it back and by the time we got back well we'll get you the details we'll get you the details thanks for being patient but you didn't miss the actual vote that's yeah okay so chaplain we are adjourned thank you uh mr president i don't know if this has been a weird night or it's just me but it reminds me of the words of roosevelt that let us not forget that government is ourselves and not some foreign power over us let us pray gracious god we thank you for yet another meeting successful in its own way thank you for the wisdom imparted on each and every one of us thank you for the integrity and the heart to listen and move wisely god i ask you to continue to cover joe johnson as he is now in the hospital as to try to regulate his heart rate let us continue to lift him up and and be with those on the dais who are in need of prayer right now thank you for your faithfulness thank you for being with us and all that we say and do give us guidance give us traveling grace as we depart from from this place in jesus name amen