City Council - May 26, 2026

All right, we have 14. Good afternoon and welcome to the Jacksonville City Council meeting. Today is Tuesday, May 26, 2026. It is 5.02 p.m. Let the record reflect. It's the latest I've ever started this meeting, but I'm glad you're all here. So we're going to start off with roll call. No, we're not. We're going to get the invocation going. Chaplain, I'm going to turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. President. If you'll all stand. This evening, our invocation will be delivered by Chaplain Corey McDonald. He's a U.S. Army veteran and pastor of a local church. He is also a nine-year veteran officer and current chaplain of Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Corey is the first active duty officer to fill the role of chaplain in a full-time capacity. This change was implemented by Sheriff T.K. Waters, which speaks to the importance he places on the spiritual welfare of our members and partnerships with our faith-based community and our religious and government leaders. This change is vital to the success of JSO efforts to improve and foster community relations at all levels. Corey has been married to his wife for 14 years. They have a 12-year-old daughter together. Please receive Chaplain Corey McDonald for tonight's invocation. I'm with you guys. I know Sheriff Waters appreciates all that you guys do for the city and for y'all's relationship with us. And so thank you for allowing me to be with you. Let's jump right into it. Please join me in prayer. Our most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for loving us. God, we thank you for sending Jesus Christ to die for us that we may have life and have it more abundantly. We thank you for being the United States of America and still one nation under God. And we thank you for being in the greatest country that I believe is upon this earth, a country that values equality and diversity of its people. And God, we thank you as we reflect on Memorial Day that just passed. We remember those who have paid so much and sacrificed so much in service to our country and our community right here in Jacksonville. Thank you for all those from our military service members, our law enforcement and first responders, fire rescue, our lawmakers, our city council members, for all those that have such an impact on the daily life of the citizens of Jacksonville. With a vote of leadership and changing of leadership, I think it's appropriate to be reminded in the word that those of us that enter into leadership or these roles that have such an impact, we're reminded of Jesus' methods. We're reminded in Matthew chapter number 20, Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister. And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the Son of Man came not to be minister unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. We're also reminded of Philippians chapter 2 says, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than themselves. Look not every man unto his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of servant. God, help us to serve with humbleness of heart the citizens of Jacksonville. Help us to love one another. Help us to love you first and put you first in all things. We love you. Be with these proceedings tonight. And be upon us and keep your hand upon us. We ask that you bless this time in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Chaplain. No announcements. We'll go ahead and go to roll call. 18 present. All right. Now I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to our celebrity guest, Twitter celeb floor leader, Council Member Diamond. You're going to be running the floor tonight, sir. Thank you. Super excited about it, Mr. President. I won't lie. All right. I move the approval of the minutes to the regular city council meeting on May 12th. We've got a motion and a second on the approval of the minutes. All in favor of the minutes signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The minutes carried. Mr. President, we have... Did we vote on that? Did we vote? Did you say it? Yeah. We all said aye. Gotcha. Mr. President, we have several communications from the mayor's office and others. Would you like those read or filed? Let's go ahead and file those away. All right. Mr. President, we have one presentation tonight. Before I ask the clerk to read the resolution, I would ask Council Member Carlucci ahead of the podium. Mr. Teal, please read the resolution. Resolution 2025-666. The Jacob Jewelers' Clock, a beloved and iconic fixture in downtown Jacksonville, and a symbol of the city's endurance and history following the Great Fire of 1901, had long stood silent and in disrepair. Tina Sauvage, founder of Jack's Tours, while leading a historical walking tour downtown, recognized the significance of the broken clock and was inspired to spearhead efforts to restore it as part of her broader mission to support Jacksonville's revitalization through cultural, historical, and community-based work. Ms. Sauvage's leadership was bolstered by support from Placemaking Jack's, Downtown Vision, and numerous community partners who shared in the vision of celebrating and preserving Jacksonville's past as a foundation for its future. After significant outreach and coordination, Ms. Sauvage partnered with Alex Safakis, president of JWB Real Estate Companies, who, though not the owner of the clock, committed to fully fund the restoration of the Jacob Jewelers' Clock and assume responsibility for its annual maintenance as a gift to the people of Jacksonville. The restoration effort involved coordination with the Jacksonville History Center, the Verden Clock Company, and the City of Jacksonville for the required certificates of appropriateness reflecting a collaborative spirit among private citizens, local businesses, and government entities. The successful restoration of the Jacob Jewelers' Clock serves as a powerful symbol of what is possible when passionate individuals, civic-minded businesses, and engaged community leaders work together to honor the city's heritage and invest in its future. Additional thanks are due to David and Sabelle Jamil, Jamil Monk, of Shaycor, Build Up Downtown, and many others who played critical roles in supporting and advancing the project. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Jacksonville. The City Council hereby thanks Ms. Sauvage and the network of individuals and organizations who together restore the Jacob Jewelers' Clock, honoring the city's cultural heritage and history of perseverance. Well, anybody that knows me a little bit knows how much I love the history of Jacksonville and downtown, and I found out about this, and it's hard to find folks to step up and fix these clocks. They're not cheap to fix. It's not like taking your Rolex or your Timex or whatever, you know, to the store to get it fixed. It's just not. And, but yet the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, entrenched, um, value and, and, and the quality of that clock and, and what it has meant to Jacksonville over the decades and decades and decades. I mean, I remember when I was a little boy, I mean, everybody here has been in Jacksonville for a long time remembers it, but they always seem to kind of break down. Um, I remember years ago, uh, then council member Hogan, who actually is a relative of, of the, um, uh, the, the man that was named, that, that Hogan Street was named after. Uh, he had some council money, uh, as some of these district council members get to fix that clock, and he fixed it, and then it, it broke down again. Um, and so I understand you were the one that came up with the, uh, you discovered it, and, and then you went to Mr. Sopakis, who's, you know, done so much for, um, and are doing so much for El Plaza and so many other things you're doing for Jacksonville. And, and I, I just, we got so many great things happening, and they're big, but I got to tell you, this is not a big object, but it is big in our history. And these type of things should not be left, um, with a story untold. And, um, so I want to thank you on behalf of all of my colleagues that you stepped up, you saw a problem, and you took action, and then you came out of nowhere and said, hey, you know, the city's been good to me, and we're going to help pay for that. Um, and I, I know for one, I'm so thankful, but I know so many other people that are thankful. How many of y'all know about the big clock that they do? The, the, the, the Jacob's Jewelers, okay. So a lot of people know about it. And, um, answer me a question, if you don't mind, if the council president, if you don't mind, I've asked her a question. Just how many things does that clock do? It's got lights, it's got, it, it makes, it, of course it rings and so forth. But, um, and, and just tell me what kind of comments you get when you get people tours around the city, and, and, uh, just give a little background on that. Yeah, so the clock is incredibly significant to our history. You know, aside from just how beautiful it is, it's only one of a handful that still exists today in the entire country. So we're very lucky to have it. And on top of that, um, the Greenleaf and Crosby company, when they first commissioned it, it was right after the fire of 1901 to prove to everyone here that they're staking a claim in Jacksonville, and everyone should too, to help revitalize and rebuild a testimony to what's happening now. So aside from it looking beautiful and chiming and lighting up at night and telling the right time, it's actually very significant, especially today, because it signifies that same development and that same faith that we have in the city. And how does it light up? Tell me about the lights. Oh, just regular bulb lights. Yeah, it has bulb lights, and it used to be run by a sand system, but now it's actually run by Palm Pilot, if you can believe it. Wow. An early 2000s Palm Pilot, but it still works. Now we just got cut off, but I ain't gonna worry about the cutoff thing, and I, my son's vice president. I got a little carry, I carry a little clout around here tonight now, so. A little bit, just a little bit. I want to ask Alex what inspired you to step up like you did to take, to handle this thing tonight. I mean, it was really just... Ten seconds, Alex. We love the clock. It's a great, great part of Jacksonville's history, and so we wanted to support the renovation of it, so. Well, I speak on behalf, I think, of everybody in Jacksonville. We thank you for what you did, stepping up out of nowhere, you observing it, taking the leadership to do it. So I want to give the council president the relief he's looking for and conclude, but we do want to get pictures of y'all with your resolutions, so. Here you go, Tina. That's yours. Ladies first, and Alex, that's yours, and we got some photos right here. All right. While they're posing for that photo, let's do some acknowledgments. I see past president Sam Newby in the building. How you doing, past president Newby? I see past president Jerry Holland out front. How you doing, past president Holland? I heard past council member Joyce Morgan was in the building somewhere. Are you here? Councilwoman Morgan? No? She's on the way. Missing anybody? Yeah, we got Sam. We don't forget about Sam. Happy birthday, Alex. All right. Mr. Floor Leader? All right. It would be a great time to recognize our pages. Destiny Gale J. Shelton from Holy Spirit Catholic School and Daniel Keith Shelton, Paxton School of Advanced Studies. Thanks for being here. All right. Let's thank them for volunteering tonight. All right. We are on page four, quasi-judicial ordinances. Council members should declare any of their extrajudicial discussions, quasi-judicial disclosures. Item number one, 2026-0273. Move the bill. Got a motion and second on the bill. I have no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0273. Item number two, 2026-0275. Move the bill. Got a motion and second on the bill. I have no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 16 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0275. Item number three, 2026-0276. Move the bill. Got a motion and second on the bill. I have no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0276. On page five, item number four, 2026-0307. Move the bill. Got a motion and second on the bill. I have no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0307. Item number five, 2026-0308. Move the bill. Got a motion, second on the bill. I have no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0308. We are on page six, the consent agenda. Mr. Secretary, please read the consent agenda. 2026-312, 313, 314, 316, 323, 325, 328, 329, 330, 332, 334, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 346, 347, 348, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 357, 359, 360, 404, 405, 406, 407, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412, and 413. I didn't hear any polls, Mr. President, so move the whole consent agenda. Got a motion, second on the consent agenda. All of it. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved the consent agenda. All right, this would be a great time to recognize our incredible rules chair. The colonel is in the house. Mr. Rules Chair, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. President. We've just approved the following appointments as part of the consent agenda. If you are in the audience, please stand to be recognized. Robin Lang to the Jacksonville-Duval County Council on Elder Affairs. Mario Ducunto on the Library Board of Trustees. Ivan Mote to the Downtown Development Review Board. Jeffrey Druchel to the Cultural Service Grant Program Committee. Catherine Moore to the Jacksonville Ethics Commission. Heather Raver to the position of Assistant Council Auditor. Brian Parks to the position of Assistant Council Auditor. Kimberly Corbin to the position of Chief of the Municipal Code Compliance Division. Ernest Smith to the Jacksonville Housing and Community Development Commission. Alice Nelson to the Eastside Grants Committee. Jackie B. Scheel to the Civil Service Board. Raj Gupta III and Jason I. French to the Jacksonville Health Facilities Authority. A lot of people. Please join me in thanking them for their public service. Thank you, Mr. President. All right, Mr. President. We are going to do some hopscotch. So everybody keep your head on a swivel. We're jumping around. First place we're going is page 29, item 80. Page 29, item 80. All right, sir. We're there. Second. Let's open the public hearing. There we go. If you could allow the floor leader to announce the bill number. Mr. Arias, it is item 80, 2026-06-0419, which has been discharged from NCPHS for the Council President. Open the public hearing. No speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Is it on, is it public participation or is it, okay, it's on there. All right, we have one speaker card. You'll want to reopen that, Mr. President. Public hearing is reopened. All right, one speaker card. John Nooney. Come on down, Mr. Nooney. I don't see him. No other speaker cards. All right, no other speaker cards. So this public hearing is, actually, before I close the public hearing, Mary, if I wanted to bring someone up to speak to this bill, would it be appropriate to do it now or after we close the public hearing as in the form of a question? So to the Council President, so if you wanted to allow for a more open dialogue, you would do it during the public hearing. However, if it's just going to be to ask questions, as long as they're simply responding to the questions, you can close the public hearing. To be most flexible, if you want to keep it open, you might want to do it that way. Keep it open. I'd like Mr. Andre Wallace from Andre Wallace to, from Jack's USA to come on down. Andre Wallace, President Jack's, Andre Wallace, President Jack's USA Partnership with regards to the bill itself. Thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak on this. To process, I do recognize that this is somewhat unorthodox. Normally, we negotiate a term sheet, you know, negotiate the redevelopment agreement or economic development agreement and you bring it forward to whatever respective body, whether it's the Downtown Investment Authority or directly to City Council or Downtown Investment Authority then directly on to City Council for its approval. What we've asked you to do in this respective legislation is to move forward with setting aside funds, then allowing us to negotiate the term sheet and the redevelopment agreement and bring it forward to you. You're not, in this legislation, authorizing any funds to be expended at this respective point in time. You still have to go through the Downtown Investment Authority's disposition process, term sheet negotiation, as well as a redevelopment agreement that has to come back to you for final vote. But if you take this step this evening, this gives us, the Downtown Investment Authority and others, the opportunity to continue to negotiate with the Culinary Institute of America to get to a place where there is a term sheet and a redevelopment agreement for you all to vote upon. But this approval, approving this ordinance does not do anything in terms of funds going out the door. You still have to finally approve this as a legislative body. I want to make sure that the process is clear with you all. And this is being done because the Culinary Institute of America has a board meeting set on June 15th and June 16th that would take a vote saying that Jacksonville would serve as a southeast campus for the Culinary Institute of America. We're only trying to meet their respective time frames. Take any questions if you deem appropriate. All right, thank you for coming down, Mr. Wallace. Seeing no other questions, I think we do have a public comment card. Someone has arrived, now that we left it open. That's my fault. Mr. Nooney, name and address. All right. I am John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023-0819. Address, Mr. Nooney. City Council District 4, Ocho Tres, Cinco Seis, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida 32216, CPAC 3, School Board District 3. Yeah, CIA stuff. You know, the Culinary Institute of America. Or, as we will soon have, Carrico's Impressive Appetizers. I mean, we are just, you know, this is good stuff. And the thing that we should really be concerned about, you know, 35 million bucks. You know, we're marketing to the world. And, you know, you got CIA, you flip it around. And it's a spin off the Fish and Wildlife Commission. You know, the state of Florida, tourism. It's all about tourism. Heads and beds. And then not only that, feeding everybody. So, all I want, I'm just down to a minute 50. But, you know, this was agenda item 80. You know, I filled out a couple. You know, I'm out there. You know, and it's like, hey, get in there. There's other emergencies. You know, is it that much of an emergency? You know, that other people, you know, this, it's not even just this bill, but all these bills should just be packed. So, no, 35 million bucks. You know, I just be really curious about the callback provisions. And, you know, when you look at all the different restaurants that are around and all the other previous restaurants, you know, that are looking for startup or looking, you know, just, you know, to do something. But, uh, anyway, you know, it's here. You know, you just heard from Under Wallace, and you look at the different boards, commissions, things like that. You know, uh, I'm going to be the last. Listen, I'm, I'm, I'm all in, but you have to have this oversight. And so, if we're bringing it here, get ready to market to the world, and especially on our waterways. I filled out another piece of legislation that has to do with just probably going to be right after you finish with this piece of legislation, another one that was buried in the agenda. But anyway, I'm in and CIA all the way. Thank you. No further speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Move the emergency. Got a motion second on the emergency. No one in the queue. All in favor of the emergency signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. All right. I'm going to pass the gavel to the President-Elect. The emergency is approved. And Council President Carrico, you are recognized. Uh, thank you, Mr. President-Elect. I rise to introduce a floor amendment. A lot of it's technical cleanup. Uh, we did have to rush the bill to the floor a bit to get in front of the CIA board, uh, who meets this month. So, um, Mary, if you want to explain any further details of the cleanup, or if anyone has any other questions, be happy to answer them before we vote on the amendment. Second. Thank you. Through the Vice President or the President-designate to the President and the Council. Uh, so, correct. This amendment contemplates everything that was included in the Finance Committee's amendment, which was, uh, cleaning up some scriveners, um, reflecting that in lieu of the language that said that the Tourist Development Council had pledged a million dollars to support the development, that it had committed to support the development by finding other dollars within the budget that could be supplanted with tourist development dollars instead of a direct allocation to the project. Um, and then the last change, um, that was reflected in this amendment is to update the exhibit one, which is the term sheet, to just clarify the allocation of available COJ funds to the project as a future commitment that's being proposed through the bill. Um, it previously referenced workforce development funds, all capital, such that it sounded like there was a separate bucket being set aside or that has already been created just for workforce development, and that's not accurate, so we're just referencing that it's a future allocation of COJ dollars to the project. Thank you, Mary. The Council President moved the floor amendment and the floor leader seconded it, so we have no other speakers on the queue. Let's take this vote on the floor amendment verbally. All those in favor of the floor amendment indicate by saying aye. Aye. All against saying no, the floor amendment passes. Move the bill as an emergency as amended. We have a motion and second on the bill as an emergency as amended. Vice President-elect Carlucci recognized. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to give the opportunity for the CIA to come up before we vote on this and just, uh, explain a little bit about their project, or we can do it after the vote either way. I just wanted to extend the floor to them. Bring them in. Public hearings reopen. All right. Well, then I have a question for this gentleman with the CIA. Can you tell me a little bit about your project? Thank you. Yes, I have a name and address, please. Yeah. So my name is Robert Jones. I'm the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for the Culinary Institute of America. Let me start by thanking the full council, especially Council President, President Carrico, President-elect Howlin, incoming President-elect designate Carlucci, and Mayor Deegan for the incredible political alignment on this topic and the role our institution could play in the future of this city. What began in 1946 as a bold mission by two visionary women to train returning GIs from World War II has today grown into a global institution shaping the future of food. Last week, we celebrated our 80th anniversary, and now we have campuses in New York, California, Singapore, and Texas. Our San Antonio campus has been rightly compared as the best-fitting model for a potential expansion in Jacksonville. San Antonio is home to five major military bases, and the CIA has provided workforce development training to all of them. Even today, in support of the Department of Defense's Go for Green initiative, the CIA is helping update hundreds of recipes and training military cooks to prepare nutrient-dense meals that enhance physical performance and troop readiness. And through our Pro Chef certification program, service members and veterans receive industry-recognized certification to create a more seamless pathway into civilian life after they leave the service. The same can be true for Jacksonville in the months and years to come. Our work to improve regional workforce and community nutrition also extends to the K through 12 space and school meals. We've partnered with Departments of Education and independent school districts to upskill cafeteria workers from food servers into skilled culinary operators. By teaching professional techniques, food safety, and nutrition science, the program has elevated both the quality of school meals and the professional standing of food service workers. In fact, in San Antonio ISD alone, by reducing the cost of school meals by four four cents per student, we've saved the city of San Antonio three million dollars per year. In short, today, just over a decade after opening the campus in San Antonio, it is a UNESCO creative city of gastronomy, has three Michelin stars, and dozens of James Beard Foundation recognized chefs that are CIA alumni. This gastronomic renaissance has helped to generate measurable returns across economic, social, and cultural dimensions. In fact, the hospitality industry in San Antonio has measured at more than 21.5 billion annually. This is bolstered by thousands of high-spending tourists who come to CIA campuses each year for our food enthusiast boot camps to get a chance to learn from the best of the best. As we eye a strategic expansion, we are super excited about Jacksonville. We see incredible political alignment, growth ambitions, and a reasonable cost of living aligned with priorities around serving our nation's veterans, the power of food is medicine, and a confluence of partners, including this council. Thank you very much for the time. All right, thank you. Close public hearing. Dr. Salem, you recognized? All right, thank you. So, no one else is in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 16 yeas, two nays. By your action, you will be through 2026-0419. And if I could hand the gavel over to the president-elect one more time, just so I can say a few closing words on this legislation. Sir, you're recognized. All right, thank you, Mr. President-elect. Got to get used to saying that. I just wanted to thank CIA and all the players involved that got us to this point, to Andre Wallace at Jack's USA Corner Lot and anyone that believed in this project as much as I did, you know, coming from a hospitality background. I believe this stuff. My brother's a chef. I grew up in the business and understand the difference a good education in this world could make and starting your own restaurant or just working for a Michelin star chef. Like, this could change lives. So, I'm really excited that this opportunity is before. If we got some more work to do, obviously, we've got to fund this and come up with a great project and deal to bring back. But I want to thank my colleagues for supporting it to this point and thank everyone else involved. I appreciate the time, Mr. President-elect. Thank you, sir. All right, Mr. President, we're to do another jump. We're going to page 47. Page 47, item 126. I moved the emergency. I thought I did. 2026-0469. You win. All right. Got a motion and second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? Emergency carriers. Mr. President, I move a council amendment. All right. Got a motion and second on a council amendment. This one's a no-brainer. All in favor of the council amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? You better not. All right. Move the bill as amended. I have a motion and second on the bill as amended as an emergency. No one wants to speak. Okay. Please open the bell and record your vote. All right. Dr. Johnson, you're the poet of the group. I just, I got to say it. I rise, Mr. President, to speak to this amazing amendment or this amazing council resolution for an amazing woman. I got a chance to not just know Kim in serving on this council, but hearing the great things about Kim from the former council auditor, Bob Johnson, who, as Councilman Carlucci said earlier, you were one of the last people, or if not the last, if I'm not mistaken, that as part of the Bob Johnson legacy. But Kim has just been just a wealth of information. Anytime we need something day or night, weekends or evenings, you are always there. While I'm sad to see you leave this position on the council, I think I speak for all 19 of us here. What we know is that we are better because you were here. I'll say on a personal note, Mr. President, during our tenure here, Kim lost her father. And it was probably one of the rainiest days of the year that we saw. And I literally felt that I needed to go from Orange Park, the West Side area, all the way to Arlington so that we could honor her father on behalf of this council. And Kim, I would do it all over again. All of us, we are here for you. If you ever need us, thank you for what you've done. And I had an opportunity to spend some time with your family who are amazing people. And it shows the testament of who your parents were to who you are. Thank you again. Congratulations on your retirement. And know that we're all rooting for you and looking forward to the days that we can go fishing and just hang out as well. Congratulations. All right. Well said, Dr. Johnson, President-elect. How would you like to add anything? Thank you, Mr. President. I also wanted to address Ms. Taylor. It's getting soon where we're not going to see her anymore. And that's going to be a sad day for everybody. Someone is asking me how I'd describe Kim. And I used a bunch of words that just kind of kept rolling off the tongue. They were brief, detailed, succinct, data-driven, informed, and wise. And it occurred to me that all of us could learn from those adjectives there. And that basically is what Ms. Taylor is. She's had a storied and amazing career. And the city is better off for it. Thank you, Kim, for everything you've done for us. All right. No one else is in the queue. So please open the ballot. Record your vote. 18 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0469. All right. Another jump. Hang with me. Page 62. We're going to page 62, item 172, 2026-0461. Move the emergency. Got a motion and a second on the emergency. I'll give everyone a minute to flip there. We're on page 62, item 172, 2026-0461. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. The emergency carries. All right. We have two public participation on the emergency, after the emergency. Paul Hardin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Diamond. Paul Hardin, 1431 River Place Boulevard. I'm really here to answer any questions anyone might have. I've tried to outline this in the document I sent over around to the council yesterday. I just got short notice of it. But it's a submerged land lease that the cabinet is only going to meet this one more time before the end of their terms. And it's next week, or June 7th, week after next. With this submerged land lease and the amendment to it have been around for a couple of years, it didn't get signed timely. And now my clients, Preston Hollow, own this piece of property, having taken it back as the lender earlier on the project. So with that, I'll be happy to answer any questions anyone might have, Mr. Chairman. All right. No questions. All right. Move the bill. Got a motion. Sorry, was there one more card? We have one more. John Nooney. Mr. Nooney, going once, going twice, gone. All right. Move the bill as an emergency. Got a motion second on the bill as an emergency. Open the ballot, record your vote. 18 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0461. Okay. Now we are shifting all the way to the addendum. So page 67, check out the addendum. I move the addendum. Got a motion and second on the addendum. All in favor of moving the addendum, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? The addendum's been moved. Item 179-2026-0474. Move the emergency. Got a motion and second on the emergency. No one's in the queue. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? The emergency carries. All right. All right. No cards, Mr. President. So move the bill. All right. We have no public participation cards. Point of order. You cannot call a point of order. Please be seated. I do believe there's a floor amendment. Okay. There's a floor amendment. I'll move it for him. I'll move the Miller floor amendment. Got a motion and second on the Miller floor amendment. Colonel Miller, do you want to explain the amendment or have OGC to it? Mary, you're recognized. Through the president to the council. So the floor amendment accomplishes a few things. It corrects the date for the end of qualifying in the title to June 12th. It also provides for establishing a qualifying by petition deadline and adds a provision that states that the qualifying by petition deadline is 5 p.m. on Monday, June 8th, 2026, and it corrects Scrivener's errors. All right. That is the amendment. Mr. Peluso, you're on the amendment. All right. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. Got a motion and second on the bill as amended. As an emergency, Council Member Peluso, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. President. I would just have Mr. Holland, if you can come up, a supervisor of elections. Can you just kind of explain what's about to happen? I just want to make sure I'm understanding this. And we just voted on an amendment that allows for June 12th to be the last day of qualifying just by petition or in general? Through the president. The day of qualifying, which goes from noon on Thursday to Friday, is whether you qualify by petition or pay the qualifying fee. The deadline for the petitions to come in is the date that was given earlier. So what is the last day to qualify to be on the ballot and pay? The last day to qualify would be that Friday at noon. June 12th? I'm sorry. That is correct. So 11th and 12th of the two days to qualify if you're going to pay, correct? That is correct. All right. Sorry, I've been talking with Mr. Holland about this for a couple days. I just wanted to verify and understand. All right. And so the actual election day will be what day? Yes, it'll be 24 hours exactly, one day. Through the president? No, the actual election for that office. Oh, the election will be- If there's a city council office for an at-large, I'm sorry, through the president. What day will that election be? The election will be concurrent with our fall elections, August 18th, November 3rd, should there be a runoff. And through the president, it will be a unitary election just like any other municipal election? We run a concurrent primary election that's a unitary general in August and a second general in November. Understood. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. Thank you. Seeing no other speakers for questions, open the ballot and record your vote. 18 yeas, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0474. All right. Second to last jump here. Page 40. Meet me on page 40. Item 104-2026-0337. Move the amendment. Got a motion and second on the amendment. No one's in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. Got a motion and second on the bill as amended. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 18 yeas, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0337. Okay. Last jump. Page 37. Page 37, number 99-2026-0322. Move the amendment. Got a motion and second on the amendment. We'll give everyone a chance to get there. Page 37, item 99-2026-0322. I waited to do this until you were the floor leader. Mr. Diamond, thank you so much for helping out. We do have a motion and second on the amendment. There's no one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. Got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 18 yeas, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0322. If Ms. Morgan is in the house, you're welcome. Okay, Mr. President, now we are to public comment. Comments from the public per ordinance 2020-475. The public comment portion of a regular city council meeting shall occur immediately after economic development investments, which we have none. Comments from the public given during the public comments portion of the meeting except scheduled public hearing shall be limited to up to three minutes per person. No person shall be allowed to give or transfer his or time. The council shall reserve one and a half hours. It is 545 and it looks like we'll have three minutes for each. Mr. Miller, Colonel Miller says two minutes, 30 seconds on the clock for each person based on the number of cards we have. Here are the first five. If you are in the first five, please come on down. Reverend Gundy, oh man, Jaquan Easton Sr., Katie Hathaway, Johnny Turner, and Jake Jacobs. Come on down with that. Go ahead, Mr. Secretary. Read the rule. Let's roll. Council Rule 4.505, Disruption of 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 receives, who refuses to leave the city council chamber may be subject to arrest. All right, Reverend Gundy. Okay, Reverend Dr. Leroy Gundy, 2783, Yonksdale Road to Jacksonville floor 3220. I rise to say this. Most people know we need a new county jail, and most know the jail should not be downtown, and I pray most know it should not be in any redlining districts. The resolution of Mr. Peluso is on point, but it can be resolved by the president seat by declaring based on the history that this body acknowledges sins concerning how they have treated the marginalized in their community with redlining only being a portion of many issues. A former president of the United States by the name of Ronald Reagan once said, and I don't quote him too often, he said, trust but verify. We're simply trying to verify that you will not put it in a redlining district. We're being proactive and ask that you will read the email that I sent to each city councilman for consideration on probable locations. In a verification of your honorable word as president and body, you will not place it in a redlining district. Otherwise, we'll face with some resolution or ordinance in the future. We will not be at this point if those who claim they love the Lord had not put self-interest, greed, and power ahead of simply doing what was right and honorable and leaving you to make a new decision today. We wouldn't be here asking you to consider this. Most of you have said no to the resolution based on my inquiry, so let's meet collectively and come up with a collective and positive outcome for a location to meet the geographical, the economical, and community needs. Now there is a group, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, who supports the resolution that Mr. Beluso is putting before you. So I'm just saying to you, no matter what you vote, we still got to come up with a solution. Even though the jail may be two, three, four years down the road, I don't know. But you as the president could say that this is something that we're not going to do and we don't even have to go through the rest of that because you have that power. Thank you very much. Thank you, Reverend. Next is Jaquan Fulton. Hello. Finally, you got my name right. Anyway, the new jail, you want to put it in a red line area. Well, who has to pay for that? We do. Who has to benefit from that? We do. Who has to suffer? You need to get your address in there. Oh, 1454 West 6th Street, Jacksonville, Florida. Keep going. Who has to suffer from this to be put in a community that we don't want it in? Who has to walk down the street every day and see a jail in one of our communities when we already have a jail? I've been to jail. There's nothing fun about it. There's nothing cute about it. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing we can say to make you change your mind because I've already said it. You're going to do what you want to do with this anyway. But I'm against the jail thing and me personally, like I say, I've been down there. I've already seen what it is inside jail. So building another jail is just going to bring more problems to our community and more problems for you because when you're in jail, you get treated like you're nobody. There's no respect in there at all. They treat you like you, you know, like you was raised to be an animal. I was chained like an animal. I was treated like an animal. I lived in there like I was an animal. So being in jail changes you. Building a jail changes you. This whole red line of building a new jail would change the entire community and we will fight against it. I will fight against it. So that's all. Thank you, sir. Katie Hathaway. Good evening. My name is Katie Hathaway. My address is on file. I strongly support the resolution to ensure that a new jail is not placed in a historically red line community. I understand that some of you may want to let the consultant's feasibility study play out. But if we are not intentional at the forefront, then what message are you sending? A medical examiner's office was recently placed in Brentwood. We cannot allow major city infrastructure tied to incarceration to define historically underinvested communities in Jacksonville. What message does this send to our youth? What does it tell children about how their city leaders see them, value them, or invest in them? All children deserve to grow up surrounded by opportunity, parks, grocery stores, businesses, and resources, not the continued concentration of facilities that reinforce stigma and disinvestment. This resolution is deeper than the location of a jail. It is about trust, equity, and whether we are willing to say that every neighborhood in Jacksonville deserves dignity, opportunity, and investment. So please support the resolution tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Johnny Turner. My name is Johnny Turner. My address is on file. I'm here to talk about the George Crater Bridge. I know y'all might be tired looking, but you're going to see me for a long time, and Lord God give me strength. And I come to say, how many of y'all been down there? Give me a hand if everybody done been down to the bridge, George Crater Bridge. That bridge been there for a long time. I was 13 years old when I started. I turned 69 Friday, and I'm still going down there. That place where everybody loves to go fishing at. Now, you know what they done did? They done shot down Sister Creek around on History Drive. You can't go there no more. You can't park nowhere around on the bridge. They say you can't park there no. Torn your cars away. That's our livelihood. We feed our family out there. You know what I'm saying? Go downtown. They can't shut down downtown. You can't go downtown nowhere. They talking about you can't park down there. Can't big old croakers downtown. They got that big of them fish back that big down because there ain't nobody fishing down there. And we like to go fishing. We take care of our family. And we want y'all to take and do something to open the bridge back up. We love that down there. They tell me they're going to close the bridge down. Where we going to go at? You talking about when you retire, you going fishing. You ain't going fishing around here to dry. You ain't going to go around here to dry. Now you better go up, go up, go anywhere. You might have to go anywhere. But you ain't going to go around here to dry because they're tearing up the bridge. You ain't nowhere around there you can fit. But Nassau is trying to wreck that past you tonight. They ain't trying to help with no kind of way. All they don't do is try to take away from them and not give us nothing. And that's our livelihood. Everybody going around fishing. On Saturday, you can't even get down there. Y'all need to come down there. You need to really come down there. We talk to you, but you don't know nothing until you see it. It's a right or wrong. We can talk to y'all too. We can turn blue in the face. But if you don't never go down, you won't never know what we're talking about. So y'all need to come out and see what we're talking about or we can get the bridge fixed. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next is Jake Jacobs. After him, the next five are Lydia Bell, Nathan Ballantyne, James Clower, and Isaiah Rumlin. Mr. Jacobs. Good evening. Jake Jacobs, 14155 Pine Island Drive. I just want to say thank you to all the members of City Council that have been willing to meet with me or shown their support for the line item for the watershed study that's needed to figure out where the sediment problem is coming from in Hogpen Creek. If there are any members that have questions or concerns about the topic, I greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss it with you at a time that's convenient for you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jacobs. Next is Lydia Bell, followed by Nathan Ballantyne, James Clower, and Isaiah Rumlin. Come on down, Ms. Bell. Good evening. Lydia Bell, President Benwood, 300. Address is on file. The objective is to make life better for the north side, not worse. You approved the resolution acknowledging redlining redlining exists and has existed, but you vote to continue redlining. So we must begin a 2027 voting countdown because if you oppose the resolution, then that's saying you're voting to put that new jail on the north side. We don't need that. And you had the parliaments here this weekend for the jazz festival, but it appeared that if you vote against this resolution, we're going to have to bring the parliaments back and we're going to have to turn this mother out. We're going to turn this mother out because we're tired. Brentwood is the dumping ground for Jacksonville, and we deserve better. We're taxpayers. We don't need a jail. We don't need a 300-body morgue where that poison is going into our system. The drive-through liquor. So we're just constantly fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. Save the library. So if this summer, we're going to watch this vote. 2027 is coming up. So we're going to watch who voted to put that jail over there because if you vote to put it over, if you vote against this resolution, then you're voting to put the jail on the north side because if not, you approve it. Now, as far as Connor Colley, he'll be going to sentencing on Thursday, 3 p.m. Out of 20 elected officials, a mayor, and 19, you all shouldn't have let that go on that far. Connor is a very nice man, and if anything, you should have banned him for five months away from city council, not facing five years of felony destroying his life. You all should have, you know, you're working against us, and you were voting and being paid to work for us and with us. So Connor should not be in jail now, and he's only in jail because he came to a city council meeting, and from city council meeting to jail. Everybody's seen that tape, and you could pretend like he was wrong, but the man was just standing there, and he's a very nice man. I hope you all come and support Connor, and somebody out of 20 elected officials need to do the right thing. Thank you, ma'am. Next is Nathan Ballantyne. Good evening. My name is Nathan Ballantyne. Our farm grows at 125 East 7th Street. First off, I'd like to thank the council members who have met and communicated with us about the Free to Garden Act, which will make market and community gardens permissible by right in Jacksville. Thank you for your time, your feedback, your support, and encouragement. Millennial and Gen Z populations, it turns out, would prefer to live adjacent to an urban garden or sustainable farm three to one compared to living next to a golf course. It would then come as no surprise that agrihoods, master plan communities centered around sustainable farms and community gardens, are one of the hottest trends in real estate development. The Phoenix Art District, whose PUD this body approved in 2024, has urban agriculture integrated throughout its plan. As these exemplify, neighborhood grown fresh food access is not a nuisance, but a core community amenity. In this light, I'd like to share the policy foundations upon which the Free to Garden Act is built. First is the vegetable garden preemption championed by Aaron Bean and signed into Florida law in 2018. This protects the rights of Florida residents to grow food on their own yards. Next is the home occupation bill, which is a state-level protection for home-based businesses to operate so long as they do so discreetly and without undue traffic. The administration's state of the food plan research discovered that our local laws were not in compliance. So Miller and Peluso, thank you all, have proposed a local version that will bring us into compliance and provide safe haven to some dozens of beloved market gardeners operating on their primary residence, who currently live in legal limbo. This is a great step in the right direction, but doesn't address market gardens that operate on non-residence property, nor does it offer protection for our community gardens. Speaking of which, the Duval County Comp Plan reads, quote, the city shall encourage community gardens as important open space resources, and yet the zoning code gives this dictate no legs to stand on. For all these reasons, we are here to support the Free to Garden Act. We look forward to working with y'all to get it passed. Thank you. Thank you. James Clower. James Clower. I'm Jim Clower. I'm a retired family physician, practiced on the west side of the west side for about 32 years, who was chief medical officer for Baptist Primary Care for about 20 years. What do I know about gardening? I started as a volunteer with an organization called Bridge the Gap, a 501c3. I need your address too, sir. I'm sorry? I need your address also, please. I'm sorry? Your address? My address? Yep. Just say it's on file. Oh, 5915 Ortega River Circle. There you go. 32244. And Bridge the Gap is a 501c3 organization located physically in Catherine Hester McNair Park City Park, which used to be called Brentwood City Park. And I got involved as a volunteer there about six years ago because I'm a hobby gardener. And they had a patch of dirt surrounded by a chain link fence and wanted to start a garden. They're primarily, we are primarily working with food insecurity in the Brentwood area. We have food distribution days on Tuesdays and Thursdays in conjunction with our partners Feeding Northeast Florida and the local grocery chains, Publix, Winn-Dixie, Harvey's, who also donate food. We started that community garden. It was about 3,000 square feet, grew it out to about 6,000 square feet. We gave away of seasonal produce, about 2,000 pounds of food last year to complement that. I know from my practice that your health is your wealth and good nutrition is very important. This is a model that can spread across the city with other areas to further develop and help with food insecurity. The lines are getting longer, not shorter. And this is a model of how this can work. And so I speak in support of the Free to Garden Act. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, sir. Next is Isaiah Rumlin. Good afternoon, members of the council. Isaiah Rumlin, 5600 New Canes Road. I have the pleasure of serving as the president of the Jacksonville Branch NAACP. I'm here to address the jail situation. And we all know what redlining and jerrymandering has done to our community in the past. We know what jerrymandering is taking place right now in this state, in this country, and in other states. Redlining has always been a concern of ours and the effect that it has on communities. So we are being proactive and coming before this council to address this situation, wherein we have adequate time to sit down, discuss this situation and this jail situation to make sure that as large as Jacksonville is, by land, that is, that it will not be placed in a predominant African-American community. My last question is, would you want this in your community? Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Next speaker is Latavia Harris. After Ms. Harris, there will be Sally Barnes, Ramani Walker, Tabitha Byers, and Denise Scott. You want to come down? Latavia Harris, address on file. I'm here today to talk about the jailhouse as well. Again, I was raised at 824 East Beaver Street. The first high rise I've ever known in my life was the jailhouse. I could look for my grandparents' house and see the jailhouse. Normally, I probably don't agree with Palouse on anything, but I agree with this. The jailhouse does not need to be in these redlining districts because, I mean, we're used to it. Let somebody else do it. Find somebody else to do it. I mean, clearly the administration says this Jack's Beach is the best place to live. Put the jail on Jack's Beach. I mean, she says it's the best place to live. Give it to Jack's Beach. In our neighborhoods, we've seen enough of this. Like, every time you turn around, we get a jail, we get a morgue, and no one else's children are being raised under these circumstances but our children. Even with me growing up, you walk across the vat up, you had CCD on one side, then you had the jailhouse on the other side. Then you had the Charles Barker was there as well. So now we're thinking about moving it, but we give a lot of land to developers for a dollar. I'm sure we can find enough land to put a jailhouse that's up and out the way. I mean, we just gave, I think, JSO like 300 million dollars, so that's definitely enough to cover their gas to drive to wherever they need to take people to. That way, our children going to school, coming home, that won't be what they consider high-rise. It's the jailhouse. I understand they want to make it state-of-the-art, okay, but we're closing down schools every day. So we're focusing a lot on where we're going to put a jailhouse, but not on what we're going to do with public school systems because even in our neighborhoods, we're closing schools. So I would ask that this council does not allow the jailhouse to be put in these neighborhoods, in these red line areas, especially when it's historical, because we've done enough of that. It's your turn. Somebody pick somewhere. You know, you got all these plantations, oak leaf. You know, you have a lot of places you could put it, but I think in our communities, we've done enough of that. So I would just ask you guys to right here, stop it at this point, get somebody else to do it, let it go somewhere else, and not in our communities. And like Ms. Lydia Bell said, we're not the same people we were in 1619. You know, if we have to galvanize, if we have to come together collectively to stop it, that's what we'll do. I mean, we did it with the CBA. We could do it with this jailhouse. So all we're asking is don't, well, that's it. Thank you, ma'am. Next is Sally Barnes. Thank you. My name is Sally Barnes. My address is on file. I have a story to tell you all. Something happened to me at the Love's Committee when we were deciding on who was going to vote on the Macduff and Commonwealth Avenue project. I was told by one of the members on the Love's Committee to wait and he wanted to speak with me after the meeting. And when he told, he spoke with me, he says, well, have you talked to your council person? Uh, if she had been here, I would have voted no. What does that tell me? That my voice don't matter. So it's a lot, a lot of times I come here and I speak, I talk about a lot of different things, but that's something this person thought, you know who he is because he was on that committee and you know who asked me to stay after the meeting. And he said, come back to the council meeting. Maybe you'll change our mind. Is that something a council member should tell a person? No, that's not what he should have told me because I already have doubts to say, well, they've already made up their mind. And to me, this is telling me that sometimes you already have, but I'm asking you all to support this resolution. We don't need any more junk in our neighborhoods. The pea farm is out there. Put them next to the pea farm. They go in there after they go to jail anyway. Some of them are. So why not put them out there? Not in a neighborhood where we have our families. We're raising our families. We're trying to keep our neighborhood clear of crime. Some of us do call the police and let them know if something's going on and we get results. But putting a jail in this neighborhood where we've already been redlined, it's time for this to stop. And I'm asking you all to pass this resolution because we need it. We need our areas cleaned up. We're working on it. But you all can change this by not putting that jail in a redlined area. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Barnes. Next is Hermione Walker. Good evening. My name is Hermione Walker. Address 12565 Willard Lane, Jacksonville 32218. I'm here tonight in support of the Freedom to Garden Act. I represent the Black Church Food Security Network, which is an organization of churches that have been together over the last eight years. And we have become small farms and urban gardens. The churches that are members of our our organization are using their assets, the assets of the church, which is their land, the auditoriums and their kitchens in order to grow healthy food and to help supplement. The churches are also serving as food pantries. So in addition to the food pantries, we are able to grow products, fresh vegetables. I brought in because the picture is worth a thousand words. And I know that what gets attention is supposed to be impact, your impact statements. So what we have done and may I give you this? Will somebody take it? So what I have submitted to you are photos of our journey to help make our communities safer with the food that we are receiving. We have activities such as a soil to sanctuary where we grow our products. And then on a particular Sunday, we all come together and we either give it or people will purchase. We did start off the right way. We took six weeks of training from our local extension office so that we would be growing and knowing what we were doing while we were growing. We have programs. This has allowed us to have additional programs. We are partners with farm share and other food distributions. We have what's called a balance and bliss program where we help our community to heal, to relax, and have a day of giving. We also have ongoing nutrition training which is provided through Florida A&M University's FNET program. And we also use our local UF extension program. And we actually work as partners in that. So we would like very much for you to look into and learn more. We want to keep our doors open so that you guys may come and see what we're doing. That's time, ma'am. That's time. Thank you. Time? Yep, right now. All right. That's okay. Thank you very much. One more thing, though. No, I'm sorry, ma'am. Then I have to do it for everybody. I appreciate it. Okay, that's okay. Next is Tabitha Byers. Good evening, Tabitha Byers. My address is on file. I would like to thank Councilman Carlucci for honoring Tina Sauvage at the beginning of tonight's meeting. Tina's doing amazing work in this city. I hope that that's something that we can all agree on that preserving our history, telling true history is very, very important. So I'd like to see more support of Tina Sauvage and Jack's tours. Also, thank you to Councilman Peluso for this resolution, keeping the jail out of a redlined area. This same body did vote unanimously in 2024 for the redlining resolution. So we would like to see you guys follow through with that and keep the jail out of the redlined or historically redlined areas. Regarding Connor's punishment, the punishment doesn't fit. I was here that night. It was a very rowdy night. I think if memory serves, it was the Tia Bess and Elizabeth Anderson nights. It was a very rowdy night in here. You guys threatened to clear the chambers on multiple occasions and you did not. And it looks very politically motivated. The punishment just doesn't fit. But I lost an ant to what should have been vehicular homicide in North Carolina. And the guy walked away with probation. So, you know, I think that it's a little harsh. And then I support what Lydia was saying, that I hope somebody can stand up and speak out on Connor's behalf, that it just doesn't fit. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be some sort of punishment, but it doesn't fit. Furthermore, I think there's a resolution that's being discussed that's going to be working in opposition of what we out here are trying to do, which is to strengthen the Neighborhood Bill of Rights. I think that is a diamond resolution that's coming up. I just want to say I oppose that as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. Next is Denise Scott. Next five after that are Kiana Blalock, Bobby O'Connor, Trey Ford, and Blake Harper. Come on down to Scott. Good evening. My name is Denise Scott and my address is on file. The one thing about Diamond being the floor speaker or whatever you call him, he can't run out on public comments. You got to stay the day, bro. Yesterday, we honored the brave men and women that gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. Here's a little known black history fact. Did you know that black Americans are the true pioneers that created that day back in 1865? They were honoring on the Union prisoner. They exhumed the bodies of Union prisoners of war from a mass grave and gave them proper barriers. Did you know that? Okay. This council agreed some time ago that redlining existed and it still exists in this city. I'm told that the resolution that Mr. Pelosi introduced failed in a couple of committees. I understand that the vote for this resolution has come before this council this evening. Please let the neighbors in these communities know that this city has already abused their neighborhoods. You want to put a jail in their neighborhood and it's the same neighborhood that had to fight to stop the liquor store from being right across the street from the school. It's the same neighborhood that had to fight and still continues to fight by that 300 body morgue that's three feet from homes and right across the street from the school. I'm like that young lady said, give it to somebody else. Nobody on this council wants that jail in their neighborhood. The one thing that everybody's concerned about is that this jail proposal, we got a lot of questions. Where is it going to be located? You all have been frustratingly vague about this answer and you all know it and that's why we keep coming up about it. They didn't take care of the jail a couple years ago. So why do we want to give them that kind of money? Shame on this council too and the district attorney's office on these trumped up charges for Conor. We saw with our own eyes what that officer did. He literally drug that young man over a row of chairs by his neck. How is that resisting the officer? The officer should have been the one on charge. Shame on all of you and if you don't get a hold of orders, you all are going to be getting a lot of lawsuits. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. Next is Kiana Blaylock. After Ms. Blaylock is Bobby O'Connor, Trey Ford, then Blake Harper. Kiana Blaylock, address on file. The Jacksonville Community Action Committee extends our support for Resolution 2026-0356 and we thank Councilmember Peluso for this proposal. Our organization has been firmly opposed to the development of this one billion dollar jail as we believe the city should prioritize other funding necessities. Just like the person who came up before me, this is the same neighborhood that had to fight and continues to fight against the morgue. This is the community that had to fight against the liquor store. It is very clear on what you believe about redlining, what you believe about this neighborhood versus what you do here as resolutions. All of this is very much connected. Conor's conviction, the clapping, the anti-clapping, all of that even though you guys really do not care about clapping. Y'all are cool when it's you know for you, you know what I'm saying, but whenever it's against, as if you guys can't take criticism, as if you guys are not elected officials and criticism is a big part of your job, that is when you all get some type of, I don't know, ego, something against your ego when people clap against you. It's very telling the double standards and the hypocrisy that happens right here in these chambers. It's, it's, you guys pick and choose a ton, right? It's, it's, it's, the redlining, it's, again, it's very clear, again, how you feel about black Americans. It's very clear about how you feel about pro-Palestine community members. It's very clear that you rather pick and choose your pockets versus pick and choose the citizen that you claim to be here for. It, it's just over and over and over again that me and my friends and other people of this community come and implore you and beg you and demand certain things that just feel like human rights. But you guys eat while we're talking, y'all look at your phones while we're talking. There's literally no respect for the people that come up here after they're nine to five to then come and fight for their community. And I just, I'm tired of begging. I'm tired of imploring. I'm tired of asking for things that are very much one plus one equals two. Um, so just like, uh, multiple people have said is that you guys are starting something within the community and things are building up within the community and things, people are trying, are starting to see exactly who you people are, which are white supremacist monsters. Thank you. Bobby O'Connor. Next up. My name is Bobby O'Connor. My address is on file. I want to say thank you to council member Clark Murray for voting yes on to pass the 356 resolution that council member Feluso put forward. And I want to thank him for putting it forward. This past week, after I went, uh, last week to three different committees in which everyone except council member Tyler Murray, I'm sorry, Clark Murray voted. No, I was disappointed, frustrated, angry, but as I really let it settle in that my city had a city council that could not vote yes on something that has no negative consequence, has a lot of positive consequence and costs no money. I realized that the deepest emotion that I felt was grief. So I'm going to stand here with my hand on my heart for the rest of my time and ask you to think about what you're saying about you as a city council and what you're saying about this city that you would vote no on this resolution 356. Thank you. Next is Trey Ford. Well, I'll tell you what, that's a tough public comment to follow. Powerful. My name is Trey Ford. My address is on file, but I do live in the Grand Park Agricultural District. And I wanted to speak towards the Finance Committee about what I believe was mentioned, and I may have misunderstood, so anybody can clarify, but about having a food sovereignty conversation after the 12 million dollars was approved for Winn-Dixie. And so I just, I saw some good bipartisan work as far as getting the best deal possible from Winn-Dixie and want to commend Councilwoman Pittman for having the meeting that Friday. And Councilpeople Peluso, Gaffney, Rory Diamond, etc., for really advocating for the people to get as much as we could out of that deal. And I think the Free to Garden Act is something that we can consider stimulating financially beyond just approving coding and zoning and things like that. The way that Winn-Dixie was stimulated, I believe that our local market managers and farmers should be stimulated as well. Thank you. Sir, Blake Harper. Blake Harper, information on file. So let me look the phone up here. You're welcome. Can I have my time, please? He took my time away. Just reset his time. Let's roll. Yesterday was Memorial Day. The 200 and, no, actually it was, it was set up in the early 20th century. But it recognizes the sacrifice that men and women gave their lives to make this country what it is today. So I want to talk about that, what it was that makes this country what it is today. And that's the Constitution. The Constitution, 17 September 17, 1787, this is what John, one last thing, Constitution, it is the longest form of governance known to mankind. The average age or average life of a form of governance is 17 years. You can do the math about the Constitution. John Adams, the second president said, the Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is holy and adequate to the government of others. Why is that true today as it was back then? The reality is, if you have an immoral people, you're going to be too busy writing laws and throwing people into jail and so forth. It's going to be too expensive. You need to have a moral people and you need to, morality has to be based on common values. In this country, those values are the Judeo-Christian principles that are found in the Bible. John Quincy Adams was the sixth president. He was the oldest son of John. The highest glory of the American Revolution was this. It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government and the principles of Christianity. Think about that for a minute. Christianity. What is it about Christianity makes it so powerful? The reality of it is, the person who makes a decision about your guilt and where you go is not not us as individuals, but as God. The Bible says, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. And so we have a system of laws and rules, a system of justice that has lasted many, many years. And when we throw that all away, we throw away this nation and we throw away this greatness that we've contributed to mankind. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harper. Next is Vanessa Alvarez. Following Ms. Alvarez, it's Etta Etlinger, Wells Todd, Amina Sharif, and Lou Dawson. Ms. Alvarez, are you here? Vanessa Alvarez, and my address is on file. I'm here today to demand justice for my friend Connor Cawley and to support resolution 2026-0356. So firstly, I believe that justice is in the hands of this body before me, and it's in the hands of my fellow community members behind me. Connor is not just my friend, but he's really a friend to all. But maybe you all wouldn't know that because members of this body are responsible for my friend Connor sitting at the Duval County jail after being targeted and brutalized at the hands of officers, Mikel Aliaga and Donovan Davis, who were supposedly here to serve and protect us in these very chambers. Shaking, sorry. You all should ensure they get fired. So let me remind you, Connor is a friend to all. Despite his year-long battle to fight his bogus charges, despite all his efforts to not just fight for those facing a genocide in Palestine, but to fight for people in our community like me and even people like some of you sitting before me, because I mean it when I say he cares for all. His care is what sent him to jail, and your lack of leadership only emboldens the power-sick, violent, and corrupt officers like Aliaga and Davis. That said, I'm not just here to them, but to demand action from you all as elected leaders and from my fellow community members as well. Although some of you may be responsible for what I consider a historic moment of failure and of political repression from the city of Jacksonville leadership, you can all still do something. So please attend Connor's sentencing hearing this Thursday at 3 p.m. and show us that you stand on the right side of history. Lastly, I don't have the most eloquent words, but I really do echo the sentiments of many constituents here and demand that you oppose the building of a new jail in any black neighborhoods in the city, and that you do the right thing by historically redlined neighborhoods and keep our people safe. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Etta Etlinger. Etta Etlinger, address on file. Redlining became illegal in the United States with the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which was part of Title 8 of the Civil Rights Act. This law prohibited discrimination in housing sales, rentals, and financing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex. These protections were strengthened to ensure compliance by several subsequent laws, which were also enacted. One of those subsequent laws was the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which mandates banks to actively help meet the credit needs of the low and moderate income neighborhoods where they operate. Well, once again, Wells Fargo is in the news just this month. A federal judge approved a $110 million settlement regarding their lending and hiring practices. The lawsuit alleged discriminatory quote-unquote digital redlining, where algorithms disproportionately resulted in lower refinance approval rates for black homeowners, as well as conducting fake interviews for diverse candidates. My point in bringing this up is that while redlining is legally over in the real world, it still goes on in different forms. And of course, there's the obvious issues related, as we all know, such as the lack of sidewalks and those homes still not hooked up to the city sewer system and the general lack of of disinvestment in the city, in the north side or other redlined areas. Now, after it was acknowledged by the city, as others have said, that harm has been done historically because of redlining, you have the opportunity to vote on whether or not or not you'll support further harm being done by continuing to approve projects that do not enhance the north side community in any way. There will be no positive outcome to the community to place the jail on the north side. Thank you. Next is Wells Todd. My name is Wells Todd. My address is on file, and I'm a member of Take Them Down. Conor was found guilty due to the city's support of the Zionist monsters that run Israel on account of redlining. Redlining was instituted under the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. It was put into practice to maintain the poverty structure in predominantly black communities across America. It was all a package deal. There was segregation, untold violent destruction that was carried out against the black community, and to add insult to injury, the propaganda that indoctrinated white people to fear and hate African Americans. The institutional structures of segregation and redlining was American-style apartheid, and it continues today in policing, housing, education, banking, health care, jobs, you name it, it's there. Now, we come to the building of a one billion-dollar jail. Where will it be built? Will it be built in a redline area? Some of you say you understand redlining, and I believe you do, but that understanding won't get it in the way that you rule. Putting a jail in a redline area, why? Because money and the price of land rules, and land is cheaper in redline areas, as we all witnessed with the building of the medical examiner's office in Oregon, Brentwood. Your ancestors locked you into perpetuating economic exploitation. That is redlining. Not crossing redline areas off your list of where this jail will be located. What it does is perpetuate the racist institution that is redlining. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Amina Sharif. Good afternoon. Amina Sharif, address on file. The conviction of Connor, this city council has set a precedent. If you come to city hall, you take a chance of being arrested for participating in public comment. It is a double standard that it's okay for you to applaud, stand up, clap fingers, whatever. But when you participate in public comment, you may be subject to be arrested. And that is wrong. The situation with the jail is not the building of the jail. The problem is you have awarded funds to people that you do not demand to take care of those facilities. The inmates are not destroying the building. The building is not hiring enough people to keep that facility clean. How many jails have been built because they are not being cleaned properly? Sanitized. Putting people health in jeopardy. The other issue is Palestine. There's enough problems in the world for people to take one side or the other. If you're going to speak out for one group, you should do the same for the other. City council, you got to do better. Because we are watching. And we will be voting. Thank you. Thank you, man. Next is Lou Dawson. My name is Leo Dawson. My address is on file. I got a new name, Lou. I came up here because I wanted to bring up about the resolution. A while back, council passed a resolution saying that they acknowledged that redlining took place in those communities. And I think that since they acknowledged that, they should make a statement. One time I came up and I talked about what kind of legacy you're going to leave for your children. You got a chance to leave a legacy saying, hey, acknowledge what wrong took place in the community. And we're going to make sure that that don't happen in that community on our watch again by not putting a jail or saying the resolution that, hey, they can't put it in that area. Another thing that I want to bring up was 0364. And one of the points I want to bring out that the community should have, they shouldn't have to file an appeal after the fact that a decision is made. I think the process of that should take place as it do now. And one of my opinions is that it's trying to be shortened in favor of the investors and those that's building. We don't need anything else in favor of them to shorten the process that they got to answer to the people who wanted to stay the same or be approved in another way. Because another thing that I want to bring up is that a lot of those meetings are in the morning time. So people don't, people that have to work, especially in areas that want to fight against stuff that goes on in their community, they have to be the worst. So they don't have a chance to really come to those committee meetings to be able to force their opinion. So the only time they can come is when city council come on five o'clock in the evening. Some of those become those times. So I, so like I said, I'm against the, I'm against that, that one about shortening time for the zoning and all that kind of stuff. And I'm for y'all not putting the jail or passing the resolution that y'all will not put the jail in those communities, those communities. Now, the other thing before I got, I'm going to turn, 29 seconds. The other thing I want to bring up, I came up and I talked about how when I used to walk through Brentwood and as a kid, I seen a hotel with a pool and it inspired me to be able to take my kids or my wife and family when I got older on vacations. Now, those kids that's in those areas now don't have that same inspiration unless they sit outside of those areas to do the same thing. So y'all have a chance to rectify some of those things and make it better for the community. But since I only got two seconds, thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Next is Dragon Beloit. After her, it'll be Monica Gold, Nancy Murray Settle, Anthony Brown, and Denise Cook. So come on down. Okay. Which one of these? Oh, both of them. Okay. That's cool. Hi, everyone. Dragon Beloit here. My address is on file, but I'm going to tell you I live in the Arlington area because that's really important. Because part of the thing I'm going to say is I physically cannot leave my neighborhood without a flock camera looking at me. I physically cannot leave my neighborhood without some private company tracking where I go. I live on Yellow Pine Drive. It's a little corner street. It cuts the corner between Justina and Merrill. So a lot of people go down it. And they go down it too fast, by the way. I would really like if we had some speed bumps on Yellow Pine Drive. Not super related, but that is something I think is your job. So because of this, and because FSCJ is right there, I physically cannot leave my neighborhood without being tracked by a private company. And that bothers me. I've come up here and talked about that before. I just want to remind you, this continues to be a concern. This continues to be something that bothers me. And there continue to be middle school age kids that walk around here all the time, also being monitored by those cameras all the time. They're pointing at people's houses. I don't like it. Anyway. Another thing, Connor Colley. I'm going to give you a brief summary of what happened. Um, he was convicted for battery, uh, for pushing the hand of a cop who grabbed him. If that is legally battery, then there is an incentive for the next time someone gets grabbed by a cop to hit that guy. And that would be pretty bad for reasons I think we all understand. Legally, we should have a space for someone to go, hey, don't touch me and not get sent to jail for five years for battery. Just trying to put it in a way that maybe some of you guys will explain. Surely some of you are lawyers. Finally, obviously the north side is not the appropriate place for a jail because that's where you guys just stick everything you don't want in your community, right? That's what happens every time. They had to pay an exorbitant amount to undo the liquor store damage. Drive through liquor store right by a school. Hilarious. The medical examiner's office is still there and it makes the place stink by the way. I work there. It sucks. We all know what's happening and everybody's here to tell you not to do it and you're going to keep doing it. What do you think happens when people finally lose all faith? Thank you. Thank you. Next is Monica Gold, followed by Nancy Murray Settle, Anthony Brown, and Denise Cook. Hi, my name is Monica Gold. My address is on file. The Jacksonville Community Action Committee is here this evening to extend our support to Resolution 2-0356 and we thank Councilmember Peluso for this proposal. While our organization has been opposed to the jail in general, part of this reason has been due to questions surrounding the location of the jail and the city's tendency to dump anything that's undesirable on the north side. The north side is home to a medical examiner's office across from an elementary school. Drive through liquor stores that are more accessible than grocery stores. Drainage so poor that children walk through flooded streets buzzing with mosquitoes, littered parks, and bus stops that don't even have covered benches. While all of these issues combined with the new jail deplete property value, they also come at a human cost. The city council believe that children on a different side of town deserve thriving parks and well-funded libraries, while a child while a child on the north side deserves to see examples of death and detention on every corner. Does city council understand the historic context of redlining considering that they passed a resolution acknowledging that it exists in Jacksonville? Does the city council understand that building a jail on the north side makes you guilty of systemically disenfranchising the black community in the same way that financial institutions and service providers that denied home loans to black residents were guilty of racist and discriminatory practices? Our organization with members who predominantly reside on the north side want to see a thriving Brentwood, Sherwood Forest, Moncrief Park, Lake Forest, and Garden City. We want to see the flourishing of every neighborhood on the north side that has been historically belittled and ignored. We oppose the building of a jail on the north side or in any historically redlined part of town, and we ask all people of conscience to join us in our demand that no new jail is built in a black neighborhood. Thank you. Next is Nancy Meyers Settle, Murray Settle. Nancy Murray Settle, address on file. I'm asking you, you've seen this. This is the red line map from 1937, and what this resolution 0356 is asking is do not put the jail in these red areas. That's it. This is just Jacksonville 37, 1937. You have all of Duval County to look at. The resolution says do not put them in the red areas. That's what we're asking for. From the National Community Investment Coalition website, I take these words. For decades, starting in the 1930s, low-income and minority communities were intentionally cut off from lending and investment through a system known as redlining. Today, those same neighborhoods suffer not only from reduced wealth and greater poverty, but from a lower life expectancy and a higher incident of chronic disease. Housing, economic and social policies should aim to eliminate those risks and undo the unfair burdens of structural racism, both past and present. Ladies and gentlemen, as civic leaders, you're obliged to formulate and pass policies that do not continue to contribute to the harms of black neighborhoods here in our city. We must address racial inequalities of mass incarcerations, geographic inequality, and the complex dynamics that continue to this day to disenfranchise blacks in Duval County. So let's talk about Resolution 0356. Honestly, it's a symbolic start for you to pass this resolution, resolving to prohibit any new jail facilities, any new jail facilities, from going into neighborhoods that have historically been redlined. We also need to just take a look, too, at all the money spent on incarceration, and we need to start reducing incarceration. Let Florida go to civil citation. Train officers to de-escalate. Mandatory testing for officers on illegal steroids. Maybe they wouldn't have grabbed Connor over the head, over by the neck, and threw him over the chair if they knew how to de-escalate, and he wouldn't be. Thank you, ma'am. Next is Anthony Brown. My name is Anthony Brown. My address is on file. I just want to respond to a gentleman that came up earlier and mentioned the morality of the United States and its foundation. That foundation was steeped in slavery and exploitation of enslaved Africans when the Constitution was ratified around 1789, and then after that, shortly in 1790, there was an immigration act in which it, for the most part, empowered white Protestant males to control the country for up to almost 200 years. So I want to be clear about that. And so he got up here and lied to you. I wanted to straighten that out. I'm a 20-year veteran, and there's nobody more qualified to speak on this country than a black American. We are the demographic that has supported this country and fought for this country more than any other demographic. So I want to clear that up for the gentleman that came up here and lied in your face. With that said, I just wanted to address the jail situation and redlining as a whole. I know most people will come up here and they're going to talk about the jail and where they feel like it should not be situated. I'll take it a step further. You know, once the resolution was passed, 19 yay, zero nay, I was under the impression that we would work with community organizations like ours and other community organizations in the city to try to empower the community, not just be a reactionary force for every time something came up. These communities are devoid of resources. They need them yesterday. Redlining is a real issue, not only in Jacksonville, but all over the state of Florida. Not only does it not need a jail, but it also needs to do something about these food deserts. It needs to address infrastructure and it needs plenty of beautification. So if you don't hear anything that we say, I want you to hear that there are organizations that are very serious about working with you moving forward. We are serious about seeing something take place in our community that's going to address redlining and empower these communities that have been destroyed. So with that said, we have a meeting June 18th, 1405 West State Street, Red Alliance for Justice. We meet. We encourage everyone to come out to be a part of the solution and to not be a part of the problem anymore. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next is Denise Cook. After Ms. Cook is Samantha Series, Shane Trumbure, Jamie Travis Leonard, and LaShonda Holloway. Hi, my name is Denise Cook. My address is on file. I want to say that I'm proud of our community members for showing up. We've stated that there's a movement going on in this city and you can see that there is. There's new faces. There's new voices. I know some of you tune out some of us because we say the same things every meeting or it seems that way. So I'm excited that there has been some new voices. As far as the resolution 2026-0356, I think we all have seen that it makes common sense for it not to be in the redlined areas. But maybe we're not saying maybe what we should be understanding is that there is a study that we as people have paid for and that study isn't back yet and maybe we don't know. So maybe it's not that this resolution shouldn't be moved forward. Maybe it should be put on hold. You know, is that unreasonable? Is that unacceptable? You know, let's put it on hold until we have the data that we need so we can make the decision instead of fighting a ghost. Um, the other resolution that's or ordinance, uh, 2026-0364, you know, at first glance, it really seems to be taking a lot of rights away from property owners. Um, no more public hearings, reduce the, um, fee in notifications for zoning issues, reduce the assessments that are needed. You know, I have called personally and sent an email, um, multiple emails asking about this so I could look at this intelligently and help support or help support squashing it and, and taking it away to no avail. You know, that's the frustration. Every one of you have been notified about 2026-0356. Every one of you have been notified about 2026-0364. The responses have been underwhelming and we are trying to work as the community with the body of government that we have in front of us, but we've got to meet you guys halfway and you've got to meet us halfway. I don't understand if, if it's as simple as delaying the ord, the resolution, then let's delay it. Let's just say, okay, we're going to delay this until the study comes back. Is that unreasonable? I appreciate you all. Have a great night. Thank you. Next is Samantha Series. Samantha Series, address on file, as many of the other people spoke about the jail. I mean, I have a couple of questions. Have we heard from the consulting firm? Have you all heard from them? Because I'm pretty sure they said they were going to give some ideas. I've read a couple of articles that, you know, they're going to have town halls. Haven't heard of any town halls being held or any community meetings from this consulting group. So I'm wondering, did they take the 750 and run? Not sure. So I want to know what are the proposed locations. An article I did read said that there was three that they were like kind of considering. One was the, in the north side, of course, because why wouldn't it be, which is 21 miles from our courthouse. You understand a jail and the courthouse are kind of like copacetic. They need to be kind of close to each other. Almost every inmate has to go to a court date at some point because it's a jail. It's not a prison. They have their first appearance. They have all sorts of things that they have to go to their court dates for. And having it in the north side doesn't seem logical, not only for redlining. I know sometimes that doesn't hit the point that it should. Of course, stop doing these things in redline districts. But if that's not appealing to your senses, maybe just think of it as an economic reason why you shouldn't put it in the north side. One of the other areas that they said was possibly the Regency Square Mall. I think that's a great idea. It's only seven miles from the courthouse. You can hop on over on Arlington, real easy access, only a 14-minute drive to get the jailhouse people into the courthouse. And then one that I don't think should be considered at all is just the undeveloped land. No, do not put it on undeveloped land. Put it somewhere that there's already a structure, there's already a dilapidated building, there's already something not being used. Do not put it on undeveloped land. You know that we shouldn't be doing the things that we do here, where we over develop, we don't have the infrastructure. Put it somewhere it should be. Put it somewhere logical. I would love for you guys to mention to the consulting firm that maybe they should actually do something. That would be great. Because I would love to go to a community meeting for that. I would love to give them my opinion for free. It's real easy for that. Because it's not that hard. I don't think that we had to pay $750 for it. But you know, here we are. So again, don't put it in Northside. Thank you. Next is Shane Tremblay. Afternoon, counsel. My name is Shane Tremblay. My address is on file. As I speak to you all today, one of your constituents, Connor Colley, is sitting in the Duval County jail. Many more of your constituents are shocked, horrified, livid, and frankly, in disbelief. When I say your constituents, I don't just mean the active members of the community or just the folks who come to these meetings. The arrest and violent assault of Connor was captured and very clearly on video. And that video has been seen by thousands of people, both in and out of Jacksonville. I've shown it to friends, co-workers, family members, and every single one of them had the same response. Oh, there's no way they're not going to drop the charges, right? I cannot tell you how many people had called me after the news of the verdict, wanting an explanation. How could this happen? Didn't they see the video? They can't just do that, right? I cannot make it make sense for them because it does not make sense. It does not line up with anyone's understanding of justice. The only explanation I can offer them is this. The city's leadership will do everything they can, including using the entirety of the state attorney's office. And what I'm sure is a ridiculous amount of taxpayer dollars to make an example of a constituent they deem to be out of order. Connor Colley is an innocent man full of integrity who has done nothing wrong. Sitting in jail right now is incompatible with the idea of a just system. It is compatible with corruption, collusion, and abuse of power. This verdict has lit the city of Jacksonville on fire. There were many that sat idle during the course of the year-long legal battle because, like many of us, they couldn't imagine a world where Connor didn't walk away free, but they just got their wake-up call. To the city council members that see this case with clarity and that know that Connor should not be in the jail right now, you need to attend his sentencing hearing this Thursday at 3 p.m. You need to tell the judge that Connor deserves the lightest sentence possible, if not complete dismissal of the charges. This is your wake-up call. We are watching you. What you choose to do in this moment will be remembered by us all. Free Connor Colley. Thank you. Next is Jamie Travis Leonard. Good evening, city council. My name is Jamie Travis Leonard. My address is on file. So I'm here, as many have come tonight, to talk about the jail. My first big girl job was actually at a criminal defense attorney in this downtown, and I worked there when we were building the ginormous courthouse that actually impeded my direct access to my job. I was a little upset by that courthouse. I'll be honest with you. I still, every time I drive by, I still shake my fist a little in anger at it because it, right in the middle of Monroe Street, just killed me. But when you all approve, and by you all I mean the city council, some of you may have been on there at that time, not all of you, approve that courthouse. It was with the understanding that that was going to be the hub of the District 4 activity. So we're now trying to put the jail miles and miles and miles away from the hub of court activity. You know, the courthouse where these incarcerated individuals have to attend, you know, for simple things like continuances all the time. If anybody's been into a criminal court, you know what I'm talking about. So I don't agree with putting on the north side as some other speakers have. I like the Regency idea. It's a more direct route. Not only does it give a direct route access to the courthouse, it also gives it to the PMB and all the other infrastructure that has been set up downtown in relation to our court system. Do you all know how many attorneys are down here? An insurmountable amount, okay? Bail bonds. Do you all remember when the state attorney's office was on bay? Like, do you remember these things? And what did they do? They moved it a few streets over. So now you're trying to take something that has an integral part logistically into something that is built downtown and move it into the middle of nowhere? Don't do that. Like, I don't think you all care about redlining, I'm just gonna be honest. Like, I do support the 26356 resolution. I don't think you care. So I'm trying to present you information from a logistical standpoint in hopes that maybe you will care about that. So don't move it to the north side. Don't move it to any redline areas. Keep it in a spot where the logistics make sense. Thank you. Thank you. Next is LaShonda Holloway. LaShonda Holloway? How about Garrett Lopez? All right. After Mr. Lopez, it'll be Sarah Posey, then Avery Holbrook, and Felix Bonavent. Hey, my name is Garrett Yopies. My address is on file. I'm here to show support for one of your constituents. All your constituents, really, because you fail to realize that that is your job. But the one specific constituent I'm here to represent is a friend, a colleague, and that's Connor Cauley. As all of you know, Connor is currently in jail, facing years in prison simply for expressing his First Amendment right. This case is one of the most blatant cases of political repression, and you all know it. But what you all fail to realize is the more you repress, the more we express. We express our right to call you out as a failure to society, as a failure to justice, and to call you out for your support in the genocide in Gaza. All most of you care about is your inside deals and filling your pockets while the workers at Jacksonville suffer. Connor is one of the nicest and most compassionate people I've ever met. He would spend his free time feeding the homeless, giving them the opportunity to tell their story to someone. You say we're a country under God, and we prayed Jesus before we started this meeting. That's the most Jesus-like act I've ever seen anyone do. He's also one of the most outspoken people in calling out your injustices, and that's precisely why he's locked up on bogus charges. That's exactly why there's no doubt in my mind this is a case of political repression, and he is now a political prisoner. To make it clear that this is political repression is the fact that he was remanded by the judge even when the state was okay with him not. Connor was ripped over a row of chairs by a known domestic violence offender for simply reactively touching his hand. Tell me in what world and in what definition that is justice. I call for all of you, but especially those of you who see through this, to show up to Connor's sentence hearing on Thursday at 3 p.m. and express to the judge that Connor deserves time served. We, the constituents, will not back down, and in keeping you all in check, and I'll say it again, the more you repress, the more we express. Since I got 15 seconds left, how about we just don't build a jail and invest in the community so people won't have to commit crimes when they don't know when their next meal is coming from? How about we build infrastructure so they can get to a job? This is absolutely ridiculous. The final four speakers, Sarah Posey, Avery Holbrook, Felix Bonaventure, and John Nooney. Ms. Posey? That was awesome. My name is Sarah Posey. My address is on file. I'm here today with the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network, and I need to share my deepest frustration and disappointment with the council on behalf of myself and my friend Connor, who is not here tonight because he's in jail. I'm here to talk about the way that city council makes a habit of abandoning and betraying their constituents. In 2023, the council stated that our city unequivocally stands with the state of Israel and then completely ignored the community when we demanded that you rescind it because not only is it dangerously tone deaf, but it does not represent the people of our city. I used to think that you were turning a blind eye to the horrors of the way that Palestinians are being treated with the starving of children, the bombing of neighborhoods, and also the countless testimonies of Palestinian men, women, and non-Palestinian activists being arrested, tortured, filmed, sexually assaulted, and murdered, all with your support. I thought you weren't paying attention, but now I'm forced to reckon with the fact that you are not blind to it, but this is exactly what you quote unequivocally support. Speaking against this complicity is what Connor is sitting in jail for. You allowed your constituents to get brutalized in your chambers a year ago. Not one of you have publicly spoken out against the abuse you witnessed that day. You went as far as to allow your fellow council member to mock the victims of this brutality on their social media, and when I attempted to quote one of the council members' tweets here in public comment, I was penalized for language. You should not be holding your constituents to a higher standard than your own council. You betray your constituents by continuing to employ the officer who's conveniently not in here today, who has a history of domestic violence, who grabbed Connor by the neck and threw him over those chairs back there. After seeing the body cam footage for myself, I am just increasingly horrified by the violence you guys allowed to happen. You've abandoned and betrayed your community in Brentwood with this freaking morgue. You rushed to pass an emergency ordinance approving the location of this Morgan Brentwood without taking any time at all to hear from the community, and you've since had the opportunity to change this reality. As concerned, community members have been showing up consistently to speak out against it, and you ignore them. You're trying to do the same thing with this jail. It's tone deaf, it's racist, and it's a shame. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but a lot of people are learning about city council here in Jaxx because of these instances, and this is the impression that you're greeting them with. This is the legacy that you're committing to. Conor and Leah's commitment to speaking out for Palestine is the only thing that distinguishes their behavior from everyone else who was clapping that day exactly a year ago. Sentencing is scheduled for Conor this Thursday at 3 p.m., and for Leah on Friday at 10 a.m., and if you believe in the rights. Thank you, ma'am. Next is Avery Holbrook. Avery Holbrook, my name is Ann Fial. I'm representing Jacksonville Students for Democratic Society. Last year, Conor Colley was wrongfully assaulted by the cops. He was thrown over the chairs, and you guys allowed it to happen. You watched it. You didn't care at all. Now he is facing over, potentially over five years in prison for him being assaulted, and that is just one of the worst miscarriages of justice I've ever heard of, and I know most of you guys don't care. You're all on your phones. You're looking at your little notebooks, whatever. This is not how a council should act. You have to be adults, not children distracted by your little tablets. It's not okay. Secondly, on the subject of the jail, it is very blatantly racist to put it on a historically redlined area where it will only harm that community. It's not going to bring anything of value to them. You just want to fill your pockets with money. You don't care how bloody your money is as long as it is yours. That's all I got to say. Go to hell. Next is Felix Bonaventure. My name is Felix Bonaventure, and my address is on file. I am also here representing Jacksonville Students for Democratic Society. The first thing I want to say tonight is that everyone on this city council should be ashamed of themselves. You watched last year while Conor Colley was thrown around by the neck, arrested. Now he's facing five years in jail for what? He clapped in this room. Big deal. Y'all did nothing. Not when it was happening. Not over the past year when his case was put together. Not during last week's sham of a trial. You value a ridiculous notion of propriety over any notion of justice. People come into this room every council meeting to use their First Amendment rights and talk about their concerns for this community. At best, they're blatantly disrespected by half the council taking a break and the other half visibly not paying attention to us. And at worst, they get brutalized and arrested by the cops. You want our manners. You want our respect. We don't get any of that in return. What kind of example does that set for the community? What kind of leadership are we supposed to expect from you when that is how you treat us in the council meetings? You are helping destroy an innocent man's life with your apathy. It is disgusting behavior, and as I said, you should all be ashamed of yourselves. The second thing I want to say is about the jail, and there's not much I can say that has not already been said better by other people, so I will just say this. If you want the jail, if you want that new jail so bad, put it in your own neighborhood, and then we'll see how well you like it. We will all see. It is wrong. It is racist. I can't believe that it's a question of whether we should not put it in majority black historically redlined neighborhoods when it would bring nothing but negative consequences, but here we are. I guess that's a question that we have to ask. You should all be ashamed. Thank you. John Noonie. Hello. I am John Philanthropic, Jelly Roll, Good Boy, Resiliency Noonie, Ocho Tres, Cincoce, Spaskum Road. I'm in District 4, CPAC 3, Weselowski, Raymond Day, School Board District 3, Cindy Pearson, Charter School, Public School, Field Trip Park on Pottsburg Creek, Governor DeSantis, Council President Nick Howland, Vice President Joe Carlucci of the Jacksonville City Council, Pardon Noonie, 2024-0107. That's JU. That was a 3.5 million direct contract. 2024-0325, the University of Florida septic tank study. Let me pull the tape on that one. Okay. In the agenda, item 161. You can go to it for those that have it. 2026-0450, page 57 of 66. You know, I'm wearing my FWC. You know, it's a playoff for the Fish and Wildlife Commission. Well, another acronym. You know, fishing with courts. Again, pardon Noonie. You go to the legislation. It's agenda item 161. Authorize the mayor as designee and the corporate secretary to execute and deliver a third amendment to the city funding agreement between the city and JU to modify the preconditions to forgiveness of the 1.2 and a half million forgivable loan related to the establishment of the JU College of Law. Sawyer requested the mayor. You know, it's a neighborhood. It's financed, a vibe. Theoral comments, but not in rules. You know, I have an active JSO trespass citation for JU. It's lifetime. It's real. It's real. You know, I mean, give me a turn. I mean, I'll tell you. So, I hope that you reconsider where it's not in a private, but a true public place where we can all celebrate the leadership that will tell the world to visit Jacksonville. Thank you for listening. Thank you, sir. The following people did not wish to speak. Joseph Macio George, Dr. Shane George, Willie Cook Jr., Catherine Finn, Patricia Dodson, Viet Lavender, and Hereford Bean. And that concludes our speakers. Thank you, Mr. Floor Leader. All right, that brings us to public hearings pursuant to 166 and 163. Mr. Clerk, please read the bills. 2026-300, 301. 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 363, 364, 375, 377, 378, 379, 380, 381, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389, 390, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, 397, 398, 416, 418, 2026, 124, 125, 289, 290, 291, 292, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 299, and 311. These public hearings are all open. Thank you. Item 46, 2026-0300. Two speaker cards. Yvette Williams, or Jovette, I think Yvette, and followed by McBurn Williams. Either of you here? Got it. Who's walking down? Name and address, please, ma'am. Hello. My name is Jovette Williams, 3271 Racket Court, Jacksonville, Florida, 32277. I am co-owner of Smoke in the City Barbecue and a nurse of 41 years. Smoke in the City Barbecue is not just a place, a food truck to eat. It is an atmosphere. It's an environment. It's peaceful. I don't know how many times people have stopped by before my husband starts work afterwards or while we're just sitting on the property to say, can I sit down? Can I talk to you for a moment? And being a nurse, I know that mental health issues are real. They exist. And the fact that you can just, you feel like you have a place that you can just sit and vent your feelings and speak with someone is important. We have been members of the Arlington community for over 35 years, my husband and I together. And it's a community to us. We give back to our community. We hold Mother's Day events, Halloween events. And not just that. A little girl came up to my husband and said, how much for dinner for me and my brother? And he looked at her because she was so cute the way she said. He said, oh, I'll just give it to you. She came back the next day with a note that said, thank you. Thank you for feeding us. I know you have a business, but my mother has been laid off due to the government shutdown and she doesn't have any food stamps. And we just want to ask you one more time. Could you feed us? Of course we did. But the fact that she felt comfortable enough in our community to ask us to feed her means we're doing something right. Thank you. And thank you, ma'am. And Mr. Williams. Greetings to the body. Greetings to the body. My name is Melvin Williams. I am part owner of Smoking and City Barbecue. We also are part owners of the property that we own, which we purchased, 2449 University Boulevard North, as well as 2427 University North. And we need your address too, sir. My address on file is 3271 Riker Court, Jacksonville, Florida. Thank you. I would like to say thank you for having us. And we would like to say we are Arlington. We have been living in Arlington for over 35 years. We have our house in Arlington. We spend our money in Arlington. I go to Ace Hardware daily, Winn-Dixie, Walmart. Over 21 years, we've been doing Feed the Needed Community downtown, out of our pockets. We've been doing Halloween parties for the little kids at our house for 19 years. But the biggest thing I wanted to talk about is COVID. COVID is over now, but we forgot about it. I would never forget about it because my father died from COVID. But during COVID, the city of Jacksonville came to 2449 and asked for help from us. And you are seeing those packets that we have receipts from doing meals, some meals, 750, sometimes a thousand, depending on what they needed for senior citizens. That was one of the greatest things that we was able to do. People was able to eat. We was able to provide for the senior generation. And people was able to come outside because we had a food truck that was outside. Something different. They do it in St. Augustine. You have Harry's. Everybody go to. All we're asking for is, we are in the grant program. We have the paperwork on that. It took two years for them to actually get to us and find out that we are still in that program. All I'm asking the body to do, we was there eight years. There's no way we was there eight years. And then all of a sudden zoning comes and say that we should not be there. We ask that you look at our package. We ask that you look at that we are residents of Arlington and we ask that you give us the favor. Thank you. Mr. and Mrs. Williams, if you want to, Ken Amaro, your councilman, district councilman is right through that door. He'd like to chat with you. Yes. All right. No further speaker cards. Public hearings closed. All right. Item 47, 2026-0301. No speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Item 48, 2026-0302. One speaker card. Travis Moss. Questions only. Public hearings closed. Item 49, 2026-0303. And item 50, 2026-0304. No speaker cards. These public hearings are both closed. Item 51, 2026-0305. One speaker card. Samantha Series. She does not wish to speak. Public hearings closed. Item 52, 2026-0306. No speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Item 53, 2026-0363. Got a couple of speaker cards. First is Samantha Series. Followed by John Noody, who does not wish to speak. Jamie Travis Leonard, who does not wish to speak. And Keith Langberg, who does not wish to speak. All of whom oppose. Samantha Series, address on pile. I just wanted to say that I oppose this ordinance and I want you all to really take into consideration what is being put forth. You know, I'm worried that we're not reading fully into this in the terms. I just got the paperwork because you have to request it now because, you know, the website is under construction for the ADA compliance. So, you know, it's a lot going on in that one. And I didn't, I put, I think I put not to speak for 364. So I oppose both. I just want to say that. Thank you. No further speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Item 54, 2026-0364. We had five speaker cards, none of whom wish to speak, but all opposed. John Noody, Leo Dawson, or Lee Dawson, Samantha Series, Jamie Travis Leonard, and Keith Langberg. Public hearings closed. All right. Item 55, 2026-0375. No speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Item 56, 2026-0377. One speaker card. John Noody. On the bill, Mr. Noody. Hello. I am John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023-0819-8356, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 3-2216, City Council District 4, CPAC 3, School Board District 3. I mean, this is sweeping stuff here. It's neighborhoods, finance, but it's not in waterways or rules. And requiring a comprehensive report. And, you know, stakeholder input, interagency coordination. I mean, this is going to be massive stuff. You know, right off the top, I just think of the Northeast Florida Regional Council. I think of FINE, the Florida Inland Navigation District. I think of the Duval County Public Schools, 2025-0867. Think about the bill, Mr. Nooney. Keep going. Hey, well, interagency coordination. Report structures and format. Public, I mean, this is big stuff. And then you got the guy, you know, Rheingold. I think he's going to be leaving. But, but anyway, you know, I just want, and then, of course, you got Wendy Kahn, you know, capital improvement projects. So, I just wanted to at least be on the record that, I mean, this is big stuff. Thank you. Wait there, Mr. Nooney. No further speaker card. Public hearings closed. I have past president Carlucci in the queue. Okay. Item 57, 2026-0378. One speaker card, John Nooney. Hello. I am John Philanthropic, Jelly Roll, Good Boy Resiliency Nooney. 8356, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 3-2-2-1-6. I'm in City Council District 4, CPAC 3, School Board District 3. Still seeking a pardon. Really need that one. But 2026-0378, you know, here's definitions. You know, we're going to have a special magistrate. I know I'm going to need one. But, so, again, I mean, this is sweeping stuff. It's introduced by Council Member Pittman. You know, just the neighborhoods and rules. You know, it should be... Point of order, please. It should be going to everything. Mr. Carlucci called for a point of order. What's your point of order? Mr. President, I've known Mr. Nooney for a long time. He's a friend. You can stop his clock. He's been a friend. Mr. Nooney, I have to tell you... I think you have to state your point of order, which is... I'm getting there, Mr. President. ...to the rule that you're objecting on. That is the point of order. So, please state your point of order. You're speaking to Mr. Nooney. What's your point of order? If you'll give me a second, I will get to that. Or I'll quit trying to help you in this council. Mr. Nooney, you've got to speak to the bill, sir. There are people in this audience that you take so much time up every meeting. It comes to 30 to 40 minutes. There are people in this audience here. They have people home that need them home because they're sick or they're caregivers. Now, I know that because they've spoken to me. I don't want to just get up here, Mr. President. Just be cold. I see where you're going. Go ahead. Okay? I'm trying, though, to appeal to his better nature of his angels and up your game or don't get up because you take up sometimes 30 to 40 minutes of our meetings. I've been your friend for a long time. I have taken up for you. I have sponsored a resolution commending you. But I've got to tell you, there are people here who have reason to be home right now, and when you get up. So, my point of order is, if you don't start speaking to the bill with something constructive, I hate to do it, but I'm going to get up and I'm going to speak to that every time so we can get out of here. These folks can get out of here at a reasonable hour. Now, I'm speaking up for them. I have spoken up for you time and time and time again. Well, somebody's got to speak up for them, and I'm doing that. You're not speaking to the bill. I think you need to sit down, sir. That's my point of order. Taken. All right, Mr. Anuni, you've got a minute 59. Yeah, I do. Okay, well, you know, when you get here again, you have definitions. I mean, we are redoing everything. This isn't just the only bill. There's a whole bunch of stuff. And so, anyway, no, and just to let you know, no, if anything, you know, you would hope that there would be more reporting with the legislation that you, the 19 members of the Jacksonville City Council, have and do and impose on everyone in Jacksonville. So, anyway, I'll just hold off because I filled out some other ones. This next one, agenda item 61. You've got to stay on that one, Mr. Anuni. If you're done, you're done. Okay, I am done. All right. But I'll be ready. No more speaker cards, Mr. President. Public hearings closed. Number 58, 2026-0379. Item 59, 2026-0380. Item 60, 2026-0381. No speaker cards. These public hearings are all closed. Item 61, 2026-0382. One speaker, John Nooney. Hello, I am John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023-0819. I'm in City Council District 4, CPAC Planning District 3, School Board District 3, 8356 Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 3-2216. Now, okay, here's an appropriating $45,000 in the fund balance from the Environmental Protection Fund to provide funding for educational outreach activities as well as food and beverage travel supplies, training dues, and membership fees for the Jackson Environmental Protection Board members and staff. I mean, that's wow. You know, and that's, you know, anybody ever go to an EPB? Point of order. Meeting? Mr. Carlucci, state your point of order. You're not speaking to the bill. You're just reading the bill off, Mr. Nooney. Well. Please. If you have something that is. Okay, well, this is in neighborhoods and finance. You don't have the floor right now. You know, it's not in waterways. I have the floor, sir. You do not have the floor right now. Okay. You are not speaking to the bill, John. You're just not. I request that until he gets to where he's speaking to the bill, that he has a seat. And I think that's in fairness to everybody here concerned. This has been going on year after year after year. And I have been so kind, but I'm up to it. And now I hear from people in the audience. Have your seat. I still have two minutes. No, I think you've been called out on a point of order for not sticking to the bill. So let's public answer close. All right. Item 62, 2026-0383. One speaker card. John Nooney. Sorry, ma'am. Only one person at the podium at a time. One person at the podium at a time. One person at the podium at the time. Your time has started, Mr. Nooney. Name and address. All right. Okay. John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution, 2023-0819, 8356, Bascom Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 32216. You know, it's off Mills. It's Denon Street. It's around, you know, it backs up the... All right. Look, okay. This one. Amend. The powers and duties. The DIA. And, again, it's in neighborhood rules finance, not in waterways. And this is, again, big stuff. We are rearranging everything. Here you have the CRA. And we're the... To impose and collect regulatory fees and charges... Mr. Nooney, you have to do more than just read the bill. You have to speak to it. Well, well... Mr. Carlucci, you recognized. Mr. Nooney... I'm only reading the bill. John, you're only reading the bill, sir. Well, I'm going to be trying to understand... You need to do more research on the bill, up your game, and then come speak to us. But you're not addressing the bill. You're just reading it, sir. And I have tried to speak with you in private about this. It does no good. But I... This has got to stop. So stop it. Well, you have the request of the special committee on the future. I've got a minute 42. I mean... Stick to the bill. Okay, well... Say something substantive toward the bill, Mr. Nooney. Well, this is big, sweeping stuff. All right. Item 63, 2020... Oh, this public hearing is closed. Item 63, 2026, 0384. No speaker cards. That's public hearing is closed. Move the emergency. Got a motion, second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to saying nay, the emergency carries. So the bill is an emergency. Got a motion, second on the bill as an emergency. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 15 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0384 as an emergency. Item 64, 2026, 0385. No speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Item 65, 2026, 0386. One speaker card. Does not wish to speak. Nancy Murray-Suttle. Public hearing is closed. Item 66, 2026, 0387. Got two speaker cards. First is Bobby O'Connor, followed by Jamie Travis-Lennard. I'm Bobby O'Connor. My name is on file. I would like very much for you all to support this and continue the millage rate. Our schools are very important. We need to keep them. They're having budget issues already. We have to continue this millage rate, and I'm asking you to please do that. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Next is Jamie Travis-Lennard. Good evening, City Council. My name is Jamie Travis-Lennard. My address is on file. I support 26387. This resolution is to put the one mill tax renewal on the ballot for voters to vote on. In 2022, when it was originally put on for voters, they overwhelmingly supported it. I expect that we'll have a similar outcome. The existing one mill has helped to support teacher and staff pay, as well as athletic programs. We've got 12 playgrounds because of it, 11 bleachers, 8 tracks, 6 turf fields, 6 scoreboards, and 5 tennis courts. So on top of that, we also have been able to help supplement our arts programs. So 10 high school band uniforms, 32 lighting and sound upgrades, and 2 recording studios. Basically, this referendum ensures that we are supporting our teachers in a time of very uncomfortable economic stability. So I hope that you vote to put this on for the voters in November. Thank you. Thank you. Two other speakers did not wish to speak. Samantha Series and Alex Hazen, both support. Public hearings closed. Item 67-2026-0388. Two speaker cards. Samantha Series does not wish to speak. She opposes, and John Nooney does not wish to speak. He also opposes. Public hearings closed. Item 68-2026-0389. We've got one speaker card. John Nooney. Hello. I am John J. Nooney. Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023-0819. 8356, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 3-2216. City Council District 4, CPAC 3. It's Weslowski, Raymond Day. School Board District 3, Cindy Pearson. Now, this one. I mean, this, again, we're going to amend public parking. We're going to expand the role of the Office of Public Park to include the management of the micromobility. Now, this is dockless mobility unit. You know, when I hear that, you know, I'm thinking of our waterways. Now, it's in rules to you, but it's not neighborhoods or waterways or finance. A dockless mobility. And we're going to create a program administrator position and provide for future expansion of the program outside the current boundary. So, again, you know, you've got the sponsors. You've got people that were on waterways. Amero, co-sponsor, Palooza. I mean, again, sweeping stuff. You know, if we want to be telling the world, visit Jacksonville. But you have to open up our waterways. All right. Thank you for listening. All right. Thank you, sir. Item 69. Sorry, go ahead. Public hearing closed. Item 69, 2026-0390. No speaker cards. Public hearing closed. Item 70, 2026-0391. One speaker, John Nooney. Hello. I am John J. Nooney. Name and address is on file. All right. 2026-0391. Now, here again, this is massive stuff. This is between the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the city. Provide for oversight by the Office of Administrative Services Department, EQD. You know, this is brand new. You know, I reached out to them. They've only been around six months. You know, and so anyway, it's neighborhoods, TEU, but not rules, finance, or again, waterways. Are you going to speak to the bill, sir? Point of order. Point of order. Yeah. Well. Point of order called by past President Carlucci. We're not getting any information except what's already written in front of us, and it's not adding to the contribution for the council or for the audience that I know of. And I suggest that the speaker have a seat. He's out of order, and that's what I would recommend, Mr. President. I'll be the bad guy. He needs to sit down. All right. You've been told by past President Carlucci that you're out of order. Have a seat, sir. Public hearing is closed. No further speaker cards. We're creating a domestic. All right. Moving on. A new authority. You need to close that public hearing. I did. I'll close it again. Public hearing is closed. Item 71, 2026-0392. No speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Move the emergency. Got a motion second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to an A. Emergency cares. Move the bill's emergency. Got a motion second on the bill. As an emergency, no one's in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 15 yays. Zero nays. Fire action. You've approved 2026-0392 as an emergency. Item 72, 2026-0393. And item 73, 2026-0394. No speaker cards. These public hearings are both closed. Item 74, 2026-0395. No speaker card. Public hearing is closed. An additional public hearing will be 6926. Item 75, 2026-0396. No speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Item 76, 2026-0397. No speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Move the emergency. Have a motion second on the emergency. No one's in the queue. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to saying nay. The emergency carries. Move the amendment. Got a motion second on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to saying nay. The amendment carries. Move the bill as an emergency, as amended. Got a motion and second on the bill as an emergency, as amended. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 15 yays. Zero nays. Fire action. You have approved 2026-0397, as an emergency, as amended. Item 77, 2026-0398. Item 78, 2026-0416. And item 79, 2026-0418. No speaker cards. These items are public hearing, excuse me, are all closed. We've already handled item 80. Item 81, 2026-0124. One speaker card. Samantha Series. She does not wish to speak. Public hearing will be continued to 728-26. Item 82, 2026-0125. Two speaker cards. Samantha Series does not wish to speak. She opposes. And Jamie Travis Leonard does want to speak. The public hearing will be continued to 728-26. Is Ms. Leonard not here? Not speaking. Got it. But they both oppose. Okay. Again, the public hearing will be continued to 728-26. Mr. Floor Leader. Item 83, 2026-0289. One speaker card. Does not wish to speak. Samantha Series. She opposes. Public hearing is closed. Additional public hearing will be 6-926. Item 84, 2026-0290. Got two speaker cards. First is Penny Buckland-McGregor. Mr. McGregor, are you here? All right. She's left. And Vernon Williams. You here, Mr. Williams? Okay. They both oppose. Public hearing is closed. Additional public hearing will be 6-926. Item 85, 2026-0291. And item 86, 2026-292. No speaker cards. Public hearing is both closed. They both have additional public hearings on 6-926. Item 87, 2026-0293. Item 88, 2026-0294. Item 89, 2026-0295. No speaker cards. These public hearings are all closed. Additional public hearings will be on 6-926 for all of them. Item 90, 2026-0296. One speaker card. Travis Moss. You still here? All right. Public hearing is closed. Additional public hearing will be 6-926. Item 91, 2026-0297. No speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Additional public hearing will be 6-926. Item 92, 2026-0298. Two speaker cards. Latavia Harris and Samantha Series. Samantha Series does not support it and does not wish to speak. Latavia Harris, are you here? She's not here. She's not here. Public hearing is closed. Additional public hearing on 6-926. All right. On to item 93, 2026-0299. Two speaker cards. Latavia Harris, she opposes. And Samantha Series, did you want to speak? Nope. Also opposes. All right. Public hearing is closed. Additional public hearing will be 6-926. Item 94, 2026-0311. One got Nancy Murray Settle. Are you here? She opposes. Pardon me. She supports. And then three cards that do not wish to speak. Samantha Series, Jamie Travis Leonard, and Keith Langenberg. All, pardon me. The first two support. The last one does not support. All right. Public hearing is closed. Digital public hearing will be 6-926. All right. That moves us on to third reading of resolutions on page 35, item 95, 2026-0356. Move the bill. Got a motion second on the bill. Council Member Palusa, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. President. The bill before us right now did not make it through three committees. I understand why. But you just heard this evening from a number of your constituents and the people who come before this body very often, very concerned about where this jail might be placed. I understand, and I know if Council Member Lannan was here, he would be speaking to the fact that, hey, he's the jail liaison, he's been in coordination with the sheriff's office, the mayor's office, and with the consultant, and it's very much the intention not to be building in any of the red-lined areas. So if it's not the intention already, then let's make sure we just pass this resolution and make it so. This resolution is meant to be a reflection of where this body's values are. Three years ago, we voted in favor of a resolution, 19-0, to ensure that we would not only apologize for the sins of redlining, but that we pursue policy goals to make sure that we don't go back to any of those policies in the past where we built and red-lined areas. One of my concerns is if we build an annex or a smaller facility on top of the larger facility, because I do think it will be built in probably a sprawled-out area. I believe that's the intent. We talked about that in the jail committee. We know that. But there could be smaller facilities that they do need to build closer to the courthouse, and I want to make sure they won't be in Durkeeville or in La Villa or in one of the red-lined communities in Brentwood. The expectation for the people of Brentwood was that they would not see a medical examiner's office, and we've heard a lot about that since it was built. This is meant to try to get ahead of that and ensure that the policy of this body is to say, no, we will not be building a jail or any facility like the jail in these red-lined communities. You've heard from the constituents numbers of times. I'm just trying to do something that I thought was really tempered down and acceptable to this body. So I ask that we vote it up, and I do appreciate your efforts. All right. Vice President Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. President. I just want to make a couple points, because I initiated this whole jail debate in the summer of 2023. The jail, as many of you know, is going to be a several-hundred-acre proposal with bringing in probably the P-Farm, juveniles, and then having all the services that inmates need, mental health, health care, workforce development, all those things. I heard two things tonight that intrigued me. They are coming up with three proposals, this study group that we've hired. One was to delay this debate until we have the three sites. I thought that was—I forgot who mentioned it. I thought it was a brilliant point. We don't know where it's going to be yet. And it would seem to have this debate when we have the three sites, and they'll be meeting with the community. The firm we've hired will be having that debate within the community. That's the time to have this debate. Number two, I've heard the comment the jail needs to be close to the courthouse. That's not true anymore. After COVID, where all the judges—and my son's a judge, so I watched all this—things were done electronically. And there's not as much in-court appearances as there used to be. The younger judges prefer that. It's really a lot of the older judges that like to bring the inmate in for the court appearance. So the world has changed, and the way we handle courts have changed. And I'm sure that will go into this debate of where to site this particular facility. So I voted against it. I don't think it's appropriate to make these decisions until we have those three sites. I will vote against it today. But I think the more prudent approach would be to have this debate once we have the sites. And if the sponsor would move such a proposal, I think that would be most appropriate. Thank you, Mr. President. All right. That's President Carlucci. Thank you, Mr. President. I support the resolution, and I'm going to tell you why. This city has a bad history, as probably most serving cities do, of redlining. And when we think of redlining, we oftentimes think of banking, mortgage lending, and so forth. But what redlining has to do with is everything from streetlights, drainage, curb and gutter, water and sewer line, cable lines, school construction, quality, and the list goes on. And it has been going on in Jacksonville for decades. So I'm not supporting – I'm supporting this because I've been meeting with community members about redlining. I don't know if any of them are here anymore, but there's three or four in particular and some others. But I can't vote for something that doesn't draw some kind of line in the sand to protect areas where there has been lines drawn in the sand that didn't protect them. I'm an at-large council member, so I have to look at every section of this city, of Jacksonville, and put aside party, and put aside all the other factors except for the facts. When I first started hearing people come up and talking about redlining, I have to admit, I was not fully informed. But as I began to listen to my friends, Warren Jones, Nat Glover, other people who have such institutional memory of what's happened in this community, and then when I go back and I research and I look and I reread A Quiet Revolution and other books on Jacksonville's history, we have had a problem with redlining, and now we have an opportunity to make a statement that no more. So that's why I'm supporting this. I'm not fussing when I'm talking, but I'm talking with some passion because I have to use my voice to help elevate the people who come and speak in the microphone up there to help elevate their voice. That's what I'm doing tonight. And I have learned more about this subject in the last year and a half. I should have known more about it farther back than that. I've known about it, but not like I do now. So I urge everybody here, whether you're district or whether you're at large, to support this resolution. It's just a resolution, but at least it makes a daggum statement. I urge your support. Thank you. Councilwoman Clark-Mary. Thank you, President. Through the President to Ms. DeFopolis, would it be appropriate at this time to make a motion to defer? The motion on the floor currently is to move the bill. So if that is withdrawn without objection, then you could move to postpone. You would have to pick a date certain to postpone it to. In your motion. All right. Thank you so much for that. So through the Chair to Ms. DeFopolis, so the motion to withdraw the moving of this bill needs to be done by whom? Myself or the President? Is there any particular person who needs to make that motion? Through the President to Councilmember Clark-Mary. So the withdrawal rule states that a bill may be withdrawn by the introducer at any time before amendment or putting to a vote with the consent of the majority of Councilmembers present. And thereafter, a bill may be withdrawn only upon a recommendation of a committee of reference. And it was not recommended for withdrawal from committee. So unless Mr. Peluso wants to propose a withdrawal through a motion, it would be in order for you to offer the postponement or to take an action on the bill as moved. Thank you so much for that. Through the President, to Mr. Peluso. I know that we did discuss this in neighborhoods. I presented it to you and you did decline to withdraw. I'm asking once again that you consider it for the very reasons of several people who came forward today and talked about the fact that the bill is premature. One Councilmember mentioned it as well, that it's premature. And it's premature because it precedes the report that we're expecting in January of next year regarding the jail. So I think it would be more appropriate. And once again, the withdrawal will allow you to bring it back prior to. If we vote on it, that means you can't bring the bill back until after. President, if you would allow Mr. Peluso to respond. Yeah. You can speak to the Chair and Mr. Peluso. Through the President, to Councilmember Clark-Mary. I just don't know why we keep delaying the time. This is to help the consultant know areas where they should not be pursuing and looking at this moment and know what our intentions are and where our thoughts are as a body earlier and before that report comes out. So to me, it's to provide guardrails. I understand the intention, and I think Councilmember Salem had incredibly good points. But I do think that we need to make sure that we are saying in one loud voice early and often to the consultants, hey, stay out of these areas. So I would prefer not to withdraw. Okay. Well, thank you so much for that. Through the President, to the committee members, I'm sorry, to the Council, we know that essentially it's not supported at this time. And I would not like to see it go down in flames, but it is going to go down in flames, as you know. And so I think it is good common sense to withdraw it. But thank you, Chair. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Diamond. Call the question. The question's been called. Everyone raise your hand if you want to call the question. The question being called has failed. Councilmember Paluso for the second time. Thank you, Council President. No, to Councilmember Salem, I do appreciate where your head is at. I think that you spoke pretty plainly about what this is, and I appreciate that. But I do think that deferral and moving this does not do the job. It continues to get the can down the road. We have people who have showed up time and again over the past several years talking about this issue. Councilmember Carlucci, past President Carlucci, is right. We need to put a line in the sand now. We've seen this a lot in this city. We've said to these communities before, don't worry. It's not going to happen again. Don't worry. Why would it? And then it does. And then something else happens. And so I'm even concerned. We talked a little bit about food deserts earlier. I've had members of this body say, yep, we'll talk about food deserts moving forward. We need to make sure we do that. I'm afraid that by the time we get to January and past January, we're going to be focused on a lot of other stuff, and we're not going to be getting back to this. We have the opportunity now. And I think, again, this is a very tempered measure. That's why I find it so odd that there's so much opposition to it, because this is meant to be pretty easy. So I ask that we vote it up tonight, just be done with it, shows members of the community that we are listening, and it does the right thing. Thank you. Councilman Amaro, for the first time. Thank you, Mr. Chair. During committee, I voted against this resolution, but I stated very emphatically on the record that I will not support any kind of jail being built in any of Jacksonville's black communities. I just don't think it belongs there. Nevertheless, this legislation does nothing to protect the community. It's premature. It panders to weaknesses. Communities are looking for strong economic development and strong leadership. They don't need to have their hopes built up on a bad policy that doesn't protect them. And for those reasons, I just can't find myself coming to support this. I think it's more of a miscarriage of justice than justice. Thank you. Pastor President Freeman. Thank you, Mr. President. I had the pleasure of watching the debate during committee, and I'm counting to 11. There are 19 of us, so we obviously know that this is going to fail. So through the president, to this body, I will simply say that I heard Councilmember Layden's request. Numerous times we've had councilmembers who are liaisons to various bodies and boards, and they've come to us with requests, and we've honored that. And now when it comes to an issue like this, that's going to put everyone on the record. That's what this is basically trying to do. Those types of games I'm not afraid of. I do trust Councilmember Layden, and if anybody knows him like we all do, he's a numbers, a dollars and cents guy. He doesn't play anything else. So if he asks me, I trust him. I trust that the right thing is going to be done, and so I will not be supporting this as well, and I will go on this record as well. For whatever reason, we want to continue to go forward with this as opposed to withdrawing. Thank you. All right. There's no one else in the queue. Please open the back. Dr. Johnson slipped in there. You recognize it. It is your birthday. Thank you, Mr. President. I want to jump in real quick. I appreciate this, and I'm looking at this issue, and I have to say, while I am probably going to vote for this, I do know it's going to fail. I mean, you can look at it and read the tea leaves and see in all of the committees that this has been discussed, it's probably going to fail. I would hope that conventional wisdom would tell us that if we deferred it and just held on to it for a moment, maybe we could find some way to find a workable solution. I will say, however, like Councilman Amaro, I am not going to support it going in a community that is densely African-American. I don't think it's the right thing. I do believe, I've said it on record before, having served and chaired one of the subcommittees for the jail committee, that it needs to be out where the pea farm is. That's my belief. Although it's on the north side, everybody's not happy about that, but it seems that the infrastructure would support this kind of facility. I would hope, before we take this vote, because as Councilwoman Clark Murray said so eloquently earlier, before we take this vote, if this does not pass, it's going to be a year before this can come back. And I just don't think that this sends the right message, nor is it fully baked. So I'm going to put that on the record, and I hope that we would at least try to jump in and say, let's slow roll this and take our time. Thank you, Mr. President. Councilmember Diamond. Since I didn't get to speak on this, I said this in committee, I think this is just performative garbage, but I do absolutely agree with Ken Amaro. Look, I'm not going to support this going into a historically-backed neighborhood either. And I think people need to know that a lot of people in the council feel that way. It feels like we just jam everything we don't like into the same neighborhood, so I won't be part of that either. Thanks. Councilmember Gaffney, Jr.? Thank you, through the chair. I just want to let you guys know that District 8 is predominant African American community. So I know it's been a lot of talk, but it's going by the pea farm. I'm against it. I'm going to support this bill tonight. I think we do need to have guardrails. I am concerned to come in District 8. I understand that District 8 have the land, the proximity, but I'm opposed to it. I'm going to support this because we do need some guardrails in place. And I'm going to go ahead and let you guys know now, I'm a big no for it coming out to the north side. So I'm putting everybody on notice now. I'm a big no. So airport, River City, Pecan Park, by First Coast, no more Chick-fil-A's, no more jails, and no more apartment complex. So I just want to put that on the record right now. Thank you, Councilmember Gaffney. Before we go to Mr. Paluzzo, for the third time, I'll just add that just some context to the study. So the gentlemen that are in charge of doing the study are making the rounds. They're available for any council members to meet. I met with them. I told them the things that we're all saying here, that we don't want it to be in a neighborhood. We don't want it to affect someone's property values and things like that. But we have to find a place for it. So I encourage all of you to schedule that meeting and let your thoughts and your feelings on where the jail should be tell directly to the consultants who are doing the study. Let them know, and then they'll come back with their recommendations, and we can take it from there. But I will recognize you for the third time. Give them a minute. Thank you, Mr. President. For one, this is not performative. This is literally what we keep hearing from our constituents. Much of my community, much of my district is in this redlined area. We literally passed a resolution three years ago that we discussed that we don't want to do things in these areas. I've now heard multiple members of this body say, yeah, I commit to that. Then pass this resolution. This resolution is the will of the body telling this consultant and all who listen, yeah, we don't intend to build any part of this facility in a redlined area. It's literally what we talked about in the past multiple times. If you were so against it before, you shouldn't have voted for the last resolution. And this is not some kind of gimmick, nor is it meant to put anyone on the record. We could have talked about deferral or other things in different committees. We could have done notice meetings. We're here now. If your will truly is that you don't want it to be put in one of these communities, then vote this up. No other speakers, please open the ballot and record your vote. Five yays, 12 nays. By your action, 2026-0356 has failed. Moving on to third reading of ordinances, item 96, 2026-0315. Move the amendment. I have 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. Move the bill as amended. Got a motion, second on the bill as amended. There's no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0315 as amended. Item 97, 2026-0317. Move the amendment. Got a motion, second on the amendment. Council Member Miller on the amendment. He's not on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The amendment carries. The bill is amended. Got a motion, second on the bill as amended. Colonel Miller, you recognize. Real quick, Mr. President, I'd like to be added as co-sponsor. Thank you very much. All right. No one else is in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0317 as amended. Item 98, 2026-0321. 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. 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. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0321. We already passed item 99. Item 100, 2026-0324. 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, second on the bill as amended. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot. Record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0328. Item 101, 2026-0331. 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. Move the bill as amended. Got a motion, second on the bill as amended. There is no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-03331. Item 102, 2026-0333. 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 to saying nay? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. Got a motion and second on the bill as amended. There is no one in the queue. Please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays. Zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026-0333. Item 103, 2026-0336. Move the rules amendment. Got a motion and second on the rules amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the rules amendment. Signify by saying aye. Any opposed to saying nay? The rules amendment has been passed. The bill is amended. The motion is second on the bill as amended. I would make everyone aware that our esteemed president of Edward Waters, Dr. Faison, is here. We also have a large group of students who held tight with us all night. Some folks from student government, Darian Armstrong, Kennedy Richardson, Marquise Humphrey, Janai, and Mitchell are all here in support of this legislation. Thank you for being involved and showing us that you're here to represent. And we also have our chairman of the board of Everwars University, Bishop Marvin Zander. So welcome, everyone. Thanks for your patience. You had Newby with you. All he had to do was ask to get moved forward, and y'all would have been out of here, but he didn't do it. So there's no one else in the queue, so open the ballot and record your vote. He just nuked his free beer. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0336. Congrats, E-Dub. We've already done item 104. Moving on to item 105, 2026-0362. Do you have a four amendment for this? Got it. I need the rules chair to come take the gavel. Mr. President, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Rules chair. I rise to declare conflict, potential conflict with this legislation and abstain from the bill. As my employer, the Boys and Girls Club of Northeast Florida serves youth at a various level of ages and services. So we're not sure what the RFP is going to say, but there's a chance that we could apply for those funds. So that being said, I will abstain so there will be no conflict. Thank you, Mr. President. And we also have another abstention, I believe. Councilwoman Jacoby Pittman, please. I stand to also declare perhaps maybe a conflict because the Clara White mission is my employer and that may be a conflict. The paperwork has already been signed, so I just wanted to let you know. Thank you. All right. Move the floor amendment. Are we just moving the bill? Okay. Move the bill. We have a motion and second on the bill. All right. Seeing no one in the queue, please open the ballot and record your vote. 14 yeas, one nay, two abstentions. By your action, you have approved 2026-0362, and I'll recognize past President Freeman, who did the work of this committee. Thank you, Mr. President, and through the President to Councilmember Diamond, thank you as well for staying consistent, as you always do. But this, there were many questions asked, and I was watching and not able to answer them. But one, thank you for the trust. Councilman Salen, you mentioned the concern about this being reoccurring dollars. Mr. Everett was going to be here tonight, but unfortunately, he had a family situation come up, so he couldn't, and I shared that I would. This is obviously the Council President's legacy, his initiative, and one of the things that we built into this was a process that is going to transcend multiple budgets. So this $5.2 million will carry over into next year, will not all be spent this year, so groups will still be able to apply for it next year. It's not going to all be spent in the following year, so now the Council President will have three years' worth of a process. Money can always be added during our budgetary process, but the mechanism is going to be in place, and funding will be in place for the next three years to keep this moving forward. So I just wanted to make sure that I put that out there. This is not giving more money to any particular entity. This is more money for an initiative. That entity is just the group that is administering it. If there are any other questions, offline, I guess. All right. Thank you, Mr. Past President. Mr. Floerleer? All right. We're on page 42, second reading of resolutions. Mr. Clerk? 2026, 399, 400, 401, 402, 403, 414, 415, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 372, 373, 374, and 376. All right. There are no public participation cards, so that will take us to item 110 on page 43. Move the substitute. All right. We've got a motion second on the substitute. All in favor of the substitute, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay? The substitute has been passed. Move the bill as substituted. We've got a motion second on the bill as substituted. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot. Record your vote. 17 yays. Zero nays. By your action, you have approved 2026 to enter 0403. All right. That takes us to the introduction of new ordinances of first readings. Mr. Clerk? He doesn't do those? All right. Then we're just going to keep on skipping through. Hold on here. I'll find it. I just wanted to keep you on your toes, Jason. What page is that? Got it. So we are on page 63. Item 173 on page 63, 2026, 0462. Move the emergency. I've got a motion second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to saying nay? The emergency passes. All right. We have no public participation card, so move the bill as an emergency. All right. We've got a motion. Oh, pardon me. We have a floor amendment. I'll move. All right. We've got a motion second on the floor amendment. Yes. We've got a second for Mr. Arias. Sure. Mary's going to explain the amendment. Thank you. You have a couple of floor amendments coming up that are all technical corrections to bills that were filed as in and out emergencies. On 2026, 462, the floor amendment corrects the bill title to reflect that the Office of Economic Development will have oversight of the agreement described in the bill, and it places the revised marketing funding agreement between the city and the Jacksonville Black Chamber of Commerce, Inc. revised on file to include missing pages and corrects Scrivener's errors. All right. That is the floor amendment. All in favor of the floor amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to saying nay? Floor amendment passes. We've got a motion second on the bill as an emergency as amended. Councilman Arias, you're recognized. All right. Thank you, Mr. President. Very quick. I'm just going to speak on this one, but obviously it pertains to the other two bills coming up. This is legislation that we passed months ago into last year. The chambers were not funded for whatever reason. It just took long. And then essentially there was a news article that came out saying that they're not going to get funded by the administration. We had conversations. I had public notice meetings already. I spoke to the Senator Yarbrough as well to talk about this and the fact that we couldn't defund them. The reason for the nature of the emergency is because it's been already going on half a year that we passed the legislation to actually fund them. So no new dollars coming out of this. Nothing crazy. It's just getting them their money that's been owed for about six months now. And I just hope that you guys support this. Thank you. All right. Thank you. No one else in the queue. Please open the ballot. Record your vote. 16 yeas. One nay. By your action, you have approved 2026-0462. Mike. He's got a dead mic. He's on item 175, 2026-0464. Hold on one sec. Move the emergency. We've got a motion. We need a second. We've got a second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The emergency carries. Floor amendment. He said move the floor amendment. And we got a second from council member areas. We don't need an explanation. It's basically the same as the last one. All in favor of the floor amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The floor amendment has been passed. Nope. Nope. Nope. We do not have any public participation cards or a working mic for the floor leader, but... Move the bill as an emergency. Oh, there he is. And we have a motion. Need a second on the bill as an emergency. Thank you. As an emergency, as amended. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot. Record your vote. 16 yeas. One nay. By here action, you have approved 2026-0464. Item 176, 2026-0465. Move the emergency. We've got a motion and a second by council member areas on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The emergency carries. We have no public participation, so move the floor amendment. Got a motion and a second on the floor amendment. It's the same as the last two. No one's in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. The amendment carries. Move the bill as an emergency, as amended. We've got a motion and a second on the bill as emergency, as amended. No one's in the queue. Please open the ballot. Record your vote. 16 yeas. One nay. By your action, you have approved 2026-0465. And our last item, 178, on page 66, 2025-0872. I believe Mr. Salem wants to make a motion. Yes. I call on past president Salem. Thank you, Mr. President. Hopefully this will be the last time that I will ask for a postponement. As most of you know, General Counsel Michael Fackler put out an opinion on the appointment bill. It came out Sunday afternoon with a Monday holiday. I didn't think it was appropriate to vote on that tonight, not giving all of you a chance to read it, study it, ask Mr. Fackler some questions if need be. Plus, he had a family event tonight, a son graduating, I think, and I didn't want to put him in a bad position of not being here. So for that reason, I'm postponing it for two weeks from today, and we will have the debate and vote on that at that time. Second. So I encourage you to take a look at the opinion. It's well written, and he's frankly changed his mind and supports the appointments. All right. Can you just clarify for the record the date that you would like it postponed to? Ms. Mary, can you help me there? June 9th. All right. The motion is to postpone until June 9th. We have a second from our floor leader, I believe, or Council Member Ares. I did hear a second. So yeah, let's vote. We had Mr. Carlucci, but he went off, so I don't know if he wants to talk. All right. So let's call on Pastor President Carlucci. Yeah, I thought I would just try to clear up one thing. I would, I'm not sure that Mr. Fackler supports the appointments. I think what he may support is that the appointments can be changed. I think that's what he's supporting. No, that's not what you said. Go back and listen to the, I'm not trying to be critical, Ron, but that's what you, that's, that's what I heard you say. Okay. So I want to make clear that it's, he doesn't support the appointments. He supports the fact that the appointments can be made. So I think we need to think about that as an issue, but the other thing we need to think about between now and two weeks is why? What's the problem? What is the problem we're fixing here? And if this needs to be fixed, then what other appointments need to be fixed? And I just think we're, we're, we're putting our hand over in the mayor's office, investigating this, investigating that, and we're trying to change this. And I think consolidation was set up pretty well. And there comes a point in time, we ought to just let it work and quit fiddling with it. And I just want to say that as a precursor to when we come up, I do appreciate Councilman Salem being patient and letting this come up in this due time after we've had a chance to look at it. But, but I just have no idea why we're pursuing that. It's, it's just another infringement that may be okay with the charter, but it's, it's just out of line. All right. Dr. Salem. Thank you, Mr. President. I didn't intend to get into the debate tonight, but I will articulate several reasons two weeks from tonight why I think this is important. And Mr. Fackler did change his opinion on the fact that we can make these appointments. If I didn't make that clear, let me make it clear one more time. We can make these appointments and I will, and I'm sure many others will articulate why I think this is important. And I'm sure many of you believe what I believe. Thank you. All right. Thank you. The postponement is a ballot vote. So please open the ballot and record your vote. 17 yays, zero nays. By your action, you postpone 2025 0872 to June 9th. That's a wrap, sir. That is all. I'd like to thank my floor leader for stepping in today and helping us get through. Thank you so much. Another acknowledgement of the happy birthday for Dr. Johnson. Any announcements before we adjourn and send it to the chaplain? Councilwoman Pittman, do you have an announcement? Come on. Mr. President, I know she probably doesn't want me to do this, but you know, today is your special day. So let's give Mary a big round of applause because we appreciate you coming to work on your birthday. Okay. So thank you. Not yet. Oh, all right. Well, I'm going to call on you again. I didn't even call on you that time. You just took the flow. Okay. Well, happy birthday to you. We have a few more. Again, Dr. Johnson, thank you for being here and your birthday as well and your special day. And then Rebecca Hagan, yesterday was her birthday. And then we have Dr. Salem, Nikki. It was her birthday on, actually coming up June 4th. So we have Mary and then we have Steve. Steve. Is he here today? Oh man. Y'all let's, hey, wish Steve a happy birthday. It was his birthday on the 24th. So we've already had the song sang and I appreciate you. So we're going to have to practice. I'm going to get you and Chris together and you. I don't know if you heard, but there was some harmony going on. Oh yeah. A little harmony, a big harmony. Okay. You ready? Councilman Johnson too? You can get some of this too. Can you sing too? Don't you sing in the choir? Oh, okay. Just check it. Just check it. All right. That's all I have. Thank you. All right. All right. We have one more announcement. Then we'll do a roll call and we'll adjourn to prayer. Mr. Boylan, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. President. Well, I recognize Councilman Johnson on his 50th birthday. My wife and I celebrated our 51st anniversary on Sunday. Love, Susan. I won't even say it. That's too easy. All right. So we're going to go ahead and do roll call. 17 present. Thank you very much. Mr. Chaplin, take us home. We are adjourned. Thank you, Mr. President. Once again, Kim, congratulations on your retirement. Mary, a little bit red face back there, but again, happy birthday to you. And thank you guys for participating in what I call the democratic process tonight. We're in an environment where people like to fix things, but in order, and I believe in the order succession, but in order for things to be fixed, it should be done respectfully. But we participated tonight. And so thank you. Thank you to Terrence for putting my name forward. Let's pray. Gracious God, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your loving kindness and your mercy. Thank you for the wisdom imputed in each and every one of us. God, I ask you to continue to cover us and cover our families and listen to our cry when we cry, and then respond to our cry. Ask her to be with us as we depart from this place and never from your presence. It's in Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen.