City Council - Oct 13, 2026

All right. With that, we'll go a little lighter on the tap at that time. Welcome to the full council meeting. It is Tuesday, October 13th, 5 o'clock. We're going to go ahead and get this meeting started. As you will notice, I'm the council vice president. Council President Howland is out of town right now. We have a few other excusals as well that I'll read later, but for now, let's go ahead and throw it over to the floor later. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Our first order of business is the invocation and Pledge of Allegiance. I would ask you to please recognize Council Member Amaro, our council chaplain, to introduce the lead pastor of Destiny Church for today's invocation. Thank you, Council Member Boylan. Pastor Chris Tomlinson is the lead pastor of Destiny Church of Jacksville, where he has served the community for nearly 15 years. With 28 years of ministry experience, Chris has devoted his life to helping people grow in faith, discover their God-given purpose, and make a meaningful difference in the lives of others. In addition to his pastoral leadership, Chris is a business owner and community leader with a deep commitment to the people and the future of Jacksonville. He is passionate about building strong families, developing leaders, and seeing individuals and communities flourish. Chris and his wife, Jody, have been married for 29 years, and they're the proud parents of three daughters. Please receive Pastor Chris Tomlinson for tonight's invocation. Well, good evening, Vice President Carlucci, distinguished members of the council and everyone else gathered here. First, thank you for the honor and the privilege of being here. I genuinely love this city, and I'm grateful for you men and women who have accepted the responsibility to help lead it. I recognize that public service is not easy, and that leadership often requires difficult decisions, and doing what's right is not always what's popular. But I also believe that leadership is one of the greatest opportunities that we have to make a difference in people's lives. So thank you for your yes. It's my privilege now to get to pray for you guys, to pray for your families, and to pray for this great city that we call home. So if you would have joined me in prayer, please. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord, for your goodness, and we come to you tonight, Lord, with grateful hearts, Lord, just recognizing that every good and perfect gift comes from heaven above. And Lord, one of the greatest gifts that you have given us is the privilege of calling Jacksonville our home. We thank you, Lord, for the city, for its people, its families, its neighborhoods, and for the tremendous potential that you've placed within it. We thank you, Lord, that your word, it tells us, Lord, that if we lack for wisdom, that, Lord, we can ask you for it, and the Lord, you would give it to us generally. And so tonight, Lord, we're asking. Lord, give these leaders, Lord, wisdom that goes beyond their experience. Give them discernment that sees beyond the obvious, and give them courage to stand for what is right, even when standing alone would be easier to avoid. And Lord, remind us, Lord, that the decisions that are made in this room don't just simply affect budgets, buildings, and policies, but they affect people, real people, families trying to make ends meet, parents praying for their children, business owners pursuing their dreams, and generations who will inherit the city that we're building today. So, Father, let every decision tonight be guided with wisdom, every conversation seasoned with grace, and every action motivated by love. Where there is division, Lord, bring unity. Where there is confusion, bring clarity. Where there is fear, bring courage. And where there is injustice, let righteousness prevail. Lord, I don't just simply pray that Jacksonville would become a bigger city, a wealthier city, or even a more successful city. I pray that we would become a better city, a city where the forgotten are remembered, where the vulnerable are protected, where our families and our children can dream and flourish, and where our churches can shine as beacons of hope. And Father, let us never become so impressed with what we can accomplish by our own strength that we forget how desperately we need yours. Your word declares, unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. So, Lord, build something beautiful here in Jacksonville, something that will outlast political terms, transcend personal agendas, and leave a legacy of hope for generations yet to come. Bless these leaders, bless their families, bless every person who serves this city. And may Jacksonville be known not simply for the greatness of its skyline, but for the goodness of its people. And we ask all this in the mighty and matchless name of your son, in Jesus' name. And everyone say, amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. I pledge allegiance. Mr. President, I understand you have, Vice President, you have a couple announcements. All right. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Floor Leader. We have a few announcements. First and foremost, we have quite a few excused absences. So, first, I'll read those off. We have Council President Howland, Council Member Carlucci, and Council Member Diamond. And then we have non-excused absence from Council Member Carrico, as well as a late arrival from Council Member Pittman. So, she's here? She's just here? All right. Welcome, Council Member Pittman. Thank you so much. The next announcement is that leaves us at 15 members. We need 14 for a quorum. So, just keep that in mind as you go back and forth to the green room. And dinner has been provided as well. So, you obviously saw that back there. So, just keep all of those things in mind. And with that, I have no other announcements. Thank you. Mr. President, it's time for roll call. 15 present. Mr. President, it's now time for the approval of the minutes from the regular council meeting of September 22nd. I move the approval. We have a motion and a second on the approval of the minutes. All in favor of the minutes, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? Mr. Vice President, we have a short list of communications from the mayor and others. Would you like that read or filed with legislative services? Please file them. We have two presentations today. The first was introduced by Council Member Miller, honoring and commending Nehemiah Turner for his long-standing service with the Jacksonville Humane Society. Mr. Thiel, would you please read the resolution? Mr. Thiel, hold on. Is your mic on? Sorry. We're kind of questioning. Maybe the red button on the panel down there? Hold on. There you go. Resolution 2026-642. The Jacksonville Humane Society's positive reading program allows children to read to shelter animals, which has the dual benefit of reducing the animal's stress while providing a positive educational experience that supports literacy among young people. Nehemiah Turner, an 11-year-old Jacksonville resident, has proven to be a model of compassionate and dedicated service as a volunteer with a positive reading program. Mr. Turner has participated in the program for more than two years, often accompanied by his grandmother, and the Jacksonville Humane Society has recognized him as the first child in the program to log 100 hours, displaying his commitment to volunteer service and compassion for animals. Mr. Turner's stated goal of soothing animals to increase their odds of finding a loving home reflects a spirit of empathy, care, and civic duty that has touched people both locally and nationally. National and local media, including ABC News, People Magazine, and Action News Jaxx, among others, have recognized Mr. Turner's volunteer service, showcasing the impact young people can have on their communities. The City Council wishes to join the Jacksonville Humane Society and citizens across the city and the nation in praising Mr. Turner for his generosity and tenacity, which has served as an inspiration for adults and youth to serve their communities. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Jacksonville. The City Council hereby honors and commends Nehemiah Turner for his volunteer service with the Jacksonville Humane Society and his compassion for animals, showcasing the positive impact young people can have in their community. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Okay, but I'm going to, we normally start by saying a little, a few things, so I'm going to do that real quick, and then I'm going to give Nehemiah the opportunity, if he'd like to say a few words. Would you like to say a few words when I'm done? No? No. He's saying no. Well, you've heard what a fine young man this is, and I refer to Scripture, and I'm reading right now in my read-through in the book of Nehemiah, and Nehemiah was an amazing leader, and you're an amazing leader for our youth. Whether you realize it or not, there are a lot of young boys and girls who are watching you. They're watching what you're doing. They're watching the difference you make for these dogs and cats and help them to get prepared for their forever home, and you're doing that, and I thank you so much that you have such a wonderful heart, and it not only helps you with your reading, but you're helping those dogs and cats to get ready for the place that they've never had before, a forever home. So I thank you. I thank your grandmother, Joanna, who has made this all happen. He's now up to 124 hours now, and he has a goal of 250 hours and then 500 hours. He's not going to stop, and so I know you said you didn't want to say anything, but if you could say something to other boys and girls, if they're thinking about maybe reading to dogs and cats at the Jacksonville Humane Society or anywhere, what would you like to tell them? Would you like to say something to them? Please, go ahead. I would like to say if they wanted to read to the Jacksonville Humane Society, they can go up there, and all I can tell them is start reading all the time and at home and at the Humane Society every single day if they want to. All right. Mr. Floyler, do we have another presentation? We do. Our second resolution is being presented by Councilmember Amaro to Commanding Officer Willie Perry upon his retirement from Public Safety Service. Again, Mr. Thiel, would you please read the resolution? Resolution 2026-519. Officer Willie Perry has devoted 46 years of distinguished public service to the residents of Jacksonville through his commitment to public safety, youth development, and community engagement, serving for 31 years with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and 15 years as a school resource officer with the Duval County Public Schools. During his tenure with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Officer Perry demonstrated professionalism, integrity, and unwavering commitment to protecting and serving the citizens of Jacksonville. As one of the first school resource officers in Jacksonville, Officer Perry has spent the past 15 years serving countless students, families, and educators by creating safe and supportive learning environments and ensuring that all students feel seen and worthy. Officer Perry describes his work not as a job, but as a joyful journey, and his desire to spark joy within students defines his service and will leave an indelible mark on the countless lives he has touched. Officer Perry's legacy of service, compassion, and uplifting the students of Duval County has been memorialized in a children's book, The Legend on the Sidewalk, authored by Parkwood Heights Elementary School's reading interventionist, Amy Clark, who saw firsthand Officer Perry's care and commitment to empowering students and educators. Officer Perry's leadership, compassion, and years of service have strengthened the relationship between law enforcement, schools, and neighborhoods throughout Jacksonville. The City Council recognizes that public servants such as Willie Perry embody the highest ideals of civic duty and stewardship, leaving a legacy of service that uplifts present and future generations and honors him for his contributions and faithful service to the City of Jacksonville. Now, therefore, be it resolved by the Council of the City of Jacksonville. The City Council hereby honors and commends Officer Willie Perry for his decades of exemplary service with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and the Duval County Public Schools and extends sincere appreciation for his dedication to the citizens, students, and families of Jacksonville. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. There's something I learned a long time ago that people, some people come into your life and their blessings and others are a lesson on how to be and how not to be. How to have a servant's heart. I find it ironic that we have a young man demonstrating a servant's heart. We have a much older man demonstrating a servant's heart. Today that's what we need in our community and when Officer Perry retired, I thought this would be a simple, humble token to tell him thank you. Thank you for the service that he's given back to this community. He's here tonight with his family and his pastors, Bishop Rudolph McKissick Sr. and Bishop McKissick, Rudolph McKissick Jr. Bishop Sr. just turned 99. And his wife, Willie, if you want to come up, get the mic. Willie doesn't say much, but introduce your family if you please. Well, you met my father, Reverend Bishop McKissick, my brother, Rudy McKissick, my wife, Diana, my sister, Cynthia, my brother, Clarence, my brother, George, my brother, Bruce, my brother, Ken. I thank Ken for giving me such an honor. Ken is my man. That's, that's my guy. Uh, anything good about me, I'm gonna give God the glory. Yes, sir. But coming up, we had a man that, that we look up to who we all wanted to be like, we wanted to walk like, and we wanted to talk like, we wanted to smell like, because the cologne he had on was bought in the 500 and you could smell it a hundred feet away. And that was Bishop McKissick. That, that is our father. That, that is the man we know. And anything you see about us, the parish. Yes, sir. Because of this man. Amen. And, and, and, and my other part is my wife. That's, that's my story. That's my glory. Yes, sir. She know how to deal with me when I get home with, with, with a headache, kids pulling on me, give me the flu and all that. But listen, councilor, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate you. God love you. There you go. Mr. Vice President, as they gather for pictures here, I would ask that you please take a moment to recognize or introduce today's pages. All right. Thank you, Mr. Floor-Lear. I would be honored to do that. We have Jojo Carlucci over here on the left. And we have Aiden Sayes over here on the right. Go and stand up, you guys. So I've instructed legislative services to make sure you give them extra work, make them stay late. Yes. We're just kidding. But thank you both for being here. We really appreciate it. And it looks like they're clearing out right now. Councilmember Johnson, did you want to speak? Okay. I'll give you one minute. Thank you. I'll keep it brief. Shout out to, I have to say very quickly, Bishop McKissick. You all, I don't think you heard. I'm going to repeat what Councilmember Amaro said. Bishop McKissick is 99 years old as of yesterday. Bishop, happy birthday. Thank you for being the best of us. We love you. We love you, both of you. I'm an only child like you, Bishop Junior. But you know, you got a whole lot of brothers and sisters because you got to share that one and Mama Estelle looking out for us from in heaven. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you all. I rise quickly, Mr. Vice President and colleagues, to honor. When you saw, when you walked in this chamber, there was a picture that was at the door. That is the picture of Dr. Gwen J. Chandler. Dr. Chandler was a former member of this council. But for me, it's someone who has the face of teaching civics in Jacksonville. Dr. Chandler was one of the most elegant women I knew. And she helped me to get my own footing in public life years ago when she would just say, baby, do right. Do right. And I was honored on yesterday. Thank you to the members of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department, as well as the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. Dr. Chandler was funeralized on yesterday at St. Patrick's Catholic Church. But even though she held many titles, the roles that she cherished most were that of mother and grandmother. And so for us to honor her, one of our former members, I would just ask, you know, Jacksonville is better because Dr. Gwen lived here. She opened doors. She never talked about this. But what you may not know, council members, is that in 1965, when this city was trying to come back from a segregated past, Dr. Gwen was hired as the first black librarian in this city. And she was also the chair of the library department at FCCJ at the time. But she was truly a part of making Jacksonville great. Would you pause just for a brief moment of silence to honor our former member, Dr. Gwen J. Chandler? May we celebrate a life well lived. May her memory always be a blessing. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. All right. Thank you, Councilmember Floor Leader. Mr. Vice President, we are now ready for quasi judicial actions. I would like to remind all concerned that these items we're now taking up do not include public hearings as these matters were thoroughly reviewed at the committee level. And where public hearing was part of the decision making process. Council members are reminded to declare any ex parte communications. The first item is on page 4, 2026-524. I move the amendment. All right. All right. We have a motion to second on the amendment. Ms. Pittman, are you on the amendment or are you ex parte? Okay. Go ahead. I rise to commit to ex parte because I had several meetings with residents and the developer and the paperwork has been filed. Thank you. Okay. And Ms. Pittman, was that for 524? That's okay. We'll make sure we come back to you on the next one. But we do have a motion to second on the amendment. And no one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. I move the bill to be re-referred as amended. All right. We have a motion and a second to re-refer the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays. Zero nays. By reaction, you have re-referred 2026-524 as amended. We're now taking up item number two, 2026-532. I think we have a number of us who have ex parte on this one. All right. If you have ex parte, go ahead and get in the queue. Council member Miller, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I rise to declare ex parte communications. I received multiple emails and letters in opposition. And this has been filed with legislative services. Thank you. All right. The queue just cleared out. So we're just going to go around the horn. Council member Pelluso, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I stand to declare ex parte against, similar to Council member Miller. I had several emails against this project. They've been filed with legislative services. All right. We're back on the queue. So we'll go, we'll just continue to go through the queue. Councilwoman Clark-Murray, you're recognized. Thank you, Vice President. I rise to declare ex parte. I received 47 letters in regards to this particular bill, all in opposition. And the appropriate paperwork will be filed with legislative services. Thank you. Thank you. Council member Morrow, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I rise to declare ex parte as well. I receive a number of emails as well as letters and phone calls from the community in opposition to this particular bill. And it has already been filed with legislative services. Thank you. Councilwoman Pittman, you're recognized. Again, I rise to declare ex parte. I received a number of emails and the information has been filed. Thank you. Councilwoman Holder, you're recognized. Thank you. Council Vice President. I, too, received 47 letters, 119 emails, and spoke with residents in opposition on this. And the paperwork has been filed. Thank you. Council Member Lainey, you're recognized. Thank you, Council Vice President. I received 48 emails and 48 letters, all opposing. And that has been filed with legislative services. Council Member Boylan, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I, too, received 125 emails, 47 letters, and one phone call in opposition. And it's already been filed. Council Member Gay, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I rise to declare ex parte communication on this. I've received several emails and 15 letters in opposition, and it's been filed with legislative services. Thank you. Council Member Johnson, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. On advice of council, I've been instructed I need to declare additional ex parte for 47 letters that were received after the ex parte that I've already put on the record in LUZ. That additional is being filed with legislative services. Thank you. Council Member Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I rise to report somewhere in the area of 110 emails and letters on this, all in opposition. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We have no other speakers in the queue. Looking for a motion. I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and second on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and second on the bill as amended. Council Member Pelluso, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Yeah, I just want to know what the, what the, the new conditions are. I see the two individuals on the LUZ committee voted against it. I just, I was told that, uh, we have removed the most controversial portions of this bill and I just want to verify that that's the case. If, uh, the chair can maybe answer that question or, uh, We'll go to Mr. Harvey, the LUZ OGC. Understood. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Yes. So, the amendment was to remove all mentions of a concrete batch plant, but it also includes some additional, um, conditions that would preserve or, or make sure that the developer were to ensure that the site remained safe of any additional particles that would possibly escape by ensuring additional safeguards, uh, to be placed on the property. So, those conditions were added along with the removal of the concrete batch plant. Council Member White, you're recognized. Yes, sir. A statement or maybe a question, Mr. Mr. Harvey, what I understand of the night that they have the zoning that they have, they could do what they're going to do now. So, if we'd have failed it, they could have still did what they're going to do, but we put some conditions on it. Correct. Is that correct? That is correct. So, if the, uh, bill were to fail tonight, um, the developer has the right to do everything that they're asking for in this PUD by right. Um, what the conditions that you guys imposed were to basically help safeguard that community, um, a little bit further, and then it also provides, um, uh, the actual PUD itself just some additional, um, uh, waivers or administrative deviations that they would have to come back to in order to be compliant. Thank you. Councilwoman Clark Murray, you're recognized. Thank you. Through the chair to Mr. Harvey, I know you just stated a few things, and I think you just answered my question. I'm going to ask you to restate because I think what you're saying is that a, uh, an approval on this actually protects the community as opposed to an approval, um, basically being against the will. The ex parte that I received, they are vehemently against this bill, but I'm, um, and I apologize because normally I do make it to LUZ. I didn't make it to the last one, but I just want clarity. I want it very clear, especially if there are any members of that particular community in the audience to understand what an approval means and what a disapproval means. Sure. So I'll read the five conditions that were approved by the LUZ committee. Um, if passed tonight, these will be conditions that will be placed on the PUD and the developer would have to abide by. If you guys were to vote this down, the developer would be able to continue their own, the development as entitled by rights without any of these safeguards. So the first of the five conditions were water non-paved roads three times per day during operations, water the face of the pile area prior to the loading of material, have a tripod portable sprinklers available for windy days that would potentially create dust and also available during piling and loading of the materials, install the sprinkler at the stacking conveyor discharge point where the material comes off the conveyor from the rail car to create, uh, the pile and to contract with a sweeping company to sweep the interior ingress and egress points one time per week within the PUD side. Thank you so much for that. One last question to the chair. So the concrete, um, batch portion of this, this is the part, that's the part that's been removed from the bill, correct? That has been removed from the bill and from the PUD in its entirety. So a part of the amendment that you guys are passing is not only these six conditions, the, the sixth condition is a traffic study to be conducted. And then you also have an amended site plan and an amended, um, uh, written description, which goes through and strikes all mentions of the concrete batch. They will basically be holding a storage space for the materials to be transferred offsite for someplace else to handle the concrete batch work. Thank you so much for that. Thank you, chair. All right. Thank you. Council member Romero. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Out on the corner, they would call this the okie dokie for the simple reason that, uh, the community is petitioned to vote against this. And it sounds like their effort was in vain because if I heard you correctly, you're saying that if this is voted down, they can still do what they want to do. That is not correct. What I'm saying is the concrete batch work is what they originally applied for, the developer originally applied for, and they need to have a PUD because within the current zoning that they have, they can't do that by right. It's, they would need that additional layer. But what this PUD amendment does is remove the whole mention of a concrete batch. So the developer has come back and removed concrete batch altogether. But by right, they, through the chair, by right, they can, can do the storage and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Correct. Without the need of your approval of this. Just without the concrete plant piece. Well, that was regardless, without it forever. What this, what they are allowed to do or entitled to do by right is to store materials on their site because they're currently zoned for that. That's okay. Thank you. Councilmember Arias, you're recognized. All right. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. Uh, Mr. Harvey, I mentioned, uh, I heard you mentioned five conditions, but then you mentioned six. I have written on my conditions here. Number six, it's no rock crushing on site. Is that a number six condition or is that not going to be valid anymore? So the amendment that was passed at LUZ included six conditions, which included a traffic study. And then the five conditions that I, that I read, the removal of the concrete batch is what's what was removed throughout the entire document. So that is a part of the amendment, but it's not a condition. Got it. Okay. So no rock crushing on site is part. That is correct. That is correct. That is the concrete batch terminology that has been removed from the written description. Thank you, sir. And just to state my, the reason why I voted yes on this is because, um, as Mr. Amaro said, you know, this is one of those bills where it's a lesser of two evils. And in this case, um, we removed the rock crushing, we removed the concrete batch part, but we also protected the community. I know the community didn't want this, but at the end of the day, they got some protection. So that's why I was able to support it. Otherwise I would have voted it down. Um, and that's why I stand by my vote. Thank you. All right. And last speaker in the queue, council member Johnson, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Vice president. Uh, and I wanted to make sure, correct me, uh, through the vice president to Mr. Harvey. We also just as a part of that, which you gave, the community came back with those, with the community and the developer together work to create those conditions. Yes. With the watering of the, that explain that please. That is correct. There was a separate community meeting that was held by the council, uh, woman of the district, uh, with the developer and the concerns of particles, um, escaping the site came up and the developer agreed to go back and find some ways to mitigate that. And that's how these five conditions came to be. I just wanted to make sure that we understood. And I think we discussed it ad nauseam and Luz. This is not a bait and switch. The community came, their needs were heard. The developer met with them. We talked to them and they came and put these conditions down. So it's not certainly a bait and switch. It's, we heard the community and the community were able to get their needs met through this, which is why, uh, many of them aren't here tonight. At least they were able to get this mitigation. So thanks for letting me put that on the record, Mr. Vice president. All right. Thank you. We have no one else in the queue. We have passed the amendment. We have a motion to second on the bill. So let's open the ballot. Record your vote. 14 yays, one nay. By your action, you've approved 2026-532. Thank you. Turning to page five, item number three, 2026-557. Move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. There is no one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion to second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 14 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-557. Item number four, 2026-658. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-658. Item number five, 2026-659. Move the amendment. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. All right. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, one nay. By your action, you've approved 2026-659. Turn to page six, item number six, 2026-697. I move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No discussion. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-697. Moving on now, Mr. Vice President, we are ready for the consent agenda. I want to remind my colleagues that if you want to be added as a co-sponsor to any of these items, please let the chief of legislative services, no. Via emails, council rules prohibit. Pulling items for that reason. Mr. Thiel, would you please read the bills? 2026-704, 705, 720, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732, 766, 767, and 769. Mr. Vice President, we've got a consent agenda with two items pulled. Item number 7, 704, and item number 20, 769. I move the consent agenda unless those two items. All right, we have a motion and a second on the consent agenda. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have approved the consent agenda. Turn back now to page seven, item number seven, 2026-704. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. Council Member Gay, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I'd just like to congratulate Ronnie Burris and Local 630 for all their hard work to get to this position for all the workers there, and this has been a long time coming, and I just congratulate them for finally achieving this. Thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. We have no one else in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your votes. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-704. Page 10, item number 20, 2026-769. I move the bill. Second. We have a motion and a second on the bill. Council Member Gay, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I move to postpone this bill till 1027 council meeting if I can get a second. Second. All right. We have a motion and a second on 2026-769 for postponement. No one in the queue? This is a ballot vote. All right. Open the ballot. Record your votes. There's no one in the queue. Would you like to give a reason on the postponement? We have some chatter that would like clarification. There's some timing issues with some Boy Scouts that I want to have attend and some alignment with some prior historical events that's taken place that I want to align it up with at the next council meeting. Thank you. We all know Council Member Gay is a man of few words, so we appreciate that. There we go. By your action, you've approved 2020. Well, by your action, you have postponed 2026-769. It would be appropriate this time, Mr. Vice President, to recognize the rules chair. All right. Council Member Gay, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I get to use up all the words tonight. You're getting close to your quota. So we have just approved the following appointees, part of the consent agenda. If you are in the audience, please stand to be recognized. Leroy C. Kelly, to the True Commission. Danette Hernandez, to the Elder Affairs. Micah Heavener, to the Downtown Investment Authority Board. Jill Caffey, to the Downtown Investment Authority. Liz McDonnell, to the Cultural Council of Greater Jacks. Christopher DiStofano, to the Opioid Substance and Use Disorder Grants Committee. Alex Savar, to the Jacksonville Housing Authority. Sean Turker, to the Public Service Grant Council. So please join me in thanking him for the service to the city. Up next is an economic development investment item found on page 11-2026-757. Before moving the amendment, however, there is an opportunity for public comment. However, we have no public comment cards, so I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. I move the bill as amended. All right. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 14 ayes. 1 a. By your action, you've approved 2026-757. Mr. Vice President, as per ordinance 2027-2022-475, we are now ready for public comments. Council members are reminded this is our time to hear from the public. That is not a time for questions and answers or debate. However, a member of the public may be invited to the Bob Johnson room for further discussions pending the approval of the council vice president. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to speak, you should have filled out a yellow public comment card. No cards will be accepted after 6 p.m. Council rules call for an allotment of 90 minutes for public comment. The usual lot of time for maybe three minutes is going to be shortened this evening because of the number of cards that we presently have. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes and 30 seconds to speak at this point. During our public comment, only the speaker will be allowed to the podium. Unless physical assistance is required, we provide the opportunity for public comment beyond what the state law requires. As such, you must state your name, your address. Before beginning, your comments or just say, my address is on file, meaning it is written on the speaker card. I will announce five speakers at a time in order for them to appear in the order they are to appear. When I call your name, I ask you to move down to these several seats in the front here and then directly to the podium when I invite you to do so. Your time will start when you arrive at the podium. We ask that you place all bags, boxes, or purses on the table to your right prior to approaching the podium. Thank you for being here this evening. Our first five speakers are Tony Langels, Elijah Aquafreda, Carnell Oliver, Suzanne Sapp, and Randall Glynn, I believe it is. Mr. Teal, please note the start time as 544. Again, our first speaker is Mr. Langels. And please read the rule before we go. Thanks. 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 refuses to leave the city council chamber may be subject to arrest. Again, our first speaker is Mr. Langels. Again, be sure to give us your name, address, or mention your address is on file. Go ahead, sir. Good evening, City Council. My name is Tony Langels. Address is on file. And I see we're green on the microphone. We're green across the board, so we're good for lunch. I attended a national POW MIA recognition day September 19th at Cecil Field and was very disappointed in the city's representation at this event. I never even heard this event publicized or marketed or advertised, as a matter of fact. My neighbor, Mark Andrews, who actually barbecues luncheon at this event, he informed me about it. Otherwise, I wouldn't even known about it. Harrison Conyers, the director of military affairs for the city, was one of the guest speakers. But I did not see anyone else representing the city. I look at the placard memorials and read about all our young aviators who were missing in action and died in captivity in the Vietnam War. And ghost our families have to live with the loss of these deceased military members. And the least we as a city can do is support this POW MIA organization. I understand priorities, but there are 19 city council members up here. Can't one member of this group attend the event to support the Jacksonville's ghost star families? I didn't even see the press or TV stations at this event because maybe they didn't even know about it either. Granted, in the past, there's other city council members there. As a matter of fact, last year, President Holland, he was there, as a matter of fact. I remember him. But, you know, why wasn't these events publicized or advertised? Whose responsibility is it to promote this event? It was sparsely attended this year compared to other years. Rolling Thunder motorcycle riders made up the majority of attendees this year. Let's improve the representation promotion of this event for next year. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next, we have Elijah Aquafreda. I hope I pronounced that correctly. Good evening. My name is Elijah Aquafreda. I'm the founder of Duval Local Harvest and the general manager of the restaurant in Riverside. And your address? My address is on file. Thank you. I am here to support the ordinance formerly known as the Frida Garden Act, now pathways to urban ag number 20260807, and to encourage critical amendments so that neighborhood friendly community and market gardens are truly permissible by right in Jacksonville. I come at this from both sides of the plate. Duval Local Harvest connects local growers and restaurants and recovers food that will otherwise go to waste. Every week I see the same thing. Restaurants that want to buy local, neighbors who want fresh food, and small growers ready to supply it, but held back by rules that make a backyard or vacant lot garden a legal gambit. Our farmers markets need more vendors. Our community gardens have wait lists. Food prices keep climbing and supply chains stay fragile. Market gardeners are some of the best insurance this city has, and right now we're making them fight for permission to grow groceries. This bill is a strong start. To keep it true to its intent, please adopt amendments that allow cross sales between growers, permit public market days, and clearly define how educational and community activities are regulated. We haven't come this far to leave our current and future urban gardeners tangled in legal limbo. Thank you. Next, we have Carnell Oliver. Yes, my name is Carnell Oliver. Address is on file. I want to ask a question. When is our community going to actually come to grips with the structural sense of racism that goes back to the very beginning of this country? When are we going to actually recognize that we have to enforce the 1866 Civil Rights Act? As I go from one commission to another commission, and when I go back in our research, this city has been ignoring laws that are on the books. The 1964 Civil Rights Act was supposed to be in the gateway bill to immigrants to come into this country. But we've been overlooked since then. It's not me personally taking an attack against somebody. But sometimes, like that pastor just said, sometimes you have to stand alone and you have to tell the truth. We got walked over since the 1960s. The city, the state has an obligation to make amends. My comments is this. I want y'all to work dealing with the mayor's office. The mayor has been dragging her feet. She can do so much more. She has Tracy Poulsen, who has access to our federal delegation. I know she can get a compliance legislation for the 1866 Civil Rights Act, but she's playing politics. Quit trying to kiss people's butts. Do your job. That's the only thing I expect of you. And I expect the council to do the same thing. You can't keep taking a pledge of allegiance when you're forgetting us. We're the ones that paid the way. I regret some of the actions that Dr. King did because he didn't secure our economic freedom first. But he played his hand wrong and the immigrant class came over. They took advantage of this country and now they ran this country into the ground. And now they're getting ate on by their own people. This is the harsh truth. If you cannot accept it now, when are you going to accept it? When you're going to show some respect to the people who actually allowed you to come in here? Because without the National Immigration Act, you wouldn't be here, especially groups of color. Learn your history. I know mine. We got walked over. And I yield my time with that. Thank you, sir. Next, we have Suzanne Sapp. Good evening, council vice president and members of city council. My name is Suzanne Sapp and my address is on record. I'm here representing Sierra Club's National Beyond Coal campaign in the Duval Affordable Clean Energy Coalition. Our coalition brings together people from across Jacksonville who believe that energy should be affordable, decisions should be transparent, and residents should have a meaningful voice in the future of their public utility. We bring together faith communities, neighborhood and community organizations, environmental advocates, consumer advocates, labor, public health advocates, small business owners, parents, seniors, and everyday JEA ratepayers. We come from different backgrounds and perspectives, but we share a common concern. The decisions JEA and this council makes today will affect our families, our communities, our pocketbooks for decades to come. This is our first time coming before city council to speak about these issues, and we are here because Jacksonville's energy future deserves greater public attention, transparency, and community involvement. First, affordability must be a priority. Families are struggling with rising cost. Jacksonville residents deserve to understand how JEA's major energy investments could afford, could affect their monthly bills. Not today, but for decades to come. Before committing to expensive new infrastructure, we need clear public comparison of the cost, risks, and benefits of all available energy options. Second, the public deserves transparency. Residents should not have to be energy experts to understand decisions that affect their household budget. The cost assumptions, alternatives, and long-term financial risks behind major energy decisions should be publicly available and explained in language people can understand. Third, Jacksonville needs a JEA Community Advisory Council. We are calling for an establishment of a JEA Community Advisory Council that creates a consistent, meaningful way for residents to participate in decisions about their utility and energy future. The council should include a broad cross-section of Jacksonville residents. It should provide a regular forum for residents to review JEA's plans, ask questions, and raise concerns. That doesn't currently exist. Fourth, Jacksonville needs to seriously evaluate cleaner affordable energy. Thank you. Appreciate it very much. Next, we have Randall Glimm. In the meantime, I'm going to invite the following to come down to the front, please. Johnny Leonard Turner, Denise Scott, Natalie Lekich, Nicole Sparks, and Nathan Ballantyne. If you could come on down to the front, please. Go ahead, sir. Name and address. Yes, sir. My name is Randall Gilliam. My address is 8515 Lennox Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida. I'm in the zone of Mr. Randy White, and I bring a safety concern here tonight, and I want it to be addressed. I'm holding these two pictures here. Beware of dogs, loose dogs. As you can see that they killed, it's not my cat, but I feed this cat every day. Not anymore. These dogs was trained. They destroyed my property, my gate. I'm still having an assess at this point. My problem is, JSO came out, and I know they do a tremendous great job, but you know, he came out and he said, he barely looked at my video. And what I'm trying to get to is, I believe that this was malicious. Provided it's malicious, I can maybe get some relief through my homeowners. But if he just say it's property damage, they already got me rode out because no animals we're not going to cover. But if you see it for what it is, it's malicious. These dogs are trained. They look like cartel dogs, okay? They look like they hunt. The video I have, they were not barking. They're not strays. They came to kill. And people train dogs, and they don't always train them to do the right thing, okay? And that's a fact. And the JSO officer, he had like he was not aware of that, Mr. White, okay? And so that's my concern. I'm bringing that here, and I understand I got a short a lot of the time. But that's my main concern. I can't get relief. These people have destroyed my love thy neighbor as you love yourself. Mr. Glimm. Mr. Glimm. Mr. Glimm. Yeah, Council Member White would like to see you in the green room, so. Okay. And if there's anyone here from animal control or someone that's over that department to meet Council Member White in the green room as well, that would be much appreciated. Next, we have Johnny Leonard Turner. Name and address, please. Good evening. My name is Johnny Turner. My address is on record. Some of y'all I already know up there is some new faces I'm seeing now. We fighting against about the George Crady Bridge. Some of y'all might not even know what I'm talking about, but it's our history drive. I've been fishing there since I was a little boy, and we were trying to keep them to keep the bridge open. They're trying to close the bridge down. They'll close down one half of the bridge, and it'll probably be a whole bridge. So I'm just letting y'all know who don't know. We fight for this bridge. I've been there since I was a little boy. I had a tire attack at the end of last month, and I'm fighting to have this bridge. I don't want to be done dying before the bridge gets fixed. I want y'all to do something for it now, because I ain't the only one trying to fight for this bridge. They just ain't got nowhere to get here. You know what I'm saying? But we want the bridge open. If you ever go down there and see it be so many people down there, it's a shame, but it ain't enough room, because they ain't got the whole bridge open. It's probably a destroyed bridge. It's probably a mile-long bridge, but it ain't a mile-long bridge. You saying something that it ain't. You understand what I'm saying? You telling the people one thing, but when they get here, it ain't that. You got it showing up on the map that it's like that, but it ain't that. You got to pay them money to go in there, and then we're asking about where the money is. Ain't nobody know where the money is. And quiet mind want to know where the money is. We ain't hear nothing about that. So just take and help us out and open the bridge up like it will be. Like you say, y'all child of God, so act like child of God, and open that bridge back up for us. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next we have Denise Scott. Good evening. My name is Denise Scott, and my address is on file. I'm praying for all those that were in the path of Hurricane Isaias and the destruction that it left behind. Thankful that Jacksonville was spared once again from a hurricane's path. With all the rain that we received last weeks, our streets reminded us that we are not prepared to have a Category 1 storm, let alone a Category 2 with 105 mile-per-hour winds. Instead of this city always catering to developers, let's try to spend some money on infrastructure to improve our roadways and drainage systems. Thankfully, we haven't had any rain in a couple days, but there's so much standing water still on the roads and ditches. Who's responsible for cleaning those ditches? Speaking of drainage, I spoke with a very nice young lady, Ashley, in the Environmental Quality Division. She's a very knowledgeable young lady. My concern when I spoke to her was that we have too many homeowners and lawn care companies that blow their leaves and grass clippings in the streets. Y'all call it illicit discharges. Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board's Rule 3 says that you're supposed to be protecting our stormwater system. Who's going to let the homeowners and the lawn companies know that they're not following the rules? This is one of my biggest pet peeves, so much so that when I saw one young man blowing the leaves and debris on University Boulevard, I pulled over and asked to speak to his lead person. And you know what that guy told me? Well, where are we supposed to blow it? I suggested this council give Ashley and her department a huge budget so they can put some public service announcement out to let the people know that they're in violation. People can't do better if they don't know better. Also, I see that JTA got us in the $38 million short for their budget. The people didn't create this crisis, and we shouldn't have to pay for it. But I heard that they were trying to implement tolls to be considered. That should not ever be considered, considering past leadership fought too hard to remove the tolls. Jacksonville has many of our constituents that depend on public transportation, and we should not let them be candid. Thank you, ma'am. Next, we have Natalie Leckich. Pronounce that correctly. Good evening. My name is Natalie Leckich, and I'm with Springfield Farmers Market Jack's River and Soul and Suna Natural Food Market. And your address? My address is on file. Thank you, ma'am. I'm here to support the ordinance formerly known as the Free to Garden Act, now Pathways to Urban Ag, number 2026-0807, and encourage critical amendments to ensure neighborhood-friendly community and market gardens are truly permissible by right in Jacksonville. I urge city council to embrace a few critical amendments to ensure the ordinance achieves the intended purpose. Our market and community gardens should be able to grow boldly and legally. As both a farmer's market manager and a vendor, I've seen firsthand how difficult it can be to connect our community with fresh, locally grown food. As a market manager, I've struggled to find produce vendors to meet the needs of the community. And as a vendor, I've seen how important local markets are in creating access to fresh food and building community connections. We have people looking for fresh food, but we need more local growers who can help meet that demand. When barriers make it difficult to grow and sell produce locally, our entire community misses out. We kindly request you review Ordinance 2026-0807, along with the proposed amendments we will submit to the public record for your review. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Nicole Sparks. Good evening, Council members. My name is Nicole Sparks. My address is on file. I am here tonight in strong support of the Ordinance 2026-0807, Pathways to Agriculture Act. For the last 10 years, I've run the Arlington Community Garden, working alongside Jacksonville University students, homeschoolers, and volunteers. I know firsthand that community farming is a powerful space for healing, purpose, and deep community bonds. Right now, our society builds communities around hospitals. We wait for people to get sick from the dead, chemical-laden food on grocery store shelves, food poisoned with glyphosate and atrazine that loses its vitality within three days of being picked. We cannot thrive on dead food. We must build our communities around farms, not hospitals, and thrive to eat living food. Our school system is starting to see this. Duval County partnered with eight organic non-GMO farms across Florida for a farm-to-table lunch program. But here's the crisis. Only two of those farms are local, and those provide lettuce, cucumbers, and herbs. We are outsourcing our children's health because we aren't growing enough here at home. Meanwhile, Jacksonville is abundant and vacant land and neighbors searching for connection. Ordinance 2026-0807 is the bridge we need. By removing the $5,000 rezoning barriers and letting agricultural spaces exist by right, we can turn eyesore vacant lots into centers of holistic health. These farms provide jobs through agricultural labor, giving our homeless neighbors a path to dignity, self-sufficiency, and nutrition. They give our distressed youth who feel lost and unsure of their futures a tangible place to feel productive and valued. And they offer our elderly community a vital space to share their wisdom, find companionship, and combat isolation. This single ordinance can address mental health, homelessness, youth mentorship, senior care, and local employment. Let's stop investing in treating sickness and start growing generational wellness. I also ask that you approve the amendments that are being presented with this bill as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, ma'am. Next, we have Nathan Ballantyne. In the meantime, I want to invite to come down to the front, please. Amber Suter, Mikey Howell, Nancy Murray Settle, Chloe Kuhn, and Lashandra Sawyer. Please come on down to the front. Go ahead, sir. Good evening. My name is Nathan Ballantyne. Our farm grows at 125 East 7th Street. I'm here tonight to support Bill 2026-0807, Pathways for Urban Ag, formerly the Free to Garden Act. First, I want to thank Councilmen Arias and Peluso for introducing this legislation, Councilwoman Pittman for years of support, and Councilman White for calling this common sense legislation. I also want to thank the Mayor's Office and Planning Department for the summer rewrite. We're getting really close to making market and community gardens permissible by right here in Jacksonville. However, to make this ordinance truly work as intended, we need a few critical amendments. As currently written, any gathering on a market garden over five people is defined as a market day and capped at 12 per year, anchored to the city's garage sale limit. This rule penalizes the very neighbors it seeks to protect, as I'll explain. Furthermore, strict cross-sale rules forbid selling produce or products from other Duval farms, preventing growers from supporting one another. To put that in perspective, let's use Overalls Farm as an example. Our monthly greens and means community meal uses up all 12 allotted days. When teenagers from the sanctuary on 8th Street walk over to learn and farm with us on Fridays, we would be out of compliance. When a neighborhood church meets on our farm during good weather, that would also be non-compliant. So would garden club tours or any workshops we might host or teach. In addition, selling honey from a neighbor down the street at any of our community events is currently forbidden. To address this constructively, we're submitting proposed amendments for the public record tonight that ask you to one, rename public sales days to more accurately community access days, and increase the annual limit from 12 to 70 days for markets, any and all markets, workshops, and events, while preserving exemptions for routine operations and rolling sales. And two, permit market gardens to sell agricultural and value-added food products from other Duval County growers. Let's pass an ordinance that empowers our urban gardeners to feed and foster community. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you. Next, we have Amber Suter. Good afternoon. My name is Amber Suter, and my address is on file. I am from the Springfield neighborhood. I am here to support the ordinance formerly known as the Free to Garden Act, now Pathways to Urban Ag Number 2026-0807, and encourage critical amendments to ensure neighborhood-friendly community and market gardens are truly permissible by right in Jacksonville. We haven't come this far to leave our current and future urban gardeners tangled in legal limbo. I support this act because this is about building fresh, building healthier, stronger communities. Access to fresh food and healthy spaces shouldn't be determined by someone's neighborhood or circumstances. Community gardens give neighbors access to fresh food, create opportunities to get outside and be active, and provide spaces where people can connect and strengthen the communities we call home. This is a neighborhood-friendly, common-sense legislation that builds upon regional, state, and local policy. Please consider the amendments for Number 2026-0807. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we have Mikey Howell. All right. I'm Mikey Howell. I'm the owner and farmer of Chandanko Farms in Murray Hill, and my address is on file. I am here in support of the Pathway to Urban Agriculture Ordinance 2026-0807. All right. I'll start by saying it's really hard to be a farmer. I have heard comparisons to hot dog carts or other food businesses, and it just shows lack of understanding that exists in most of the population when it comes to what it takes to grow and sell food as a career. We want more neighborhood farms, but the truth is it's a labor of love. The people that grow veg for livelihood are doing so because they want real food for themselves and this community. It's not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is also not for the faint of heart. As you know, it rained for about a week and a half. That sucked. It is also not for the weak. Yeah, yeah. Farmers in this city are doing incredible work, and many of them are struggling to make ends meet or living humble lives due to the volatile nature of growing and selling produce at market. Also, in my eyes, we are in a nationwide crisis in terms of trusting our food system. When monies are given by the millions to grocers to protect this city from food system disaster, why is it that small farms would be limited or restricted at all in their ability to reach customers? We simply need the ability to do our job and do it without fear of government interference or jumping through hoops. I am personally deeply appreciative of the attention that the members of city council and the mayor's office have given to the small but vital group of urban farmers and gardeners in the city. We are on the precipice of having a clear defined path for the next generation of would-be urban farmers to enter the realm and be able to really make a difference for this city and your constituents. We simply need a few adjustments to the proposed Pathway to Urban Agriculture Ordinance 2026-0807 to allow for at least a market a week and to allow for cross sales for farm goods for these farms and farmers to have a logical path to sell their wares. Thank you very much. Next we have Nancy Murray-Settle. Nancy Murray-Settle, address is on file. On September 22nd, my First Amendment rights were violated by the Jacksonville City Council when I was told I could not wear this shirt at the podium during public comment. This was just five days after the U.S. celebrated Constitution Day. Currently, books are being banned in our schools. Our military is engaged in an illegal war. The Department of Justice carried out an early morning raid on an opponent of the president. There are now plans to execute a person by firing squad and live stream it. People are getting killed on the street by homeland security forces. The president has told Iran to take out American cities. We can no longer turn a blind eye to our rapid slide into an authoritarian state. So yes, I insist that my small act of wearing merchandise of a candidate for federal office who I believe will honor and uphold the constitutional rights not be violated by this government board. I will not let the Constitution die by a thousand small cuts and infractions that seem easy to ignore. So tonight I'd like to take this opportunity to affirm that I, Nancy Murray, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. I am proud to affirm my oath to the Constitution of the United States of America, and I hope each of you will too, as well as all of our citizens. We must each do our part to elect leaders who will commit to honoring the Constitution in word and in deed. I implore you to abide by your oath to defend the Constitution, and I implore everyone to get out and vote. Vote early and bring a friend. We must be willing to defend our rights when we see them violated. I would also like to just ask a question about 0532 that you voted for and passed, because it still said concrete batch plant in all of that language. So I'm really confused. Even in the amendment, it says a concrete batch plant and material storage. And so that's in the amendment. How could you vote for that when that's what the language says? Because I was at LUZ and they promised to take it out. Thank you. Next we have Chloe Kuhn. Ms. Kuhn? How about Lashandra Sawyer? Meantime, I'm going to invite up to the front, please, India Butler, Addison Liberty Patrick, Brian Lipinski, Z. Toth, and Ronnie Burris. Come on down to the front, please. Go ahead, ma'am. All right. My name is Lashandra Sawyer. My address is on file. I was thankful when I heard that the concrete batch plant was removed from the application, and I pray that that revision stays in place. However, I want to record the record to reflect that we have not heard from an independent environmental expert, and we still do not know what chemicals or materials will be stored on the ground. I believe we are fighting the symptoms of a much bigger problem. The process itself needs to change. Communities should not have to fight this hard to protect their health, homes, and neighborhoods. Residents deserve early notification that extends beyond just 32 homes and a 350-foot radius. Transparency about proposed developments, independent environmental assessments, and a meaningful opportunity to be heard before decisions are made that could impact generations to come. We need a process that protects communities, not one that leaves them fighting just to be heard. Thank you, ma'am. Next, we have India Butler. Ms. Butler? Good evening. My name is India Butler. I am an epidemiologist, and I am a community health activist. Why am I here today? The public health concern here is more broader than just community awareness, or are we paying attention to what's going on in our neighborhoods at this moment? The Ordinance 2026-532 concrete plant placed in Northside, predominantly black neighborhood, with hardworking class neighborhoods in this area. Jacksonville, Florida, is the largest city land-wise. Everybody should already know that. So why are we targeting the north side of Jacksonville to always rezone residential areas to fit heavy industrial use? That logically doesn't even make sense. But if we evaluate this a little bit more farther with the land use decisions, we cannot treat industrial development and social health as separate issues. The spatial pattern of industrial placement is directly tied to the socioeconomical vulnerabilities of our communities. And so historically, the pattern of environmental injustice for decades, urban planning, zoning maps, followed predictable and incredible formulas placed in heavy industrial applications of batch plants, bulk storages, logistic coordinators, and disappropriately cited in the lower income and working, hardworking, I'll vouch for that, hardworking class citizens, minority residents. But the higher wealth communities have the resources and the legal support and institutional assets to prohibit these same developments in their areas. Now, moving forward here, we need to protect our hardworking neighborhood, you know, class neighborhoods from industrial encroachment, not stopping progress. It is about demanding economical development, never comes to the expense of a human life. Community dignity and environmental justice. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have Addison Liberty Patrick. Good evening. My name is Addison Liberty Patrick and my address is on file. First regarding ordinance 26-701 asking the taxpayers to pay 26 million dollar blanket allocation for JSO is ridiculous. No, please. I strongly urge you to scale back this and prioritize the funding for the JFRD CO2 removal system because that is an essential practical necessity. I support Nathan Ballantyne and all's requests for their amendments to their new bill, the pathways to urban ag. Thanks to the council members who are working with them on this, we see you would appreciate that. And we just need to tweak a couple of things on that to make this a true benefit for our community. On the concrete batch plant, we said no. We need our neighborhood bill of rights to be active. We need this to be followed. Come to the next Red Alliance for Justice meeting. If you want to hear what we're going to do in the community to stop this discrimination in historically redlined areas. 2026-0644, that's in District 2. I oppose renaming that. Also, no tolls at any time, please. And also, lastly, shame on Jason Teal for violating freedom of expression. Last meeting, that will not stand. Thank you. Next, we have Brian Lipinski. Oh, my name is Brian Lipinski and my address is on file. I'm here to speak in support of the Pathways to Urban Ag bill. I am the owner operator of a small farm called Down to Earth Organic Farm on the West Side. My wife and I started our farm nearly 20 years ago and were amazed at the demand that people had for a source of local, clean, organically grown food. There were not many local growers 20 years ago and fast forward to today and there still aren't very many growers for a city of nearly a million people. There are likely lots of reasons for this, but there are examples of small-scale growers having to deal with various bureaucratic and code problems that are too arduous or complex to navigate or are unevenly applied. My farm is blessed to be zoned ag, but we need to create a better environment for micro farms and community gardens. These small farms enrich our lives immeasurably. A group of us are here to ask for meaningful reform that will help small growers and community gardens have a clear path to helping feed ourselves. And we encourage that the bill is moving forward. But in its present writing, it severely and unrealistically limits the number of market days. It also expressly disallows cross sales from other local producers, which undermines the community building and economic viability of these market farms. So I ask for you guys and gals to please push forward and support the Pathways to Urban Ag bill. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next we have Zee Toth. Good evening. My name is Zee and my address is on file. I'm here as the representative of the Farm and Forage. It's a urban farm located in Murray Hill neighborhood. I'm the owner and operator. And today, I'm here to show support for the Pathways for Urban Ag Ordinance 2026-0807, formerly the Free to Garden Act, making neighborhood friendly community and market gardens permissible by right in Jacksonville, and urge City Council to embrace a few critical amendments to ensure the ordinance achieves the intended purpose. I believe that urban farms and community gardens offer tremendous benefits to our city and its people. They help build a more sustainable local food network, increase access to fresh, healthy food, and empower inspiring and established growers to turn their passion into something meaningful. By supporting urban agriculture, we're investing in a healthier communities, a more resilient local food system, and a brighter future for Jacksonville. So we would kindly request that you review Ordinance 2026-0807, along with the proposed amendments that we'll submit to the public record for your review. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next, we have Ronnie Burris. In the meantime, I'm going to invite the following to come down to the front, please. Casey Jones, Pamela Faith Caraveo, Eugene Trey Ford, James Matchett, and Wells Todd. Go ahead, sir. Hello. My name is Ronnie Burris, and my address is on file, and I'm here to thank all of you for passing our contract that we have for all with JEA. The people that I represent, some of them have been working 24 hours a day with all this rain that we've had. They work around the clock. They, you know, the people with JEA, the employees of JEA, even though I don't represent the linemen, they're over in the panhandle right now, helping those people get power back. They're heroes too. The employees of JEA are heroes. So I want to thank you all for passing this contract, because it's really important for us. The other thing I want to say is, you see, I'm wearing a pink shirt. There's a reason I'm wearing a pink shirt. Breast Cancer Month. So I'm here, we're being proud of wearing my pink shirt, and I, because I know a lot of people that have had cancer or cancer survivors or family members and lost cancer of family members to cancer. So I just want to say thank you again, and we'll see you soon, I am sure. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next we have Casey Jones. How y'all doing? Casey Jones. My address is on file. For a lighter note, I didn't wear my 4th of July shirt. Just wanted to say go Jags. Appreciate y'all for voting for the new stadium. Season ticket holder. We're pretty big Jag fans. So I even had to wear my Mr. T starter kit to celebrate. Is that awesome or what? So did anybody see the space shuttle? I mean space shuttle. The rocket this morning, that was amazing. So why am I here? Everybody knows I'm passionate about the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution. I'm asking one of y'all. I've asked a couple of y'all last meeting. I wanted to get y'all to ask y'all's lawyer if y'all ban flock cameras, would it be for the whole county? So everybody thinks that's washed under the bridge. Nobody's talking about it anymore except in St. John's County. Unfortunately, it's in my neighborhood. So I live in Jacks Beach. Everybody fell in line with our great governor. Didn't want to violate the Fourth Amendment. So TK Waters got rid of them. The chief for both chiefs and Neptune Beach and Atlantic Beach followed in line. And unfortunately, Jacks Beach did not. So they're still violating the Fourth Amendment. One good one quick stat here. You ever heard of over the ditch? So or townies. So 86% of the people that get arrested in Jacks Beach don't live in Jacks Beach. Did you know that? 86% of people get arrested. All of them are townies or they're over the ditch is is how the beach people talk. So how many people in Jacks Beach are being violated with the Fourth Amendment to try to catch the 86%. That's crazy. AI and those cameras are bad news. So but if y'all hadn't catch the sunrise lately and you live in Florida, that should be a crime. So y'all get to the beach and I appreciate what y'all do. Thanks, sir. Next, we have Pamela Faith Caravaggio. I believe that's correct. I hope. Good evening, City Council President and memberships of the Jacksonville City Council. My name is Pamela Faith Caravaggio and my address is on file. I'm here today to advocate for the health, safety, and well-being of our dogs in our community. As we all know, Florida experiences extremely hot temperatures, especially during the summer months. However, what many people may not realize is that pavement beneath our feet becomes significantly hotter than the surrounding air. And for dogs, this presents a serious concern. Exposure to excessively hot pavement can cause painful burns, blisterings, and injuries to their paw pads. Additionally, exercising in extreme heat can put dogs at risk of heat stroke, which can become life-threatening. According to the American Animal Hospital Association, outdoor surfaces such as asphalt and concrete can reach temperatures substantially higher than the surrounding air. Cornell University's College of Veterinarian Medicine also identifies hot pavement as a potential cause of paw pad burns in dogs. These are preventable injuries and I believe we have an opportunity to take proactive measures to protect animals in our community. Today, I would like to propose that the City of Jacksonville consider implementing educational heat safety warning signs in selected public parks, walking trails, and other frequently used dog walking areas. These signs could inform pet owners about the dangers of hot pavement, encourage them to check surface temperatures before walking their dogs, recommend safer walking hours, and help them recognize warning signs of heat-related stress. I would also like to encourage collaboration between the City, local veterinarians, animal welfare organizations, and Animal and Protective Services to help educate the public. My intention is not to restrict residents from enjoying outdoor activities with their pets. Rather, my goal is to promote awareness, responsible pet ownership, and the prevention of unnecessary animal suffering. I respectfully ask the City Council to consider a pilot program for educational signage in selected high traffic dog walking areas and to help identify- Thank you, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Councilmember Peluso wants to talk to you in the green room. I'm sorry? Councilmember Peluso wants to follow up and talk to you more about that in the green room. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yep. Next, we have Eugene Trey Ford. Thank you. Trey Ford. My address is on file, but I do live in the Grand Park Agricultural District. I'm here representing Duval Soil and Water Conservation District in support of Ordinance 2026-0807, which is the ordinance formerly known as the Free to Garden Act. Now it's called the Pathways to Urban Agriculture, but I'm seeing some block ways in these pathways, blockades. One of them is the bill does not give market gardens 70 open days a year. It caps them at 12 public sales days per calendar year. The 12-day number was carried over anchoring market days to the city's garage sale limit. That's the problem. A garage sale is the wrong benchmark for a farm. A garage sale moves old furniture and non-perishable wares, whereas a farmer is selling food that's ripe, perishable, and in season right now. When the harvest comes in, it has no time to move. So it has to move right away. So you can't tell a tomato to wait for your allotted day to sell. It gets tighter still under subsection 14, educational and community activities, workshops, student farm days, garden tours. Those count against those same 12 days. So a grower teaching kids in an after-school program can exhaust their entire year just before holding a single market. So I'm asking that you strengthen the ordinance before it's final, raise the limit from 12 days to 70 days, benchmark to actually how food grows and not to garage sales. Also allow our growers to cross-sale agricultural value-added products, which will strengthen the collaboration between urban farmers and a business that is already low margin. Let's pass an ordinance that doesn't permit, doesn't just permit urban agriculture, but lets it thrive. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Next we have James Matchett. Matchett. Mr. Todd, Wells Todd. Good evening. My name is Wells Todd. My address is on file and I'm with Take Em Down Jacks. A question that is on many minds in this city is, who does the city council really work for? And is it the people or is it the special interests? And you can't serve two masters. And right now, it appears that the developer class is more important than the people. It appears that the wealthy of this town are more important than the people. Your support for special interests, your support with the criminal Zionist government of Israel, and your own interests appears to be more important than the interests of the people. With the building of the concrete supply plant, that's what we're calling it now, that has been proven to be hazardous to the community, speaks volumes about your priorities. One of the first questions that needs to be asked regarding developing and the development of anything in a community is how does it benefit the community? The liquor store that was about to be built on the north side didn't and would not improve the condition of the community. The morgue and medical examiner's office did not and cannot improve the condition of the community. Institutionalized racism is real. Redlining is real. And the exploitation of the north side is real. I and groups in this city will continue to fight for a neighborhood bill of rights that puts the control of what is developed in communities into the hands of the people. Thank you. Our last four speakers, please come on down to the front, please. Tom McGuire, Keith Brown, Jamie Travis Leonard, and Blake Harper. Mr. McGuire, you're up first. Yes, sir. Thank you. Good evening. I am Tom McGuire, 4711 Herter Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 32210. Got to say, it's got to be embarrassing investigating the wrong government agency. Turns out that it was the Jacksonville Transportation Authority rather than the JA that had problems. The question is, how does this happen? Because, you know, the result of this lack of oversight has allowed that that has allowed unpaid bills to stack up at JEA for 14 years? I mean, this just, there needed to be some oversight over this agency. And as a result of this lack of stewardship, workers have faced increased challenges getting to work, students face challenges getting to school, and all families are inconvenienced and face greater difficulties in living their daily lives. And this is something we need to find out more and get to the bottom of, and we need to make sure this doesn't happen again. Now, changing directions here, I was disappointed in the last budget discussion to see that the majority of the cuts in the budget impacted social programs, while ignoring the most consequential cut possible. When planning for an uncertain financial future, the question must be asked, can the city actually afford a new jail? A council member here expressed a desire for a $100,000 cushion in the current budget, but consider how many more times the projected cost of this new jail would provide that $100,000 cushion going well into the future. So we must seriously consider tabling that proposed new jail just for the good of the city and the financial situation it faces. Um, also, um, there are other, um, one other point I want to make here is we could also, when we're talking about these cuts, spread the cuts across all of the, uh, departments that, that can also produce substantial savings. And we might want to consider the JSO budget as part of that too, because after all, they pay money for flock cameras, which didn't prove to be a wise investment. Thank you. Keith Brown is next. Good morning. Address is on file. My name is Keith Brown. Uh, affordability in Jacksonville. I mean, it's reached its peak. There are people living in trailers and apartments and they can't even afford them. Um, how do we expect people to come to Jacksonville and live if they can't even afford a place to live? Jacksonville has became an apartment, apartment city. They're, they're demolishing things just to build more apartments. We don't need more apartments. We need, we need other things built. We need thing, we need things like more, more, more parks. Let's, let's bring in more parks, more restaurants. Public safety is another thing. Uh, people want to feel safe when walking out to their cars, homes. Nobody feels safe with the things that JSO is doing. It is terrible. JSO is doing, I'm, I'm, they're doing a terrible job. Uh, a lady said, uh, somebody broke into her house. Uh, JSO took 25 to 30 minutes to respond. 25 to 30 minutes. How is people, how are people supposed to feel safe when JSO is taking that, taking 30 minutes to respond to a, to a break-in, to a house? It's terrible. JEA is terrible. There's things that, that goes on in our government that, that the mayor and, and some people in city council decided to just throw out and turn a blind eye because they don't want to deal with it. How are we going to get things done in the city if y'all don't want to deal with certain things that goes on in the city? We need, we need stuff to be done. And we, and we need to start off by stop building more apartments. Stop, stop building things that we no longer need. The homeless population increases every single day because people cannot afford to live in this city. It is terrible. I go downtown, you see more people, more, more homeless people sitting on the side of the road. Why are they being homeless? Because they can't afford a place to live. And you know what JSO do? If you sit on the sidewalk or if you ask people for money, a city, there's a city ordinance that if, if somebody's asking you for money, they get a citation. How do we expect the homeless person to pay for a ticket? They can't, they're homeless. Do better Jacksonville. Next we have Jamie Travis Leonard. Good evening city council. My name is Jamie Travis Leonard. My address is on file. I'm back to talk about affordable housing. I kind of stopped because I thought you all got it, but after the last budget meeting, it's very clear you don't. So let me give you some facts. This is all from the US Census Bureau. So we are at almost a million population. We have 413,620 occupied housing units. We have about 36,000 that are unoccupied. In that though, we only have a 58.1% homeownership rate in Jacksonville, which is 10% less than Florida overall, which has a 68% homeownership. Now I'm sure what you're thinking, it's just because we're not building fast enough. No, it's because houses are too expensive. That's the bottom line. So do you want to know what the highest housing value is? Like the highest percentage? It is 300K to 499K. That is 39.7% of all those housing units. Do you want to know what the median income is in Jacksonville? 72,000. I know those people aren't affording those almost half a million dollar homes. So who is? Now you may think, oh, it's probably people moving from out of the state. Nope, we only had 3.9% of our population move from outside Florida. You know who owns those homes? Developers, renters, slumlords. We have an affordability crisis because you all are allowing people to develop housing units and development areas that people cannot afford. We have so many people come up here saying they want to own homes. People want to own homes in the cities and they can't because you've priced them out. Stop approving these massive developments with 40 feet lots better than 300K. That's ridiculous. Do better. Give us actual affordable housing. Thank you. And lastly, I have Blake Harper. My name is Blake Harper. Information on file. First of all, although President Nick Hellman is not here, I want to acknowledge the very important resolution that he authored and you all passed 18 to one recognizing and supporting Israel on the attack of October 7th, 2023. Socialism is a word that's getting a lot of attention today. And so we're going to talk about socialism. First of all, I might suggest that you get this video from Hillsdale College. It's called Marxism, Socialism, and Communism. I'm not promoting it. I'm just sharing with you where we've gotten a lot of our information from. What I'm going to do is I'm going to we're going to talk about this handout that you've got. And first of all, I want to thank Wells Todd for all of his public posts on Facebook because they actually illustrate the words are on this video. Communism, Marxism, and Socialism. OK, and we're going to start with the thing about socialism that you all need to understand. Socialism means to destroy private property. If you own a home, they want to take it. OK, and it started back with the National Socialist German Workers Party, otherwise known as the Nazi Party. And this is what Hitler said. In other words, socialization or what is known here as socialism, the good of the good of the community takes priority over the individual. Wells Todd talks about Kirsten Sinemans as a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution exchange should be owned or regulated by the community. No private property. And he goes on to say that Joe Manchin is not a socialist. He's owned by the big business people. The bottom line is socialism, fascism, Nazism, communism, they're all the same. Adolf Hitler said of communism, socialists make communists look like pamphleteers. So here's the point I have to ask you. If the words KKK are socially repugnant, why is not the word socialism, which is an attack on our Constitution and the values of this country? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Harper. We got, again, two folks who I called did not come down front. I'll give them another shot here. James Matchett and LaShondra Sawyer. Last call. Mr. Vice President, that concludes our public comment portion of our agenda. I'll move on now to public hearings speaking on page 13. Council members should declare any ex parte communications. Anyone wishing to speak will be allowed three minutes to speak on any bills. If you provided your address on the prescribed form, do not and do not wish to state it in the microphone. Again, just merely state that it's on the record. But we encourage your specific you to be specific as to your location as it likely will impact the weight of your comments. Like public comment, assuming approval of the presenting officer, a speaker may be invited to the Robert Johnson room for further discussions with a council member. Failure to complete the form provided, including the provision of an address on the form, will mean your name will not be called through the public hearing. Mr. Thiel, would you or Ms. Smith, would you please read the bills? 2026, 558, 644, 662, 694, 695, 696, 747, 648, 649, 751, 752, 753, 755, 756, 778, 780, 647, 648, 649, 650, 651, 652, 653, 654, 655, 66, excuse me, 656, 689, 690, 691, 692, and 693. Mr. Vice President, I ask that you please open all of these public hearings. These public hearings are open. Right now to page 13, item number 22, 2026-0558. I have one speaker card, and that is Jamie Travis Leonard. She opposes this bill but does not wish to speak to it. All right, thank you. This public hearing is continuing until 10, 27, 26. And we have, is it ex parte on this one? Okay, you can declare it now or you can declare it when we actually vote on the bill. All right, we'll go now. Council Member Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I received 111 emails in opposition since October 1, and they've been filed with legislative services. Thank you. All right. Council Member Amaro, you're recognized. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I was going to wait, but I rise to declare ex parte on this. I receive a number of emails as well as letters, and it has or will be filed with legislative services. Councilwoman Pittman, you're recognized. I rise also to declare ex parte. I receive many, many, I think over 120-something as well. I've already filed the legislation. Thank you. All right. Council Member Johnson, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I too rise to declare additional ex parte. I don't see it here, but I thought it was filed already. I will follow up on that. I received 47 additional letters from groups about this particular legislation, and that is being filed. This is the additional ex parte. It's being filed with legislative services once they're scanned. Thank you. All right. We have no other speakers in the queue. So as I said before, this public hearing is continuing until 10, 27, 26. Item 23, 20, 26, 6, 4, 4. I have one speaker card. John Nooney supports the bill, but does not wish to speak to it. This public hearing is closed. Page 14, item number? We have an amendment. I move the amendment. Thank you for the help. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. All right. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Council Member Gay, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. This is part of the preserve in my district that Mr. Middlebrook, Mark Middlebrook, was the driving force in the Delaney administration that made this happen. And without him, we would not have a preserve out there to protect the land. So I wish we could have had more, but the work that he's done, is tremendous. And it will basically last forever in our community. Our whole community, Black Hammock Island, everybody supports this. Naming this section of the preserve for the Middlebrook, Mark Middlebrook, in remembrance of him and the great work he did. And so thank you. All right. Thank you, sir. We have no one else in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yeas. Zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-644. Turning now to page 14, item 24, 2026-662. I have a number of our speaker cards. Kevin Kramer, questions only. Kristen Mood, does not wish to speak, but supports. Questions only. Wes Huber, Haber, does not wish to speak, but supports. I think that's it. All right. This public hearing is closed. Moving on now to item 25. I'll move the bill. All right. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. It's my first night, night. Your first night, man. What are you doing? 15 yays. Zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-662. Let me try this again. 2025, 2026-694. I have one speaker card. Jamie Travis Leonard. She opposes it, but does not wish to speak. This public hearing is closed. Item number 26, 2026-695. Again, one speaker card. Questions only. Stephen Smith. This public hearing is closed. Burning the page. Item number 27, 2026-696. I have one speaker card. Does not wish to speak. Questions only. Ricky Rand. Public hearing is closed. Item 28 and 29, 2026-747. I'll do them separately. 2028-747. I have no speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. 2029-2026-748. I have no speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Public hearing is closed. And additional public hearings on 10-27-26. During the page 30, item number 2026-749. I have one speaker card. 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. And so this one is Jack Zoo Amendment 3, Public Park on Pottsburg Creek. You know what? I just want to just bring to everyone's attention. We're going to authorize disbursement of city funds for verified costs without first requiring evidence of the society's expenditures of the matching dollars. So that makes sense to me. So sounds like JTA stuff there. But it's in neighborhoods, finance, but not rules. So anyway, just wanted to get that on the record. Thank you. No more speaker cards on 749. Those public hearings are closed. Item 31, 2026 and 751. I have no speaker cards. Public hearings are closed. We're on page 17, item number 32, 2026-752. I have no speaker cards. Public hearings are closed. Item number 33, 2026-753. I have one speaker card. Ms. Travis Leonard. Good evening, City Council. My name is Jamie Travis Leonard. My address is on file. So I come up in support of 26753. I really just wanted to come up and say that, as I said during my public comment, we have an affordability crisis. I appreciate the dollars that were put back into our budget and dollars that are currently being shifted to other parts. So we can have some down payment assistance to try and help people get into homes. But people won't be able to get into $500,000 homes even with down payment assistance. So we need to holistically look at housing and not just solely focus on down payment assistance. I fear that because that's the easiest route, that's the one we're continually taking to try and address the affordability issue we have. So my request, besides obviously passing this because I support it, is to, through your work with the mayor, through your work with each other, through your work with LUZ, find a way to get us affordable houses that the median income household earner can afford and not go into massive debt that they may default on. Thank you. No more speaker cards than 753. Public hearings closed. I have no speaker card for you. Read the next bill. No, sir. Nope. Item number 34-2026-755. I have two speaker cards, Travis Leonard, Ms. Travis Leonard, and John Nooney, both of which do not wish to speak, but support the bill. Public hearings closed. Turning to page 18, item number 35-2026-756. I have one speaker card, John Nooney. Hello. I am John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023-0819. I'm in City Council District 4, CPAC 3, School Board District 3. And, all right, this one, you know, again, I think it's Amendment 3 stuff, but we're going to update a list of prohibited expenditures, you know, Chapter 118, City Grants, and the purchase or lease of a motor vehicle. So, it's in rules, neighborhoods, finance, which is good. But, my thing, too, is going to be, you know, I think of 2025, 0522, the electric vehicle, you know, that was Ford. But, anyways, it's going to be all with the fleets, you know, the independent authorities. I mean, it just sounds like some really big stuff. So, anyway, I just wanted to get that on the record. Thank you. No more speaker cards on 756. Public hearings closed. Item 36-2026-778. I have one speaker card, John Nooney. Mr. Nooney? All right. No speaker cards on 778. Turning the page now to item, page 19, item 37-2026-780. I have two speaker cards, Carnell Oliver and Jamie Travis Leonard. Good evening, City Council. My name is Jamie Travis Leonard. My address is on file. I come up in tentative support of 26-780. I recognize that this is to try and get JTA out of the hole that they found themselves in, of which our mayor has some responsibility, but also so does our governor, since four appointments come from him. So, when we're looking at how to address the issues we have with JTA, I think that that needs to be reinforced and continue to try and find better ways to increase our transportation. The routes got cut. It's really bad. I'm hoping that continuing to have the gas tax, or excuse me, the changes being made to the gas tax will address some of the affordability issues that they're having. Thank you. Next, we have Carnell Oliver. Yes, my name is Carnell Oliver. Your address is on file. Look, I wasn't here at last Friday's meeting, but I took the time to look at the minutes, because there was a whole lot of media outrage over the concept of toll roads. And when I look back and I look at the minutes, they were just basically giving you a historical standpoint of the authority that JTA has. For me as a person, personally me, I want to, I want to, I want to see if JTA can explore the idea, personally me. I'm not speaking for the agency. I'm speaking in the sense of, let's look at some of our key commerce corridors, the main bridges in our community. Let's tax the, excuse my language, the hell out of people who come into this community and destroy our infrastructure, destroy our quality of life. And for me, by me taking that position, I want to put a tax exemption on people who are from here locally. They have the necessary resources at their disposal to maintain the basic transportation services. But there's one particular city council member that's not here today. He has made a consistent argument about the emerald trail, and he wants to keep that split with dollars. I agree with what a city council member from District 2 said. JTA has their own lane, right? He said it out of his mouth. Their jurisdiction and what they do is that their job is to provide transit services, not to build parks. What you're in of the 3% with the 3-3 split is that it's your responsibility to deal with the emerald trail. Free up their resources so that they can get their services back up to compliance. And let's explore other revenue service sources. I'm trying to be upfront. The comments that have been put out there by the media is misinformation, and they've got the public in a complete uproar, which should not be a part of the discussion. We need to talk about innovation. How do we can bring in more revenues without impacting or hurting our residents here? You know, because I'm going to say this. I believe in capitalism because through the 1866 Civil Rights Act, I can turn capitalism into socialism because you don't know how my mind works. All right, let's stick to the bill. And the thing about it is, is that I know I know how to pull things out of nowhere. And what I'm going to say is that I want more money to come in here. And I know the laws to use to get where I want to serve the people. Mr. President, we have one more speaker card, John Nooney. Hello, I am John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023-0819-8356, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 322-16. You know, with this local option, you know, gas tax, you know, I marked on there, no, you know, we're, we're just broke. You know, last night, I was just going to pull it out, but you know, I went to the CPAC. Mr. Nooney, that's not on the bill. Please stick to the bill. Well, you know, JTA used to go to the CPAC. Warning number one. Huh? Warning number one, stick to the bill. Well, all right. You know, I've been to those, you know, again, as far as JTA, this money should immediately go to restoring the bus routes. And you should just send out, if anyone has a bus, and I think, you know, you heard it, you know, there, there is all these different agreements over the years that have been just created, but just open it. You want to create jobs. You have a bus, bring it here. And, you know, and that, whoever that independent bus route would be, you know, you, you know, there's legislation with the DIA, you know, where you're, you know, creating just zones, areas. You know, the biggest thing is to restore the transportation. That is the, that is the biggest thing. So I would take that money and just say, you know what, we're, we're re-looking at this immediately. And we're going to be creating jobs throughout the country, you know, forget the wagon train, you know, bring a, bring your, bring a bus. It doesn't matter, you know. And that, you know, would be, I think, one of the best national searches you could just do and, you know, bring people in. And so that's, I just want to have that on the record for, for that. I have no more speaker cards on 780. Public hearings closed. Move the emergency. Okay. We have a motion and second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The emergency carries. Move the amendment. Motion and second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as an emergency, as amended. We have a motion on the bill as an emergency, as amended. Councilmember Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. President. Before I say what I want to say, I want to deal with this issue of tolls because this was a bad case of journalism that created this problem. Those of us that were in the room that day that heard the presentation understood it was a historical presentation. I was here. Councilmember Miller was here. Council Vice President Joe Carlucci were here. We heard the presentation. There was no concern on our part. We would have said something if we were concerned. Cleveland Ferguson was attacked inappropriately all weekend. He deserves an apology from the media for that, which we'll probably never get. But it was very unfair, and I want to put that on the record. That's number one. This $30 million today is the beginning of a process. I support it. We all should support it. We really have no choice. JTA is really, I hate to say it in a death spiral, when you're borrowing money to pay bills, you're in a death spiral. You really are. So we need to support this, and with the help of our council auditors, we need to identify exactly what happened. I think that's extremely important to this community. When the numbers began to go south, who was in charge when it went south? Who put together the budget that was grossly inflated? We need to understand those issues, and hopefully through the leadership of Councilmember Miller and our committee, we will get to the bottom of that. We need to determine how we reorganize JTA. What functions should they be performing, and which ones they should not? We need to determine the Emerald Trail. How does it factor into all this? But first, we need to stabilize the business and get basic transportation online, get the bus routes reinstated. All of us can get in a car in the morning, start our car, go to work. We don't think two seconds about it. As I drive in from work in Arlington in particular, I pass all sorts of bus stations where people are waiting for a bus to get to work, to get to school, whatever it is. And they've been impacted more than anybody has been. And we need to get those reinstated. We need to make sure the paratransit services are good and make sure the ferry runs appropriately, and then we can deal with the other things that they're doing. So let's pass this tonight. Give Randall Barnes the tools to make the right decisions and move forward. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. All right. Thank you. Next we have Council Member Gay. You're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I agree with Dr. Salem on a lot of those issues. And in Finance Committee a while back, I was very clear about borrowing the line of credit. That was just red flags of failing business practices. So yes, I want to see the JTA let's get the downsizing, making cuts back to, let's get back to reality and to where we have a functioning bus service that where we can get our citizens that need this service to be able to get to their jobs. Cutting routes, increasing times is not what our community needs, not what our businesses need. There are so many businesses that depend on this bus service. And so with that, that's just getting back to what the JTA is supposed to be doing, and that's providing a transportation for our community. Let's get away from building roads and all these other projects and just get back to reality. Quit living the high life and let's start being more responsible with our dollars over there to where we can be back effective. Yes, I'm going to support this, but it's one of these you just got to, we have no choice. Unfortunately, we're put in this position, but I'll be holding my nose and in support in this. Thank you. Council Member Peluso, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I wasn't sure if I was going to speak either, but I want to echo the sentiments of Council Member Salem and Gay. I couldn't agree more. We are in this position and it's unfortunate that we are, but we do need to vote this bill up. I've supported it in committees and I'll support it now. But I will say, as we look at the future of JTA, we need to consider a few things. And I think that you all know my position on some of these items. The NAVI needs to die. It needs to go. I've been talking about it as I campaigned. I've been talking about it as the council member in which the NAVI is the only part, is the only part of the city where the NAVI operates in District 7. It's costing JTA wage too much money. It's costing a taxpayer too much money. It's completely unnecessary. The autonomous vehicle experiment is not something that the city of Jacksonville or JTA should be investing its money into. It just isn't. Good, reliable, efficient, quick transportation and transit should be the goal of JTA. Innovation should not. It is not meant to be an incubator. It is not meant to be an R&D operator. It's not. And our taxpayer dollars shouldn't be going to it at the level that it is. You want to put a few pilot programs out there for a couple million bucks and we believe that there's a good ROI? I get it. But tens and hundreds of millions of dollars in programs that people don't use? I literally saw somebody drive a NAVI today. He was using his hands. Now I don't know about you, but that's not autonomous to me. That's certainly not in the best interest of the taxpayer. I just hope that my colleagues finally hear my pleas. I've been talking about this for many, many years. You too see the NAVI. It needs to go. In regards to the Emerald Trail, Emerald Trail is a different story. It's been nothing but successful. And as we talk about redlining, and as we talk about these historic neighborhoods that have been ignored, the Emerald Trail provides much needed investment and capital into these neighborhoods and connects them with the downtown area. Where we've invested a ton of cash in terms of parks and public amenities. We need to ensure that these communities are able to get down here. The Emerald Trail has been quite successful in the parts of the city that it's been opened in. As we talk about flooding, we talk about over the past several days, I'm sure many of you have gotten emails, but we see Hogan's Creek right here in downtown, flooding all over. However, if the Emerald Trail project were to continue the way it's supposed to, all of that would be mitigated. All of it would now go back to its natural state, and we would be able to have a trail that people could connect to these new parks and to our downtown area. So the Emerald Trail needs to stay. I understand if we want to look at it a little bit more holistically, I understand that. But when it comes to the autonomous vehicles, they need to go. And JTA knows my position on that. Now all of you do is well. But let's vote this up, and let's hope that we can get JTA on the right footing. All right, thank you. Council Member Arias, you're recognized. All right, thank you, Mr. Vice President. And at TEU, I spoke briefly about this, but my biggest takeaway was the fact that not only are we losing jobs, we're losing routes. And today I got an email, as many of you did, a newsletter from JTA, which kind of detailed exactly which routes are being cut. And out of those routes, you're looking at Route 18, which has 56 stops, Route 25 has 38 stops, and Route 32 has 58 stops. The one that concerns me is Route 32, because one of those stops is Kent Campus. And so we're talking about jobs, but also taking our students, our future leaders to school is a big impact to our community. So there's, like Council Member Poliso said, we are where we're at right now. We have to vote this up. We have no choice. However, I know JTA is here in the audience, and I hope that you guys are listening to this and understand that we need to bring not only these routes back, but the jobs first, because we lost 200-plus employees at a time where, honestly, the holiday season is coming up right now. In order to get these routes back, we need to bring these jobs back. So I would love to encourage more conversations between you guys and us. I know that we have a committee, but we need to get to work on this in a timely manner, because ultimately, these are lives that we're impacting in our city, and not just lives, but also the community itself coming together. So please, I urge you guys to please bring these jobs back. Thank you. All right. We have no other speakers in the queue. So with that, we have a motion on the bill as an emergency as amended. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 a's. Zero a's. By your action, you've approved 2026-780. Now it's time, Mr. President, now it's time. Vice President, now it's time for public hearings on land use amendments, companion resilience, and modifications to the comp plan beginning on page 20. 2026-647. I have no speaker card, so I will move the amendment. Wait. Public hearings closed. Now I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No speakers in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signified by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 a's. Zero a's. By your action, you've approved 2026-647. Item 39-2026-648. I have one speaker card. Hayden Phillips. Questions only. Public hearings closed. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 a's. Zero a's. By your action, you've approved 2026-648. Item number 40-2026-649. I have no speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 a's. Zero a's. By your action, you've approved 2026-649. Item 41-2026-650. I have no speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 a's. Zero a's. By your action, you've approved 2026-650. Item 42-2026-651. I have no speaker cards. Public hearings closed. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 a's. Zero a's. By your action, you've approved 2026-651. Turning to page 22, 43, item 43, 2026-652, I have no speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No speakers in the queue. I'll open the ballot, record your vote. 15 yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-652. Item 44, 2026-653, I have no speaker cards. This public hearing is continued until 10-27-26. Item 45, 2026-654, I have one speaker card. Jeff Rude, Rude, Jeff Rude, let's see Mr. Rude. All right, this public hearing is continued until 10-27-26. Questions only, thank you. Turning to page, item number 46, 2026-655, I have no speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Move the bill. Motion and a second on the bill. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot, record your vote. 15 yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-655. Item 47, 2026-656, I have no speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. Move the amendment. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed, the amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot, record your vote. 15 yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-656. Item number 48, 2026-689, I have no speaker cards. Public hearing is closed. There will be additional public hearing on 10-27-26. Turning to page 24, items 49, 50, and 51, 690, 691, and 692, I have no speaker cards. All these public hearings are closed. There will be additional public hearings on 10-27-26. Item number 52, 2026-693, I have no speaker cards. Public hearings closed. There will be an additional public hearing on 10-27-26. Mr. Vice President, as it happens, there are no third reading resolutions today, so we move on to the ordinances beginning on page 26. For members of the audience, these bills have already had their public hearings with final committee reports and now ready for full council action. Our first item is number 53, 2026-523. I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed, the amendment carries. Move the bill to be referred as amended. All right. We have a motion and a second on the bill to be re-referred as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have re-referred, 2026-523. Page 27, item 54, 2026-673, I move the withdrawal. We have a motion and a second on the withdrawal. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have withdrawn, 2026-673. Page 28, item 55, 2026-698, I move the amendment. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed, the amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have approved, 2026-698. Page 29, item 56, 2026-700, I move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have approved, 2026-700. Item 57, 2026-701, I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have approved, 2026-701. Page 30, item 58, 2026-702, I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment. Signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, 0 nays. By your action, you have approved, 2026-702. Item 59, 2026-706, I move the amendment. We have a motion and second on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Ten yays, one nay. Fire action you've approved, 2026-706. You're into page 31, item 60, 2026-707, I move the amendment. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Ten yays, zero nays. Fire action you've approved, 2026-707. Item 61, 2026-709, move the bill. We have a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. We said open the ballot so we can record our vote. Trying to cook over here, man. I'm out of here. Thirteen yays, two nays. Fire action you have approved, 2026-709. Page 32, item number 62, 2026-721, I move the amendment. We have a motion and a second on the amendment. No speakers on the queue. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. Yep. All right. We have a motion and a second on the bill. Ms. Clark Murray, you're recognized. I just want to make sure that this is just a regular vote through the chair to Ms. DeFopolis. This is just up or down, right? Because it failed in practically all of the committees? Through the vice president to Councilmember Clark Murray. So, yes, it's up or down. Now, if the bill were to be approved, there's an issue with the funding source. So, we'll just see how the result goes. But, yes, it's a straight up or down. So, if you are in favor of it as amended, you would vote yes. And if you're not in favor, you would vote no. Thank you. All right. Have we, do we have a, is it set for the ballot? All right. What's that? Bill's moved as amended. All right. Open the ballot. Record your vote. One yea. Fourteen nays. By your action, you have denied. Twenty-twenty-six, seven-twenty-one. Page sixty-three, twenty-twenty-six, seven-four-zero. I move the amendment. All right. We have a motion and second on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. We have a motion and second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Fifteen yays. Zero nays. By your action, you've approved. Twenty-twenty-six, seven-forty. It's now time for the reading resolutions and ordinances beginning on, second reading ordinances and resolutions beginning on page 34. Mr. Thiel, would you please read the bills? Twenty-twenty-six, seven-fifty-eight, seven-fifty-nine, seven-sixty, seven-sixty-one, seven-sixty-two, seven-sixty-three, seven-sixty-four, seven-sixty-five, seven-seventy, seven-seventy-one, seven-seventy-two, seven-seventy-three, seven-seventy-four, seven-seventy-five, seven-seventy-six, seven-seventy-seven, seven-seventy-seven, twenty-twenty-six, seven-forty-one, seven-forty-two, seven-forty-three, seven-forty-four, seven-forty-five, seven-seventy-six, and seven-seventy-nine. Mr. Vice President, we have a number of public participation cards related to specific items, so I will call up the individuals to speak on each of these. First one is item 65-2026-759. I have one speaker card, John Nooney does not wish to speak, but supports it. Then we have item number 2026-762, which is 68. Again, Mr. Nooney, I believe he does want to speak to this one. Hello, I am John J. Nooney, 8356, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 3-2-2-1-6, City Council District 4, CPAC 3, School Board District 3. Yeah, this one, I'll tell you, go to a true commission meeting. I'll tell you, you know, this is, you know, you want the Gavel Award, you know, I mean, pull up the tape, but conferring, you know, Blake Bass, you know, at the last true commission, you know, he's introducing tier stuff, which is going to be just awesome. And so anyway, you know, I'm in full support, and I just wanted to, you know, you know, just go back and just watch those meetings. Taxation revenue, utilization of expenditures, the power that that commission has to investigate anything and everything is unbelievable. And so I've been going to him for years, but with this appointment, and I'll speak to the next one as well. Thank you very much. I have no more speaker cards than that. Moving on now to number 2022-764. Mr. Nooney, you filled out two cards, both of them for 764. Did you want to speak to 763 as well? Both cards say 764. Well, yes, 763 and 764. Yes, my name's John Nooney. Name and address is on file. No, this one, too. I mean, go to a true commission. I mean, you get the gavel award when you go to that meeting. And so anyway, this is the reappointment of Scooter Bar, you know, and with the true commission. And, I mean, just go back and watch the tapes on these. He brought back... You know, really, public participation at the meetings. I mean, it was out of control with the way, you know, the participation was. But, no, I'm in full support, good stuff, and I just wanted to be on the record for that. Mr. Vice President, next item, number 70-2026-764. Again, one speaker card, John Nooney. Mr. Nooney. All right. Yeah, my name's John J. Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution, and 2023-0819, 8356, Baskin Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 3216. And City Council District 4, CPAC, Planning District 3, School Board District 3. This is a resolution reappointing Elizabeth Payne, a Duval County resident, and is a member of the Health Council of Northeast Florida, as a provider. And, no, I'm in full support, but she's also the head of the Northeast Florida Regional Council. And so, that falls under, you know, the jurisdictional oversight. So, I just wanted to, you know, be on the record for that. And, you know, I was just in Clay County. They just had a presentation, Tyler Nolan, with the Northeast Florida Regional Council. So, anyway, you know, it's good stuff. There's 10 regional councils, you know, throughout the state of Florida. You know, the Northeast Florida Regional Council, it's seven counties. And so, you know, with this reappointment, I just wanted to be on the record and in full support. Thank you for listening. Next, we have on item number 72, 2026-770, Blake Harper. Mr. Harper, Mr. Harper, this is on 770. As always, so the last time, Blake Harper information on file, last time Donna Deegan put up somebody for the library, she called a black conservative a token. I haven't looked into the backgrounds of these four that are in front now. But I want to talk to you about libraries in general. I want to ask each of you this question. Do you believe that any person of any age should be able to read anything? Any person of any age to read anything? Think about that. Do you want an eight-year-old reading or watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre or watching Behind the Green Door or Debbie Does Dallas? Do you? The reality is that the American Library Association reaffirmed in 1996 that age was part of their notion that anybody of any age could read anything. So, in other words, since 1996, 30 years, there's been a concerted effort to put adult content in front of children. How do you feel about that? How do you feel about the idea that somebody can take away the innocence and the childhood of somebody and impose upon them complex and difficult issues? The second page you have is from 2019, the American Library Conference. Subversive activism, creating social change through libraries and children's literature. So what the American Library Association is doing is intentionally show them how to put books into libraries that intentionally violate what you and I understand as cultural norms and community standards. How do you feel about that? All right, Mr. Harper, we've got to make sure we're on the bill, even though it's public participation. I understand that. So these are questions that you need to ask these people, this particular individual, and the next three. You need to ask these questions about how they would approach these very significant issues with regards to the public libraries. I recommend that you look up a title. It's called It's Only Natural. And ask yourself if you want one of your children to read that book. Thank you very much. Don't go too far away, Mr. Harper. You're on for the next one as well, 2026-771. Okay, and again, so what we're doing is I'm trying to give you some understanding of the questions that you need to present to these people. So John Stuart Mill wrote in, oh gosh, where is it? Pardon me for taking the time. 1859, it is perhaps hardly necessary to say that this doctrine is meant to apply only to human beings in the maturity of their facilities. We are not speaking of children. So again, we have to talk to these people, every one of them, about what they understand needs to be in the libraries. Again, it's only natural. Interesting thing about John Stuart Mill. He's considered to be a liberal. Less on the resume of this author. You've got to speak to the applicant. Okay, so I understand that. Thank you. But the point is this. Libraries are the wellspring of knowledge. You do not put sour water with sweet water. We need these children to have the best start in life. I would suggest that you talk to these people who are going to come on the board to make sure they're getting it. Thank you. Next, we have Mr. Nooney speaking on 2026-772. Mr. Nooney, you did not wish to speak. I apologize. Darn. 2026-773, Mr. Nooney does not wish to speak, but he supports both of these nominations. With that, we've finished public participation. Turn now to page 44 for item number 103, 2026-831. I move the emergency. All right, we have a motion and a second on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The emergency passes. I move the bill as an emergency. We have a motion and a second on the bill as an emergency. Council Member Gaffney, you recognized. Yes, please ask me as a co-sponsor. All right. Thank you. All right, we have, does someone want to move a council amendment? All right, motion and a second on a council amendment. All in favor of the council amendment, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The amendment carries. Move the bill as an emergency as amended. Second. Motion on the bill as an emergency as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 15 yays, zero nays. By reaction, you've approved 2026-831 as an emergency. Mr. Vice President, that concludes our business for the evening. We're ready for a roll call. Announcements adjourned in prayer. Open the ballot for roll call. 15 present. All right, thank you. This meeting is adjourned, and we will now go to the prayer and announcements. Or, we'll do announcements and then prayer? What do we do? We're going to end in prayer, so we're going to announcements. Anybody? Everybody? Ms. Pittman. Go ahead, Ms. Pittman. Give the floor to the young lady first. It is an honor for me to wish councilmember his birthday is on October 16th, and let's wish him a happy, happy, happy, happy birthday. Who was it for? Who was it for? You ready? Okay. Y'all going to sing with me. Come on. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Raul. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. All right. Is that it for the birthdays? All right. Councilmember Johnson, you're recognized. Thank you, colleagues, for supporting and carrying one of our former members forward. It was such a beautiful ceremony. I rise, however, tonight on not a somber occasion, but just for us to remember. I'm wearing pink today. As you know, it's obviously October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I try to remember, you know, there's power in a name. My survivor is my aunt, Samantha, and her grandmother, which is my great-grandmother, Emma Berry Williams Hughes, died in 1955 from breast cancer, right there at 946 East Beaver Street near the fairgrounds. When I heard the story back then, as a woman in the South, they just kind of set her there and waited until she passed away, afflicted with breast cancer. Thank God we're living in a time when we don't have to do that anymore. So I want us to all remember, I'm going to try my best to wear as much pink as I can to remind people all the time that this is our opportunity for our community to help move things forward. As you know, our mayor, a three-time breast cancer survivor, and of course, Jeannie Blalock over at the news was dealing with it as well. We can raise the money, and I believe that we can do the work to ensure that this is something that we can eradicate in our generation. Thank you for supporting this effort. Whatever you do, make sure you remind people to not only get their mammograms and get tested, but let's raise money so that we can ensure that our loved ones continue to be loved on this. All right. Thank you. Council Member Pelluso, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. I first want to say today's a very important day for those of us that are service members. It is the 251st birthday of the United States Navy, the world's finest Navy. And obviously, having two major naval installations, and one very, yes, it's not in Jacksonville, but yes, a third naval installation, if you want to call it that for those submariners, is a little bit north of us. But obviously, a very important branch of the military for the Jacksonville and the Duval region, so happy birthday to the Navy. And lastly, congratulations to you, Mr. Vice President. You did an incredible job today stepping into your role. Thank you. I am only sorry that your father wasn't here to see it, but I'm, like you, I'm sure you were very proud that your children and your wife was here to see it. So congratulations to you. Thank you. Many more to come next year, I'm sure of it. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Council Member Boylan, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Vice President. You know, this is the closest I come to pink, but I did want to, in a sad note, one of my sisters today, in a phone call we had this morning, they found a node in her breast. And the hard part is now waiting to find out if it's cancer. So I understand, and so I ask you to keep my sister, Celine, in your prayers. Thank you. All right. We have no other speakers in the queue. Mr. Amaro, bring us on home. Gracious God, we thank you for first allowing us to be able to assemble together and do the people's work, for reminding our hearts that we serve because we want to give back. We want to make a difference in our community. And so we thank you for that opportunity for service. Thank you for all that has taken place this evening. Thank you for the ability to make a difference in someone's life. And God, in this prayer, we lift up Mr. Boylan's sister, ask you to reach from heaven and touch her body, heal her, and deliver her. We lift up Council Member Pittman's mom, ask her to be with her on her bed and touch her body and heal her. As we depart from this place, we hope to never depart from your presence. Continue to cover our family members far and near. And we all pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. That's it. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.