you ready eric all right i call to order the special meeting to discuss council priorities with councilman matt carlucci and myself councilman nick holland and um we have an open agenda here so i'll just say why i wanted to call the meeting um actually councilman carlucci pretty much seeded the idea uh that is there's several members of council who it's their last uh year of a two four-year terms and they probably still many of them have priorities that they'd like to advance and projects they'd like to see completed so i figured as as the incoming president now i would have a special meeting with each one of them and talk about what those priorities might be so with that we have no agenda other than an open discussion and i will turn over to mr carlucci to see if he has some priorities for us to discuss well i have some uh some things to talk about and i also want i mean i've heard what you want to do but i'd also you know when when i go through it i'd like to you know see what you want to do because i want to help you yeah sure because i think this is this is this is a mad this can be a magical year for you i mean it really can and and i'd like to see that happen for you um a time when the things that you touch turn into gold and that can happen um and uh and and i think you're going about everything the right way thank you um and uh so um so i i definitely want to help you accomplish your goals because you only you you only get this chance once and right i i had it one time and it was a absolute magical year when i came back on council i didn't have any desire to do it again because i think once is enough yeah and let everybody else have a chance yeah but um but thank you for this opportunity and so i want to kind of go through them um this is going to be a difficult year uh uh it could be much more difficult or it uh might be wait and see but let me just start with this one here so uh first of all i i have a so so warren jones has been one of my mentors for uh since i started on city council in 1987 and um and i've seen him under the most intense pressure um on different uh issues and he has stood firm and uh i remember watching him under the most intense pressure from uh black ministers who wanted him to really push through a bill that even he wanted but he knew he couldn't get it through he knew he would have to compromise with with mayor at austin at the time and it was it was a tough tough time for him but he knew what was the right way to go about it and i just remember watching him how comfortable he was in his chair you know he would be here this expression being comfortable in your skin but he was comfortable in that chair he wasn't squirming you know and he knew how to explain why and what and so forth and um so uh and then he wound up becoming council president two years in a row and uh he's a remarkable human being in person he knows nothing about this side well he may know something about this i know his wife does he doesn't want anything named after him um i was able to get him to agree to having the baseball complex at um hammond park named after him but i really wanted a park named after him not just a baseball complex but um when talking to him on the phone he uh i said well what do you want he's just you know not all they want is the baseball complex at hammond field named after him it's all right that's what i'm gonna bet that's what we'll do um but for years i have looked back at that wall uh in the back of city council where all the council members are uh council presidents or the pictures are hung and nothing really identifies it you know uh we we have these uh we have these conference rooms this one and the others uh one of which i named after henry cook uh and um and and so there's no more conference rooms but um i i just uh and and and uh i kind of got the idea for somebody else but i thought it was great i just thought it was a great idea and that was to uh above those pictures uh name that the warren jones the warren a jones hall of or a wall not hall wall of presidents yeah wall and um yeah and i talked to carla about this and um and i thought it would be a a neat uh joint project if if you wanted to join in and i i really want rockman johnson to be a part of this if if if you would you know join with me on that um is he close with uh warren yes he's very close with warren and i wouldn't feel right if i didn't uh bring rockman in on it but i didn't want to say anything about this until i spoke with you uh because um i think to have your uh your support in leadership on this would be important but um and i don't want to get into dei and all that kind of stuff but we have three conference rooms and they're all named after you know some significant council members and they're all white um and um but we have the longest serving council member in the history of jackson's consolidated government and who's been a two uh a council president twice um the second time which he didn't want but that's another story for another time yeah i'll share it with you sometime but uh but but anyway um and he's one of the great i think beloved statesmen of jacksonville he didn't ask for anything you know everything kind of just falls in his lap you know because of how respected he is yeah so um and then he's been a chairman of our school board a two two-term member of our school board and a chairman so i just saw that as what i thought was a great opportunity and i just envisioning his his name and wall of presidents and everybody within or maybe wall of council presidents yeah everybody everybody within that okay well that's that's the that's the picture of all the council presidents because it goes all the way back to ted grissett yeah you probably need to get a another picture of ted grissett he's about to fade out you know but he he was uh he was the first council uh president and um so uh so i i wanted to ask if uh if if if you would consider uh you know joining me in a partnership on that and with rockman i have told you rockman anything about this i think it's a terrific idea and for sure i would approach rockman first but i would support the the legislation super thank you would you be a uh co-introducer likely i don't see why not i mean i want to see how much it'll cost my guess is negligible well if it costs the city any money and and we get objections over that uh then i'll shake a money tree back at my office you know i'll pay for the damn thing understood you know but uh so we need to get a uh cory we need to get a a um a meeting put together with rockman on it and uh thank you i really appreciate that the hardest one to convince to do this is going to be warren jones yeah but i'll call his wife vanessa yeah and make it happen yeah yeah um she's she's tough but um so that's super i'm so i really appreciate that thank you okay um the next two things is um uh these are legislation that that i think i think i may have before the council or will be having before the council the old prudential building um is um is now owned by the haskell company and uh and so they are um in the process of putting his name with the with the letters up there they got a big crane over there or they did and and put it's going to be the haskell haskell or haskell building up there um and so um um dave um octor uh called me and asked if i would consider uh changing the name over there um um what's the name of that road now no no yeah what's the name of the road yes museum circle well the museum is being torn down it's not going to be there anymore and uh there's only three three addresses on that and one is the city uh yeah so there's it's on the south bank over by the old marsh yeah it runs from main street to uh the other the main street bridge to the other bridge and the uh the roundabout uh is kind of like right there yeah i see it and um and so uh uh preston haskell doesn't know anything about this and we're trying they're trying to surprise him and so there's just not not much i wouldn't do for preston haskell so i said sure i'll try to see if i can't get that so it's going through the process right now i think where if you name something after somebody's got to go through a um it's got to go through kind of a vetting uh you know actually it's the historic commission that does the vetting with that is that right bill yeah and he's still still with us so it's probably naming after we have to do a waiver for a five-year period yeah is uh i see it it's museum uh circle and that's what you would change to haskell circle haskell way and then did you say there's another haskell over there or that's there's none right now well the building circle becomes haskell way okay the building those big name is having the haskell name put on the top of it got the old prudential building um so and you have that legislation currently running not yet you're about to yeah so i wanted to let you know that was happening um and um um and and and back on give you a little story on why the um the the the law that says you can't name something after why somebody's alive oh that was my dad's bill that was my dad's bill and it goes back to consolidation well uh friendship fountain used to be named the dallas thomas friendship fountain park well uh and i found this information and and the tons of uh documents and newspaper articles and stuff that i have going back to the 60s in my office and i found it and dallas thomas um was a city commissioner his name is still on a big medallion there uh by the marina and uh along with the other commissioners back in the day anyway uh he got caught with all kinds of larceny charges he was indicted and and and one of them was he bought his wife uh some new french provincial kitchen cabinets for her kitchen solid birch by the way and uh and had new tile put in the kitchen uh new plumbing throughout the house and had a bill sent to the agricultural department and that's where it got paid and that was one of many uh things that were happening back in those days got it and then he got indicted and he went he went to prison or jail one of the two and so uh that that early council took his name off the park and that's when my dad introduced that bill we don't have that kind of stuff happening thank goodness these days we have some i mean we have the ja deal and stuff but uh but but people that have gone through their careers like warren and and uh preston i i i think i think it's it's it's a nice thing to pin the rose on the lapel while they can enjoy it and uh that's just the way i think now mark middlebrook he he passed away i don't know if you knew mark or not uh mark middlebrook worked for john delaney he was a reporter with the times union he worked there for a long time he uh was asked uh by john mayor delaney to work at his administration and uh and to do something completely different well mark wound up gravitating and was eventually assigned to the preservation project and uh by mayor delaney and he steered the preservation project um which wound up buying i think 50 000 acres of um of our timaquon preserve um and and if you ever i think this next council that comes in needs to get acquainted with that preserve it's it's it's fabulous what they're doing out there uh so i've been working with um daryl joseph um and um when when mark passed away i really felt something should be named for him out there and uh so uh daryl joseph said well there's there's two what are they what are the two preserves out there uh uh bill there's two uh cedar point preserves um and so uh yeah let's see i got it here there's there's there's two um cedar point preserve would become middlebrook preserve um and and one reason that that works is there's two cedar point preserves except that one has a little maybe has an extra word in it than the other and people are getting those two preserves mixed up all the time but they're close to each other out in the seven uh creeks um um yeah it's incredibly so so daryl thought if we changed it to the middlebrook preserve uh it would solve that confusion problem so i talked to uh john delaney uh he said oh my god that would be so perfect i talked to mark woods who was good friends with mark middlebrook because they both wrote the times union years ago um and he said oh mark middlebrook loved that preserve and i talked to the family uh talked to everybody uh and this is i already did the resolution honoring mark for his work in this uh so this is kind of coming behind and going through that same vetting process and uh and then i went on a town meeting uh out with um council member gay uh and spoke to his constituents out there uh uh at um black hammock island and they were all for it uh they're gonna they're gonna have one more meeting and get back with me to affirm it but if they do affirm it then i wanted to introduce that legislation and so i just want to give you a heads up on that's the background on that all three seem pretty reasonable i just hope that there's things to for other council members to name well i i i i uh i made mention in in the one committee that i'm in yeah well i could that look uh i'm i'm i've been doing this a long time and there's a lot of people i know that y'all don't know and that i feel like you know so i'm gonna be naming a few things after some folks so i'm just giving you a heads up so all five people that were there uh i was able to let them know yeah i thought that you know why i was here there you go thank you but uh yeah i don't mean to be taking up so i've been doing so many of these but but i you know i got a year and two months left or so and these are people that i've known for years and then mark middlebrook passed away and i've been working with us on some of these parks with him um the next one that i have an interest in and always have is laura street trio and and uh this has now the um uh uh and i'm sure you've met him if you haven't i you need to his name is muhammad yeah so he owns the um the the the note on uh the trio and i i think that's going to wind up going to foreclosure and um excuse me and um so when it does it probably in july and and then i think he'll be the one that winds up buying it so then when he winds up buying it uh they'll begin to put term sheets and there all this together but they're going to be like everybody else including the publics um yeah we're going to be facing uh november referendum and depending on what happens is with the referendum in november it's going to depend on you know what happens with a lot of these development projects so um uh just let you know i understand that that issue yeah but uh but this is a real important one to me um and that has a long story of of uh john delaney and i working with the community in downtown and the historical society and so forth on making that happen but uh it wound up being a compromise that allowed the city uh to buy the lower street trio uh that was about two months from uh meeting the wrecking ball under the german ownership that they had uh john delaney was fixing to do a bond issue they were done a little different differently back in those days but john also wanted to put the library where it's at now but there were some historic buildings on though on that property and so the historical society was fighting him on that so i had to work with the historic society say look we can't save everything but but he wants the library here and actually i do too i think it's a great spot and if if we can work with him on that then i can get the trio in the bond issue yeah and then we we can save the most significant uh architectural corner in jacksonville so that's the compromise and um we have the library and then the trio is like moby dick still out there swimming yeah i've got to put the harpoon in his back so i just want to let you know that's an important one to me okay uh sometime in the fall i thought it would be uh it would be well to have a uh consolidation lunch and learn uh for our council members but uh if we could even extend it out to uh any of the candidates that are running for office right if we wanted to um and uh i'm willing to uh pay for the lunch and i thought uh we could set aside maybe a a couple hours for it and have rick mulaney and uh earl johnson would be two great speakers for that and um i don't know what day it would be in in uh october november but try to pick a day that you know would work well and uh see who would come but my my concern uh nick is uh i just want to make sure that that this council and the next council coming in um and it might need to be done with the new with a new council coming in but the the the um some of the maxims and some of the foundational um pieces of consolidation uh that that that that need to to stay in place to make this government work the way it's supposed to work um you know a lot of a lot of the newer council members coming in they don't know nothing about it yeah and so thus it it leads them to wanted i got an idea and then people bandwagon on to that idea and i'm going you're going down a bad path but then i'm an old guy i've been around a long time and then yeah well he's just been around you know we do things everything and i and i just see it going in the wrong direction and um and i'm not against change but but there are times when um you know consolidation um the the foundational parts of a foundation of consolidation are tried and true and uh and some of them are like the glue that holds this government together and and they should be respected and um and just an overall um a lunch and learn might help people understand some of that do you think this should be done in november or should we do it in may after the second election when we know who the next sitting council members are going to be look i i i anyways there was a university that rick mulaney ran when we started uh okay so you're talking about in may um after the uh council elections yeah you know um that's a good question let me think that through either or i think it should be done but i mean i wonder whatever you think is most efficient it's uh volunteer you know we will notice it but we won't make everyone come it's you know i think if we did it in may we might get a better attendance because the newer council members yeah probably be more excited about coming to something like that yeah but let's definitely get it done i think um periodic reminder of the reason for consolidation is obviously okay so let's think about may okay okay uh i was thinking november because we'd be past the budget and yeah right and uh but i think in may i mean we'll talk about again if yeah okay um and then northwest investment uh i think i haven't seen this and uh but from what i understand there's there's going to be in the mayor's um budget there's going to be a some real investment in the northwest quadrant um for uh infrastructure uh that's that's super important to me um and so i i will i'll be supporting that in that in the budget process um once i see that okay um the next one doesn't have any cost to the city but uh i i um you know i think it's important for at the time when we have maybe a ribbon cutting uh perhaps for the council that might want to um come to it a piece memorial park that's right across the street from uh willow branch library yeah and uh and that's the one where uh wayne weaver called me and asked if i would help steer that project uh through uh he wanted to um very touching he wanted to dedicate he's not gonna change the name of the park but he wants to dedicate some really beautiful improvements uh implant a lot of flowers in that park uh to his mama okay that's right yeah yeah and did we we did legislation a few months ago with that didn't we yes we did yeah and um so i don't know if we have any more legislation coming through on that but at some point there will be a a groundbreaking and uh um and then there's a a flag that's going to be placed there in honor of veterans uh and that's a veterans park anyway uh veterans memorial type park his father was a a veteran uh so he wants to honor his father but really i think what tugs is his heart strings is his mother yeah and um yeah it's very sweet uh conversation we had so i i want that to be something that's going to be really big for the weavers and uh it's it's hard to believe he's he's 91 he'll be 92 in january i think the park will be ready probably sometime in the fall is my guess and um sounds like a great november and yeah early november thing yeah um and then riverfront parks that's something that i've been working on since i've uh been back on the council and uh so those are important to me and hopefully we can keep funding those depending on uh how things uh come about but i i know with the budget coming up we're going to be concerned about what's happening in november so it's going to be somewhat of a we're going to be like a stuck in a yellow light in a way yeah you know and we're gonna have to be careful you know with with our spending not to overspend to be ready in case it passes and all that uh i just don't want us to go overboard one way or the other yeah and uh and so uh there's uh one particular council person that i hear that talks about just kind of banishing all parks banishing the emerald trail banishing this banishing that and and i just it just goes right through me because i'm thinking you know he he's got his opinions he's entitled to them but but you know these are quality this stuff has to do with quality of life in our city yeah and i drove through downtown this weekend just to see with my own eyes what was going on yeah with jacksonville's downtown and 90 degrees and i wanted to see in the heat how many people were down there and people in the parks right and i will tell you south bank uh the riverfront plaza i drove all around it was busy downtown was busy um and then uh you know we'd love to have ongoing sunshine meetings with you if need be okay and uh and then there's one other project and i've talked to josh pardue about this and i i'd love to be able to handle it for him but again with the uh until november and until we know what the budget's going to be like i i don't know what we can do but it's the springfield lofts it's an area there uh on the on the north side of clutho park where the old jacksonville jewish center used to be yep and you know if if if he could go in there and redevelop all that and it could be really cleaned up nice it would be a it would be a great project um urban planning project it'd be great about 85 uh apartment units of 10 which would be affordable uh in the affordable housing uh area and uh but he needs about six million bucks yeah uh which i would have to i guess at this point but my idea was taking six out of reserves he would have to pay back three and three would be a completion grant but i i have talked to um josh and told him look i i don't know what i can do with this right now but yeah but it it would really clean up an area where there's a lot of you know prostitution a lot of uh a lot of petty crime yeah property crime it's it's a mess so that that i just kind of added on there so tell me what unless you got any questions for me you know what can i do to help you well i got one minute um then we got that's all right um my um focus all your time we'll meet again yeah um my focus of course will be on the budget imminently and with the financial uncertainty we have in the fall it means it gives us certainty for what we need to do for the budget and i think that is really go over it with a fine tooth comb um some of the projects like you were talking about parks and and emerald trail to a great extent they're protected because they're capital projects and the operating budget only suffers so in so much as the debt service involved but that's a big chunk of our of our money so what i don't want to do is leave the next president with the full austerity uh risk of having to cut 200 million dollars um in his or her yeah you know year so what we what we're actually have been talking about or i've been talking about with the mayor and and the cao is potentially we look at um making some cuts uh and putting them below the line um so if there's uh depending on the results of the november referendum we can adjust again in a december meeting that's a good idea yeah um so we're we're looking at all of that and then of course you know i guess it's three o'clock but you you'll hear a lot of randy ain't got much to say he never does so you'll hear if you're out there just hold on buddy you'll hear a lot of the detail of um kind of my agenda in the next year during the installation but jobs figures pretty prominently in that um it's what was behind my very first piece of legislation it's what was behind and has been behind my push at jackson elevation authority with cecil field in particular uh which the charter just got changed governor signed into law the responsibility for cecil to uh build economic development or ja to build economic development at cecil um and for them to come to us with a plan which they will do in in the budget hearings um and i'll look at some other things and you know one thing i don't want to do is uh halt development downtown you know we have a lot of great projects that that we could fund if we had the money to fund it if we don't have the money we have to look at some creative things and i've been running over some ideas with folks in town at the chamber and uh developers and some others we we would have to get creative in a different sort of way find other pockets of value yeah yeah in other ways to do it so you'll hear a lot about that on the institution well that's good i'm i'm glad you're thinking along that way we can't do it the traditional way i'm taking some of your time up because you don't talk that much anyway and i took up i took up 29 of his 30 minutes and i wanted to hear from him long-winded and short-winded so this will work out for him yeah uh but uh anyway um well good good i'm glad to hear you you you think of trying to if the thing passes we're gonna have to figure out how to get some money down there it it it just might have to alternative measures might might have to take public private private you know yeah partnerships so just public private partnerships exactly that's probably the way to go well listen i thank you again and thank you man i appreciate it very much i appreciate it i hope you have a great wonderful year and it certainly can be a wonderful year all you got to do is is um is what you know in your heart to do is right so you got it all right all right thanks and it's all yours buddy the ideas and we're adjourned and