All right. Welcome, everyone, to the Financial Audit and Oversight Select Committee, October 9th. And I just wanted to go ahead, as we normally do, and start off with introductions with Mr. Russell, please. Brandon Russell, Council Research. Mary Stapopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Philip Peterson, Council Leader's Office. Brian Parks, Council Leader's Office. Ron Salem, Group 2 at Large. Good morning, Chris Miller, at Large Group 5. Joe Carlucci, District 5. Good morning, Nick Howland, at Large Group 3. Do we, I just want to check, do we have any public comments from the thousands we have here in attendance? No, not even John Nooney with his high white boots, not here. Okay, well, given that we don't have any public comments, I'm going to say one, we've got a lot of echo here. Is there a way to maybe address this, or do I need to stand back or sit back a little further from it? I think I'll use the hand mic for now. I'm going to make a, oh, and we've been joined by Councilwoman Clark Murray, and welcome. I'm going to just make a brief comment, and then I'm going to turn it over to our City Council President, Nick Howland, for his opening comments. And then I'll come back with some additional comments going through the charge memorandum and talking about our focus before we turn it over to JTA. But I just wanted to, overall, thank our City Council President, Nick Howland. I thank Pastor President Salem, Vice President Joe Carlucci, and even though he's not able to be here, he's on a deployment to help in his National Guard capacity to help with the hurricane, and that's Councilmember Rory Diamond. And the JTA team, Mr. Ferguson and company, City Council auditors, OGC, staff, ethics office, IG office, the administration, my wonderful assistant Carol, everyone's been working real well together in preparation for this meeting. So I think a lot of times we don't say thanks enough. So I just want to, right up front, thank everyone who's been working so that we can put this all together. So with those opening comments, I'll turn it over to City Council President Nick Howland. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And likewise, I want to thank this committee. We first set up the Financial Auto and Oversight Committee on July 20th to review JEA's unbilled water capacity fees. And this committee, led at the time by Chair Salem, concluded its charge successfully in collaboration with JEA, and we're going to have a very successful result there where they're changing their policy, they're going to improve their collections of fees, and we should see it in the revenue line and future budgets. And at the same time, most importantly, why this committee was stood up, you end up protecting ratepayers to some degree against future rate increases by doing that because you're collecting costs that were properly owed by others and instead will no longer be borne by JEA residential taxpayers. So successful conclusion of the first charge of this committee. Thank you. Well, we've restood up this committee, effective October 5th, now looking at the Jacksonville, looking at JTA. And part of the issue here in the context is that we've got the Attorney General who's issued subpoenas. We've got the JTA's own board who's looking at a forensic audit. So what we're looking at here is clear. It complements those efforts by focusing on JTA's financial stability, governance, operational performance, and, very importantly, transportation priorities moving forward. So part of this committee, when the chair decides it's right, will be looking at reopening the local option gas tax in collaboration with the administration and JTA to see if we need to change some of the projects in there, given new core transportation priorities of JTA and its leadership. So if that happens, that does take council legislation. It's a negotiation between the administration, council, and JTA. But I think it, given financial constraints, it will be imperative to do that moving forward. And this is part of the scope of this committee, I imagine. We'll get there eventually. And that will be very important for the community to watch because everyone should have input into how Jacksonville optimizes transit for families and for businesses, those who use JTA. So, again, new chair, Miller, thank you for taking the helm on the select committee. And I appreciate in advance all the work that you guys will do. Thank you very much. Oh, yes, please. Um, yep, I don't, I don't see it here, but yes, past president, um, Salem, you're recognized. Through the chair to, to President Howland, I have, uh, read, uh, your charge several times and I've, I've identified five different areas. Um, if you eliminate the commas and the colons and all those types of things, one of the things you mentioned was whistleblowers. And, uh, and I wanted some clarification from you on, uh, what you meant by that and who, are you speaking about somebody specifically? And, uh, the concern is we've got the attorney general looking at the person that I think you may be referencing. And, uh, and when we went through this before we, we, uh, contacted his office to make sure we were not stepping on any toes. So I, I just want to get some clarification on that first. Great question. One thing that's come up over the last several weeks, um, and came up actually in March of 2025 is a board member did have concerns. Um, I am referring to that specific board member. Um, it's come up repeatedly. Uh, I think it's incumbent on the chair to, if we get to that point to reach out and, and ask the attorney general's office just where we should stay away from in our, in our line of inquiry. But, um, governance is a big part of here. We need to know if governance went wrong and moving forward, if we need to adjust, um, how we handle that in the future. And that's why it specifically, uh, says whether whistleblower concerns were appropriately addressed and applicable protections were followed, um, as these financial challenges come, came to light. It's, it's important. I do imagine a portion of your select committee's, uh, agenda will be to discuss that. Not a big portion because again, the optimal part of, um, the reason for this committee and, and the hope is that coming out of it, we optimize transportation for Jacksonville residents and families. May I follow up, Mr. Chair, please. The other part, uh, and I think you're, we're all concerned is the sharp reduction in, in revenue when it was recognized, why it wasn't brought forward, which in my mind is going to require people to come forward or, or us to request people to come forward and let us ask them questions. And, and I hope all that is voluntary. Right. And that is, uh, the, the chair I'm sure will part include that as part of the agenda and meetings moving forward. That's one of the reasons why I felt that information had to be brought forward before we even, um, voted in committee on the bill to reopen LOGT for, uh, paying down JTA's line of credit. So if you recall, there was a 15 minute presentation in all four of the standing committees that talked about how all of the forecasts were adjusted over time leading up to the end of the fiscal year of September 30th and how they're going to achieve their budget starting. So you have a head start on that. Um, but by all means, if the committee decides they want to, um, review that again with Mr. Barnes and Mr. Ferguson, by all means, they can, they can do that. Uh, that information is a good kind of pre-read for this committee, but you can bring up them. I'm sure they're more than willing without any kind of coercion to come up and to speak to all those issues. Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, yeah, we'll, we'll go next, uh, to, uh, vice president Carlucci, recognize. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And through the chair to council president Hallen, um, I heard you say the, we're going to look, you want us to look through the projects. Is that, is it your goal to, cause it says you want the committee to end on December 4th. So I'm imagining we're not going to dive into opening the actual interlocal in this committee, or are we going to be doing that? Excuse me, through the chair to Mr. Carlucci. I think you can start getting there depending on what the chair sets his agenda for the next, you know, two months. Um, the administration, I believe in the, during this period, we'll also be talking with JTA about it. The administration's also interested in a collaborative discussion about opening up LOGT and readjusting the project. So, uh, that is very much part of the scope here. Now, uh, a select committee is stood up for one charge. That's JTA, um, and stood up for a specific period of time in the, in the charter. I think it says 60 days, but I have the ability to extend it. So if you want to extend it beyond December 4th, we can certainly do that. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Good, good exchange. Anytime through the process, um, everyone feel free to interject, to make sure we're, we are on the same page. Um, I will be repeating a couple of things that were just talked about, but, but I want to make sure because not everyone received the charge memorandum that, that the city council president sent out. Um, so I'm, I'm going to hit the main points right up front. Um, so we know what, what it is that we're to focus on and you heard a couple of exchanges there to clarify some things there and that's, and that's great. Um, but I want to make sure this is publicly commented about the main parts of that charge, uh, memorandum. Um, so one of the things that, that September 30th, 2026 charge memorandum said was, uh, that, that this committee's efforts will compliment the efforts of the state attorney general's office and the independent forensic audit planned by the JTA board. Um, we will also focus on JTA's number one, financial stability, two governance, three operational performance, and four trans transportation priorities. We will collaboratively, collaboratively having a hard time, uh, speaking today. We will collaboratively work with the council auditor, the administration, JTA board and leadership and applicable state and federal agencies to examine JTA's one current financial and operational challenges to assess the factors that contributed to sharp reductions in its financial projections. Three review, whether whistleblower concerns were appropriately addressed and applicable statutory protections were followed for review, local option gas tax projects, and number five, develop recommendations to strengthen JTA's long-term financial stability and optimize Jacksonville's transportation system for residents and businesses. Um, Jacksonville residents deserve a transportation system that is financially sustainable, operationally effective, and focused on serving the people who pay for and depend upon it. Um, and at a minimum, um, we will cover the above things that I, that I just spoke of that, that, that were contained in that charge memorandum, and I'm sure we'll cover a whole lot more. Um, you will hear me refer to getting back to the basics or talking about the basics because, um, that's where I think we, we need to be before we start discussions that we want to make sure we don't miss anything. And similar to, uh, an approach I took when I was, when I was serving in the army, uh, my last part of my career as a inspector general, uh, in Europe and Israel and throughout Florida, it was always trying to find out how things should have been compared to how they were or how they are, and then trying to identify those differences and be able to talk about responsibility and accountability regarding those, those gaps, um, or those differences, uh, but not stopping there. We go on to say, okay, how can we make things better? How can we make sure that we have good, solid recommendations for, uh, the JTA leadership, including the board, to be able to go forward to make things better and to minimize the possibility that this, and it is a financial crisis, this financial crisis will never happen again. That's where I hope we'll be super focused on to try to get those changes in place, those positive changes. Uh, so we do our best to prevent this from ever happening again and put them on a better plane, financial plane, because we're talking about taxpayer dollars here as well. It's not a private corporation or it's not a personal LLC. It's not someone else's funds. These are taxpayer funds. Um, so we owe it to them as, as taxpayers to do that, I believe, but we also owe it to them because they rely on, many of them rely on this transportation to get to work, school, uh, their doctor's appointments and other things. And so, um, they depend on things getting back to a new normal where they can live productive and efficient lives, uh, through those transportation nodes. So, um, I just wanted to make those, those comments and I, and I really hope I've already seen good signs of this, uh, especially Mr. Randall and how well he's been working with the auditors and exchanges with me. Um, I see good signs of this. I hope we all take this seriously because this is serious business. And, and so again, I thank city council president for recognizing this for what it is, but I also thank Mr. Ferguson, um, for doing the same. You, you all have had to take some very serious, drastic emergency measures to help get JTA on a, on a better financial standing. Um, but there, there's been a cost and there's been a pain associated with that for you all. Um, approximately 200 workers and their families. Um, that's a terrible disruption on their lives. And hopefully, uh, once JTA is back to, to, to where it used to be, um, hopefully those, those employees will all be back working for JTA and, uh, and their families will be leveled off as well. Um, and, and all the disruptions in the, in the routes. And I know you guys took great care, um, to do that in a targeted data-driven way. And I appreciate that, but, but still there were disruptions, um, reductions of lines, um, and also increased time between those stops and some of those lines. And so, you know, that affects the riders and their lives. So, um, I, again, I just hope everyone takes this matter seriously and we work as well together as we can and we move, move forward. Um, meeting by meeting to a better place. Um, I will say, I'm, I'm going to also mention, these are just tentative dates and times. I know a couple of our members of our, our committee, um, you know, they have businesses and they have other things going on. And so we're not always going to all be able to be here. Uh, and I'm, I'm trying to move the schedule around as best I can to, um, to be able to accommodate everyone, but it's not always possible, but I'll give you the, the tentative dates and times for the next five meetings, October 15th, 930 to 11, October 23rd, 930 to 11, November 2nd, 1030 to 12, November 10th, 130 to three, and November 17th, 11 to 1230. Those are our next, uh, tentative meetings, um, again, subject to change, but it gives a little bit of, uh, predictability there, hopefully for, for those, uh, who need to plan. Um, as, as was mentioned earlier, and I don't think this date was mentioned, but council president Howland has given this committee until December 4th, 2026 to provide a final report of findings and recommendations. Uh, however, as he reiterated, um, today, he's allowed a deadline to be extended upon request. Um, I don't know at this point whether we'll need that, but I appreciate that flexibility, and, um, and so we'll work to get to all the facts, and when we feel we're at a solid place, we've, at a minimum, covered all these areas in the charge sheet, and anything else that comes up that we feel we need to go after, uh, to, to bring to a better place, uh, we'll do so, and, again, I, I appreciate the president for that flexibility. Um, so with that, I, I want to open up again and to see if there are any comments from my colleagues here. Yeah. Past president Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, uh, chair, and through the chair to somebody with, with JTA, I've heard forensic audit, uh, mentioned a couple times and such. Has the JTA or the board agreed or voted on an outside audit be conducted on the, on the finances of JTA and exactly what happened? I, I have not seen that, but, but I, I keep hearing people mention it. Thank you. Good morning. Cleveland Ferguson, JTA through the chair to council member Salem. Uh, the chair has directed, uh, in concert with the general council to secure an external auditor. Uh, we, we're going through the simplified acquisition process that JTA has to try to secure one. That is by getting quotes, uh, on October 28th, uh, the board will be considering, uh, at its workshop, uh, a, a, um, RFP for, uh, the external auditor who will do a management review as well as a forensic audit, uh, of the, uh, finances of the JTA. Uh, and so that's where we are right now. Thank you. I have not heard that. That's perfect. And I, I highly recommended that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson. Mr. Ferguson, is that light on? I can't see it with the clock on the mic. Uh, the green light. Yes. Yes. Oh, we may need to turn that up a little bit. Um, having, having a rough time. Maybe it's my old ears having a rough time hearing you. Um, okay. Um, how about Mr. Carlucci, you, any other comments ready to go? Okay. Uh, with that, oh, Mr. Ferguson, um, yeah, don't sit down. Whoever it is that's going to present, I'm assuming it's you, sir. Um, I just wanted to lay the, the foundation, uh, on the front end and, uh, and we're ready now to turn it over to JTA, uh, for your part of, uh, this meeting today. Thank you, sir. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman, uh, members of the board, uh, council president is in absence, uh, Councilmember, uh, Clark Murray. Thank you all for being here, uh, and again, Cleveland Ferguson, interim CEO of the Jacksonville transportation authority. I am, uh, joined, uh, by Jessica Scheffler, our senior vice president of public affairs, Randall Barnes, our senior vice president, chief financial officer, and Jason Montgomery, our chief data officer for this first meeting. Uh, as we move through, uh, the next several meetings, we will, uh, certainly have different, uh, members of the JTA to, uh, be present, uh, to be involved and to, uh, you know, engage, uh, in this very, uh, important process. It is an extraordinary gift to be a part of an institution that the people have given some of their sovereignty away in order to, to promote the public's health, safety, and welfare. And, and to be a part of the JTA, uh, an entity created by statute to discharge that public trust is something that everyone here, uh, takes very seriously. And so I am grateful for the opportunity to share with you, uh, in the context of this overview, uh, a, a real understanding of the Jacksonville transportation authority so that we can get to those places of, uh, analysis, uh, where need be common ground, uh, and ultimately having an opportunity to really ensure that we don't get into a situation, uh, that, uh, requires a leadership team to have to make the kinds of choices that we believed we needed to make at the direction of the board at their August board meeting to be bold, uh, to be deliberate, to be decisive, uh, and to really take the momentum and the understanding that we got out of that board retreat to right-size this institution and to put us in the very best position we can for the FY27 budget. That is going to take a partnership with the city of Jacksonville, the mayor and administration, city council, the council auditors. Uh, and I'm proud to say that you have a leadership team at the JTA who is absolutely committed, uh, to, uh, realizing that partnership so that we can get back to providing the very best service that we can pursuant, uh, to our charter, uh, and responsibilities. We are very pleased to be guided by an awesome mission and awesome vision and core values. The ability to enhance northeast Florida's environment, economy, quality of life through our transportation services and facilities are really what guide from a policy perspective, the board view of how we execute that executive staff's view on how we execute that. And we will show through this presentation, how we work to instill that mission, uh, and the vision through our core values into each of our employees day-to-day functions to be able to deliver on the charge and charter of the organization. Team excellence requires a certain amount of investment in our employees who by and large are subject matter experts, engineers, system planners, service planners, operators, technicians, safety personnel, cybersecurity personnel, the ability to interface with the various compliance, uh, apparatuses require us to have ongoing training to ensure that we can meet the mandate of whatever our regulatory bodies require. But we must do that in a way that is affordable. And I will discuss this issue of affordability and how from a policy perspective that gets managed from a leadership perspective, how that gets managed and how we instill the type of culture that helps our frontline employees figure out the most efficient ways by which we can conduct our business in an affordable, uh, manner. You'll see in a few moments that the JTA cannot accomplish any of this on its own, even though it is a standalone agency. It does require partnerships and the enabling legislation of the JTA under chapter 349 encourages these partnerships, whether they're, uh, government partners or private partners, uh, at every level. This collaboration is the key to try to leverage the, the, the essence of the federal investments, the state investments, the regional investments, and certainly the local investments to produce public transportation, uh, in the most efficient way. Uh, and then finally, this agile, this concept of agile innovation, which, uh, you know, uh, people have varying views of how much innovation should occur in any given fiscal year. But the concept really is to not merely do things that ways that they've been done in the past simply because it's safe or simply because, um, you know, people are familiar with it. And so this idea of analyzing risk, enterprise risk, program risk, project risk is a shared component of board policy and direction, staff subject matter of our expertise and that public private partnership. So that yes, we can be agile, but do so in a way that is affordable in a collaborative spirit that is informed by our technical expertise. And so as I give you this overview of our history and our organizational structure, hopefully you will see those examples of the mission, the vision, and the core values, uh, throughout the various decisions that, uh, have been made throughout this process. And so going to the overview of the JTA, we were first created in statute as the Jacksonville expressway authority. Uh, and that, uh, again, I provided all the citations to each of these, so I don't have to go into, uh, the specific statutory references, but as an expressway authority, that is how, um, you know, Matthews Bridge, Fuller Warren Bridge, Hart Bridge, you know, came into existence, uh, and, uh, was done so with a certain amount of funding in this case, particularly tolls, uh, to ensure, uh, the operations of those various facilities. You can hearken back to Henry Plant on the west coast or Henry Flagler on the east coast as private providers of public transportation who utilized their access to real estate to monetize their ability to drive profit in developing a fair structure that supported those transportation systems. As states began to get more car centric and more highways diverted the intense focus on a particular region of a, um, county, uh, or a city, these private providers of transportation could not charge enough in fares in order to maintain the infrastructure investment that was required to produce public transportation. And so you saw a move across the entirety of the United States of local government, of state government, and a federal government getting involved in the context of federal grants, uh, in the context of, uh, contractual agreements of buying out these private providers of transportation because they were going bankrupt all across the United States. And that was, uh, also true in Jacksonville, uh, when the state legislature, uh, and, uh, the local government got together under a special law and determined that it was important for the then JEA to assume the assets of, uh, the private bus companies that were in operation here in Jacksonville, including, uh, city coach lines, uh, Jacksonville coach company, Jacksonville traction company, and the motor transit company. Uh, they were failing. They were becoming back bankrupt. Someone needed to, um, secure those assets. Uh, and as a result of that in 1971, the Jacksonville transportation authority was formed to have both expressway authority functions as well as public transportation functions. And I'll talk a little bit more about how that impacts our budgetary considerations year over year. Uh, as we moved from 1971, there have been a number of other other iterations and amendments to our enabling legislation that being, uh, chapter 349, uh, Florida statutes, uh, including, uh, giving the authority of the ability to modernize with bus rapid transit opportunities, rail opportunities, uh, the ability to develop public private partnerships, uh, in the main area. And at that time, it was, uh, allowing us to invest up to 40 years, uh, in financing, uh, facilities to be able, uh, to move, uh, forward in a productive way with public, uh, private partnerships. Uh, you recall, uh, uh, that, uh, this council, uh, moved forward with an interlocal agreement with the JTA in 2014 that ultimately saw the St. John's River Ferry transfer to, uh, the JTA, uh, which, uh, traverses the state conveyance of, uh, A1A. Many people may not know that FDOT originally was managing the St. John's River Ferry before it got transferred to Jacksport, before it got transferred to the city of Jacksonville, uh, having gone into, uh, a place of a potential obsolescence before it came to the JTA. Under the guise of our ability to interact and, uh, access federal partners that would be able to deliver federal grants that would ultimately save that infrastructure and preserve that state artery. That is the connection, uh, from Fort George, uh, to, uh, Mayport, uh, along, uh, A1A. And that partnership with the Florida legislature has continued, uh, throughout our history. Uh, folks may not know, uh, that for example, uh, when we, uh, as staff presented to the board that we were experiencing a number of rear end crashes on our buses, uh, and we had to analyze why were there so many distractions being associated with, you know, vehicular traffic crashing into the backs of our buses. And we were charged with the responsibility as staff to figure out a solution. Everything from removing ads from the backs of our buses to ultimately a legislative fix that allowed us to negotiate with the state legislature to allow for our buses to have flashing lights on the back of them. And we were able to get that as a part of the, uh, transportation bill that session, uh, which is the reason why you see those flashing red lights, which gives us an opportunity to conduct our public responsibility of, of safely transporting by giving those behind our operators the opportunity to see these flashing lights. Uh, and ultimately that led to an immediate reduction, uh, in, uh, collisions on the backs of our buses. As we move forward, uh, with the legislature and the private sector, we saw that this 40 year, uh, uh, ability to fund transit oriented development ended up became becoming an obstruction for the private sector. And so while it took us two legislative sessions, we were able to get our state, uh, enabling legislation to be amended, uh, to what has been acceptable in the financing market, in this case, 99 years, uh, so that we could better partner with the private sector to activate those remnant parcels from our expressway functions, to activate those, to create density, to create increased ridership, to then, uh, create additional fair box revenue, but also non-fair box revenue from vacant land that had been sit sitting abandoned in many parts of town for more than a decade. Uh, so that interaction with the legislature by this board, by, uh, the staff, uh, led to multiple opportunities in this region that inures to the benefit of our mission. Our vision and our core values. Uh, and then certainly, uh, the, the most recent, uh, legislation was, uh, the, uh, removing of the, uh, district secretary of, uh, FDOT from the board and putting another gubernatorial appointees. So now the governor of the state of Florida has four appointees and the mayor of the city of Jacksonville has three appointees subject to a council, uh, confirmation. So why, uh, is this, uh, you know, important? I'm going to get to this concept of the, uh, right to strike, uh, and the financial implications of, uh, those, uh, private employees getting, uh, having, uh, the right to strike as a part of this, uh, legislation, uh, as we move forward. But these are considerations that the board, executive staff, uh, and management have to consider as we move forward with our, uh, day to day processes. So as was mentioned, JTA is, uh, a state agency. It is an independent special district under two different, um, areas of state law. Uh, and so we are effectively a state expressway authority that operates public transportation. We do have the responsibility, uh, to, uh, discharge both of those roles, uh, as we develop a mass transit plan, hopefully in concert with the city of Jacksonville. And what does that mean? In a case of, um, in a case of public, uh, you all were looking and so I, I figured I'd better look back too. Uh, uh, uh, but that having been said, um, when you look at our bus rapid transit system and the increase in, in growth in population and having to figure out how do you improve the economy, environment, and quality of life on a road that's already been built in an area that's quite dense, that is either a city road or a state road that requires some partnership with the city in terms of figuring out what its urban transportation plan needs to be and how it should be modified as well as F dot if it's a state road. And so we ended up building this bus rapid transit system within a system that already existed, needing permission from, uh, F dot to create transit signal priority so that our buses could be recognized by the traffic system to be able to hold, uh, a light green for a few more seconds to be able to ensure that we have on time performance in the delivery of our passengers to whatever their destination happens to be. It requires that partnership for us to be able to do so because you don't have sort of this tabla rasa, this blank slate by which to, uh, build a definitive transportation plan, uh, for the most efficient cost because you're having to retrofit into, in many cases, an existing transportation system in order to discharge that responsibility. That having been said, uh, we do discharge that responsibility, uh, through these other various mechanisms, uh, which allow us, uh, to, uh, issue bonds, uh, allow us to acquire property, uh, allow us to exercise eminent domain, uh, when it calls for, to develop, uh, those, uh, transportation assets, uh, and certainly having the ability to charge, uh, fares, uh, for those services is a component of, of us building our finances. I do want to pay particular attention to a, a, a dormant authority of the JTA that hadn't been used in quite a while. I think someone had mentioned that we used to have tolls on the, uh, on the bridges, uh, when, uh, you were having your opening, uh, remarks, uh, you'll recall that in 1989, Jacksonville voters voted to, uh, authorize this half-penny sales tax to remove those tolls from those bridges, uh, but nevertheless, the JTA does have tolling authority. And so, as an example, you can imagine working with a private partner on a toll roll, let's call it the skyway, uh, and let's say that that private partner wanted to absorb, uh, the skyway operations and to allow for, uh, deliveries, uh, to be able to be utilized, uh, to traverse the river in a, in a more expedient way. Uh, that conveyance arguably could be supported by this toll revenue to be able to do that in partnership with city of Jacksonville, FDOT, uh, and our board, uh, as a means to generate revenue from an existing asset to be able to, uh, uh, continue to support that, uh, facility, that ability to, uh, to move that traffic. And so it hasn't been used in a long, long time. Uh, you can imagine having built JTB, uh, and other conveyances and immediately turning them over to the city or turning them over to the state were certainly opportunities from a policy perspective that you could have had an HOV lane, uh, on, on one of those in which the JTA could have retained, uh, you know, those roads and charged those tolls, uh, to be able to sustain long-term revenue as you, uh, sort of move forward. So again, giving you some context as you think through, uh, over the next, uh, five meetings, uh, what are some ways by which, uh, you may recommend, uh, other ways to, uh, from a user fee standpoint to be able to help sustain, uh, the, uh, business model of, of public transportation, I think is, is a consideration. As we move, uh, to what the statute requires, we have the annual, uh, request to council that we present on June 1st, as well as to FDOT. City council auditor has oversight over the funds that the city appropriates, uh, and, uh, we have to have public hearings to change, make any changes to our 13 administrative rules, uh, anything from our procurement rule to our acquisition rule or disposition of property rule, Duval County, uh, tax dollars stay within Duval County, Clay County stays within Clay County and so forth. Uh, and certainly our board has a responsibility, uh, to, uh, interact with the state, uh, commission on ethics, uh, and, uh, have to, uh, be responsible to comply with the statute in the case of having to have four members present in order to have a vote, uh, be effective with the JTA, uh, is important and it is statutorily required. Uh, now the JTA does not have the ability to, uh, pledge state taxing power or city of Jacksonville or, you know, uh, the county of Duval, uh, without some, uh, interlocal, uh, agreement. This all happens in the context of a highly regulated industry. That is public transportation is a highly regulated industry. So this gives you, uh, some context. For example, in the state of Florida, we interact with the Florida Department of Commerce with respect to our independent special district status. We interact with FDOT and partner with them on myriad funding projects. I mean, they have been just absolutely essential, uh, for the growth and development of the fulfillment of our mission, uh, through multitude of grants, uh, their service delivery grants really have powered the ability to deliver paratransit services in Nassau County, uh, Clay County, uh, and to the transportation disadvantage, uh, with respect to Duval County. Uh, we report, uh, regularly, uh, with the Florida Transportation Commission on a myriad of topics, uh, to include, uh, a number of key progress indicators that we've been, uh, working with them, uh, to update, uh, and anytime we engage, uh, in, uh, uh, you know, sort of state safety oversight matters, FDOT is the state safety oversight agency for the JTA. Uh, so that's, those are some examples with the state of Florida city of Jacksonville. Obviously, uh, we're here, uh, before you today, uh, as your, uh, community transportation coordinator since 1974, uh, you've been, uh, uh, a partner in terms of these interlocal agreements, uh, with the local option gas tax, uh, and certainly, uh, we interact, uh, with our, our friends, uh, the council auditors, uh, with respect to oversight of city funds, the enabling legislation provides for our ability to interact beyond, uh, Duval County through interlocal agreements. And so we have an interlocal agreement with Clay County to provide paratransit services as well as Nassau County, and therefore their county commissions, uh, interact with us for purposes of funding, uh, and oversight. Uh, and by, uh, consent, we have a Baker County's wildcat shuttle, uh, which uses our, uh, Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center and our express select services, which are commuter services that transport, uh, residents of St. Johns County into Duval County, uh, two routes in the morning, uh, two routes in the evening, uh, to go to their, uh, government center. Our largest, uh, regulator outside of FDOT, uh, at the national level is certainly the U.S. Department of Transportation and its many, uh, agencies. The Federal Transit Administration is our primary, uh, sort of day-to-day, uh, regulator, uh, with respect to, uh, transit administration. Everything from the safety management system, which requires a myriad of, of activities that we must undertake on a daily basis. Uh, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and in some cases, the Federal Railway Administration, to the extent that those grants come out of, uh, those particular agencies, we have responsibility to interact with them, uh, on a routine basis. Since we do have charge over the St. Johns River Ferry, that means we are under the U.S. Coast Guard's, uh, regulations with regard to maritime security. Uh, we get, for example, updates on Esaias, uh, every single morning as, uh, you all do in your, uh, respective, uh, positions. And so we would coordinate, uh, with the Coast Guard anytime our vessel, uh, needs to be moved to Greencoach Springs, uh, or if there's any, uh, incident, uh, associated with, uh, the ferry on the St. Johns River, we're interacting with the U.S. Coast Guard, uh, to, uh, to deal with those, uh, issues and operations. And certainly from a Homeland Security perspective, uh, our Department of Homeland Security, uh, and Transportation Security Administration, uh, provides us with many updates on any threats from a surface transportation, uh, perspective. Uh, we partner with them to do everything from, uh, putting, um, fake bombs on our buses to test, uh, the, um, awareness of our operators, uh, to be able to deal with those types of crises, uh, and cybersecurity, uh, management issues, uh, that I won't get too far, uh, into, uh, we deal with them, you know, quite regularly, uh, as we, uh, undertake our day-to-day business. So as you look, uh, toward the bottom of the slide, you see the roads, bridges, we build sidewalks, curb cuts, drainage, and of course, the infrastructure of the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, uh, which is primarily technological innovation are all infrastructure that we're responsible for. In addition to the ferry, we have the JRTC, the inner city bus terminal, our training center off of, uh, Gulf Air Boulevard, the Autonomous Innovation Center, and, uh, a number of transit-oriented development projects. Uh, we have, uh, approximately 200 CNG diesel, uh, electric, uh, buses and trolleys, 97 paratransit vehicles, uh, and then the 14, uh, retrofitted AVs, uh, and as I say, uh, we are responsible as the community transportation coordinator for Duval County, Nassau County, and Plague County, uh, and we are proud to partner with the city of Jacksonville for everything from the My Ride to School, um, uh, our door-to-store program, and My Ride to Trade, rather, with the city of Jacksonville, and then My Ride to School partnership with the Duval County Public Schools. And so, uh, when you look at our enabling statute, a complete and coordinated transportation system for this region encompasses public transportation, and it encompasses the expressway, uh, responsibilities, uh, you are aware that through our Mobility Works, uh, one program in partnership with the city for the Better Jacksonville plan, we completed 13 roadway projects and 14 mobility, uh, corridors. Uh, we currently have 33 fixed routes to include our First Coast Flyer, which is the largest bus rapid transit system in the southeast at 58 miles, and hopefully some of you have enjoyed our game day express, uh, services that, uh, serve Everbank Stadium, particularly, uh, during Jaguar games. Uh, we're responsible for ADA and transportation disadvantaged paratransit, as well as premium door-to-door services for riders who qualify, and we use our on-demand microtransit, uh, ready-ride service for opportunities like door-to-store. You know, we're proud to say, uh, uh, and share that, you know, this year we're up to 443,000 riders on the St. John's River Ferry after more than $28 million in federal discretionary grants won over five phases to rehabilitate, uh, that, uh, very important, uh, state artery, and we anticipate topping out at more than 480,000 riders for that, uh, particular, uh, facility. Skyway and, and, uh, U2C. Of course, uh, there's been, you know, quite a bit of talk about that. We, uh, know that that is in the LOGT2. The impetus in 2015 to develop the Skyway Advisory Group to figure out whether we were going to tear this down, whether the community wanted us to keep it, to modernize it, to expand it, and ultimately in 2015, December, the board, uh, adopted this keep, modernize, expand approach, uh, that really led to this idea of not going back to the past, not using a one-a-kind, of, of a kind system that is obsolete that we still have to maintain for another 15 years that we get stuck with, you know, a single vendor. And so this idea, uh, was to make, uh, this particular infrastructure one that could adapt with the times, uh, and move forward. And so obviously that has, uh, led to the Bay Street Innovation Corridor. It's led to the Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Innovation Service, uh, and the retrofit of those, uh, vehicles. Uh, this leadership team, as we've shared, uh, with an iteration of the council, uh, in the past, uh, believe that those services need to be paused so that we can properly, uh, deal with those. And so the regulators that we articulated on the previous page, we have to engage at the federal level to make sure that we do so, uh, in an appropriate, safe way, pausing those, uh, services, maintaining those assets, and not triggering any defaults. Uh, again, from regional mobility, I discussed, uh, the Clay, Nassau, St. John's, uh, Baker. Uh, I want to go back to a point where I talked about the private operators who primarily benefited, uh, from subsidizing their public transportation through, uh, real estate, uh, matters, uh, that this is a policy of the state. This is a policy of the federal government for, uh, public transportation to invest in. Do you have a question or do I need to? We're good. Okay. Uh, that, uh, we need to invest in that. We've turned these remnant parcels, uh, into long-term ground lease opportunities, uh, at about 3 million, 3.2 million a year in non-fair box revenue, uh, for many of the, uh, transit-oriented developments that you see, uh, on the slide there. So while our service territory in Jacksonville is 874.3 square miles, our actual service to our territory is over 1,800 square miles based upon our other delivery of service. Uh, we're at, uh, seven and a half, uh, million riders, which, uh, represents an increase of seven and a half percent over the same time period, uh, last year. And we anticipate by November 1st being at 560, uh, employees, 400 union, 160 administrative employees. And so, you know, over this last, uh, 10 year period, we've seen, uh, a number of innovations and, uh, partnerships that have, uh, brought a great deal of economic development, uh, and opportunity to, uh, this, uh, region, uh, from everything from, uh, the projects that I mentioned to completing the roadway projects two years early, uh, to the announcement, uh, of the Holon AV plant utilizing our port to export, um, AVs, uh, to Europe, uh, and, uh, and Asia, uh, and of course, uh, what you see ahead of the $7 billion of construction that has occurred, uh, or is occurring downtown, the development of NABI and the Bay Street Innovation Corridor. And so, as you, uh, move and, and look into these major initiatives and you look into these strategic pursuits, they were done by agreement. They were done by negotiation and interaction with the mayor and city council, uh, and therefore, uh, establish the priorities of, uh, the JTA through our move 2027 plan, which was our strategic plan, excuse me, occurring over five years, uh, that identify everything from the U2C, the Mobility Works 2.0 projects, the Emerald Trail, and, uh, the second, uh, St. John's River Ferry. Uh, during that time, securing more than $380 million in state and federal grants, when you look at the economic, uh, uh, enhancement and improvement, the JTA by board decision investing one JTA taxpayer dollar has inured to the benefit of at least four dollars in return, four to one. And so, when you think about, you know, a board who is identifying, you know, finite resources and project development, these are the types of considerations from a policy perspective that are made in order to leverage the investments that we have, uh, been directed to by the board or otherwise by, uh, you know, grant contract. Our bus rapid transit system has, uh, provided for $500 million in economic activity within a half mile of our corridor, and the UNF has, uh, determined through induced jobs, direct jobs, and indirect jobs, the JTA brings an economic impact of almost $200 million. Concrete on the ground to, uh, the frontline customer, they have seen more than a thousand, actually 1,033 bus stops improved by ADA. What does that mean? That, that means new pads, curb cuts, uh, drainage, sidewalk access to be able to access our system. Uh, and that has made transportation safer, uh, and better for our customers throughout, uh, Duval County. Uh, and again, our partnerships benefiting in this case, 1.2 million middle schoolers and high schoolers in terms of, uh, rides, uh, through the, my ride to school program. So again, it gives you a snapshot of using that statutory authority, developing policy and having it manifest itself in project delivery in the examples that are identified, uh, in the deck, uh, before you, as we turn to the organizational structure, as I said, 2025 state legislature now has, uh, four gubernatorial appointees representing, uh, Duval County, Nassau, Clay and St. Johns County. And three are appointed by the mayor of the consolidated city of, uh, Jacksonville, subject to city council confirmation. The gubernatorial appointees are subject to, uh, uh, Senate, uh, confirmation. Their terms being four years, uh, not able to serve more than two consecutive terms. Uh, there is an officer structure there. A quorum of four is required for any action. They are not compensated, uh, and they, uh, hire the executive director, uh, who then, um, hires the staff for, uh, the JTA and operates, uh, the, uh, private or the public, uh, benefit corporation. Roles of the board, again, adopting the budget, authorizing debt, setting policies and fair setting direction, supervising delegated authorities. And they primarily work through a committee structure, safety audit and compliance committee, service delivery committee, finance and administration committee, long range planning and system development. Those committees are keyed to the six goals that are identified, uh, by the board and functionally the way that we have operated over, you know, since 2013 is that your board, uh, sets the policy of the organization certainly, but it does so through an annual retreat. And so when you think about what the definition of success should look like, that comes from the board of directors who identifies by looking at the year that was looking at the previous three to five years and taking a look at the current circumstances and figuring out from a policy perspective, what direction the leadership team needs to take in the coming year. We as staff provide that information to the board. We as staff are responsible with the technical subject matter expertise. How am I doing on time? Uh, subject matter expertise. I'm okay. Okay. Uh, subject matter expertise to provide them the information to be able to make their, their policy decisions. And then we assign milestones by quarter, some cases by, uh, half year. Uh, and all of us are required to execute that vision, uh, over the course of the year. So an example of that, uh, is this mobility ecosystem fixed, uh, route network. You know, we were looking at our trips not being more than 60 minutes, uh, and ultimately getting to a point where we can co-mingle and use a vehicle more effectively through scheduling reservation and dispatch so that future trips would be no more than a half, uh, half, uh, 30 minutes. Uh, that is a half hour, no matter where you are in Duval County, no matter where you are in that 874.3 square mile territory. So that's a policy directive that then requires execution by management to ultimately get to a much more, um, efficient use of micro transit and combining our, uh, higher frequency, uh, mobility, uh, a bus service. And so on October 10th, we're rolling out through our app, the ability for paratransit customers to be able to do this, to streamline, uh, their, uh, ability to get to their destinations, uh, more efficiently, in partnership with the private sector who has helped us with our scheduling reservation and dispatch to meet that board policy, uh, example and mandate. So how do we have organizational accountability at the board level? So from that annual retreat, milestones and KPIs are identified. They are tracked through our adaptive measurement for enterprise level insight and optimization, or Emilio that is provided, uh, to our board on a monthly basis through the board committee meetings and through the board meetings or the board workshops. As the leadership team, we are responsible for managing those key progress indicators on whatever appropriate interval it needs to be. So if it's, you know, ridership, we're tracking ridership, unaudited on a daily basis, on a weekly basis. If we report those numbers, uh, for example, uh, to our board on a monthly basis, but who's responsible for ensuring, uh, reduced absenteeism, who's responsible for safety, who's responsible, uh, for, um, helping to create an environment where our operators and other frontline staff are going out and meeting our customers with the appropriate professional disposition to, uh, deal with whatever is going to come at them when that rider comes, uh, onto their bus. So every employee has two to six metrics that inure to the overall KPIs of the organization that the board sets at its annual meeting. And that is reviewed again, monthly and then half yearly, and then annually to help ensure that the organization is going in the direction that the board policy has prescribed. And as you know, from time to time, we would come to you to you primarily, uh, sometimes finance, uh, to provide you with those quarterly reports, uh, as we move through our year. And certainly we are the designated transportation provider for emergency management. And so obviously we interact, uh, with the administration and council, uh, uh, for those, uh, activities. So that is a monthly engagement of board policy, staff execution, regardless of if it's a program, regardless of if it's a project, regardless of if it's a working group that is assigned on an emergency basis. That is the level of detail and interaction, uh, that you get from a JTA board organizational accountability standpoint. The nuance of the JTA is again, as a statewide expressway authority and as the provider of, uh, mass transportation, uh, in, uh, Jacksonville is at heart, those private bus companies that were taken over in the 1970s. In order to preserve those employees rights to strike in a right to work state, which means public employees cannot strike. There is a public benefit corporation that is authorized by statute that manages the business of our frontline employees, operators, maintenance technicians, and customer service, uh, folks. And so we go through this process historically every three years in a collective bargaining situation, wherein we have to contend with the fact that these employees for this purpose have the right to strike and therefore have the right to potentially detrimentally impact the, our ability to deliver service, uh, to the public that we serve. Fortunately, that is usually one of the first rights that each of these collective bargaining units have waived in consideration of wages and benefits that the JTA provides through this public benefit corporation to them. And so that's ATU for the bus operators, IAM for the maintainers and technicians, and separately for the customer service representatives and AFSCME for the road supervisors and, uh, uh, control center, uh, supervisors and dispatchers. Uh, and so the executive leadership team, uh, sits as officers of that public benefit corporation to manage the day-to-day operations. As the interim I CEO, I sit, uh, as the shareholder and chair of that board board for the board to help ensure that from a budgetary standpoint, uh, we are meeting the appropriate needs of, uh, of that public benefit corporation. And you should know, uh, that a 2012, uh, Florida Supreme court case has determined for purposes of, uh, tort liability. These employees are state employees, uh, and as a result, uh, sovereign immunity protects them. But at the same time, whenever there is a grievance that the represented, uh, do not, uh, like we have to go before the national relations board, uh, at the federal level, uh, and deal with national labor relations act matters for those employees. And for another set of employees, we deal with the public employee relations act, uh, as state employees. So pretty sophisticated operation that nobody really sees out in the public that we've got to deal with, uh, in a collective bargaining basis that, uh, you may recall, for example, and I'm sure we'll cover over the next five or so meetings, uh, you know, the great resignation, uh, you know, these various private firms poaching all of the folks that we trained for 10 weeks to get commercial driver's licenses. And they go get better salaries over at these, uh, private corporations only to find out that they can't get benefits. So they eventually come back, you know, to the JTA. And at the same time, you're trying to provide stable service, uh, without missed trips or missed time points. And you're constantly having to deal with this, uh, tug and pull, uh, in providing, uh, the appropriate level of, of, of service, uh, as prescribed by our board and our budget. So that gives you, uh, some context in terms of board organizational accountability and interaction. As you've asked, uh, for this particular agenda, a look into our executive leadership team, uh, since, uh, the board, uh, voted to authorize me to be, uh, the interim, uh, leader for this, uh, interim period as a search for a permanent, uh, CEO, we have organized ourselves basically into five tranches, uh, to help stabilize today so that we can restore tomorrow. So this leadership structure has us, uh, finance and technology, which is led by Randall operations led by Jeff Smith, this enterprise risk automation and infrastructure led by Richard Clark and public affairs led by Jessica Schepler, uh, utilizing my team, uh, including Jason Montgomery from a data steward standpoint, really wanting to ensure a level of quality control and quality assurance for everything that we're doing in this time of transition. That includes everything from human resources. What's the mental health of our organization? Uh, as we are, uh, you know, truly dealing with, you know, myriad requests for information, uh, myriad, you know, conversations with various, uh, levels of regulators, we still have a job to do on a day-to-day basis of providing safe, reliable transportation services and, and do so, uh, in a way that engages the customer. It doesn't contribute to, um, you know, any escalated issues, uh, and, and do so again, in accordance with our professional standards. And so I want to make sure that we continue, uh, certainly to do that. Uh, we, uh, are responsible for maintaining what's called the safety management system, uh, which is a process again, we can get into over the next, uh, five meetings, you know, supporting our board as they're identifying the external auditors, supporting our board as they have identified, uh, the search firm who will, uh, um, uh, secure a permanent, uh, CEO. We still have all of the responsibilities of, of, of, of everything, you know, that's listed here, uh, in each of these, uh, respective buckets, but at a top level, I'm here to stabilize the finances. I am here to partner with the mayor and administration, the city council, all of our regulators, and all of our stakeholders until such time as a permanent CEO is, uh, present. And I'm going to discharge that responsibility to the best of my ability in partnership with the executive leadership team. And it is a responsibility that I do not take lightly. I could have waited for the permanent CEO to come and imagine those financial reports with those deficits coming in, not caring about what FY 27 was going to look like in September or October or November. But I told this leadership team that is not a disposition of a leader when we recognize the problem. And again, you'll all find out when we started to find out the level of concern about the quality of the reporting that we were getting, we had a responsibility to do something about it right now. And it is painful. It is difficult, but it is our professional responsibility to let the board know, to immediately let our colleagues know, and to get in that room and figure out how we're going to right size this organization and do so responsibly in a way that enabled us to get to our core functions as quickly as we possibly could. Because we've got a lot ahead of us. We are going to take each one of those responsibilities in, in turn to deliver that service. And I will be so thankful when we are able to rehire as many of those individuals as we can, because we've right sized, because we've identified that you can't put all your eggs in one basket from a local option gas tax standpoint and expect that state sales tax is just going to go up and up and up and up. Got to be more prudent than that. And so that's what this team team is committed to doing in partnership with all of you, with all of you on behalf of our customers, on behalf of this region, on behalf of this state, so that we can continue to be, you know, that star that, you know, many of you were with us cutting those ribbons on those projects, TOD and road projects, right? Many of you were there. And to be here because of the things that, you know, we've learned is, is not a good or happy or fun place for me, for, for this leadership team. We owe it to all of our partners to discharge this statutory responsibility in the most effective, efficient, and prudent way possible. And so as interim CEO, that's what I'm going to do until I'm no longer the interim CEO. As it relates to each of the other functions, you can guess, chief financial officer, got to control spending. Uh, you gotta, uh, you gotta have controls on, on the automated Oracle system. A, a manager can't keep just taking a call and inputting requisitions and it going out the door and, and nobody's sort of monitoring that system and so forth. So we've got an excellent CFO, so glad he agreed to come identify all the cash forecasting that was done by the private parties that were brought in who, who said that we're going to have all this money, you know, for all of this time over all these years. Uh, and him being able to take a look at those, uh, reports internally and identify very quickly that we're not getting the kind of information we need as leaders to make the right decisions. Operations. Jeff is going to continue to operate the services as we articulated. We're letting our customers know from October 1 to November 1, uh, what the, that change in service level, uh, is, uh, and do so in a safe way. I, uh, took the stand that we needed to reconfigure our focus on, of system planning and automation and innovation and really tie it to enterprise risk. And by tying it to enterprise risk, that allows other players in the organization from a working group standpoint to understand that you can't keep spending a million dollars a month on a project and we don't have the budget for it. There's gotta be a conversation about right-sizing that service in a way that makes sense for the time that we are in. Therefore, the same approach that we use for identifying risks and hazards should be applied to project delivery in a way that ensures that the JTA can be sustainable. And to take on those projects that meet the mandate of whatever it is that we've got to do. And so that's where that sort of the enterprise, that, uh, innovation, that automation, you know, those lessons learned, uh, the maintenance and activation of our autonomous, uh, uh, innovation center and so forth are, are in that bucket. And then certainly communicating with you and communicating with the public everything, uh, that we're doing. So again, you all know that we've been successful project heavily project based entity, uh, very focused. We use working groups to do that. Uh, we try to, um, you know, prognosticate to project, uh, and so forth. Uh, but you know, with this team here, we're going to be heavily focused on certainly the quality of the information that's being provided so that our leadership teams, uh, can make the best decisions, uh, understand what the most appropriate initiatives are, uh, to work with. So yes, on behalf of the board, we eventually look forward to having a conversation about the local option gas tax. We look forward to having a conversation about right sizing operational dollars so that that mix allows for a level of sustainability, uh, with respect to our core, uh, functions. We look forward to the conversation about how we, um, you know, divvy up projects, uh, that we don't, uh, forswear innovation that happens to be the kind that gets, uh, headlines because we do an awful lot of innovation that don't get headlines at all. Uh, that people from all over the world come, uh, to our building at JRTC to understand just how you do it. And so to, to be able to do so with a staff that is energized, uh, a staff that is focused, uh, with the appropriate amount of resources that, you know, we believe are needed. Uh, again, I thank you, uh, for this partnership, the administration, uh, city council, and I look forward to coming out, um, on the other side of this, uh, in, in, uh, being able to do, uh, what, what is necessary, uh, by our mission, uh, to do so. So with that, I'm available for any questions and my team is available for any questions you may have. Thank you very much, Mr. Ferguson. I, I know that was a lot and, but I thought it was important to be able to go through those basics and I'll you, uh, the opportunity to, to set that, that, uh, foundation for us before we really get into more of the financial and other details that we're going to get into. So, um, um, uh, council member, uh, Sandman will need to depart here real soon. So I'm going to give him the opportunity for a couple of quick questions. Then we'll go over to council president, uh, Howland for any, any questions he may have. And, and back to councilman Carlucci after that. Thank you, chair through the chair. Um, in 2025, the, the regional transportation secretary was a member of the boards. It was a one, three, three in 2025. He was removed as a voting member and a gubernatorial appointment came in. What was the reason for that? Uh, I, I threw the chair to the, uh, council member. I, I can't speak, uh, directly, you know, to that, uh, in, in terms of, um, you know, the, the, the total picture. I, I can say that there was a desire to, from a regional perspective to have all of the counties represented, uh, because of the activity that, uh, you know, the service delivery grants were coming in and supporting these counties. And there wasn't a real direct say. So, you know, there've been conversations probably for eight, nine years about moving in, in a direction like that. Uh, but, uh, you know, beyond that, that's, uh, what I can share. Does he or she through the chair still attend your board meetings? No. Does not? No. Okay. Uh, next question through the chair to Mr. Peterson. There was mention of the auditor's office auditing JTA, and I assume that's once a year. Is that correct? Through the chair to council member Salem. Uh, it is not once a year. It's, uh, they're just part of our overall office risk assessment. So, um, we, we are required to audit the constitutional officers once every five years. Uh, but there is no requirement on, um, auditing of JTA or any of the other independent agencies on any specific timeframe. Okay. You, you, through the chair, you mentioned, or I've seen in the media, I think you mentioned it, that sometime early in 2026, I believe you raised a red flag about JTA finances. Was that part of an audit that you conducted? And, and I assume the data that you, that you review is, is provided by JTA, similar to when CRI, uh, audits the city, it's information we provide to them. Are those comparable? Through the chair to council member Salem. Um, what you are referencing is the quarterly summary report that JTA along with the other independent agencies and the city provide to the city council on a quarterly basis. So in the, uh, first three quarters of 25, 26, we did have comments in our quarterly summary report that ultimately is presented to the finance committee, um, regarding some of JTA's projections and, um, whether or not they were realistic on a revenue and expenditure side that those same comments were carried over into the, uh, six months ended March 31st of 2026. Uh, and then also, um, into the June 30th of 2026, they were probably amplified as we got later on into the year. Uh, because as Mr. Barnes stated in committees this week, um, projections at the first quarter are, are somewhat difficult. Um, but we are reliant on JTA's, um, numbers, their actuals and their projections. Uh, when projections appear off or maybe not realistic, we do work with them and ask questions and try to gain an understanding of how they're arriving at their projections. Uh, but I, I won't say we raised the red flag. We raised a, hey, this is an area that needs to be, um, continually looked at. Uh, there are things that could go wrong here. Okay. Last question. When did you first raise that issue at finance, um, that you were concerned? Yeah. Through the chair to Council Member Salem. So we began, um, uh, somewhat of a research project this week in our office to go back in time. We were going back to, we're starting in kind of 2023. We think that's when JTA was on solid financial footing, but we are going back through every quarterly summary from 2023 until now and hope to provide that to this committee at a future meeting that I think will be valuable for your purposes. I think that's absolutely critical that we try to identify exactly when you began to see issues, um, with JTA. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Uh, we'll go next to Vice President Carlucci. You recognize? All right. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I'll keep it brief because I know we have just a few more minutes left. Um, I'm sort of nervous to ask this question, but also hopefully relieved to ask this question. Um, throughout all the presentations that I've heard and, you know, we've had separate meetings, but is there any, is there any concern with connection or connection plus? Cause we saw there was, there was issues with it and we kind of addressed those. And I just want to make sure we don't overlook that because that's obviously a big community issue. And if it needs to be addressed, I certainly want to do that where we are right now. So can you speak to that briefly? Uh, yes, uh, through the chair of the council, uh, vice president, um, you know, we, we propose to our board to eliminate connection plus, uh, they, uh, in January and they suggested, no, we're going to continue to, you know, eat it and move forward. And so we are prepared to do that with this budget that we have right sized. Uh, but it's certainly going to, uh, you know, continue to cause pressure. Uh, we are going to go through an RFP a little later this year, uh, for new providers to see if we can take advantage of the marketplace, but it is an area where we will continue to see pressure, even though we're commingling and doing everything that we can try to, uh, minimize, uh, folks on the more expensive, uh, uh, portion of a paratransit service. Uh, we're, we're going to need some help eventually. Yeah. Cause and through the chair, that was my concern. Obviously it was great service, but taking a loss on it and y'all had to continue taking that loss, but now the ship is continuing to take in more water. So I just want to make sure that it is sustainable and we, you know, that can continue to provide the same level of service. And, um, and so if there's anything we can do to help on that, I'm, I'm open and we just want to make sure that as a core service for that, you guys are already providing, we continue to, we continue to have that. So that's, that's all I wanted to bring up. Thank you. Thank you. We'll, we'll go next over to, uh, Council President Howland. You recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, the vice president brings up a great question. I know that you've been working with potentially, uh, two million dollars to help connection or connection plus. Um, but I didn't see that as part of the presentations to committee earlier this week. Um, is that money something that you guys are looking at or that you need desperately to keep connection and connection plus running through the, uh, chair of the council president, we certainly will not turn it down. Yeah, you certainly would not turn it down. Um, how would you use it if it, uh, came to you? It would be used to, uh, you know, deal with the contracts for the, for the service, absolutely to pay the service. Okay. Um, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I, I have a few questions, but what I'm going to do, uh, we're, we're about at the time I, I'd announce, but I do want to let everyone know if there are questions you weren't able to ask the very next session, we will start off with those questions and those comments. If you all think of things you wanted to, um, add to the discussions, um, I know this has been a compressed question and answer time period. Um, however, again, I thought it was important to allow you as the acting CEO to set the stage and inform us, especially, I, I would believe there are people who don't know the organizational structure that you just talked about and the two different, uh, entities under the one umbrella and other responsibilities go along with that. Uh, so we'll, we'll start off with questions and comments from this session, uh, at the next session and then go into the financials if we're at a good place with the auditors that they described earlier, uh, the 2023 forward financials and, and get into some more details there. Um, I did have a few things I just want to ask. Again, at a basic level, as I said earlier, I'm a start with the basics kind of guy. Do you have any, any documents that are associated with the executive team and the board members that they actually sign as oaths that under the show, they understand their fiduciary financial obligations as leaders of the organization when they take each of those positions? Um, are there such documents or anything along those lines that make it clear what the responsibilities are from a fiduciary and financial, which are, are very different, um, uh, but related? Is there anything that exists like that? Uh, through, uh, to the chair, uh, certainly other than the state commission on ethics, uh, forms, uh, there are, uh, documents associated with conflicts of interest and, and, you know, those types of things that are meeting specific, but there is an orientation, uh, that outlines the, uh, responsibilities, but nothing that I can recall that board members signed. Okay. Cause I, I'd like to leave you all with that because I just, I just think that's, that's critical. It's not just a training matter. Some people have talked about, you know, as long as we show up training, all will be well. Um, no, you can have well-trained people that make bad decisions and they don't live up to their, in this case, fiduciary obligations for the positions and the organization they're part of. And so, I would, I would ask you to see if there are such things, um, because I, it, it would be very interesting to me that if there aren't, um, because obviously we can't say all responsibility for financial matters and wellbeing for the organization rest on the CFO and his or her team that that's just not so, but have we codified that in a deliberate written fashion for each individual that is given great responsibility, but also great privilege, um, in those positions of, of leadership. Yes, sir. Okay. There we, we have a, a board rule rule zero zero zero that does identify those committees that I spoke to of what their specific responsibilities are. So finance and administration would be that for that particular topic. Okay. Thank you. And, and I've been told, uh, that I've been a bad boy. I've gone over and I need to stop. So we will do so. Thank you all so much, especially on such a rainy day. And, uh, and thank you, Mr. Ferguson, your team. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Okay.