Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the Wednesday, November 4th meeting of the Finance Committee. We'll start off to my left with introductions. Brittany Norris for the administration. Colleen Hampsey, Council Research. Mary Stifopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Heather Beiber, Council Auditor's Office. Philip Peterson, Council Auditor. Good afternoon. Rory Diamond, District 13, The Beaches. Will Lane in District 3. Mike Gay, District 2. Randy White, District 12. Michael Buen, District 6. Matt Carlucci at Large, Group 4. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. So the order, we're going to kick it off with Mr. Mike Weinstein's going to come up and say a few words. Then I'll go to public comment. And then we're going to take up some of these bills in the order of who had the longest workday yesterday. So we'll start with item number 10, the Supervisor of Elections Bill. Then go to item 9, which is a JSO bill. And then we may flip around depending on what visiting council members we come down, have come down for their bills. So with that, Mr. Weinstein, I'll turn the floor over to you. Did you want to speak first? Okay. Okay. I was on the understanding you wanted to have a few minutes at the beginning of the meeting. I'm sorry. Mike Weinstein, Mayor's Office. I just wanted to make sure I had an opportunity to participate as the conversation may go as to the influence and impact of Amendment 3 and what have you. If that doesn't come up as a topic, then I don't need to speak. Okay. Got it. I misunderstood. I thought you wanted some dedicated time, but we'll be happy to include you if you want to comment on anything. All right. With that, public comment. All right. Two minutes each. First up will be Tim Hull. Then we'll have Carnell Oliver, Dimitri Dimopoulos, I believe, Darian Jackson, and Bill Hoff. Good afternoon. I'm here to talk about the support for the new downtown publics. Can you start with your name and address, please? Sure. Tim Hull, H-O-A-L. I live at 2064 Herschel Street in Jacksonville. My name is Tim Hull. I'm a partner at Hardwick's Bar here in downtown Jacksonville. I'm here today to express my strong support for bringing a new publics to our downtown community. As a small business owner, I understand firsthand what it takes to invest in a community, take a chance on an area, create jobs, and to help build an environment where people want to live, work, and do business. I believe the new publics represents much more than a grocery store. It represents progress, investment, and confidence in the future of downtown Jacksonville. For years, we have talked about what it will take to make downtown more vibrant, active, and a livable community. One of the most important things we can do is provide the everyday services and amenities that residents, workers, families, and visitors need. Access to a quality grocery store is not a luxury. It is an essential part of creating a neighborhood where people can truly live, not simply come to work and leave at the end of the day. This investment also can create opportunities for surrounding small businesses. More residents, more daily activity, and more people spending time downtown can mean more customers for restaurants, retailers, and service providers, and other locally owned businesses. A stronger downtown benefits all of us. When major companies invest in our city, it sends a message that downtown Jacksonville is moving forward. And when downtown grows, our small businesses should have the opportunity to grow alongside with it. Let's continue to invest in downtown Jacksonville, creating opportunities, attracting residents, and building a community we can all be proud of. Thank you. All right, next up, Carnell Oliver. Yes, my name is Carnell Oliver. Address is on file. I want to start off by saying that somebody I know, Pumpkin Harris, made a strong statement to me that realigns with me. Never sell yourself short in so many kind words. But when I look at an investment like from 847, which is on second reading, and when I look at 848, that's on second reading, we're talking about taxpayer dollars going to fund resources for immigrants. Is that a wise investment at this heightened environment that we are living in right now? It is not. And before this bill makes it up for committee vote in two weeks, I want you to really consider my thought process. Do you really want another headline? Not just with this gateway project, which I am totally against at this point in time, because we need to get more serious about investments and where those investments actually go. You're not very mindful, because I know a lot of people don't watch you like I do. I remember when I first came back home from D.C., somebody told me that it's been quiet around here ever since I've been gone. Some people have told me I'm a troublemaker. No, I'm not troublemaker. I just call it how I see it. And the problem is, is that y'all been doing what you want to do for quite some time, and I'm showing everybody everything. And a lot of black Americans are starting to wake up. They voted for Byron Donalds. I voted for Byron Donalds. I voted for Amendment 3, just like all of us, because we're tired of white folks being in our business. Thank you, Dimitri Dimopoulos, and then we'll have Darian Jackson, Bill Hoff. Hi, hello, Dimitri Dimopoulos. My address is on file, and I'm a resident of downtown Jacksonville. I've been here since 2009-10, and I just wanted to come up and say a few words of support for 2026-541. I get it. I mean, especially after yesterday. I don't know what the future holds, and all of us who live downtown, I mean, I have this conversation with fellow residents all the time. There is a shared frustration as to why Jacksonville, you know, needs to necessarily provide so many incentives, and why is it that things just don't catch on on their own? But having said that, I also am aware of all the other variables that are involved, which is we don't have an established workforce in this town to sustain large-scale development, as far as I understand it. There are competing cities who are all offering incentives to get the big players to come to their towns. And here we are, finally, at a point that I have not seen in the 17 years I've been here and waiting for development downtown. I am starting to see the kind of spark that suggests that we have a fire that's the right kind of fire we want in downtown Jacksonville that's going to spur opportunity and economic growth. These developers seem to have been willing to put a great deal of skin in the game. I don't envy your positions. I know it's going to be difficult to try to figure out how to move forward on this, but I would encourage you to please do what is necessary to support this development. Who would have thought we would have potentially 1,200 residential units coming to a part of town that 10 years ago, if I had said that, people would have said I was crazy, near Beaver Street. And so they're moving the needle in a big way. And we talk about wanting cranes in the air. Well, they're in the air. Let's try to keep them in the air and hope that we can somehow pull all of this together because we've made such a big investment in the Jaguars and the stadium. We need to keep it going. Thank you. Darian Jackson. Good afternoon. My name is Darian Jackson. Address is on file. I'm coming up here to speak to you guys in regards to the public's decision. As a business owner, as a Navy veteran and entrepreneur that is residing downtown under Deputies Cigars and Deputies Teesteaks, who has invested over $650,000 in revitalizing downtown Jacksonville, I stand before you today as someone who truly believes in the future of our city. Bringing public's to downtown Jacksonville is much more about opening up another grocery store. It's about building a sustainable community and strengthening our local economy. We constantly talk about bringing more residents, more businesses, and investment downtown. How can we expect people to live downtown when they must leave the area for something as simple as grocery shopping? And public's will provide a much-needed convenience for our residents while helping attract new families and young professionals in additional residential development. From an economic standpoint, a grocery store creates a consistent daily foot traffic. Those customers become potential patrons of surrounding restaurants, real estate stores, excuse me, retail stores, and small businesses like mine. When one business succeeds in downtowns, it creates an opportunity for others to succeed as well. Public must also bring employment opportunities, encourage additional private investment, and help transform downtown into a place where people can occasionally visit, into a place where people can truly live, work, and thrive. I've personally put my money, time, and resources in downtown Jacksonville, and I believe it is potential. Believe in its potential. But revitalization requires more than restaurants, entertainment, venues, and apartment buildings. It requires essential services that support everyday life. Jacksonville has an incredible opportunity to create a vibrant, workable, and economically sustainable downtown. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Bilhoff is here in support of 2026-806, questions only in support of that. Councilman Diamond, did you mean to be in the queue? Okay. Your choice. Okay. I'll turn it over to Councilman Diamond. I appreciate it, Mr. Chair. Candidly, I just wanted to make some comments about Amendment 3, but not, you know, during any of the actual budget items, just to, because I don't want the comments to be, like, really tightly focused on any one budget item, because they're kind of generic, and so I appreciate the deference. But, you know, candidly, we said that Amendment 3 was going to pass. We told the administration, I told this council, many people on this council said Amendment 3 was going to pass, and we were arrogantly ignored. And then, every effort we made to work with the mayor to cut the budget to get ready for this was played against us, and they tried to subvert every single cut, and successfully did so. And now we have a budget that is not ready for what's coming. They played games, they ignored us, they pushed every spending item, and now we're stuck. So today, I will start working on bills. The first one is going to be to start the process to eliminate every CRA. The first thing that needs to be cut in Jacksonville is every dollar people want to send to downtown developers. It's ridiculous. The second thing I'm going to ask for is for this council to reduce the budget of every single city office that has an open position by the amount of that position. That tantamounts to a hiring freeze for the city of Jacksonville. I'm going to ask for a 25% cut on the salaries of anyone making more than $100,000 a year for the city of Jacksonville. JTA was even doing furloughs and reductions. And we haven't prepared for anything. The city is wildly mismanaged with people we do not need. This cut must happen. I will personally take $0 for the rest of my time on council if I can get my colleagues to agree to cut their own salaries and the mayor to cut her salary and her staff's salary. It needs to start at the top. We absolutely have to stop the giveaways. We need to stop the out-of-control salaries. And we need to get our city ready for what is coming ahead. And then I would like to take all of that money and put it into a special fund that cannot be touched for anything except for police, fire, paving the roads, and picking up the trash. Because we have a resounding statement from the people of Jacksonville yesterday. A resounding statement. Stop this crazy spending. The most Democratic vote in a generation in Jacksonville. And 56% said, stop taking my money. Stop wasting it. Enough with the stupid programs. Enough with the nonprofits with their nose in the trough. We've got to do it. I'm going to introduce these bills one after the other after the other. Just want to let this committee know. All right. Thank you, Councilman Diamond. I do got a few others that hopped in the queue. I don't want to make this a long back and forth about Amendment 3. It is day 35 of the budget year. So I completely agree with you. We have time to start working on it. I look forward to working with the administration and our colleagues on that as well. And, again, one of the things we said in the budget season, even though it was not we did add money on budget night, it was the first time we were actually able to keep the budget flat year over year. So at least with that, we did not grow government coming into this year, and it gives us the flexibility. Council Member Johnson. Thank you so much for recognizing me, Mr. Chair, period. While I certainly appreciate the sentiments of the gentleman from the beach as my colleague, it's certainly not rooted in any type of reality. The administration, certainly. I was there. I have sat on this committee as I spent hours each night going through this multibillion-dollar budget. And the administration certainly did more than I would have. As I have said over and over again, I do believe I did not understand why we were rushing to cut things in the budget this year, because if Amendment 3 was going to pass, those things would not affect the city of Jacksonville until the 27, 28 budget year. So it did not, the things that we needed to put in the budget needed to stay there. So it's just not true what the gentleman said about the administration not wanting to work with them, because, again, it was something I opposed. Additionally, I think it's disrespectful, and certainly I don't know what it sits in, but to call programs stupid programs shows the person who said that where they are. I think it's important, Mr. Chair, that we look at all the programs intelligently, that we look at them and see what's working and what's not. But to say we would go, I said this when we were debating going across the board, and I wanted to put this on the record, when we were going across the board and talking about, we didn't do it, but we talked about a 10% budget cut as it relates to Kids Hope Alliance, to just blanketly go and cut, because, in the words of this committee, well, they grew at a higher rate than public safety. As someone who is an academic researcher certified internationally, that doesn't even make good nonsense with what works when it comes to intellectual research. So I think we need to look closely at what we're doing. I'm certainly all for accountability. I want to make sure that we're accountable to the taxpayer dollars that we put in. I want to make sure that we're doing the work that we're supposed to do. But to even come and say that we want to just cut salaries willy-nilly, again, it shows a lack of connection to reality. If we look at the zeitgeist of where we are now, we understand that times are hard, and that was the voice that people were giving. And the only voice that people had to say, we are not in a good place, we want to work, is less emails, and Washington is not giving them the opportunity to vote on something like that. The only place they had to was at the ballot box this cycle. So I understand it, I respect it, but to just blanketly say that we should start putting a hiring freeze on for the city, I will fight it with everything in me because right now, and I use this as the example when I was reviewing the budget, the Consumer Affairs Office, which is responsible for human trafficking in the city of Jacksonville, has an FTE of 1.5. And for a city of more than 800 square miles, the largest city and land space in the continental United States, that is just nonsensical. So I look forward to having these debates, to voting no on every one of those bills, and to ensure that our city moves forward the best way it can. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. We're going, I'm going to call on Council Member, visiting Council Member Matt Carlucci, then we're going to get into the agenda to where we can make decisions on items. Council Member Carlucci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate the opportunity. I have a different take on this. Look, I didn't support Amendment 3, but the voters have spoken, and I respect their vote. And we will work within the spirit of Amendment 3. But this is a time for us to come together as a city and as a council. Look, our city has never had so much momentum as it does now. And I believe this is a time that we must continue to invest in our city. We have many months to deal with putting the next budget together. And I have faith in the future. Our city has dealt with great challenges in our past, going back to consolidation. And this city has always risen to the challenge. And we will rise to the challenge that we have before us. And it's a big one, but we will. But we must not let this take us off track. And we must work with this in a mature, in a methodical fashion. And we must work at it together. It's like a team. And your best player gets injured. But yet, you know what? That's okay. You rally together, and you still win the game. And we have great things happening in Jacksonville. We can't let that disrail us, derail us. Because we have got great things in front of us. So let's keep the faith. Let's have faith in our future. And let's work together. And we will prevail through this. The citizens will get what they want. And they will also get the great city that we are becoming. And that's where I want us to keep. It's let's keep our eye on the prize. And that's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to go to Council Member Gay, then White, and then Ms. Norris. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll be brief. I just want to put a different perspective on this. I'm pleased and excited to see that our citizens actually were able to speak up and have a voice to say what matters. And what they have done is push forward the biggest initiative for affordable housing. This will keep more people in houses than ever before. And it is tremendous. And it trumps anything that we've done here on the Council. This will keep more people in their homes. And I'm glad to see it finally coming to pass. Thank you. Pastor President White. Yes, sir. Thank you. Through the Chair, if I can read body language, I think Mr. Weinstein had something to say. And I would like to hear what he has to say. Go ahead, Mr. Weinstein. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And through the Chair to the Councilman at the Beach. Just take a deep breath. Relax. Everything is going to be okay. This is what's going to happen. Basically, eight months from now, with a newly elected Council, the Mayor will be presenting a budget that will have the Mayor's priorities, the Council priorities. It's going to be a balanced budget. And during this year, which we have a full budget for, we will begin to do some adjustments to make sure that we prepare for the following year's reduction. And everything is going to be okay. We don't need to do anything draconian. We don't need to pit one program against another at this time. We don't need to come up with our favorites. We've got a budget. It's solid. We'll keep going. We'll come back probably in eight months with a smaller group, a smaller staff, reduce services, but we'll survive, and we're going to be okay. We are in so much better shape than so many other communities in the state of Florida that rely totally, basically, on residential. We have businesses. We have commercial. We will be okay. We'll be different than we would have been. But to consider stopping the investment in the people, stopping the investment in the community, stopping to work for affordability issues, I think, is short-sighted. There's no reason to pull a blanket over our heads and just stay in a bunker. We will be okay. Just relax and let the work be done. Excuse me. Let the work be done and presented to you to make sure we're ready in eight months for the following 27 and 28 budget. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Weinstein. With that, so we are now going to go to item number 10, which is 2026-0802. I need a motion on the amendment first. I've got a motion to second on the neighborhood's amendment. Ms. Rebert, could you explain? Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will correct the fiscal year of appropriation and will invoke the exemption of Section 126-108-G, which is to specifically name the vendor, which is clear ballot in the legislation. Attach provides Exhibit 1, the BT, to correct account information, and place a revised grant agreement on file to include the missing attachments. Thank you. You've known in the queue. All those in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Amendment passes. I've got a motion to second on the bill as amended. I've known in the queue. Mr. Holland, did you want to say anything, or just let us vote? Aye. Let you vote. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Prior actions. We passed 2026-0802. And just so Dr. Johnson doesn't steal my thunder, I was going to say great job, Mr. Holland, on everything you and your team did. I don't want to know how much coffee and Red Bulls you've had, but I thank you for all the work that went into yesterday's election. Dr. Johnson, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and committee. It was our pleasure. Oh, Mr. Boylan, I forgot, you may be the second most tired person in the building. I think, no, he was up at 5 o'clock yesterday morning, and I got up at 5 o'clock this morning just to stay. We didn't get out there, what, 1157 last night? Yeah, I got home about 1.30. Yeah, you got home a little later, and I got home at 1 because I'll all be in Mandarin from where you are. But he spent his birthday at the canvassing board. I mean, really, the efficiency of that staff and the competency of the staff, the canvassing board, the judges that serve on that, Robin and Michael and others, it's a machine. And we should be very proud of the fact that we serve the citizens of Jacksonville through this election process. Thank you. Dr. Johnson, did you want to say anything else? And he takes calls all the time. I'm just saying, like, literally, we talked. I was up at 5 o'clock yesterday, didn't sleep until late last night. Literally, every two minutes, not only was he taking calls, but responsive. Every time something came in and there was something, you got it out. Jerry, you are truly a great man. Thank you for just being available to everybody. Yesterday was tough, and you got through it with flying colors. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate the comments. Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor. We're going to go back one to item 9, 2026-0800. Can I get a motion? Can I motion a second on the bill? I have no in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. 6 J's, 0 nays. By our actions, we have passed 2026-0800. We're next. I see Mr. Alston out there, so we're going to go to item 17 next. Mr. Alston has another meeting and asks that I move it up. So can I get a motion on the amendment for 2026-0811? Got a motion second on the amendment. No in the queue. All those in favor of the amendment say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. No passes. Got a motion second on the bill as amended. Councilman Diamond. Yeah, I said this during budget, and I'll say it again. Look, I like the Gator Bowl. Everybody likes the Gator Bowl. I'll vote for this for today. But given the likely expansion to 24 teams for a college football playoff, if we're not getting a seat at the table, then this money needs to stop. It won't make any more sense going forward. Thank you, Mr. Diamond. I'll echo that. I'm a huge fan of the Gator Bowl. I was on the Gator Bowl Association for many years. My first football game my granddad took me to was the Gator Bowl. Extensive concerns about what the future of the Gator Bowl looks like. So, Mr. Alston, I know you're way closer to all those developments. I would just ask, as the powers that be that are out of our control, just make sure you're staying close, letting us know, because this really is just to get it back to Jacksonville, and who knows what the future holds after that. So, again, I'll support it, but I want to point out that I share the concerns about what the future of the Gator Bowl looks like. Mr. Boylan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, to Mr. Peterson or Mr. Rebar over there. The last item in your comments below the amendments talks about differentiation and available funding. I didn't understand where the balance will be coming. Does it come from the community or from the Tourist Development Trust Fund? Help me understand where the balance is coming from, because apparently there's a shortfall of $28,000. Yeah, through the Chair to Council Member Boylan. So, in the budget was the $464,409. The agreement that should you approve today is short $28,000. So, the mayor's office will need to find that funding to be able to make the payment to cover game day expenses for the Gator Bowl game. So, I'll redirect the question to Ms. Norris. Has that source been identified yet? Alex Austin is coming to the front to speak to this. Good afternoon, through the Chair to Council Member Boylan. Yes, we have plans in our sports and entertainment budget to cover that $28,000. Turn the mic on, Mr. Austin. No. I have a green light, so is it still not on? Better? All right, through the Chair to Council Member Boylan. We have plans in our sports and entertainment budget to cover the $28,000. We have plans in the budget. Do you have the money in the budget? Yes. All right, thank you. Thank you. All right, with that, open the ballot, record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Our actions will be passed 2026-811. I'm going to go to item 19, and this will be the last one we take out of order. This is 2026-814. Can I get a motion on the amendment? I got a motion to second on the amendment. Ms. Reber? Through the Chair to the committee, the amendment will remove the whereas clause referencing DIA board approval. It will clarify that this agreement shall not be effective until October 1, 2027, and shall be applicable to the 2027-2037 tax years. Include language in the bill that the agreement shall be subject to the review and approval of risk management in the Office of General Counsel. Tash to revise Exhibit 1, which is the agreement, to state in Section 1.1 that the agreement shall not be effective until October 1, 2027, and to clarify that the service area is expanding as depicted in the Exhibit A attached. And then correct Scrivener's errors in the bill and the agreement. Thank you. I have no one in the queue. All those in favor of the amendment say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. The amendment passes. Got a motion to second on the bill as amended. I have no one in the queue. I did have one question. So my understanding, Ms. Reber and Mr. Peterson, this is step one of the process. We are not voting on an increase in the tax base for this area now. This is essentially send out the notices, get input. There would be a follow-up step based on that before it would come back to us to make that decision. Through the chair, to the chair, yes. In the bill, this says this is the initial assessment. Okay. And then also within the bill, it states when the public hearing is going to be set, which is in August, and public notices need to be issued to the property owners. Okay. So knowing that this is the first step and not the final decision, I'm okay with this. So I'll be supporting it. No one else in the queue? Open the ballot. Record your vote. Four ayes, two nays. By our actions, we have passed item 19-2026-814. Okay. With that, we'll go to the top of the agenda, and we'll go in order for the rest of the meeting. Item 1-2024-966 is deferred, as is 2-2025-361. 3 and 4 also deferred. That's 2026-0227-0320. Item 5-2026-0377 deferred at Dr. Johnson's request. Item 6-2026-0541. Can I get a motion on the neighborhood's amendment? Got a motion and a second on the amendment? I am not going to have Ms. Reber read everything. If you note on the last page, and also this is the second time this bill has been in finance, if anyone wants Ms. Reber to read it, I can ask her to nicely, but I would prefer that everyone just re-familiarize themselves with this. This bill has been with us for a long time at this point. With that, I have no one in the queue. All those in favor of the neighborhood's amendment say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. The amendment passes. We have one nay. Council Member Diamond was a no for the records. Got a motion second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Three yays. Three nays. So, by our actions, I believe that's a deferral, correct? To the chair, yes. A three-to-three tie constitutes an automatic deferral. You need four votes one way or the other to get the bill out of committee. Okay. So, if we go back about a month ago, I see Ms. Tremor out there. We did say that one way or another, we would get this bill out of committee on November 4th. So, I mean, I've been a no on this for a long time. I guess there's two paths, right? Ms. Tafopoulos, to bring it to the floor next week, we could either let the council president discharge, or someone could change their vote to advance it out of committee. That is correct. So, the president can always discharge the bill out of finance. It did pass out of neighborhoods. The option to, you would do a reconsideration if you wanted to take it up today to have a vote, to take another vote. You would just move to reconsider, and if that's approved, then you would take up the amendment and the bill again. Okay. So, Dr. Johnson, I believe you may want to potentially change your vote to get it out of committee is what I'm saying. Exactly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes. In order to get it out of council, I can move to reconsider. I'll vote no, but. Oh. And I do not believe, Dr. Johnson was, who can move to reconsider? Was it a yay vote or a nay vote has to move to reconsider? It's anyone, because there's not a prevailing side. Okay. So to speak, when it's a three-to-three tie. So, I think in that case, either side could move to reconsider. So, on the record, Mr. Chair, in order to get this out of committee so that we can get it to council and vote on it, we don't have to go through the president's office and that thing, I move to reconsider, but this, I will get all the information to make sure that the vote I make on council night will be the vote that I will use to move this forward. But I do move to reconsider. I have a motion on the reconsider. Do I get a second? So, no second on the reconsider. So, where does that leave us? It's up to the council president if the reconsider. Yes. So, it's either it'll remain in committee and be deferred to the next cycle, or the president, at his determination, can discharge it from committee and have it come to council next Tuesday. Okay. And, Ms. Mary, I guess I could have seconded the reconsideration there, right? Yes. Anybody can second the reconsideration. Okay. Second. We have a motion to second reconsider. All those in favor of reconsidering, raise your hand for aye. Okay. The reconsideration fails. So, it is three to three, and it'll stay at the council president's discretion as to whether to discharge it. Okay. All right. I believe we are done with that item then, correct? That's almost anticlimactic. Item seven, 2026-0677 is deferred also. 2026-0756, that's item eight. Can I get a motion on the amendment? Got a motion and a second on the amendment. I will not make Ms. Reber read that one line there. All those in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The amendment passes. Got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open your ballot. Record your vote. Six-yay, zero-nays. By our actions, we pass 2026-756. We've taken up nine. We've taken up ten. Item 11, can I get a motion to withdraw? Got a motion and a second to withdraw. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Oh, I'm sorry. Let's not vote yet. Mr. Boylan. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not sure who can provide it, but I'm looking for some background as to the rationale of the withdrawal. Ms. Tafopoulos or Ms. Reber, anyone have the reasoning for why the council president's withdrawing this? To the chair, I do not. Ms. Reber, I think, does have some additional information. Ms. Reber. Through the chair to Council Member Boylan. The reasoning for the withdrawal is, like, during our review of this bill, we realized that these funds should not come to the city. There are school speed zones only in Neptune Beach, not in Jacksonville. So those are their funds. All right. With that, open the ballot. Record your vote. And a green is to withdraw. Six-yay, zero-nays. By our actions, we pass item 11, 2026-804. Item 12, 2026-805. Got a motion second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Five-yays, one-nay. By our actions, we pass 2026-805. Item 13, 2026-806. I got a motion second on the neighborhood's amendment. I will not have Ms. Reber explain that. Looks fairly self-explanatory in our notes there. All those in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The amendment passes. Got a motion second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six-yays, zero-nays. By our actions, we have passed 2026-806. Item 14, 2026-808, is deferred. Item 15, 2026-809, is deferred. Item 16, 2026-810, is deferred. Item 17, we have taken action on. Item 18, 2026-813. Can I get a motion on the amendment? Got a motion second on the amendment. The amendment's one line there on our agenda. No one in the queue. All those in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Amendment passes. Got a motion second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Five yays, one nay. Fire actions, we have passed 2026-813. Item 19, we have taken action on that. I think we're winding down here. Item 20 is on second, and that's 2026-847. As are items 21, 22, and 23, which are 848, 849, 850. 24, 25, and 26, 851, 852, and 853 are all in second. As is item 27, 854. Item 28, 2026-855. Can I get a motion on the amendment? Got a motion second on the amendment. Could you go over this one, Ms. Reber? Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will correct the project location to a level one, economically distressed area, correct scrivener's errors within the bill, place a revised economic development agreement on file to correct the project location, clarify that the company does not own the project parcel, and revise the clawback language to include 6,500 reduction for each new job not created by 12-31-2027, and a $1,300 repayment for each job not maintained during the five years. Correct the RE number for the project parcel, and then correct the scrivener's errors within the agreement. Thank you. I have no one in the queue. All those who have heard the amendment say aye. Aye. Any opposed to say nay. Amendment passes. I got motion second on the bill as amended. No one in the queue, and I did confirm ahead of time this is, there's nothing directly coming out of the general fund for this, correct? Right. All right. Open the ballot, record your vote. Five yeas, one nay. Fire actions, we have passed 2026-855. Item 29 is on second, that's 856, as are 30-31-32, which are 857-858-861. Item 33 and 34 are on second, 862-863. Item 35, 2026-0865, can I get a motion on the emergency? Got motion second on the emergency. All those in favor of the emergency say aye. Any opposed say nay. The emergency passes. Got motion second on the bill as an emergency. My understanding is this is essentially money that was budgeted as a council member's strategic initiative. It lapsed before he could file the legislation. To the chair. So it lapsed because a contract never got executed and the money never got encumbered before the end of the last fiscal year. It was an oversight. So we're reappropriating the money and reauthorizing the contract to carry forward that initial strategic initiative of the council member. Okay. Thank you. And I guess the, whatever the miscommunication was came to light somewhere between September 30th and now, essentially. That is correct. Okay. All right. All those in favor, or I'm sorry, open the ballot, record your vote. Six yeas, zero nays. Our actions, we passed 2026-865. Item 36, 2026-866 is on second. Item 37, 2026-867, this item is being deferred. I got reached out to, prior to this meeting, that this item is on a two-cycle deferral for now. It did go through neighborhoods and rules already. All right. Item 38 is deferred, 2026-868. Item 39, 2026-869, can I get a motion on the emergency? Got a motion in a second on the emergency. No one in the queue. All those in favor of the emergency, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. Emergency passes. Got a motion in a second on the bill, as an emergency, Dr. Johnson. Of course, I must speak to this, Mr. Chair, and I will be, I have a report that's coming forth. While I will be supporting this, I want it to be understood during the budget process, I put money that came from the strategic initiatives or the strategic money that the administration had put forth for us to do this exact same thing. While I've, obviously, this is less money, I'm currently, just for the record, not, I don't even have an office to go to. My office, I've been out of my office for probably about three weeks, maybe longer now, due to the fact that it's been infested with mold, as is Councilman Miller having issues, and Councilman Arias. I say that to say this building that we've been in for quite a while, specifically the council offices, as I said on budget night, had not been touched, and there's mitigating efforts that we could use to make sure that the people's resources, which means this building, are being taken care of. So I will be supporting this, but I want to put it on the record, I did try to do this budget night, and I was decried for doing it, but we got to do something to make sure that the place that we have people working in every day is safe, to make sure that when they come to work, they do have a safe and reliable place to do the job of the people's work. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Councilman Diamond. Yeah, I'm not trying to pick on my colleague here, but to me, this is absolutely ridiculously tone deaf. We just passed Amendment 3, literally just passed it, and we're not saying that there's $70,000 somewhere in the budget somewhere that we could use instead of this. It's ridiculous. In the Army, I've seen mold in barracks. You know what they do? They just wrote those off, and they find other barracks, and there is a whole room here, a whole building filled with empty offices. It would be fine. You could move me first. George would love it. So let me just say this. The mayor is off on a taxpayer-funded junket to Cincinnati. We're trying to spend this money here. There's all sorts of stuff happening right now that is completely tone deaf to what the people just told us. Stop the overspending. Stop the garbage. One question I had, and Mr. Peterson may be your right person for this. Is it normal that we have to pay for the upkeep of our spaces with our own council money? Through the chair to the committee, this is buying new furniture for city council, so that would come out of council's budget. This $100,000 is a council contingency that in almost every year's budget has been set aside for council to decide how to spend that dollars. There's also $100,000 that the mayor has access to, and so this bill is pulling out of that $100,000, but yes, the short answer to your question. So just to make sure I fully understand, so say the office of the CFO within the city, they think they need new furniture. It hits their budget, or they make a request through public works for more furniture, and there's a process to get it refreshed every set number of years? Through the chair to the committee, for furniture, that would be embedded in each department's budget. The public works aspect of it is when there are significant renovations going on, i.e. carpet, building walls, electrical, that type stuff, but furniture is embedded within each department's budget. Okay. So we're basically going to use $70,000 of, I believe, the $100,000 that was in the council contingency, right? Okay. It's a little concerned it's early in the year for us to use all of that money. I'll support this for now, but I may ask a few more questions. It just surprises me that every department is kind of at their own whim to decide what furniture they want and need, rather than just some centralized planning across all departments, whether it's the facilities group or some other group that would plan that and be more efficient with the overall planning as well. So I'm going to go to Council Member Boylan for the first time, then come back to Dr. Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just want to confirm, this is, as you said, this is for the purchase of office furniture. Sure. Any effort to mold remediation really does come out of the city's operating budget, I would assume, public works. Through the chair, I'm not specifically familiar with this instance that Council Member Johnson has referenced, but typically that would be a public buildings aspect, and that is buried in the public works budget. There are public buildings allocations that are charged to each department based on square footage and other things. But yes, that's typically handled by public works. Thank you for that clarification. Dr. Johnson, I'm going to recognize you next, but I just had a quick question for you. You said that some information was going to be put out to us. Did I follow you correctly on that? Yes, you did. I'm working on a report now, air quality reports. I was waiting on the building, people to get back. So I'm waiting on reports. I wanted it to be comprehensive. But one of the reasons I wanted to do it, not just for vindication, but in some ways vindication, because during the budget process, it was put out that I was trying to take money from public safety, or I wanted to have gold doorknobs on doors in City Hall, and it wasn't that. It's that if we are bringing people to these spaces, one of our employees has, many of us have all kinds of health situations. They should be safe, not just, I'll tell you, one of the reasons why when I arrived to this council, I bought my own chair, because when I arrived three and a half years ago, the chair that was in the office had mold in it, and it was pretty bad. It wasn't like mold you can just wipe off, as some may say, and go do something else. It was infested, so they would have had to buy me a new chair, and I bought my own chair, right? And if we're expecting people to come and do business here in this building, this is the people's home, not just ours. And so while we're here, I expect us to take care of it. You know, I've had, not to prolong the debate, but this is one of the conversations I've had with people in the community who have chastised me for this council giving a billion dollars to a billionaire, and I push back on that, whether it's at a CPAC meeting or a community meeting. We never gave a billion dollars to anybody. The stadium where the Jags play is the crown jewel of the Jacksonville real estate portfolio. It is, they don't make riverfront stadiums anymore, right? It just can't. So, of course, the Jags organization, they have the money and could easily buy the stadium. That would be nothing for them, but we would never be able to get that kind of real estate back, and it doesn't make good nonsense for us to give that away, coupled with the fact that I know the deal that was made 30 years ago when the Jags came to Jacksonville, and I'm looking at this deal now, and for us to have a tenant who, there's, I don't know anybody else who owns property where the tenant helps the property owner fix up the property in the way that they're doing, and we're talking to hundreds of millions of dollars and taking care of cash overruns. I was here just like all of us when we negotiated that deal, and it was much better than the deal that came 30 years ago. So, I bring that up to say that it is important when we're looking at the things that need to be done. I don't think it's tone deaf. I think we need to take care of the assets and resources that belong to the people of this community. At the end of the day, the decisions I make are about the people. So, I hope that answers that question. Councilor Carlucci. But, I didn't, that was for your question. Oh, that was just my answer. Yes, sir. Okay, well, then you're recognized for whatever's next. I want to make sure that we understand, too. I heard it said that the mayor was off on a junket. Call it what you will, but the mayor is attending a chamber trip with other members of the Chamber of Commerce and other members of the business community in order to bring resources back to the city of Jacksonville. So, let's call a thing a thing. Let's call it what it is. If we're going to take and talk about the things that we're doing, let's talk about the results that they're bringing to this community. We need to be able to say that it's important for people who are representing this community to go back and do the work of selling this community. And so, I just want us to make sure that when we're having these conversations, we don't let stuff like that linger out there and we don't speak to it. But the reason that I'm, again, supportive of this and want to make sure we understand it is $70,000 is a help, but it certainly doesn't take care of the fact that we've had deferred maintenance in the city council offices since, from my research, to about 1997. It's not a good thing. It's not a place we need to be. And we do need to fix it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will recognize Councilman Carlucci for the first time, then Councilmember Diamond, and then I got a few more questions based on some things I've heard. Councilman Carlucci. Well, based on this talk about the mold, has it been remediated and has it been treated and addressed by public buildings yet? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair to Councilmember Carlucci. Yes, it has, but I have been advised. We're waiting on the next quality report to come back. I have not gotten that yet from, I've been waiting on Administrative Services Division to bring me that. They've been keeping me apprised every step of the way. I had to take everything out, have it cleaned. They had a special cleaning crew come in, and it's not just my office. It's been Miller and Arias as well, and it's spreading. Okay, so number two, have all of the council offices been checked? I don't know the answer to that. ASD, is anyone from ASD here? Jason, Yvonne, no? But ASD would answer that. I don't know the answer to that. I just know us three are next to each other. If Jason Teal's listening, I think he needs to address that. And number three, do we know what the cause is? Because we don't know what the cause is. It'll just happen again. Through the chair to Councilmember Carlucci, HVAC. It was HVAC issues. Obviously, we're in an older building. There are situations that need to be mitigated. There's roof, but I was told for that specifically there were HVAC issues. Yeah, all I'm trying to get at is this, because I'm in the insurance business. These are things I deal with. If you don't get to the cause, then it's just going to keep happening and happening. And mold is kind of a boogeyman type of issue. And if you don't get to the cause, it'll just keep happening and happening. And nobody ever seems to know how to get to the actual cause. And that's important that that happens, or otherwise, it's hard to find what the cause is. So I just want to make sure that we get to the cause, because otherwise, this is going to be a recurring cost. And remediating mold and mildew is very, very expensive. And that's why if you buy an insurance policy and you buy additional mold and mildew, the premium is very high. So we're going to be talking about tax dollars. You know, we need to get on that issue and make sure we plug it up and take care of it. And also make sure that that's not a problem in other places of City Hall as well. And it can be a health issue. That's all I want to say, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Councilor Diamond, do you mind if I go to Ms. Norris first? Okay, Ms. Norris. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to the committee members. And so that spout of very wet, humid weather that we had a few weeks back is what triggered the mold issue. Public Buildings was able to identify the actual area in our HVAC system. And that's why it hit specifically Council Member Johnson, Council Member Miller, Council Member Raul Arias' offices, because they all are in that, I cannot think of the technical term, zone. But in response to that, we brought in a vendor to do some excellent remediation. So that happened, I think, either last week or the following, or the past. And we've also installed humidity sensors and all sorts of stuff on every floor of the building to kind of catch the stuff going forward. So steps have been taken to not only clean up what happened, but to ideally ensure that this won't happen again. Council Member Diamond. Okay. So, Ms. Norris, I guess my question, you just talked about the rest of the building. Are those individual departments paying for whatever's needed in the aftermath of this, whether it's furniture, their remediation itself? Because I guess my confusion, and I don't think any of us had us going, talking longer about this item than the public spill, but that's where we're at now. So it just seems strange to me that each department is in charge of taking care of their corner of the building, in this building, that it's not more planned by the facilities group or the buildings group, whatever we call it here. That's a great question. I will have to check with public buildings to see if they build back costs or if there's stuff in each division's budget. I can get that answer to you. I know Secretary Teal is here. Maybe he can speak to how it was handled this time with council offices, but that's information I will have to get back to you with. Okay. And then the other question I'd like to know the answer for, I believe that the mayor, like the council, has $100,000 in their constituency account each year. I believe that's the number. Phillip's nodding. So $100,000 here, $100,000 there. When the mayor's office needs furniture, does it come out of that, or how is that funded? I just want to make sure we're being consistent here with how we are getting new furniture for our offices. That's a good question. I couldn't tell you the last piece of furniture we bought. I think we inherited a lot of stuff that came in, but I will double check and get back to you as well. Okay. Mr. Teal, did you have anything you wanted to add as our council director? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Jason Teal, council secretary. So the $70,000 is basically to just replace existing chairs. It didn't have anything to do with the mold issue. So the way it was handled as far as the city council offices, as Ms. Norris indicated, that there was a vent that was stuck open, is my understanding, and it pulled in a lot of humid air from the outside, and that wasn't regulated. And so what ended up happening is that there was a rapid development of mold in a limited area. It wasn't just the city council offices. It was in other areas of the city hall. How that was addressed is Roy Burball and his team with facilities, public buildings, actually came in, and they have a contractor that came in to do the remediation of the city council offices. We did numerous air tests. They cleaned out all the duct work. They cleaned all of the furniture and all of the carpeting and walls and everything in the affected offices. And then they did a follow-up test, air test, to verify that, in fact, that it was cleaned up. And so they did handle all of that on behalf of the city council. City council was not billed for any of that. And so that's considered a building issue. The way it works is that we're considered a tenant. And so we do, I think, we pay rent to the city for the city council offices. But, yeah, so all of that was handled in a separate process. We didn't get billed for any of that stuff. The chair replacement is just because these chairs are just, you know, 1989 and have way outlasted their lifespan. But that's the issue. I'll be happy to answer any of the questions that you guys have. Mr. Gay, do you mind if I ask him a couple questions while I was up there? So this is chair's furniture. It's for the entire city council chambers. It's not related to just the specific area we were talking about, the mold issue. No, it's for the city council offices. So all of you are getting a new chair. It is for the two conference rooms upstairs, A and B. And it's for the two conference rooms, the Henry Cook room and the Don Davis room. It's for chairs and actually tables, conference tables, for the two conference rooms as well. So it's just because of the fact that they have exceeded their lifespan and it was time to replace them. That's the reason why we filed this bill. And as council director, you probably know more than us up here combined. So we had $100,000 in that account. This will use up 70% of it and it's November. Are you aware of any other potential requests coming for that source? Because this will not be the year of asking for additional money after we use what was budgeted. So you're not aware of any other potentially pending requests for that? So I went back and worked with the council auditor's office to go back and identify a funding source for this. And we actually went back to look at the historic use of this particular fund. It's something that just repopulates every year. I don't think we touched it last year. And so we're not anticipating that there's going to be any other expenditures that come out of this fund. And so we did make sure that we paid attention to the source of the funding and to not set ourselves up for something happening in March, April, May next year. That there's still in this fiscal year that would impact our abilities to move forward. So, no, we think that the source of money is good. And, yes, the only reason we would have moved forward with it is because we felt like that was a good source of money. Council Member Gay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair and Mr. Thiel. So to confirm what you were saying, that is the furniture replacement is not from the mold issue. Correct. That's two separate issues altogether. Unfortunately, if we could claim to our landlord that their mold messed up our chairs and they'd have to provide us new chairs. But I guess we can't do that. Even if that were the case, Council Member Gay, we'd only be talking three chairs. And so... Hey, three chairs is a lot. That's true. But, so, that's pretty well what I wanted to clarify, that that's not... There's two separate issues and they're being handled separately. Thank you. Mr. Diamond. Yeah, obviously I'm going to be a no on this. I mean, it seems ridiculous to me to, like, replace a chair because you feel it's moist. But I do want to have the option to opt out. So, how can I do an opt out on this? And I think other people should have the right to opt out if we don't want new, like... I would like... I mean, how do we do that? Through the chair to OGC or whomever. Like, look, I don't want people who voted for me to be like, yeah, Rory was fine with spending $2,500 a new chair. I brought my own chair seven years ago. I'm still using it. Through the chair to Council Member Diamond, because I don't know that we have the ability to identify a specific price for specific pieces of furniture, I would recommend that you would work with Director Teal to address which offices would want new furniture or not. The appropriation can go through. If you don't use all the money by the end of the fiscal year, it'll revert back. I'm tracking it. Thank you, Ms. Mary. Through the chair to Jason. I don't need a new chair. My chair is fine. Please, like, deduct one, please. Duly noted. Two. I hear two. Do I hear three? Do I hear three? Four? Dr. Johnson, then Ms. Norris, and then we are going to vote so the Times-Union Daily Record can make this a front-page story. Clearly. Mr. Chair, let's be real. What are we doing here? Moist chairs? Somebody's like, I don't want a chair. I do want a chair. Come on, guys. We are adults here. This is not like this. Somebody else is going to come. This is not our offices. We all have our own offices to go back to. This is the office that we're occupying while we're here. They won't always be there. The funds are there now for this to be taken care of. We don't need to be getting in. If you don't want to take it when it comes, fine. But, Mr. Secretary, through the chair, please do not go and say, I'm going to buy one for one and not for the other. We need to make sure the entire cadre is outfitted. If we need to store them, that's fine. But let's not go through this kind of exercise because it not only makes us look daft, but it also takes time away from real work that we need to be doing as we do prepare for what the auditors have told us is a $200 million budget deficit next year and another $100 million after that. But to play musical chairs with our offices just shows that we are being really performative and not smart for taxpayers, and that's what they've required. Thank you. Ms. Doris. Thank you, Chair. I apologize. Extending Chairgate here. I wanted to give you insight. Angela Moyer with the budget office is here. As far as when it comes to new furniture for departments, that is put in as an enhancement request with the budget process. If they identify a need for furniture during the budget year, it's on them to find money in their budget. If you have more questions on that, she is here to answer them. All right. Well, with that, I think we're ready to vote. My biggest concern is, and we've referenced it for months now, day 34 of this year, we knew things could change. I just don't want to commit 70% of our council contingency this early in the year. I may ask some additional questions and change my vote next week if I learn more. I really do want to talk to whoever's in charge of basically the furniture planning, Ms. Norris, within the facilities group, because it seems to me that that could be a more officially run centralized planning process. A lot of large companies do it that way. So with that, open the ballot recorded vote. Three yays, three nays. Even more exciting conclusion to the public's bill. All right. That was an awful joke. All right. Item 40, 2026, or I'm sorry, by our actions, we have deferred item 2026-0869. Item 4041, 2026-876, 877 are deferred. And then on the next page, 42, 43, 44, which are 878, 885, 886 are on second. With that, I believe we have taken every action item for the day. And with that, anybody from the committee before I adjourn? Anybody got anything? All right. We are adjourned. Thank you.