Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to this week's Finance Committee meeting. We'll go ahead and start off with introductions to our left, starting with Mr. Delaney. Good afternoon, y'all. Bill Delaney with the administration. Colleen Hampsey, Council Research. Mary Stifopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Heather Reber, Council Auditor's Office. Philip Peterson, Council Auditor. Good afternoon. Rory Diamond, District 13, the Beats. Good afternoon. Chris Miller, At-Large Group 5. Will Lane in District 3. Mike Gay, District 2. Randy White, District 12. Good afternoon, Michael Boylan, District 6. All right, good afternoon, everyone. We want to wish a special welcome to Councilmember Boylan, who is now joining us on finance with Councilmember, or former Councilmember Freeman, off to bigger and better things. Councilmember Boylan will be on finance. I look forward to talking about J-Sub every meeting. Yes, you are not allowed to utter the words 200,000 while you're on council with us. So the order we're going to do today, we're going to do public comment, and then we're going to skip ahead to a few items. We're going to go to item 43, which is on emergency. I know they have a rep here for questions only. Then we're going to do items 27 and 33, which we have a visiting Councilmember for. We're then going to go to the top of the agenda and go through everything, with the exception of we're going to skip over the millage rate and 504 to save that for the end. Everything on the agenda today has been unanimously approved through other committees, so I'm not expecting a ton of discussion. Certainly, committee members, if you have questions asked, but I think it will be a pretty light agenda. We're then going to have Daryl Joseph come up and give a brief presentation on JWJ Park. You may recall that this was a topic of conversation when we talked about that on CIP Day. So he's here with a presentation to answer some of the questions we had, and there were some separate meetings with myself, Mr. Joseph, the auditors, and we will have a recommended amendment that Mr. Peterson will walk us through, and that will be on item 504. It will be as part of the overall bill. So with that, and then we'll be done for the day. I think it will be a relatively quick meeting relative to the lengths that they have been through budget season. With that, we'll start off with public comment. Do I have any public comment cards? I have one, Carnell Oliver. In my finance committee, you get two minutes. Please talk to an item on the agenda. Yes, my name is Carnell Oliver. Just today, I filed a formal petition for... Do I have your address, please, Mr. Oliver? Carnell Oliver, address is on file. Thank you. Dealing with 504. I filed a formal petition administrative policy amendment for risk and management, asking for a piece of legislation that creates individual bonds for elected officials that serve on the city council. It has a 30-day time frame. If she doesn't push it forward, it's going to make her look bad political. Point blank and simple. If she sends it to you and throws y'all underneath the bus, you're both going to tap dance together. Then there's going to be a big old crowd out here making a whole lot of noise. Because there's no law in the book where we can hold y'all individually accountable for some of the bad actions that you've taken in the past. I can name a quite few. Jacoby Pittman, Reggie Gaffney Sr., the issues that I am speaking of, there's a lack of accountability. And the proper vehicle is the 504 bill. Now, I've done my part because I know ultimately what I want. I just got to back y'all against the wall and apply disciplinary practices because the simple fact you have done wrong. All right. With that, we're going to skip all the way ahead and take up item 43. So, we're on page 21, item 43, 2026-0671. Can I get a motion on the emergency? I got a motion and a second on the emergency. The emergency reason is spelled out there, so I will not ask Mr. Peterson to read it for us or Ms. Reber. All those in favor of the emergency say aye. Oh, sure. Councilor Diamond, you're recognized. Thanks to the chair, to Ms. Mary. I see that. I understand what the emergency is, but we're extending this to December 31st, 2026. Given the new law that kicks in, I think it's January 1st, 2027. If this were extended one more day, would this be legal? Through the chair to Council Member Diamond. So, we were very cognizant of that, which is why our office's position was that it couldn't be extended any further beyond December 31st of 2026 because of the new law that goes into effect the following day. I know this DEI stuff is very sensitive. I'll just say to everyone here, I'm a no throughout this thing, if for no other reason, that if a bill is illegal, if we extended it one more day, we shouldn't be doing it. And I don't care what the issue is. So, I'm not weighing in on whatever this is. I didn't even read into what this was. I was just like, this is probably in violation of the law, and now OGC tells me it would be if we extended it one more day. That's a weird thing to do for a city council to be like, yeah, one more day, this would be illegal, but we're going to go ahead and do it. I'm out on this one. No, in the queue, I will point out that, I did want to point out at least that this is prior year funding. It's not additional funding. It's the funding that's been extended to allow through that date. No, in the queue, all those in favor of the emergency, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The emergency passes. Got a motion and a second on the bill as an emergency. No, in the queue, open the ballot. Record your vote. Five yays, one nay. Fire actions, 2026-0671 passes. We're now going to go to item 27. This is one of our council vice president's bills. Item 27 on page 13, 2026-0633. I got a motion and a second on the bill. No one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Fire actions, 2026-0633 passes. We're now going to go to item 33, 2026-0645. I do want to point out this bill is not related to the presentation Mr. Joseph is going to give us, even though it is both about James William Johnson Park. So, on 2026, I got a motion and a second on the rules amendment. There is a lot here, but because of it, I do feel compelled. Ms. Reber, if you could go over the rules amendment. Through the chair, to the committee. The rules amendment will remove Section 118-107 waiver and the affidavit that's required. It will add waivers for the permitting requirements in Chapter 250, Part 5, and Chapter 667, and add a waiver of the liquor distance and exception requirements of Chapter 656, Part 8. We'll place a revised contract on file to reflect that Exhibit C is DVI's proposed budget, and any change to that budget will require them to come back for City Council approval. Correct reporting frequency to quarterly. Reflect that DVI is responsible for mowing. Clarify alcohol sales and service language to be consistent with what is currently going on with the Friends of the Park. Correct budget submission date to February 1st. Include revenue within the accounting and reporting language, and then update some insurance language. Thank you. I have no one in the queue. All those in favor of the rules amendment say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. Rules 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. Fire actions. We pass 2026-0645. Council Member Peluso, is there a specific bill you're here for or just the presentation? Okay. Thank you. All right. So, top of the agenda, on page two, item one, 2024-0966 is deferred. Item two, 2025-0361 is deferred. Item three, 2025-0775. Can I get a motion on the withdrawal? Got a motion second on the withdrawal. Known in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays. Zero nays. Fire actions. 2025-0775 is withdrawn. Item four, 2026-0227 is deferred. Item five, 2026-0320 is deferred, as is 2026-0377. Item seven, eight, and nine are the milled rate bills, which we're going to skip over for now. That's 0501, 502, and 503, as is 504, which is the Finance Committee substitute bill. Going to page seven, items 11, 12, 13, 14 are all deferred budget bills, 505, 506, 507, 508, as is page eight. Item 15, 16, 20, 26, 509, 510. Going on to page nine, 2026-511, 512-513, which are items 17, 18, and 19 are deferred budget bills. Item 20, 2026-514 is a deferred budget bill, and item 20, or I'm sorry, item 21, 2026-541 is deferred at the request of DIA. That is the Gateway N7 bill. Item 22, 2026-0588 is deferred. 23, 2026-0624 is deferred. Item 24, 2026-0625, can I get a motion? I got a motion. Second, I have no one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Buyer actions, 2026-0625. Item 25 is approved, 25, 2026-0626. Can I get a motion? Got a motion. Second, on the bill, I have no one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Buyer actions, 2026-0626 passes. Item 26, I'm told Reggie Gaffney Jr. may be here, so we're going to skip it for now, but I'm not going to go to this after the milled rate and budget bill, so in a few more bills, we're going to come back to this and take it up for action, whether or not he is here. We've taken up item 27, one of our council vice president's bills. Item 28, 2026-0634 is deferred. I will remind everyone this bill is running concurrently with the budget JEA bill, but this one, I would just tell you, it's fairly thick, so I'd encourage you, if you have not met with our JEA team to have them brief you on this, I would encourage you to do that. Item 29, 2026-636. Can I get a motion on the amendment? I got a motion and second on the amendment. No one in the queue. All those in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed say nay. The amendment passes. I got a motion and second on the bill as amended. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Fire actions, 2026-0636 passes. Item 30, 2026-0637. I got a motion and second on the bill. I have no one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Excuse me? Okay. Committee, we're moving faster than the computers. Good job. Six yays, zero nays. Fire actions, 2026-0637 passes. Item 21, 2026-0638. Can I get a motion? Oh, I'm sorry. 31. I said 30. Item 31, 2026-0638. I got a motion and a second with no one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. Fire actions, we have passed 2026-0638. Item 32 is deferred. 2026-0639. Item 33, we have taken action on. Item 34, 35, and 36 are on second. That's bill 646-663-664. As are 37, 38, 39, 665-666-667. Items 40, 41, 42 are on second. 668-669-670. We have passed item 43, which was on emergency. Item 44 on second, 2026-0672. Going on to page 23. Item 45, 46, 2026-0673, 0675 are also on second. As is item 47 on the next page, 2026-0676. Page 25, items 48 and 49 are on second. 677-678. And item 50, 2026-0687 is also on second. We're going to flip back to page 26, and I will just ask either the auditors or OGC, is there any reason that we cannot take up action on this without Reggie Gaffney Jr. being here? I see that it was unanimous through neighborhoods, and I also see that the bill co-sponsor, Mr. Perluso, is here. So, any concerns? Mr. Chair, it's at your discretion. You're certainly welcome to take it up if you so choose. Thank you. We'll take action on this now. Then can I get a motion on the amendment? I got a motion second on the amendment. Ms. Reber, can you explain the amendment? Chair to the committee, the amendment is clarifying that the funding is being added to an existing CIP project, not a new project. Thank you. Councilman Diamond. I just want to commend my colleague who's not here. He's done a very good job at getting sidewalks and other CIP money injected into his district during the, you know, kind of off time. And I'm sure he's getting assistance from the administration on that. I would encourage district council people to do the same work. Thank you. No one else in the queue, all this in favor of the amendment, say aye. All right. Any opposed, say nay. Amendment passes. Got a motion second on the bill as amended, known in the queue. I'll also point out that this is all grant money, I believe, that he is receiving. Open the ballot, record your vote. Six jays, zero nays. By our actions, we have passed 2026-0628. So that takes us, I believe we have completed everything except items 7, 8, 9, and 10. Can I get a confirmation? Looks like heads are nodding. So with that, can we go to item 7, 2026-501 and get a motion on, we have to get a motion to recommend approval of tentative millage. I have a motion and second on the recommended approval of tentative millage. Mr. Peterson, can you explain to the body how moving the millage rate up or down would now require a two-thirds vote? This was something I was not aware of until a pre-meeting, but I just want to put it on the record why that is the case. Absolutely, through the chair to the committee. So there was a change in state law in June when the legislature had their special session. A bill was adopted that any increase in the rollback rate up to 110% of the rollback rate requires a two-thirds vote of the governing body to approve. So even if you were to reduce the millage, you would need to reduce it by more than .423 mills to only require a 10-vote or a majority of requirements. So any, say you did last year's quarter-eighth of a mill cut, it would still require a two-thirds vote. Increasing it by a quarter or an eighth of a mill would be a two-thirds vote as well. There is a point where a three-fourths vote is triggered once you exceed that 110% of the rollback rate. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. And again, just to confirm our understanding, this is regardless of whether Amendment 3 passes or fails. This is state law already, correct? Through the chair, or to the chair, that is correct. This is the new law as of, I believe, the governor signed the bill in late June. So going forward, this will be the requirement. Okay, thank you. Committee, I just want to put that on the record because, again, we all remember last year is a 10-9 vote for a one-eighth rate millage rate cut. So, again, going into the future, whether to increase or decrease would likely require a two-thirds supermajority vote. With that, no one in the queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Five yays. One nay. Fire actions. We have passed 2026-501 and already enjoying the Diamond-Boylan combination. Item 8, 2026-0502. I got motion, second, own, and queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Five yays. One nay. Fire actions. We have passed 2026-0502. Mr. Joseph, haven't forgotten about you. You are right after this vote. Item 9, 2026-0503. I got motion, second, own, queue. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Five yays. One nay. Fire actions. We have passed 2026-0503. With that, we're going to invite Mr. Joseph up. And while he is confirming that the presentation is loaded, which I invite you to switch your screens to presentation mode, I just want to recap why, for a number of us, downtown parks is something that we have been watching very closely. So, I believe that I may have been the only one up on here. Mr. Carlucci, you may have been on finance also. But going back to the year 24-25, just some history on our downtown parks since we've been elected, the fiscal year 23-24, the three downtown riverfront parks, Shipyards West, Riverfront Plaza, and Metropolitan Park, were in the CIP for $58 million. We then rolled into the negotiations with the Jaguars. And if you may recall, of the $150 million, that was the city's share, which we all voted for, $40 million was for Eastside, $40 million for countywide, $14 million for each council district, and then $56 million to complete the downtown parks. We rolled into the next year, and a lot of us had the mindset we expected a significant increase in the total cost of the downtown parks by about $56 million. And again, right or wrong, at this point, this was the expectation we had. Well, the city parks didn't go up by $56 million. They went from $58 million to $210 million as the total cost to complete the parks. With that, we worked with Mr. Joseph. We went line by line. Mr. Joseph, you gave us a very in-depth presentation on each one of those parks, as well as with Ms. Sickler and Mr. Long, other members of Public Works. And the agreement was, okay, we're going to approve a significant increase up to $190 million for the three downtown parks, which my conversations with you, we are still tracking that we're going to be able to deliver. We've already delivered phase one of Riverfront Plaza, but we're on track to deliver three world-class Riverfront parks at what is approved in the CIP already. So going to last Wednesday, the reason there was a lot of conversation on James Will and Johnson Park, it's because we saw an increase in a park that I think, when we think of parks, that's certainly a downtown park, which raised it to essentially $198 million, if you add this as a fourth park. Mr. Joseph, I am completely aware you were not tasked to do anything with this park. You were tasked to look at those three Riverfront parks. That was kind of the scope of what we asked you to look at this a couple years ago. But given the conversation, last Wednesday we had asked, I know Council Member Gay and a few others had questions about, well, what part of this is aesthetic? What part of it is infrastructure? And so appreciate you walking us through this. And then at the end, we will walk through the conversation that we had separately about where we think we can change the CIP as it was proposed. So with that, I will give you 10 minutes. And if you run a little long, we'll give you a little extra as well. Good afternoon, Daryl Joseph, parks department, through the chair, to the committee. Thank you for that, and I will start by saying thank you to the administration for, one, making sure, from a park standpoint, we do have the funds that we need to put these parks into a place that we all want them. And thank you to the finance committee and city council for making sure that you're reviewing what we're presenting so we actually have the funds that we actually need as well. So we're talking specifically today regarding James Weldon Johnson Park. James Weldon Johnson Park over the years has gone through a lot of different changes. The initial screen that I'm showing today kind of shows you what the park has been over the years. Historically, this was one of our first parks in the city of Jacksonville. I won't read line by line, but we wanted to give somewhat of a history of where we've been so we have an understanding of where we're going. 1866 is basically when the city actually purchased and became City Park. As we moved forward, again, 1952, we actually had the restrooms that were actually installed on the Lower Street side of the park. There was also a building, tourist office within the park space as well. In 1978 was the last time that there was true renovation of the park space. Again, it has gone from Hemming Park to a plaza space. So at one point it was really a green space that then went into more of a plaza with bricks and pavers, what we currently have now. Our goal is to transition back to more of a green, flexible space. As you see in the image in front of you, that's one of the concepts of the transition that the park has gone through. This was the initial concept plan. This concept plan started from having three different community outreach meetings. There are nine rooms, and each one of these rooms, we actually tried to connect them to the adjacent spaces. So as you can see, there's a children's garden space. That was connected in that place because of Sweet Peats, and when families come for field trips and school come field trips, that connectivity to that space. The Sculpture Garden was located where it's located because of the connectivity to MOCA, so on and so forth. So all of these nine squares or rooms actually had meaning to them. This is the latest plan. Still have the nine rooms, but really wanted to leave this as more flexible, recreational space. I often say it in a lot of your council districts. From a park standpoint, we're never done. There's always something that we could do. This is an image of the stage, which is in the current location adjacent to Hogan Street. That will be more than, from our standpoint, more than a stage working with DVI, really figuring out how we can activate that for not just bands and concerts, but press conferences and other recreational activations. Again, connectivity as well as, you know, having a space that's shaded has been themed and very important to us. So this is one of the images that you would actually see as far as greening the space up, making sure it's shaded, and making sure it's flexible for a various amount of uses. One of the rooms actually creates a food truck court. Having a dedicated place for food and beverage in the park is something that we see as important, and we actually have a location created for that. This is the view looking back towards City Hall. One thing of note, from Laura Street down to Hogan, there's a six-foot slope drop. So making sure this park is ADA compliant is part of the plan and something that we feel is important to make sure that we capture the functionality of the park. Existing conditions, we all have traversed through the park, know what we actually currently have. I will point out the red boxes on this slide. The smaller red box on the right, that is where the underground restrooms are. The one that's over to the left of the slide, that is where there was a tourist office or building within the park. A lot of that infrastructure was not removed, still there. As well as the fountain, those are the blue areas that are detailed. And that piping, as well as the underground infrastructure, is still in place as well. One thing I do want to go back to is the trees. A lot of those are water oak trees, and they are to their or past their useful life. So from a safety and security standpoint, we have taken some of those out, and we will continue to do so as we progress with this plan. Again, this is the budget that we've pulled together. We really, from all of our park projects, we look at it from a standpoint of efficiency and making sure that we're being good stewards of the dollars that we have provided to us. This park is no different. It started out, we were probably closer to a $12, $13 million project, and we've gotten it down to the number that you had before. My request at this point, $5 million current year, and then $27, $28, $750,000. With that, Council Member, I'll turn it back to you. Thank you, Chair. Council Vice President, you're in the queue and recognized. Thank you. Can you go back to the slide on the bird's eye view of the current plan? Okay, cool. So the quadrant, so the Skyway is where the Skyway is, and then the center grand lawn piece. So in my understanding, like, the block or the square that is right in front of City Hall is not going to have, like, a central entry point? Where do you get into this park if I'm walking out of the steps of City Hall, so to speak? Yeah, thank you for that, Councilman. Through the Chair to Councilman Carlucci. So there will be multiple right now. Now there's, you know, of course, pavers you can walk in at any location. This will actually have multiple locations that will allow you to cross the park and meander through the park. So right in front of City Hall, there are two sidewalks that will allow you to go from north to south. Okay, understood. In the previous plan, there was a fountain that was right in that area, so we've taken that fountain out and have greened that space up. Okay, awesome. And, you know, not to get too far into the weeds, but a lot of green space, super cool. And then is there going to be just normal places other than, like, the market garden, so to speak, for the chest and checker tables that all the folks play out there? Because that's obviously a very big thing. Yes, sir. Through the Chair to Councilman Carlucci. As I mentioned, one of the things that we see the benefit of this plan is it provides a lot of flexible spaces. Right now, due to shade, the checker group, they actually move around within the park. That has been contemplated as part of where – part of this plan is making sure that we do have a space for a gaming area. So we have taken that into consideration. Okay, sure. I just see a lot of grass. So the area near the food truck area, that is some type of stabilized surface. So you'll actually have tables and chairs within that to kind of create a food court area. But in addition to that, we do have the gaming area near that as well. Okay, cool. Last question, Mr. Chair. What's the timeline for start to finish? Depending on the vote from the committee today, we would actually plan to get started summer of 2027. Completion date? It'll be about a year from a project standpoint. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Joseph. I have no one else in the queue. There is an amendment associated with what we just briefed on. Mr. Peterson, I know we will not take action until we pass the substitute first, but can you just relay that amendment to us real quick so we're ready to have a committee member introduce it when we get to 504? Absolutely. Through the chair of the committee. So there is $6.75 million of proposed debt funding for this project included in the proposed budget. Based on Mr. Joseph's presentation, that $6.75 million could be lowered down to $5 million for 2627, and then you would add $750,000 to $2728, ultimately cutting the total funding down by a million, but in the proposed year, $1.75 million. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. So, Mr. Joseph, like we talked about, by moving that $750,000 out a year, you still have it. There's no need to come back up to us, and it just aligns to the construction expectation timeline, correct? To the chair, to the chair, yes, correct. That's my understanding. Again, we'll start construction summer of next year. That will give us time to come back from a budget standpoint if we need the $750,000. We'll come back to you at that point. And the way I think we're going to do it is it would actually be on you to come back and tell us you're finishing it without that $750,000, because we are going to have the $750,000 in there for you with the way our council auditor, Mr. Peterson, just described it. Thank you. Councilmember Boylan, also welcome Dr. Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I meant to slip in a couple of questions very quick through the chair to Mr. Joseph. The current flags, et cetera, poles, are those going to be retained? I think that's a – Through the chair, the councilman Boylan, so the thought process on the current flag poles that are in the park have been working with Harrison Conyers. He wants to move those to the Veterans Center, Community Center. But we have a – working with Jill, she has a layout to actually put the flags on the St. James building. So we would still have those flags downtown, but the actual poles wouldn't be in the park anymore. We would actually have them displayed from the building. And with respect to the name of the park, how is that going to be – what kind of signage is anything that's going to be specific to speak to James Weldon Johnson? Yes, so as part of the trail that you see here, that will be the James Weldon Johnson trail that will actually have information, poems, things that actually talk about his legacy will actually be highlighted along that trail. And I assume the only performance area is going to be the stage because you've got a smaller one on the corner right now. Through the chair to Councilman Boylan. And so as it relates to the park, I mean, again, the stage is going to be the formal performance area. But having these nine different rooms that will allow flexibility, someone with a guitar or another type of instrument could actually perform anywhere within the park space. And with respect to the market garden area in terms of the gaming, it kind of feels – to your point, they moved to where the shade is. Is that going to provide sufficient shade to keep them playing there? So one of the key goals to this park through the chair to Councilman Boylan, one of the key components and key themes, really the only space in here would be that central garden that won't have shade. We've been very intentional as it relates to getting more mature trees, leaving the trees that are healthy. But even in that garden space or in the food truck area, there will be shade in that space as well. All right, thank you. No one else in the queue. Also, I want to welcome Dr. Salem. Dr. Salem, you may have heard me when you were walking up. You were with me on finance. You were the chair, actually, a couple years ago when we had the significant downtown parks increase. And I was just telling our colleagues that is why it caught my eye and many others when we saw another downtown park with a scope increase. But I certainly appreciate, Mr. Joseph, you're working with us. And that is real savings we'll have in the CIP. And, again, I'll be looking for a committee member to introduce once we pass the substitute. We will ask for someone to introduce that amendment. We'll vote on that. Then we're going to wrap it up into everything. And then we are pretty much done. So go ahead, Mr. Joseph. I don't want to oversell, so it sounds like we're in a good place. But just a prime example, Friendship Fountain, with the improvements that we've made there, we're on target to have 100,000 people visit that location. With the amount of investment that we made at that location, Riverfront Plaza. So we're seeing the numbers as it relates to people taking advantage of these improvements. So I don't want that to go without notice. And I think the same thing will happen with this intentional design that we've come up with for James Golden Johnson Park. Thank you. You finally got me to come downtown on a 4th of July. So the park did the trick, I guess. It was a great 4th of July ceremony. All right. So with that, Council Member Salem, you got here just as we were wrapping up the millage rate. Did you have anything on that? I'll recognize you now if so. Thank you so much. Through the chair to Mr. Peterson, the governor's law that he signed was new to me. Could you repeat that? Because if I heard it correctly, I have some questions. Through the chair to Council Member Salem. So a law that was signed by the governor, adopted by the legislature, changed the statute to say that a rate higher than the rollback rate, up to 110% of the rollback rate, requires a two-thirds vote of the governing body. Higher than the rollback? Higher than the rollback. It used to say a rate, you could approve a rate up to 110% of the rollback rate with just a majority. That got changed to anything above the rollback rate, up to 110% is now a two-thirds vote. Okay. So a tax, through the chair, a tax cut is still 10 votes. A, well, it depends on how much of a tax cut you have. If you're going below the rollback rate, then you would not, you would just need 10 votes. But if you are lowering the millage rate, say, in our current year from 11-19-19 down to 11, that still would ultimately require a two-thirds vote of the governing body because that rate is higher than the rollback rate. Through the chair, if the mayor should recommend a tax cut in the budget itself, then the entire budget would require a two-thirds vote. Through the chair, the vote on the millage is separate from the vote on the budget. So if she recommended a reduced millage rate that was anything higher than the rollback rate, the millage bill itself is still going to take a two-thirds vote. The budget would be dependent on if we were pulling from reserves or a contingency. Thank you. I just wanted to clarify that. And, Dr. Salem, I learned about that this week. And so it's greatly increased the bar of what would be required to change the millage rate one way or another, really. And I had Mr. Pearson put on the record, this has nothing to do with Amendment 3 passing or failing. It is already the state law. Thank you for recognizing me. Absolutely. Thank you. And thank you for joining us. All right. With that, we're on to 2026-0504. So it is time to land the plane or surface the sub, as I prefer to say. So with that, can I get a motion on the substitute? We got a motion and substitute. I will have comments once we have voted on the substitute and the following amendment that I'll hold off on now. I have no in the queue. All those in favor of the substitute say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Was that an A? Okay. Well, the substitute passes. With that, I am looking for someone to introduce the amendment involving the modification to the James Will and Johnson Park CIP as briefed by Mr. Peterson. I got a motion second on that amendment. I have no in the queue. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Nay. We have one nay. The rest ayes. That amendment passes. Auditors and Mr. Fopolis, I would like that rolled into the substitute. I believe we got to say just as substituted. So, yes, you voted on the substitute, you voted on the amendment, and rolled it up. So, the motion that would be appropriate now is to move to recommend approval of tentative budget as substituted and get a second on that. I got a motion and second. And with that, I have no in the queue, so I'm going to make a few comments. First of all, I think it's a testament to the hard work we did that we are going to get out of here by about 143 on the final day, final committee meeting. Council Member Diamond is urging for me to talk faster. So, what I was going to say, I mean, I do feel like we're at a place where we're proud of the responsible budget we're about to send to our colleagues. I did say at the beginning, we got presented a more reasonable budget to begin with than years past. I appreciate it was a 1% year-over-year increase, which is significantly less than prior years. It had a net reduction in headcount for non-public safety departments. It's a capital improvement plan over $100 million less than prior year. And my favorite, no money needed to actually bounce the budget from the reserves. From there, the council president was very clear with his directive as we went through the line-by-line budget review. Asked three questions. Is it core? Is it duplicative? And do we have the cash for it? And as the finance chair, I added two things, especially as it pertained to the uncertainty of November 3rd. One, let's preserve cash. If the referendum passes, like I've said many times now, we have to scale down about $200 million in the first year. We may need to use cash to bridge the gap if we cannot scale down fast enough. And just like in the business world, cash equals flexibility for us. We've also said repeatedly, let's not start anything new, especially if it's an expense-only item with no offsetting revenue to the city. And I think we successfully stuck to those principles. So as it stands now, and colleagues, just pay attention to this, please. For the first time since the fiscal year 2012-13 budget, we're proposing a budget with less spend than the prior year. And regarding the CIP, we made some additional changes to what was proposed to further reduce our debt borrowing for next year. We've also done it in a cordial, business-like manner, which I asked for in the beginning, even though we reduced spending more than last year. Last year, the final budget was a $13 million reduction. We're on track right now for $24 million. And we've avoided some of the same fights of previous years. I mentioned that the mayor's office budget, 0.25% of the overall budget in years past has been hours of conversation. This year, we simply reduced that budget to match the same year-over-year growth rate of our own city council budget, which I believe is about as fair as you can get. We also led by example. Rather than adding in new items to fill up the $10 million of council strategic initiatives that the mayor is required to budget for us each year, we only approved items that were previously funded last year or, in the case of an item the council president had, with an offsetting funding source. I tried to personally set this leadership tone as finance chair. In addition to having the smallest district CIP budget, I had no enhancement request knowing this was the year that we should not do that. On wrap-up day last Thursday, the majority of our council colleagues were here. And I was proud that out of all of us, there were very few, very minimal new items brought up. And we were actually able to work out some outside-of-budget funding solutions during that meeting. We did find consensus with the mayor in many areas. One of the very few new items was $2 million to Wolfson's Hospital to support the OBGYN program, which also will allow us to get much more dollars in return to the community. Meals on Wheels. We're still fighting mistruths a year later, but if you follow the facts, last year's city council doubled the funding of Meals on Wheels. There was never a conversation on cutting Meals on Wheels funding. The conversation was whether it was prudent to increase it as much as the mayor proposed. We kept it in the budget this year at the same historically high level as last year. The Affordable Housing Trust is a great example of sticking to our guidance of nothing new. Although it was lumped together as a single item in the budget called Affordable Housing Trust, it was three separate line items, none of which were new, and items that repeatedly have not been put into the budget by the Finance Committee. Of the $4.9 million in Affordable Housing Trust proposal this year, all but $900,000 would have been new to this year's budget, and that $900,000 from last year was added in as a floor amendment on budget night, not what was sent to full council by the Finance Committee last year. Affordable housing is a priority for this council. I'll leave it to others to summarize the long list of the Affordable Housing Actions Council has undertaken to impact the most residents at the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars. We're also prepared. I meant to mention in the beginning, we now have three Eagle Scouts on the Finance Committee, which I think is a pretty neat fact. We have three Eagle Scouts and a Life Scout for what it's worth. All right. So, again, be prepared. I said that at the very beginning. That was one of my themes. If Amendment 3 fails, we still have a year-over-year budget slightly less than last year. If it passes, we have a head start on scaling down to a budget of $200 million less for fiscal year 27-28 by not approving all the public service grant and cultural grant funding to be released on October 1st. And if Amendment 3 fails, the same funds are released right away and will not require additional legislative work to get the funding to the various organizations in our community. So, gentlemen, I want to thank each and every one of you. Thank you for all the hard work, all the night and weekend research that the general public never sees, all the one-on-one meetings we had with different department heads, different organizational leadership. That really started in June for most of us. And so I am hoping for a unanimous vote to send this to the full council, which was one of my goals in the beginning. And then I've mentioned this, too. We gave a lot of money back on budget night last year. And so I'm hoping that we stand strong, keeping the numbers where they're at right now on what we send to full council. So, again, thank you, everyone. No one in the ballot – I'm sorry, no one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote. Six Jays, one nay. By our actions, 2026, 504 passes. Council Member Johnson, I did not see you in the queue, but I will recognize you now. It's okay, Mr. Chair. Thank you for your kind words. I think it's important. And by the way, although I was a member of both PAC and Troop 74 under the direction of Bruce Seldon, who is resting at the big campground in the sky, I did not make it to Eagle Scout, but I got real close. So I just – I wanted to put that out there so you got yet another Scout-ish – I won't say that. Let me say – I must say before, I did vote to push this budget forward. I think it's important. I look forward to us debating it and our colleagues. While I certainly understand what you said, Mr. Chair, I almost feel like I have to give a little bit of a conversation on – I won't call it a rebuttal, but just to say I know we've all – I heard you use the word historically high numbers when it comes to Meals on Wheels and the other things that we've done. And historical or not, we also have historical high numbers of people that live in Jacksonville, and as such, people are getting older, and there are more needs that they have. One of my reasons for being late here today for this committee meeting, as I was just meeting with the regional director of HUD about some affordable housing opportunities, and that meeting ran over. I say that because it kind of goes into what was being said here. Yes, the council does have that as a priority, but one of the first things that we did when I was elected to this council is we cut the funds that we had available for affordable housing. And so I must make sure that while I do understand fiscal responsibility and the things that we must do, I also have to juxtapose that with the other work of making sure that it's not just about numbers, it's about people. I'm not saying that what you said is, but I want to make sure that when we talk about affordable housing and when we talk about Meals on Wheels and other programs, that I kind of go back to a biblical tenet that I learned, at least in my faith and with my family, that which you do unto the least of these. Or when I say least, it doesn't mean anybody is less than or doesn't have. But those people that do not maybe have as much, that which you do unto those, you're also doing unto me. So that's why I'm fighting so hard to be a good steward. I did, like I said, support what we're sending to our colleagues, but I will also be in support of adding some of the things back because in the work that I've done and the research that I see, I firmly believe that there are places that we have made missteps. And I've made no bones about speaking to that on the committee, and I'm going to do that, you know, hopefully won't turn into Councilman Diamond. I love my friend, but I may be a no on some of the stuff, but I certainly will say I appreciate the collegiality that we've done in this process. It has not been hard. I was four hours a night of reading and study every night of this. It's my first time on this committee. It's an incredible amount of work, but I wouldn't have wanted to have done it with anyone else. Thank you for your leadership in this process to get us here, and while we may not always agree, you do respect this process, and for that, I will always be grateful. So thank you for that, and thank you for your leadership. All right. I have no one else in the queue. We have voted on the budget. It'll be up for tentative approval on Tuesday. We are adjourned.