Well, good morning. We'll go ahead and get started with our Monday, April 6, 2026 neighborhoods meeting, and I call the meeting to order, and we'll start with introductions to my left. Brandon Russell, Council Research. Mary Stifopoulos, Office of General Counsel. Philip Peterson, Counselor's Office. Good morning, Michael Boylan, District 6. Mike Gay, District 2. Good morning, Chris Miller, At-Large, Group 5. Ron Salem, Group 2, At-Large. Good morning, Tyrone Clark, Murray, District 9. Randy White, District 12. Thank you. All right. Welcome, everyone. So we'll go ahead and open up for public comment. Our first speaker will be Mr. Cornell Oliver, and you'll be given three minutes if you state your name and address or say it's on file for the record, and please, please be specific and stay on discussion for any item that's on the agenda. Mr. Oliver. Yes. My name is Colonel Oliver. Address is on file. I have to be broad, and I'm going to be specific. 2018, 2019, and 2007. You know, when I take a good look and I look at available land in this city or any kind of focus of economic development, there are a couple of things that come to my mind, and then there's some questions I want to ask. Number one, if the conversation of a new neighborhood bill of rights come up, will there be a conversation about the 1866 Civil Rights Act, or will we actually have a conversation in this community about Field Order 15 from General Sherman? Will this with its mayor administration, or will the council put forward some kind of legislative approach with creating a free men affairs division on the community development? I think there needs to be a lot of pause on a lot of issues moving forward, because when the birthright citizenship happens, this city is moving progressively strong. But there is a need to fulfill a redress that addresses a lot of key economic needs of people that have always been here. I filed a class act. I filed a complaint with the federal courts. I'm not getting much help on it, but I'm utilizing the things that make me who I am in this country and what makes me pursue the things in this country. My self-determination is not reflective of me running my mouth. It's about me meaning what I say and saying what I say doing it. The issues are very clear. The ones that establish this country have been overlooked. They have been oppressed because of bad policies of the past. And it goes from the east side to old La Villa, Riverside, because those old freedmen, sell them. We got ran off because of consolidation. There are a lot of issues that must be addressed, or we're going to keep going through the same issue. If it means we got to break this city up, let's go back to the basics of having small towns. But the thing about it is we got to bring the power back to the people. And my people need the power. If we can get allocated resources from a division, if America do it, put it in the budget for the 2027. But if you have to reallocate that money, I'm looking for the council to do it because you can always find, you can always find wasteful spending. You have an obligation because when that 14th Amendment case is settled, there is an obligation. I yield my time. All right. Thank you. Our next speaker will be Blake Harper and then followed by Sally Barnes and Letera Harris. Mr. Harper. Good morning. My name is Blake Harper. Information on file. Thank you for honoring the First Amendment, Mr. Chairman. I want to briefly mention three items that are on the agenda. 186, which is the baby boxes, and 227, which is restricting the expenditure of taxpayer dollars for abortion services, and of course, 140, which is a street renaming. Please vote for the restrictions and for the baby boxes, and please turn down 140. 140. Now, 140 is about changing our history. 140 is about hiding our history. So what we're going to do today is we're going to talk some more about that history that they want to hide. When I was at TEU, I showed you this sign and documented that the Democrat Party is a party of white supremacy. This goes back to the 1870s and 60s. Now, there is this notion out there called the Southern Switch. The Southern Switch claims that the Democrat Party took on the mantle of righteousness and the Republican Party became the racists, and that is absolutely not correct. What you have here is research that's been done through Garak. So you have a summary of the historical events, and I just want to take you to the last paragraph. It says, the Southern Switch is often weaponized to imply one party inherited moral superiority on race, while the other inherited guilt. Reality, both parties have ugly chapters. The South's transformation reflects broader American changes. Civil rights victories and segregation, the region are modernized, and voters sorted by ideology. Claims of a sudden race-driven party inversion don't hold up against congressional records, timelines, or the slow pace of realignment. There should be no question that we continue to see the Democrat Party pushing racist and bigoted notions, particularly when Donna Deegan wanted to appoint Elizabeth Anderson to the board, when she stood up and called a conservative black woman a token. The reality is that we have a serious problem here. The problem is that we're not speaking about the facts, speaking about the truth of it. When we actually sit down and start looking at what we've actually done, then what happens is that we recognize the great progress that we've made, and what we need to do is we need to keep our history in place so that we keep track of that progress. Thank you for your time. All right. Thank you, sir. Next, Ms. Sally Barnes. Good morning. My name is Sally Barnes. My address is on file. I'm here because of the 101005 My Duff Project. They're asking for a rezoning, and they're not doing what they're asking for. They already have a car lot of some kind of some sort up there. They're working on cars. They started out working on the building without a permit, so they shut them down on that. This place is right next door to a residence, and I'm concerned that if they get this zone commercial, they'll do whatever they want in that area, and it's right in somebody. It's connected to their fence. They put up a privacy fence, so you can't see what's going on there, but the front car lot is full of cars, and the back car lot is full of cars. Ever since they got this building, they've been working on cars back there. They're doing something, and I can say this because it's right up the street from my house. I can walk up there and look. I walked up. I looked between the fence. If you go on Google Maps, you can see the cars. You can see the cars in the front of it. You can see the cars in the back of it. It's full. It's full of cars. I don't trust somebody that's going to do something illegal because they think they can get away with it. They got caught remodeling the building, and they had to stop. They had to stop that, so I'm asking you not to change the zoning. Leave it residential. If they want an office, I don't see a need to have the zoning changed to have an office there. I don't think anybody would contest that. So I'm asking you, if you would, just let it stay residential. Residential office, if they say, but not to put a car lot there or whatever they're doing with all those cars they have in there. Like I said, go on Google Maps. You can see it for yourself. It's full of cars. I went up there to try to talk to them. They ignored me. They wouldn't talk to me, so I'm asking that this not be changed to a commercial office. It is right in. We don't need another morgue situation, and that's how close this is. They're using this neighborhood, this neighbor's fence as their back fence. I don't think it should be changed to commercial. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Ms. Barnes, I think that'll be taken up in the LUZ or one of those committees. It's not on our agenda, but I went ahead and let you discuss it, and so you may want to make sure you attend the LUZ meeting Tuesday night to discuss that, so thank you for being here. Next, we've got Ms. Latavia Harris. Good morning. My name is Latavia Harris. My address is on file. Even though we did not know it was not on the agenda, I just wanted to do a brief conversation in reference to the CBA board, and again, thank you to so much of you guys who actually went through with this process. For those of you who don't know, we did attend the mayor's community meeting, and exactly what we asked not to happen is it's not Republican and Democrat. The Republican Party and Democrats came together to make this a successful benefit agreement for the community, but with that, one of the issues is I actually reported to Dr. Rudy Jamison several times that the mayor's URL was not working. There was no transparency to the vetting process. Some of my coalition members did pull, are now asking for public records to see all the people that counsel personally asked to be on this board. There was supposed to be a process to keep the community from losing its agency. When looking at the board members, they're all professional board members. We don't have the part that we wanted, and that was accessible and understanding to the public who these people are. When asked most of the public if they knew some of these people, they didn't. Even with one of the board members clearly stating on his resume, I have nine properties that I'm looking forward to developing. That is a big issue because we have to keep in mind these board members are setting the structure. Even they're only one year for the mayor, two years for the council. They're going to set this framework. So if I set the framework the correct way, once I'm off the board, I know legitimately how to go get everything that I need. There were no youth when it comes to this. I do understand that age comes with wisdom, but youth also bring innovative minds. You know, the new kids these days, they don't just take what you want them to take. They actually study what they need to do. There was no start and stop process. The community never knew, even all the way up until Friday, people were still sending in their resumes and application. So we need to understand the correct vetting process. The community never knew exactly who the nominees were and how they were picked. And a lot of these nominees actually cross-referenced with each other, sitting on the same boards or, you know, preference. I did understand it was going to, I mean, do I feel like some of the board members just picked because of who they knew. Yes. Even in there, they put no spreadsheet other than they went to church in the community. That's not enough to come into a disenfranchised community and not have at least most of the members from the community. And we need to compare the qualifications. Like what were the qualities? We set the ordinance for this is what it had to be. And most of those members don't even meet that qualification. You know, we had business interests, but thank you guys. All right. Thank you. And again, Ms. Harris, this is not on our agenda. I know. But you've got a lot of members up here that are on the rules committee. And I believe it'll be coming up in rules at two o'clock today. So that would be a very good committee to attend. Yes, sir. And have this discussion as well. So thank you for being here. I just wanted to go ahead and let you speak since you made the effort to get out early in the morning here. So with that, we'll move on. I'd like to recognize Council Member Amaro has joined us as well as Council Member Carlucci. Welcome. And Mr. Delaney, he did finally make it this morning. So with that, we're going to go to our next topic in the agenda. And that's a presentation from the Northeast Florida Regional Council. And you'll have under 10 minutes to share your presentation with us. Thank you, sir. Yes. Good morning, everybody. Through the chair, to members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to present to you this morning about the work that the Northeast Florida Regional Council does to support our public safety partners here in the city of Jacksonville. Let's see, we'll have a presentation and I'll click into that. But as it gets going, for those of you, as a reminder, the Northeast Florida Regional Council serves a board of directors made up of elected officials from across the region. And Mr. Gay and Mr. Amaro are the sitting board members currently. So thank you. If you would give your name for the record. Yes, sir. My name is Tyler Nolan. I'm a special projects coordinator with the Northeast Florida Regional Council. And we're located at 40 East Adams Street here in the city. The regional council is able to provide funds to public safety entities in a variety of couple of ways. And we leverage dollars in unique ways to allow this to happen. One of the contracts that we have is the local emergency planning committee for hazardous materials. This is actually a federal requirement that every state in the country have LEPCs. However, the state of Florida has special Florida statutes that says that in the state of Florida, LEPCs will be strictly focused on hazardous material preparedness and response. In addition to that, we have the region three healthcare coalition, which is basically the emergency preparedness sector of healthcare, looks at all industries of healthcare to support the emergency preparedness and readiness of that. And then on top of that, as an agency, as you all know, through dues and dues that are collected, we're able to provide additional to support for fire rescue and sheriff's offices and county emergency management offices upon their request. And then in addition to that, we do a lot of cost sharing. As you know, with federal and state grants, a lot of time, the state and federal government wants to see some buy in on the local level. And that's how we're able to use those dollars and leverage them effectively. To get a little bit specific and down into the weeds just a little bit, I mentioned that the LEPC, the Local Emergency Planning Committee, is a federal requirement, was created in 1986 as the response to two different disasters, one in 85 and one in 80, one in 84 and one in 85. And across the country, LEPCs focus on things in a different variety. Here in the state of Florida, the Florida Division of Emergency Management pushes out a contract to all the regional councils across the state to implement this program on a statewide level, but on a regional perspective to support the hazardous material teams. Here in Northeast Florida, we have three hazardous material teams across the region. But really, JFRD is so large and the city dynamic is so large that you really have two type one hazardous material teams. And what type one means is they can respond to any incident, doesn't regardless of chemical or radiological components. With this, the Florida Division of Emergency Management a couple of years ago changed their regional map to fit what the regional councils have to better align with these programs. As you all know, the state and federal government oftentimes pushes out mandates. These are ones that are funded. So it does come with a level of importance to both the state and the federal government. One of the biggest things and one of the biggest challenges I have as the coordinator of the LEPC is communicating that to you effectively. This is a very elementary, ruterary map of the command structure of the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. And while we work with the leadership structure and meet with them regularly, really, I work the most with that little box down all below that. I work directly with the hazardous material teams, directly with their district chiefs, understanding what the folks with the boots on the ground really need and what kind of training initiatives they need. Now, I report up and I converse with not only Chief Golden and Chief Blanton on a routine basis, but really, I spent a lot of time down there in that lower command structure supporting the teams. Some of the training initiatives that we've been able to accomplish this year thus far is sending 15 personnel to the Florida Hazardous Materials Symposium in Daytona. We have sponsored two JFRD personnel to the Advanced Hazmat Life Support. That's the medication component of hazardous material response. And then to support a much larger state of Florida and Coast Guard initiative, sending JFRD personnel to a maritime hazmat course, so that way they can use their hazardous material training in a maritime environment where terminology and everything gets turned upside down for our first responders. Some of the training that we've included is some of the gas response. Over the years, we've been working hard to touch all the major gases that we have here in Northeast Florida. And to conclude this long standing training evolution, we will wrap this up next week with a chlorine class that I invited a lot of you all to on April 16th. If you'd like to attend, please reach out to me and I'll make sure you're on the list and get the information. Real quickly, one of the big courses that we've been working on is the unmanned aerial vehicle. As you know, there was a lot of state law that changed with this, and this has been something that we have been working on for years now. And we actually got this class approved for federal reoccurring funds. So once we do this initial pilot class, no pun intended, we will be able to offer this course more regularly to not only first responders of the fire rescue, but sheriff's offices as well. To touch on our health care coalition a little bit, this is funded by the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, ASPR. And the mission is that emergency preparedness component for the health care sector. Our Region 3 health care coalition actually serves an 18 county region, but a lot of those health networks are centric here in the city of Jacksonville just due to the makeup. That alliance has over 980 individual members and reaches over 550 individual organizations and agencies. Equipment, training, resource, information sharing, all provided to these health care facilities at no cost. One of the big programs that we do, and how I mentioned we get to leverage dollars, is because we maintain the LEPC and we maintain the health care coalition, we were able to take on a much bigger initiative by doing shelter-in-place training across the region. And with this, you know, everybody's mind right now, when we say shelter-in-place, it goes to a bad actor. However, there are different changes when we start talking about a chemical environment. So we were able to offer this training to over 30 individual facilities here in the city of Jacksonville alone. And then there will be an exercise that we have set all of these facilities up for here coming at the end of the month. Some of the equipment that we have gotten to purchase as a result of these initiatives are these disaster pack stretchers. They basically fold up, can be used in a mass casualty type of incident. They have triage tags on them, and then can be washed, cleaned, and put back away in the hopes that we never actually have to need them. In addition, we've been able to provide six tabletop exercises to first responders and receivers, multiple training opportunities. The big statewide initiative for the health care coalitions this year has been radiological, nuclear, and WMD response. So we have been able to focus on that specifically throughout this year, which actually merged really well with the LEPC, which we maintain as well. Then second to that is we actually just funded 70 pediatric restraints to go to JFRD for their rescue units. As part of the after-action report from Hurricane Ian that affected southwest Florida, when young children and babies had to be evacuated from hospitals, there wasn't enough of these devices to support the need for that evacuation. On a statewide level, our organizations looked at this, and then we looked at that on a local level and figured out how we needed to fill that gap, and acquiring these pediatric restraints was a way to do that, and we have been able to fund that for JFRD, as I mentioned, acquiring 70 of those for rescue units across the city. While I've gone very quick to just briefly touch on a number of our programs and things, that's just a small drop in the bucket for the programs and the ways that we're able to support the city. In the other ways is this Northeast Florida Military Installation Readiness Review. We've been the implementers of the JEA hurricane exercise for the past 10 to 15 years, working on that, and our resiliency team just released their resiliency action plan, which is a toolkit for local governments to address resiliency on a local level. It's not a one-size-fits-all. It's a plug-and-play based on what works best in your local jurisdiction. Before I leave you, I do want to emphasize two points. Through this funding and through the funding that you all provide and the way that we're able to leverage dollars, it allows us to be extremely efficient in the things that we're doing. We're building upon things that are already there and taking that to a whole nother level and being the best that we can be. And then lastly, we provide a level of continuity to our first responders. As you know, the way that it is situated is everybody is fighting for promotions. When you get those promotions, your job changes, right? From engineer to lieutenant, from captain, your job kind of changes. These personnel are able to come to us, let us focus on the long-term process, and watch these processes come into fruition, as you saw with drones and a couple other training initiatives that we do. Thank you for your time. All right. Thank you, sir. Mr. Bolin, hearing for recognize. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair, Tyler, thank you for the presentation today. I really do appreciate, as you well know, the hard work for Northeast Florida Regional Council. Apart and perhaps in context with public safety, my district, Mandarin area, as you know, obviously seeing a tremendous amount of traffic flow from St. Johns County, Clay County across the Buckman Bridge. Can you speak to a little bit? I remember some years ago, there was a lot of focus on the part of the council to take a look at traffic flow and how FDOT and the cities and the municipalities can address that. Can you speak to that, if you wouldn't mind? Yes, sir. So, through the Chair to Council Member Boylan, some years ago, the Regional Council did what's a hazardous material commodity flow study. In a simple sense, it's picking random times to put somebody out on those roadways and capture the placards that go by. Time, it's determined by the United Nations, so those numbers never change. That report, we haven't done in a little while, but we're actually looking and working with some of our partners at DOT right now to see if we can use AI in a way to do that for us. By having people out there, it's very staff heavy, and it's just a snapshot in time. If we have a camera that can capture these placards, right, it's a United Nations standard, so they don't change and they have to be on a certain spot on the vehicle. We're actually looking at ways and trying to crack that nut and see if there's a better way that we can get in and get better data for that. Not only on those roadways, but looking at the new First Coast Expressway, how that's going to change traffic flow for the city is at top of mind, and we are really trying to look into that a lot more. All right. No other speakers in the queue? Mr. Councilman Morrow. Go ahead, sir. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Very quickly, I just wanted to say, Tyler, thank you, and as a member of the board, I find the work that you've done with the LEPC very commendable, and I just want to take a moment and recognize your conviction and your commitment and say thank you. Thank you, sir. With that, we'll move on to our next item in the agenda. Thank you for being here, Mr. Tyler. Mr. Carlucci, did you have a specific bill? Okay. All right. Just wanted to make sure we wouldn't... Okay. All right. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a topic that you needed to address. We'll go ahead in our agenda to item number 15, 2026-0189. Can I get a motion on the bill? I've got a motion and a second on the bill. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0189. Next item, we... Go ahead, Ms. Murray. I'm sorry. Thank you. Good morning. You did that kind of fast. I just want to be added as a co-sponsor to that bill. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Next item will be number... Item 16, 2026-0190. Okay. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. There's no discussion. Open the ballot and record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. All right. By your action, you've approved 2026-0190. That takes us back to the beginning of our agenda. And we'll... Item number one, 2024-0966 is deferred at the request of Council President Carrico. Item number two, 2025-0361 is deferred at the request of Council Member White. Item number three, 2026-0005. Okay. I'm getting a motion on the amendment. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Mr. Peterson. Through the chair of the committee, the amendment will reflect that additional notices needed to be sent to two affected property owners and reflect the revised results of that noticing. Those two notices went out and they did not respond. And therefore, there are no responses in the affirmative. We'll attach a revised Exhibit 3, which is the results to reflect those additional noticing responses. We'll attach a revised Exhibit 4, which is the responses to exclude responses that were originally associated with two parcels and those that were renoticed. Place revised notices on file to reflect the additional noticing. And then lastly, correct scribbers. All right. Thank you. So I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. No speakers in the queue. All in favor, say aye. Aye. None opposed. Any opposed likewise. Can I get a motion and a second on the bill as amended? So I've got a motion and a second. Ms. Murray, you recognize. Good morning. Ms. Pollack, if you would come forward. I don't see the bill sponsor, although I think he anticipated being here because I do see a placard for him. So I did do some research in regards to Mr. Burrell. And I was just trying to find, I know that he was the owner of Island Tropic Restaurant that was on Main Street. So how long was the restaurant operating? What did he do for the community? Cherry Pollack, Office of General Counsel. And in the legislation that I wrote, I'm looking at the wrong one. Just a second. Mr. Burrell, the actual restaurant is actually still in operation. And actually him and his wife, Ms. Sydney Burrell, owned and operated the Island Tropics Restaurant for more than 20 years. Thank you for that, Ms. Pollack. What was his impact on the community? Or how did he work with the community? Well, as stated here, he had relocated here to Jacksonville and he opened several properties, rental properties. He was known in the community specifically for the actual restaurant. The restaurant brought the community together. Other things, I guess they loved the Jamaican cuisine. So they had good food. That was good. Okay. All right. Thank you. I was unable to find through the chair to Ms. Pollack. I was unable to find a great deal of information. So I needed some additional background to help me make a decision. Thank you. Thank you, chair. All right. Councilman Amaro, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ms. Pollack, while you're there. Just to further expand on my council members' questions, who generated the legislation and the reasoning for it? The wife, the widow of the Mr. Burrell, she submitted an application through the chair to Councilman Amaro. She submitted an application and she paid the fee as well. So it was initiated by Ms. Burrell. Okay. I don't see any other speakers in the queue. So I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Open a ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0005. Next item, number four, 2026-0140. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Mr. Peterson. Through the chair of the committee, the amendment will reflect that a second notice was sent to an affected, it says property owner, but it was a small cell wireless located property, or not property, but a cell tower, if you will, on that stretch. Reflect their non-response, which would be in the affirmative. Attach a revised exhibit two to include that second notice, and then correct some references to ordinance code sections. All right. Mr. Bowler, you're on the amendment. Okay. So let's go ahead through this amendment. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. All in favor, say yay. Yay. Any opposed? Likewise. None. The amendment carries. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Mr. Bowler, and you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to offer an amendment. I'm not a big fan of changing history or covering up history, but I understand the rationale for this. My amendment is to limit the name changing on Confederate Street between Market and Liberty. The Confederate Street naming between Hubbard and Market Street actually fronts Springfield Park. Obviously, the name of the street was a reflection of the fact that there was a park there. I think doing this solves two problems. Number one, it recognizes the historical nature of Confederate Street and its location, fronting the park. And secondly, to address the concern that that entity that's taking over the building on Liberty and Confederate. So I'll offer a motion to amend this to limit to the name change to from Market to Liberty. Looking for a second. All right. I've got a motion and a second on the bull and amendment. Councilman Amaro, are you on the amendment? I'm sorry. Thank you, Mr. Chair. The, I second the amendment because it seems like a good middle landing spot, if you will, to kind of quell the controversy and yet achieve what the applicants are trying to achieve. If I understand it correctly, the name change will be simply between Market and Liberty and Hubbard and Maine will remain the same. And it's a shame that we need to do this. If we're going to change it, change it completely or not. But it just seems like a good landing spot, if you will. And that's why I offered a second on it. All right. No other speakers in the queue. So Colonel Miller, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair, I just want to make sure, Councilman Member Boylan, I just want to make sure I understand because the two, two stretches or parts of the street, one is between Hubbard and Market and the other is between Market and North Liberty. So if you would help me understand which one, which one of the two you said, you suggested changing. Yes, sir. The markets, my amendment calls for only changing the strip of Confederate street between Market and Liberty. The piece between Hubbard and Market, which fronts the Springfield Park, seemed appropriate to keep that as it is. So I hope that answers your question to the chair that Mr. Councilmember Miller is between Market and Liberty. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it to the chair. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Chief White. Yes, sir. Through the chair, I just want to put on the record, I was going to offer amendment to withdraw this to keep our history, but I possibly might have interest in Mr. Borland's amendment. So I'll hold that powder dry now. I just want to put that on the record. Thank you. All right. So I've got a motion and a second on the Borland Amendment. All in favor, say yay. Yay. Any opposed likewise? None. Yes. Okay. Well, I've got one, one, one nay. And so the amendment carries. So yes, please roll them up and can get a motion and a second on the bill as twice amended. Once amended. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot and record your vote. Five yays, two nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0140. Next item, number five, 2026-0179. Can I get a motion and a second on the bill? I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Ms. Murray, you're recognized. Once again, good morning. Is there anyone here to speak to this particular bill? There is no one here. Okay. So what'd you say? Okay. So I just wanted to know, I know that annually districts such as this one, they must present their budget. And so I just had a couple of questions and I don't know, Mr. Peterson, you may or may not, because I just wanted to make sure that they were informed of the increase, the 3% increase, and that they consented. And I don't know how they make sure that those who live within the district know about the increase and that they consent to the increase. Through the chair to Councilman Clark-Murray, my understanding is the board of directors of this district are the only ones that are required to be, it's an up and down vote. So there's no consent required from the affected property owners. The charter that was established by Council in 2021 authorized a maximum annual increase in the assessment of 3%. So they are limited to that. Property owners should be aware of that. I can't promise that they are. But there's no consent required from anyone who's not on the board. Thank you for that. Because there's no one else to answer any questions, I'm done. Thank you, Chair. All right. Thank you. Dr. Salem. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to Mr. Peterson. As you remember, this got off to a very, very contentious start when Councilmember Becton led this effort and community meetings. How is it, do you have a feel how this district is now working? Are they effective? Are they moving forward? And is it in a much better place at this point? Can you answer that? Through the chair to Councilmember Salem. I cannot answer that question. I'll give you a little bit of financial statistics. Last year, you approved or authorized a budget for them just over 1.1 million. They have about $400,000 still in their savings account, if you will. So they are spending and addressing the issues. But as you're well aware, it's a very large area that has some rather outdated infrastructure. So it's going to take a while for it to be brought up to speed. And I think the end goal is for them to be able to deed those roads and drainage over to the city. But that that will take millions upon millions to to occur. Yeah, I through the chair, I think there will be, at least if I'm still here, great concern about doing that. I think that was the goal back during the Curry administration to do that. And there was a policy. It's, it's yours. It's not ours. Because of the because of, as you stated, millions and millions and millions of dollars that will be required. But okay, thank you. All right. Council member. Thank you, Mr. Jerry. Just to follow up on Council member Salem's comments. The contentious portion of this was there were a number of neighborhoods that are new to the area and had current infrastructure and didn't ration the rationale for it. And I think the idea of getting it to a point in time that the city will take ownership of it is going to require a lot of money, a lot of time to get there. But they won't take it until it reaches, it hits the point of being qualified for, you know, for public access or public ownership. So I think they're moving in the right direction. And in my view, you know, news is good news with respect. I'm not hearing from a lot of constituents and maybe council member areas is, but I've not heard from anybody who's expressing a concern about what's happening thus far. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I have no other speakers in the queue. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Let's open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0179. Next item, number six, 2026-0180. Can't get a motion on the amendment. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Mr. Peterson. Through the chair of the committee, the amendment will correct a bill number reference, also attach a revised exhibit one, which is the BT to correct the appropriation amount and the account in which the funds are being pulled from. And then lastly, correcting Scribner's. All right. I don't see any speakers on the amendment. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Likewise. None. The amendment carries. Can't get a motion and a second on the bills amended. I've got a motion. Can you get a second? Yeah, I've got a second. And Mr. Bowling, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair of Mr. Peterson. Obviously, this is the second tranche of funds. We just pushed one out a couple weeks ago, if my memory serves me correctly, at the level one. Through the chair to Council Member Boylan. I don't recall the level one. We have funded this level two. It's about every two years you add funding to it. And as they draw down those funds, they will then, the tree commission takes up an item to attempt to get those replenished. There is about $26 million combined in the tree funds between the two. That was my second question. So there's ample opportunity here. And maybe this is for the administration to answer with respect to Mr. Delaney, the promotion of the opportunity for people to identify locations. Can you, Mr. Delaney, if you wouldn't mind speaking to that, what the administration is doing to encourage people to recognize the opportunity they can have trees planted in their neighborhoods? Through the chair to Mr. Boylan. I'm not aware of what we're specifically doing, but I'll look into that and I can get back with you. It certainly seems like a good idea. Council Member Murray. Thank you. Through the chair to the committee, I think Ms. Sickler can answer that question for us. Good morning. Nina Sickler, Public Works. So we are working in several ways to identify projects for the level two planting. Number one was through former Council President White. We had the 100 tree challenge per district. So we went through that process and nearly every district did accomplish that challenge to get trees planted in their districts. We continue to work with each council member to identify locations within their districts where more trees might be needed. And so that's part of the reason we do need the additional funding. The previous tranche for level two has been expended on the ordinance side. After our most recent project at Landmark, we will be down to about $100 in the level two tree appropriation for the ordinance side. So this $4.5 million will allow us to continue identifying and planting those trees. All right. No other speakers in the queue. So I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Seven yays. Zero nays. By your action, you approve 2026-0180. Next item, number seven, 2026-0181. Can I get a motion on the amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. No speakers in the queue. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed likewise? None. Amendment carries. Can I get a motion and a second on the bill as amended? I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays. Zero nays. By your action, you approve 2026-0181. Next item, number eight, 2026-0182. Can I get a motion and a motion on the withdrawal? I've got a motion and a second on the withdrawal. No speakers in the queue. Okay. Go ahead. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays. Zero nays. By your action, you approve the withdrawal of 2026-0182. Next item, number nine, 2026-0183. Can I get a motion and a second on the amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. No speakers in the queue. Ms. Murray, you're recognized. Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Peterson. Through the chair of the committee, the amendment attaches a revised CFP sheet to reflect all of prior year's appropriations for this project. Okay. Now, Ms. Murray, on the bill. Okay. All right. No speakers on the amendment. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Likewise. None. Amendment carries. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Ms. Murray, you're recognized. Thank you. Good morning, Chief. So, first of all, this is the fire station that's on Myrtle Avenue. That's before the, I'm going to say where it splits. Yeah, through the chair, through the councilman, call it Murray, yes. Okay, so I'm going to make sure. And I know that is a small property. Is there a reason why you're not going to acquire the additional land and for the parking? Because I know it is kind of a tiny fire station. Yeah, we've done our due diligence trying to purchase. We had a property that was identified that we're going to purchase. We've been in negotiation trying to talk with them about purchasing that property. It just fell through. The amount that they were asking for was just way above the amount what it was appraised for. Thank you. That does make sense. Thank you so much for looking out for the community. The other thing is in regards to the funding. So, you are going to fund art. I think you're going to do like some kind of a mural and exterior lighting. And that's going to cost, what, about $9,007? And that's why you have a balance of $1.4 remaining? Yes. All right, that answers my questions. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. All right, thank you. Let me go to Dr. Salem next. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair to Chief. Chief, I didn't get a chance to call you when I went through this. It was on Good Friday, and I really didn't want to contact you on that day. This is debt funding through the Chair to Mr. Peterson, correct? Through the Chair to Councilor Salem, that's correct. So, we're – I just philosophically using debt funding to pay for art just doesn't sound right to me. Landscaping improvements, exterior lighting, I can understand. How enthused are you about the art funding, that component of it, Chief? Yeah, I think it's through the Chair to Councilor Salem. But I think it's just a whole holistic purchase of identified things that we want to do in that area. That corridor, I guess, the Councilwoman is – over the years, over the next few years, I think that corridor will change. I think this gives it an identified location to start that progress. That fire station sits in the area right there on Moncrief and Myrtle. It's a very visible part of the area. And we're doing not only the exterior portion of the building that we're looking at, but the lighting, also, and then the mural. I think it just adds to the – to that area. Who is – through the Chair, who's designing the mural? Having been through the arts community and such, are you all designing it? Are they – is the Cultural Council involved in this in any way? Yeah, we're kind of in early stages of that. But our thought process is to allow someone from the community and that art community to design it. Of course, it'll be a fire department type of mural. That's what we want it to be. Like I said, and our thought process behind that is because, as you know, that fire station is a hub of that area. There's a lot of people that hang out in that area. A lot of people stop by that fire station, get blood pressure checks. A lot of kids kind of run around there. We want it to kind of be like an area that the community can still enjoy and be proud of. Okay. I'll support it with – I'm just not real crazy about it. I don't want Council Member White to jump on me either. So I will support it. But it just doesn't – just doesn't sound completely right to me. But I will support it. Thank you. Thank you. Let me go to Mr. Peterson. Through the chair to Council Member Clark-Murray and a question you had earlier, the cost of the project is not $9,007. It is – they got appropriated $1.5 million. They've spent roughly $10,000 to date. This project is going – the estimates that we received is just over $1.3 million. So it's within what the remaining budgetary authority is, but it's not that $10,000 just to do the art, lighting, and landscaping. Through the chair to Mr. Peterson, so the amount that is – the remaining balance, what – the amount that's missing, like the $9,000, so where has that money gone? Do you know? Through the chair. Yeah, my understanding is that got spent in their preliminary work when they were trying to acquire the parking lot, the time spent on the land acquisition, that type of thing. Okay. Thank you so much. So with that being said, through the chair to Chief, what is the cost of your project? The cost of the project is about $1.3 million. Right, the overall project, but the art portion, the mural, the lighting, what is the cost of it? The way we got it broken down now, the design portion, $161,000, construction of the fire station, the outside structure, $800,000, and the contingency. We got like $200,000 in all this contingency, and then CEI service, $150,000. So through the chair, so you don't have that particular portion specifically for the art? For the art. Okay. No. I do understand. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let me go to Councilmember Morrow. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Chief Golden. I like this holistic approach to Fort Apache. That's what they call it, right? Fort Apache. Yes, that's correct. Because the men and women who serve in JFRD spend many hours in these buildings, and so it's nice to have a place with some aesthetics, lighting that will make it safer for the entire community. And it just seems like good money well spent. To change that entire corridor, if you will. And so I'm going to support it. I think it's a great approach forward. And knowing the history of that particular intersection, I think this can be some transformative work that will help uplift that community. So, thank you for bringing it forward. Thank you. All right. No other speakers in the queue. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Let's open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0183. Next item, number 10-2026-0184. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Ms. Murray, you're recognized. Is anyone here to speak to this? Mr. Nooney is missing his opportunity. FWC. No, maybe I shouldn't speak his name. I'm sorry. Terry Carr, Environmental Quality Division. Good morning, Mr. Carr. Just a couple of questions. Because this particular grant has some stipulations, it says that the project must be completed by September the 1st. So, what is the project status? Is it in design and planning? Is it in construction? Which phase is it in through the chair? Through the chair, it's in the planning phase. We are trying to get bids confirmed. We had one bid that came in. It was more than what the grant amount was, so we're looking for another bid. But we have materials staged at the right-of-way and stormwater maintenance yards that we could deploy to satisfy the needs of the allocation. Okay. So, once again, through the chair, the idea is to make sure that you're able to use the $120,000 because making sure that the project is completed by that deadline. And it sounds like that you're on top of the deadlines and making sure that you have the different aspects of the project in place. So, I just wanted to make sure. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Carr. All right. No other speakers in the queue. Let's open a ballot and record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. By your action, you approve 2026-0184. Next item, number 11, 2026-0185. That one's going to be deferred. Item number 12, 2026-0186. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Mr. Bolden, you're recognized. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair, Chief Golden, I guess you're going to – are you the only person here qualified to speak to this bill? Mr. Chair, as Chief comes down, my suggestion is, number one, questioning the demand for this. I think we've not seen it. And maybe, Chief Golden, my question to you, first of all, have we seen a call for this – I support it. Don't get me wrong. But let me go ahead and speak to the question of whether or not, through the chair, to Chief, whether or not we've seen a need for this kind of service. Through the chairs of Councilman Boylan, you're not going to see a high number of need for this. As you know, all fire stations are safe havens, so an individual can bring a newborn to a fire station and hand that off anonymously to an individual. This will be for those folks who don't want to be identified or who don't want to have that interaction. It just adds another layer to that. As far as numbers and how often that happens, I don't know. But, I mean, whenever you hear a story about an infant being in a dumpster or anything like that, I think this would help with that. I couldn't agree more. I guess my question, and I'd like to offer it as an amendment and would appreciate a second, if we took the number down to four, one in each quadrant, a centralized station within the district or within the quadrant of the city, we could take this price down for Mr. Peterson from $314,000 to $100,000 just to see whether or not this is a viable program and warranted. I like the idea of it. Don't get me wrong. I just think putting it in 14 stations arbitrarily to say one for each district, I think we might be better served and more frugal stewards if we just change it to four stations, one in each quadrant of the city, and I offer that as a motion, as an amendment. Well, then I understand. Well, then we'll centralize location with each district. I have not taken the moment to do that, if we can do that. If not, I can defer the motion and introduce it tomorrow in finance. But I think that common sense would dictate we can recognize a centrally located station within each quadrant. Ms. Mary. To the chair, so we have them listed by the fire station address and not on a map. So I'm just concerned that if we're being left as staff to identify what is considered central, that's really stepping in the shoes that you all should be in to identify where you think they should be. To the extent that Councilmember Boylan is comfortable waiting and offering this in finance or having somebody take it up in finance, that would give us the opportunity to maybe identify these on a map. And then there could be consideration by the membership of where exactly do you consider something to be centralized to the areas of the city. To that extent, Councilman, Chair, I'm going to turn to Chief Golden. If you wouldn't mind helping me identifying what you would characterize as the four central stations in each of the quadrants. If you can come back with that information today or later today or first thing in the morning, I'd appreciate it. And to that end, I'd appreciate some comment. I'm going to go ahead and defer my amendment then, but I think the idea of it, limiting it to four, makes more sense to see if there is, in fact, a genuine need for this kind of service. All right. Thank you. So let me go to next to Chief White. Yes, sir. Thank you, Chair. What I would suggest, if we would defer this one cycle, and I don't know if it should be four or 14, because I think one baby would be worth the $314,000 we spent for all 14, and let Chief Golden dig deep and see if it should be 10, see if it should be 12, or stay at 14, and then us come back and vote it out. It would be my suggestion. If you was okay with that as Chair, if Chief Golden is okay with that. Yep. All right. I've got a motion request to. Mr. Chair, if you're inclined as the Chair to accept that recommendation, and as Mr. Boylan has withdrawn the amendment that was on the table, as long as everybody's comfortable with the deferral, then you don't have to take up any motions. It's up to you as Chair. All right. So I'm going to defer this, but I do want to give the opportunity to the committee to speak on it while it's in front of us right now. So, Council Member Murray. Thank you, Chair. I do respect the amendments and the motion that was put on the floor to defer this. One of the things that I was going to focus on was actually the funding source. We talk about the reserves and how the reserves should be used, and, of course, this is a worthy, definitely a worthy reason to use funds, but I think we can find another funding source. So the deferral, I think, would be appropriate. I don't have another funding source in front of me. I was hoping that Mr. Peterson could present one for me at some point. Okay. Another funding source. So, and I know this will still, although we're going to defer to neighborhoods, it will still go before finance. And so I'm thinking that those who sit on finance will probably have an idea about another funding source as well. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. All right. Thank you. So let me go to Council Member Amaro next. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair to Mr. Golden, I had conversations with Chief King when they were trying to roll this out. And if I am correct, I think the concept of having a safe haven box in all of the districts was to further extend that grace, that anonymity, and access and convenience for a mother who may have reached this difficult decision. Am I correct in thinking that, that it was all about access, convenience, extended anonymity is why the idea of having one in each council district just seems safe and wise? Through the chair to Council Member Amaro. Yeah, I mean, that was correct. The initial conversations that we had, we didn't know it was going to go up to 14. The initial conversation we had was the four potentially locations. We were going to identify those locations in like major interstate thoroughfares is what we were looking at. And then it came up that it was an opportunity to do that in a different council district. So, of course, the more fire stations you had that availability of, of course, the better. It'll just open it up to more individuals to actually utilize and then know those locations within their certain council district. All righty. Thank you. To legislative services, would you please add me? All right. Let me go to Colonel Miller next. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair, Chief, sorry, you're the one carrying all the water for this one. I'm not sure. Well, obviously, the introducer wasn't able to be here today. I would have liked to have heard his thoughts on this. And I get the amendments. I don't have any problem with the amendments. However, as with Council Member Clark Murray, I have some concerns about the funding source. And that's what I would like to see adjusted. We have some options, and I'd like to see that adjusted away from the operating reserves because there are other options. There's debt savings right now of, I think, over $8 million that we can look at. There are other pots that have been put off to the side that are left up to the council to decide where that, you know, where those funds are used. So I'd like to see a change in the source of this funding. However, hearing Chief, through the chair, hearing Chief say the original idea was just four locations. That's where I do agree with my colleagues here. I think we need to look into that a little bit further to make sure we're putting them in the right places. I am 100% in support of this. As Pastor President White pointed out, you know, how much is one baby's life worth? Absolutely, if only one, over $314,000. So I don't have a problem at all with the amount, but we certainly want to be more strategic and make sure we put them in the right locations and that Chief and his team are in agreement. The number and the locations are correct. So I support this. I'm not quite willing to co-sponsor until we change the funding source, and I would recommend, I don't know if we want to, you're deferring. So I guess we can, we'll take this up at another time since the chair's going to defer. So that's, I'll just put that, all of that on the record for now, and thank you, Mr. Chair. All right, thank you. So I will be deferring this. You know, I look at this bill, I wholeheartedly support this. Whether it's $1 or $50,000, it doesn't matter. The money that we spend to save $1,000 is well, well worth it. And so I look forward to finding a path to get this enacted, whether it's $4,000, $12,000, however many resources that we put out there for the community. I think we can never go wrong with that. So I'll defer it, and we'll move on to item number 13, 2026-0187. Before I move the amendment, let me go to Councilman Amaro. Thank you, Mr. Chair. If it's the pleasure of the chair, I'd like this item deferred. There are some issues that have to be resolved, and the recipient is working to resolve those, have been in contact with the council auditor's office. And so I'm asking for this to be deferred until those issues have been resolved. All right, thank you. We'll defer it, and I appreciate that. All right, Councilman Amaro. Item number 14, 2026-0188. Can I have a motion on the amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. No speakers in the queue. All in favor, say aye. Any opposed? Likewise, none. The amendment carries. Can I have a motion and a second on the bill as amended? No speakers in the queue. Let's open the ballot and record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. By your action, you approve 2026-0188. Next item 15, we've taken action. 16, we've taken action. That takes us to item number 17, 2026-0207. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Ms. Murray. Thank you, committee. So essentially, this is going to be a passive park in District 9. I am acquiring the property from the owner for $350,000. The land appraisal through the chair to Councilmember Boylan, because I know you're going to ask that question. It's appraised at $375,000. So look at that. Clark Murray has struck a deal, and we have like a, what, a $15,000, what is that, no, maybe $25,000 equity in the land? Yeah, $25,000. And it will be, the parks and recreation department will have oversight over the property. And then I'll take any other questions if there are any. All right. Let me go to Colonel Miller next. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair, I'd just like to be added as a co-sponsor. And it was deferred, but I'd also like to be added to 187. I'm assuming they'll be able to work out those concerns. What a wonderful organization. And I trust this has all been worked out on this bill for good purpose for the district. So I'm in support of both. Thank you. All right. No other speakers in the queue. I'd like to be. Let me go to Councilman Amaro. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the district council member, what's the acreage here? And when you acquired a land, when does the process begin for converting it to a passive party? Through the chair to Councilmember Amaro, there are a total of six parcels, and it was a total of, who would ask me that question? Okay. I've got this information. No, you're okay. You're okay. I just didn't write that particular information down. Renee, come on up. You can answer that. Thank you. 1.3. And what was your other question? You said, when is it going to be? So I cannot answer that question right now. But, of course, we're going to need to do some design, and I have my CBA fund, so that's where I look to do some improvements on the land. Thank you. Please add me as a sponsor. I'm familiar with that side of town as well, and I think this will be a very nice amenity to that area. Through the chair to Councilmember, well, actually to the committee, it will be. And Ms. Barnes was here, I think she forgot about this particular bill, but she was here on our last council night, and she did speak about it and how it's needed. This area is not just a plot of land. It's also an area where students walk to the, I think it's called Bessie Coleman, one of the KIPP schools, and it's an area that's, it's a high traffic area, so this will actually serve to help calm some of that traffic down, and it will give those students an opportunity, a place to sit and actually stand and wait for the bus and those that walk through that area as well. And it's really, truly for the seniors in that area. They don't have an area where they can just, for example, sit and just have some coffee, you know, and just, if they want to watch cars go by, or they want to watch their grandbabies as they travel, get on the bus, or as they walk onto the school, it's a place to do that. It's a, it's an area that will calm that particular intersection. Thank you. All right. Thank you, everyone. I'd like to be added as a co-sponsor as well. Anytime it involves parks, I'm all in. And I don't think we can do enough, and given, given our community more, more park access. So with that, let's open the ballot and record your vote. Six yays, zero nays. By your action, you approve 2026-0207. The next items are on second reading. 2026-0214, 2026-0215, 0216, 0217, 0218, 0219, 0222, 0223, 0224, 0225, 0226, 0227, 0223, 0223, 0237, 0248, and 0249. With that, brings it to the end of our agenda. Mr. Carlucci, you're recognized. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Real quick, Chief Golden, I just want to let you know, for the baby boxes, we'll defer that in finance. But if you can still be there, because I do want to have a lot of discussion about that. So, just to give you a heads up. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you. Any other comments from the committee? If not, we are adjourned. Thank you, everyone.