Well good morning everyone. Welcome to our Monday, July 20th rules meeting. I call the meeting to order. We'll go ahead and start to my left with introductions of Mr. Dennis. Good morning Garrett Dennis Administration. Colleen Hampsey, Council Research. Carla Schell, Office of General Counsel. Krista Carraher, Council Auditor's Office. Jacoby Pittman, District 10. Ron Salem, Group 2 at large. Canemarra, City Council, District 1. Mike Gay, District 2. Willing, District 3. Terrence Freeman at large, Group 1. Good morning Michael Boylan, District 6. Good morning Nick Holland at large, Group 3. Just visiting. Good morning Commander James S. Pelusa, United States Navy and District 7 Councilmember. Just visiting. Good morning Matt Perlucci at large, Group 4. All right welcome visiting Councilmembers and Council President. Glad to have you this morning. I'll go ahead and turn the floor over to you and let you have your announcement. Thank you Mr. Chair. I just want to recognize that Councilmember Gay is the new chair of the Rules Committee. Wonderful. And this is an august body. I'm excited for rules and the work they will do this year. And I hope everyone had a, like I said prior to the mayor's proposed budget, I hope everyone had an opportunity to rest, recharge, and prepare for the council year ahead. Just wanted to address one quick thing, why rules is going first. There's myriad reasons for that, but the not least of which is when we see people who are volunteering their time to serve on a city board or commission, talking to many of them, they'd much prefer that we have a 9 a.m. meeting and then get them approved and get them out of here, rather than take them out of work in the middle of the day at 1 p.m. So that's one of the main reasons for putting rules first. But I look forward to a fantastic council year and thanks for taking the helm, Mike. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, sir. Also a little bit more housekeeping. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Councilmember Bowling. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. As you might recall, colleagues, past year we modified council rules with respect to attendance and the process for doing that. And I want to make sure that everyone is aware of this process. Traditionally in the past, Councilmember Bowling is not going to be in attendance meeting. He would just put out a notice saying I had an excused absence. Going forward, that request for an excused absence must go through the committee chair or the council president, depending on the meeting that's going to be held. So in the future, if you anticipate you're not going to be able to attend the meeting, you will need to reach out to the council committee chair in this situation to let him know and get permission from him to be truly an excused absence from the meeting. And no more than two members can be excused from meeting. If a council member, and obviously there are some, as you would go back and take a look at the rules, and Ms. Carla can speak to this if she needs to. There are certain circumstances, military, health issues, etc., that kind of thing that come up unexpectedly is very different. We're just talking about the fact that we all know full well a year in advance when every committee meeting is, when every council meeting is. And what I'm looking to do is make sure that we do our responsibility in attending these meetings. While not buried into that, and if there's any questions, I'd appreciate them. It's also a standing rule, a council rule, that before leaving the dais, whether it be a full council meeting or a committee meeting, you must get the permission of the chair or their council president to walk away. That helps very much so in two situations. Obviously, during public comment, we regularly see and we have to use our legislative council to assist us in making sure we maintain a quorum. That really is the responsibility of the chair or the presiding member of the council. So we want to make sure you're there. And then secondly, people don't walk on boats. If you're in the room and you want to leave the room, again, you need to get the permission of the chair. Otherwise, we'll find another way of addressing that if necessary. I hope that's helpful. Just trying to raise the professionalism of our responsibilities and the way we operate and understand that it's up to us to serve our constituents properly. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that. Dr. Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to Council Member Boylan, how would that permission occur? I don't think you want us getting on the, doing what I'm doing right now, walk by and tap him on the shoulder and advise him you're stepping out for a few minutes. I just want to make sure we're all doing the same thing. Yeah, I'd appreciate that. And it really, as far as the excuse to absence of that, it's really, the process is at the discretion of the chair. I'm probably just stepping out for a few minutes. Stepping out for a few minutes. Number one, once we get down to no more than four, then we can't take any action. That's pure and simple. We're just trying to give some respect to the chair to say, hey, I'm going to walk out of here. Give him a nod of the head is sufficient in order to make that happen. But, or can you be back here by so-and-so so we can take a vote on that matter? Make sense? Got it? Okay. All right. All right. Thank you all for the information. Moving forward with the committee, you know, I feel like we've got an all-star lineup of committee members here. So I feel like we'll be able to get the work of the people done efficiently and effectively here. I will have public comment that will be for three minutes that I'll allow the public to speak. And in our comments, when we open up discussions, I always want to make sure everybody's voice on the dais is heard. So I'm not going to put limits on how much time anybody can speak, but be on point, be respectful of our time. And if it gets into repetitive and keep wanting to get on the queue, and it's repetitive, I ask you to, let's streamline it and get, you know, let's move forward. But anything, any questions, I'm open, ask, and I'll work with anybody anyway that's needed on here on the dais. And just, like I say, let's just be mindful and on point for all our discussions. So with that, we'll go ahead and move forward to our agenda. We've handed out an agenda that we'll go ahead and take some action items first. The first item that we'll be taking action on is page 13, item number 19, 2026-0515. Can you get a motion on the bill? Go ahead and, if you would, give your name and address for the record and give us a little bit of information on why you're interested in this position and the reason why you want to be in this position. Thank you. Good morning. Can you hear me? No? Louder. Oh, there you go. Good morning. I'm Michelle Begley. I live in Jacksonville in East Arlington. I'm currently the acting city comptroller and I appreciate the opportunity to apply for the job. I've been in city government accounting for and auditing for 36 years. And I have been doing this type of work for a long time. And so I just welcome the opportunity to serve the city in this capacity. All right. Mr. Lannan, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Through you, Chair. Morning, Ms. Begley. Me and Ms. Begley have a meeting this afternoon, so I'm going to be voting yes. I can't imagine there's going to be something that comes up in our one-on-one meeting this afternoon. I won't vote yes for you at the full council meeting, but just between the recess schedule and not knowing how it's rules, we're not able to connect prior to that going forward. I'll intend to connect with all the appointees prior to the rules committee. Thank you. Let's go to Councilmember Bowling. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I strongly encourage my colleagues who have not taken the time to look at Ms. Begley's resume. It's very impressive, as you heard, a number of years working within the public sector. We had an extended conversation on Saturday. I appreciate you taking the time to do that. I look forward to supporting her and looking forward to seeing her having a larger presence at committee meetings so that she can speak to the challenges and opportunities that we as a council face. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Pastor President Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and through the chair to Ms. Begley. One, thank you so much for coming today and being before us. I, too, want to commend you for, one, filling out the questionnaire. A lot of people forget to do that, and it kind of helps in the communication of things. But 36 years of experience, 10 years with Duval County School Board. It's really, really impressive. One of my favorite questions to always go look at is number four, and it says, how do you plan to collaborate with other board and commission members and or community stakeholders to achieve desired outcomes? I love to hear the thought process of someone, of individuals coming into this space. And you just wrote that City Council approves ordinances and other legislation. The department strives to ensure that objectives of such ordinances and other legislation are properly accounted for in the financial records. Community stakeholders may occasionally provide feedback or input to be taken into consideration as other departments perform their duties. I loved hearing you say that, and I really implore you to continue with that thought process. It's something that really gives me the confidence that as we pass legislation and the executive office executes it, that the records will properly reflect that. So thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Council Member Pittman. Agla, first of all, I want to just thank you for your service. That's a long time. You must restart it when you was 12, right? One of the things I want to ask you, I know you've been with the city a long time. If you had an opportunity to change anything in that department for the better, what would that be? Through Council Member Pittman, through the chair, I've had the opportunity to be in the department now almost two years. And so I've gotten to observe a lot of, I've gotten to learn staff and processes and that type of thing. And where I've been in government a long time, I've picked up a lot of different techniques and procedures and policies. And any place I've ever been, it doesn't matter how good they are. There's always room for improvement. And so I would hope that, I know there's been challenges also with our ERP system. And so I've been working with technology to make some improvements in that area. But I also hope to look at the full scope of the department and implement process efficiencies where they can be. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate that. And as you said, there's always room for improvement in cross-training as well. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. I have no other speakers in the queue. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0515. You don't have to be here on Tuesday night. But if you want to, we'll be reading your name out and after the council votes on it. Thank you for being here. The next we'll go to on that agenda that I passed out, item number 14. It's going to be deferred. So we'll go ahead back to our original agenda here. We don't have any public comment cards. I want to open up to the speaker, Mr. Paul Harden. He's going to come in and give a three-minute discussion about the emergency bill that he'll be bringing to council Tuesday night. And he's going to all the committees, just kind of give them a preamble of what's going to take place. Mr. Harden. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Paul Harden, 1431 River Place. As you know, as construction goes on down by the Four Seasons and the office building down on the North Bank, there's also a marina being built down there. Below that marina, the land belongs to the state of Florida. The city has a old submerged land lease, which is not complete on the site. We're trying to bring, on behalf of the football team who's building the marina and the marina complex next to it, we're trying to bring everything up to speed, get it current. One of the things, well, actually two of the things that aren't in that lease are an allowance that would allow us to charge for the boat slips, which we would like to do, and the sale of gasoline. And there are a couple other small things. The submerged land lease is being widened, if you will, very slightly. The obligation of the city is not. We'd like to have that in place by the time the first football game starts. We can't get through the full council before the first football game without the emergency. So we're asking Councilman Hallin if he would take it in and out next Tuesday night at the council meeting. And because it wasn't going to be on your agenda, I'm going to go to all the committee meetings today and tomorrow and see if anybody has any questions. And I'm available for questions in the interim. Mr. McHale is here, who's the general counsel for the football team, if anybody has questions of him as well. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Dr. Salem. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair, Mr. Harden, are the auditors aware of this? Do they have the language and are they supportive? I have not spoken with anyone in the auditors. I wasn't working on doing the bill, but I'll reach out to them. I've reached out to them, but we've traded calls. Okay. That would be important for me to make sure the auditors were comfortable and reviewed it. Yeah. It's just through the Chair. It's an existing submerged land lease that's in place. We're widening it. We're not paying any more money. We're allowing additional activities on the site that we have now. So if anything, it nourishes the benefit of the city, not in the state. They've been very helpful in moving forward with it though. But I will, I'll place that call again. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Council Member Bolin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the Chair, Mr. Harden. Yes, sir. Do we have it in writing yet? The particular, it doesn't sound like a big left, but I do appreciate it. The bill has actually been filed, Mr. Bolin. It just didn't have a number, so it didn't show up on your agenda. But yeah, we have the submerged land lease, the old one, and then the amendment is attached to the legislation. The legislation has been filed. It just wasn't filed early enough to get a number. Understood. So it didn't show up on your agenda, but it's at the Council's legislative office. Through the Chair to Ms. Schell. We'll be getting, Ms. Schell, we'll be getting a copy of that today, both the bill, the original bill. I sent one out Friday to everybody. Okay. I do have it there. Thank you. It's long. It's 26 or 27. The piece of legislation itself is only a couple of pages, but the lease itself, which is mainly the old lease or rebarred, and it's on file now. I look forward to you reading it to me. That'd be fine. Can we do it after Tuesday night? Okay. Speakers in the queue. Thank you, sir, for being here. Thank you. And trying to head off some of the committee work done in council. So I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. All right. So that takes us back to our agenda. Let's go to item number one, 2024-0627 is deferred at request to Council Member Diamond. Item number two, 2024-0966 is deferred at request to Council Member Carrico. Item number three, 2025-0775 is deferred at request of Council Member Carlucci. Item number four, 2026-0192 is deferred at the request of Council President Howland. Item number five, 2026-0203 is deferred at the request of Council President Howland. Item number six, 2026-0227 is deferred at the request of Council Member Diamond. Item number seven, 2026-0318 is deferred at the request of Council Member Johnson. And item number eight, 2026-0319. Can I get a motion on the amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Kara Hurts. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will attach the Planning and Development Department Historic Preservation Section Staff Report as a new exhibit to the bill. And we'll also include a waiver of Code Section 122-105-B and C regarding the timeline for the Historic Preservation Section Report and the Historic Preservation Commission Advisory Recommendation. Both of these items were completed. They just were not completed within the time frame that's required by the code. All right. No speakers in the queue. All in favor of the amendment, say yay. Yeah. Yay. Any opposed? Likewise. None. The amendment carries. Your motion and a second on the bill as amended. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Council, past Council President Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And through the chair to, I guess, guest visiting day, Council Member Carlucci. I do underline two names. I don't know how this one got by. I would like to be added as a co-sponsor one. But I remember in the past when we tried to honor Council Member Jones, there was a little bit of a dust up. And I just want to make sure that he's okay with us doing this this time as not to get it to the Tuesday night event. And then all of a sudden we have this somewhat quasi embarrassing moment for all parties involved. He's never quite okay with being recognized. But his wife, Vanessa, myself, and some others convinced him that this was a good thing. I actually wanted to find a park. And there were two parks that I wanted to suggest and share with him about naming the entire park after him. And that kind of wore him down. And he eventually told me on the phone, you know, Matt, look, I just want, if I had anything I wanted, just the baseball complex at Hammond Park. And I said, if that's what you want, that's what we'll do. And I think there's a little more I think that I would like to do for him in honoring his legacy. And I'm kind of working on that. And that'll be coming before the council at some point. But yes, he is okay with that. And so thank you for asking. That's a very good question. Well, thank you. And the reason I ask that, one, when I first came to Jacksonville in the early 2000s, there was a major baseball tournament, Triple Crown, held at Hammond Park. And cars would be parked all over the neighborhood. Baseball, people coming from all around the southeast part of our country to play in this Easter tournament. And that was how I first kind of got my, I got baptized into the baseball world there. And then if you know, Mr. Jones, you know, his son, Michael, was a great little baseball player himself, drafted by the Braves, and had a great professional career. So not sure how I missed it. Thank you so much for putting it forward. And as I asked earlier, please add me as a co-sponsor. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Council Member Bowling. Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the Chair and Ms. Schell, do we, I don't see or have access right now to the historic preservation report? Can you give us a quick synopsis? Obviously, I'm fully supportive of this bill as a co-introducer, but I wanted to see what was in the report. Through the Chair to Council Member Boylan and the committee, I don't see it on Legislative Gateway right now, but I was present at the meeting. And the Planning Department had no objection of the naming of this baseball complex, and the commission also approved it. Well, I'd still like to have a copy of the report if we can make it available. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Over to visiting council, past council president, Carlucci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really want to thank from the Office of General Counsel, Carla Schell. She did a wonderful job shepherding this through, all the different hurdles that it has to go through. And of course, Warren made it through everything with ease. And I thought I would mention this to this committee, since I'll be visiting here a number of times. There's a number of folks that I will be naming things after this year. Since this is my last year, I definitely won't be coming back for another term on this body. This is it. Y'all taught me a lesson. Never come back. And I'm just kidding. I've enjoyed working with y'all. It's been a great experience. But I say all that to say this. Just realize that I've been doing this a long time. And there's a lot of people that I've observed over decades that I feel deserve recognition. And I want to make sure that I do my part in not just choosing anybody, but being choosy and picking those who I think deserve some recognition. There'll be something else coming before your committee on Warren. And there'll be some other things coming. Council Member Gay, you've been a tremendous help. I thank you so much for your help with Mark Middlebrook. But that's another one that'll come up. But just to give y'all a little heads up. And I hope I get to do some other legislation besides that. But that'll be a part of my repertoire for this coming year. And I thank you for your kindness today. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you, sir. And you know, I must give Warren credit for at this park when it was just basically a barren field. And his vision and what he brought to the community, not just this part, but several other parts that he was a, it was a priority for him. And to do what he did at this Hammond Park and the lives that it's been, the young people's lives have been transformed at this park is unmeasurable. And so I'm glad I was a part of it in the early years when it originally first got built. So with that, 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 2026-0319. Next item, number nine, 2026-0320 is deferred at the request of Councilmember White. Item number 10, 2026-0376 is deferred at the request of Councilmember Peluso. Item number 11, 2026-0445. Can I get a motion on the amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Carraher. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will correct the account information within the bill for the appropriation. We'll attach a revised exhibit one, which is the BT to correct the account information and attach a revised exhibit two, which is the term sheet and budget to correct the budget narrative. Thank you. Councilmember Bolin on amendment. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yeah, I do want to speak to the amendment. Item, last item, they're waiving the provision to allow them to secure Cultural Council service grant. I've got a bit of heartburn with that. I'd appreciate it through the chair to Mr. Peluso. As you know, that pie is only so big in adding another player to that. And I'd love to have an understanding of what arts or cultural services event that they're going to be looking to have supported by the CSG. Through the chair, Mr. Peluso. Thank you, chair. And through the chair to Councilmember Bolin. So these dollars are from the community benefit agreement. So this is my first of probably a few projects that are going to be put out this year. I have Michael Haskins over from SPAR. He can kind of speak to it. But I think the point is, is this is sort of a one-time inject via the CBA dollars. And the cultural service grants are something that SPAR consistently goes after and has been awarded in the past. And I think they want to make sure that they're not going to be hurt by us making sure that we fund one program that they're doing and don't get the ability to fund the other things. Okay. In that case, Mr. Chair, Mr. Haskins, can you come up and speak briefly to what kind of programs you support, you look, you seek support from the CSG? Yes, sir. The cultural council supports our historic president. Name and address. Michael Haskins, 1321 North Main Street. The cultural council supports our arts and culture programming, including our historic preservation work and our events throughout the community that are focused on arts. This set of funds is segregated from those and it supports a separate program that does beautification work. So you have some history in terms of securing CSG grants? Yes. We've been a CSG recipient for, I think, about 10 years. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you. So that's no other speakers. Only amendment. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Likewise, none. Bill. The amendment carries. You get a motion second on the bill as amended. The bill is amended. Second. I've got a motion and second on the bill as amended. No speakers in the queue. I would just like to ask Council Member Fluso, is this funds going to be spent in your district? Through the chair, absolutely this is. Springfield is wholly within my district and this is a program that was established under Council Member Miller in the past and we're just adding more dollars into that fund. So he did a great job with the project that he ran for a while. We want to make sure that it continues. All right. I appreciate that. I was just making sure would you get in this organization to help they understand that it's got to be spent in your district? Through the chair, I will say I've been talking to the auditors about a number of different priorities that I have for my CBA dollars and that's always been a consideration is you got to make sure these stay only within seven, which has made it a little bit tough, but luckily SPAR is wholly within seven. Thank you. All right. Very good. I've got a motion second on the bill as amended. Open the ballot. Record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0445. Next item, number 12-2026-0453. I've got a motion second on the withdrawal. Council Member, Landon, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to Mr. Dennis, I'm just wondering, why is this being withdrawn? Because I thought this was just a bill by ordinance to use some of the recapture dollars to cure the current year negative balances. Through the chair to Councilman Landon, you know, as always, the administration is constantly assessing the various dollars and, you know, and what we fund. But what I will do after this meeting, I will get you in more detail to tell you, you know, what our new alignment was and we'll draw on this bill. Through the chair to Mr. Dennis, that's great. If you just want to email me just more information on that and I'll vote to support the withdrawal. Thank you. Through the chair to Mr. Dennis, could you send those details to the entire committee, please? Through the chair to Councilman Landon and Councilman Salem, we'll email it to the entire body. All right. Thank you. No other speakers in the queue. I've got a motion and a second on the withdrawal. Let's open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you're approved. 2026-0453, withdrawal. Next item, number 13, 2026-0489. Can I get a motion on the amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Karen? Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will revise the bill title and section one title to reference the sections of chapter 86 that are being amended in the addition of the mayor's liaison. It will correct language in section 86-103b to reflect that the liaisons are designated and not appointed. All right. No speakers on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, likewise? None. Amendment carries. Get a motion and a second on the bill as amended. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Councilmember Landon, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to Councilmember Peluso, can you just explain what this does? I looked at the bill summary and didn't really get a good grasp to exactly what we are changing here. Through the chair to Councilmember Landon, I try really hard not to talk in these committees. If the bills just move and I don't have to say anything, I tend not to. So this bill is a cleanup bill. So basically the HIC, we created it about two years ago and obviously now as time has gone on, we've seen some of the the faults in some of the initial legislation. And so right now, one of the things that's needed to help secure a proper like lane to make sure things are getting funded, we have a council liaison. We need to make sure that we have a mayoral liaison. The mayoral liaison is going to better work with the finance department to make sure the dollars that should be coming out of the HIC that eventually come to us are moving in the right direction. And so right now, we have seen that there has been a lot of stalling how dollars get out of the HIC because of a lack of process and this is going to help solve that. Through the chair to Councilmember Peluso, so the HIC, those volunteer board members themselves, this was their idea and they're in support of this legislation, correct? This was a, HIC had been asking, how do we make sure we have a faster process to ensure the dollars are getting out? We've sat down with the administration and I'm sure Ms. McGillis, who sits in those meetings with me, will attest, they've been trying to figure out why are things as slow as they are. And one of the things that we figured out was without a mayoral liaison and the mayor's office being more engaged on a formal process, it slowed things down. Through the chair to Councilmember Peluso, I think that's what I was looking for. This is an effort to speed up getting the money to the organizations on money we've already approved. It sounds very much like some of the CBA issues we've had in the past as well. So, given that the HIC, it's their recommendation and they think it'll move faster, I'll support it then. Thank you for saying that and you're right about CBA will probably come back for us to have a faster process as well. All right, thank you. Let's go to Pastor President Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, Councilmember Lane. You kind of went where I was going to go with this. Councilmember Peluso, thank you so much for the timing of this bill. I want to make sure I'm understanding this correctly. A volunteer board knows that they have dollars that they would like to appropriate and those dollars are being encumbered because bureaucracy is slow. And if that's the case, how is this different than in the last session, the $200,000 that we sent to JSEF? And they sent a letter to the mayor's office asking for those dollars to be released. That board did, that body did, and we were told there still wasn't. So, is this something that maybe I can offer an amendment to maybe have a mayor's liaison added to JSEF as well? If this is one way of ensuring that dollars move through the process, or are we picking favorites here and we're going to do for one and not the other? Michelle. Through the Chair to Councilmember Freeman, I think that would be best handled in a separate piece of legislation. Does this only address the Homelessness Initiatives Commission? Okay, well, I'm not going to be comfortable moving one forward. This kind of reminds me, just with you all, when we did the trust fund dollars and it was 1% for kids and then it moved up to 3% for homelessness and then there was a bill filed right afterwards that nobody else could use those dollars. I fear that something like this might happen here. If this is a true fix, if this is a true fix to a problem, then we should be consistent across the board and maybe defer this and go do a search as a rules committee of how many other volunteer boards are experiencing this. I personally just went through it a whole year and many of you heard them say it doesn't align with the mayor's initiative. They heard you say, you heard them say that they didn't have the capacity. So we have the documentation, maybe we defer this and and read and make sure that there are not other ones that are in the same position because I know JSEF is for sure and that would be my, I can't defer a bill, but I agree with this. I want to do this, but I also want those members of JSEF, many of them are JSEF owners, that I spoke to a couple of them. They still are waiting for those dollars. All right, let me go to Councilman Amaro first. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm going to support the bill, but I just wanted a little bit more explanation as to how having a liaison expedite things, being that the composition of the board is all volunteers who have a direct line of communication with the administration. So I'm just curious how that speeds up the process. Through the chair to Councilman Amaro, I think the best answer to that is pretty much, you know, given that they're the executive branch, all the departments end up operating under the executive branch. And so when you have the housing folks that are in there that are basically staffing the board, they're going to, you know, run up their department heads, and then eventually go into the finance department to help make sure dollars get out. So it was just really a matter of process. I mean, city council at the end of the day, we're here to help pass legislation, but we're not members of the executive branch. And so it's just a way to fast track. It's just one of the things that we realized after the fact, this is probably one of the first new boards that we created in a while. And so, you know, I think, again, to the point of CBA, we'll probably have to come back and figure out new solutions for how to make the east side CBA run a little bit faster, too. It's just a matter of, I think, we had no oversight at the first iteration of this. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Councilmember Landon. Through the chair, and really more so for the committee, I think we're hitting on a common theme here that we keep on hearing. I will support yours today only because I feel like by deferring that we're potentially slowing down the dollars just because we know there's other areas we need to focus on. And even if you look at our council liaison assignment list that the council president sent out, there's some boards and commissions that only have a council liaison. There's others that only have a mayor liaison. So I think it's almost a broader project here. And something Councilmember Freeman said, at the end of the day, I really don't think it should matter. I don't see why you need to have a liaison necessarily to make things go faster. But again, just because I think deferring would just further potentially slow things down. I look forward to working with you. J-Sub should have a liaison just so all sides are talking at the same time, at the first time, so it can get, because again, it's no secret. It's hard to get money out of me, more so than others. But once we approve it, I want to see it out there as fast as possible so it can make that impact sooner rather than later. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Past President Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm not going to support it. I'm just going to stay principled here. Because I don't think we need it. And if I look back at public service grants, and I'm sorry to just beat this, just keep beating this, but you don't understand last year was a great learning process for me. I had to go to public service grants. And I had to watch. And I learned that they had Dr. Parvez sitting on that board just showing up in meetings. And I learned that he was giving data that was supposed to help this board, this group of volunteers make better decisions. Well, I've served on those boards back in 2008. I didn't know government then. So if there was a cabinet member sitting next to me, I relied heavily on what they said, sometimes refusing to add my own expertise to the conversation as not to get sideways with a current mayor. So I have a little bit of uneasiness of putting such a high profile person who is going to be controlling dollars, because now I understand it might be like a Mr. Hicks or someone that's involved with housing. How can someone speak out against it as a volunteer if they have an expert and a chief or whoever, whatever the title is sitting next to them? And so I spoke out against it in public service grants. And I think he ended up no longer attending those meetings. And if that is what this is going to do here, putting someone in such a very influential and powerful position close to volunteers, then it turns those volunteers basically into rubber stamps and yes, folks. And so I'm not going to support it for that case. I don't think we need it to get things done. But I was just a little bit poking the bear on my issue. I'm not going to bring that forward. But get ready to hear that play repeatedly over and over throughout this finance committee. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Let me go to Council Member Peluso. Thank you, Chair. And I just as a as a thought process here, it's my understanding. So JSEB, who who staffs those meetings? Is that is that grants? I know PSG grant staffs it. You know, JSEB grant staffs it. When it comes to HIC, it's housing. So it's a very different. You know, they are not in the grant business. So it's just it's a very different world who kind of runs that organization that runs that board. On top of that, almost all the board members are heavily involved in homelessness, housing, and many of them have worked for the JSE or United Way or whatever else. It's like they're they're they're experts in their trade as well. So like to the point of, you know, you don't want somebody kind of like over being overbearing, which I think maybe you could see in the PSG grant process because those are folks who maybe don't have expertise in the kind of the nonprofit world and perhaps staff can kind of over overpower maybe. But but you are not seeing that in the HIC. And this really is just to kind of make sure that there's someone there who could better talk with the groups that housing has no real interaction with until we created this new body. Right. So okay, let me go to Ms. Pittman for the first time. The chair, I would would be abstaining from this particular legislation because I work with the Clara White Mission and staff do apply for housing. So I just want to let you know that. All right. Thank you. All right. No, no other speakers in in the queue. And I'm Dr. Salem. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Yes, sir. Go ahead. Thank you, chair. I thought I hit the button and I apologize if it didn't come through. We're having a philosophical discussion about the role of the liaison. And I've I've been a liaison for seven years to various organizations, and I try not to push my agenda. Now, you're really there to help listen, offer advice. And I don't think we should be pushing a particular project or anything else as a liaison, whether it's from the mayor's office or from the council for that matter, either. And I would agree with Councilman Peluso, this group has had issues and getting things moving. Having written with Chief Powers, the original path legislation and wanting to try to get a a some type of facility on the the west side of downtown, which I thought they were working on two or three years ago. And there's nothing that's occurred. And I frankly worry about this property tax issue with the homeless spending that that and we have put millions and millions into homelessness over the last few years, substantially more that's ever been done by any city government, to my knowledge, at least Jacksonville city government. So I hear council member Freeman's concerns. We just got to make sure that they're not driving the bus, whether it's the council member or the mayor's liaison. Thank you for what it's worth. All right. Thank you. I have no other speakers in the queue. Just my little take on this. It's Councilman Freeman brought up some valid points and it seems like there needs to be a bigger, there's a bigger picture here that we got to get a better hold of that we're approving money, but it's falling short of actually going through the procedure to get it out to these organizations that needs it. And that's quite, quite concerning. And I'll go ahead and stop there and go to Mr. Dennis. Go ahead, sir. Through the chair to the committee. The administration, we support this liaison, but I do want to point out difference between the JSEB and which I understand Councilman Freeman's concerns about the JSEB with the $200,000, but the HIC was formed by this body to appropriate dollars for the homelessness. Like Councilman Salem said that, you know, he was at the forefront of that. JSEB was never set up to appropriate dollars. So the missions are totally different. That's the reason why it's very, very important to have a liaison to make sure, you know, the will of this body gets pushed forward as it relates to standing up and fighting homelessness. Again, JSEB was just set up to be an auditing body for the JSEB office, not really to dispense funds. So that's why it's so important to have that liaison there to make sure the will of this body gets pushed forward. Because again, when you stood this committee up, you stood the HIC up with dollars and not the JSEB. So I just wanted to make those, you know, make that difference. Again, if this body tends to want to put together a committee, someone from the administration would definitely sit and work with you all, you know, to have any changes. But just wanted to, again, just point out the differences between the HIC and the JSEB and these dollars. Thank you. Yes, sir. So, but in regards to JSEB, that organization is created to support small businesses. And with supporting small businesses, it encompasses the funding to small businesses in any way that the city can do that. So I do see a connection with that they are the same in concept. They may not have been created as just a funding mechanism, but it is to support small businesses. I'll go ahead to Council President, Past President Freeman. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the Chair to our staff that that staffs JSEB, Special Advisory Commission, can you tell us exactly the charge of that of that body or respond to kind of what was just put out verified for us? Thank you. Through the President to the committee as a whole. I think we're kind of conflating some concepts. There is JSEB, there's JSEB monitoring committee, and then this bill is about the Homelessness Initiatives Commission. One of the biggest differences between the Homelessness Commission and almost any other body, particularly the JSEB monitoring committee, the Homelessness Commission has neither appropriation nor allocation authority. Zero. They are purely a recommending body. And what is happening, particularly in light of the Homelessness Initiatives Special Revenue Fund, Section 111-960, I believe, is once dollars are appropriated by the City Council, if it's above the line, it is subject to department memo. That's the administration side. So what's happened is, in the Homelessness Initiatives Commission, dollars were recommended, and then there was no one one that is sitting at that table, staff particularly, that could answer, has any department of this administration put in a memo to use these dollars as HIC has recommended. And so what this bill does exclusively is have a person at the table who is responsible to answer the question of that committee, to say, this is what is happening with your dollars. Because there is somebody from the council to say, this is legislation that's going through. This is what we're doing. But there has nobody been formally sitting at the table at HIC to say, this is what's happening with your recommendation. Right. No other speakers in the queue. And I think we've heard some legitimate concerns here that need to be addressed. I, you know, I'm fully supportive of getting the dollars out to the Homeless Initiatives. But I'm also supportive of following through on the, not just JSEP, but all, all the grants. So I'd like to see this move forward to, uh, let's, let's getting a collaborative, uh, discussions about this and, and the momentum going to make that happen. So with that, I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Let's open the ballot and record your vote. Five yays, one nay, one abstention. By your action, you've approved 2026-0489. Next item is 14-2026-0492. Can I get a motion on amendment? I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Carraher. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will just reorder the definition section within the bill. So it's in alphabetical order and it'll correct a scrivener's error within the bill. All right. Councilman Amara on the amendment. All right. No other speakers on the amendment. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Likewise, none. The amendment carries a motion second on the bill as amended. I've got a motion and a second on the bill as amended. Councilman Amara, are you recognized? Thank you, Mr. Chair. To the sponsor, I just wanted him to explain, uh, the legislation. Councilmember Boylan. Thank you. Through the chair to Councilmember Romero. I didn't want to get in the weeds on this one, but thank you for the setup. Uh, some time ago, a constituent reached out to me, and now I'm an expert on this topic, um, letting me know about issues with a neighbor who's got some, uh, ironically, uh, some issues, uh, with respect to some noxious weeds in his neighbor's property, which is impacting his property. So in doing some homework on it, I found out that the Florida Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services has a noxious weeds list. Uh, the only enforcement really applies now to new development. So it precludes new development from planting noxious, you know, plants, etc. Uh, it doesn't address the, um, existing properties. And what this bill does, it just reaffirms the state legislation with respect to, uh, invasive plants and development on new properties, but it also now extends that to say on existing properties. The irony in this process is, again, getting too far into the weeds, is that the plant that this, or plants that this, uh, constituent is concerned about is not on the noxious weeds list that the state put out. So his next charge is going to be getting that addressed. But frankly, it's just a response to a constituent who has a very serious concern. And Mr. Axel, I believe, sent all of us an email yesterday, and I encourage you to take the time to read it. It speaks to the importance of this bill. He has, and I can't explain all of it, but I would encourage you to read it. Uh, in some respects, uh, it's in direct response, as I said, in direct response to a constituent need. And it seemed to make sense to me that if, you know, we preclude planting of these, uh, kind of, uh, invasive plants and new developments, we should maybe be able to, uh, also, uh, make sure they're addressed in existing properties and parcels. Acknowledging that there is a challenge, code enforcement's going to have, uh, some ramp up in terms of how to work this and understand what those are and how to address it. Uh, but I think it's a reasonable request to move this forward. Thank you for the question. Thank you. Let me go back to Councilmember Marr. You're good? Okay. All right. Councilmember Landon. Uh, thank you, Chair. I thank you, Chair. Councilmember Boylan. Uh, I just want to make sure, uh, this doesn't impact anything Public Works is already doing, like our landscaping policies, anything like that. I see Ms. Sickler out there. Is there anything that has any sort of unintended consequences on by adding this to our ordinance? Certainly not in, in the context of this process. This is really addressing private property situations and, uh, in that. And Ms. Sickler, I don't know if you spend any time on this or not, but I don't think it's an issue for Public Works. Thank you. Through the Chair of Thee, Mr. Boylan. It doesn't look like Ms. Sickler has any concerns, so I'll support this. All right. Pastor President Freeman. I'm sorry, Mr. Chair. I forgot to ask for permission to go outside. I'm asking for forgiveness instead of permission. My apologies. You get a, you get a demerit now. Jesus. All right. Let's see. Back, back to the business here, uh. Move the bill as amended. 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 2026-0492 on the obnoxious weeds. Let's go. Item number 15, 2026-0494, get a motion on amendment. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Carraher. Through the Chair to the committee, the amendment will correct the appropriation amount to $1,338,737.21, which includes $504,441 in revenue collected from the foreclosure registry and $834,296.21 in reallocated funding and will attach a revised Exhibit 1, which is the BT, to correct the appropriation. All right. No speakers on the queue about the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed likewise? Dr. Salem, are you on amendment? Okay. Any opposed likewise? None. The amendment carries. Can you get a motion and a second on the bill as amended? Can you get a second? All right. I've got a motion and a second. Dr. Salem, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair. Mr. Jeffrey, can you come up, please, for a minute? I'm just trying to understand. Are these dollars the same as they were last year? Is this a repetitive situation? You could answer that. Yeah. Good morning. Travis Jeffrey, Housing, Community Development Division, through the Chair to Councilman of the Assembly. Yes, sir. Same dollars. These are foreclosure property registry funds that the lenders have to, when they register their less pendants every year, they register it in a database. We capture about half of those funds or a little less than half of those funds for the fees that they pay. But are you, your division department makes the decision on how these dollars are expended? Through legislation, yes. Well, through the ordinance, yes, sir. There's a certain, certain activities that they're allowed to spend the dollars on, and within those activities are how we spend the funds. Okay. So, the Council could not, for example, say, I want to move the 38,000 from batch foreclosure into foreclosure intervention. Right. It's what I'm trying to get to. Through the Chair. Do we have the ability to alter these dollars? Through the Chair, yes, sir. We do? Yes, sir. Okay. So, I guess my comment would be, are we comfortable with the way these, and I guess the other question is, why is there so much in administrative and operational expenses? Through the Chair. Through the Chair. That fund is for positions for foreclosure registry. That are not funded by the core government? No, sir. Just through the registry itself. And we're putting, through the Chair, we're putting money in from here into the matching grants program. Does the administration also put dollars into the matching grants program? Through the Chair, the Council will say, no, sir. Just these funds here. So, the only dollars in the matching grants program are the 286 that are listed here? Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let me go to Council Member Lennon. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair, it's at the committee first, and some Council Member Salem said also, yes, these are the, it's the annual Travis Jeffries show. So, this will be our fourth time having, there's either five or six total bills. I think for some reason, only three of them come through rules. Five of them total come through finance. I remember the first year I sat down with Mr. Jeffery, and he walked me through in detail. And in the years since, including last Friday, I talked to Mr. Jeffery. I also talked to Mr. Peterson, our auditor. I said, hey, this is a lot of information. I know it's not our general fund dollars, but do you see anything that is different or inconsistent with prior year? Mr. Peterson's answer me was no, he did not catch anything that was inconsistent. So, given it looks consistent year over year on how we're allocating that, I didn't go too much further than that and said I'd support these bills. And I believe the technical phrase is through the Chair, Mr. Jeffery. These are annual housing empowerment grants. Is that the correct nomenclature? Through the Chair, Council Member Lennon. So, these funds are not, we call them entitlement dollars. So, all of our other five funding sources that you'll see today and tomorrow, all of those are entitlement funds. Thank you, Mr. Jeffery. All right, thank you. Let me go to Council Member Bolin. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the Chair, Ms. Jeffery, I kind of follow the same line that Councilman Salem was headed. I was a little concerned about the heavy number with respect to administrative and operating expenses. Are those four positions, can you speak briefly as to what role they play? Are they contract positions, first of all? Through the Chair and Council Member. No, they're, we're sitting at the city employees. City employees. And can you briefly, what role do they play in this process? Yeah, if I could, if I could bring Robert OMB up. He's the actual program manager for this, for these funds, and maybe you can speak to that for us. Sure. Again, I love the fact that we're, you know, intervention services, matching grants, blight removal, the foreclosure forgiveness program. Those are all critical. Those are direct support to seeing a half a million dollars or more going to administrative and operating. I'm a little uncomfortable with, but help me understand and feel good. Robert OMB, Property Administrator with the Housing Department through the Chair. These positions that we do, we not only administer all these programs, that means the foreclosure intervention program. That is, we also use in concert with SHIP funds. So that supports over probably 145 residents within the city of Jacksonville. We administer our Neighborhood Matching Grants program, which has been, this is going to be our 11th year running that program consistent, consistent, consecutively. We also do the administration of the foreclosure registry as well. So that involves working with code enforcement activities, tracking foreclosures and things of that nature. So my staff, me and my staff, we operate all these programs through these year in, year out. That, Mr. Through the Chair, that helps tremendously. Understanding that the role of these people far exceeds just these particular programs that you itemized here in terms of how these funds are used. So their services go beyond that. Exactly. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. Thank you. Let me go next to Councilmember Pittman. Through the Chair to Mr. Jeffries. Just wanted to get an explanation on the expenses for the blight removal. Does that, that 179, is that staff only? Is that staff and activities within the community? And if this is flat, has it increased in the last two or three years? Tell me a little bit about that. Sure. Through the Chair, to Ms. Councilmember Pittman, that money goes directly to our municipal code and compliance. So they use those funds to operate what they call the JAR program, which is Jacksonville Assistance Recovery. So that program prevents and helps very low income and disabled families from receiving liens against their property. Whenever someone's disabled or very low income, some of them can't, you know, maybe mow the yard or do certain things that would prevent, would put code liens on their properties. So municipal code has created this JAR program for this intended purpose, and they utilize the foreclosure registry funds to help those families so they're not burdened with liens against their property. And how, how many years have we done that? This is the first time I'm ever hearing this. So any resident can apply, and what's the qualifications? Sure. Code enforcement officers can assist the residents. They have, and I can't speak on behalf of code enforcement because I know there's been some turnover there, but there had been one point where there's actual flyers given out to any homeowners that would be interested. They do have to meet income qualifications or have certain disability within that they can document to qualify. So I'm sorry, to answer your question too. It's been about, I would say four to five years we've been funding for the JAR program for this, these funds. So is it a cap for that? And does the city go out and mow the yards or take paint off their homes or what, I mean, is it a certain amount or I should say a certain category the dollars can be spent in? Through the chair? That is a very good question. There is a, there is a limit to what, uh, who can qualify and how many times. Um, I believe it's only one time per year that, you know, a household can benefit. Uh, the cap, um, is relative to I believe the lien that would be possibly placed on the home. So, um, if a contractor has to go out and mow the yard, you know, there's different costs involved, but I can get you that exact information if you'd like. Please. Okay. One other question you, you said, um, I guess promotion for this particular, um, line item. So the only person that gives out the information is code enforcement or is it promoted through other programming like senior services, um, elder service, um, that would. Through the chair, I believe, uh, my, from my recollection code was, uh, is the, um, the main source of that information. But, um, again, I, I don't want to speak on their behalf, but I believe that they, they do have information, handouts and things of that nature that they can provide any, any division or department that would like to provide that information. So any of it, I don't know about other council members as well. I know that I have a lot of, um, seniors that can't afford that I hear from, but I, I had no idea we had this particular program. I thought when you said blight removal that it was, you know, like feedy or some major cleanup. Did anybody else know about this line item? Did y'all? Okay. Well, any information you have, I like to promote it, um, in my district, um, because I think it's important. And, you know, I, I wish we can promote this more than just through, um, code enforcement. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let's go to Dr. Salem. Thank you, chair. I had a similar discussion with, with, uh, Ms. Reber that, uh, Councilman Landon had with, uh, with Mr. Peterson. And it was pretty consistent. These dollars are very similar to past years. Does anything stand out at all to you? No, it doesn't. So that was where I stopped as well. So, um, and that's pretty much true of all the Jeffrey bills that we're going to see today. So if it makes people feel more comfortable, there's a consistent message coming out of the auditor's office. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Let me go to past president. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. And I think they, they, and Councilman Salem coming behind and following up that kind of helped me out a little bit, because I did have questions. I know we got finance later, but, uh, with those positions, if this funding and I'll get smarter on this, but if the funding wasn't there, did those positions go away through the chair to Mr. Jeffries or whoever, or do they still, are we growing government to the fact that we would have to figure out how we're going to pay for them once we started? Uh, through the chair. Yeah. Those are solely funded through the foreclosure proper registry. So we would have to find funds. If, if these funds went away, the ordinance was changed and, you know, lenders weren't having to register their, their foreclosures, then yes, we would have to find funds for those positions. Right. Thank you. Uh, I guess one question I have on the, uh, blight. We, we fund, uh, another portion of blight as well. Does this money go into that whole pot for blight or is it totally separate to the chair? Uh, no, this money stays within the foreclosure registry. It is not associated with the other blight funds in what, what, whatsoever. Uh, through the chair. Sorry for the, uh, side convo, but I think our question, our understanding is to use that blight money. It essentially has to be on a foreclosed house that's within the registry. In other words, we cannot divert that money, give it to Mr. Farrar to go out and clean just blight on an open median. It has to be restricted to the use on a home associated with the foreclosure registry in order to get the money. Through the chair. That's correct. Yeah, this is, we collect fees. So there's a fee versus tax, um, situation here. And in 2015 strategies and uses for the use of those fees was developed and approved through council. And that's the strategies and uses you see that we've been utilizing since then. Through the chair. Thank you. All right. Thank you for that clarity. So, okay. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. And through the chair, uh, thank you for that response. And foreclosed properties, uh, do become blight in the community through the chair. Is that, is that an accurate statement? That's correct. Yes, sir. And then question to the chair, does that, who's responsible for cleaning up those foreclosed properties? Does that fall into our, the neighborhoods department with blight or does that fall into the responsibilities that you all are talking about in this bill, in this legislation? Through the chair, uh, in terms of the, I mean, the owner of the property, if it's the bank, whomever, those are the ultimate responsible, responsible parties. You know, if it's a code enforcement issue, it does go through code enforcement. That's where the data that we collect through the foreclosure property registry comes into play. Uh, our foreclosure property registry mandates that if it's an abandoned house and it's owned, say owned by the bank, there must be a property manager that's on record that can be contacted to address the blight issue on that property. Uh, so it, um, ultimately comes into code, code, code enforcement and the use of those, the data. Correct. And I, and that's what I thought. And so essentially, and maybe I'm just swinging and missing here, but I think where we were going, if these dollars are restricted solely for, um, foreclosure registration issues or whatever, that's one thing. But if these dollars can be used potentially to offset code enforcement, um, issues through neighborhoods, through IE blight, then shouldn't those reserve dollars be accessible to that department? I think that's where the chair was going with it. And I think that's what I've heard, but, um, I'll just, I'll just pause there. And then if anybody else want to pick up with it, if not, I'm good. All right. Council member Landon. Through the chair and sorry, chair, we're all talkative today. I think that's what happens when we get almost a month without being up here and talking. Um, but just real quick through the chair, uh, to Mr. Jeffrey, uh, I guess my question is, so we approved incremental funding for Mr. Ferrara last year. You have your own blight funding source for foreclosed homes. Do you, do you guys communicate with, uh, Mr. Farr? Cause I want to make sure that we're using that funding we gave on places that there isn't a foreclosure home funding source. In other words, that we're not sending Al out on the call we got for a foreclosed home. He's spending general fund dollars on something that otherwise could have been used by this bucket of money that we're about to approve today. If that question makes sense. Through the chair, uh, at this point in time, we don't communicate with Councilman Ferraro. We'll put that on our list to bring it to the forefront. Through the chair, Mr. Jeffrey, I can send a group text later today to make sure you guys are talking because I think there is a good opportunity to match empowerment dollars with foreclosure issues and then match our general fund dollars with other parts of Jacksonville. Um, you're good. All right, let me go back to Ms. Pittman. That was where I was going because I thought this money was in the department. And you know, a lot of times we have funding and we don't coordinate how the funding should be used. And I I'm sure do y'all, did you all use all of the funding? You use all of the funding every year to the chair? Are you specifically what to all program related activities or, um, or just a specific program? Um, to the grant, what you just told me earlier was basically for foreclosures. Um, no, a lot, um, a lot of this is carryover funding. So this is an all year's fund. So any, any funds that don't wouldn't get used or reappropriated annually through this process. Okay. So I'd like, and I don't know if this is the best place to do it, um, is to be able to add and talk to, um, Mr. Ferrero, um, about these dollars because I, I think they could be used. Um, you know, I know in past, um, when things have been going on and I'll say my district, he's been handcuffed because he didn't have the funding to do it. So, you know, we're looking at apples and oranges and bananas. You know, I, I think we should look at what would be appropriate to make the most impact, um, in the community. So, um, I don't know if we could do anything is, is now is a good time to do, you know, an amendment, but I think we, we should just wait, but, and, and let them talk and, and see where these dollars go. I just kind of need some help. Right. Thank you. I I think the, um, I guess between now and, and council, when we vote on this, uh, it, it seems to me that the, the logical way to handle this, that we've got a blight department, y'all have blight funds. It should be coordinated to be like out of the liaison over the blight to where it's funding that he's not having to take out of the 400,000 that we, we approved and using it on, uh, foreclosures to where I don't know if he even knows that there is this additional funding. So I think the, on that side, the administration really, y'all need to get that dialed in. So we're not having, uh, uh, having to come back to us for more funding because they're, they're not able to, to meet the needs. And then y'all got money sitting here and that he's actually, uh, getting calls. A lot of people in communities don't know if it's being foreclosed on that the, that's a separate pot. They're calling, putting in a my jacks and then blights coming out and cleaning it up. So I think there's a, uh, a gap that we need to, uh, fill there, uh, to, to get the communication flow and then make sure the, the right dollars are being spent appropriately. Uh, councilman Amaro. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quick question. Since I don't know the answer, uh, if these dollars are not spent, what happened to them from calendar year to calendar year? Through the chair, uh, to council member Amaro, these are all year's funds and they carry over, uh, on an annual basis. Okay. No other speakers in the queue. Uh, we'll go ahead and open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you're approved 2026-0494. Next item number 16, 2026-0495. Getting a motion on amendment. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Carraher. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will just correct that the project is located in council district two. No speakers on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, likewise, none. The amendment carries. Can you 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. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you're approved 2026-0495. Item number 17, 2026-0497. Get a motion on amendment. I've got a motion and a second on the amendment. Ms. Carraher. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will attach the HUD award schedule as a new exhibit to the bill and correct some scrivener's errors within the bill. I've got Ms. Pittman on the amendment. Okay. No speakers on the amendment. I get a motion and a second on the... I've got a... I'm sorry, I already got a motion. All in favor of the amendment, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, likewise, none. The motion 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. Ms. Pittman, you're recognized. The chair just also wanted to let you know that I will abstain from this one and the next one because of the funding. The Clara White Mission may be applying for it as out of caution just to make sure. Thank you. All right. Thank you. No other speakers on the queue. I've got a motion and a second on the bill. Open the ballot and record your vote. Six yays, zero nays, one abstain. By your action, you're approved 2026-0497. Next item, 18-2026-0499. Can I get a motion on the amendment? Move the amendment. Second. I've got a motion and second on the amendment. Ms. Kerr. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will attach the HUD award schedule as a new exhibit and correct the appropriation year to fiscal year 2627. All right. Thank you. No speakers on the queue. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, likewise, none. The amendment carries. Get a motion and second on the bill is amended. I've got a motion and a second on the bill is amended. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot and record your vote. Six yays, zero nays, one abstention. By your action, you're approved 2026-0499. Item 19, we've already taken action. It takes us to item number 20, 2026-0516 and get a motion on the withdrawal. I've got a motion and second on the withdrawal. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. All right. By your action, you're approved 2026-0516. Item number 21, 2026-0517. I am deferring that one at the request of the administration. And that takes us to our next item. These items are on second reading. 2026-0535, 2026-0539, 2026-0540, 2026-0542, 2026-0543, 2026-0545, 2026-0546, 2026-0547, 2026-0548. And that takes us to item number 31, 2026-0551. Get a motion on the bill. I've got a motion and second on the bill. No speakers in the queue. Open the ballot and record your vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you're approved 2026-0551. So that takes us to the end of our agenda. And our first meeting is concluded. And one little note that I'll end the meeting with. If anybody on the committee has to go to the restroom, they don't have to ask permission. And we are adjourned.