Rules Committee - Jun 01, 2026

all right welcome everyone to the june 1st rules committee meeting we'll start out with introductions and let's please start with mr dennis good afternoon garrett dennis administration harley hamsey council research carla shell office of general counsel trista carraher council auditor's office philip peterson council auditor ken amara city council district one brandy white district 12 chris miller at large group five ron salem group two at large mike gay district two nick howland at large group three i'm here in a non-voting capacity just visiting probably for the first 30 45 minutes thanks okay thank you we'll get started with public comments we have one card uh mr nooney if you'll come down please come on mr nooney hello i am john jay nooney jacksonville city council resolution 2023 0819 i'm in city council district 4 cpac 3 school board district 3 and yeah i'll touch on and your address mr nooney 8356 bascom road thank you and uh you know first you know i just want to okay i'll be touching on the big one's going to be uh agenda item 21 20 26 0396 but i'm going to start with a couple of uh donations you know first will be 2009 442 that's the artificial reef trust fund the next one will be 20 26 0004 that's the parks trust fund and then right after that is 2025 0463 that's the veterans trust fund now the last time we did this i'll tell you it was like a reunion up there and i'll tell you it's it's it's going to be uh it works it happens and so what i'm just down to a minute 48 but this one you know uh this this one i mean like i said this is like a dream right here ordinance making certain findings and improve the authorization the public investment policy okay oed to add endowment grants the jacksville fostering filmmakers grant program now you know i spoke to it at the public hearing so when you look at the bullet points clarify that there is no maximum for the annual number of endowment grants that can be awarded amends the public investment policy to authorize endowment grants not to exceed 10 000 per grant subject to available funding as part of the jacksville fostering filmmaker grant program and this is mass this is awesome there are men's sections of the jacksville film and television office trust fund to include endowment grants within the authorized uses of funds so here we go we can have an oed i mean that's ed rambo randolph richard sparky 2025 0522 riker dr gregory jaseb grant wendy cip con fishing tournament to raise money for the jacksville fostering filmmaker grant program oed the office of extraordinary directors just down to 15 seconds you know you hear what's going on with toy story well in jacksonville welcome to grant world and i'm also talking about dr gregory jaseb grant this is awesome stuff visit jacksonville thank you mr nooney we received one more card um i'm sorry ma'am um i know you filled this card out quickly but if if you come up and introduce yourself i i'm not able to read your last name here latavia harris harris okay i'm sorry yeah that was me i filled it out extra fast um address on file thank you um i'm here today to show my support for robin to be on the east side uh community benefits board um what robin shows the community is no matter what color what background what gender she comes into the community and she helps a lot of things along the way with the community robin has been responsible for that keep in mind she's from the community just like some of us who were either displaced or had to move out of the community the biggest thing about when we were asking for board members were the people who had to leave but brought everything that they had back into the community i won't say that for all of the board members that was picked but robin is one of those people that has not only explained she shows up she probably shows up sometimes when the people in the community can't show up she's always there so she has my full support because when you just think about somebody who went through the challenges that robin went through and you could say you know what i'm done with a particular area side of town but you come back into that community and try to make whatever you can and help them succeed even if it was spending long nights explaining to us what's in the ordinance how the ordinance is working what people need to understand what they don't need to understand and she is one of those key people when i literally say when you guys speak of subject matter expert she's the one with the lived experience i have voiced to you guys about a lot of people on the board that just look good on paper but intelligently and humanity they just don't have good intentions but that is not robin anytime we need her to show up she shows up for the children she shows up for anything that she has to volunteer whether it's with either side of the administration robin is always there so i would just like to say thank you and i appreciate robin and i appreciate at least for the board members but robin is definitely what we were looking for when we talked about community being able to leave get educated and bring it back and not just leave us hanging so she did that for us so i'd like to give robin my support thank you thank you ma'am yes that concludes our public comments and we're now going to a period where mr peterson will give us an overview um and he'll go into more detail for those of you in in finance committee um after the finance committee meeting however um a couple of us believe that it was good to get a little more exposure um for this information given the very real impact uh that this can potentially have on us relative to the um adjustments that are being proposed to the property taxes at the state level and so at this time uh like to turn this over to mr peterson to give us an overview again not into the amount of detail uh that will be given to the finance folks but still uh to give us just a general awareness um of the impact and and he's got a handout for everyone here if you don't have one please let us know that gives you some of those numbers and numbers and percentages uh that breaks this down so please mr peterson through the chair to the committee um so as the chair referenced there is a five page handout that was put at your desk just to give you kind of an overview of where the 25 26 council budget um lies as approved uh in relation to the email i sent out friday estimating that a 250 000 homestead exemption uh would equate to give or take 300 million dollars by the time this gets implemented i will note that the bill that was filed uh in the senate does a 150 000 exemption in uh beginning in january 1 of 2027 that's up to 250 000 january 1 2028 uh with direction to get rid of property taxes at some point in the future there's no specific step on how to do that but what a couple of things i did want to point out to you you'll see on page one of the handout where public safety that's police and fire and all related costs make up roughly 58 and a half percent of our budget and then the other items that are broken down debt that's a little over six percent um interlocal agreements is a small uh component other departments that's every other department or not every other department i take that back other departments within the journal fund 290 million or just under 15 percent citywide activities um at 7.7 percent and we have breakdowns of the other department citywide activities uh contingencies at 1.3 percent and then the transfers out uh to other funds at 11.7 percent uh one thing that i did not include in my email on friday uh that i do think is important to point out to you is that the bill filed at the state uh identifies what ad valorem taxes can be used for and only specific uses and so that's listed right there on your page one we pulled word for word from the bill uh providing for public safety including law enforcement fire service and emergency medical service providing funding for education in public schools financing or refinancing infrastructure including expenditures on road and bridge construction and maintenance and stormwater control financing or refinancing natural resource projects including flood control measures issuing local bonds for uses consistent with this paragraph and to make debt service payments for existing obligations or meeting obligations for retirement benefits of local government employees and that's important because there are a large number of things that are funded in the the general fund that ad valorem or that do not fall into those six categories um i do think there will be some work that will need to be done to identify what does fall within each of those categories uh easy example is kha ultimately funded out of the general fund uh what portion if any of those would be education services so there's just a lot of work that will need to be done to identify what meets those six criteria but there's a there is a good amount of the general fund expenditures that do not fall into those six criteria if you turn to page two uh this is an outline of the departmental budgets um you'll see everything non-public safety totaling that 290 million from page one um just will point out some of the things that are in here that general ad valorem cannot be spent on city council uh finance department um a large portion if not all of the parks department uh sports and entertainment supervisor of elections um so just want to just want to draw your attention to there's a large uh large number of items that will not be able to be funded with ad valorem and uh should this pass at the state level we will begin to dive deeper into what other revenue sources um may have other limiting obligations to see where those dollars can be spent you'll see the public safety on page two uh a billion 171 million and then citywide activities that's the remainder of our general fund budget at 542 million turning over to page three you'll see a breakout from page one of these citywide activities and what makes up that 154 million large numbers that show up there economic incentives 23.8 million another item that could not be funded with ad valorem a little bit halfway down the page medicaid program 22.7 million that's a number that comes from the state that also could not be funded with ad valorem turning to page four um these are the contingencies that make up the 26.2 million uh from page one you're probably very aware of these numbers the budget stabilization accounts which had a small remaining balance our federal matching grants 6.9 million our fine grant dollars 3 million riverfront parks 2.6 million uh special committee on duval doge the two percent lapse at the 5.8 and then the youth empowerment committee 5 million lastly turning to page five these are all the transfers out from the general fund that total the 234 million the largest being kha at 59 million um you'll see further down the solid waste disposal 51.9 million another very large item that i don't think could be covered with ad valorem should this pass at the state level but just wanted to provide you an overall estimate or just an overall look of where the city's general fund budget the two billion dollar budget lies if we are having to go down the avenue of cutting um 170 ish million in the first year based on the proposal and then up to 300 plus million um in later years happy to take any questions thank you mr peterson we have past president salem you're recognized thank you chair a couple things um through the chair to mr peterson in early in doze we looked at going back as i recall eight or ten years in the growth of various departments by dollar amount in percentage over that over the when the general fund budget was like a billion and now it's too big can you get that together as well i think that would be very helpful um to look at not just this year but which departments have really had growth that's point number one point number two tomorrow at doze we are discussing health care and it's some of the final recommendations from um on how we could possibly restructure our health insurance and what other counties and cities across the state are doing that 21 million dollars at the at the bottom of page five is what's what's creating that and that we are subsidizing our health insurance plan and he has some recommendations on how we can reduce and or eliminate that so um thank you so much president 11 a.m president-elect halen you recognize thank you mr chair uh this is striking and what it means is that we are going to have to pretty much every county in the state of florida is going to have to focus on what core local government means to them you know we always talk about core local government we always talk about we must fund public safety first then infrastructure then essential city services this is going to force us to really take a hard look at what core means to us this summer because we can't wait to see what gets decided in the november referendum we have to start looking at our budget with a fine tooth comb this summer um so i would recommend everybody uh hold on to this piece of paper the auditors are given to us because we're going to keep referencing that i know i know this is this year's budget is approved and adjusted as philip mentioned for uh some of the conflict bills but there's going to be some important numbers here you know public safety is going to need what they need to keep our streets and neighborhoods safe we're going to give that to them after that when we start thinking about what's necessary and what's left over we have to think long and hard about what's important to us from a core perspective there's a lot of things we all want to fund but there might be reality here with what is left funds we have left to fund them a couple things i wanted to say thank goodness that this council has taken a hard look at completion grants the last several years and used accruals where necessary over accruals to pay some of those completion grants down because we're not staring in the face of as much red now in the five-year plan as we thought we would but now it looks like we are going to have another challenge and that challenge comes with restricted revenues and that's fair because we've seen property values skyrocket so high and we know that people are out there struggling not only to pay their property tax bills but to pay their insurance governments have to live within their means so we will be focused this summer on how we keep delivering what the people expect us to deliver in core local government and do so within the means that we have so thanks uh mr chair for having the auditors come brief this today i won't be there tomorrow at finance um so i that's why i sat in on this one today and i think it's very important that everyone understands some of these numbers at the high level thank you thank you okay no one else in the queue uh thank you mr peterson we appreciate that i know that was a last minute request and i appreciate you being flexible uh and coming here today and anyone who's interested right after finance um that will be addressed in more detail as i said earlier and any questions you have for more information that you'd like um please share that with the auditors okay we're going to start with our order of agenda as far as uh the appointments go and so we'll start on page 16 um if you'll turn with me to that page item number 22 um no appearance is required because it's a reappointment but 2026-0399 we have motion second on the bill um is carmen martinez here okay not here as i said doesn't need to be it's a reappointment um seeing no one in the queue please open the about record your vote okay by your actions you approve 2026-0399 seven to zero it was seven yays zero nays um having a little bit of audio concerns here so we'll go to item number 17 excuse me page 17 item number 23 uh 2026-04-00 we have motion second on the bill um see is miss uh senizal is it miss senizal is that how you pronounce your name would you please come forward if you would give your name and address for the record robin senizal 12539 reginald drive okay and if you would tell the committee a little bit about yourself um and and why you believe this is a good fit um for you being on this east side grants committee well i'll start with um that it's their fault they were the ones who talked me into it it was not initially my idea to be on the board but i'm happy to to serve in that role so as far as background as miss harris mentioned i grew up out east i i went rl brown kirby smith and graduated from andrew jackson i spent 26 years working for the city of jacksonville and over the years did a lot of different things but um i think some of the work that i did that is most relevant is developing and launching initiatives my first 12 years in city government i worked in public works growing up through the ranks and worked in the director's office with sam musa so i'm sure you are all very familiar with him and i learned a lot of my work ethic from that office i moved on to community services and helped to open the city's volunteer services office and as part of that work i developed an initiative to require background screening for all of our volunteers throughout city government the ones that worked in the park department for example pop warner and youth athletically they were not previously being fingerprinted and that that was an initiative that i developed convinced the administration to launch and then i personally was out at all the parks rolling fingerprints because we didn't have the electronic scans back then the other initiative i'm most proud of is is working in partnership with brother pete jackson who was at the time the west side minister um right here at eighth and maine i worked with him to develop the network for strengthening families i wrote a million dollar grant and got federal funds with a local match 500 000 from the city to launch the initiative focused on strengthening families by providing um structured curriculum to the parents and connecting them to resources and as part of that we created a coalition of over 50 organizations for cross referrals and serve 4 000 families over the next few years that initiative got national attention and i was invited to join a consulting firm in the dc beltway to provide training and technical assistance to other cities around the country that were doing similar initiatives back at that time jackson was considered the murder capital of florida and we were able to make some some great headway serving over 4 000 families with uh even showing reduction in recidivism for juvenile offenders who participated in the program so i've spent the last 15 years working in the federal space traveling the country working with state local and faith-based organizations to help them do a better job of working with high risk low resource families everything from workforce development to homeless issues to anti-poverty to re-entry and so i retired again um so now i've retired twice and can't seem to stick to it but i have ever since i moved out of the east side i've stayed in contact continuing to volunteer supporting organizations even in my work in the federal space i helped to bring over three million dollars to organizations on the east side fresh ministries and operation new hope so as miss harris says whenever i'm needed i show up that's what i do i just i believe in the community and it's been mistreated for far too long and i look forward to being a part of this inaugural board helping to structure a program that will make a difference to the future of the east side all right thank you anyone anyone in the queue i don't see anyone listed here um we do now have one um councilman gay you recognize thank you mr chair i'd like to be added as a co-sponsor to a fellow andrew jackson classmate and uh like she'll be able to do a fine job thank you all right thank you anyone else um if not i just have a couple questions because i just want to clarify you currently live uh not in the out east or east side area you live in district three i believe correct correct i live across the bridge okay and and but you said you you have lived there previously yes sir i grew up i grew up over there as i mentioned i went to rl brown curvy smith and andrew jackson okay um and and the requirement requirement is is not that you live there but it's it's um something that is preferred or have a significant business interest in the area and in this case you do have a significant business interest in the area well i actually work um because again retirement doesn't seem to stick with me i work for safe management at the arena and the stadium i'm doing security so i am invested in that regard but i've invested a considerable significant amount of my time and money over the years supporting organizations out east so i would not call it a business interest but i would say it's a definite personal interest okay thank you and i was told we didn't get your your full name on the record from you so would you please state your name again please robin cenezol okay thank you and seeing no one else in the queue um oh we do have now as i say that um council member omarra you recognize thank you mr chair um through the chair if i just heard you stated correctly that part of the comp required composition of this board is a residence of one of the five designated areas or b um and an interest in in in one of those five areas if those are the conditions for appointment and in her testimony she's she has neither are we uh following the prescribed description of appointments yeah i'll go to miss shell on this but i believe it's the way that it's written it's preferred or highly encouraged something to to that effect it's not required is that correct michelle to the chair that's correct the language is that to the extent feasible the mayor and council president shall endeavor to employ appoint members that reside in or have a substantial business interest in each of those five neighborhoods of the east side um so it's strongly encouraged but not a requirement okay seeing no one else in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yeas zero nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0 4 0 0 thank you thank you ms senators all and um for those of you who are being considered for appointments today um we will at the beginning of the full city council meeting next tuesday recognize all of you for stepping forward and um for your volunteer service that you've been appointed to and so it's not required but if you would like to come in the beginning of that meeting we will recognize you all who are in attendance that evening so next we'll go to item number 24 20 26 0 4 0 1 we have a motion and second on the bill um mr thomas are you here yes if you please come forward and state your name and address for the record and tell us a little bit about yourself sure my name is scott thomas i live at 1659 brookside circle jacksonville florida i've been very blessed where i've been in the community very active for over 30 years volunteering i've been very passionate about the waterways the water community i've avid fisherman boater kayaker water skier and i've been involved in many different organizations that support water and i'll just mention two of them today and the first one is the st john's river management i was volunteer for several years as a wave volunteer and where i was able to use my undergrad biology degree and do some water quality testing the other one is i'm still active in is at the coast guard auxiliary and i've been there for over 20 years and i've done harbor patrols safety patrols event patrols i've also did instructions on new boaters i did vessel exams and it would be a big honor for me to be part of the watersway committee thank you chairman miller thank you we have past president salem in the queue you're recognized thank you chair i i've known scott for a long time i think he'll be an excellent representative on this board and would like to be added as a co-sponsor thank you council member gay you recognize thank you mr chair uh i fully support scott and uh add me as a co-sponsor thank you past president freeman you're recognized uh thank you mr chair and mr thomas thank you so much for putting yourself forward i'd like to be added as a co-sponsor council member amaro you recognize thank you mr chair just very quickly um thank you for stepping forward on the waterways commission uh uh it's as the current chair i've seen some transition uh that has taken place and i think that you'll be a wonderful asset uh to a body that oversees one of the most important assets in our community in reference of quality of life what you've said thus far uh your compassion i think will make you a good good steward good servant on the waterways commission so welcome thank you council member boylan you're recognized thank you mr chair through the chair to mr thomas uh again my apologies for the light email uh specifically i'd be interested in in hearing what your understanding is of the role of the waterways commission are you familiar have you been to meetings you've read over minutes do you know what you're getting yourself into and we put it that uh yes i do uh i mean one great thing that the city of jacksonville has is archive all the past meetings and so i did look at some of the past meetings uh so i know what i'm getting to and uh from the internet and and uh talking to individuals i mean pretty much to be stewards uh of the waterway and to what councilman almero said is that it is one of our biggest assets and we need to uh make sure uh that we protect it and also uh use it properly and also i'd be an honor to represent the citizens of jacksonville on that committee thank you we have that we have uh president-elect helen you recognize uh thank you mr chair i just wanted to say i've known scott for a long time too he gets my um high endorsement and even though i'm not on the committee i'll like i would like to be added as a co-sponsor and i'm non-voting but uh scott good luck you'll get it thanks thank you and i'll echo what many others have said uh i've known mr thomas for quite some time and he's represented many different people many different organizations and done in an outstanding way and i know he'll continue that on the uh jacksonville waterways commission um so i'd like to be out as a co-sponsor as well and with that please open the ballot and record your vote seven yeas zero nays by your action you've approved twenty twenty six zero four zero one twenty twenty six zero four zero two we have a motion and second on the bill is mr youngblood here please good afternoon councilman thank you sir if you'd introduce yourself and state your address for the record please yes sir my name is jeff youngblood uh address is one one two nine one old st augustine road in jacksonville florida three two two two three councilman boylan hello how are you and uh i look forward to serving if if you so choose me to serve on the true commission uh i love accountability and i love uh efficiencies and saving resources uh 30 years in business in jacksonville uh three locations we sell equipment and machinery across 22 different states in the southeast uh again i think i can take that experience in a business acumen and bring it to the efficiency of the city of jacksonville on the true commission if you chose to serve uh ask me to serve thank you very much on the queue is past president freeman you're recognized uh thank you mr chair and through the chair to mr youngblood one thank you so much for putting yourself forward good to see you again um and you all heard about his business acumen i would love to see you potentially maybe apply for our jsev advisory board as well um and so i will definitely be putting that plug in it's a mayoral appointment but would love to to have someone with your experience and background um here but please add me as a co-sponsor and thank you so much again for putting yourself forward thank you councilman we'll go next to past president white you recognize yes sir through the chair i've known jeff a long time myself and i'd like to be added as a co-sponsor please councilmember boylan you recognize well i guess you can add my name as well that's a good guy uh very engaged his dad i i know and respect greatly and i think you'd be a great addition to the true commission so thank you for putting yourself forward thank you councilman councilmember gaye you recognize thank you mr chair uh i support mr youngblood and i think he'd be a good asset to the true commission and add me as a co-sponsor thank you thank you councilmember amaro you recognize thank you mr chair uh mr youngblood i don't know you as much as these folks but nevertheless uh thank you for putting yourself forward through the chair you responded eloquently to my questions in fact and i acknowledge uh your response and uh you your heart seemed to be in the right place so i'm 100 with you on this uh thank you for stepping forward thank you past president salem you're recognized yes known jeff um and like to be out as a co-sponsor good luck thank you and i'll wrap this up uh thank you mr youngblood and thank you for stepping forward volunteering for this role and thank you very much for our discussion we had a very passionate discussion about um what you could do um and i will say just publicly i applaud you because you made a comment to me that you wanted to do this but you were really concerned what would happen with the things that you all come up with on the true commission would it actually be used and put to good use the things that you come up with the recommendations that you make and um i assured you if if you make you all make that you bring that to our attention and you make sure we get that good input that we will do that now you know i challenge you hold me accountable for that hold us accountable for that because otherwise why are you there if we aren't taking the good input that you come up with to be able to help us make better decisions for the city um so i just wanted to put that out there and now you know i'll be held accountable uh for that as well so thank you for stepping forward and uh i'd also like to be added as a co-sponsor and with that please open the bow and record your vote seven yays zero nays by your action you've approved 2026 0402 thank you councilman thank you we'll next go to 2026 0414. we have a motion second on the amendment miss carra would you please explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will just clarify this seat is currently vacant okay all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying yes those opposed no the amendment passes we have a motion second on the bill as amended um mr lane is mr lane here oh yes i'm sorry i was looking to the right you'll please come forward and introduce yourself give your name and address for the record and tell us a little bit about yourself please all right it's charlie douglas lane i live at 35 14 oak street that's in uh in the historic district of avondale in riverside and i'm a practicing architect i've been practicing there since 1989 so i have a wealth of experience actually doing projects that i have helped my neighbors obtain coas for 200 000 projects we've done other projects in the neighborhood that go up to 20 million dollars so i have a lot of experience and and uh and doing preservation work restoration work additions and remodels for for historic homes so i think that i'd be a good addition to the uh to the ghpc thank you we'll now go to past president say let me recognize long time friend yes 50 years i think we look the same going back to lee high school uh i think doug will be terrific at this like to be a co-sponsor thank you thank you that's great okay no one else please open the ballot and record your vote seven yeas zero nays by our action you've approved 20 26 0 4 1 4 we'll turn to page 18 page 18 item number 27 20 26 0 4 1 5 we have a motion second on the bill uh this is a reappointment so does not need to uh be present but is is mr rios here okay just always want to check just in case all right no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yeas zero nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0 4 1 5. okay well next because uh we have visiting councilmember diamond here we'll next go to item 12 on page eight and that is 20 26 0 3 6 3 we have an amendment we have a motion second on amendment miss carer would you explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will just correct some formatting within the bill regarding the new code section that's being created and another code section that's being amended and correct some scrivener's errors okay thank okay we is it oh is it okay i just want to check real quick uh or able to pull in that pulling the amendment so it's it's the same exact thing that miss carer her explained i'm just requesting to make it easier for me to prepare the document that it be moved as a substitute as instead of as an amendment it's not not changing anything other than what was described it's just there are so many formatting and other scriveners corrections i would have to make an amendment would be longer than the bill itself that's the only thing i'm asking for okay i see uh nod by the introducer um so i think we're we're good there um so all those in favor of the substitute please signify by saying aye all those opposed nay uh the substitute passes i have a motion and second on the bill as substituted um we'll go to uh visiting councilmember diamond if you recognize uh thank you mr chair and first of all thanks for moving this up i always appreciate the courtesy of the chair uh especially as we have folks in the audience just so you know alex obakis and uh zach miller are both here uh to answer questions and to talk about the bill if you're interested um but uh first of all i think there's gonna be bipartisan support for this bill i think it's gonna pass and i think it'll be good for the city of jacksonville uh that's one two i want to be absolutely clear that this bill 363 is wholly unrelated to the other bill i filed regarding administrative deviations 364 in order to make that perfectly clear i'm going to withdraw 364 like the administrative deviations bill we'll just put it out there it'll be gone i'll ask uh councilman carrico just to go ahead and push it through uh to tuesday and i'll move to have it withdrawn because it's creating confusion they are totally unrelated bills it's oranges and chevrolets they're totally unrelated all right and the third thing i'll say before i get into the guts of the bill and happily answer any questions is this is required by state law this bill that i wrote is an exact transcription of what state law already requires that's it it literally says that we need to do this and many counties are already doing this if you go to st john's county they've got private providers if you go to jacksonville beach they have private providers if you go to any rural county in florida they're using private providers okay so this is not new this is not groundbreaking this is simply another way for us to help people in jacksonville have an affordable home and tomorrow at luz i'm going to have a builder and his team come up to this podium and talk about the extra expense of having to go through the city of jacksonville to build a single family home which can be as much as 15 000 a home and for 180 000 200 000 home 15 000 might be enough to put someone out of getting that home so this has a real impact on affordable housing in jacksonville so here's what the bill does it takes state law and it says jacksonville you're going to comply with state law and we all are very familiar with getting a permit once you're like kind of ready to build something in jacksonville and we have private providers for building permits it happens all the time um but we're what we're not as familiar with is having the engineering done by private providers and what the bill says is that if you have gone to school and got an engineering degree if you have spent time working for a professional engineering firm and then that firm signs off that you can take the engineering test and you take the test that here in jacksonville you can approve the engineering for a development and that's what it says um the benefit of this bill is that you've got now two options if you want to do the horizontal permitting for a new construction you can either go through the city which and i'm not going to talk about the current experience people are having with the city i would like to pass this bill with a very positive forward-facing message we can go through the parade of horribles i don't think that gets us anywhere but you can currently go through the city or this would allow a private provider to do the exact same thing the city is doing except that you've got someone who's probably more qualified than the person in the city one two if there's a problem with what they do the private provider you can sue them right you can't sue the city for screwing up your engineering plans but you can sue a private provider and three you've got someone whose license is on the line because what happens when a private provider takes your plans and goes through the entire thing they have to fill out an affidavit and under oath sign that everything in that affidavit about the work they did to make sure that your construction followed state and local law it's on them and if they don't they can go to jail right that's what this means so we'll have another option for people in jacksonville who already have their entitlements already have their zoning already have their land use all that has nothing to do with this just once you're already allowed a bill here's a more efficient private way to do it other places do it all the time it's required by state law the administration has come up with a series of amendments i think that the mr chair i think the smartest thing to do would be pass the bill as it is and turn these uh administration amendments over to luz tomorrow because frankly i think that's the right committee to take up those amendments but that's okay if you want to take them up today um i will agree on only the first one the first amendment was come up by uh terrence and ogc just kind of got into the the weeds and made sure that the uh definitions of a private provider engineer match up with state law i have no problem with that the other ones two three four and five are really trying to gut the bill and what they're trying to do is essentially create a new level of bureaucracy a new local certification for being a private provider that exists nowhere in state law and the the bar is already so high to be an engineer you already have to put your name on it you already have to know local codes you already have to follow the rules otherwise you get sued or you can go to jail if you don't do it right it makes no sense to create this new level of government it just doesn't if it had some common sense to it i'd be like all right great the administration supports the bill as it is and we're off and running no problem bill passes 19 to zero i think it'll pass with at least 13 votes without this but uh i will agree on the first one the administration wants to work with me before luz tomorrow on some of this stuff i'm happy to listen to them i spoke with them earlier today but um i think the bill is is perfect as written i think it models state law exactly and i think this will be one of the most important things we can do for the people of jacksonville because it will make a house cheaper for a family that's trying to stop the rent and by the way good for the city too because fewer renters we have the more money y'all can spend when i'm gone so appreciate it thank you mr chair i have to answer any questions and for the if there are any technical questions i can't answer ogc is here of course and then zach miller is a subject matter expert thank you before we go to the queue i i just want to acknowledge that i was negligent in not earlier recognizing past president freeman joining us and also dr johnson joining us as well they've been here for quite some time so and also uh councilmember boylan so i should have made that announcement earlier given putting this on the record everyone's seeing this so i want to make sure everyone knows they're present so with that we'll go to past president salem is first in the queue here you recognize thank you chair through the chair to mr the council member diamond just a few questions the private sector pays for this any idea what the fee is i mean typically it's less than what you pay the city and the way state statute works it says hey if uh it costs ten thousand dollars or whatever and the city would have charged you uh eight thousand the city can't suddenly increase fees on you to make up the difference that's how state statute works so this um but i mean if they want to charge a million dollars and someone liked it and they wanted to pay it then so be it it's the private sector but it's a transaction between the developer and that private engineer correct now that that plan then goes to the city and there is there some review by the city and is there a time frame on that review so it doesn't get caught up in the city process yeah within it and so uh within 10 days the city needs to say it violated a statute and the way this is currently written it says you have to say what statute it violated so if for whatever reason the city felt uh you know on there in their 10 days that that you know it's supposed to be a 26 foot 26 foot wide road going through your development and you did 23 foot one you say hey state statute says you gotta have 26 fly rule you gotta you gotta go back and so but 10 days and you have to specifically state what is wrong and that goes back to the engineer and and then re-submitted at some point for another 10 day period correct it is and i'm well out of my realm here is 10 days a reasonable period to get that response i mean the work should be done the work should already be done the engineer should have already done all the work and they're signing on it right so it has to be something glaring that they've sworn under oath they've done all this work right so the city can look at it and be like okay uh we've got 10 days to check it out okay i'm i'm supportive sounds like a great idea next is council member gay recognized thank you mr chair um i fully support this and see it it doesn't just um bring us for for the uh affordable housing it brings to to get moving our commercial and our industrial facilities to where um for instance i we we i recently in the past had a car dealer come to town that built uh car dealers all over the state but they had problems here and that they had not experienced anywhere and so we was able to help navigate that that this brings our uh ability to streamline and with these registered engineers that are licensed uh insured uh insured you know they got the responsibility and the liability on them this this gets everybody in their lane where we're already doing this with the building permits and this just puts the rest of the piece of the puzzle together to where it's a clear clean process that we can have companies come in to build a facility and they they know what they're building uh they they have their own design team and they can move forward and not be uh hit hit roadblocks so to speak so you know i i fully support this and i think it'll be beneficial to where we clean up a lot and streamline a lot in our um building department over there so thank you next is past president freeman you recognize uh thank you mr chair through the chair to uh councilman diamond one thank you for for bringing this forward i mean i i truly believe that anytime we can engage the private sector um in the end we're going to get a better product for our citizens uh you hit on the two points that i was going to talk about one being sovereign immunity and two being the loss of their license um i think the third thing is this if and when something is found uh to not be uh to the level of the city's expectations and it's returned the private the private sector is incentivized to turn that back around quicker because it's dollars and cents and you kill what you eat in the private sector um so i i see this as a huge advantage uh for our citizens uh so i want to thank you for putting it forward wish i would have thought of something like this but i'd like to be added as a co-sponsor next is council member amari recognized thank you mr chair what's been failed to say is that this is uh required by florida statute so there's no way around it um all 67 counties will at some point have to be compliant with this law that stated um if you serve on land use and zoning committee you know that there's a growing lack of confidence among our constituents as to uh the approval process as to who is watching the hen house if you will um and so some of the things that uh and i agree with you uh council member diamond that uh some of the amendments that are being proposed should be fleshed out during uh luz but nevertheless um what what guarantees are there that um you know these private individuals uh know the the city's uh building code like the back of their hands number one um that everything is going to be compliant i know they're probably acquainted with icc sbc you know all that but i think at the municipal level that there are some things that are not that perhaps go beyond the southern building code things of that nature and and and i just wondered if uh if if there needs some kind of standard as to where these guys are really proven to to have knowledge of uh the municipal building code from the front page to the back page yes please please do through the chair to councilman amara so um on your first point i clearly there's folks at luz who are concerned that there's unregulated just wild development in jacksonville i in my experience it's really been on the land use and rezoning side of the puzzle not necessarily the permitting side i i rarely hear like where people are concerned about that something is being built not according to code or that the landscaping wasn't done correctly or that the drainage wasn't i rarely hear that but but i agree with you they want to know that we're keeping an eye on things and so to answer your more specific question about how do we make sure these folks are know the local stuff so first of all the local in the state should match up almost exactly right it should be very similar it's kind of like a driver's license you know the administration would like us they have a special jacksonville driver's license well i mean driving anywhere in four is pretty much the same uh but uh i would probably if the administration wants to talk about this make sure that there's like a one-time sign-off that someone has read our code or understands it i just don't want to create a new certification that has to be annually redone like they're asking for because that would be just it's just a level of onerous bureaucracy that that would just cost people money and wouldn't give us any benefit because at the end of the day when the engineer signs and swears under oath that it complies with the law it they're swearing it complies with jacksonville's law it's not just in federal law and all these other things they they have to do that thank you mr chair i see nina sickler director of public works if she if i can ask her to please go ahead for a quick question um and through the chair to our council member diamond i'm not going to advocate uh more bureaucracy i'm not one of those fans of creating the administrative state where you got to jump hoops but nevertheless i want us to be sure that we're protected and so uh through the chair to miss uh sickler um any concerns about uh the legislation as is and i mean again we're going to have to do it uh it is required i'd like to hear your voice through the chair to council member amaro um council member diamond is correct that uh the mayor's administration and public works does agree with the private provider program we actually announced this a year ago um when we when we uh established our eight point plan for permitting so we we definitely agree we've actually had task team meetings over the last year with several engineering firms and others to discuss uh what it would take to put this program together and there is a difference in what the state statute requires versus what what this is um nevertheless we do agree but the state statute really covers buildings and site plans associated with those buildings this extends it further to cover the civil the horizontal work the site work and so um but again uh there's a couple of things that are different about this number one the civil side of things is separate than the florida building code uh the statewide building code requirements are very uniform um what we what we check on the civil side is very unique to to um our city and that's handled in the land development procedures manuals as well as our municipal code so in order to make sure that our private providers are clear on their requirements we recommend a um a one a one day less than a day training session and a and a brief open book exam that's what we've been working on we released it to our engineering volunteers last week we did not hear any pushback about that and it's just a way to make sure that the folks who are checking these plans understand what our what our references are and that they're looking at the right uh at the right data in order to review the plans and we also have checklists involved so they understand what the city looks for so we think it's a fairly simple requirement um if it's not annual we understand that we don't want to make it any more difficult but at least a one time to make sure we've got qualified staff that's what we recommend the second most important item that i'd like to cover is that some of these things on the civil side are different from building when you do a building a plan review it's usually a private entity's um uh asset at the end when you do civil work much of it is roadways or work within our right of ways and in order to protect the interest of the city we recommend that those things that will be adopted by the city for maintenance and ownership in the future should be reviewed by the city versus a private entity who doesn't who doesn't have an interest in our maintenance and um and other uh other assets so that those are the two main ones there are a couple of other uh amendments that we would recommend one of them related to fema review because that's a federal requirement and we we really can't delegate that and then the fourth item is related to tree commission and calculating the fee required for uh tree mitigation we would recommend that that remain with the city so those are the those are the four things that we recommend again we we support this initiative um we we do believe in partnering with the private sector in order to do whatever we can to speed up permitting thank you ms sickler through the chair to council member diamond um what i heard were a couple of things there that seemed like a simple ask i'm not uh going to advocate annual certification i i'm not but there is an ask of a one-day training to be acquainted with um i just want to get your thoughts on on if that's something amenable that you would like to see in the language uh uh thank you mr mire on through the chair um so just so it's clear i only got this amendment today and i followed this bill a month ago uh or longer and so i i read through it and i'm trying to be fair and reasonable and so i think what i will propose to luz tomorrow is that someone has a uh that the administration developed like a just a one-page declaration that i have read the local code and i certify that i understand it one time like and that they make whatever materials they develop available because they're already civil engineers these are folks who will do this for a living and the number of people who are going to do this are probably going to be the older ones who've already had a long career here in jacksonville that's who typically does this it won't be the etms of the world who are like jumping at the bit to do something like this because this is not money that they need uh the other thing mr omero just so you know because and i didn't say it before is you can't review your own stuff so if if you know someone's building a new building somewhere they can't review their own stuff the engineers will develop the building plan for that building and then it goes to some unrelated private provider to review just like with the city now thank you mr diamond mr chair i i i i'm leaning into supporting this because it is required number one we we can't dance around it but i'm also leaning into it because i just heard uh council member diamond said that if the city uh the administration presents a one-page uh item tomorrow at luz i i i i kind of concur with that there should be some acquaintance training if you will uh with with the city uh system so they can know what they're doing but i also heard uh the administration expressed concern about uh property that may end up being the responsibility of us the taxpayers and how do we safeguard against that so i think that if they uh present you a one sheet uh information sheet as to what they would like to see to make it better that's the objective here to make it better uh i i think we i i can move forward and and let's see what happens tomorrow at luz thank you mr chair thank you next go to pass president white you recognize yes sir through the chair and thank you i won't repeat everything mr america said but i would like to just have the confirmation from mr diamond that between now and they will usually tomorrow night you do sit down and if we can get a little closer with these things the right away and stuff i do have a concern but i certainly think we're headed in the right direction i support this but we'll as you said maybe move it out today but i would like you to get with her if you would and if we can clean up uh and change two uh two three and four a little bit and both sides give and take a little bit uh and have it ready by tomorrow night i would appreciate that thank you thank you we'll next go to council member gay you recognize thank you mr chair um through the chair to mr mr diamond the uh the i guess the the uh dynamics of this bill are is this bleeding out over into the public right away uh through the chair of councilman gay i mean it theoretically it could but even but that happens all the time i mean being part of uh doing i'll give an example in st john's county if they've got a new road that they're going to build i bet you 50 of the time they have a private provider doing it for the city so private providers are not some big problem in fact it would give jacksonville someone to sue if they screwed it up because if our folks screw it up we're done there's no insurance to go to there's no there's no uh liability they can go pursue uh so to me to me there's there's literally no difference other than we have a stronger control over the quality of the person if it's a private provider all right thank you so looking looking at the several aspects here this with for instance with the the building license the city is not allowed to sit here and to tell a contractor coming to town that has a state license that you got to take another exam to be able to work in our city they have to honor that state license and give them a permit when they apply for it and so i i really don't know if it's it's legal for us to require a provider the engineer to take a local exam to be able to operate here in the cities that that's i'm not saying it is or it's not i'm just saying i don't know uh and i i would like to when this goes into luz that that be a topic that's that's discussed and enough it's enough time to research that um but the the engineer the design professional will be smith submitting their documents to the private provider that private provider is the one that needs to make sure that the rules and regulations are adhered to and so if anybody needs to make sure they're up on the standards is the private provider because i think we kind of got it got a kind of off track here to where we we need to make sure that the private provider that is being operating in the the the position of the approving the plans that they are fully in compliance and looking for all the i's dotted the t's crossed and so that these are some of the items i'd like to make sure it gets addressed in um you know uz uh before it moves forward but i think uh it's needed and i would just caution and make sure we our ogc and everybody fully looks at the state requirements on if we can implement additional testing uh because i don't think that we can and when we like say when their license to to be able to uh have them you know come in pull permits and go to work so with that you know i think the the the amendment any additional in it we move the bill forward like it is and then luz uh kind of tweaks it and make sure we get in line thank you thank you we'll go next to president-elect howland you're recognized thank you mr chair i just want to commend uh councilman diamond for launching this bill i mean we've heard for a long time that um permitting delays are causing you know problems for for progress in our city and and this increases efficiency anytime we can increase government efficiency is a win um particularly when we can do it within the proper guard rails and a lot of this discussion is centered around what guard rails are there there's some pretty strong ones the second thing we've heard frequently how expensive permitting is particularly for new developments um that affects housing affordability and and this has the uh potential to improve on that which is fantastic um so thank you for putting it out there in particular thanks for also saying i heard you from the green room that zero three six four was going to be yanked um there is it was important to me to know and i learned there's there was nothing companion about these two bills um three six three has has great merit um and i also lastly want to thank miss sickler for providing feedback because i do think um uh what i like about this conversation is this is a great bill it has to move forward but you've agreed that you're willing to talk with the administration before tomorrow night's luz to find a great path forward that is doesn't add additional bureaucracy but still achieves what you want to do so commendations all around um i'm supportive thanks everyone thank you we'll go next to councilmember amaro you recognize thank you mr chair i just wanted uh clarity on on what i heard and what i said i heard training i did not hear exam training to be acquainted with systems and i don't find that to be offensive at all i um you know i remember one uh onboarding here at the city hall regardless of whatever knowledge i may have had of government there had to be an acquaintance with and so um i don't think there's anything offensive in asking someone who don't know your processes to sit down one day and find out how it works that they can apply whatever their skill set is to navigate that so training is what i heard with sam and not exam thank you thank you i i think there was if i remember correctly miss sickler did didn't you recommend recommend an exam after that training to the chair we have developed an exam um whether we use it for certification or for self for you know self-understanding of how you would with any training at the end you have you know you have some um assessment at the end you know that obviously can be discussed but okay thank you i just wanted to i i thought i'd remember that as well or heard that as well so i just want to clarify that thank you very much and mr dennis you've been on the queue a couple times i was trying to get to all the members first or is there something you want to add okay thank you um anyone else i i agree and this is a good thing about being last um you're able to take this all in and i really appreciate everybody's willingness to have this back and forth the conversation the clarifications and uh i i also applaud council member diamond for bringing this forward and echo the comments about 364 they're very different and so um we're going to defer that today at at what you had expressed but your intent is to withdraw that um and so that's the feedback i got was not about 363 there were some about 363 but i think um somehow they were put together and bundled together in the comments that i heard about the concerns and and so from my perspective anytime you can offer up another option you can offer up reinforcement for um what can be a challenging probably load on our public works folks when you can offer options um to be able to allow those builders to exercise those options for absolute professionals just as their people are um i think that's a good thing and and that adds to our efficiency and that adds to um that can address the concerns and reduce the timelines that have been experienced so i think this is a good thing and has been has been voiced this this is a state requirement effective july 1st so a month from today i believe this is required so i think there are good reasons for us moving forward with this and as has been expressed let's between now and luz all the parties responsible parties get together try to figure out a little way a little bit better way forward on those extra recommended amendments and uh and i'm sure that by luz time we'll be able to work uh they'll be able to work through those details and get to a good place that uh that hopefully all parties can be okay with uh so with that said um please open the ballot and record your vote seven yays zero nays buyer action you've approved 2026 0363 as substituted thank you um so we're we're now going to go to the regular uh order of the agenda starting with item number one and work our way through the rest of the items that we we have not uh touched on yet so item number one 2024 0627 is being deferred at the request of council member diamond item 2 2024 or 0966 is being deferred at the request of council president carrico item 3 2025 0775 is being deferred at the request of council member carlucci item 4 is being deferred 2026 0192 at the um but we don't have the uh let's say that that was by me as the rules chair that's a continuation deferral same with item 5 2026 0203 is being deferred item 6 2026 0227 is being deferred at the request of council member diamond item 7 is 2026 0318 being deferred at the request of council member johnson item 8 2026 0319 is being deferred due to council public hearing item 9 excuse me item 9 2026 0320 is being deferred at the request of council member white and that takes us to item 10 2026 0335 we have an amendment we have a motion second on the amendment miss care her would you please explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will correct the applicable fiscal years related to the fuel cap we'll place a revised first amendment on file to correct the fiscal years related to the fuel cap remove a reference to fiscal year 20 32 33 which is not applicable since that falls beyond the term of this contract and lastly we'll correct a section reference okay thank you very much all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying yes all those opposed no the amendment passes we have a motion second on the bill as amended anyone in the queue anyone i know there was an extensive discussion during neighborhoods um earlier today okay um all right please open the bout and record your vote seven yay zero name by your action you've approved twenty twenty six zero three three five as amended go next couple pages to item eleven twenty twenty six zero three five eight is being deferred um item 12 we've taken up we'll go to item 13 this is the one we talked about earlier twenty twenty six zero three six four is being deferred due to uh planning commission but as you heard earlier the intent eventually is for withdrawal item 14 20 26 0376 is being deferred due to planning commission item 15 20 26 0378 we have an amendment we have a motion second on the amendment miss carer would you please explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will remove the striking of downtown development authority within the proposed code changes and update the terminology to reflect the downtown investment authority we'll move some language regarding determinant determination on applications from one code section to another code section where it makes a little more sense we'll change references from the consumer affairs manager position to a designee of the director of neighborhoods department or dia we'll revise the penalty provision to reflect a class d offense unless otherwise provided in chapter 250 this is just to match up with the offense that's listed in chapter 609 and lastly we'll correct some scrivener's errors within the bill okay thank you all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying yes all those opposed no the amendment passes we have motion second on the bill as amended no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yes zero nays by reaction you've approved 20 26 0378 as amended item number 16 20 26 0382 motion second on the bill you know one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yes zero nays by your action you approve 20 26 0382 item 18 20 26 0383 we have motion second on the bill no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yes zero nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0383 item 18 20 26 0385 we have an amendment motion second on the amendment miss carriher please explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will include carryover language within the bill and attach a revised exhibit one which is the bt form to correct the account information okay thank you all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying yes all those opposed no the amendment passes we have motion second on the bill as amended no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yes zero nays by reaction you've approved 20 26 0385 as amended item 19 20 26 0387 we have motion second on the bill no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote five yays two nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0387 item number 20 20 26 0389 we have a motion second on the bill no in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yays zero nays by your action you approve 20 26 0389 okay okay item 21 20 26 0396 we have an amendment we have motion second on the amendment miss carriher please explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will clarify there is no maximum for the annual number of endowment grants that can be awarded we'll update some department and office names within the trust fund language and correct scriveners errors and lastly place a revised public investment policy on file to correct the date okay all those in favor of the amendment please signify by saying yes opposed no the amendment passes the motion second on the bill is amended no in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yays zero nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0396 as amended we've already taken up item 22 23 24 25 26 27 we go to item 28 20 26 0 4 4 5 is on second read also 20 26 0 4 4 6 and 0 4 4 7 are on second read that takes us to item 31 20 26 0 4 5 2 we have a motion second on the emergency would you please explain the emergency through the chair to the committee the nature of the emergency is to make these funds available as soon as possible as this is a summer program thank you all in favor of the emergency please signify by saying yes all those opposed no emergency passes we have a motion second on the neighborhood substitute would you would you cover the the items regarding the substitute i received a request about the substitute please uh through the chair to the committee the neighborhood substitute will increase the appropriation amount to 150 000 and revise the funding source to general fund operating reserves we'll update the number of individuals served through the program from 25 to 50 we'll change the oversight from the kids hope alliance to the grants and contract compliance division we'll remove the code waivers that were related to kha we'll add a waiver of code section 118 107 and attach the required affidavit as a new exhibit to the bill we'll remove the language that was amending kha's schedule m and remove that schedule that was attached as an exhibit we'll remove exhibit four which was the council district eight traffic calming cip sheet as that's no longer needed and we'll attach a revised exhibit one which is a bt to reflect the updated appropriation amount oversight department and account information and lastly attach a revised exhibit two which is the term sheet and budget to reflect the updated amount oversight department and the number of individuals being served by the program thank you um we'll go to pass president premium you recognize uh thank you mr chair and unfortunately i did not get a chance to watch neighborhoods this morning so my apologies if i tread in any waters um supportive of anything that deals with youth and deals with workforce uh just had a few questions uh one being um not being petty but being petty a little bit uh as soon as i see grants and compliances coming in and seeing something being done now in the summer i had a little concern with the micro grant when we did the jsev we were told by grants and compliance that because of the cba that they couldn't take on more work until later on um so i found that that that to be a little bit of a contradiction nothing major we can move on from that um but i just want to go on the record and i'm glad to see the council member here one i'm fully supportive of traffic calming or anything i trust the councilman and so he says that the community has told him that they do not have a need forward i just want to make sure i'm on the record saying that if someone comes back and says that they had a need for it i would be very much in support of these dollars going to whatever needs they have but you know your community your district better than any of us up here so blind trust there but here's where the concerns come and i would love to hear the council members thoughts they say that imitation is the finest form of flattery we have a youth empowerment committee that um has been pushed back a little bit i mean we did all the work starting in october we finished early enough and i want to say march was the end of the last meeting that the whole rfp process could have been taken care of in that month of april it could have made it to us in may uh and been voted on by their board in may voted on us by may in april in april for them may for us and on the street in june uh or earlier it was pushed back for whatever reason that's fine but we have waivers here now that is going to somewhat circumvent that process and now not have to go through the same process that the youth empowerment committee had to travel through here's the challenge you have the mayor's youth to work program which is a good program one that i fully support and there is a way that this could have been done it still can be done that aligns with the mayor's youth to worker program so that we're not having a a competition of serving the same the serving the same demographic and that's just through enhancing what the contract that we already have um and that is one way and i'd love to hear the council members reasoning for not going that direction but that would be one way to kind of not circumvent kha which is what i think is a thing that we're dealing with kids 16 to 24 and kha is the one that helped me come up with it to create the the window that expanded it um and it doesn't put it into grants and compliance who they they do an amazing job and miss hampton that group i'm very pleased with them but they also on record telling us that they were the cba has had them swamped and this bill is putting them in a position where they're able to now manage goodwill which in the microgrant program it could have been just one you know what i mean so it's like we're picking and choosing winners and losers when in the end i think if we're doing something for kids 16 to 24 or for the least of them in our city i think it's a win but it might come across more as a who filed a bill kind of deal next and that's kind of what i want to kind of put in the atmosphere thank you and i welcome uh the introduce your council member gaffney jr and yeah please please respond i'll be brief so thank you to the chair to councilman freeman so i want to say a month a month ago i had an opportunity to tour goodwill um when i was on the tour david the ceo told me that last year mayor's youth program took a thousand applicants however they was only able to hire 500 because they only had like 1.6 million dollars so and i was like so he was like they need more funding so just like a month ago so at this time you know um i spoke with him i was like well let me see can i get you some funding so i reached out to kids hoping lines and um kenneth shared with me that they board won't be able to see this legislation until mid-summer so which would push this program back immediately so instead of going through kids hoping lines who ultimately get as many of the goodwill you know i spoke with the um grants and contract compliance department and they said they'll be willing to oversee the funds so you're right it's pretty much the same program and i was going through kids hoping lines but like i stated early in neighborhoods committee they say they won't be able to look at this legislation until they have another board meeting yes please pass present for him thank you and you're spot on with that um i just want to make sure that i but i'm going on the record the youth empowerment committee was this council president's initial legacy piece i somewhat see something like this as running in competition um and so therefore i wanted to make sure that i support it because it's dealing with youth and try to find a way to but the budget so the first thought was was can we add it to yac like we did with the 200 000 you're spot on you can't because of the delay it would not be out by the summer but then i asked were there any other options and i got an option that said yes if we simply just enhance the current contract that goodwill has with the city of jacksonville for the mayoral youth at work program which is the example he just gave that they they had a thousand applicants but goodwill could only hire 500 or the city could only have 500 that if we just enhance that one contract we don't have to waive these codes and do these other things that circumvent the process that is the reason why our current president's project is not coming out while he's in office and i just that's what i just really want to put into the ears of those who are past presidents councilmember white president white uh count past president ron salem and the rest of you that have all have desires of being in leadership it's something that whenever you can give your speech at the end of the year and you get to talk about your project he's not going to be able to talk about his project not because we didn't finish it in a timely manner but because of the process and it's not it's not the fault of the board of kha it's just how it falls we voted on a 20 on a tuesday they had their meeting on a wednesday so it couldn't make their agenda in time so i just wanted to put that on it i'm not going to vote against kids so you're you're good on that but i if i could and if there were a way that i could offer an amendment or something that said we we can accomplish the same task and through the chair to miss carer or michelle are we not able to accomplish the same task by just enhancing the current contract that we have with goodwill and then avoid all of these other waving of codes and things that we're doing to kind of circumvent kha through the chair to council member freeman we would have to confirm with kha but i believe we could just revise the appropriation to send the dollars to kha and add it to the existing contract may i please and through the chair to miss carer i've already confirmed with them you can and i do believe that that was almost a recommendation that they had if we were trying to get those dollars on the street soon quicker but yet not change the process i i kind of see this to my colleagues and i'll just say it i kind of see this as and i don't know if grants if they came to you and offered or if you went to them and i'm grateful if you went to them and they said yes but it puts them in a through the chair to council member gaffney it puts them in a tough spot when they stood at that day they stood at the podium several months ago and told us that they couldn't manage 200 000 for a micro grant program that could have been one organization for 200 000 here we have one for 150 and they're able to manage it i just love consistency more so than kind of picking and choosing winners and losers so how do i go about through the chair to councilman gaffney if i'm able to get support for enhancing and accomplishes the same goal that you want which is getting the dollars out this summer not having to wait for the board would you be supportive of that i mean kid tilt alliance is now they helped me write the legislation to expand it to 24. um you're looking at the youth empowerment committee they've been hand in hand working for a lot of those people that you sent here so this would kind of be an extension of what's already been happening the minute it goes to grants it kind of gets you have two different organizations departments within our city serving the same population except one group's been working on it for several months the other one is just coming in and managing would you be opposed to enhancing the current contract and that they already have and they can now service take these dollars and serve more kids well thank you through the chair to councilman freeman the only thing about that i did reach out to kids hope alliance and um john ever um is that words hey councilman if you appropriate funds to us our board won't be able to approve this until mid-july which put us back a whole month he didn't even say if they're approving or not so we said okay because originally this funding was going to kids hope alliance so he said our board won't be able to approve it until mid early july which which would put this push this program back another month my biggest concern is school is already out you got 10 or 15 000 kids that just sitting at the house so i spoke with goodwill i spoke with grants and compliance i said hey if we somehow move this money from you know kids kids open lines until um grants and compliance um would you be okay with that and they said they'll be able they'll be okay we're overseeing this funding so um my goodwill came this morning um they was okay with grants and contracts compliance overseeing this funding their biggest thing is is they have the infrastructure right now and they could put these kids on the street within the next two weeks they're gonna be responsible for hiring these kids calling these kids the taxes the whole nine yards my biggest concern at school it's only two months of summer break we just want to get these kids to work like i said i and the reason i'm late at this because i took a tour a month ago this just came up a month ago when he told me a thousand kids applied they was only able to hire the 500 so i said what can i do on my behalf to help these kids so at first it was 25 kids then i say 50 kids it's 150 what yeah 150 000 so i said i just want to pick these kids to work so it was going to kids open lines but like i say mr everett told me he said they next board meeting won't be until july and i mean by the time they over they could say no the next thing you know these kids are still just staying home on the streets so i don't i did i wanted to go to kids open lines but he just said they next board meeting won't be till july so that's when i reached out to the grants and contract compliance department and they say they could work with goodwill so they could put these kids hopefully to work within like the next couple of weeks depending if they go through council next week they could be working within mid-june hopefully if not next week after um city council meeting thank you so to answer your question i would prefer the bill to stay the way it is now because if we do go through kids open lines um like i said john everett told me and i'm being redundant right now that the board won't be able to approve this until early july and we know that's the fourth of july weekend and they'll be going back to school in august thank you mr dennis you're recognized uh through the chair uh to the committee uh a couple things uh number one uh councilman gaffney is correct uh by putting the money over at goodwill uh the grants department they're already managing that contract so that would just be adding dollars to uh uh versus this micro grant that uh councilman freeman continues uh to talk about uh that's where the different resources because we're you'll be starting something from scratch versus something that's that's already um that this you know that this in operation the other thing i just want to uh caution uh you know this council on is that uh you should be very weary uh to circumvent processes processes are are in place uh to make sure that there's no fraud uh you know any abuse or or any uh you know deceit or anything like that so you know i would caution you to uh you know to try to again stick money somewhere just because to get out faster um you know as it relates to the micro grants again uh this council and the councils before you have set up um you know parameters in place so you won't have um uh you know so so all these dollars will be accountable because again these are taxpayer dollars thank you um but i want to check mr uh council member morrow you came off you ron you're good okay we'll go back to past president freeman you're all right thank you thank you so much and i'm grateful that i triggered someone by using the word micro grants because that was not the conversation piece we're actually talking about summer jobs 16 to 24 with a program that i fully support the mayor's youth at work program um and the real conversation here was how do we get those dollars so in reality i felt like you were just being circumvented by the mr dennis because that is exactly what this bill is doing it is circumventing the process so the dollars can get on the street faster so he's undermining your your comments a little bit where i'm going with it as well is i talked to kha and i have the same email that you all have and it's public record so you can get any of the emails um and it says one potential option for consideration may be to structure the funding as an enhancement or targeted expansion under existing my mayor's youth at work program while preserving the legislation intended for district 8 focus and expanded for 16 to 24 age group operationally this could allow the city to leverage infrastructure already in place through a current model including employer partnerships onboarding systems payroll range operation this could allow the city to leverage infrastructure through the current model partnerships onboarding reporting mechanisms importantly this approach would not alter the policy intent of the legislation or goodwill's implementation role rather provide a more streamlined administrative pathway all of that gibberish is saying this that we could just do this without having to change anything else but just do an enhancement and get the same end goal so why would you choose not to go that route and to go the route that you win i guess is where i'm going okay so thank you to the chair to councilman freeman so once again john everett told me he said if i was to do it that route the board won't be able to approve it until july 2nd it was originally going through kids hoping lines um that's why um when he said that because we was it was the funds was originally going to kids hoping lines once he said it would the board will oversee it it won't be able to approve it till july 2nd at that point i reached out to the grants and compliance department and say hey would you guys oversee this with goodwill and the grant keep in mind um the grants and contract compliance do the same contract with kids hoping lines so they already doing the work with kids hoping lines it was going through kids hoping lines but he said the board doesn't meet until july i'm using the word july 2nd early july somewhere up in there yeah okay early july so they won't be able to approve it i'm i'm 100 with you i'm a hundred and i'm i'm going to support this bill um but no no no i i mean you all got the lecture this morning i'm sorry i missed it but he's missing the point that i'm making this is not about the board legislation being written to go to kha board this is saying that there is something and i and i hope you guys are following this because it's the same source we both talked to the same source and in two different responses the first response is accurate it's what we're dealing with with yc which i'm fine with that's the process i've always said government is slow the second one is saying we could have just done you can simply just do an enhancement to the current contract that goodwill has no harm no foul and we keep it moving and that was what i first asked our auditors and our attorneys in the very beginning of this process can it be done and if you don't if that's the way that you don't want to do it then you can just tell me that okay because both ways can be done this way doesn't require any type of waving of codes it doesn't require any of that it just says hey we just simply move it there move it through an enhancement we vote on it and the money's out that's all i was trying to say so yeah thank you through the chair to councilman freeman the only thing about it if they approve this in late july the kids won't start working until it right so no no it had to go before kids keep in mind kids open lines have to approve it and that's what he was telling me through the chair to councilman freeman he was telling me this won't get approved through the board that's what i'm just saying what ever told right to keep in mind it was going to kids open lines originally and i changed it after he told me he said this program won't go into effect until kids open lines board approve it they've already approved the contract with goodwill through the chair to council member gaffney this is what i'm trying to say it's already been approved so all we would do is enhance it saying instead of 500 000 we're adding this to it they've already approved goodwill doing this contract for the mayor's youth at work so nothing would have to if we if we took this action today and we voted on the enhancement nothing would have to go back to kha board that is that is if that is the facts and that's what they just said as well that's what i'm trying to say you're getting two of the two topics confused and so i'm just trying to create a process that is a little more seamless as we move forward but if we you want to go the other way i'm fine with it because it benefits kids and workforce but at the end of the day we could be setting it up to where council district council one says next year they have money and now we want to do something for district one only it can be setting up now district two as as opposed to we deal with goodwill you can write those specifications into the contract and now goodwill is managing it so i'm done now with it um but i just definitely and that i we were speaking to the same source and so i just want to make sure that both both sides are kind of out there because i do believe that both are beneficial one is just a little more seamless we're going to take a vote on a substitute we haven't done that uh yet so all this will be a voice vote all those in favor of the substitute please signify by saying yes all those opposed no this substitute uh passes if i could have a as an emergency thank you thank you very much it's been a while um thank you very much um anybody in the queue um council member gaffney you're in the queue okay i just want to make sure we didn't miss anybody okay please open the about and record your vote seven yay zero nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0 4 5 2 as substituted as an emergency i may not have said that correctly but hopefully covered everything item 32 20 26 0 4 5 3 is on second also 20 26 0 4 5 4 is on second as well as 20 26 0 4 5 6 is on second read and 20 26 0 4 5 7 second read and 20 26 0 4 5 8 second read item 20 26 0 4 5 9 is on second read item 20 26 0 4 7 excuse me 0 4 6 0 is on second read item 39 20 26 0 4 6 3 is on second read and that takes us to item 40 20 20 26 0 4 6 6 we have motion second on emergency may would you please explain the emergency miss carer through the chair to the committee a one cycle emergency has been requested in order to make the funding available as soon as possible since the program is scheduled to begin in early june okay all those in favor of the emergency please signify by saying yes all those opposed opposed no emergency passes we have an amendment as well we have a motion on the amendment we have motion second on the amendment miss carer would you please explain the amendment through the chair to the committee the amendment will remove the waiver of code section 110 112 this isn't needed because uh kha's ordinance code chapter 77 allows for advances of up to 25 of the contract amount okay thank you all in favor of the amendment please signify by saying yes i was opposed no the amendment passes we have a motion second on the bill as emergency as amended um no one in the queue please open about and record your vote seven yays zero nays player action you've approved 20 26 0 4 6 6 as emergency as amended item 41 20 26 0 4 6 7 is on second read item 42 20 26 0 4 6 8 is also on second read item 43 20 26 0 4 7 0 we have a motion second on the bill no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote seven yays zero nays by your action you've approved 20 26 0 4 7 0 item 44 20 26 0 4 7 1 we have a motion and a second on the bill no one in the queue please open the ballot and record your vote i'd also like to be added as a co-sponsor seven yays zero nays by our action you've approved 20 26 0 4 item 45 20 26 0 4 7 3 is on second read and uh that should conclude meeting anyone anything else anything else um we are adjourned thank you