Good afternoon. Welcome to our special committee on drawing and prevention. We're going to start with introductions to our left to our right. Joe Andreese, Mayor's Office. Stephen Libby, Council Research. Shannon McGillis, Office of General Counsel. Heather Reaver, Council Auditor's Office. Good afternoon, Tyrone O'Clock, Murray District 9. Good afternoon, Councilman Reginald Gaffney Jr., District 8. Mike Gay, District 2. Good, good. Thank you everyone for being here and your continued support. You know, I think we had our third meeting now. We've been gathering a lot of information, a lot of data. As I stated before, you know, this piece of legislation won't happen overnight. So I want to appreciate everyone for your continued support, consistent support, and being here today. Before we get started and I go over the agenda, I want to get a motion to move to last minute meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. As I shared, so today we got another light agenda. I don't think we'll be here for long. You know, we have this committee and they're looking into a lot of our facts and data. What we plan to do today, what I would like to do is at least identify some gaps. So what I'm hoping to hear today in our presentation, you know, hopefully we talked about this on the first meeting, is potentially getting like a pond retention. You know, maybe identifying some public ponds, maybe identifying some private ponds. Also, you know, we could look at maybe some swimming initiatives. I know we talked about it last week. So, Andre, if you want to come up, you know, I know, I know you got a presentation. I also have a few individuals you'll probably go bring up after the meeting. I mean, after your presentation as well. And we'll just go from there. You got the floor. Good afternoon. Council Daphne, thank you for this opportunity to have us here again today. Andre Ayub, Chief of Duval County Emergency Preparedness Division. So the working group progress report will be by me and Tyler Nolan with the Northeast Florida Regional Council. The interagency and community partners, the working group. I'm proud to say that member of the last committee meeting, we had 20. We are up to 22 community organizations. So it's growing and very proud of that. If you don't mind, I'd like some of the committee working group members to stand up so we give them a round of applause. I know Joe was at our last meeting. We had over 50 people attend our last meeting last Friday. So we have a lot of participation at our work group meeting. With this, a proposed work plan for 2026. So phase one is understand the problem, Councilman, Gavin, to your point. Phase two is identify the gaps, which we're going to talk about today, and also building solutions for phase three. We'll touch on that today. The committee charged us with six focus areas. We have completed the emergency response data. We've also completed the interagency community partnerships, but that's still continuing action. The other four charges, we are in the process of completing those. Hopefully, within the next month or so, we'll have those completed and present to this committee. As I said, the emergency response and data is completed. Councilman Gaffney, to your point a second ago, I know last time I presented, I discussed two years of 2025-2026 data. I don't want to spend a lot of time on data, but since then, we've received data from 2021 to 2026, also some of the GIS mapping. So I am going to spend a few minutes discussing those to this committee today. So if you look at this, last time when I presented, it was 86 for those two years. Since 2021 to 2026, we have 291 incidents. Nothing's changed. Pool, the private residence is at 83. Beaches is a total of 77. And retention ponds is 26. Executive summary, core findings. Pediatric vulnerability, children under 10 account for 46 percent. That's 133 incidents of that 291. With toddlers ages 0 to 4 represent 36 percent, which is 103 incidents. Residential pools, as I said, are the number one location calls for service since that time period at 31 percent. A seasonal peak, as I mentioned last time, is at 59 percent of the incidents, 171 cases of that 291. And again, it's that April through July. So this demonstrates actionable window for pre-season safety campaigns. So we talked a lot about that within our work group, what some actual items that we can do when we're finished with this. In cardiac arrest cases, 22 percent of incidents, 65 cases resulted in cardiac arrest, emphasizing the life-saving impact of immediate CPR and rapid AED deployment. This is just a graph. I know through the committee too, I think Councilman Gaye, you mentioned some percentages last time. We wanted to show these numbers also with some percentages tied to this. There's really out of the 291, you're looking at 144 of those incidents were pool-related at 43 percent. Gender and geographic concentrations, males accounted for 195 incidents at 67 percent, compared to 94 female cases at 34 percent. We had 133 incidents occurred within the five zip codes. If you recall last time when I presented, it was three zip codes. With this data for this almost six years, it has brought in 32256 and 32233. This is the map of that information. If you look at the bottom right of this PowerPoint, those are your top five zip codes. We're going to get into those zip codes in a second. Right here, 3250, Jack's Beach. We had 49 incidents. This is a heat map showing the clusters. We had 49 incidents in the 32250. Out of those 49, 39 occurred at the beach. If you talk about target, how can we target? Those are things that this working group is looking at. What can we do for those 39, at least at the beach? 3226, that's going to be that Huguenot-Hexer Drive area. We had 28. With that, again, we had 19 out of the 28 at the beach. 32256, we had 20. What stood out for me here is in that zip code, we have five pond-related incidents there. So we definitely can look at that and see what we can do to change that. And then the remaining, we had 13 of those 20 in pools. 32233 Atlantic Beach. Once again, Councilman Gay, we had 18 and 14 of those 18 occurred at the beach. And the last one, 32218, we had 18 and we had two pond fatalities there and 14 of the 18 occurred at the pools. Drowning deaths by age. So from 2020 to 2026, our top age group was 30 to 39 had 32 incidents, 40 to 49 had two incidents, and 20 to 29 had 28 incidents. That was our number three. We want to show this. This is the population adjustment rate per 100,000 in Duval County. It's going to be different than the previous slide. So the number one age group here was zero to four. The second age group was 40 to 49. And the third age group was 30 to 39. It's something different through the chair to the committee. I know last time I went through the whole PowerPoint and then asked questions. I had you guys ask questions. I wanted to take a little pause and kind of want to open the floor with the data that I just talked about. Do you guys have any questions before we move forward? Councilwoman Clark, Mary, you're recognized. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon again. Will you go back to the slide with the data that we have, the drowning deaths by age group. So this is interesting in that I know our goal is to prevent primarily deaths by drowning for youths and maybe even toddlers because one of the deaths was a toddler. But it's interesting to see this data and the age group with the largest number of drownings for the six-year trend data is a group that's 40 to 49. So I'm wondering about ethnicity as well. And I know we're looking at this age group, but I'm wondering about ethnicity. I'm also wondering about whether or not those 31 people actually had taken swimming classes, if they knew how to swim, if it was just some other circumstances that resulted in, because I know it could be a boating accident. It could be a pool accident as well, but it may be maybe some other circumstances such as intoxication, that type of thing. So I'm curious about that, because I know that for the African-American community, there are people who are up in age and they have not taken swimming lessons. They don't know how to swim. So that is one of the things that I'm thinking about in regards to this data. How taxing would it be for you to break it down by ethnicity? Is that possible? Through the Chair to the Council of Clark, absolutely. And that's something that we're going to charge the working groups and we'll have sub-working groups to do a deeper dig into this data. Yes, ma'am. I don't want to come up here every couple of weeks and present data to you. We want actual items. We want to know the final summary. We want to show you that, hey, we have some recommendations that things that we could implement in Duval County to stop these drownings from all age groups. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. We good? Yes, sir. Go ahead. So COJ GIS Pond Data Effort Overview. So they created a comprehensive pond layer for Duval County, supports safety and drowning prevention initiatives, also integrates multiple GIS data sets. This is a map. It's going to be alarming when you see the numbers for ponds in Duval County. This is an overview of those maps of those ponds. So here, GIS Pond Analysis Key Findings and Matrix. So they looked at 18,549 water features that were reviewed. Out of that, 9,577 ponds identified. And out of that, 9,340 ponds tied to parcels. That's 97.3%. And I will explain a little bit. If you don't know, I didn't know what is the definition of parcels. So under Duval County GIS map and frameworks, retention pond classification hinges on parcel layer integration. So tied to parcel means the pond sits on a mapped piece of property, allowing us to link public records, real estate ID, owner name, ownership category directly to it. So out of that, we had 9,340 ponds identified. So not tied to parcels as ponds falls in unmapped areas like road right-of-ways or between boundary lines. So no property ID exists in current records. We had 264 ponds in that category. Another definition I think it's important for us to kind of discuss, I think I mentioned it last time, is under Florida law and under St. John's River Water Management District regulatory frameworks, the difference between public and private retention pond hinges on ownership, maintenance responsibility, and right-of-way access. So for public, we identified 2,711 publicly owned ponds. And for private, we identified 6,602 probably owned ponds. So through the chair, through Ms. Clark-Mary, you know, your question, I know it's slightly different by age, but this is a huge feat for the working group. I mean, when we got this data, we got it a couple days ago, it's a lot, you know what I'm saying, to figure out how as a working group we want to address all these ponds. Councilman Gaffey, you have a question, sir? Councilman Gaffey, Yeah, actually I do. Thank you for that. I guess my question is, what is the process in terms of managing these ponds, in terms of these ponds being, I guess, inspected? How often? I know we talked about the slope, you know, how often do we inspect these ponds? And I guess, are we looking at public versus private? I mean, because these are a lot of ponds, you know, obviously, you know, I know we can't look at all the ponds, but, you know, how often are these ponds, I guess, inspected? Yep. That's through the chair to Councilman Gaffey. I don't have to answer, but I know we spoke. I think we needed to first identify, you know what I'm saying, how many are we looking at? Initially, when I came in, I was hearing roughly around 5,000. But this is the data from the COJ GIS. So we're going off these numbers. So the way we talked internally is, okay, once we divide that, we need to come up with the rules. For private, what are we going to do about the private? If there's anything we can even do with the private ponds versus the public? And if you look at this, public, you're talking about COJ, FDOT, and JEA. So I'm sure there's things that we can do. So that's our goal now, to present that data. And we'll go back with the focus group and sub focus groups and start getting those answers to your question. You know, what is the, you know, I'm saying, how often do they go out there? Does it have to be gated? You know, how often do they go out there, cut the grass, and inspect these, you know, barriers? Do they have to have barriers? All those questions that you're thinking about, Councilman, we thought about that. We just wanted to get the numbers. Like I said, we just got those about two days ago. And that is our goal, is to go back and charge the work groups. We have the right people. We have 22 organizations that are part of our work group, and they have these answers. So we're going to charge them with digging into it and get us these answers that you're asking. All right. Thank you for that. I see Steve and Ms. Dickler is here. I'm not sure if they have an answer. But I guess what I'll be looking for in terms of how these ponds, I guess the upkeep, the slope, the structure, as you stated. You know, I'm not sure we got an answer for public ponds, Mr. Long, Ms. Dickler, in terms of how often these ponds are inspected. Yes, sir. Steve Long, Public Works. For City of Jacksonville Ponds, we mow them 20 plus times in a year. So our ponds are looked at, you know, at least monthly. Private ponds, there's a certification process they have to go through with the Water Management District. They're not here today, don't want to speak for them. But what they do is they have like a self-certification program. So the various neighborhoods have HOAs, that sort of thing. They'll hire somebody, they come out, they actually do a full inspection and write a report back to the Water Management District. I'm not sure of their exact frequency, but all the ponds throughout the city are supposed to be looked at and certified back to the actual permitting agency. Before I recognize Councilman Gay, so what I heard you say is maybe two times, I know you said 20, but I mean, we hadn't rounded off two times a month, maybe, I guess. Something like that. I guess give and take. Okay. I mean, our ponds, when they're out looking at them, because that's just our mowing process, we also have drainage, we have various other things. So we're looking at our ponds on a fairly regular basis. Yeah. And then the private ponds, like I say, they have to go through, and I believe it's on a, I want to say it's a by every two year cycle, but I don't want to speak for Water Management District and put information out that may be incorrect. So my last question, and when you guys go out there, I know, are we looking for hazards? Are we just looking at both? Are we looking for aesthetics? What do we particularly look for when we go out there and look at these ponds? When they mow, you know, one of the things they do is they have trash removal that occurs, and we actually do inspections because we have a, you know, we're getting a little bit deep in the weeds here, but we have a permit through DEP for our entire stormwater system, our MS4 permit, and their BMAP requirements and things of that nature. So we actually have a cycle. We have to look at all of our stormwater systems. And so we go through, and as part of our routine maintenance, we look at those so that they actually count as inspections for the state. So we're looking at all the various items. We're looking to see if it's functioning from a drainage perspective. We're looking to see if the pond has a problem, if there's a washout on the bank, if there's anything wrong, so that way we can get out and we can do that corrective maintenance if it's needed. All right. Thank you. Councilman Gay, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, through the Chair to Chief. I know you said you just got these statistics on the quantities of the private and the public pond, so I guess one criteria of data that would be helpful to get is back to your list of drownings. How many has been public? How many has been private that I think that'll be beneficial to us to get as well? Thank you. Yes, sir. And through the Chair to Councilman Gay, something I was thinking about, it's not on here, but Captain Bernard with JFRD, when he gave me those numbers of 291 incidents at Ponds, we started talking about risk factors. It's something that was brought up in this committee and also in our working group. So we gave him some risk factors. Hey, look at schools, parks, all that stuff. We thought there may be some correlation with those locations. And he said, out of that 291, zero occurred near those locations. He goes, the number one factor was apartment complexes and residential around those ponds. So that was an eye opener for us. So that's something at least we can target, you know, partner with some HOAs and do some things in the future. So there's definitely some opportunities for us to work and address those risk factors. Councilwoman, I'm very recognized. Thank you, Chair. Through the Chair to Mr. Long. I know you stated that the public ponds that you also have to concern yourself with, I think you said the, is it the Environmental Agency, Department of Environmental Agency for Public Ponds? Is that someone that you are, um, must, um, give an account to in regards to our, our ponds? Public? Yes, ma'am. Our ponds are part of our MS4 system, basically. And we have a, a, a permit through them that's for our MS4 permit through DEP. And so we do our reports to DEP. DEP. Okay. Thank you for that. So, and I noticed that private, we do have the St. John's Water Management District stated on the, uh, listed on the presentation. But based on what I've been reading in regards to the handbook for retention ponds, detention ponds, and all the other types of ponds, because there's so many types, does the St. John's River Water Management District have the overall or overarching, um, power in regards to how retention ponds are constructed? Do you know the answer to that? I know it's a little... I don't want to speak for the Water Management District, but I do know when a new project is being developed and designed, they have to obtain a permit from the Water Management District. Okay. So they publish their criteria. So new, new subdivisions and subdivisions in the last 20, 30 years have to get that Water Management District permit and meet their design guidelines. Okay. Thank you for that. You're welcome. Thank you, Chair. You're welcome. I also want to recognize, um, Councilwoman, um, Jacoby Pittman for joining us. I really appreciate you for being here. I know, um, and I'm pretty sure you'll get a chance to speak shortly, but, and, and I think when you first joined Council, you had a numerous of, you know, deaths happen during your first or second year while you was here. So I know you have a vested interest in these, you know, in these retention ponds. I really appreciate you for joining us. So, um, thank you. Um, I want to recognize our next speaker, um, Mr. Well, not next speaker, but recognize Mr. Andy Hayes before we move forward. Thank you, Chair. I appreciate that. Sorry, uh, Mr. Long. Question, question for you and point of a clarification. When we talk about mowing around the ponds, I think we all kind of assume that it's for aesthetics and you want to keep it clean and lower the height of the grass around the ponds. That's sort of what the idea would be. But there might be a little counterintuitive here where we're trying to make the ponds less attractive to young people, folks with autism. Can you speak to what the regulation there is in terms of the ring around the pond that we cut to and then the height that the grass can, can get up to a grass reed, so on and so forth. Yes, sir. Um, through the Chair to Mr. Andy Hayes and the committee. Um, when, when the city mows our ponds, we don't actually mow down to the water line. We leave a strip of, of grass that is basically, we leave it unmaintained. Uh, and it's typically about five feet wide. And the reason why we've done that is, um, in the past when we've had various committees like this before, one of the things we looked at was the exact thing that Mr. Andy, he said, um, you know, ponds are attractive. They're, they're, you know, we keep them mowed for that aesthetic purpose. So we ended up keeping that unmowed portion to make it unattractive so that people would not want to go down to the water's edge. You may be on a sidewalk near a pond and you may look at it and think it's nice, but it isn't that we don't want it to be where you want to walk down right and put your feet right on the edge of the water. We leave that five foot buffer around it that is unmaintained. Um, so that you, even if you did decide to walk down there, you, you typically would not go into the pond itself. And, uh, the grass is dependent on the type of grass. The, the, you know, if you get cattails, things of that nature, I mean, it can grow up, you know, fairly high. So, so it is a barrier from you wanting to actually go into it. And so just kind of following up on that, would it be something that the committee could consider as a recommendation to move that buffer out from five feet to seven, 10, pick a number? Um, yes, sir. If that's what the committee wanted to do, we would, you know, if it made sense, we would do it. And, you know, all locations might not be available for it, but if any of the locations we could, we would be willing to. Yes, sir. Thank you for that. Councilman McClough, Mary. Um, to Mr. Steve Long. So I want to make sure that I'm visualizing this correctly. So from the water's edge going towards the, um, I'm going to say, for example, the, perhaps a sidewalk or the beginning of the, the pond, there is a space of, um, vegetation that's left intentionally to prevent anyone from reaching the water's edge easily. That, that would be correct. Yes, ma'am. We, we don't, we don't mow it. We don't maintain it. We, we let it grow up. So as it almost looks like a natural vegetation, you know, you, you go out to the woods and you kind of see stuff growing, not the big trees, of course, but the undergrowth. And you'll see that sort of things out at most of our ponds. You said most. Okay. Is there, through the chair, are there instances or types of, I imagine that the ponds that are at parks, you don't do that too, right? No, no. We do it at all park, all ponds that we mow. We leave that unmaintained area. Okay. All right. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to leave that alone at this point. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Great points. And I'm, I'm glad you brought that up, Mr. Indahees, because I guess my next question, um, from Ms. McGillis, you know, we talk about legislation, you know, I don't know what's going to come out of these committee meetings, but, um, Mr. Long just shared that, and I know it's, it's B 180. I, I understand it as long as so much we could do, but in terms of in public ponds, I guess we can make legislation, I guess in private ponds right now, it's kind of, I mean, it depends on what type of legislation we make, but what I'm going at with this is that, you know, in terms of the buffer, you know, if we decided to do something, you know, I guess we could do that. It's already, we're doing it with public ponds, but in terms of private ponds, I guess that still would be kind of, you know, I guess ruffling the feathers of SB 180 to OGC. To the chair, um, when you're talking about ponds owned or ponds on land owned or, uh, maintained by the city of Jacksonville, I don't believe that would even be legislation. That is a policy decision of the city of Jacksonville. Once you start talking about ponds on lands not owned by either the city or owned by a private entity, of course, um, recommendations, incentives are all Senate bill 180 clean. Once you're actually talking about mandating on a private land, that's where at present we have Senate bill 180 implications. All right. Thank you. Councilwoman. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair, um, to Ms. McGillis. It seems to me, based on my, my reading, my research, that the St. John's river water management district is the linchpin in regards to action for retention ponds, detention ponds, detention ponds, and all the other ponds. So it seems as if we need a representative from that district here when we meet, even if, I don't know if they're able to meet via Zoom somehow, because they seem to be the key to determining what action we need to take in regards to retention and detention ponds and reading their handbook that's given to applicants. The terminology that I've seen, the information that I've seen, they do use the words, the term safety, but it's not used in terms of, but what is written in regards to safety is not to, not for the safety of human beings. It is to, in fact, I'm not even sure why they use the terminology safety, because what follows in the applicant handbook, and when I say applicant handbook, that's someone when I asked, um, Mr. Long earlier, someone who is building whatever and a retention pond is required or some type of storm water management system is required. It goes on to talk about the different layers in a retention or detention pond and how to, how a detention pond or retention pond is distinguished from the other types of ponds and what is required. And so with those various types of storm water management systems, there needs, we need to look at what type of pond, what type of storm water management system is the type of system where we are having the most fatalities. I'll give you not so much an example, but I'll tell you a little bit about retention ponds. It seems a little contrary to their actual meaning because retention, you would think that it's going, the pond is designed, the storm water management system is designed to hold water. It is not. The idea is that it percolates and the idea is that percolates through the ground into, you know, groundwater, that type of thing. And it's supposed to do so in at least 72 hours after a storm event. Clearly, the children who have died recently, there was water in that pond. And we don't know what kind of pond it is. So we need to look at the types of ponds where those fatalities are occurring. And if builders, developers are saying that, hey, this is supposed to be a retention pond, but it's actually acting like a detention pond. And there's this, it's so complicated. I mean, it's really complicated. But that's some of the things that we need to do. Well, what are you telling us, Clark Murray? What I'm trying to say is that we need a representative from the St. John's River Water Management District. I don't know if there's a question in there or what. I don't know, Ms. McGillis. Yeah, and we'll make sure we notate that for the next meeting in terms of making sure we have someone from St. John's Water Management. And we can talk about the difference between detention ponds and retention ponds. And I would also like to know how all these private ponds are maintained. I know a lot of the responsibility. I don't know if it falls on the HOA, you know, once they turn it over, you know, because, you know, once the builders build, the developers build, they turn it over to the HOA. I don't know who's doing the inspecting and the maintenance at that pond and who holds them accountable. You know, so we need to figure out that little process. Councilman Gay, you got a question? Thank you, Mr. Chair. And to the Chair to Ms. Clark Murray, you're exactly right. The St. John's Water Management is basically the authority having jurisdictions over the retention ponds, whether it's public, private. But they're the governing body that tells the engineers what size pond to design and such. So it's critical to get them involved in. And they were, I believe they were here at our first meeting, and they were going to go back and get us some information that we had discussed. But I think that's a critical department agency that can legislate potential safety changes that would probably be at some point that we may have to get with our Duval delegation to help get that push forward to if there's not enough safety factors in there that we can have implemented. And I think Ms. Sickler can confirm that I believe the St. John Water Management is now or recently gone through additional changes with the way they have dry ponds, wet ponds. There's more ponds, basically. And it's very involved on what they require. And I think a lot of our civil engineers are still trying to figure out what the state requirements are, the city requirements, everybody's requirements of what to do. But I think there's a missing link that nobody is really looking at is the public safety. There's a safety that's established for basically retention ponds, borrow pits, pits that certain banks requires a certain type of fencing and such. But I don't really think it gets into the residential building development that we're kind of really focused on. And so I think that's where St. John's Water Management is going to be a key agency that we really need to get dialed in here. Thank you. So through the chair, I have a point of contact, so I'll reach out to them. Through chair to the committee. Do you mind if I make three quick points to this conversation? Councilman? I think Councilwoman Pittman got one question and we'll move forward. Well, a few questions. I'm not sure. Councilwoman Pittman, recognize. Thank you. I just want to share. I really appreciate what you and the special committee is doing because I think this is kind of like the second or the next layer. And I wanted to talk about St. John's Management. I really don't think they have the capacity. And I know when we were doing our work at the time that they don't really have the staff to do it. You have the personal private retention ponds. And it really takes money to do what we're trying to do to the next level. When former Councilwoman Leanna and I worked on this back in 1915, we were able to get money, potentially $20,000 at first. And then we were able to get $300,000. And we were working with public public works in the fire department as well. But I just want to offer this to you and you and I probably need to have a meeting first before I bring all of these ideas and share with you is to be a part of the experience and the education that we've done. We also worked with the mayor's office at the mayor's office at that time to get a campaign and work with the school board. But what I've also learned recently, too, is that a lot of these apartments that have retention ponds, when they sell these, and I don't know if you all talked about this yet, when they sell the apartments, a lot of times if an issue happens on the property, it's hard to tell who was in charge. And so I think we need to look at legislation locally and statewide, which I think Jacksonville would be a perfect pilot program to start here, because we've had so many instances. Any life lost is a tragedy and unacceptable. There are some things that the apartment complexes can do if a child is artistic that a lot of the parents don't know. You know, that's even checking off certain things on an application where one time we were looking at the data of where the retention ponds are. So when the fire department is called, you would know exactly where to go. So, you know, having some type of an assessment, and I know it's a lot, I want to share this with you because I think it'll help in the next level. But I also think having legislation here and also on the state level where Representative Wyman and Senator Tracy Davis had sat with us back in that time, and she is interested in developing some type of legislation to help. But whatever I can do to help move this forward and move the needle, that's why I'm here today to walk hand in hand, with you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Andre, you got the floor. Through the chair to the committee. So there's a reason I want to go back to this slide. You know, first we needed the data, as I said earlier. If you look at this again, so public 2,711, and then private 6,602. So the way the committee, what we've been talking about, what our plan was, once we got this data, it's going to be separate. You know, how do we address the public ponds? Obviously, as we mentioned already, there's some things that we can do, preventative, community engagement. We're already in that discussion. But I'm going to jump to page four, where I don't want to get ahead of our timeline, but we're talking about identifying gaps and building solutions. I promise you, my team's had to reel me in, because I want to get that end goal. I want to start doing these knocks and all that stuff. But we're trying to stay on track to make sure we're organized in our approach. So for public and private, we have a game plan. I know we mentioned Monday. So for the private, why not meet, you know what I'm saying, if this is going to be a long-term initiative, meet with HOAs and incentivize a relationship with those HOAs to do things, and not just that, you know, the ponds, but pools. So those are things that we're thinking about for a final recommendation to this committee. And something I just touched on, too, I think is important. And Councilman, I know I shared it with you and the team. I know we're talking about ponds. I know it's, you know, it's, we're going to address that. That's a huge piece of our working group. But remember, that's why I wanted to lead in with the data. And a lot of the data is showing at pools and beaches. So I also don't want to lose sight of that. So the working group is also charged with, hey, what can we do at beaches? Is it more swim lessons? What is the issue? Why are people at this age group drowning at the beach? So what can we do better? What can we do from a preventive standpoint for the pools and those beaches? And we're going to touch on some of that. So we're just not looking at one thing. We're really looking at so many different aspects of these drownings. So before I go to the next slide, is there any more questions before I move forward? Okay. With that, I would love to have Anna come up and share a personal testimony. Maybe she had a meeting with another organization, so we'll move forward. I will go ahead and hand it over to Tyler. Good morning, or good afternoon, actually. Tyler Nolan, Northeast Florida Regional Council. Thank you for the opportunity to kind of share some of the drowning prevention programs and things that are out there. I'll recall your memory back to the last meeting when we talked about elopement prevention, locks and doors. When we were really looking at this issue, it's the idea of it came up that we need to build prevention in layers, right? If we can make it harder for folks to get out of their homes, that's a layer that we build in. That's some time, some possible intervention ability. Once they get out of the home, can we find them faster? Can we interact or break that barrier down before they find themselves in the waterway? That's a piece and layer of this. Third to that is the swimming programs aspect. If, sadly, they do find themselves in water, what actions can we do to help maybe teach them to float, really create that time barrier? So if we can create these time aspects that give our first responders or local members of the community the ability to to stop that drowning from happening, we can turn all of these knobs simultaneously to help with that. So what we did is we looked across the state of Florida and other county governments really to see what swimming prevention and swimming lesson drowning prevention type programs are out there. I'd like to thank Noah Ray with the Emergency Preparedness Division for putting a lot of this together, a real asset to the city on the Emergency Preparedness Division. We looked at Tampa, Orlando, St. Petersburg. I'm not going to touch on all of these. You have this information in your packet and to be diligent with your time, but really there's a variety of programs out there based on the communities that you live in. One of the programs out in Orange County, county-run, state-supported, there's private investment, there's attendance data that comes with this, and how folks are using their swim lessons. This one is perfect, FDOE, FDOH, for ages six months to 12 years old. So you can see the aspect of that time component to it. And I know we'll get to Ms. Anna's presentation because it does show the ability of these children to be able to float and understand how their body interacts with water. One of the ones that I am going to take a moment to kind of showcase is this Broward County Task Force led, which is Water Smart Broward. One of the discussions that the working group has been having is can we have a clearing house of information of all the city resources or all the resources that are available to Duval County residents live in one centralized spot. I think you can see the power and understand the power that comes with that of folks not having to jump between different city agencies, different programs. It's a one-stop shop for every type of drowning prevention. And that's something that the working group really sees value in and will ultimately be a recommendation in the final report, whether it's hosted on the city's website directly, if there's, you know, maybe it's a JFRD thing, maybe there's a partnership with DOH that can happen that we've seen success with in other communities. But this type of drowning prevention resource living somewhere for our residents would be a really, really positive thing. Just jumping across some of the other programs around the state, you have the Miami-Date one. I think it's no surprise that you have tens of thousands of folks that participate in a program in Miami-Date. But to be able to know that these programs are out there in a variety of different types, private, public, which we do have here in the city. We have kind of highlighted some of those programs to you. This was supposed to be led in by Anna's presentation, which is a program here. So we have these here in the city of Jacksonville, just very similar to other communities around the state. It's just more about the public messaging. How do we let folks know that these things are out there and they have access to them is really the guiding principle from all of these programs. So city initiatives will focus on awareness and access. And like I said, this is that third puzzle piece of if we can prevent them from getting out of the home or build some time in to allow for prevention to happen, that's a positive and that's a win. Once they get out of the home through programs with revamp in our sheriff's office, if we can find them quicker before they find their way into a waterway, that's a win. And then ultimately, sadly, if they do find their way into a water of any type that we have, maybe we can buy ourselves a couple of minutes to find them before the ultimate tragedy happens. So building that cake and layers and trying to figure out all three of these components put together really have a huge emphasis on what we're able to do. Obviously, and it applies to any type of program, public and private partnerships go a long way. We can't do everything as the city of Jacksonville and our government entity. But what we can do is we can multiply our efforts through public and private partnerships that will give us the best and ultimate drowning prevention anywhere in the country if we do it the right way. I'm going to turn it back over as we start talking. As you saw during our presentation today, we built in those question opportunities and those final report considerations, because one of the charges, as you know, is for you all to give a final report to neighborhoods. And so now that we are, I mean, this time is quickly evaporating together as we get to look at these issues and investigate the things that you want us to look at. But it is now time to start thinking about what our final considerations are and what we need to divert resources to. And so you're going to, Chief Ayoub is going to kind of walk you through those of what the working group is looking at, what are some of those critical actions that we're seeing. But as we ultimately decide what is going to be this final document as we pertain and hand it over to neighborhoods. So before I give it to him, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about programs around the state. But really, the one that came out was that resource hub for information. Councilman McLeod, Mayor, you recognize? Thank you, Chair. You hit the nail right on the head when you talked about the communication piece, not just what we're working on today in regards to drowning prevention, but we have wonderful programs here in the city. But the people who need the programs the most don't find out about them. So there's always that huge disconnect. So thank you for stating that. Additionally, when I said, looking at this particular slide, Neighborhood Safety Initiative, most over 100,000 children go to school. I don't see anything here in regards to school. PTSA, and I may be getting all the numbers, the letters in there, is the key as well. So you have, that's the Parent Student Teacher Association. So they need to be contacted and asked to participate. PTSA is full of great moms who want to be involved, and dads, moms and dads who want to be involved. So you're welcome, Mr. Enderhees. So let's reach out to them as well, because I think they will be, once again, one of those aspects that allow us to connect with students, ultimately children, parents as well. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Tyler, before you leave, I guess this question is for Mr. Enderhees. You mentioned something about a resource hub. I think what we need to do going forward, and maybe this could be the final report, is doing a hub of all the city resources. Right now, from my understanding, I could be wrong, I'm not sure if it's one place where we could go on our website where we could find all the resources that we have. You know, similar to what we just shared about the partnership between Home Depot, Defencing, I think we have a fencing company here, the Smoke Detentors, all of the swimming lessons. I think we need one website, one link, where every disabled autistic kid could go, a parent could go, to find out every resource they need about protecting their kids. We need to find out one link. You know, so that could be a part of the final report. I would love to do that. And then we could do a PSA announcement. So for those parents who don't have the resources, we could be a relationship, like you said, of what you guys just said, with Home Depot and some of the other establishments, to provide these resources. But I would love to see that go on the company website, the city website. All right. Thank you. Oh, Councilwoman Pittman. Just want to say, you may want to check with the PO at the mayor's office. They actually have a whole, like, videos that we did with the school board, with the fire department as well. They have a whole marketing piece that they did, that we did billboards on. And rather than, you know, create all of that when we already have it, just add to it. And, you know, seeing if we can get funds. Remember, we used to have Say No to Drugs in school. They would have that campaign every year. And I would love for the committee to be proactive, not wait until there's another drowning, right? But to see what we could do. We met with the developers to see if we could create a fund. So when they go to get a permit, that there would be a fund that would be set aside, particularly for this. And it would be for the homeowners association. Because again, we want to put it in a department that it could live far beyond us on the council, because this is a serious matter. And, you know, every time someone takes this on. But even like the regional planning, that's a perfect place, too, because that's a regional. And then we do a state. And, you know, it could be national, because we're not the only ones that's doing this. But I just think in order to move it where we're trying to move it, schools, churches, and particularly the autism associations that are locally, where we can start there to see what type of funding that they can do. Because with funding, we can pretty much do what we need to do. Thank you. I appreciate that, Councilwoman Pittman. Mr. Andy Heats, if you can, can you please look and get with Phil from the mayor's administration to see what type of, I guess, videos, data, resources that, you know, previous committees have obtained so we can move forward from there? We'd be happy to. Also, to the point on a one-stop shop link to the website. Of course, website building takes capacity from ITD. It takes that group to the point earlier. People, manpower, those things don't just happen overnight. So when we talk about core city services, things that are public safety, this might not be thought of as core city service right off the top of your head, website building. But when we talk about how it impacts public safety, it certainly does. Thank you for that. All right. And I've gotten the word we're going to go back to Anna's presentation. So that's why we're going to go backwards. All right. So through the chair, are you okay with Anna coming up doing a quick Yeah, that's fine. And if you get anyone here from the public would like to speak, we need the public speaker cards if you want to speak. Hello, and thank you. And I apologize for needing to step out for a minute for a call with Tallahassee. But I appreciate your flexibility so much. And to everyone's point, I did want to bring up Hope Florida does have funding that is intended for this exact purpose. So that's somewhere to tap in. Also, the city of Jacksonville Disabled Services actually has a giant resource directory. The issue with resource directories is that it's hard to keep them up without funding. And also through Duval County School District, I distribute Brightfeets Northeast Florida, which goes out to all of our schools. And it's a disabled children resource directory that's intended to serve the entire age range of our community. So it's not a one stop shop because it's a printed directory, but it's something and it's tentacles to other things. So if anybody has questions, please feel free to reach out to me later. And I'm happy to share those resources. So good afternoon. My name is Anna Mages Dillon. I am the director of advocacy and community affairs at the Arc of the St. Johns. And I've had the privilege of serving as a member of the committee's working group. So thank you for that. I also serve as past chair and current vice chair of Family Care Council Area 4, chair of the St. Johns County School District ESC Parent Advisory Committee, and on several state and local advisory groups, including the UF Jacksonville CARD Constituency Board, Florida's Title V Family Leadership Advisory Group, and the St. Johns County CHIP Steering Committee. Throughout my career, I've had the opportunity to work alongside individuals and families from early intervention through adulthood while collaborating across education, health care, government, first responders, and community organizations. But today, I'm going to focus on my experience as a mama. You know, our family's water safety journey began before my children were born. During my first pregnancy, my husband and I decided that our children would not become statistics. After seeing a video of a friend's infant participating in ISR, which you'll be able to see in just a moment, we knew that survival swimming was something that we felt strongly that we wanted to tap into. Before I go further, I would like to go ahead and show you that video if we can go ahead and play that. Go ahead. Good job, bug. Bye, guys. See you tomorrow. So, that's my son at 16 months old. And you'll understand why. Man, I can't accept. You'll understand why that is so meaningful in just a moment when I get into my story a little bit more. But he was fully clothed in winter clothing and wearing a giant cloth diaper, for context. So, you know, it's important that we practice in full clothing because children who are drowning are not drowning in their bathing suits, typically. If they're falling in and there's no one there, they might be fully clothed. So, it's important that we look at that. You know, I had said my husband and I decided that we were interested in infant swim resource. We wanted to do survival-focused swimming. That decision was shaped by our own experience and our lifestyle. My husband is a lieutenant with the St. John's County Fire Rescue, and he's a marine rescue specialist. He worked in marine rescue both in St. John's County and also in Corolla, North Carolina, which is in the Outer Banks. And if any of you are familiar with the Outer Banks, it is a very different ocean and very dangerous. So, you know, I spent my high school years and my college years as a lifeguard and swim instructor and I had actually focused on infant and toddler swimming. I had never seen anything like this before. So, seeing this was, you know, it blew my mind that that was possible. As watermen, we understood early on that being comfortable around water is not the same as being safe around water. We live in Florida. Water is everywhere. And even the best supervision can't eliminate risks. They're always going to be there. So, at the time, we had no idea that our firstborn son would be diagnosed with developmental disabilities. We weren't thinking about autism. We weren't thinking about elopement. We weren't thinking about cerebral palsy-related muscle weakness or disability-related drowning statistics. We were simply thinking about our peace of mind. And looking back now, we both understand how important that decision that we made actually was. Our son was ultimately diagnosed with cerebral palsy and later severe autism. At the time, he completed these swim lessons. He was completely non-verbal. He was unable to walk. He crawled by dragging his body, almost like an army crawl, except he just kind of wiggled. He didn't have any muscle tone. He didn't have the fine motor skills to stack blocks. This was a child who had to learn everything. And it took him a lot longer than any typical child. And he had to work really hard at it. He mastered that eight-week course in six weeks, which was just wild to me. The pictures and the video on the slide tell part of that story. He didn't just learn to float. He found a way to regulate his vestibular and his sensory system. In the water, he had mobility. He had freedom. And he had movement. He was able to build muscles that he needed to be able to learn to walk. So it was so much more than just safety for him. And when we're talking about children with disabilities, that is part of the attraction to water, is the attraction to that vestibular and sensory regulation. They look for it. You know, instead of him being turned away, which initially I was really worried that when I told this swim instructor that my son had just been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, that she was going to say no to us, that's not what happened at all. I found out just how adaptable this type of lesson could be. And that changed my mindset. Survival swimming, particularly an infant swim resource, can work especially well for very young children as well as individuals with developmental disabilities because it is highly individualized, and it can be. It relies heavily on repetition, physical and nonverbal cues, and reinforcement, rather depending solely on verbal instruction or coordination, which is an important factor. The survival skills quickly became swimming skills for him. And after that, those skills grew into activities that our entire family could enjoy together, which you can see in that slide. My son is not what I would call a strong swimmer in terms of technical strokes. He can tread water for hours. He can float, and he can hold his breath longer than most adults. But could he do a front crawl? No. Most importantly, though, he has a layer of protection when something goes wrong, and we got to see that firsthand just a couple weeks ago. We had gone up to the Outer Banks for a wedding, and we were on the beach, and my son was sucked out in a rip current. Now, for him, he seeks out the rip currents. He likes the way they feel. So he was completely unbothered. He was not panicked. He was not upset. And my husband swam out and pulled him back in. But the moral of that is that he was completely afloat. He was fine. He didn't stress. Even if he had gotten tired, he knew what to do. He could just float and wait for some help. And that's exactly what happened. So that was a full circle moment for me. You know, I got to see how many dividends are still paying out from a decision that my husband and I made when, you know, I was pregnant with our first child. And we've been able to see the same swim lessons with our daughter, who is a far more timid child. And she did well in them as well. You know, for children, particularly those at increased risk, water safety can't begin and end with swim lessons. It really needs to include, like, water competency and survival focused instruction. And it can't begin and end at the water's edge either. So the framework being developed by our working group recognizes that there is no single solution to drowning prevention. The solution is layers of protection. And those layers will look different depending on the individual, the family, the environment, the circumstances. At the community level, that may mean better education, stronger coordination between agencies, accessible resources, and making sure families know where to turn to when an emergency happens. It's important that we point out that there is no single solution and no solution is going to be the end-all be-all. A lot can fail. An alarm can be missed. Supervision can be interrupted. And none of us can eliminate all the dangers in our community. So the more layers of protection we put in place, the greater opportunity we have to prevent a tragedy. So thank you all for giving me the opportunity to share my story with you today and to be part of this working group. I really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. It's an incredible story. You've got an incredible, handsome little man. I think it inspired so many. It inspired me just by looking at it. And I think if so many parents knew the resources we had and they can learn, they teach their kid how to swim, you know, maybe that might save a life or two. I agree. Thank you. I have both colleagues in the queue. So, okay. Councilwoman, you recognize? Right. Thank you, Chair. Thank you so much for this. It is beautiful. And learning how to float on your back is no small feat. It is not, especially as you get older. Yes, ma'am. Because, of course, you know, you weigh more. So it's like, oh, and you've got to do more concentrating. So this is beautiful. And thank you for talking about the different characteristics in regards to your son and autism and cerebral palsy. Because one of the things, as an educator, we think about is do our students or the children with autism have the capacity to comprehend the different strokes, you know, the different breathings, the instructions that go along with being taught how to swim. And so your son is a perfect example of that. You don't need to actually be able to understand all those aspects in order to do it. So thank you for that. Thank you, ma'am. And if you see the photo of him underwater there, we were actually out in the middle of the ocean in the Keys. And he is snorkeling. He's way under. And he doesn't, he refuses to wear a mask because he doesn't like the sensory feel. But he can snorkel with us all day long. Wow. Incredible. Councilman Gay, you recognize? Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'm a 100% advocate for this survival swimming lesson. My daughter went through it at eight, we put her through it at 18 months. And just when we see them go in there in full clothing like that, that's how they graduate. When they're able to do that and roll on their back and float like that, it's just, it's astonishing to watch. But we took her to other swimming lessons. But this was what we were more satisfied and had that level of security that to know that as much water as we're around, that she would be able to survive like that. So I'm a firm believer in this, that's, you know, for all children. That they have this type of swimming lessons afforded to them. It's, it's, it's unmeasurable, you know, the, to be able to have this for the protection. So thank you. Thank you for that. All right. Before we, we do our next steps and we do a recap, I want to tell you, thank you, ma'am. I appreciate it. Thank you. I'll turn it back over. Appreciate it. All right. We'll take public comments. I think we have one. If you can, you can come up front, if you don't mind. Oh, it's okay. All right. All right. Ms. Tarina, if you can come up for three minutes. While you're coming up front, you can state your name and your address. Yes. Hello. My name is Tarina Ackberry. My address, my home address, 3670. Oh, on file. Yeah. On file. On file. Yes, ma'am. 3678, Jacob Lois Drive. Okay. Um, I'm here to talk about my son, Rakim. This is my baby. I lost him, um, in a retention pond, 24 in Orlando, Florida at a resort, at a Disney resort. I lost him. Um, and I wanted to speak to you guys today about fencing in the retention ponds because this is a big, um, problem because the numbers are going up rapidly every year. I go to different events and, you know, I sit and listen to people's stories and every event I go to, and it's another mother speaking about how she just lost a child from drowning in a retention pond. Not a pool, but it's more retention ponds, you're honest, than pools because the retention ponds doesn't have any type of security. They don't have any, you know, flood lights. They, you know, these kids are getting out at night. They're getting out at different times during parties and they're just walking in the ponds because they like water. And, um, I know a lot of people talk about kids that are artistic and they are attractive to water, but I think that, you know, 95% of children are attractive to water. I used to get him dressed for daycare, my baby boy, and I'll go get something, some orange juice in the morning. He's in the shower fully dressed, you know, because he loved the way the water feel on his body. And I wanted to advocate for him. I created a non-profit, um, Life After the Storm, and it's Swim for Rakim. His name was Rakim, and it's called Swim for Rakim. And I want to give back to community as, uh, teaching children how to swim, educating the parents. Um, I think that this should be a curriculum in elementary school. And as you can see, the baby was, um, her baby was one years old, floating on his back. Like that, I was amazed by that because my baby was just as small and I had to bury him because he, he, he loved water. He had to walk into, he walked into a pond. And if he, I was going to put him into a molestance, I let him go with family and, you know, and I've seen it on the news and I'm like, why, why is my baby on the news? So I had to rush down there. But as I went down there and I'm like, why is no fence around this retention pond? My mom, my mother has, um, she lives in a neighborhood where retention ponds are fenced in. And he was in the back playing and I was watching him and he walked up to the fence like he wanted to get to the pond, but he could, he couldn't. And it was a nice fenced in retention pond. So I'm just advocating for, you know, the mothers have lost their children and the ones that are, um, you know, continuing to lose their kids. And these numbers are going up rapidly and nobody's doing anything about it. And this is why I'm stepping up for it because these ponds need to be fenced in. Thank you for that. We definitely appreciate it. And, um, we're doing it for kids like, um, Rayquan, Rayquan and your son and other kids, you know, that's the purpose of this committee, you know, it's, it's at least my initiative and my goal to at least have some type of legislation to come out of this. I can't tell you what it is, but right now we, we, trust me, we keeping, um, your son in mind, as well as other kids in mind when we do make the next step. So I appreciate, appreciate you coming down and speaking and having the courage to do that and keeping this at the forefront, you know, it's so often that we forget about these things and forget about these tragedies and we just move on to the next item, but with trust me, we got your son in mind. So thank you for coming down. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. So, um, the next item on the agenda, um, we'll do a recap. I'll let my colleagues go first in terms of what they would like to see at our next meeting and then I'll, I'll close us out. So Councilwoman, um, Councilwoman, I could go. I could go. You know, so I, I think this is where we're at, um, and this is pretty much where we're at. We got a lot of data. We got a lot of facts. You know, I appreciate the working group. You guys have been tremendous in terms of establishing relationships and partnerships. Um, we, we know the zip codes. We know the ages. We know the ethnicities. We're building the relationships. I think what I would like to start doing is coming up with some solutions. I understand HBO 180 has been like a hot button topic every meeting that we have pretty much met about. Um, I think before we come up with one of the solutions, what I would like to hear is from, um, St. John's River Keepers. Um, not St. John's, St. John's Water Management and, uh, District Water Management. And so they can speak about private retention ponds. Because I would love to know what are they doing in terms of managing these ponds? How often are these ponds getting inspected? Um, I would also like to know, um, Ms. Um, Parola, I see you in the back, you know, what in terms of the city process, in terms of when a H, uh, a new developer, a builder, they come fill a permit out and get, um, and they have to pay, how many ponds they have to put? What's the process? I also like to know that. Also, I think we need to hear some, hear from someone from the school board. You know, um, that's been repeatedly twice. You know, what is the school district doing about this? Um, so, uh, if, did I miss anything, Councilman Gay, Councilwoman Pittman, you have anything you want to say before I want to close out? So, I think after we hear from the school board, um, our planning department, um, St. John's Water District Management, um, I think our next meeting, I would like to come up with some solution and come up with some results. You know, so we got, we got two or three more meetings before the holidays is quickly approaching. I think it will be cut short in December and November, I think. I'm not sure. I have to look at the dates, but I want to start coming up with some solutions and possibly coming up with some legislation, as you heard it from Ms. Tarina, something got to get done. And my goal is as a council person, I want to make sure we do something. So, I want to leave with something getting done. Um, Joe, also as well, you know, make sure in terms of checking with, you know, field from the mayor's administration to see do we have any footage and things and resources from that as well. So, and I heard you lie to one person, Ms. Pittman, Councilwoman, in terms of, and I know we need resources and funding as well. You know, um, uh, something just came to mind, but I'm not going to discuss it first. I'll discuss it with OGC and I may be proposing that in terms of funding, you know, funding initiative. I'm not sure if it's appropriate to, you know, discuss it right now. So, I'll wait. But, um, once again, you know, I, I thank you guys. I appreciate you guys. Um, this, this is a, it's a hot, um, subject. You know, last week we had a young lady that come all the way from Virginia to speak about this. So, um, and you know, Jacksonville could be the first of its kind in terms of, you know, writing legislation and doing something about this. This is happening everywhere. And it's not going to stop. I said it in a notice meeting. We're growing about 15,000 people every year. So, you know, if anything, it'll get bigger. Did this, it go get bigger. And what we need to do is just put preventative measures in place to prevent these type of tragedies from happening. And that's our ultimate goal. And I think we all have a goal. So, um, Mr. Indahees, before I dismiss us, I see you in the queue. Yeah. All right. Oh, we good. Okay. Hey, I'm so sorry for not recognizing you guys. I mean, if you come up, I mean, you guys get three minutes, um, please, please come. Yeah, that would be great. So we'll make sure we put you guys on the agenda. I mean, we're looking forward to the partnership. We all always looking for partnerships and ways that we connect with different partners. So thank you guys for coming out. Make sure you, um, we see each other before we leave. All right. Thank you. All right. Meet in a turn.