All right, it's 3.30. We are going ahead and get started. I want to welcome everyone to the Special Committee on the Drowning Prevention. We'll get started with introductions from our left to our right. Joe Underhees, Administration. Stephen Libby, Council Research. Shannon McGillis, Office of General Counsel. Heather Reaver, Council Auditor's Office. Good afternoon, Tyrona Clark-Murray, District 9. Good afternoon, Reginald Gaffney, Jr., District 8. Mike Gay, District 2. Awesome, awesome. I want to thank everyone for your introductions, and I want to thank everyone in the crowd for coming out on this gloomy, wet day. I was kind of worried about the attendance. I know when I drove over here, it was pouring down and raining. But I appreciate you guys for coming out. We have a light agenda, so I don't think we'll be here too long. But before we get started, I want to make a motion to move our September 9th committee meetings. Thank you guys for that. So speaking of the agenda, before we talk about the agenda, I do want to highlight a few things for those who missed the September 9th meeting. We'll discuss a few things, and then we'll go forward. So we met September 9th. We met an hour and 15 minutes, actually. And some of the highlights that we discussed in the special retention meeting was doing a pond inventory. You know, obviously what we heard was the city have anywhere from 1,000 to 1,500 ponds in the city, whether that's private or whether that's public. You know, so I know one of them, if not myself, one of my colleagues we brought, we need to do a pond inventory. So we'll be kind of discussing that, whether these ponds are city-related or whether they're private. Mr. Inder, he's also brought up, he brought up what we're going to do with ponds, current existing ponds, our future ponds too, that also come up. So I would like to discuss that as well. So we also discussed last meeting, what are other cities doing in regards to this issue? So we'll also hear about that today. We also discussed what can we do now? You know, we discussed every day council is approving legislation that requires new communities to install ponds. So what can we do now? We also discussed H-Bill 180. You know, obviously we don't want to do this work in vain. So, you know, I think that's important because we need to figure out in terms of the parameters and guidelines, what can we do with a state bill that's in effect. So we got those questions. And I know we'll have a presentation from Andre Ayew. He'll come up. He was nice enough, kind enough to volunteer and get a task force of like 15 different agencies. And he'll speak about that as well. So before I bring Mr. Andre up, my colleagues, do y'all have anything y'all want to mention before we get this special presentation going? Yes. Thank you, Chair. I just want to also mention you talked about HB 180 or SB 180. And so our general counselor, Mr. Fackler, is here. So he can speak to those things. He and I have talked briefly about the impact that it may have on the work that we're trying to do here today. Thank you. Awesome. And thank you, Mr. Fackler, for joining us. And before I even go further, I do see our former state senator, Tony Hill, is here. And current state elect, Ms. Audra Gibson. And she's out in the crowd as well. So thank you guys for both for attending. I mean, it's an important issue. So I appreciate that. So we'll get started with today's agenda. Mr. A.U., you want to come up and start on the presentation? Good afternoon. I'm Andre A.U., Chief of Duval County Emergency Preparedness Division. So to the Chair, to Councilman Gaffney, I want to first thank you for this opportunity to co-chair this working group with Tyler Nolan with the Northeast Florida Regional Council. This is such an important initiative, and we're both extremely thankful to be a part of it. So thank you, sir. So with that, we'll get started. So the work group report out today will be by myself and Tyler. As you see in front of you right now, the interagency and community partners, the working group. You know, from the last committee meeting, we went back to the EOC, and we started shooting e-mails to all the community organizations in the city. And what you see in front of you is 20 community organizations that volunteered to be part of a working group. And I'm telling you, this is incredible. We already met this past Friday. It was a one-hour meeting. We ended up meeting for like two and a half hours. A lot of great dialogue, and I can see this working group growing in the near future. So with the tight timeline that we talked about, what you see right there is a proposed work plan for 2026. You turn here. I can't see that far. It's September 23rd, obviously, is today. We're still trying to gather some information, which we'll talk about in a few slides, in a few minutes, is we want to understand the problem. You know, we want to make sure that we have a true understanding where the issues are and then be able to guide the working group on coming up with some recommendations to the committee. If you look at October 7th, this is Identify Gaps. November 2nd is Build Solutions. And by the end of November, early December, our goal is Adopt and Deliver. That's the final report to the committee. Submit recommendations in any proposed legislation. So committee charges, we have six focus areas. First is Mercy Response and Data, Prevention, Public Education, and Awareness. Third is Youth and Elopement Special Needs Safety. Fourth, Public Residential Retention and Stormwater Facility Safety. Fifth is Interagency and Community Partnerships, which we're working on right now. And best practices, legislative authority, and recommendations. With that, I want to hand it over to Tyler to discuss the next few slides, and I'll come up at the back end and kind of wrap it up. Thank you. Good afternoon, through the chair, to members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to share some of this data with you. And I wouldn't be remiss if I didn't expand upon Chief AU's team that is also here with us. That team's been diligently working over the past couple of weeks to pool this data. It's very labor-intensive as a result of the computer-aided dispatch system known as CAD. To be able to go through and look at the notes of these reports and really understand how these drownings are happening, what they are, what is the information behind it. You know, information and the ways that people log this data has changed over those five years as well. So finding the nuances in those statements by either law enforcement or fire rescue personnel while on scene is actually very tedious and takes some time. So this data that I'm going to showcase to you is for two years, but the team is actively and diligently looking at it over a five-year period. And that will ultimately be presented to you in the same fashion. As we look and we look to reconcile these fatal and non-fatal incidents, also known as near-drowning incidents in this system, we definitely, and the intent of this, and I don't want it to get lost as I share this information that I'm about to share, because it's a little bit about drowning as a whole, but we're here for those with intellectual and developmental differences that have found their ways into retention ponds and experience a tragic loss. I don't want that to get lost, but it is very important that when we look at drowning data, there's a whole wide variety of ways and incidents that have happened. So I think it is important to showcase that with you, because I think some of the actions that we take to address these intellectual and developmental differences populations will also help us ensure that we're being more proactive of drownings of any type as we experience drowning deaths here in the city of Jacksonville. We did separate the ponds and pools, so I'll showcase that data here to you for just a minute. You know, looking at the age and locations when they're available, and then the questions as a working group is like, why are these things occurring? Are there any trends in the data? What can we do to look at this on a much more holistic perspective? And that's one thing that data allows us to do. What you're seeing before you is this two-year look at drowning incidents and calls of service for JFRD. I think it's no surprise to anybody that the highest average relies in private residence pools, first and foremost. With that, if you go down a couple lines, you see the highest risk is at the beaches. We all know rip currents and things play an important, very challenging issue when folks visit Jacksonville and are in the water. But why we're here, or the reason we are here, are these retention pond and natural bodies of water. Really looking at those, understanding why they happen, how they happen, and how we can prevent them in the future moving forward. Ms. Clark-Murray, at the last meeting, you mentioned, you know, it takes a very small amount of water with the right conditions that can lead ultimately to somebody drowning. And you're absolutely right, that level is only a couple of inches of water if noses and mouths are submerged in the water. So it's very important to know that we're not talking feet, we're talking inches is really what it boils down to. Some of the data expanded a little bit further. I mean, obviously, pediatric vulnerability is the highest. In the last meeting, you know, we talked about that that's not just our singular focus. There are folks with these intellectual and developmental differences that are of all ages and that they are at risk, no matter what age they are. But it is important to showcase and look at that for under, that children under 10 account for 43 of these deaths over the past two years, 43%. And zero to four represent 31% of the incidents. As I mentioned already, swimming residential pools, private residential swimming pools are the number one call of service for JFRD. There's a seasonal peak. I mean, I don't think that surprises anybody that folks are more active in the water during certain times. But these cardiac arrest cases, if you don't know, through severe hypoxia, which is oxygen deprivation, it actually shuts down the heart muscle and the electrical system. So I know those two things don't normally go together when we talk about, you know, CPR or AED machines when somebody has experienced a drowning. But there is a direct correlation between folks that experience drowning and the cardiac arrest that happens as a result of it. So obviously, there's probably some things that we can do in the CPR and AED world as well when we look at these trends. Breaking the data down just a little bit further for you, of these 86 over the two years, there's just folks that hear information differently than visually seeing it. So we wanted to showcase that data just a little bit differently for you. And obviously, it's no surprise that pools and beaches are the top percentages with those retention ponds accounting for roughly just over 4% pushing at that 5% range over the past two years. Kind of already hit on it, but that 43% of the data that we have is that under 10 concentration of individuals, unintended pool access, and adolescent and adult risk that ages 10 to 39 accounted for 36 incidents, which was 42%. And as we're talking and as the conversation will ultimately lead us, you know, down topics such as locks for doors, locks for gates, locks for fences, we're going to be able to accomplish something much greater than just the intent of this committee. So I think it's important to share this data with you, to look at it from a much larger perspective. And I think the ultimate outcomes of this committee will address not only those that are at high risk for this incident, but that there's a much larger population that we can benefit as well. I think it's no surprise to anybody that when we break down the data a little bit further, the gender disparity is heavily weighted towards males. 63 of the 84 incidents were males, 73%. I think we can all infer there's probably a number of reasons for that, but that is one of the big benefits of having data, being able to identify these trends, because in a world of public messaging and social media campaigns, we can be very targeted in some of these, and geofencing, and there's a whole lot of things that are available and at our fingertips that we live in the world of 2026. I know it's frightening at times, but we really do get some benefits that we haven't had in the past when it comes to public messaging. To break down the zip codes a little bit further, but I will say when we're talking about those retention pond deaths over the past two years, it has really been that 3-2218 and the 3-2256, which isn't listed on this just because it didn't meet the high three, but when we're talking about the retention pond deaths, that is 3-2218. Same piece of data, just as I mentioned, broken up into a more graphical form to kind of showcase it, of where these zip codes lie and being able to identify these trends, why they're happening, why they're happening in these areas becomes very important. Lastly, before I hand it over back to Chief Ayoub, you know, this analysis is ongoing. It is going to take some time. We really do hope by the next meeting we've been able to capture that five-year data. There's a lot of analysis, a lot of trend to look at. And on top of that, once we get the data, there has to be a double check, a standard to it to where we're going back and making sure that we actually captured everything that we needed to capture. So there is a verification process to that. It requires that intense manual review. There's multiple data sets across many agencies. Some use like terms, some don't. So really trying to find those nuances in the data. And then obviously with autism spectrum and disorder-related drownings are underreported. And it just comes down to those scenes being chaotic and it boiling down to what gets entered into the system. And procedures are there and folks are doing, but we all know that when, especially when children are involved, the emotional aspect of the situation gets drastically increased. And so it's making sure that we have some of these standard terms, standard policies and procedures. So with that, I will turn it back over to Chief Ayoub to tell you about what other programs or what programs are currently in the city and how they're being used. Thank you for your time. So existing programs serving the city of Jacksonville, through the chair to Councilwoman Clark-Murray, I believe you asked this question in the last committee meeting. You know, what's going on? You know what I'm saying? What are we doing here in Duval County? So I want to kind of just briefly highlight some of the current programs and initiatives that are going on in Duval County. If you see right here, you've got five organizations that are water competency and safety programs in Duval County. Swim lessons, you see the Jax Parks, Swim Safari, and Hope Float Foundation, the YMCA, currently provide free swim lessons here in Duval County. Public safety and support for vulnerable populations, JFRD and JSO, the revamp program, a very successful program that we've had for several years, and also the First Responder Awareness sticker program, which is that sticker on your bottom right-hand corner. This is just a flyer for the revamp. These are ways that people can register online and they can call in. And kind of add to this revamp, every year, my captain, Ricky Grace, he has certain individuals from JFRD will call individuals and get people registered. And we also put this on our Jax Ready app to remind people to register for a revamp. Additionally, the Arc Jacksonville, the Pepper Project Safety Initiative, and also Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, they all have programs currently in Duval County. And last is JSO Care Track program. That's a GPS technology-assisted program to track and quickly locate individuals if they go missing. Another successful program. So just kind of, you know, the goals for the next meeting before we go to closing, the tasks in progress. So data collection effort for retention ponds throughout Jacksonville. So we're coordinating with COJ Technology Solutions, GIS Division, and St. John's River Water Management District to gather that information and to get the map locations. And also, we want to understand the rules and regulations. We already did a deep dive into that, but there's so many rules and regulations out there. So we want to make sure that we're tracking what those are. Researching programs throughout Florida. So I know we've already put requests to Tampa, Orlando, and Miami, but talking to some additional partners in the room, there's some additional requests throughout the state of Florida and throughout the country. There's no reason for us to repeat or to, you know, whatever mistakes happen to other communities. We want to reinvent the wheel. We want to, you know, learn from other communities and hopefully implement some of those strategies here in Duval County. And then we also want to expand the working group, identify key stakeholders and partner agencies. You know, yesterday when we were putting this PowerPoint together, I think we had like 16, 17 partners. And just within the last 24 hours, we had three different organizations that jumped on board. So as word gets out, as the media pushes this out, people are hearing. They want to be part. And that people are volunteering to be part of this because this is an incredible initiative. Obviously, we have a problem in Duval County. So everybody's jumping on board to be part of this. So I want to kind of hand it back to you. Any questions you have of us, the working group, but then also my question asked of the committee is with what we presented today is are we on track what you guys want to see with the working group? If you guys want to pivot, us to pivot a little bit with the working group, we will. I didn't mention it, but we meet opposite weeks of this committee. So next Friday at 10 o'clock, we do an in-person meeting at the EOC with a virtual option for the work group members, and we'll have an agenda, and we'll go through it. I think, Councilman, you were on it last week. It's very productive. Like I said, we met for an hour, and after it was off, we stood for another hour and a half in the EOC and just had great discussion about, hey, communication, for example. You know, if we see this before the end of November, December, you know, if we want to have a robust communication plan, is that something we want to do in December, or do we want to do it in January, February, before the peak months, or do we want to do both? You know, and what does that look like? Is it doing a stand-up with the committee and the working group, doing a big media stand-up? Is it a big social media push? You know, the younger generation, a lot of people, you know, they don't watch TV. They're on social media. Is that what we want to do also? You know, there's a lot of community engagement events that My Shop goes to every week. Do we want to leverage those community engagement events and partner with our working groups to go out there and get that message out about the free swim lessons, all the issues that we're having, and get people to be part of this? So with that, I'll hand it back to you, sir. Thank you for the great presentation. I learned a lot about that. Before we, my colleagues, ask questions about this presentation, if you choose to speak during the public comment session, make sure you fill out the green speaker card. Right now, I have no green speaker cards, and I don't want to be waiting on the speaker cards to call up. So just make sure you fill them out and put them on the table right there, and we'll make sure we get to it right after the Q&A. So, Councilman Gay, you want to go first? All right. Thank you. You recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Quick question on the drownings and the zip codes. Are any of these related to out at any of the beaches? Yes, sir. I can get back to that slide right there. Jack's Beach area is really that it tripped that top three in zip codes down there to the lower portion of the county. Okay. So the 32226 and the 32218, that's me and- Those are on the north side. ...Gaffney's area. So I didn't know if any of those were relevant to any of the Huguenot or any of the beaches as well. I want to touch a little bit on that. I know Captain Bernard sent me that. I don't have that with you, Councilman, but I can send that to you. He broke down the last two years, the exact location, so zip codes, addresses, time, age, so I can send that to you. I think I sent it to the Councilman Gaffney, so I can send it to the group. I think that'd be helpful. It's kind of eye-opening to see the number of incidences that we've had in our zip codes out there. Thank you. So, thank you guys for that presentation, and I want to echo Councilman Gaffney's sentiments. You know, to see pretty much three zip codes dominate, you know, these drownings is just an eye-opener. You know, I guess, you know, it brings me to question, and I don't know if we had an answer to this, why these zip codes? You know, because it's ponds all around Jacksonville, but why these zip codes? Another thing that stood out in this presentation was that, obviously, males, you know, when you're talking about these autistic kids, you know, predominantly, it was 73% was males. You know, another thing, I mean, we already knew this, at least I think I knew this, you know, under 10. You know, that was kind of eye-opener as well, you know. So, going forward, I guess one of the things we got to think about, the committee, the task force think about, if we know that these districts or these areas is problematic, you know, maybe identifying the ponds in these, at least starting here. I mean, I think we need to start all across Jacksonville, obviously, right? But, at least start in these zip codes, and maybe identify some of these ponds, you know, the slopes, I don't know, the signage, the lightings, and anything else might be problematic. You know, what it seems from the data that we have, you know, we could at least add some prevention to these ponds. We probably could cut this issue in half. That's what, Councilman Gaffney and Councilman Gay, you hit an L on the head. When we met, when I said we sat for another hour and a half after the work group meeting, we had that conversation. I mean, this information is alarming, you know, to the point of we don't need to wait until the end of November 30th. If we know, when we look at this data, say if it's these kids, or, you know, with autism, or just getting out of doors, or the pools, can we not partner? Or, one of the conversations, can we partner with Home Depot or Lowe's and do initiative with them when they provide locks, and they install locks to these doors? You know, so there's no reason to wait until December to do this. So there's been other recommendations. That's the importance of this working group. We want to get the data. And to your point, Councilman Gaffney, we want to get the data. That's going to drive what we do. We don't have to wait until December. I think some of this stuff we can start doing as we get to that latter part. That's a great point. It was alarming. The seasonal, you know, from the messaging, you know, we know if it's April, May, June, July. The messaging piece, can we not do, you know what I'm saying, now, but then also, because, listen, people have life, holidays, they forget about some of these initiatives and these programs, do we not do it again January, February, where we do a robust community, you know, stand up and push it out again so people know as it goes into the spring, summer months that these programs exist and they can use these programs for their kids or for, you know what I'm saying, for themselves. Because we saw some adults that were drowning too. So it's not just for the group that while we're here, but it's really a diverse group of individuals that are drowning in Duval County. I hope that answers your question, sir. One of the things that I think I missed, or maybe you did mention it, the best practices from other cities and counties. Maybe you mentioned it, maybe you didn't. And if you could respond on that, or maybe, do we have any? Yes, sir. So we've reached, we don't have it yet. We reached out to Orlando, Miami, and Tampa. I think yesterday when we met, there's been outreach to other communities. So yes, sir, we're going to get that information. And as I said earlier, you know, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. If things have happened to other communities that have been successful, we'll take some of that, you know what I'm saying, and try to institute it here in Duval County. And that's the goal. And if there's things, you know, and once again, we don't need to repeat mistakes. Those communities made some mistakes. We know we'll try not to use them here in Duval County. But, you know, every city is a little different. So yes, sir, to answer your question, we're leveraging those communities, and I think we'll get some additional reports in the meantime. Okay. So if you guys could focus on that, and I know y'all also have a five-year overview next meeting as well. So we're waiting for COJ, Technology Solutions GIS team, and also the St. Johns River Water Management District to kind of map, as I mentioned, those ponds, retention ponds. So I think those two are working together. I've already sent emails to both organizations, but it's been labor-intensive, as Tyler said. So that is going to be an additional data dump that the working group will look at. Hopefully by the next meeting, we'll push it out days before so that the working group can process that data and start talking. Because I don't want to wait to send it to them that day. They don't have time to analyze it and give recommendations. I want to send it, you know what I'm saying, well-invanced of next Friday's meeting so they can process it and give us recommendations at the working group meeting. Well, another thing you guys could focus on, I'm not sure if I heard it or not, is I guess a list of city versus private ponds. And if we could get, you know, I know we talked about it last meeting. Somebody said, I think 1,100, maybe 1,400, I think, Mr. Long. So if we could get, I ain't going to say a Zach number, I know it's difficult, but if we could get a list of a Zach ballpark figure versus private ponds versus city-owned, you know, that would be great, too, going forward in our next meeting as well. Yeah, so we're just at the mercy of those two organizations I just mentioned. We pushed that, you know, requested them. So hopefully, I know everybody's been with, you know, but we pushed that to them. Hopefully, we'll get that data soon so we can look at it and then task the working group with some information on that. Yes, sir. Councilor Plotmer, you recognize. Thank you, Chair. I just want to expound on the question, and we do have the slide before us in regards to the gender disparity. And so this is coming from not research that I've done, but what we would call action research or observational data. And so as someone who has worked with students with autism, the majority of the students, the majority of the students who have autism are male. So that's probably why you have more incidents with males in this particular case as opposed to females, because autism, the autism diagnosis is typically males of the predominant gender that have diagnosed with autism. Thank you, Chair. And to Ms. Clark-Murray, I think you mentioned last committee meeting about Duval County Public Schools. We reached out. I don't know if they're part of our committee yet, but we definitely reached out to them to get, you know what I'm saying, them to be part of our working group. Yes, ma'am. Councilman Gay, you recognize. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Through the chair, to y'all, the door alarms, y'all have referenced them in there. What is the requirements and parameters of having door alarms as it is now? Through the chair, Councilman Gay, I don't know that answer, but that's something we'll dig into, sir. I would like to look at, because I know pools have to be fenced, and Mr. Long may be able to answer that, being it's public works or saying if the pools have to be fenced with a door alarm, or is it one or the other that you don't know. Through the chair, to Councilman Gay, if you look at my, for the next meeting, I promise you, that's, we want to identify all the rules, regulations around ponds, pools, everything. We're going to have answers for the committee by next meeting, I promise you. All right, and so what I would like to look at is what is the parameters of the, if door alarms are required, if it's also, if a pond is within a certain dimension, if it would be required as well. So, just as many, basically, protection that we can get out there, I'd just like to find those parameters. Yes, sir, and to add to that, and you just brought up something that, you know, when we requested it from the St. John's River Management District, is some risk factors with those retention ponds. Like, you know, the parameters we asked them is 1,000 feet close to a school, 1,000 feet close to a playground, those different things, and be able to identify that. Is that a risk factor? You know what I'm saying, is that maybe what's drawing kids through those ponds, you know, and to this additional to pools, we know that's the higher number. So, we want to really do a deep analysis of all that information, and be able to present it to the committee. Right, and so, through the chair, basically looking at a parent or a guardian that gets distracted, and that alarm goes off as soon as that door opens, that that's a protection. Absolutely. So, listen, the working group, Councilman Gay, they were so excited when we met, but I say, guys, let's just get the data, you know what I'm saying, because I just, I don't want to lose track. I mean, I think this is all important information, but those questions are being posed by the working group, and I think we have the right people, part of our work group, to kind of bring up those, get you those answers, sir, by the next meeting. Thank you, Councilman Gay. Yeah, I do have a question for OGC. Is that a policy decision? And I'm just throwing this out here, that let's just say kids, not necessarily with autism, but some type of development disability, that we can write legislation, I guess, mandating that, and I don't know how you want to phrase it, but at-risk kids, we could mandate that they have locks on the doors, I'm just, I know it's a, you know, tough question, but, you know, is that something that we possibly could do through legislation and policy? I'm happy to look into that question further, but I do have some kind of legal red flags waving, but let me look into it and get you a substantiated answer. And to Councilman Gaffney, earlier, I think that question, when we get the, hopefully when we get some of that information from other cities, they may address that, so that may be, give us some answers that we can address with OGC. Okay. I appreciate it. All right. I think we have, that's all the questions for you guys. I really appreciate it for the presentation. Thank you so much. Oh, I am so sorry. I can't, I can't see who in the queue, who not in the queue. I'm sorry. So we do have a question from the mayor's administration, Joe Indies. Go ahead. You have the floor. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to Mr. Ayoub and Tyler. First of all, thank you, Tyler, for your time and Northeast Florida Regional Council, a name that we have heard in this chamber over the course of the last six to eight weeks can see the value that they provide to the city. I would also suggest that this is one of the great things of city government, where there is a problem and government has the opportunity to bring together the two and three percent of the answer that each of these organizations holds in their pocket and brings it all together in one group to actually, you know, solve the puzzle here. So I'm really grateful and I hope that the council members see that their work is being recognized by the community. You've got two dozen organizations that within the course of 10 days have come together and already started to provide information so that you guys can act. And I think that's very powerful. I do have a question regarding the revamp program. Would you all mind, and Chief, either this is you or Chief Golden to be able, or somebody else from JFRD, be able to describe a little bit more about revamp? I know when you all talked to me in my office about it, it was new to me. I think it would be helpful. And if there'd be a way to maybe take advantage of, I know when the time changes each year, you all go out and do like smoke alarm, you know, outreach, if we couldn't maybe take advantage of a November, I think we fall back sometime, first part of November, take advantage of that and maybe, you know, push some sign up into that revamp. I think that could be a good, you know, early step. Absolutely. And let me add, so we have a lieutenant from JSO and detective from JSO that we partner with for the revamp program. So if you go to, I believe, page, is it 18, where it says JFRD and JSO revamp program. So it's a no-cost voluntary identification program that aids in the safe return of individuals that may be endangered, vulnerable, or missing with cognitive and memory impairment or sensory disabilities. Incredible program, LT, or detective, I don't know if you guys want to come up, you guys want to add anything to that, not to throw you guys under the bus, but. Yes, they do. So if you look at the next slide, this is the form. So if you look at that, they can register online. We put that on JaxReady, good question, on our JaxReady app, but then also they can call. So it's a big media push that we push every year throughout the year. Captain Ricky Grace oversees this program. So in collaboration with JSO, we do community engagement events, to your point. We do. We have this flyer. We push it on JaxReady app. So it's out there. But to that point, is it out there enough? You know, LT, you have anything you want to? It's Detective Buxton. She's actually in charge of our revamp for JSO. Name and address, please. Good afternoon. I'm Janetta Buxton. And the gist of our revamp information is designed to acquire whatever pertinent information that the family needs us to know about their loved one. It tells us how to interact with their family member, what particular type of autism or cognitive diagnosis that they may have. What's the best way to search after them, their favorite places, location? And it also gives us an opportunity to reach out to their different schools, their ABA therapists, people that will tell us more insight on how we can better serve the family. Additionally, whatever information that they provide to us with revamp is covered by HIPAA. So they don't have to worry about other people utilizing their information outside of first responder. Can I go on with the canine? You can. Yes. I can go with the cat. Yes. Okay. So in addition to the revamp information, that information is attached to our CAD system. And basically, that's the system when you call in, your address, phone number, all of the things that are associated with you, this information would be attached to your phone number, your home address, your tag. In addition to the revamp, we also have a canine scent kit. And the scent kit is good for 10 years. And it basically, a detective would don on gloves, use a gauze, and use that person's body scent. It's a simple swipe on the side of the back, an area where no one else has touched, so that it will assist our bloodhound in locating that person. It will travel the path that they wander. Additionally, we have a resource, the tracker. The tracker is used by telemetry, right? So telemetry is the same radio waves that we use for CB. So if the GPS system go down, we don't have to worry about that. We could still track our vulnerable citizens in the community. And the tracker is for those that elope, that goes beyond just having a cognitive diagnose, but the ones that we know and we've identified that they need some additional resources. Our tracker, we can assist with tracking on the ground, our drone unit, as well as our air unit. And all these resources are free if you live in Duval County. Thank you. And if you guys are okay, I'd like to have Captain Enrique Grace, who oversees it, JFRD kind of had some things about the revamp program. Name and address, please. Captain Enrique Grace, Jacksonville Fire and Rescue. As he says, I help oversee the JFRD side of revamp. In addition to everything Officer Buxton has said, we also use the information to help cut time off the actual search for individuals who elope. In those times where it's the most dramatic and you have to get all the information from those parents, we already have that information, uploaded pictures, where they elope to, what their triggers are. That cuts up to two hours, two to three hours off the search time. All right, so it's cut down to about ten minutes or less once we get the call, 9-1-1. If you could get in the mic, please. Okay, go ahead. Go ahead, finish. Go ahead, finish. Okay. In addition to that, it also helps us with our day-to-day runs. If we know a person has a particular set of triggers when it comes to dealing with the public and transporting individuals to our hospitals or just coming to them to aid, it helps us to know how we approach people and how we work with the family and everything to holistically better how we aid the public. So with the rebrand program, we do do annual call-outs to make sure that our registry is up-to-date. Every six months, we ask for additional pictures. We know with younger children, they age, they grow up, their physical features change, different diagnoses come about. So we say that to say that we keep this program going just to make sure our databases are up-to-date. And let me add, if you guys caught what Detective and Captain Grace mentioned, you know, usually, especially individuals that are autistic, we don't have hours. We have, I mean, the data has shown we have minutes. So having a program like this, you know what I'm saying, we know, okay, they have a tendency to go in here, this and that. You know, we have minutes that we can dispatch JFRD personnel, JSO personnel, drone units, canine, all those resources are already going to it. That's the value in this program. It's not hours. It's minutes that, you know, we were able to find these kids. So it's such a successful program. Thank you. Before I recognize Mr. Anderhies, was this program initiative used, I guess, in the latest drownings, the last two kids? Was it used on the, they were not in the, they're advising, they were, and it was not because those two kids were not signed up. So you have to be signed up, okay. And we'll look at that. You know, that's a great question to the councilman. And we'll look at that with the data if, you know what I'm saying, an individual are not signed up. That's the whole communication plan push is to get this information. Look, I've been here 32 years. I'm familiar with the revamp because I worked at JSO now in this role. But these other programs, I was not aware of it. So I think we have to do a better job to get this information, you know what I'm saying, not just one time but throughout the year to our citizens. Mr. Anderhies, you recognize. Thank you. And that is the point that we were driving at. And detective and lieutenant and captain, God bless you. I mean, just thank you so much. And I was just, the question was approximately how many families have signed up for revamp? 622. Yeah, 622. So we know that the universe is much larger than that. The universe of need is much greater than that. And what I heard was there are trackers, like an air tag kind of a thing, right, GPS that could be incredibly helpful in alerting. There could be geofencing. There are all kinds of things that we could do. And I really think that this is our, you know, for my seat, this is an excellent first step in getting families and individuals signed up for this in order to be able to cut down response times. Absolutely. You mentioned it, and we talked about it, those community engagement events. I've seen JSO at those safety fairs, JFRE, those safety fairs, talking about the revamp program and all these other programs. I just think we need, you know, continue to do that in other platforms, social media and so on and so forth. Yes, sir. All right. Thank you, guys. I appreciate the presentation. So before we go to public comment, I did make one small error. I moved the minutes myself. So I want to recall the approval of the minutes for September 9th and call for a motion to approve the minutes for September 9th. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate that. So can I get a vote? All in favor, say aye. All right. Thank you, guys. Okay. All right. Councilwoman Clark-Merry, you recognize? You have a question? Thank you, Chair. Mr. Fackler, if you would come forward. Just whatever information you have. I know Senate Bill 180 is, it's like a shadow that looms over much of the work that we're trying to do. So if you could just touch on it, expound on it just as much as you can tell us at this point, and maybe those elements that we're working on that would not trip or trigger 180. So I appreciate the question. Michael Fackler, Office of General Counsel. Ms. McGillis is also very familiar, so she can chime in if I leave out anything. So SB 180 limits us on how we can regulate or impose new restrictions on development going forward. The current things that are in place, they're fine, but we cannot create more restrictive policies going forward. It is not viewed as the statute, as we interpret it, is not concerned with the purpose that we're trying to do. Obviously, this is a very laudable purpose that we want to protect the health and safety of our people. It's the effect and impact it has on the developers and on those new regulations. So even if we say, look, we're here to save kids, that's great, a developer is going to come along and say, I don't care what your goal is, and likely a judge would follow up on that and say, I don't care what your goal is, you're actually impacting developers, ergo, you're getting sideways with SB 180. So it's not something that we can get. We can certainly work with you, and we advise on risk as part of this process, and we can certainly work with you to try to minimize the risk, but creative drafting will be unlikely to eliminate the risk that we are violating SB 180 going forward. Ms. McGillis, anything else to add? I believe the key phrase that Mr. Fackler hit on was government actions. Senate Bill 180 does not prevent voluntary actions like what you were just talking about in the revamp program, and if these families voluntarily sign up, it's not a government mandate. If they voluntarily allow, say, Home Depot to put alarms on the doors, that is not a Senate Bill 180. Senate Bill 180 prevents the government from restricting development at this point, and it is under litigation. And to follow up with that, thank you very much, Ms. McGillis. If we have a policy that encourages voluntary cooperation and their grant dollars or some other incentives to the public, that's not violative of SB 180. It's a requirement or a mandate from us that would potentially be problematic. Thank you. Councilwoman, you're good? You're good. Mr. Fackler, while you up, so what if we, I, propose legislation where, I propose legislation where the community could sign petitions, I get 50% of petitions to put a fence around a pond. So even though I'm writing legislation, I'm not mandating it. I'm putting the ball in a community subdivision hands and say, listen, you have to get 50% of petitions to get this gate. So I didn't mandate it. The only thing I did was pretty much write legislation. You have to get, I guess, petitions. To the committee through the chair. First of all, I applaud your creativity. And on my feet, I'm going to give an off-the-cuff response that we can think about. The concern I would have is you're creating an avenue to allow a more restrictive mandate. And so, therefore, if the people there were to sign the petition and go that route, then they would be pulling a lever, so to speak, to make it more restrictive. And the new restriction is potentially in violation of SB 180. But we're happy to look at it, I guess, as long and short of it, is off-the-cuff. I think we would look at it. We might have some reservations. And, again, it's a risk analysis, as we think it's likely or unlikely to violate SB 180 is the best we can do for you. If you can, if you could come back with us with an answer to that question next meeting, that would be great. Councilman McGee? I know you have a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, to Mr. Fackler. Is there an avenue for getting away from the developmental aspect of it and more into the life safety aspect of it? And to Councilman Gave through the committee, that kind of goes to my first point of the purpose of it is secondary to the impact. Certainly life safety is the goal. If it has the secondary impact or has the ultimate effect of being a restriction or a tighter regulation on the development, that's what we have to focus on. Right. I think that's more of an avenue instead of trying to get into the developmental aspect of it, of the restrictiveness that that has with SB 180, where the fire marshal, he's got a bite of the apple of the approval that if we can get that aspect avenue there, I think that may be our better option to be able to do that. Thank you. And just real quick, through the committee to Councilman Gay, certainly something we can look at and kind of do an analysis of how that gets there and maybe help work our way there to minimize the risk as much as possible. Happy to work with you. Thank you, Chair. I'm hesitant to ask the question, but I'm going to ask anyway. And Ms. McGillis, you can answer as well if you know. Has the city been sued by anyone in regards to retention ponds that we know are ours? So it's like if there are any deaths, any accidents, and when I say accidents, I mean vehicle going into retention ponds. As we know, that happens all the time. Have we been sued? Do we have any current litigation? Through the committee to Councilman Clark-Murray, I'm not aware of any. I could certainly work with RISC who would ultimately handle that. They have a lot of codes and so forth that might be able to drill down the data to tell us if there has been one involving a retention pond and what that case looked like. But off the top of my head, I'm not aware of one. Ms. McGillis might recall one from her days in tort. I am not aware of any litigation over ponds that were owned by the city. And it would surprise me if there had been because the law that surrounds tort liability for ponds is very tough. There's very few examples of exceptions that grant tort liability for these ponds, sadly. Thank you for those responses. So, of course, I've been looking at cases where there have been children who have drowned in retention ponds that are owned by apartment complexes. And I was looking at those elements that they use to determine negligence, foreseeability, the different duty standards. So, in order to draft some legislation so that we can perhaps, boy, this is a fine line right here today, hold someone accountable. Because I'm thinking also HOAs, if they're not looking at, they're not maintaining those ponds. And, once again, the idea is that it is about safety and children. Because the way the regulations that I've read thus far read, it is the idea that an adult who gets into one of the retention ponds, whether it's a slope or it's a drop that has to have a fence, that they somehow are cognizant to be able to get themselves out. Children won't be cognizant to be able to get themselves out. So, this is, it's a lot. And it's going to be a lot. And so, there are multiple aspects that need to be examined. The other thing I was looking at is that we have public housing. And I don't know if all of our public housing, if we, as a city, we own any, or if it's just the state that owns the housing. So, let's just say, for example, you have a child who lives in an apartment complex that's managed by the state or owned by the state. And, or federal, federal funding. And there's a latch on the back porch that the parent has reported repeatedly to maintenance. Hey, you need to fix this latch. You need to fix this latch. And there's a retention pond that's out back. And so, they have not done their due diligence. And so, that child gets out. And, you know, before you know it, that child is in the retention pond. And that child is now a fatality. And so, who do you hold responsible? I mean, how do we legislate so that we're able to get public housing to a point where they make sure that those latches are latched so that the kids can't get out? Second thing I was reading about in one case that, of course, we know 90% of the legal cases, they don't go to go before a judge. They settle. And so, all the two cases that I read today, they did settle. And in settling, one of the aspects that they talk about was the, this parent was astute enough to say, my child, we want, I know, I have a toddler. I want to live on the second floor of this apartment complex. Well, they, I don't know what the financial situation was, but the management did not adhere to their wishes. And so, they had an apartment that was at the, on the first floor. And there was a retention pond in the back of the apartment complex. And lo and behold, that's what happened with the toddler. There was that latch that they asked maintenance to fix. They didn't fix it. Child got out right into the retention pond. So, there's so many elements and so many aspects, you know. And so, those are some of the things, too. It's just, this net is not getting, the catch, the way we're throwing the net is not getting smaller. It's getting wider. So, okay. Thank you so much for that, Mr. Fackle. I know the legal aspects are very, very tricky. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Fackle. I appreciate it. Before we, I guess what we'll do next, we'll have public comments. And then, I guess we'll wrap it up and see what to talk about in the next meeting. So, we do have two public comment cards. And you guys can get three minutes. Come up. State your name and address. And the first will be Dr. Lynch, Diversity and Equalics. Name and address, please. Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Miriam Lynch. And my address is from Alexandria, Virginia, actually, for today. I just want to say thank you all for this forum here. Thank you, Chairman Gaffney, as well, as we talk about drowning prevention. For those that don't know me, my face is new in this public space, but our work is not new here in Jacksonville. I am the director of Diversity and Aquatics. It's a nonprofit committed to reducing drowning and expanding water safety. But I also come to you as a coach of the only HBCU with the swim and dive team and an educator who is putting forth a large comprehensive water safety program in Fairfax County, which is one of the top ten or largest school districts in our country. I also am coming from a perspective where I understand what has been done, and I'm grateful for the task force that is here today to do so, because it is taking an all-in approach to water safety, and especially with our autism community. There are stats that says the CDC reports that wandering affects nearly half of autistic children, and drowning is the leading cause of death following wandering. And when someone who may wander go missing nearby water, including pools, ponds, drainage canals, retention ponds, this should be a priority. And we need to go beyond just parents. You need to sign up for the information, but rather how do we get the information out to our communities? That is why for us in Fairfax County, we are taking this all-in approach to incorporate in our schools, but not only our schools, but key stakeholders into this who are from the community, who are trusted individuals. I'm very happy to hear from the task force of those in the revamp program, but here is the problem. The problem is that we can't just do it through a flyer and depend on people to sign up on their own individually. We have to consider there are historical barriers, there are trust barriers when it comes to signing up or getting the information that is out there to many of these free programs that are afforded in this community. So for us is that, and not only that, I appreciate Council, Ms. Clark Murray, and what she was talking about, the story of the two-year-old and knowing the latch and knowing what you could do as part of your HOA and the powers that you have within your HOA to demanding more safety protocols and having a community voice. So that is something that I'd like to add in here is that being able to go beyond just having the approach on... We'll give you 30 more seconds. We'll give you 30 more seconds. We've got a couple of other speakers. Beyond just being the responsibility of the individual, but being the responsibility of all of us in this community to having that approach towards water safety. Thank you. Thank you. Before you go, this is kind of unorthodox, but I'm going to ask anyway. So you drove down from Virginia to come speak today, be here today? Yes, I did. Oh, wow. We would definitely appreciate that. So just make sure we... I'm going to give a clap. It is that important. Just to let you know, Florida is the leading state when it comes to drowning in our country. This year, exponentially in 2026, is that you have the highest rates. Not only my work with diversity and aquatics, we also work on the National Water Safety Action Plan. And our concern is Florida has an opportunity here. And I came all the way down here because Jacksonville, you have all the resources. It is putting them all together towards being a model for others around the country. Thank you. Make sure you get with Mr. Andre so we can make sure to try to add you to the task force as well. Okay. We already talked, so thank you. All right. Mr. Ernest Smith. Ernest Smith. All right. No Ernest Smith. All right. Stay the lead. Ms. Audrey Gibson. Come on up. Name and address. Thank you very much. And good afternoon to you all on the committee and those in the audience and the awesome information that was presented today. So I've been looking at the issue of what we call retention ponds for... Name and address. Pardon? Name and address. Oh, sorry. Audrey Gibson. 1707 West 17th Street. Okay. Or my address is on file, so delete that file. That's why I'm thinking about this for over time, and particularly as we've had more and more, or seemingly at least a frequency of our young kids drowning. And part of it has to do, and we talk a lot about, and I'm going somewhere with this, retention ponds, but there's also something called a detention pond. And so the question, in my mind, is what are the regulations? What drives the permitting of a detention pond as opposed to a retention pond? I know it has to do with stormwater storage and things like that. But a detention pond actually does, at some point, become dry, as opposed to the retention ponds that are always wet. And so I'm certainly going to, certainly if my constituents send me back to Tallahassee in November, be discussing what the state role is. I know we're talking about private property rights and things like that. But there has to be some weight from the city and city officials in terms of what is the requirement? It probably is. I haven't detailed. They look for that yet. What is the requirement to have a detention pond or a retention pond? And can we control that detention ponds are more in residential areas as opposed to retention ponds, which are always wet or water-filled? And also, what can we do? Is there a way to add pumping systems to retention ponds that will help the water to flow? And I know it's a water management control, but there has to be a way that saving lives can take precedent over a dry or a wet retention pond. So I'll be looking into, that's one of the things I'm going to be looking into. I will lean to this, your committee. Can you play the most I can, if you'll mind, please. I will lean to your committee and certainly your presenters on how we can go about it without violating SB 180 or Burt Harris rule or whatever it's called to save our kids. And thank you very much. All right. Thank you. We really appreciate it. And as you walk to your seat, if your voters do elect you, I think, you know, one of the things that you guys can do is amend, and maybe you can amend the bill or not. I'm not sure. You could amend, you said throw it out. You could amend SB 180. So, you know, maybe we need to speak with the do-all delegation, you know, in terms of amending this state bill 180. So we'll have to find out. But you brought up some great points. And, you know, I'm not sure if you're, Ms. Stickler, you know, that, you know, in terms of retention ponds versus detention ponds, you know, going forward, you know, it's a dry pond. You know, maybe we could utilize that. I don't know. You know, so, but that's one of the things I would like to discuss our next meeting, you know, versus detention ponds versus retention ponds. But today meeting was productive. You know, I learned a lot, you know, personally. You know, one of the things that I think is still bothering me is that most of the kids' drown is in 3-2-2-1-8, 3-2-2-2-6, you know. So that's right in our backyard, you know. So that's definitely staggering. So we definitely need to take a deeper look into that. But in terms of our next meeting, and I'm going to give my colleagues an opportunity to say something as we close. You know, like I said, we definitely want to take it. Mr. Fackler, why are you here? I would like to know that Senate Bill H-180 in terms of the petition route. You know, I know you say it's kind of a sticking point, but if it's an option, you know, I would love to get more clarity on that. You know, so, Ms. Nina, also detention ponds versus retention ponds. Also, our task force, you know, continue to identify the last five years. There's some gaps in place, you know, in terms of inspection, enforcement, existing new ponds, maintenance. You know, we haven't talked about the maintenance, who's keeping up with these ponds and things of that nature. We also need to discuss our private ponds versus our public ponds. So these are some of the things that we need to discuss next meeting. Colleagues, did I miss anything? Y'all want to add something before, you know, I adjourn this meeting? No. Okay. Everyone to my left, Ms. We good? Did I miss anything? Rashaun, did I miss anything? Okay. All right. Well, our next meeting will be, I don't have the date in front of me, but it's, what's the date for our next meeting? I don't have it. It's every two weeks. October 7th. Okay. October 7th, 3.30. I'll see you guys then. Thank you for coming. Appreciate it. It's me to turn. There it is. I'll get the hand.