Good morning. It's nine o'clock. I'd like to call the order to order today's meeting of the Transportation, Energy, and Utilities Committee. We'll begin with introductions from the left. Morning. Bill Delaney in Mayor's Office. Stephen Libby, Council Research. Carla Schell, Office of General Counsel. Edward Linsky, Council Auditor's Office. Philip Peterson, Council Auditor. Good morning. Monet Holder at Large Group One. Good morning. Matt Carlucci at Large Group Four. Ken Amara, City Council, District One. Good morning. Jimmy Peluso, District Seven. Good morning. Raw Eris, District Eleven. Morning. Nick Allen at Large Group Three. Thank you, Mr. President, for visiting. On today's agenda, we have seven actionable items. 2026-0644, 2026-0662, 2026-0702, 2026-0704, 2026-0709, 2026-07020. And on the last page, we have an emergency action on 2026-0780. This morning, our meeting will begin with a presentation from the Aviation Authority. Is Ms. Megan here? Good morning, Megan. Please come down. A few days ago, I was at the Regional Planning Council, and she gave a very impressive presentation as to what takes place behind the scenes at the airport in the event of an emergency, and I thought it would be informational as well as educational for the TEU committee to be able to see the presentation. Megan, you have the floor. You have 15 minutes. Thank you, sir. Good morning, Council members. My name is Megan Smalley. I am the Emergency Preparedness Manager at the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, and I have served in this role for the last 15 years. I am responsible for the prevention of, response to, mitigation of, and recovery of natural and man-made disasters that could impact our four airport system here in Jacksonville. And one of the other events that I'm really proud to be a part of is the Aviation Disaster Exercise hosted at our international airport, which is what I would like to introduce you all to today. So when you hear the words Aviation Disaster Exercise, you probably picture an aircraft accident, fire trucks, ambulances, law enforcement, and a lot of people pretending to be injured. And yes, we do all of that. But the exercise we were preparing for has become much bigger than that. Because when a catastrophic event occurs at an airport, the incident may begin at the airport, but its consequences do not stay there. Today, I would like to talk to you about how our aviation disaster exercise has evolved from an airport exercise into something much more representative of what emergency management really looks like today. A community and regional resilience exercise for Northeast Florida. There is, of course, a regulatory component to all of this. All commercial service airports are required to conduct full-scale exercises to demonstrate their ability to respond to aviation incidents. But we also exercise because we want to find the problems before we have a real disaster. Can our communication systems handle the volume? Can our responders coordinate across agencies? Can we move resources where they are needed? Can we manage information? And perhaps most importantly, can we sustain the response after the initial emergency is over? This exercise gives us an opportunity to answer those questions in a controlled environment. This is not something that suddenly became a community-wide event. It has evolved over time. Earlier exercises focused heavily on the immediate response to the aircraft accident. Fire, rescue, EMS, law enforcement, and incident command. And as we progressed, the exercise became more complex. We began bringing in more agencies, more realistic role players, and an aircraft simulator given to us, donated for the day by NAS Jaxx. By 2023, we were deliberately moving beyond the initial response. We incorporated a family assistance center, airlines, humanitarian organizations, and other partners. We started asking a different question. What happens after the aircraft accident? And that's where this exercise really begins to look like an airport, less like an airport drill, and more like a community disaster. This is what we are focusing on heavily this year. We have read the after-action reports of recent aviation disasters across our country. We are taking lessons learned from other airports and incorporating them into ours. We want to be prepared for the unknown and make sure that our community partners are also prepared for the unique challenges an aviation disaster could bring to us here in northeast Florida. This is probably the most important concept I would like to leave you all with. The airport is the point of impact, but the community becomes the response environment. Think about what happens during a major aviation disaster. We immediately have public safety and health care impacts. We have families who need information and assistance. We have transportation impacts. We have businesses and airlines trying to understand what is happening. We have elected officials and government organizations receiving information requests. We have media and public information challenges. And depending on the incident, we can have economic and regional impacts. So although the aircraft may be sitting on our airport property, the emergency management problem quickly becomes much larger than the airport itself. One of the biggest changes in our approach has been recognizing that the disaster does not end when the fire is out. The initial response is incredibly important, but it's only the beginning. What happens to the victims and their families? How do we communicate accurate information? How do we manage resources? How do we transition from response to recovery? How do we restore airport operations? How do we support the organizations and people affected by the incident? Those are emergency management problems, and those are problems that do not belong to just one agency. Ultimately, we are not trying to prove that we have a perfect emergency plan, because we do not. No emergency plan survives contact with reality completely intact. What we are really testing is where our plan breaks down. Can information move quickly enough? Can organizations coordinate when they are all dealing with competing priorities? Do we have enough people and resources? And can we transition from response into recovery without losing our momentum? These are the things that we can learn from an exercise that we simply cannot learn from just reading an exercise plan or an emergency plan. A major aviation incident here in Jacksonville can involve multiple jurisdictions and multiple systems almost immediately, and we cannot build those relationships after the disaster happens. We have to build them beforehand. That is one of the greatest benefits of an exercise like this. We are not just testing radios, plans, and equipment. We are building relationships. We are learning who does what and what does what. We are learning who needs what information, and we are learning who we can call when something does not go according to that plan, because during a real emergency, we do not want to be exchanging business cards for the first time at the scene of the incident. So when we talk about our 2026 aviation disaster exercise, I do not want people to think of it as simply an airport exercise. It is an opportunity to bring together the systems that make Northeast Florida work. It is an opportunity to identify vulnerabilities before a real event. It is an opportunity to strengthen relationships before we need them, and it is an opportunity to improve not only how we respond, but how we recover, because aviation emergencies may begin at our airport, but resilience is a community responsibility. So before I conclude, I would like to extend a personal invitation to the members of City Council to join us on October 21st for our full-scale aviation disaster exercise. This is an opportunity for you all to see firsthand the coordination, planning, and partnerships that go into preparing our region for an aviation disaster. We would be honored to have you attend and observe the exercise and see how our agencies and community partners work together here in Northeast Florida. We welcome your participation as observers, and I would be happy to coordinate the details of your visit. And with that, do you all have any questions? Thank you, Ms. Smalley, very nice presentation. When you said being prepared for the unknown, it reminded me of the Latin expression, Amat Victoria Karam, which simply means preparation brings victory. We have in the queue, Mr. Peluso. Thank you, Chair. Thank you for the presentation. My question was what time on the 21st? Of course. So the exercise actually kicks off at 10 a.m., and it runs until 3 p.m. If you're just interested in seeing the airfield portion of the exercise, which is going to be the crash, and then it's going to be our first responders triaging and transporting our victims, that starts on the airfield at 10. Our Family Assistance Center will be coordinated concurrently with that at 10 a.m. over at the Doubletree Hotel on airport property. So that's where our humanitarian organizations, American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and Tri-State Canines will be there exercising their family assistance response plans. Excellent. Thank you. And of course I want to see the crash. Of course you do. That's what we're there for, you know? So I will also say we did not get the fire simulator from NAS Jaxx this year, but we do have the helicopter prop from Naval Station Mayport joining us this year. As long as you light something on fire. We are lighting the helicopter on fire. All right. Thank you again, Mr. Arias. I have a couple questions. Number one is how often do you do these kind of trainings? Are there different types of trainings throughout the year, or is it the same training every year? Sure. So we are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to conduct this magnitude of an exercise every 36 calendar months. So we have to exercise an aviation disaster. Throughout the year, we conduct smaller tabletop exercises, and then we have conducted two full-scale active assailant exercises in previous years, but this one is the requirement for the FAA, and so it has to be to this scale. Got it. So this is once every three years? Yes, sir. On average. Okay, cool. And then the last question through the chair would be, what other government agencies normally when there's a big crash to happen? I know you mentioned Red Cross, Salvation Army, but like, are there any government agencies that also get involved, and are they going to be here at this simulation as well, too? Aside from JFRD, I'm talking about like outside of Jacksonville. Sure. So we've had in the past, we have extended the invitation to Nassau County Fire Rescue, Nassau County Sheriff's Office. We also have St. John's County Sheriff's Office has participated, Clay County. We also have participants coming all the way from Flagler County to observe the exercise, but as far as the first responder agencies, we really try to focus on Jacksonville because recognizing they would be the first ones. I guess my question is, I know that there's going to be firefighters, right? Sure. But if there was ever a crash to happen, God forbid, anywhere, are there any other government agencies like in the state or federal that have to also be involved in these kind of scenarios in real life, and are they going to be here for this training as well, too? Absolutely. So on the federal side, we have the FBI. We have ATF. We have extended invitations to them. I believe the FBI is attending. I don't believe that ATF is. We also have Customs and Border Protection attending this year because our scenario does involve an international diverted aircraft, so they would be heavily involved. We also are partnering with the Florida Air National Guard because the other aircraft that is crashing is their aircraft, so we're testing that. And then as far as a real incident, but they will not be in attendance, is the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Board. So those are going to be our primary federal agencies that would partner with us if this was a real world event here. Perfect. Well, thank you. Absolutely. Again, thank you for your presentation this morning. My prayers are that we never have to experience it, but it's comforting to know that you guys are diligently working to be ready in the event. So thank you. Thank you all. All right, committee, turning to the agenda, turn to page 8, item 2026-0780. But before we take up the bill, we have a presentation from the Jacksville Transportation Authority. Thank you. Good morning, Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, Mr. Council President, Cleveland Ferguson, JTA. Just the presentation that you all just heard with respect to not having the disaster occur and that being the first time that we're interacting with each other, I'm thankful that we have had a partnership over all of these years in working together to go go from our board approving the language that is the substance of this proposed legislation to the council president agreeing to adding it as an emergency and working with the mayor and administration on drafting the language all shows the partnership that the JTA is in need of in this particular circumstance. We're asking for the ability to utilize funds that we've collected since 2021 from the LOGT 2 funds to help us start FY27 in a much more expedient way in being able to meet our financial obligations. This team has taken, that is this JTA leadership team, has taken extraordinary action to put this organization where we believe it needs to be to be able to focus and function on our core services. And I'm going to bring up our CFO Randall Barnes to take you through that process. Good morning, Randall Barnes, Chief Financial Officer for JTA. I just want to quickly say thank you to the committee and the council for listening to us today about this legislation and considering it and also for working as partners throughout this process. I'm going to go over the fiscal year 26 budget creation process and go over the results throughout the year of fiscal year 26 as well as talk about the fiscal year 27 budget and then provide some context about what happened during that time and then a quick discussion about this particular bill. So the JTA board approved its fiscal year 26 budget in May of 2025. Fiscal year 2025 results show sales tax revenues $8.3 million under budget continuing the trend from the prior year with a total shortfall of $19 million. So even with a smaller budget, fiscal year first quarter of fiscal year 26 showed a continued softening of sales tax revenues and we also had cost pressures that continued. For instance, connection plus costs were not budgeted due to expected service cuts and costs for Navi and Skyway were higher than we expected. So because of that, JTA staff recommended amending the fiscal year 26 budget to address the projected revenue shortfall. This slide shows you an overview of the fiscal year 26 budget amendment that the board approved in February of 2026. The main drivers for lower expectations were due to sales tax receipts, interest earnings and passenger fares totaling about $14.2 million. So in order to balance that, there were operating expense cuts focused on staffing and services in the same amount. And those came in the form of reductions in force, planned employee furloughs and professional service contract reductions. Even though the budget amendment addressed the expected revenue shortfall, the plan to cut expenses was really not sufficient to address the full cost to provide services. And so that resulted in a year full really of deficits. This slide gives an overview of the reporting that took place throughout fiscal year 26. So we make quarterly reports to the, to the, uh, the city council through the council auditor's office. And then we make monthly reports to the JTA board. I've shown the quarterly information here. And as you can see in Q1 and Q2 reports to the city of Jacksonville JTA reported year to date deficits, but staff projected to end the year flat in both of those quarters. Um, it can be challenging to, to do projections at the end of Q1 because there's still so much left in the year, but Q2 projections really should have been more informed. Um, cause we already had a, uh, 15, $16 million deficit at that point. Um, the JTA board reports throughout the year substantially mirrored the reports to the city, but the council auditors did take note and, and inform us of a, of a reporting error. That had been occurring related to the LOGT one revenues. We had actually budgeted a net amount that that was net of debt service, but we're, we're reporting actuals throughout the year without any, uh, taking into account the debt service that needed to be paid. So in essence, the, the issue was worse than, than it actually seemed as we went throughout the year. That was corrected in, in the June report to the council auditors in the Q3 report. Uh, we, we didn't, that, that occurred after the, our June, uh, board report, but we correct, corrected that in July and August, uh, board reports. Currently, we still expect to have about a $39 million deficit as of September 30th. We're still, uh, closing out the books for, for fiscal year 26. Um, but we will need to make an amendment to the 26 budget here for the council. So that should be coming in the, in the coming months. So just to summarize fiscal year 26, um, the budget was flawed. Uh, we had optimistic revenue projections and the, uh, unsupported costs to provide service, the service levels that we were trying to provide. Um, the budget amendment in February of 26, uh, largely fixed the projected revenue shortfall, excuse me. Uh, but the costs were insufficient. Um, the cost reductions were insufficient. Um, staff recommended, uh, and the JTA board approved route changes and fair modifications earlier this year. And those are to be implemented in fiscal year 27. Um, the fair modifications go in place on January 1st. There were various, as you, as you've seen various financial reporting issues. So there were errors and lack of rigor and variance analysis and fiscal year end projections. Uh, that's not helpful at all for, for leadership and the board and reporting and for, for decisions to be made. If you don't really have great reporting, uh, to understand what you need to do. The revenues were insufficient and led to a depletion of our reserve balances and a significant buildup in payables. The line of credit was authorized to provide liquidity support. And that was used to cover past due invoices and give JTA time to make necessary adjustments. And then amidst leadership changes, we took deliberate action in September to ensure costs were supported by available revenues. And start the fiscal new fiscal year, uh, in a manner that was, uh, consistent with the healthy organization. The fiscal year 27 budget was approved earlier this year. Uh, it was approved at 139.2 million and then, and then approved last month by the council. Um, during the budget hearing process, the council auditor's office indicated that the revenue assumptions seemed reasonable. But had a large number of comments about the expense assumptions. And so we, we took that back and performed a comprehensive review of the existing cost commitments. And confirmed that the ability to proceed without implementing significant cost reductions, uh, was, was literally impossible. So the actions that we took over the last few weeks were designed specifically to ensure we were able to stay within the $139.2 million budget. And that includes some additional, uh, flexibility with regard to debt service of one and a half million on the line of credit, as well as a small contingency to allow for unexpected costs or lower than expected revenues. Surplus, any surplus that we might have in fiscal year 27 will be used to reduce the line of credit or to help, uh, rebuild our reserve levels. So what did we do? So we, so we took a really close, uh, review of our professional service contracts and made plan service changes that, that added up to about 25 million. We're a much smaller organization or will be over the next, uh, month. Um, we have reductions in force of approximately 200 employees through November 1st. We've already had seen the departure of 33 administrative colleagues and 26 operators. Skyway passenger service will end on November 1st and Navy will run through the end of December. We are pausing this service, not abandoning and not abandoning the assets and our team will keep maintaining them. Uh, we will be running a modified Saturday schedule beginning November 2nd. And there are no impacts to paratransit service. So what are the risks for fiscal year 27? Uh, as with any budget, uh, we could have lower than expected revenues though. We think that our assumptions on the revenue side are conservative and we believe we're in good shape. Um, there could be a, uh, an impact to passenger fare revenue as a result of the service changes. Uh, we think that that will be somewhat offset by the plan fare increase that, that begins in January. Those weren't factored into the original, the original budget. Uh, there could be higher than expected expenditures. Uh, we, we firmly believe that the actions that we've taken already are, are sufficient to stay under the budget for fiscal year 27. In addition, we have implemented systematic budget controls beginning October 1st. That's to make sure we cannot spend outside of our budget. That wasn't something that we had, uh, in the past. And then I've also implemented a, or I'm in the process of implementing a business services unit. That will report to me and control and coordinate all financial related activities within each division. So that includes contracting payments, budget tracking, variance analysis, and reporting all within the organization and rolling up to the, the management team and the board. So management and JTA board will have accurate and timely financial information, which is necessary to make sure that we can take swift action to mitigate the risk of missing the 27 budget. In addition, this, this bill here, 2026 0780 provides additional headway to help mitigate either of those risks. So just a quick overview of the bill. What it, what it does do is it allows JTA to borrow up to 30 million of the LLGT two funds to pay down the line of credit or for other eligible expenses. The current balance of those funds is $47 million and those are currently restricted to only the LLGT two projects. JTA will pay back the balance of the amount borrowed without interest by September 30th, 2037. This helps us avoid about 3 million of interest expense over the next two years, or it could be even more if JTA needed to renew the line when it expires in two years for a longer period of time. This gives JTA more time to pay back the amount borrowed and provides more flexibility under the line to help manage cash flows should we need it throughout the year. What it doesn't do is it does not change or delay the existing projects and it does not inhibit the ability for us to discuss the LLGT two revenues or project plans in the future. So this concludes my comments, my presentation. I'm happy to take any questions that you might have. Thank you, Mr. Barnes. The queue is lit up, but just stand there for a minute. Before we entertain questions, I'd like to have the bill move as an emergency. Thank you. I'll give the floor to our council president, Mr. Howland since he is the introducer of the bill. Mr. Howland. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that. And Randall, thanks for the great presentation. I've seen it a couple of times now and it's very informative. It says exactly what happened in FY 26 and exactly what's going to happen in FY 27. You're addressing the immediate stabilization needs and I like your get well plan. I like it as much as one can like a get well plan. I mean, there's up to 200 layoffs and my sympathies go to the families involved. But I like how it involves a hard look at all aspects of transit that JTA runs as well as restructuring, as well as financial implications. Cleveland said something at the beginning when he introduced this presentation. He said this was a joint effort between the administration council and JTA and it was. The original proposal for Bill 2026-0780 was an emergency in and out to be done on budget night. And we decided that that would be kind of too dramatic to do on budget night. Plus, we wanted to give every standing committee the opportunity to review what happened before they voted on this very important bill. And that's what we've done. Also, the original bill had just 30 million of LOGT two funds going down to help going to help JTA pay down its line of credit. We instead change that Mr. Weinstein's idea to the loan concept for the purpose of ensuring that this is not a taxpayer bailout. JTA is living within its means. They've got to pay back this amount. So I'm comfortable with the bill where it is. I'm comfortable in the new guidance of Mr. Barnes and Mr. Ferguson looking at how we're getting JTA back on the right track. And I'm most comfortable with the select committee starting to meet Friday to look at both short and long term correction measures. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. President. Mr. Carlucci. Chair. Randall Barnes, I heard you say I think earlier that the sales taxes were less than expected. Do we know what caused that? Through the chair to Councilmember Carlucci, it's a combination of just economic downturn as well as there had been a number of sales tax holidays and things like that that reduced sales taxes. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. All right. I've got some other members in the queue. I also want to acknowledge Vice Chair Pittman is here with us and Councilmember Gaffney. They got a little bit late. Before we continue the conversation, I'd like to take a vote on the emergency. All in favor of the emergency, say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Emergency carries. Can I get a motion on the amendment? Can I get a motion on the amendment to the emergency bill? Okay. All in. Just move the amendment and it's been second. All in favor. Can I get an explanation of the amendment, Mr. Philip? Yes, sir. Through the chair to the committee, the amendment will fill in various blanks in the ordinance and the agreement with the appropriate dates reflecting JTH's board approval, the ordinance number, and various other things. That were not known when the bill was filed. Clarifying that JT operational funds, which is a term used, will be referred to as non-LOGT2 funds within the ordinance and the agreement. And then lastly, striking language regarding the expiration of the first amendment as the first amendment, which is this document, will continue through time, even though there is a sunset date of when JTA can use these funds. That will be reflected in the ordinance and the agreement as well. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Can I get a motion on the bill that's as, I'm sorry, I'm moving quickly. All in favor of the amendment. Any opposition? Amendment carries. Now, can I get a motion on the bill as an emergency as amended? Hello? All right. Now we're back to discussions. Mr. Peluso. Thank you, Chair. Through the chair to JTA. In your projections for ridership, what has been the decrease from last year to your new projection? Because now that we are decreasing the amount of rides and the amount of buses, how much lower has that gone? And has that been taken into account? Let me defer to Mr. Ferguson. I'll brief him on the question. Sure. I'm sorry, Councilmember, through the chair, can you repeat the question? Yeah, no problem. So what, obviously our revenues we assume are going to go down, I imagine that's directly correlated with the lack of ridership. I'm wondering, as we've now changed the ridership, right, or changed the amount of bus rides that are happening right now because of where we are, has the number just plummeted? And do we know where ridership projections are under the new fares and routes that we have? Through the chair to the Councilmember, we are... Analyzing that very question now. Through our pilot that we had from January through the end of August, our ridership actually increased. And so the demographic in Jacksonville, we have about 87% of our ridership that we would call transit reliant on JTA services. So it is a core essential service where effectively many of our customers have no other choice. So we will provide that analysis to you as soon as it's completed. I'd very much like that. One of the questions that was brought up, and this might actually be, well, it might be partially with the, through the chair if you don't mind, my apologies. It might be a part of the audit committee. The 30 million that you guys, or what we're going to provide to you for the bill, it's a loan you said, and you're going to pay us back by a certain time. Is it possible to open up the LOGT so that the dollars, the 30 million dollars, can go straight to you guys for the purposes of these activities so that you don't have to pay us back? Through the chair. Basically, we wipe away a project or two, and that way you're able to use these dollars for the purpose that we're using now. Pardon, I didn't understand that last part. We take away a project or two within the list that we approved through the initial LOGT back in, what was it, 2021. Maybe we get rid of one or two of those and make up the 30 million that way, as opposed to you guys having to pay us back. Is that something that's an option? Through the chair to Councilmember Peluso, I think there are various options that can be discussed later on this year. As we go through the FAO committee and things like that. I think there are plenty of options that we can look at, and that would be one of them. Thank you. Mr. Peterson is on the queue to give you some clarity, Mr. Peluso. I think you kind of went off the range there. Through the chair to Councilmember Peluso. This bill amends the interlocal agreement as it relates to the LOGT. JTA, this 30 million is already in their possession from collection of the past five plus years of LOGT two funds. They're going to use that to address their financial issues. And then as they have surpluses in future years, they will replenish those LOGT two funds to continue that 450 million plus list of projects that were approved as part of that 2021 legislation. Thank you for clarification, Mr. Peterson. Mr. Arias. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. And through the chair. All right. I have a few questions, and I'm not going to go too hard on it because I know you guys are going to have a more in-depth conversation later on this week. But I do have some concerns, obviously, as we're already looking at this. And my biggest concern, as Council President just stated, I don't really care about the money. I don't care about anything else. I only care about the families affected by this, the 200 plus employees that are affected by it. So you mentioned Navi and Skyway are going to be, they're going to seize operations starting November and December for both of those. Out of the 200 employees that you are laying off, furlough, whatever you want to call it, are these operators, are they also shuttle operators and logistical operators? Because if you're talking about somehow generating more income, more revenue, yet we're lowering services, I don't understand how that even equates. Less services mean less revenue. So how can we generate more if we're lowering our services? That's one. But then the second part, like I said, is I want to know, are these operators part of the Navi and Skyway system? Through the chair, Council Member Arias. So I guess one way to answer the question is, fair revenues are a very small percentage of our overall revenues. We're primarily supported by taxes. And so it is true that a number of the folks impacted will be operators and maintenance techs. We are trying our best to minimize the impact to schedules outside of Navi and Skyway. And so we're trying to work that the best that we can. But, you know, changes to ridership is a minimal, really a minimal impact to the revenues that we receive. That's interesting, sir, through the chair. And like I said, I don't want to go too hard on this committee for this. But I want to know, how much are we saving annually off of these 200 employees? If they're primarily operators and maintenance techs, how much are we saving annually? Do you have that number by any chance? Through the chair to Council Member Arias, I don't have the number exactly right now. I can provide it later. It's a significant amount, though. It's 200 employees. And so as we went through the discussion today, we were running significant deficits. We weren't able to, we didn't have enough revenues to cover the services that we were trying to provide. So it's clear that we were providing more services than we were capable of using given our revenue structure. So when we have these in-depth conversation later on, one thing that I would like to see if you guys could prepare ahead of time would be the breakdown of how much are we spending annually for maintenance and operators versus executive level teams. Sure. Because I do know that you said 33 plus admin were also laid off. But I just want to make sure that if you guys are laying off, the majority will come from that higher branch versus the lower branch because the lower branch is really the ones that we need doing the services, putting the work in the community for the people that need these services. So that's one. All right. Second thing that I want to talk about is going to be, you talked about fair modifications, but I didn't see any numbers up here. I want to know, I don't want to know an exact number. I want to know a percentage. How much of an increase percentage wise are you guys going up by? I think the community needs to know this and I haven't heard that yet. I'll let Mr. Ferguson answer that one. Through the chair, the council member Arias, during the eight public meetings, we articulated going from $1.75 to $2 in January. And as it relates to the layoffs, you may recall, we laid off 14 administrative employees in December, about 44 in February and 33 in this go round. So that's close to a hundred administrative employees and all told savings of about $21.9 million that we're expecting to save from the reduction in force. Thank you, sir. So through the chair, here's the thing. I hate that we're saving money at the expense of people. I hate that. When we could have saved money on not investing into other things that we really probably didn't need at the time. That's where we're at right now. So I would like to see scenarios where we could actually bring back these employees in your plan to address the budget deficits that we have. Because I don't think the solution would be moving forward is addressing the budget deficit by still getting rid of employees. On the contrary, we need to bring back those employees and figure out a way to remove things that we really don't need right now at the time. That's my biggest thing. And I think everybody here could agree to that. You know, Navi, how many vehicles of Navis do you guys have right now currently on stock? 14. 14. Okay. The point is that we are in this position because of 14 vehicles and we're losing 200 plus jobs. I can't fathom to even say that this makes sense at all. But I will tell you this, though. I think we need to use these vehicles for a greater use. If we are going to discontinue services for the intended use, we could figure out a way to actually put these buses or these shuttles back in services. One of the things in my community, in my district that I hear a lot of people, especially the seniors, talk about all the time is they need suburban movers to take them to the mall or to, you know, have local things like this. And we've had this conversation in the past with the previous team, executive team. And I said, you know, we need some local shuttles, not just for downtown, but for different districts. So if you have 14 navis, I would recommend giving each district a navi to use as a suburban mover. Let's figure out a way each council member so we could put those in place because we've invested so much money into it. We're not going to get our ROI on it, but at the very least, let's put it back to work in our community. 14 navis, 14 districts. Let's talk about a solution for that for our community because I know I could use it for a lot of neighborhoods in my district. And then I have more questions, but the last question, the most important part is 2037 is where we're going to be able to get the funds repaid back, which I'm glad we have a plan of action. But I think, you know, we're probably we're not going to be here by then. So I would like to number one, see standing annual conversations on this to see where we're at, but also some sort of a commitment from you guys, even if it means paying it back annually or every two years so we could start. I don't want to wait to 2037 to talk about, OK, we're going to make the lump sum payment. Obviously, I think you, Mr. Weinstein, the council president, have already had this conversation, but I'm not in tune with it. But I'm scared that if we have that balloon payment at the end, we may need to also have to have a conversation that say, hey, we may have to extend it. So instead of getting ourselves in that predicament in 10 years from now, let's start making those payments every year, even if it's a small payment. So we can at least say, OK, by 2037, we have a five million dollar deficit of a budget, you know, payment that you guys got to make. And that's it. So that can be part of the ongoing conversations. But I think that we should not have this one time payment at the end of the year, maybe every year moving forward and then have the annual conversations. But my biggest takeaway today is let's see how we can fix this issue by bringing these jobs back. We need to bring these jobs back. That cannot be a long term or permanent solution. All right. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Arias. Before we go to Mr. Carlucci, I'd like Mr. Peterson to address that aspect of the annual reporting or balloon lump payment. But what's stipulated here? Sure. Through the chair of the committee. The amendment to the interlocal agreement requires JTA to report on a quarterly basis in fiscal year 2627 on the amount that they draw down from that allowed 30 million. So that's on a quarterly basis. Our office will receive a report. We'll report it back to city council what they've done. Prior to actually drawing down any dollars, they have to send communications over to our office, the council president and the CFO and the administration on their plan for drawing down so that there's a timeline for discussion if it needs to occur. And then after September 30th of 27, every March thereafter, they have to report to our office and we will report back to city council where they are in the status of replenishing the amount that they have drawn down. And as council member Arias stated, they have until September 30 of 2037 to repay that full amount. There's nothing that requires them to make an annual contribution to, you know, to try to draw that amount down. But having discussions with Mr. Barnes, they are going to try to attack it aggressively because they know that the city wants the projects that the dollars are supposed to go toward to begin moving forward. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Thank you, Mr. Peterson. Mr. Carlucci. Thank you, Mr. Chair. That goes right to the heart of what I was going to mention. So they're required to do that. Is that by, has that been codified? They're required to do that or is that an interlocal, just an agreement? Is that something that we might want to codify that timeframe in this bill? I just want to make sure it happens. Through the Chair to Council Member Carlucci. So the, what is codified is that they have to report annually where they are in paying the dollars back. And that they have to pay it back by September 30, 2037. That's the only thing that is set in stone in this interlocal agreement amendment. Okay. So if... Mr. Chair, I'd like, I think it's important because as years go by, these things tend to kind of be forgotten, out of sight, out of mind. Yes, sir. And I'd like to entertain a motion or make a motion, be entertained, that there be a report, at least twice a year between now and 2037, that there be a report by the auditors. I see Mr. Weinstein. I'll finish and I'll just turn it over to Mr. Weinstein. Maybe he's already got the juice. But we should be reported to twice a year. I'd like to make an amendment to that report unless Mr. Weinstein's got a better idea. Thank you, Mr. Carlucci. Before we entertain the amendment, I'd like to hear what Mr. Weinstein has to say. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mike Weinstein, CAO. This amendment lives until the next amendment is done. Basically, when you finish with this amendment, the council committee, the administration and JTA will be working on the second amendment, which will potentially change the distribution of the local option gas tax funds. And that second amendment, this one will go away. The second amendment will have all the details of the payback and the projects and all the things that we're beginning to talk about. So my suggestion would be we get this one done. We sit down. The council committee that the president created, administration, JTA, will come back in a number of months. New amendment. This amendment will dissolve, basically. And then you can discuss the real specifics that already will be in the next, excuse me, amendment coming to you. Thank you. Mr. Carlucci's amendment is for a more aggressive reporting timeline. It sounds proper to me. Correct me, if you will. To the chair, I heard Councilmember Carlucci discuss a potential amendment. It did not get a second, so it's not properly before you. If he wants to make that amendment again and allow someone the opportunity to second, then it would be before you. Mr. Carlucci, can you make the amendment with clarity and see if we get a second? Well, why don't we wait? I'll withdraw the amendment. But I think that when they come back with another amendment, we need to remember, and this is why I made the amendment to begin with. We need to remember to have some type of reporting on the status of this, what is kind of a bigger-than-life issue at least once or twice a year to all of our committees, or at least to the applicable committees. This has been done before when situations like this come before our city and the Council to maintain a consciousness of it and to stay on top of issues that there be some type of mandatory review. We did it with Better Jacks years ago, and it's been done with other things as well. I'll stand back on my amendment for right now and wait until the other committees. I see Mr. Weinstein shaking his head. I trust his capable judgment. And, Mike, if you'll just make sure that we remember to do that. And so that's where I'll stand on it right now, Mr. Chairman, if you're okay with that. Thank you, Mr. Carlucci. One quick question for Mr. Barnes before we vote. Modified services on Saturday, I believe that translates into reduced bus services, and my question is that's system-wide. To the chair, the most heavily ridden routes will go from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. Our bus rapid transit network, which are our red, green, orange, and blue lines, would remain at 20 minutes. And then the non-heavily ridden routes will go from 30 minutes to 60 minutes to accommodate the additional frequency for the other routes. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson, for clarification. So we're talking about an extension of time between buses. Alrighty. Alright, the bill is back in committee. I'm sorry. Mr. Arias, I see you in the queue. Thank you, Chair. That was also an eye-awakening for me. I have several employees. I have two employees. It takes them almost three hours to get to work. Three hours of their day to leave their house to go to Beech and Hodges, and then maybe two and a half hours on the way back. We're gonna have four to five hours out of the day. Like this is real stuff we're dealing with here. Alright? Like my eyes are like tearing up right now for these people because I know what they go through every single day. And it sucks. Alright? You guys have to really buckle up and figure this out because it's not fair for them. Alright? So next time we have this conversation, let's figure out a solution for this. Because losing employees, that's $21 million of annual revenue in our city, but for people, for their lives. Alright? That's a big deal. And now we're talking about extending their time from 30 minutes to 60 minutes, from 20 minutes to 30 minutes. All that adds up. These are lives we're dealing with here. So you guys, everybody here has to really make a conscious effort to make this better because this is not good at all for our city. Alright? Thank you. Mr. Arias, thank you Mr. Barnes for your presentation this morning. As I said yesterday, and I may not have used these words, but I'm disappointed by how we got here. And apparently the lack of transparency through the process to why we are here. And as a result, as Mr. Arias has punctuated this morning, 200 folks are out of the jobs. When we're in a community in a cycle where the affordability has become a major concern for every household. But I do believe that, and I used the analogy yesterday, when you see a house on fire, you pour water on it. You don't let it burn. So I do believe that this is a smart approach to try and stop the hemorrhaging, if you will, and get you guys stabilized and get back to where you need to be. Mr. Cook. Thank you, Mr. Barnes. Mr. Carlucci. I apologize, but I have one more question. And a lingering kind of question is, the Autonomous Innovation Center, is that still going to be moving forward? And if so, if they're going to be hiring people, would there be hiring opportunities for any of the employees who have been let go? Through the Chair, to Councilmember Carlucci, the Autonomous Innovation Center is broken into two pieces. One, it runs the Bay Street Innovation Corridor. And it also provides teleoperations for any autonomous use in the United States. And so we're hoping that the Autonomous Innovation Center will be looked at and utilized potentially by the state and maybe some private actors to do everything from teleoperations on autonomous trucking, which would bring revenue to the JTA. So all of those items are being looked at for an opportunity to offset all of these with non-fair box revenue. Okay. Well, I would hope that, and this is something that I think would make sense, is any opportunities come up for jobs in that center or any centers connected with that around the southeast or wherever for those employees who just would move in order to get employment. That they would have first dibs if they're eligible and if they can qualify. But, you know, I hope that the city of Jacksonville, as they have opportunities to come up, that these folks will have an opportunity to have a shot, maybe a first shot at those jobs. This is a bad time of year to lose your work, to lose your job. And I got to tell you, I will never forget in my life when my company filed to lead the state of Florida. They filed. They didn't just talk about it. They filed. And our family was in a free-for-all. And we had to start another business from scratch. It was tough. First time I felt like I was falling off a cliff and didn't know where I was going to land. And I was, like, in my 50s, had kids that were just, one was still in college, one had just graduated. And that's the same thing these other folks are facing. And you've got the holidays coming up, and you're in sheer panic, and you need to know what your future faces. What's facing you in your future? They need a rope to grab a hold of, a limb. And so, Mr. Ferguson, I have great faith in you, sir, and I hope that perhaps you can meet with different authorities, this autonomous organization and business that's here, and with the city, and try to find where there might be some employment opportunities that these folks might have. Even if it's only 50, that's 50 people that will be given a life, a life rope, you know? And through the chair and council member Carlucci, I do want to say that the city of Jacksonville administration has been very helpful in coordinating with us to try to assist those who are no longer with us at JTA. Super. And then I explained in another setting that our collective bargaining agreements do allow for us to look back two years and bring back employees of those who are represented. Super. And knowing this administration for who they are and the heart that they have, that doesn't surprise me a bit, and I'm really, really happy to hear that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, committee. Thank you, Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Barnes for your presentation this morning and answering the questions. The bill is back in committee. It's been moved as an emergency amended. If there's no further discussion, please open your ballot and vote. Eight yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0780. Thank you. Mr. Chair. Turn to page five where, I'm sorry, Mr. Howland, I didn't see you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just one quick comment. Mr. Barnes mentioned at one point that the council auditors, and Philip, I got a question for you, had raised the issue about JTA's reporting of LOGT1 revenues. That's someone in council auditor's office. I just want to know who was the perceptive individual in council auditor's office who noted that, brought it to everyone's attention, and basically started the process of reevaluating the forecast for 26. Brian Parks? Well, Brian's not here, but Brian, if you're listening, thank you so much for your service to the city. You did us a great service for catching that. Thank you. Mr. Pelosi, Mr. Pelosi, you're out of order, you're out of order. Turning in your agenda to page five, we're taking up item five. Item five on page five, 2026-0709. Can I get a motion? Any discussion? Open your ballot. Let's vote. Six yays, one nay. By your action, you've approved 2026-0709. And let's go back to the front of our agenda. Item number one, 2026-0644. Can I get a motion on the amendment? In the amendment. Can you explain the amendment? Through the chair of the committee, the amendment attaches to the planning and development historic preservation report, which is required by code. That report reflects unanimous approval by the commission. Thank you. Can I, all in favor of the amendment? Any opposed? Amendment carries. Mr. Carlucci, you're in the queue. Okay. The bill has been amended. It's been moved. It's been seconded. Mr. Carlucci, you're in the queue. Okay. Thank you. I just want to speak to this bill. This is naming one of the preserves of our Timbukwam Preserve that the city owns thousands and thousands of acres that were coordinated, recommended for purchase by Mark Middlebrook, one of the great friends and people that I have had the opportunity to know in life. I'm sure that, Mr. Chair, you knew him quite well as well. I don't know if I can get through it, but I'm going to try. Mark Middlebrook was just the salt of the earth, but he was brilliant. And I think a lot of people don't know these properties like past councils have. And I think we need to, hopefully with the next council, perhaps there can be some tours of these parks. And they're responsible for a reason. We have the largest park system in America. And they're not just sitting out there as vacant land. And the point I want to make here is that one of the last times I was with Mark, we were driving through many of the acres. And they're building out with a real dedicated effort by our Parks and Recreation Department for exploring, hiking, kayaking, fishing. There's some fishing piers out there. People can picnic. There's picnic tables. And people love to go out there and watch and identify the birds, the wildlife. People can go horse riding out there. I'm hoping at some point they'll be camping. You can go out there and see the Kingsley Plantation. But it's home to some of the most beautiful vistas in Jacksonville, Florida. It began under the, actually began with Charlie Bennett, Congressman Charlie Bennett. He actually outlined and identified the Timmaquan Preserve. And then under the John Delaney administration when he was mayor, Rick Mullaney and he and some others decided, and I think John gives credit to everybody else but himself. And he gives a lot of the credit to Rick Mullaney for coming up with the idea of buying these pieces of property in order to preserve them for posterity for our children and our children's children's children. But he gives all of the credit for putting these together in such a systemic way to Mark Middlebrook. And Mark Middlebrook passed away and it became obvious that part of this preserve should be named after him. I want to credit Mike Gay, Councilman Gay. I went out to his district and spoke to the organization, that neighborhood organization so closest to the Middlebrook Preserve. And his son, Middlebrook, I don't think he's a junior, but his name is Mark Middlebrook, spoke to the organization and he had a son there. It was a generational thing and it was beautiful. And the organization came back at their next meeting and voted unanimously. And I really credit Mike Gay for giving me and Mark Middlebrook's son that opportunity because I don't think Mike Gay really knew that much. But I do know this, Mike Gay fights for that area intensely on zonings. And I have often joined him in fighting for those areas. And so I especially want to thank Mark. I won't have a chance to speak to this because I'll be out of town next week. But Mark was a friend of mine. He was a friend of hundreds, thousands of people. And I appreciate the fact that hopefully this will pass. I think if you add your name to this bill, it's something you'll look back on and be proud of. And I know that his family would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Carlucci. And thank you for introducing the bill. I did know Mark, and in your words, he was indeed the salt of the earth. And this is a very humbling tribute to his life and the work he did in this community. And legislative services, if you would add me to it, I'd appreciate it. The bill has been amended and it's been moved as amended. Open your ballots. Let's vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your actions, you've approved 2026-0644. Item number two, 2026-0662. Can I get a motion? Any discussion? Open your ballot. Let's vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your actions, you've approved 2026-0662. Item number three, 2026-07-02. I need to open the public hearing. Do we have any? Okay. Public hearing is closed. Move the amendment. All in favor of the amendment. Ed? Through the chair of the committee, the amendment includes a reference in the legislation for the application, which is currently on file. That application was completed by Council Member Johnson. Also clarifies that the waiver is needed because the honoree, the Sisters of St. Joseph of St. Augustine is a group of individuals and not a single individual. And that's why the waiver is required. And then also corrects Scriveners within the legislation. Thank you, sir. Move the bill as amended. I thought we voted. We didn't? Okay. All in favor of the amendment. Any opposition? Amendment carries. Move the bill as amended. Any discussion? Let's open the ballot. Vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0702. Item number four, 2026-0704. Can I get a motion? Any discussion? All right. Open the ballot. Let's vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0704. We've already taken up item number five. Item number six, 2026-0720. Can I get a motion? Move the bill. Any discussion on the bill? All right. Open up your ballots. Please vote. Seven yays, zero nays. By your action, you've approved 2026-0720. Item on second reading, 2026-0748, 2026-0755. Item 2026-0777, 2026-0779. And we've already taken action on item 11. Are there any public comment cards? Mr. Cardinal Oliver, you have two minutes, 30 seconds. Yes. My name is Cardinal Oliver. Address is on file. 780. I'm speaking to the lack of knowledge a nation will perish. The conversation of response stabilization is very essential because it coordinates with the Constitution. And the one thing that I'm going to be honestly speaking from is that I'm learning. And if I'm learning and I show you the right path you should be going down and you're not intentional about grasping the knowledge that I'm sharing, what I end up doing is I end up bashing you. Because you're supposed to enforce the Constitution and the rights of the people, especially my civil rights. And the thing about it is that there's been a lot of mistakes that have happened in this city. And it's JHA, it's Jacksonville Transportation Authority, it's JEA. The very structure, a consolidated government, and a large number of the problems happened in the 60s. Things have gotten out of hand. And one particular person is watching the glory days go up in flames. But things happen. We're in the phase of reconstruction. And by you understanding that and understanding the parable, it's common sense what the Bible says. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. It is time, and it's been time for a very long time. We're going to have to rebuild this thing from the ground up. Everybody broke too much furniture. Their level of accountability is increasing. Because I'm showing people the failures. So you have no other choice. You took an oath of office to enforce the laws on the books. You're going against everybody's right. And you're catering to people who should not have any power whatsoever. And when I say that, that's the 1866 Civil Rights Act. You have to honor the laws that are on the books. That is the oath of office that each structure of government has a responsibility to do. Thank you, Mr. Oliver, for your comments. Our next regular meeting will be Tuesday, October 20th at 9 a.m. If there's no other business to come before the committee today, we stand adjourned. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. Let's begin. In our approximations, people start to join and adjourn. Let's begin! Let's begin!