The committee met on Monday, April 6, 2026, at 9:30 AM in Council Chamber, City Hall, Jacksonville. The meeting was chaired by Mike Gay, with Vice Chair Randy White, and members Ken Amaro (late arrival 9:43 AM), Chris Miller, Ron Salem (early departure 10:00 AM), Michael Boylan, and Tyrona Clark-Murray present. Councilmember J. Carlucci visited. The meeting adjourned at 10:48 AM. The committee took action on 17 agenda items, including approvals, amendments, deferrals, and one withdrawal, and heard public comments on several topics.
Tyler Nolen, Special Projects Coordinator for the Northeast Florida Regional Council (NEFRC), presented on the council’s support for Jacksonville public safety. He highlighted NEFRC’s role in administering the Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC) for hazardous materials, funded by state and federal mandates, and the Region 3 Healthcare Coalition, which serves 18 counties and has over 980 members across 550+ organizations. He detailed training initiatives for JFRD, including sending 15 personnel to the Florida Hazardous Materials Symposium, 2 to Advanced Hazmat Life Support, and 3 to a maritime hazmat course. NEFRC also funded $61,000 in equipment for Jacksonville-area facilities, including mass casualty stretchers, evacuation sleds, and 70 pediatric restraints for JFRD rescue units. Other initiatives include a Northeast Florida Military Installation Readiness Review, a JEA Hurricane Exercise, and a Regional Resilience Action Plan. Councilmember Boylan asked about traffic flow studies; Mr. Nolen noted a past hazardous materials commodity flow study and efforts to use AI and traffic cameras for future studies. Councilmember Amaro thanked NEFRC for its work.
Well, good morning. We'll go ahead and get started with our Monday, April 6th, 2026 neighborhoods meeting. And I call the meeting to order, and we'll start with introductions to my left. Brandon Russell, Council Research. Mary Stefopoulis, Office of General Counsel. Philip Peterson, Council Leaders Office. Good morning, Michael Boylan, District Six. Mike Gay, District Two. Good morning, Chris Miller at large group five. Ron Salem, group two at large. Good morning, Tyrona Clark Murray, District 9. Randy White, District 12. Thank you. All right, welcome everyone. So we'll go ahead and uh open up for public comment. Our first speaker will be Mr. Carnell Oliver. And you'll be given three minutes if you state your name and address or say it's on file for the record. And please, please be specific and stay on discussion for any item that's on the agenda. Mr. Oliver. Yes, my name is Carnegie Oliver. Address is on file. I'm I have to be broad and I'm gonna be specific. 2018, 2019, and 207. You know, when I take a good look and I look at available land in this city or any kind of focus of economic development, there are a couple of things that come to my mind, and then there's some questions I wanna ask. Number one, if the conversation of a new neighborhood bill of rights come up, will that be a conversation about the 1866 Civil Rights Act? Or will we actually have a conversation in this community about field order 15 from General Sherman? Will this with this mayor administration, or will the council put forward some kind of legislative approach with creating a freeman affairs division under community development? I think there needs to be a lot of pause on a lot of issues moving forward because when the birthright citizenship happens, this it has moving progressively strong, but there's a need to fulfill a redress that addresses a lot of key economic needs of people that have always been here. I filed a class act, I filed a complaint with the federal courts. I'm not getting much help on it. But I'm using the things that make me who I am in this country and what makes me pursue the things in this country. My self-determination is not that is not reflective of me running my mouth. It's about me meaning what I say and saying what I say doing it. The issues are very clear. The ones that establish this country have been overlooked, they have been oppressed because of bad policies of the past. And it goes from the east side to old La Villa, Riverside, because those old freedmen settlements. We got ran off because of consolidation. There are a lot of issues that must be addressed. Or we're gonna keep going through the same issue. If it means we gotta break this city up, let's go back to the basics of having small towns. But the thing about it is we gotta bring the power back to the people. And my people need the power. If we can get allocated resources from a division, if the mayor can do it, put in in the budget for the 2027. But if you have to reallocate that money, I'm looking for the council to do it because you can always find you can always find wasteful spending. Because when that 14th amendment case is settled, there's an obligation. And I yield my time. All right, thank you. Our next speaker will be uh Blake Harper, and then followed by Sally Barnes and Latera Harris.