Well we do have potential.

No, you got work to do.

Don't mind all these people over here.

They're just they're working remote.

I'm gonna post this on Twitter.

Notice the meeting and see what people say.

No, everyone's gonna steal my idea now.

All right.

Yeah, yeah.

All right.

No, I just wanted to call the meeting to order.

Just wanna have a meeting, right?

And just and just um in casual sense and say um I'm obviously on a a path of leadership.

I wanna hopefully get there, but not only that, I just want to know what everyone's priorities are.

Sure.

And um as I think everyone's got a lot of good ideas, good priorities, and uh my view is council leadership should be helping everyone accomplish their priorities.

And I know I said that in my letter, but it's it's different to say it in a letter than actually sit down with someone you serve with and say what what are your short term and long term things.

Well, uh the focus for me right now and and the last year of my council, uh I I don't know what you know, whatever council president unlikes to do well how and asks for me, certainly I'll do.

Uh and I uh I but I I've got a my big focus right now going for this year is the development of our my version of uh SPAR same preservation system.

Mandarins?

Yeah.

Okay.

I've got uh half associates we've been retained and we're working putting together very comprehensive, it's called MAP Mandarin Area Pri uh preservation project.

Are you all doing a neighborhood action plan?

Uh we're gonna be working on creating to see if we go on if we have the capacity and interest on the part of the community as a whole to stand up an organization like St.

Marco.

Right.

To say uh for like everything else, preservation, restoration, and beautification.

Uh the challenge is it's a big district like yours and diverse district like yours.

San Marco is focused on a particular area.

Yeah, well, I'm looking at the areas larger.

I'm looking big, I'm looking bigger.

I want to there be an overlay type of version.

There isn't there are certain a couple of overlays already in there.

It really is to see how can we get the community to come together and speak as one voice.

Yeah.

It's so when we have zoning issues.

That's really critical.

Yeah, we don't have we're gonna see some in fill.

I mean the town home development is a happy population thing that it was is a sore thumb, but the uh I don't think we're gonna see a lot of that kind of development in Mandarin going forward.

But at the same time, I don't want to sort of d see it devolve into a an only take aspersions at Arlington or others to say I want to make sure it it maintains its quality and character.

And when we say preservation, it's really about preserving the character and the quality of the neighborhoods and the thoroughfares in that area.

That's what we're focusing on.

So that's gonna be a lot of my uh uh focus.

You're on are you're not the are you on the doge committee?

No.

Okay.

Oh, right, right, right, right.

Yeah, I guess I've avoided those.

Yeah, I'd be glad.

But I don't know, essentially that I I do appreciate, although I think it was a little skewed this year, uh, in terms of the uh Kevin's uh council carico decision kind of people that's fine.

Uh I have to say I was a little maybe I don't know, we could speak to this if you want.

His decision to put you uh as a finance is there a rush to judgment here in terms of getting you into a leadership position and and who's who's making that decision.

Is that just you or others?

I don't know what else all I'll say to that is um I had absolutely zero interest in doing that.

Um I didn't angle for that at all.

I got a phone call out of the blue from Kevin and he said, Hey rolls stepping down, and I said, what?

Well it would stand a reason why he wouldn't just turn to the vice chair and say, Hey, why don't you do this?

I told that was my recommendation.

Okay.

I said I don't I'll do whatever you ask, but I'm uh why just call Nick.

Yeah.

So just call Nick and ask him.

Um and ultimately I guess he called Nick and that was their um that was their conversation, but um Well the optics of the whole thing, you know, rushing over to Dallahassee, getting you into two chairmanships, trying to clearly there's an uh initiative on the part of somebody to push you forward, and I'm just uh I don't know that you've been party to that.

No, I I think I know what you're saying, yeah, and um I can speak to that's not the case.

Uh the case is I believe in myself a lot, and I believe that despite whether being uh L E Z chair and a finance chair, I just felt like I was ready to came in office I was originally told, um you can't do that.

And I didn't really question it at the time.

I just took it at face value and said, Okay, whatever.

I'm not interested in either way.

I mean, I was two months in, I didn't have any thought processing that.

So then, you know, I think the role was running and angling for that and it was um I don't want to say short lived, but that that fizzled out due to some events uh that we all saw in the news.

And then I didn't really think anything of it as far as like, oh, he's out now, I'm in.

And it was more of a people approached me and said, Oh, and not the people you think, um and said, Well, why don't you just do it?

And I said, Well I can't, because he did this, that and the other, and they we started peeling back the onion, and it was this doesn't make any sense.

So was that there's nothing black and white about it in terms of it's not in concrete, there's no rule that says you can't do this, or it was more of like it had already been done and I feel like why all of a sudden did they say I can't do it when it's already been done with family members in the state legislature and city council and shame on me for just like never questioning it and really digging in and asking for the a legitimate opinion.

It was just it it was more of a cautionary, like, hey, you you I don't know if they said you can't do this or you shouldn't do this, I don't remember, but it was kind of ingrained in my head like no, it's not a thing, not an option.

But then as it sort of unfolded and I actually looked at the statute and it was related to employment of a relative, I just said I I don't I don't agree with that.

Yeah.

I don't agree that this is a fair restriction on me.

And not only me, but this is a restriction statewide, and I just I'm willing to go and and see what they say.

And it was argued and it was kind of the course that got started.

That's fair enough, that's fair enough.

I do appreciate your recognizing where I'm coming from on that.

No, I've uh I appreciate that.

That's yeah, it's it doesn't uh in the scheme of things right now, the way the world's playing.

I optics is everything.

I I understand it actually works against you, not for you in some respects in terms of uh how it's being perceived or can be perceived.

Yeah.

In that regard.

So but let's get away from that.

That that's a challenge that you have to go overcome in in terms of this process.

So obviously, uh with the tradition of the vice president becoming president, and I'm not gonna be around for that year.

Sure.

But uh in the context of where Nick likely would be taking is I think he I uh I'm not judging Kevin at all through this process, but I think I I'm hopeful that Nick takes us in a different direction in terms of more diverse.

I think we're seeing that, and I think that's the writing on the wall, and that's the sentiment amongst a lot of our colleagues.

It's a little frustrating when you see uh when you have five special committees j created during the course of the year, and with all due respect, Councilman Salem is chair of two and vice chair two.

And there are some of us who are not on are on none of those committees.

Right.

Uh it's clear that there is and that's part and parcel to the conversation, you know, what are we doing here?

And is this about moving the city forward or moving people's agendas forward?

Right.

Uh so I'll leave that there.

But with respect to uh how do you see this year as vice president uh and helping him transition to that and then maybe completing the work that he starts the year after.

Obviously, you're gonna have a whole new set of colleagues to educate.

Yeah, and maybe it just me being kind of old school, but uh and part parcel to my attendance bill that had so much attention.

I you know, when you're here long enough, and your dad can do this a whole lot better than I can, you you see uh a change in the culture of the and I and I think my that was just a vain attempt at trying to say, hey, look, you know, we've got responsibility to work and and serve our constituents first in this process.

So help me understand how you uh see your role as vice president and how you can take what hopefully what he's doing and and move it to the next level with a whole new set of colleagues doing assuming Nick finds way at my conversations, or we've heard from him saying in our meetings that you know he understands that we've got to become more collegial in the work that we do together and involve everybody in the conversation process.

Right.

Uh and that uh I think frankly more balanced in the committee.

I yeah, I think it's a couple of easy things.

Um it's like you just said, I have no having balanced committees doesn't scare me at all.

Yeah.

Um that doesn't bother me at all.

Um in fact, if you look at the downtown special committee that I chair, it is balanced, and it was that was my push to Kevin.

I was at I want Councilmember Peluso, I want Councilmember McCarlucci and Ron and uh Raoul, whoever because that's those are opposites, and I can sit in the middle and get everyone on the same page here, but I enjoy that.

I like that, it doesn't bother me.

Um so that's just first and foremost, number one kind of an easy thing.

I think it's an easy thing to do.

Um not succumbing to political pressure, full awareness of we're in that right now.

Yes, and I think I'm I'm tired of getting texts about it.

I'm tired of seeing our it's it it just seems unnecessary.

It seems like a lot of it is just um back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, cloudy that we don't know who's doing this, we don't know who's saying it's just I'm I'm tired of it, and um I don't know that I would have put together uh a special investigative committee.

I think that was a little bit of a jumping the gun.

Sometimes you have to do some a lot more homework up front to say is is it warranted.

Uh and I I think that you're right.

I think you did jump the gun on that one.

That's that that was a very quick trigger pull.

And um, are we getting good information?

I think we're getting some good information, but like I don't know that that information wouldn't have otherwise serviced.

Um but it's those types of things, and I have a pretty good read on just colleagues and our sentiment around here, and I want it to kind of be like our first year and our second year, and that was maybe the honeymoon years, and you've probably seen it happen twice now, but those were really fun years for me, and we've kind of gotten away from that, and and I I missed that, and I want that back.

Um interestingly you say that because I think when I came in my first year, you know, the mayor got re-elected, there was a strong council, you know, you just fitted the machine.

When we started all over, you got a brand new mayor, and you got to be able to do that.

I had it, yeah.

I had like a brand new everything, I guess.

It took us a long time to get out of key any kind of decent stride.

I think we got there uh to some extent, but uh I think we've impacted that a lot since by the way, uh I thank you for putting yourself forward.

You know, one of my greatest frustrations over the last five years is it was a done deal, even before the first notice meeting was happening.

Right.

And that that's not how it's supposed to work.

And and uh win or lose, and I think I mentioned to Kevin yesterday, you know what, Kevin, I don't feel so bad about the fact that you beat me for vice president.

Because uh it is uh it's it's a demanding job, and and and you you've got to get a lot of time attention to it too.

But putting yourself forward in a year where there's a lot of interest in serving that capacity, you could you could just easily duck it.

Your your time will come if it doesn't come this time.

Sure.

It's inevitable.

I find the leadership you've already shown.

Thank you.

Uh uh, so we'll see how that plays, but uh anyway.

No, well, I appreciate that.

Um and so really I just uh I really just wanted to hear so what um like if there's one thing when you're when you're off council in two years or whatever, what's like the one priority or one thing that you're gonna if you don't get it done when you're here, you just want to make sure like that gets across the finish line.

Well, you know, obviously I was really proud of the work we did in the CQLI.

And you picked up the goblin and some of that on the homelessness issue, affordable housing, access to health care administration did as well, picked up on all that work.

I hope that continues.

It's gonna be difficult, obviously, with budget being what they are in the future years.

I think that's gonna be a problem.

You know, I look at that, I look at the JSON primary facilities thing I led, even Article 21 and JEA, those are the legacy pieces.

I'd like to see them uh you know stay intact if possible.

I I have a hard time thinking an elected JEA board is a good idea.

I really don't know where that's coming from.

When does that what is the did that get pitched recently?

AG well apparently Rory popped something on somewhere about it, and then AG picked up on it, he did an article on it.

A G and Carson, yeah, saying it's that new or something.

Apparently, yeah, it came out just yesterday or so anyway.

I just I don't know if that's a good idea.

I'm like I'm just not hearing this.

I'm like we we rewrote Article 21 and we did the best that we could to raise the bar in terms of board because you know you've got to have people on there who are smart enough to be able to read between the lines.

And not not only budget sheet.

Yeah, it's a very strong board.

It's Lia's on for four years, I think.

Those guys that are on the board now, like they're not gonna run for office, you know what I mean.

You're not gonna get the same calligraphy cowdar people uh on there that you have right now or in the future.

But difficult one, but I'm sure we'll see a resolution to put it on the ballot.

It's it it require a charter change, so we're not gonna do that as a council at the council level.

That's a that's a you'll you might you'll it might see a reserve resolution.

But anyway, to answer your question, to see those what I would characterize as those three le legacy things are to say they're still a place after uh my time on council.

Sure, the focus is gonna be on the district and supporting whatever role I can play.

I've demonstrated, as you know, uh a pretty good uh model of how to put together special committees, how to operate them, how to get results.

Yes.

Uh uh if that's a tool I can and Ron was kind enough to give me I didn't want why I get the JSO one with a hot potato for sure.

Yeah, but anyway, we'll see what's your masterful of them.

Um so well that was all.