Good morning, everyone.

Welcome to the Tuesday, April 21st meeting of the Transportation Energy and Utilities Committee.

We'll kick it off with introductions starting to my left with Mr.

Libby.

Stephen Libby, Council Research.

Carla Shell, Office of General Counsel.

Edward Linsky, Council Auditor's Office.

Canamar, City Council, District One.

Reggie Gaffney, Junior, District 8.

Will Annan District 3.

Carluccia at large group four?

Good morning.

Rockman Johnson, District 14.

And Mr.

Bill Delaney from the administration has arrived.

Welcome.

All right.

So uh what we're gonna do first, I'll go through the agenda and then we're gonna let our presenters we got two presentations.

Uh one's fairly quick and then 15 minutes from our resiliency department, and then we'll do public comment and then we'll take up the action items on the agenda.

So going over the agenda, it's a total of nine items.

Item one, we'll take action on 2026 215.

Item two, we'll have a public hearing and then take action on as well, 2026-216.

Item 3, 2026, 222, we'll take action on.

Item 4, 2026, 22.

I'm sorry, 222 and then 226.

We'll take action on both of those.

Item 5, 2026, 230.

There is a rules amendment, and then we'll take final action on that.

And item six, we have a resolution from Mr.

Peluso 231 that we'll take action on.

Item 7, 8, and 9 are on second.

That's 2026 267, 286, and 287.

So with that, I'm gonna ask Ms.

Teresa Eichner to do our first presentation.

Good morning, Teresa Eichner, City Council.

You're the chair to the committee.

Um, wanted to give everybody a quick update.

Um back in February, we were notified by the administration that the um city of Jacksonville website needed to be ADA required, um, had an ADA requirement for the documents that are retained on our website.

And so um since February, we've gone through there's um a number of documents that have um uh are located on our website that were not compliant.

Um and um we've been moving them, removing them, making them ADA required um accessible.

And um part of my uh presentation today is to talk about the legislative gateway portion of our website, which is managed by um Jessica and her team, Bernadette and her team.

And um, that is coming down from our website um tomorrow.

Um it will be available to staff internally via a username and password that I will circulate tomorrow with an SOP on how to get access to that, but for the general public, it will not be available while we get those documents or a way for those documents to be accessible to um those with a disability.

And so um it will be down for about four to six weeks.

The agendas and minutes for meetings will be posted to our website in a location that is um easily accessible to those and easy to be found.

But I just wanted to let everybody know that that's portion of our website will be down for a couple of weeks.

Councilman, uh thank you, uh Miss Eichner, uh Councilman Johnson.

And then I have a question as well.

Good morning.

Thank you, uh Mr.

Chair, uh Ms.

Eigner, thank you.

And public information does such a great job in helping us to ensure that the public is informed as well as us.

Uh let me ask you during our through the chair, during this time of downtime, will there be some kind of way for us to access the data that's there so that we can we meaning the public, period, uh, to get to bills or whatever since the business of the council will continue.

So internally for staff, we'll we have a um we're creating usernames and password that everybody will be able to access that information.

But for the public, um they there will be a mechanism for them to request that information.

So my team, either myself or Rhonda Hall Patrick, um, we'll be able to pull that information and send it.

Um they can also go to legislative services division um and be able to get that information as well.

So legislatar goes down, but we just would request hey, if we need a bill from and will it also, and start to continue this, but will the you know how right now when you go to legislatar prior to 2019, any legislation you have to go to a separate kind of portal to get to it.

Will it all be consolidated or will we kind of still have that separation?

We'll still have that separation.

Okay, gotcha.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

With no one else in the queue.

Uh Ms.

Eichner, so I think uh in a nutshell, what I heard is starting tomorrow, for uh four to six weeks as a council member.

Eichner, so I think in a nutshell, what I heard is starting tomorrow, for uh four to six weeks as a council member, we will have login to if we want to go research a specific bill, uh, general public would essentially have to do a public records request though during this time.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay, thank you.

Uh I see no other questions.

Uh thank you, Ms.

Heichner.

Thank you.

All right, our next presentation is on resiliency and compound flood model presentation by Ann Kolnisi.

And we'll start the timer for uh I think I I think I nailed that last name, correct?

Colinisi, you nailed it.

All right.

Thank you for telling me.

Uh so we're gonna put 15 minutes on the timer and then a couple minutes for a QA after that, and let's see if your presentation is up on our screens.

It is, so whenever you're ready.

All right, through the chair.

Thank you all for for having me here today.

It's been a while since um I've presented uh to council.

So I aired on the side of um putting uh a lot of content together, so I'll try to move through it really quickly, and I'm happy to circle back to anything if you have questions at the end.

Um anytime I get up and speak, I like to make a point of uh defining what we're talking about when we when we use the word resilience in this context.

Resilience is a bit of a buzzword, and it means different things depending on on what you're doing.

But for my work and the work of our office, we're really focused on city resilience, and we define that as the ability of city systems to adapt and thrive in the face of acute shocks and chronic stressors.

And for Jacksonville's resilience work, we did a multi-hazard resilient strategy looking at shocks and stressors, many of which are environmental, but not entirely.

Uh a shock is any event that could impact a community in a moment.

So think a hurricane, a wildfire, a cyber attack.

Um on the stressor side of things, these are slower moving, but have the ability to erode the fabric of your community if you leave them unaddressed.

So on the environmental side of things, we have sea level rise or erosion or drought.

Um, but we also, you know, have economic downturns, lack of a reliable transportation, lack of health care, these are things that we know can impact Jacksonville.

Um so in 2023, we published Jacksonville's first comprehensive resiliency.

It's available on our website if you haven't had a chance to look through it.

Um, but it really breaks down uh 45 actions and 90 subactions that the city should take to be prepared um for the future, really focused on ways that we're experiencing more frequent and intense storm events, heavier summer rainstorms, hotter summers, um, but also a lot of growth.

We have a lot of people moving to North Florida, and the way we manage that um will impact the future resilience of our city.

Every year we've since we've published it, we've put out an annual update.

So if there's anything that I mentioned here today that you want a bit more information on, it's also on our website.

Um we take a you know some time every year to make sure that we're we're reading out on exactly what what we've done over the past year.

Um so uh we've really moved very swiftly into implementing uh a majority of the actions in the strategy.

Many of them are ongoing, and I'm gonna give you a quick update today.

So projects that have been um in the works for for a while now and and are nearing completion.

The first one I wanted to talk to you about is the city's first ever compound flood model.

Um, this is something that our office was tasked with really finding and using the best available science and data.

And here in Jacksonville, we experience five different types of flooding.

So saying we want to fix flooding, you really have to drill down on what type.

So we have two primary types of coastal flooding.

We have storm surge, which comes from persistent wind events, but we also have extreme tidal flooding.

And then we have two types of rainfall-induced flooding.

We have riverine or fluvial flooding, or we have stormwater uh pluvial flooding.

When that rainfall isn't making it into drains or uh tributaries and it's starting to pool on streets and sidewalks.

Um, but the most common type of flooding we have in Jacksonville is a fifth category, and that's compound flooding, and that's when two or more of these happen at the same time.

And it's not as simple as one foot of storm surge equal put meets one foot of rainfall flooding, and that equals two feet of flooding.

These things can really compound on a magnitude.

Um, and so we wanted to understand this.

So what happens in Central Florida, if it rains there and the St.

John's River uh is at a higher elevation, it was really important that our model cover the entire St.

John's River basin.

So this is a massive model with a much more refined mesh over Duval County, so that we can understand the complexities going on in our city.

Um I I'm gonna kind of breeze through the set the science of it, but all of these dots represent different computational nodes, and each of these nodes can represent how water is moving from one to another.

So we have very refined detail within uh within the neighborhood.

So this is a zoomed-in area of San Marco.

Between each of those dots, we can understand how water is moving and also the probability and frequency of flooding.

So, not just will it flood here, but how likely is it and how deep might that water be.

One of the things we've done to validate this model is go back through a number of historic events, and I think Hurricane Irma was a big one for a lot of members of the public, and really where people were very surprised that our FEMA flood maps didn't accurately predict where that flooding is gonna be.

And I think it's important to note that those FEMA maps are regulatory layers.

They don't necessarily take into account the compound nature of flooding, they're primarily focused on coastal flooding.

And so Irma was heavy rainfall meeting a coastal system, and we saw substantial flooding.

So I'm gonna now play this animation.

It shows over three tidal cycles how Hurricane Irma hit, and it shows a lot more accuracy than what we saw from FEMA.

I think in particular, one of the things that is striking about this animation is you know, as the water is pulsing because of the tidal cycles, you'll notice that flooding starts to go down out at the beaches, but it's still rising inland in some of our tributaries, trout and reball and in downtown where that water is getting trapped in the internal St.

John's River system.

And so having this data as a hindcast can help us feel more confident in the accuracy of this model.

We've done extensive model validation.

Um, for instance, this is how Ford tide gauges performed during Irma, and our model is mimicking that identically, which is really, which is really great to see.

So what we're hoping to be able to use this data for is better predicting our flood risk and better making capital and planning decisions around it.

So historically, we've had some level of information on areas in between those those two red lines.

This is a screen grab of Hogan's Creek in Springfield.

We have much more refined information on flooding in Hogan's Creek watershed, but really I think what's new and what we're able to capture in a different way is that flooding that we're seeing within that yellow circle, that stormwater flooding that's causing street level disruptions.

Up until now, we've had absolutely no way of mapping that.

And so if you're trying to make a capital decision, you're trying to compare one part of the city to another, if you don't have a spatial data layer to go off of, you're operating basically on where people are reporting flooding, and at that point we've already had a disruption.

And so this is gonna help us better predict and anticipate where chronic flooding is occurring and likely to occur in the future, so that we can make sure our capital plans are addressing that.

The other thing that this allows us to do is visualize flooding differently.

So right now we talk about flooding as a binary.

You're either in the floodplain or you're out of the floodplain, but because we have such a complex hydrologic system here in Jacksonville, it's more uh appropriate for us to understand flooding as a probability.

Every asset in our city has some probability of flooding, and in some places that's very high, and in other places it's very low.

But when we can talk about that probability, we can make better capital decisions, better planning decisions.

And so one of the things that we're able to do with this model is we've partnered with an applied research nonprofit to develop it, and because they're an applied research nonprofit, they've been able to secure a National Science Foundation grant, which allows us to use the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center to run thousands of scenarios.

So we're running 42,000 flood scenarios over a probabilistic curve, and then we're able to see that visualized as a heat style map, like what you see here.

So the areas that are hit across, in this case, a hundred scenarios at the end of this project, it'll be across 42,000 scenarios.

They'll show up in that yellow color if it's experiencing flooding on a less frequent basis, it shows up in more of that purple gradient.

Um, and I think the thing that's really powerful about this and allows us to tell a very different uh story about risk than a lot of our peer cities in Florida is that a lot of Jacksonville, across, in this case, a hundred scenarios at the end of the project, thousands are not experiencing any flood disruption.

And so, how we talk about areas in our city that are low risk and really well suited for growth, I think is one of the opportunities with this new data.

And that leads me to a second project that's been ongoing and has been really a big focus with my office and the planning department is updating the city's land development regs for resilience.

Um, in 2023, we formed the land development regulation update committee, which was made up of engineers and developers and housing advocates and land use advocates and CPACs and city staff, and really what the goals of this committee were were finding ways to increase resilience to flood risk, make sure that we're building housing opportunities without impacting neighborhood characters.

So, really finding smart ways to accommodate growth without making our flood challenges worse.

And what the committee uh decided to do is take some of the preliminary data from that compound flood model, combine that with the areas we already know to be at risk due to FEMA data, and use that combined flood layer and uh to identify areas that maybe we we can still have development, but it's not where we want the highest and best development.

Where we want that is actually the inverse of those those higher risk areas, and that's our low risk.

So from there, we took this lower risk land and clipped it down to areas that are adjacent to JTA corridors.

Um we excluded any zoning overlays that are existing.

Um, but this is really how the committee arrived at a target growth area, and you guys will have opportunities as this legislation comes in front of you in the coming weeks and months to get this presentation in much more detail.

But the idea here would be how do we get, how do we encourage as the city more growth in these areas that we know can handle it because it won't flood and there's transportation infrastructure to accommodate growth.

So this is what that target growth area looks like citywide.

And then from there, we had a team of consultants that worked with us on an incentive package that could be offered to increase density in that target growth area with some setbacks that allow you know to make sure that that density or higher height is not coming at the expense of any of our single family neighborhoods.

And the idea here would be we could build more housing right along those transit corridors with the inclusion of some public benefits.

So if a developer was in that target area and they want to build more units or a higher height, they would have to either contribute some resilience design interventions or set aside a portion of their units as affordable housing.

So we feel like this is a really strong win-win win to increase more growth, have that be in a smart area and be designed in a smart way that helps us achieve multiple benefits for the public.

So an opportunity to hear more about that later.

I'm gonna breeze through some of the continuing projects again.

I'm happy to go back if any of them are of particular interest.

One is understanding our risk and vulnerability to extreme temperature events in a way that more mimic closely mimics the way that we're prepared for threats like hurricanes.

So we have a million dollar grant from FEMA to do an extreme temperature readiness project, thinking about how temperature extreme heat or extreme freeze has the potential to cause infrastructure failure.

So right now we primarily open heating and cooling centers, and we're very responsive to the public health impacts of temperature.

But as far as understanding at what temperature we might have a problem with our grid, our grid or our bridges or our waterway or our transportation assets, we saw this in the Midwest.

We saw heat waves causing buckling of roads last summer.

We've seen multiple times now in Texas the disruption that a freeze event can happen, and so better designing a vulnerability assessment for temperature that allows us to make sure our assets and the assets of our independent authorities are better prepared for temperature.

We've been working on an urban forest management plan, which is going to be assessing our tree canopy, making recommendations on where we could improve or expand our urban forest and make sure that we're taking care of pruning practices in the best way possible.

Part of this project has been identifying where we have the best tree canopy where we have gaps and where we have opportunities for four priority planting areas.

This is going along with a number of pilot projects that we've been doing with our office and public works and park staff to get trees planted at high heat vulnerable bus stops in our city because we know people who are riding the bus are more vulnerable to temperature.

And then also with Duval County Public Schools, making sure that our young people are able to enjoy school spaces that have tree canopy.

So the tree commission has been helping work on a number of pilot projects as we get that broader plan developed.

We've worked on a shoreline suitability model looking at the interior sections of the St.

John's River and identifying which parts of the creek systems are well suited for living shorelines, where there might be structural interventions like bulkheads that are or riprap that are a more appropriate shoreline so that we can start to better design projects.

We have a number of new projects that are just kicking off, one of which sought to address understanding our vulnerability to food disruptions, supply chain disruptions, and understand food insecurity in our city.

So we're working on a food plan that understands better where our food is produced, how it's distributed and moved throughout our city, where people are accessing and how they're accessing healthy foods and then waste and recovery and trying to feed that back into our production cycle.

We're working with the parks department closely on incorporating green infrastructure features into park projects and other public spaces.

We're including an update to the city's low impact development design manual.

We're working with public works on incorporating better design standards into the LDPM, thinking about our public spaces like streets as opportunities for cooling and greening, thinking about where we might be able to capture water in and around the right-of-way, and also making sure that that's safe from a heat perspective and safe for pedestrians and bicyclists.

And then we're also looking at wildfire, and I think you know this is something that is top of mind for a lot of people as parts of Florida are dealing with wildfire.

We were able to get a grant from the National Forest Service to develop a community wildfire protection plan.

By developing this plan, we'll be able to qualify for 10 million dollars of mitigation project funding.

And so we'll be working with our partners at public works, parks, JFRD, JSO, JEA, JTA, and of course the Forest Service on this project.

I think we often are focused on water and having too much of it, having flooding and hurricanes.

But when we have a period of prolonged drought, Jacksonville has a very high wildfire potential risk, and we stack up in one of the top counties in the country for wildfire risk, making this a really important project for us.

And then the last thing I'll share is that as we really have gotten our ducks in a row on how we can make sure Jacksonville is moving in a more resilient direction.

We felt it was important that we give back to the other counties in our area.

So we've worked very closely with the Northeast Florida Regional Council to take the lessons from resilient JAX and incorporate that into their resilient first coast program.

And so this is a document that was published in the last year, and it sets 34 actions that really help scale the lessons we've learned here to our other county partners that'll be helping facilitate better uh planning and and resource sharing among counties, making sure that we're all operating from similar best practices and all have access to the same data.

So that's been really something that well that we felt was important uh to stay engaged on so that all of North Florida benefits.

And with that, I'm gonna take some questions.

If you have any, um, and if you want to understand any of these projects in more detail, um, I'm just a phone call or email away, and obviously we have all of this available on our website.

Thank you.

I think that was the most perfectly timed presentation ever.

You ended with one second on the clock.

Yes.

Uh so I'm sure there are gonna be some questions.

I don't have anyone in the queue right now.

I don't know if that's because the queue's not working.

Uh Mr.

Carlicci.

Uh that was amazing.

That was an amazing job.

And um, I I don't really have a uh well I'll I'll I'll make a question so it can make a point.

Uh we we uh had a struggle keeping the Northeast Florida Regional Council funded in the budget last cycle.

And um, and so how important is it for us to be participating with the Northeast Florida Regional Council, at least from your perspective.

I think um I think it's important to note that the all of the challenges we're trying to address in Jacksonville are have regional components to that.

We could do everything we can to control wildfire risk here in Duval County, but if our partnering counties haven't been able to do the same, that smoke could impact our air quality here, that could threaten our our preserved lands here.

Um I think we have really fantastic heat data that we're able to start making public health decisions on.

Other neighboring counties in North Florida don't have that.

So um I I think making sure that we are set up to thrive as a region is really critical, and we've been very strong partners.

Um, a lot of my staff time went and went into um producing that document, and so we're trying to be good regional partners.

Um, and and I think now the regional council is set up with some clear tasks that would really help not just Jacksonville but all of our counties.

When when uh you know Mr.

Chair, if I might share with when in 2019 when we first started um trying to set up uh the Office of Resilience, we uh had the assistance of the Northeast Regional Planning Council really helped us in a huge way.

And they helped us develop the first study and put that together before uh Miss Connelisi was here.

And um and so uh I just try to make that point.

So when that comes up at our next budget, I just want people to know how important uh the regional planning council is uh but but uh aside from that uh we are so fortunate to have Miss Connellisi and her staff, and maybe she might want to introduce some of them to us uh this morning.

But uh we we should have had you up here two years ago to keep us in in uh touch with everything you're doing.

But the the way that I I see the intuitive way that y'all are uh helping us manage our risk.

I mean, this is risk management 101 and keeping us from building in the wrong places and and to make sure we're building in the right places is it's amazing.

It's amazing work.

And uh from somebody who is out in the in the at the tail end of a storm, I'm I'm out there as an insurance agent.

And I know what it's like when you're not uh in the right place in a house that's built in the wrong place.

Um and uh so I just really want to commend you and your team for your their work and uh and if the chair wants uh would would let you introduce your your team real quick, that I think would be a good thing.

Thank you.

Councilman Chair.

You're welcome.

Councilmember Mark, you dropped from the queue.

Did you have anything?

Yeah, okay.

Uh-huh.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I I had two questions.

Um, Mr.

Chair, through the chair to Anne.

Um thank you for your work, number one.

Number two, uh, clearly the work has helped uh define uh uh uh not only risk but puts you in a position of making better predictions as to outcomes.

Uh and so my question in that vein is that now that you have that ability to make better uh predictions, how and when will that translate into better protection?

Uh uh I saw you had an action plan there, but maybe you can give me a in a nutshell um the one in the how.

And the last question um through the chair.

You mentioned legislative.

You may have ran by that so quickly.

I missed it.

So uh tell me what legislation that we you were speaking of that is coming.

Yes, thank you for the question through the chair to Councilman Amaro.

We have been working, I'll start with your second question.

We've been working closely with the planning department on some proposed legislation to update the city's land development regs.

I know you came to actually some of those committee meetings.

We've gotten to a place where we have uh a structure that that is being proposed that would create incentive opportunities for developers to build higher heights, higher densities in very strategic locations.

Um, and so that legislation to establish a target growth area and set the stage for that incentive program should be coming through council soon.

And there will certainly be opportunities to dig into that with more detail with some of my planning department colleagues here as well.

And then to your first question about kind of when are we going to see preparedness?

I would say it's gonna be something that happens uh slowly.

I think we are set up very different than Miami or let's say our partners in Charleston that are attempting kind of big seawall projects.

Jacksonville's risk is really dispersed, and so there's not really a clear you know starting and stopping point for our flood risk.

We have more shoreline than any other US city.

So for Jacksonville, really our risk comes at death by a thousand cuts, and so our solution is really gonna come at making incremental decisions strategically over time.

So making sure our our capital improvement plan is using this better flood data as we're scoping projects is going to be critical.

We've already done a number of projects with public works and the parks department through the resilient Florida grant program where we've gotten substantial contributions to different CIP projects to different park projects.

Um, and and we're gonna continue to do that.

So this better information just allows us to make sure that our capital decisions are strong, and then it's also supporting um that upcoming proposed legislation to make sure that we're growing in areas that that are smart.

So I would say it's something we're already seeing, and we'll continue to see as that as that information um becomes more normalized within city operations.

Um the last piece I'll say is you know, this is something that we're really building a reputation around, risk management.

Um, every year when the city is uh getting evaluated by the rating agencies, this is something they're asking about, and actually something where we're pushing the envelope and and they're really excited to see the level of risk-informed decision making that we're making as a city, and um this this compound flood model really sets us apart from not just other Florida communities, but we're really the only uh city of our scale in the in the country that has access to this level of detail.

So it's something that we're we're really proud of, and and I think this creating this culture of risk management is something that will continue going forward.

Uh Councilman Carlisle for the second time.

I am going to start the clock for uh for three minutes this go around just so we cannot get on with the agenda and I have a hard stop myself at 1030 today.

Okay.

Thought it sounded like it was.

So uh a couple questions.

The the riverfront parks, how does that help us with resilience from flooding downtown?

How much uh does that actually mitigate?

And then trees, one large oak tree.

Uh, how much water is it does that suck up or or hold?

Um, great questions.

I'll try to keep my answer brief.

Um, we've been really working closely with the parks department um on all projects happening in downtown.

We were able to get, I think about 15 million dollars through a resilient Florida grant to support the bulkhead replacement at Riverfront Plaza.

So, in some cases, our participation is helping advance those projects financially.

Um, but in general, we're in lockstep with the parks department on the design of these projects.

I think the important thing to note is that when we have a major storm, something like Irma, that water is going to rise and it will fall again.

And so the big thing for us is to minimize disruptions.

And so park staff have been really great partners in making sure that every asset that gets put in these parks is designed with flooding in mind to minimize the cost to taxpayers if and when a flood impact happens, um, making it very easy for us to reopen that park with minimal damage.

So that I think will continue, and that's part of a resilience mindset for downtown.

And I think in general, anything that goes uh right along our riverfront needs to have that resilience mindset baked into the design.

And then to your second question, I don't have a number off the top of my head for exactly how much water in oak tree, but I think the big thing to note is that we could um you know we could be planting brand new trees, and and that's a benefit, but there's there's really no uh comparison to uh the value that these mature trees have.

Um, it takes uh decades, in fact, like close to a hundred years to be able to mimic um the the level of cooling and stormwater absorption that a mature oak tree can provide.

And so that's why a big part of our urban forest management plan is better understanding the necessary pruning practices and making maintenance a really uh critical part to our urban forestry program.

That's something that parks and public work staff are are really eager for, and that'll help us keep our mature tree canopy healthy.

A lot.

Okay, thank you, and uh, thank you for your staff.

We do got to get moving on, but appreciate your staff coming here today as well.

And uh, if you could email us all the presentation as well, because I know there's a lot of information that you couldn't cover in the uh the 15 minutes there.

So thank you so much for having me.

All right, thank you.

Uh so we have more public participation cards than we normally do, and we also have an issue that we're gonna lose quorum at 10 30.

So, because of that, I am gonna do one minute for speaker.

Uh so the first one will be Carnell Oliver and then Barry Cotter, Litsa Dawkins, and I believe this is Larry Roberts.

So if you could go ahead and just uh come on down if you signed a speaker card, and again, we have to change it to one minute instead of the normal two minutes, just because uh we will lose quorum at uh 1030 if we are uh unable to get to the agenda items after public comment.

Mr.

Oliver, go ahead.

Uh yes, my name is Carnell.

Address is on file.

Um, I want to know if the TEU committee has ever done a thorough review of all procurement contracts, especially dealing with the 1866 Civil Rights Act, because back in 81, they created a protected class for foundational black Americans.

And how many black Americans who come from my lineage has been getting half of that money?

Because when I look at the original text, it says 50%.

There's a billion dollars that comes through procurement.

How much of that 50% are we getting?

I'm enforcing law on the books.

There's a lot of things that a lot of people in this city has been able to get away with.

Consolidation is one of those conversations.

After she leaves off, is we're gonna have a conversation about breaking all the time.

Thank you, Barry Cotter, your name.

Hi, um Barry Carter.

I just came here to say thank you for supporting uh uh protected bike lanes um downtown.

I see you passed it seven or zero.

Uh I just came here to say thank you.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Cotter.

Ms.

Dawkins, good morning.

My name is Lisa Dawkins.

I'm here on behalf of Scenic Jacksonville.

Um we would like to express our strong support for the proposed city council resolution 2026-023, which endorses the design and installation of protected bicycle lanes on portions of Beaver, Monroe, Hogan, and Liberty Street in downtown Jacksonville.

Um we think it's a meaningful step toward creating a more inviting, safe, and accessible downtown.

And um we're in support of this bill.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Larry Roberts.

And then Peter Bornstein after Mr.

Roberts.

Uh good morning.

I support protected bike lanes downtown because they will provide much needed safe mobility for cyclists.

And that the cost will be very reasonable, especially compared to other mobility projects downtown like the Skyway.

Thank you.

Sir, could you give your name and address just so we have it on the record?

Larry Roberts, San Jose.

Thank you.

Peter Bornstein.

And then after you, it'll be uh Luan Brunson.

Go ahead.

Good morning.

My name's Peter Bornstein.

I live in Springfield at 1440 Ionia Street.

I like to commute downtown for a variety of reasons for the nice new parks, the libraries to speak with you today, the grocery store when there was one.

And I prefer not to use an automobile for a variety of personal reasons.

I like to commute with my family and I like to keep them safe.

These helmets protect them from falling over, not being run over.

Um I look to you for that.

The our our roads are dangerous and they're designed by engineers, and those engineers get orders from you.

I didn't vote for North Florida TPO.

I didn't vote for the TPO, uh North Florida FDOT.

I voted for City Council and the mayor, and you're who I look for for change.

So please support safety on our roadways.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lawan Brunson.

And then Emily Friedman.

Good morning.

Uh my name is Lamar Brunson.

I'm here on behalf of Blue Zones Project Jacksonville.

Um I want to express our strong support of this resolution for protective bike lanes on Beaver Street, Monroe Street, Oakland Street, and Liberty Street.

Um between 2021 and 2023, uh 508 people lost their lives due to traffic crashes right here in Jacksonville.

147 of those were uh bicyclists and pedestrians.

Jacksonville is ranked in the 15 15th in the most dangerous cities for pedestrians across the country.

Um these aren't just numbers, uh, these are our co-workers, our family members, and we must do better.

Letters of support have been sent to every city council under person.

Um half of Blue Zones of this resolution and urge this council to please support this resolution and take a meaningful step.

Towards a safer Jacksonville for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Emily Friedman and then Lauren Rushing and then Chris Burns.

Good afternoon.

My name is Emily Friedman.

My address is 2259 College Street.

I live in Riverside, and I'm here to advocate for protected bike bike lanes in our city.

Uh as it has been stated, Jacksonville is an extraordinarily dangerous place for people on bikes and also pedestrians.

But regarding bikes, uh, not only do bike lanes are they proven to protect people who are cycling in our city, they also increase feelings of safety within those people.

And so I think that if we want to continue to progress, Jacksonville to be a city that is welcoming to all, that is safe to all, and that is fun for people.

We need to focus on making our bike infrastructure more accessible for people all over the city, but especially downtown.

And I am here to ask you all as our council men and women to um uh put these bike lanes in protected bike lanes in action.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Next up, Lauren Rushing, then Chris Burns, then John Nooney.

So come on down, Chris Burns and John Nooney, so you can get to the podium faster.

Miss Rushing.

Good morning.

Uh my name is Lauren Rushing.

I'm the chair of Bike Walk Jacks, and we're a local nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate, support, promote, and advocate for the needs of people who walk and bike throughout Jacksonville.

Um, but I want to emphasize that we don't just represent the needs of the recreational cyclists that you might picture, people out riding in Lycra.

Uh, we represent everyday residents who want to bike or use other types of mobility devices and would do so if it was the safe, convenient, and attractive option.

Uh, we provided a letter of support that's been provided to you as backup for the resolution 2026-0231, and we're here to reiterate what's written in that letter and express our strong support for the proposed resolution to install protected bike lanes on portions of Beaver, Monroe, Hogan, and Liberty Street.

At its core, this resolution is about safety access and preparing Jacksonville for what we know is coming.

Protected bike lanes address that directly in cities across the country and across the world.

Protected bike lanes have proven to improve safety, and when infrastructure is safe, people choose to ride.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you.

Chris Burns.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

My name is Chris Burns.

I'm at 4005 Homer Drive West in Jacksonville.

And I'm currently the board chair of uh Groundwork Jacksonville, which is the city's partner in building the Emerald Trail.

I've been an attorney for 40 years, specializing in crashes involving bicycles and pedestrians and representing those that have been injured in that situation.

And I've been a statewide advocate for improving safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.

I love Jacksonville, but one thing I don't love is that Jacksonville is a city and Florida is a state, have a long history of leading the nation and being one of the most dangerous places to be a pedestrian or a cyclist.

How much effort have we taken and concerned about whether the Jaguars are a good football team and we want them to win the score?

But are we paying enough attention to what the score is when it becomes to when it comes to the safety of pedestrians?

Thank you, sir.

John Nooney.

Hello, I am John J.

Nooney, Jacksonville City Council Resolution 2023 0819.

I'm in City Council District 4, CPAC 3, School Board District 3.

And uh, you know, uh I got my FWC hat on and to play off the Fish Wildlife Commission.

You know, fishing with Coglionese.

You know, here's the resilient Jacksonville thing.

You know, I'm in this thing four times.

And uh I'll tell you, you know.

So anyway, you know, just down to 30 some seconds.

But you know, agenda items one, two, three, four, number six, twenty twenty-six zero two three one.

That's another resolution.

That's the mobility thing.

You know, sign me up.

I'm in on that one.

But you know, just getting back, you know, public access on our waterways.

It's the worst ever.

And that was in this resilient Jacksonville thing.

So anyway, uh, I'll be speaking on another bill, just seven seconds.

Visit Jacksonville, open up our waterways for everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh with that, let's just go straight to item six, since that's what most people are here for.

I'm 20 item six, 2026-231.

I got motion second on item six, 2026-231.

I have no one in the queue.

Uh my only comment on this is I'll support the resolution.

Again, the resolution is different from funding, though, so uh we'll have to make sure we're balancing the needs of uh of all of Jacksonville, just not downtown, whenever we know what the uh the true cost of this, but for now I'll support the resolution.

Uh open the ballot, record your vote.

Four yay, zero and nays.

My actions we pass 2026 231.

Thank you for all the uh citizens that came down here to express their support.

Uh we'll go to item one, 2026-215.

Can I get a motion?

All right, motion second on the bill.

I have no one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Thank you.

Four yay, zero and nays.

By our actions, we have passed 2026-215.

Item two, 2026-216.

I'm going to open the public hearing.

Uh, Mr.

Barry Cotter, I have you as a speaker, and also John Nooney.

Barry Cotter and John Nooney, I have you as uh wanting to speak on this bill.

I'm Barry Carter.

When I uh looked at this and I saw the funds for the uh street swimming, I thought this was about this part.

Uh no, Mr.

Cotter, the uh there wasn't a public hearing on that bill.

So this is public hearing on 2026 216.

I misunderstood this.

Okay.

So thank you for supporting that.

Okay, thank you, Mr.

Connor.

Uh Mr.

Nooney, do you wish to speak on 216?

Specifically on 216.

Yes.

Uh wow.

Name and address, please.

Okay.

I I'm feeling the love here.

Okay, I am John.

Philanthropic, jelly rule.

Good boy, resiliency nooney.

Ojo Trace, 56, Baskam Road, Jacksonville, Florida, 32216.

And uh, I'm in City Council District 4, CPAC 3, School Board District 3.

Yeah, this is a public hearing.

And you know, it's GFL, and you know what I wrote on the card, GFL Park on Pottsburg Creek, 2025 0019.

Now, will this go back to neighborhoods?

You know, and this is an unbelievable opportunity for a philanthropic, you know, GFL when it comes to Pottsburg Creek, you know, public park.

You know, uh, I mean, you can't think of a better waste management.

You can't think of anything bigger than that.

Now I'm just down to two minutes, you know, and uh also I have these three pieces of handouts that I want submitted for the permanent record.

You know, when you heard the thing with Teresa Eichner, and let me just say yesterday, neighborhoods.

Here's the agenda.

You know what?

There's a public hearing on this bill on uh April 28th, but neighborhoods, it didn't have a public hearing in neighborhoods.

Why?

I mean, but it's there's a public hearing here.

So we'll let her new there is and please speak to the bill now.

This is your chase.

Well, I am okay.

I'm down to a minute 20, and thank goodness, you know, this is a public hearing with Florida statute.

Okay, but anyway, the you know, uh just getting back to you know the record keeping and uh things like that.

But here I'm just gonna submit the you know the ethics commission meeting.

I went to it yesterday, and you know, here's how minutes are reflected.

Mr.

Nuny, do you have anything to say on this bill?

Yeah, I I've been saying a lot, but uh at the same time, for anyone that's watching at home, when it comes to you know, just getting information.

It is I'm telling you, it's it's not easier here.

So anyway, you know, ethics, you you know, public comment.

Mr.

Fire Nany, final public comment.

Mr.

Nooney provided, I mean that's how I'm reflected in the minutes.

So this is a public hearing with Florida statute.

I'm gonna I'm submitting this, and if I got two other pieces of information, which you know, uh, you know, I'm just down to 20 some seconds.

But anyway, back to the bill.

Yes, GFL, you know, on pot GFL park on Pottsburg Creek.

You know, you you're talking about a recycling facility with modifications, construction, you know.

You know, and we just had the resiliency thing.

So thank you.

And let me start with the public hearing is closed.

Kind of getting motion on the bill.

Got a motion second on the bill.

No in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

Five years, fire actions, we pass twenty twenty-six two one six.

I am three, twenty twenty-six two two two two two.

Can I get a motion?

Got motion second on the bill, known in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Five years, zero nays.

By our actions, we pass twenty twenty-six triple two.

Item four twenty twenty-six two two six.

Can I get a motion?

Got motion second on the bill.

No in the ballot, or I'm sorry, no one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

Five years.

By our actions, we passed 2626.

And I meant to say at the beginning of this, uh, every bill we're taking an action on has been through at least one committee and has been unanimous, so it's expected there'd probably not be a lot of discussions.

So for those watching wondering why we're not debating as much, it's because these have all been through other committees already, some of which uh us are on those other committees.

I don't five twenty twenty-six two three zero.

Can I get a motion on the rules amendment?

Got a motion second on the rules amendment.

Uh Mr.

Linsky, please.

Through the chair of the committee.

Uh the amendment before you today is technical in nature and just strikes an erroneous reference to the Jacksonville Heights tub division.

Thank you, Mr.

Linsky.

All those in favor of the amendment, please say aye.

Aye, any opposed say nay.

Amendment passes.

Got motion second on the bill as amended.

I have no in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Five years, zero nays.

Fire actions 2026 230 has passed as amended.

Item seven, eight, and nine.

I read those at the beginning.

Those are on second.

Anyone from the committee have anything before we adjourn?

Thank you, Mr.

Carlucci, for the speaker recommendation.

And uh I believe we do have uh one presentation uh in May, but as always, if there's anything else we want to uh ask about, just go through uh Jamie my ECA and we can uh work on getting it scheduled.

And with that, we are adjourned.