All right, we're gonna go ahead and call this meeting to order.

Welcome to the finance committee.

It is April 21st at one o'clock.

We're gonna go ahead and start with introductions to the left.

Brittany Norris for the administration.

Colleen Hamsey, Council Research.

Mary Stepopoulos, Office of General Counsel.

Philip Peterson, Council Auditor's Office.

Kim Taylor, Council Auditor.

Good afternoon, Mori Diamond, District 13, the beaches.

Ron Salem, group two at large.

Nick Holland at large, group three.

Joe Carlucci, District Five.

Raw areas district eleven.

Will Lane and District Three.

All right.

And we do have uh, I believe a late arrival uh in on the file from Ms.

Pittman.

So she will be joining us uh a little bit later today.

So with that, committee members, we have uh three presentations today.

Two of them are pretty short.

One of them is gonna be um on the Durkeyville study by Mr.

Ennis Davis.

So first we're gonna go ahead to Miss Eichner for your ADA presentation.

Go ahead.

If someone in the back could turn on the microphone and the there it is.

Unmute me.

Thanks.

Teresa Eichner, Jacksonville City Council.

Um I'm here really quickly to let you guys know since February, we've been working on bringing our website into compliance with uh DOJ um requirements for um ADA uh documents that are on our website.

So legislative services and um the legislative gateway that have that houses all of our legislation and all of the exhibits attached to that um has a significant number of documents um stored there.

Those are non-compliant.

Um that portion of our website will be coming down tomorrow for a period of about four to six weeks while we work on um getting a vendor that can provide a screen reader service that um once that comes back up will bring those into compliance as the public uses that service.

And so um that is all in process right now.

Um I hope to have that vendor um in conjunction with IT under um uh contract what relatively soon, I hope by the end of this week.

And so um once that service comes down tomorrow.

Internal staff will have a username and password that will be able to access that information.

But for the purposes of the public, all legislation will have to be records requested.

So there will be a heavy, I I would imagine, um, in influx of requests coming in towards the end of this week.

Um and so just wanted to provide that update to everybody so that they're well aware of what's gonna happen to our website.

So I'll open that up if there's any questions.

Okay, I don't have anyone in the queue.

I have a question.

It's gonna be are we gonna be able to access it like internally, but just not externally?

Is that what I'm hearing you say?

Correct.

We're gonna um open um so that there is no access outside of the city, right?

For litigation purposes, um, it'll be username and password.

So I'll circulate a username and password um and how to access it so that anybody for for staff purposes, auditors, OGC, and then any of the departments.

But you guys and your ECAs will all be able to access it.

Okay, great.

Uh, we have one uh speaker in the queue, Council Vice President Halan, you're recognized.

Thanks, Mr.

Chair.

Um Teresa, does this put us in any uh dangerous waters with respect to public records requests?

Or are you covered because we can access it on demand?

Uh no, we're gonna be responding to all of those records requests.

So, of course, all of the information is available to the public, and we'll be responding to those requests.

Um, we are gonna post the agendas and meeting minutes in advance, so that we will there is there are things that are available on the website.

We have five years worth of information and all of our agendas and meeting minutes and things that are compliant with ADA will be still published on our website, but let there's a place um where we're having difficulty getting exhibits and legislation um that are ADA compliant.

And so again, that's the only person portion of the website that's coming down, just so that we make sure that we're compliant.

Understood.

Thanks.

All right, we have no other speakers in the queue.

Thank you, Miss Eichner, and we also want to welcome Councilmember Freeman.

Well, are you here for your bill, sir?

Okay, we'll um we'll bring that up to the front if you'd like because I know it's pretty far back there.

So okay, Mr.

Davis, come on down.

So, good afternoon.

Uh Innis Davis, uh 221 Hor Hogan Street, suite 237.

Here to give you a brief presentation update on the results of the Durkettville revitalization study that you approved in 2024, and just a brief update on where things have gone since then.

I also have some copies that I can leave to you to look on your own time of the actual study.

So if you want to contact us at the later date for more information, we can do that as well.

So just briefly, as you remember, the study was uh commissioned to look at creating the implementation plan and vision study for the Durkeyville community that would guide uh reinvestment uh within the neighborhood.

Uh the study was launched in August 2024, and over a course of about a 10 to 11 month period, it was completed.

So, launch with uh start with data collection and existing conditions and really carry on down to a final report and implementation strategy, which uh here's some copies of that today.

Uh during that process, there are over 50 meetings uh that were held with community members, business members in the community as well as stakeholders.

Those took place as large uh community workshops as well as uh field reviews, walking tours, um, and and then individual one-on-one meetings with a variety of stakeholders, and really these meetings guided everything that took place uh in the study process.

So, really, there was no need to create a community vision.

Uh the community has had a vision for over 50 years.

The issue has been implementation.

So we didn't spend too much time creating a plan to uh sit on the shelves and collect dust.

You know, we've got closets in the building all full of those old plans.

So we really want to connect that vision with about uh nearly 400 million dollars in allocated projects within the study area through the CIP as well as the TIP and some other uh entities that are doing work here, and really want to make sure that those funds and projects are being leveraged in a way uh that uh incrementally implements uh the community vision.

During that process, a number of projects uh materialize uh with community members and from that CIP process.

So, one of the things we also want to do, because we do this work on a nationwide level is also tap the local um population and community here into similar projects in other communities across the country as well as the city to make sure that we're building off best practices and incorporating that from an implementation uh perspective.

Uh, in addition, uh one of the tasks that uh council member um Peluso one included was um more information around affordable housing, market rate housing, and what the housing looks like.

So through the uh vision process in the workshops, um the community members really came forward, and these are some of the concepts uh that they thought that respected the history, character, and culture uh of the neighborhood.

Uh, there are some zoning uh issues from a market rate perspective.

Um, you know, we looked at some things like a zoning overlay, for example, but Senate Bill 180 kind of restricts some of that, but we do have some things on the city's books that restrict market rate affordable housing development.

So it is kind of captured in the study as well.

So hopefully one day there's something that can be addressed.

And then uh we also looked at it from a market rate perspective.

Um we worked in the past with the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission.

Uh Jacksonville happens to be the largest have the largest concentration of Gullah Geechee descendants in the United States, and from an economic development perspective, that's about a 34 billion dollar annual spend of what is about one-third of tourists traveling to this region of the country to uh engage in activities around that culture of character and history.

So when you're eating those terrific writs, those garlic crabs, uh, those types of foods that muscle-based barbecue, that is tied into this area's history.

We want to make sure that this plan took advantage of that because that creates an opportunity for uh the revitalization of Myrtle Avenue to allow that dollar to recycle economically uh within the neighborhood before leaving it.

With that in mind, Myrtle Avenue became an early focus of how into how to take advantage of some of the projects already in the books, like the revitalization of JP Small Field, the Emerald Trail, and some other projects that were coming in, as well as your facade grant programs already in the books, how to tap uh existing property owners, residents, and uh business owners into uh building what I call to call the three Cs, which is clustering complementing uses with a compact setting, which creates economic synergy.

Again, we're not saying anything that hadn't been done anywhere else, so it's always important to show where this has worked in similar communities with similar demographics across the country.

So we brought that to the table uh with the community as well in the planning process.

This is just three examples, but the report has a lot more.

Uh, and then in the end, you know, to not be a study that sits on the shelf.

We wanted to make sure there was an implementation strategy that we're not walking away.

Uh and so that implementation strategy had about five community pillars.

I want to read, you know, I guess economic development, housing, uh, infrastructure and accessibility, cultural heritage preservation, the community resources for the five pillars that stood out.

Uh and so what that has brought us to today is you know, the study was completed in January, July, July, June of 2025.

Uh, but it did reveal a need for capacity building in the communities park.

So there's a lot of things that the community has as its own resources that we want to leverage, so they're not waiting or waiting for the city to do everything uh for the community.

So we were able to use the study to leverage uh additional uh funding for the community from the Mellon Foundation.

Uh so what we're calling the Durkeyville Technical Assistance uh study or work kind of kicked off in December of 2025.

We expected the last through May of 2027.

Here's just a few uh project updates as I close out on this, though.

But our focus of this is to make sure those short-term studies within the implementation uh plan, which is year one to year two, that those recommendations are actually implemented while we're building capacity with uh local neighborhood organizations to be stewards of the work moving forward to to ensure that long-term implementation also comes in effect.

Uh, some of those projects uh continue coordination with the museum, uh, the playground at JP Small Field overall renovation of the complex.

We really see that as a cultural anchor destination for the community to build uh revitalization around Myrtle Avenue from the center in and allow it to expand out.

As of now, the uh museum was expected to break ground later this summer with uh October 2027 opening.

So that is ongoing coordination we are having with the parks uh department right now.

Some projects uh such as the pedestrian signal at the S line at Kings Road have been implemented.

We've also done some coordination with FDOT.

There are going to be three additional pedestrian signals that will be coming in to Kings Road to slow traffic down and make it safer for kids to cross the street.

Those be implemented over the next year or so.

Um we identified several blocks of sidewalks.

We've given missing sidewalk segments that were an issue in terms of infrastructure investment in the community.

Six of those blocks have been filled with new sidewalks at this point.

We expect more will be coming through a variety of different funding sources and uh uh different projects coming online soon.

Um cultural heritage and preservation was of utmost importance to the community.

We have a large collection of uh bloget homes and blogjet.

You know, blogjet was the first uh African American or one of the first two black millionaires in the state of Florida.

So when that great fire occurred, and you tend to say, well, the Zing and the Ziang during the segregation, so some people make money on one side of town, some people made a lot of money on the other side of town.

So this neighborhood has the largest collection of blog jet homes.

We did write a grant for uh the historic preservation office to do a historic survey and national register nomination.

Uh it ranked pretty high, so we expect uh that $50,000 grant to commence uh later this summer.

Uh, and it'll take about a year to get through that process.

Uh we also are working with a number of property owners and business owners to tap into a variety of resources to renovate their buildings to make sure that the community can prosper in place.

And so when it's uh you know, business like Skinner that's been around since the 30s, we want to be around for the next hundred years.

So we are uh they actually have a historic landmark designation coming up pretty soon, next month or so that we help them write.

And then now we're currently working with a few facade few businesses on facade grants as well as some other finance and uh to upgrade their buildings to be online um for a new business and development when the ballpark opens.

And then just figure close it out real quick.

We are also helping on the affordable housing perspective.

We've developed, we went ahead and took one of those housing plans, and we've you know contracted and build out a full set of those plans that we're making available to property owners in the area, and we're actually gonna be working with some of the major property owners there to do some initial um building out of the ground on the few sites.

And then I think this might be I'm gonna come to the end here, but um we also continue to make sure we're hosting uh community educational sessions.

So as we're doing this technical assistance, we want to make sure you know access information is power.

So uh this is all being documented.

Uh so this what you see on the screen here is a restorative justice circle that was held around Mount Herman Cemetery about uh Emmett Reed Park about two weeks ago, uh, because we were able to secure uh an African American cemeteries grant to do some GPR uh as well as uh pay for some memorial or a heritage signage.

So the community is really gonna decide like what should that language be, where should it be in the park.

Um, and then uh that also is expected to launch um this summer, and it'll take about a year uh to complete that grant process.

So that's where we're at right now.

Um, but we are continuing to work within the community.

Uh we've been able to use uh the report to leverage outside you know, resources outside the city of Jacksonville to um you know keep things going with the community.

So I'll just uh answer any questions you may have, and then I'll leave this set of studies for you to take at your own leisure.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

That was a fantastic presentation.

You can leave the studies up there, but we have a few speakers in the queue.

Also want to welcome Councilmember McGaffney and Councilmember Peluso.

Um so uh we'll go through the queue and uh stick around.

Yeah.

Uh Councilmember Lennon, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Chair.

Through the chair to uh Mr.

Davis and it's maybe an auditor question.

Uh thanks for the presentation.

The one thing that jumped out at me early on is you had a bullet point that said 385 million and committed public investment.

Uh I was just wondering if I could get the details uh behind that.

And I don't know if it's federal, state, local, or if it's what we've spent in the past as well as what we've funded going to the future, and it could just be an email to me at some time.

I was just curious, just given the magnitude that number I saw in the beginning.

Yeah, and some of that's gonna be in that report.

But yeah, I can shoot you an email as to where it comes from.

Councilmember Salem, you're recognized now.

Thank you, Chair.

Through the chair to Mr.

Innis.

Um, the museum that you mentioned, it it is my hope once it's open that that becomes a tourist attraction.

And I didn't see anything in your presentation about attracting tourism to that area.

Um I'm hopeful with the exhibits that we have there, we'll pull people off 95, come see the ballpark.

It's one of three remaining in the country that are traditional African American ballparks and with the museum.

So I I would encourage you to include that as you move forward.

That's a big driver.

So when I mentioned Gulla Geechee and the tourism market of 34 billion dollars of people, one third of tourists coming to this area to engage in that culture.

Uh many times people don't know that culture, but you're here eating those crabs, you're here eating that musket-based barbecue sauce.

But this is a neighborhood where a lot of that generated.

So, yes, uh, we do not just museum, we kind of view all of um all of JP Smallfield.

We really want to make sure it's interactive with something every day because it is a draw that's gonna drive uh a lot of the redevelopment we're talking about with the community create business opportunities.

So, yes, the museum is uh grade A.

We we see people you know getting off I 95 coming down eighth street, and I mean we've also had some conversations uh in the process with Brownwork Jacks to switch uh the location uh where they had proposed the Emerald Trail to 8th Street.

Uh because you know there was some concerns around well, you're going down streets, we don't want you to go down.

But if you're gonna come down here, come down to the ballpark, come down to our shop, spend some money, and then get on out of here.

So, yes, so tourism is a is uh a big draw that around the cultural heritage.

And it's clearly with that new field, it's just not a baseball park.

There are multiple events as you know that are occurring there.

And uh I don't see uh the parks department here, but they've been very supportive of putting all sorts of events there.

They've been great, they've been great in the process.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Peluso, you're right.

Thank you, Chair for recognizing me and and thank you, NS for doing this report.

I do want to thank Council Member Salem.

He and I were co-sponsors of this bill.

This is this is great work that got uh achieved from it.

And and special mention to Councilmember Lannon and Councilmember Howland.

Their kids both went to Stanton.

So they they know the Durkeyville neighborhood as well.

So you've got a few council members up here that are pretty familiar with this this community in this neighborhood.

Um say again.

I thought your kids oh you didn't?

Uh whatever.

Okay, fine.

So I try um then take Lannon out of it.

Nick Allen is yeah, point being though.

Um this this is a very special neighborhood to a lot of people.

And and you know, for for myself, I wanted to make sure that we that we gave as much um credit and credence to the people who live there and have been remaining in place over the past several decades when a lot of wealth and a lot of people moved out.

And this report is so comprehensive and so great.

And I know you and I have talked about um dollars that have already come into the area.

I mean, those new sidewalks that wouldn't have gotten done without your work and without public works uh being able to interact so well with you.

So this this report is really already done good work.

On top of that, the the community benefit agreement dollars that we all get um now because of this work, I'm able to already figure out where I expect to be spending the district seven dollars at.

Um so just just a lot of a lot of credit to you.

I know it's not the end of this.

The implementation strategies need to be implemented.

Uh, this will not be a report that that sits on a shelf, at least at least so long as I'm up here.

Um, but but thank you all for for um allowing Mr.

Davis to come in here and speak.

Hopefully, you now realize why it was so important to me to make sure that that he uh did this report because the community really showed up in in mass a lot and people still talk about it today, and we're gonna be seeing some real work get done, um, especially when it comes to my CBA dollars on housing, right?

We've talked a lot about uh home repair program and things like that.

So no major questions, but but thank you, sir.

No problem.

All right.

We have no we have no other speakers in the queue.

And I'll just add my final uh you know comments, which is you know, you're you you're doing a fantastic job with that area, and that area is is special to me because I played baseball at JP Small for four years and like very, very familiar with Durkeyville, all the little, you know, really it was just convenience stores that we would kind of go in before and after practice and um driving by all those homes.

Like I'm I'm really excited to see what you're doing, and it really means a lot to me.

So um future support, count me in, and um thank you for kind of spearheading this.

We really do appreciate it.

So, with that, we have no other questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

We appreciate you coming down, spending the time with us.

And now we will go to Ms.

Taylor for the 30-second report on clerk courts.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Through the chair to the committee, uh, we issued a report on the clerk of the courts um area.

We are required per the code to do an audit of the constitutional officers once every five years at a minimum.

Um so we did that as part of that requirement.

Um we looked at tax deed sales.

That was the area that we focused on for this audit.

Um overall, we were looking at whether um fees were properly assessed and collected and the fees are paying for the advertising, these go to auction on on where individuals have not paid their taxes on their properties.

So these are fees related to getting it to the auction.

Uh we looked at those and overall found that that was being charged appropriately and being collected, whether minimum bids were being calculated accurately.

Um, those are based on um the delinquent taxes plus interest plus half the value if it's a homesteaded property, half the assessed value.

So we looked at making sure that those minimum bids were properly calculated and and found that overall they were.

And then the last part that we looked at was the distribution of sales proceeds.

Um was that generally performed correctly?

And we had just a couple of issues that we noted when there are surplus funds.

Surplus funds are more than the minimum bid that remain.

Um a couple of the issues, a little over 7600 uh dollars was related to unique circumstances on forfeited deposits when the transaction didn't um wasn't completed.

In other words, the person that won the bid uh didn't finish paying everything, and so it was an incomplete transaction, so to speak.

Um so those were some unique circumstances, and then we looked at we expanded our testing based on that and found an additional 185 um tax deeds that we looked at.

There was undistributed surplus funds of 50,000 nine five five, and those should have been sent to the state based on that.

So just holding on to some of those surplus funds that need to go to the appropriate parties.

Um that's an issue they're addressing through uh their policies and procedures um to address that, especially for unique circumstance circumstances.

And then uh the two things that we find pretty much in every audit, which is SOPs, um getting a final set approved and all of the necessary necessary items within those SOPs, and then um access level to the system.

Uh, there were some individuals that were able to could have adjusted fees, had access that was not appropriate.

Um so overall they're in agreement and they're addressing these items, and we'll of course follow up on them within the next year or so uh to make sure that things are working correctly, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

All right.

See no one in the queue.

Thank you for your presentation.

And obviously, Ms.

Taylor is available if anyone has any questions after this.

So uh committee members, we will go ahead.

Do we have any public comment cards?

All right, we'll go through public comment, and then we're gonna go just kind of through the agenda to get everyone uh squared away on what we're uh we're kind of bounce around just a tiny bit and get everyone familiar with that.

So with oh right.

First speaker, Carnell Oliver.

He's not here.

All right.

And next speaker is Marshray Wellington.

Come on down, and then we have Felicia Mitchell.

Yeah, whatever is whatever it has been.

Good morning, everyone.

Councilman Gaffney, yes, sir.

Go ahead.

Thank you to the chair.

They really hate to speak on um my legislation.

I mean, y'all can speak now.

I mean, so uh that's what it is.

Let's let them speak.

They can speak and then we're gonna go to yours.

Okay.

We're we can let them speak if if you still wish to speak.

Um, and then we're gonna go to council member freeman's bill first, and then we're gonna go to your bill.

So this is about 20 minutes.

This stands to give me like two minutes.

Okay, I'll come back.

Come on, come back.

Go ahead.

They can go back.

This time is uh okay.

So they're gonna wait to speak at your bill.

Got it.

Okay, so that concludes the public comment.

Thank you for your comments.

Ladies, we uh greatly appreciate it, I guess.

All right, committee.

Let's uh let's kind of go through the agenda real quick just so we're all on the same page.

Item number one is deferred, two is deferred.

Again, we are just going through the agenda.

We are not actually taking action right now.

So three is deferred, four is deferred.

Number five is up for action.

Six, up for action.

Councilmember Omaro, that is his CBA dollars uh seven.

Uh amend and move.

That's councilman Lenin's bill.

He kind of prefaced that last uh two weeks ago.

Then we have item number eight up for action, nine, up for action, ten up for action.

11 and 12 are the um GIA DPRP, I believe, programs.

We're gonna go to those uh first after Councilmember Freeman and Councilmember McGaffney.

So that'll be numbers three and numbers four.

And then number thirteen action up for action, that's a cleanup bill.

14 um 988 bill, 15, normal action, 16 action item 17 is deferred.

18 um that is normally up for action.

19, this is gonna be number one.

This is council member Freeman's bill on the micro grants.

And number 20 is on second reading, 21's on second reading, 22 is up for emergency 23 is gonna be our second agenda item.

That is an emergency, that's council member McGaffney's bill.

Um, and then 24 and 25 are second reading, and then 26 is council member Salem's uh bill that's also being deferred, and 27 is amend and move.

And then 28, last page is on second reading as well.

So let's go ahead and go uh officially now.

We're gonna officially go through the deferrals and then move over to item number 19 on page 11.

So uh here we go.

Item number one, 2024 627 is deferred.

Item number two, 2024 966 is deferred.

Item number three, 2025 361 is deferred.

Item number four, 2025 seven seven five is deferred.

Now we will go to uh item number nineteen on page eleven, and we are looking for a motion on the amendment.

All right, we have a motion and second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

Through the chair of the committee, the amendment will attach a revised BT to place the funds into a uh separate activity.

These dollars will carry over into fiscal year 2627, so they need to be able to be identified.

All right, thank you for that explanation.

No one in the queue.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

And we motion a second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember Arias, you recognize.

All right.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, question to Mr.

Freeman or to the auditors.

I want to make sure that this is a carryover, so that means in 2627, there will be an additional 200,000, so it'll be a total of 400,000.

Is that what I'm understanding?

Through the chair to Councilmember Arias.

Uh so this funding, if not spent in the current year, would just whatever the balance is would carry over.

So I don't know that there would be additional unless the mayor or the council uh adds to 200,000 dollars.

But if whatever's unspent of this 200,000 would be available to JSEB within the 26-27 fiscal year.

Okay.

And one more follow-up then through the chair um to Mr.

Uh Peterson.

Then during the budget process, when we're going through this, that's when we can, as a council as a body, allocate the 200,000 for 2627 to make it 400,000 for them altogether.

Through the chair to Councilmember Arias, you could allocate whatever amounts you wanted to for this purpose during the budget process.

I just want to make sure we're we're keeping the same standard moving forward every year.

Uh it's not just a carryover.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Freeman, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh, and thank you all for giving me an opportunity to speak.

Um, I'll try to be brief because we've gone through this exercise numerous times.

So uh I really was just gonna sit back and if there were any questions, uh respond to any that you have.

Uh I want to thank those uh co-sponsors that have already joined in.

Um the first thing that comes to my mind is we know access is the biggest barrier to many of our underserved uh population in our community.

The next barrier, bureaucracy.

We're filled with it in this city.

And it's a shame.

My goal in every piece of legislation that I file, not uncommon from all of you, is to help people.

Oftentimes said, the biggest difference between Democrat and Republican is we all we both say we want to help people, we just have two different paths to go in there.

This is an example of this.

So this 200,000 that you see today, that's for small businesses.

Small businesses within JSAP is the same 200,000 that you saw last budget cycle.

That was for nonprofits.

Which there was another 200,000 that were for kids that did coding.

The bureaucracy was that each time I got told they don't have capacity to do it.

Our job to create policy, administration side is to execute.

So I can give you three examples of bills that I put forward.

No telling how many each of you might have put forward.

So I I'll leave I'll land with this.

I have the minutes from our last JCEB meeting.

Spent the last eight years building up JSEB to where we have an advisory board with members from our community that are JCBs from various walks of life.

I said, before I file this bill, do you all think that we have the capacity and the ability to do it?

They were excited.

We had our administrator there.

The chair asked the administrator.

And the answer was yes.

It's right here, March 25th, I believe.

March 25th, 230.

But yet on Monday, I hear now we don't have capacity.

Why?

Why?

So I would ask for your support.

And then I would ask that we start tracking some of these bills.

Because I heard yesterday it wasn't a priority of the mayor.

So is that how I mean I love the strong mayoral form of government, but is that how it works?

If it's not the mayor's idea, they don't do it.

People suffer.

Is that how we're going to operate as a body?

And I would say no.

And I would ask Ms.

Norris was in meetings with me when I met with Ms.

Figaro.

They revamped the microgrant program, made it better.

I signed off on it.

I asked them at that time, please ask the mayor to put it in the budget.

We'll fight to defend it.

Zero dollars put in the budget this year.

Still got 200,000.

Came up with an idea, and then we get told they can't do it in this cycle.

Am I flustered?

No, I'm hurt and disappointed that people are suffering.

So I asked that you join me in trying to get this out so small businesses can work.

Love what Councilmember said.

It's another voice that's going to fight for it next year.

So I'll close.

I'll answer any questions.

I look forward to hearing what the administration has to say on capacity because I want to know what happened from March 25th to April 21st.

Thank you.

All right, Councilmember Diamond, you're recognized.

Ooh.

You're my hero today.

I love it.

Thank you for keeping up the fight.

I want to be out as a co-sponsor, please.

Um I do have a question, but for $200,000, do we get something, you know, shiny, flashy report?

Ridiculous.

Um I would like to know that that you're not the only one who's facing this, but there's appropriations being done and things the administration purposely like slow walking it.

I I recommend you watch uh how slow things are going on the CIP if you're not in a favorite district.

It's it's almost comical.

Uh I have some good data on that to release in the future, but happy to support it.

Thanks for doing it.

Councilmember Aries, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair.

I also want to be out as a co-sponsor uh and to Mr.

Freeman.

I'm I'm just curious.

Um I was in that neighborhoods yesterday, but where is the lack of capacity?

Is it through um the the OED department or is it through the um grants department because or is it both?

Because I know for a fact JSAP is ready to put these dollars to work.

And so if the fact is that we're we're not really having the capacity to do it from a grants perspective, yet the people are ready to work, then we're having a bigger issue than then the capacity.

Is is it truly a capacity issue, or is it just a want, a desire issue?

That's a problem we're having.

200,000, I said this last time.

I don't think it requires that much manpower to put these dollars on the street.

So I think it's more of a desire issue, not a capacity issue in this case.

And I'm definitely uh uh co-sponsoring this.

Thank you.

Council Mr.

Freeman, if you do would you like to respond?

Uh uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I think that's a valid question.

It was uh Mr.

Delaney here yesterday that made the comment and through the chair to Ms.

Norris.

Would you care to kind of just detail the um the capacity piece?

I would, but I will defer to uh uh CAO Weinstein.

Yes, sir.

Go ahead, Mr.

Mike Weinstein, city employee.

The capacity it's easy to put money on the street.

The effort is in the contract management.

We have contract managers in KHA, we have them in public grants, we have them in OED.

Um the concept that you're talking about, great concept.

Not effective, not much of an impact with microgrants.

The issue that we have is that uh we will determine the mayor's staff that implements the program.

You decide you want the program, you fund the program, no problem.

But the dictating as to the staff that does it is where I think the line is.

That's all.

Go ahead, Mr.

Freeman.

Uh thank you.

Through the chair to uh Mr.

Weinstein, thank you so much.

Mr.

Weinstein, did you get my call or text several months ago?

Uh has your number changed by any chance?

Uh I'm sorry.

You'll have to say it again.

I I'm sorry.

Through the chair to Mr.

Weinstein.

Has your phone number changed?

Because I've texted you and called you.

I don't like I don't like surprising my friends, and I never got a response back.

And I would love to get on your calendar because I don't operate by surprising folks.

You said that microgrants don't work.

Can you I didn't say they don't work.

I said they're inefficient and don't have much of an impact.

How do you define inefficient?

Because if you're through the chair, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Through the chair.

Because the the dollars have to be substantial enough to really make a difference.

Um many of these nonprofits.

I mean, I mean, I had three years of KHA.

I've I've done with this a long time.

Can you hit pause there real quick?

So were you at KHA?

Sorry.

One second.

You mentioned the years at KHA, so are you referring to the 300,000 that was given out when those individuals lost their lives at rains?

Is that is that the case, the sample size that we're referring to, or you have other data that you're referring to?

I'm sorry.

Go through you, so we'll have a conversation.

I'm very familiar with microgrants.

And I'm very familiar with the challenges that nonprofits have to meeting the obligations and requirements of city government.

And if you're looking for uh impactful ways, you got to make it so that they one can accurately deal with the deliverables to get reimbursed.

And it has to be large enough that it has an impact.

You want to do microgrants, do microgrants.

I mean, that's fine.

But again, our only concern is that we'll decide the mayor's staff that functions and deals with the contract management.

You know, putting them out on the street, no problem.

Managing all the deliverables, managing whether they do the insurance, managing whether they have all the things that they need to have to be adequately reimbursed, is where the work is.

Not getting it on the street.

All right.

Ms.

Freeman, do you have any other questions?

Um I still don't think I got an understanding of inefficient and why microgrants won't work.

But Ms.

Norris, can you or Mr.

I didn't hear the understanding of the capacity that Mr.

Delaney was referring to yesterday.

Is that the answer for the capacity is that they don't like it and they feel like they should choose who does it?

Is that a definition of capacity or not, Mr.

Chair?

I'm I'm just trying to get an understanding of the response to what I heard.

Mr.

Mindson is a good thing.

And then while I got him there, Mr.

Chair, I would also like to know why the money sent to IT for the dashboard.

Why was there was no capacity there, I guess.

Or for the program that Ms.

Figueroa and Dr.

Harvey worked on together, they did that, not me.

They brought it to me.

Was it my idea?

And they got pushed out several months because of the collective, but I was told it was CBA at the time.

So it just seems like the story is just getting convoluted.

I would love Mr.

Weinstein.

We have friends outside of the community.

They've told me you need to sit down and have coffee with them.

Because I truly feel like right now anything, anything that I was put forward is being slow played.

And I don't mean to say that's a quote, but it might be a quote.

Yeah, I'll end with this.

The journey was a perfect example.

Journey board decided where the money was to go.

KHA staff handled the contract management.

Journey didn't have the capacity to do contract management.

KHA did.

That's all we want is the ability without getting anyone upset for us to go and manage it the way it could be managed.

The idea of the program, totally up to you.

So what we'll do is because I can see look, I think there's just a difference of opinion, a difference of methodology or whatever you want to call it.

It sounds like we put forward an initiative, we funded it.

We were originally given the expectation that it was going to get carried out.

It's getting slow played, it's not getting carried out.

Um what it sounds like to me is Councilmember Freeman has some additional questions, and I think you guys just need to sit down and figure this out because this is not going to go away.

This council is going to probably continue to support microgrants in the future.

Um I mean, we have questions being asked about it next year.

So I don't know that we're going to solve all of this right now.

Um, but I'm gonna come to Councilmember Freeman to wrap it up.

And I'm and I'm done.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

First of all, because of Councilman Salem's bill, 25,000 is the minimum.

So that's air quote micro.

We're not talking, and that's why I referenced the 300,000 put on the street.

That was 5,000.

Not 10,000.

The crime of safety task force.

That was the cumbersome act.

Because of the actions of this body, 25,000, you do the math.

How many times does that go into 200,000?

Do the math.

Eight times.

Next, I want you all to know I served on the Jacksonville Journey on the original board when it was 31 million dollars.

When KHA actually had to come report to us, right along with the learning co early learning coalition, right along with the sheriff, right along with the superintendent.

Their job still was to execute when we came down with a policy decision.

There was no, hey, we have to wait to see what Mayor Payton says.

We have to wait to see what Mayor Brown says.

We were compartmentalized.

Now, obviously, we're in a different form of government here, but he used that example.

I wanted you all to understand what the difference is from someone who served in that body for eight years.

Thank you.

All right, yes, sir.

We have two other speakers in the queue, and then I think we have a motion and second on the bill.

So let's continue the discussion.

Council Member Salem, you're recognized.

Thank you.

Uh Chair.

Number one, I want to be a co-sponsor.

Number two, through the chair to Mr.

to Councilmember Freeman.

Has this 200,000 dollars ever been spent?

Is this the same 200,000 that seems to be going around for the last three years, moved?

It's like a shell game.

It uh you you don't know which of the three it's under.

It's never been spent.

Is that correct?

Uh thank you.

Through the chair to Councilman Dr.

Salem, the first 200,000 is now with the youth empowerment committee that our president empowered.

So that's been around for about three years.

Okay.

And we're waiting to see now, based on what I've just heard, because we, if you came to our last meeting, that room had over a hundred plus groups in there.

I'm waiting to see if that's going to be executed.

This 200,000 is from maybe your year as president that was put in, worked through, and then pushed out again.

So that gives you a timeline, yes.

It's been three-year journey, but it's two different sets of 200,000.

So it's really 400,000 that we're talking about.

Okay.

The last comment, it's very disturbing to me to hear this discussion.

That the council is voting on something, appropriating dollars, and I hear the comment, we will decide.

I hope you guys all heard that.

We will decide how it's how it's implemented.

That there's a lot of cooperation in that comment.

That's disturbing.

You know, people call about playing politics, deciding what's what's implemented by the council and what's not.

Thank you.

Mr.

Chair.

Councilvice President Howland, you're recognized.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just wanted to let uh councilman Freeman know I fully support him on this bill.

Um Freeman has been on council for seven years.

He's had an amazing career.

He has a year left, potentially less than a year.

And uh I can tell when he gets um emotional and driven about um topics like he has over this last seven years for workforce development and JSEB and now microgrants and uh as a close colleague of his, I'll fully support him on this, and thanks for bringing it up.

And if I could also be a co-sponsor, thank you.

All right, we have no other speakers in the queue.

Um you can please add me as a co-sponsor as well.

And uh Councilmember Lane as well.

Basically, everyone up here would like to be had his co-sponsor.

Um thank you for coming down, Councilmember Freeman.

We do appreciate it because again, I think this is where that conversation needed to be had.

We needed to understand not just about the bill, but zoom out a little bit and see hey, what how are we going to continue to push this forward in the in the coming years?

Okay, all right.

We have a motion and a second on the bill as amended.

No, move the bill is amended.

We did.

Yeah, we have a it's on the table.

Motion and second on the bill as amended, open the ballot, record your vote.

We'll come to you.

Six Jero and A's.

Body Raction you've approved 2026-249.

Councilmember Freeman.

Hey, I just want to thank this body for listening, one and and thank you for the work.

And I'll let the cat out of the bag.

What I was told that this JSAB potentially was going to be were for kids starting their business, small business owners.

We had two present to us.

One was in finance and one was about self-esteem.

Young man has a book out right now.

He attends Rains High School.

These kids were gonna be the ones applying for these microgrants for small businesses.

So when they hold it up, they're holding up kids.

Some at Rains High School, some at first coast high school, some of these other places, that's where they're holding up, hurting kids, hurting people.

Thank you.

All right, thank you.

And yep.

Councilmember McGaffney.

Are you on councilman Freeman?

One last question through the chair.

Can I put this on Facebook?

Yeah, I'm probably getting it.

All right.

We're coming, we're coming to you next, Councilman McGaffney.

So council members, please turn to uh page 13.

We're gonna go to item 23.

Item 2026 263.

All right, we have a motion second on the emergency.

All in favor of the emergency signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The emergency carries.

Move the amendment.

We have a motion and second on the rules amendment.

Can someone please explain the rules amendment?

To the chair of the committee.

The rules amendment includes a CIP amendment to uh reflect the reduction in the CIP project for traffic calming district eight.

Attach a uh CIP project information sheet as well.

Uh also attach a revised exhibit two, which is the term sheet and budget to correct descriptors error and the footing of some dollars on the budget schedule, and then the rules committee added item number three, which was to include whereas clauses identifying or explaining the funding source uh for this council district eight traffic calming project.

It was originally part of Councilmember Gaffney Jr.'s um strategic plan that was funded out of the 2324 budget.

Uh you might remember the mayor included 7.5 million in the budget.

It's 250,000 came from that.

And then part of one of his enhancement requests was to add an additional 50,000.

So it was all funded, all 300,000 was funded as part of the 2324 budget.

Uh understood.

All right.

Is any questions on the amendment?

Seeing none.

All in favor of the rules amendment signified by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

All right.

We have a motion and second on the bill as amended as an emergency.

Any discussion?

Would we like to hear from the speakers now?

Uh Councilman Gaffney, you recognize before we vote if you want.

Yeah, thank you through the chair.

This would be clear.

This piece of legislation is um transfer 25,000 from uh um strategic funds from like Philip said, 2324.

I'm transferring it to the Oyster Fest, and I do have two individuals from the OSFS.

Y'all can come up.

I just want y'all to know more about the oyster fence, what do you use the funds are going at?

So we got Miss Wellington, if you don't mind through the chair.

All right, you can introduce yourself, name address.

Go ahead.

Good evening.

Afternoon, everyone.

My name is Marcia Ray Wellington, and my address 9767 Carbondale Drive East Jacksonville, Florida, 3208.

Uh, I currently reside in the Riverview uh area of district eight.

Anyone introduced that?

Yes, good afternoon.

I'm Felicia Mitchell, co-chair for Riverview Collective Community Organization.

I too reside in the Riverview area.

And so we want to take this opportunity to make the body aware of Oyster Fest.

This is a festival that's coming around an effort that's very important to our neighborhood.

And that year we experienced Hurricane Ian.

Hurricane Ian brought the Trout River into my backyard and across the street over to my neighbors.

After that year, our neighborhood has been challenged with uh uh nor'easters, uh keen tie, so on and so forth.

So flooding has been a major issue for us.

Uh my uh colleague and I uh we both own properties and we realize that it was necessary that we come together um to establish an organization so that we can advocate for some of the infrastructure challenges that we're having in our neighborhood within the waterway, also um with our business corridor.

So our priority was to engage the community, get others involved so that it's not just the two of us doing this work, but it's a collective uh group and our community organization, Riverview Collective Community Organization.

The work that we're looking to do that we're doing now and looking to do in the future, it's really a collective effort.

So the ORSHAFES is a celebration of the work that we're doing in combination with St.

John's River Keeper as well as JATS Conservation and uh FCAR.

These organizations, we work together, we're in we're restoring our oyster reef.

Uh and that, if you have questions, we can go into the science on that all day.

But it's basically a natural barrier that will provide basically a living shoreline that will protect our shorelines over off the Trout River.

It will also help with filtrations, and if we continue with the momentum that we've been able to gather from Oyster Fest within five years, we're talking about being able to install a thousand oyster posh modules, uh, as well as seeing uh up to 150,000 uh or added oysters to our shoreline.

And what that does is basically within five years, that filters 50.

I mean, I'm sorry, that filters over five billion gallons of water a year, and it provides concrete structure to help prov uh protect our uh waterfront properties from flooding.

Any questions?

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

So I just want to let you guys know what you were voting for.

So we had the event this past weekend, as she stated, we had 300 individuals last year.

We had 1700 um individuals this year in the event, it pretty much centers around educational opportunities.

I mean, we had bounce houses, a lot of books, a lot like at St.

John's Water Um Keeper came out, downtown Jacks came out, um, downtown Vision came out this past weekend.

We had individuals come from all different sides of town to learn more about the oysters and the waterways and things of that nature.

I'm learning as I go, you know.

So um they brought this idea to me, I think a couple of months ago.

That's why we're so late.

But um, it was a great event, and we'll make sure we invite you guys out in the next year.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you, ladies, for coming down.

Thank you.

Congratulations on a successful event.

And I believe we have no other speakers in the queue, and it has been moved and seconded as an emergency.

So open the ball, record your vote.

Six Jay, zero days.

By your action, you've approved 2026 263 as an emergency as amended.

All right.

Congratulations, Councilmember McGaffney.

All right.

Doing good work for the community there, sir.

All right.

Now we're gonna go on to page seven.

We're going to page seven, item number eleven, twenty twenty-six two one eight, looking for a motion on the amendment.

Second.

Motion and second on the amendment.

Can someone please explain the amendment?

To the chair of the committee of the amendment, we'll place a revised redevelopment agreement on file to correct the minimum construction cost, also reflect the acquisition cost of the parcel, uh, which is a qualifying cost within the total development cost, and then also update various uh ordinance code reference sections.

All right.

Councilmember Lane, are you on the amendment?

Okay, on the bill.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Any opposed the amendment carries.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember Lane, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Chair.

So I did not watch the uh, I guess it was neighborhoods when this failed.

And I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Uh I was going to fully support this.

It's no secret.

I've been a critic to downtown cash completion grants, but I thought we approved this as part of the DIA budget process, and now this is simply the appropriation from DIA TIFF funding only, correct?

So through the chair to Mr.

Peterson or Ms.

Taylor, is there anything I'm missing?

This is just we approved the DIA budget.

This is simply the appropriation on the back end for two budgeted TIFF funded items, correct?

Through the chair to Councilman Lane and I'll give you like 98% of that.

Um this is actually just approving the agreement.

The the dollars are already appropriate as part of DIA's budget.

You're absolutely correct.

That was included in the 25-26 budget.

The sum of items 11 and 12 are equivalent to what is in their budget for DPRP.

This is your sign off on the agreement and how the structure will work.

That's a requirement of the DPRP program for the agreements to come back to council.

Through chair and Mr.

Pearson, we basically, through the budget process said DIA, yes, you have permission to go work on these contracts within the bounds of what we approved.

They came back, and this is the appropriation for that.

So uh through the chair to Mr.

Pearson, or I don't know if anyone's on neighborhoods.

Uh I I guess I can ask.

Well, do we excuse me?

Oh, oh I apologize.

Uh uh uh Dr.

Sam, do you know why it did not pass in neighborhoods?

I'm just curious because uh again, being of a frequent no vote, I was just trying to get more background on why this failed in neighborhoods.

It wasn't clear to me why they voted against it.

The the ROI is 0.53, but it's point five for these types of projects is is the bottom line.

It's not general revenue dollars, it's it's it's dollars out of the DIA.

For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why some of the people voted against it.

Through Chair, thank you, Dr.

Salma.

Again, I'll be supporting these because we gave them permission through the budget process to seek out these deals, and now they're coming back for simply the appropriation.

Yeah, and I'll just add briefly.

I believe they even started as general fund dollars, and we put them into the CRA dollars.

Um go to T.

Correct.

They these started out as general fund dollars, and then the DIA said, okay, we can put this in the CRA.

So even further kudos to the DIA if you if you're out there um for doing these types of projects with with your funding, not ours.

Um council member Salem, you recognized.

Are you you're in the queue?

I don't know if you want to speak to the bill.

The other thing, I I think there was some concern of the projects being small, but if if you're gonna revitalize some of these areas of downtown, you've got to do these types of projects was is my feeling.

Thank you.

All right, councilmember Arias, you recognize.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, Mr.

Stand, yeah, you that that's a great point.

And then during the budget process, we talked about how I would we would rather see more smaller projects because that actually brings synergy to the community, especially in downtown.

Larger projects are great, but we need more of these.

I would I would rather see 10 of these versus one larger project, uh, which is why we did the general fund to the CRA.

Um, but I think that it was just a little bit confusing yesterday, and I think most council members hopefully will change their mind come next Tuesday.

I'll be supporting this as well.

Uh thank you.

All right, we have no other speakers in the queue.

So uh the bill has been moved and seconded with the amendment already approved.

So open the ballot, require your vote.

Five yes, one nay.

By direction you've approved 2026 218 as amended.

Item number 12, sort of the sort of the companion going along with this one.

Motion and second on the amendment.

Mr.

Peterson, can you explain the amendment?

Through the chair of the committee, this just places a revised agreement on file to correct the J sub goal amount and then update those same ordinance code section references.

All in favor of the amendment.

Signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Move the bill and amended.

Second.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

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

Five yes, one nay.

By reaction you've approved 226219 as amended.

All right.

Thank you guys for moving these around.

All right.

Now we're gonna go.

We already did one, two, three, and four.

We're gonna go to item number five on page three.

Move the bill.

Second.

Motion and second on the bill.

2026 185 is the bill that just got moved and seconded with no discussion.

Open the ballot course vote.

Six Yes, zero and nays.

By your action, you've approved 2026 185.

Item number six, 2026, 187.

Move the bill.

We have a motion and second on the bill.

No one in the queue.

Let's open the ballot require to vote.

Six Y, zero and nays.

What?

Okay.

Go ahead.

Do you want to on number six, twenty twenty-six one eighty seven?

Yeah, thank you, uh Mr.

Chair.

I'd actually like to be added as a co-sponsor.

Um, if it was in my district, I would have also given some money for my CBA dollars.

Um they they do tremendous work and I encourage you all to just do a tour if possible.

Thank you.

Okay.

Did you want to say anything or no?

Okay.

All right.

Uh so item number six, twenty twenty-six one eighty-seven uh is passed.

Number seven, item number seven, twenty twenty-six two one three.

We have a motion and a second on the rules amendment.

Mr.

Peterson, would you like to explain the rules amendment or through the chair of the committee?

The rules amendment uh would be to include the exact dollar amount of the September 30th, 2024 Act for operating reserves of 392 million 138,000, and then also include language explaining uh how to arrive at that amount and then rules added yesterday, item number two to include a operating reserve floor of the hire of 17 percent of the general fund service district operating budget and the 930 Act for operating reserve balance of that 392.

So the higher of those would have to kick in.

Anything above that amount would then be contributed to this unfunded uh incentive additional fundamental on the amendment.

Uh yes, sir, on the amendment.

Uh so we talked about this two weeks ago, and I'm completely fine with the amendment.

We had talked about in finance committee, how uh council member sales gonna work with me, Mr.

Peterson.

So I think this just provides another guard uh guardrail and helps us make sure that in any event if our reserves did dip too low that we still got a buffer between what would have been seven percent versus seventeen percent.

So completely good with this, and I'll be supporting it.

All right, gotcha.

Yep, I remember kind of the discussion uh when you brought it up on second reading.

Glad you guys came to an agreement.

If council member Salem and Councilmember Lennon are agreeing on financial things, uh I think we're good to go.

So uh all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Move the bill as amended.

Second motion to second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember Howland, you're recognized.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to commend Councilman Lane for the bill and councilman Salem for the amendment.

Good bill, good amendment.

Um taxpayers are better off.

Thanks.

All right, Councilmember Lennon, you're recognized.

I think turned to the committee as about one year ago, is April of last year when for the first time I made the front page of a newspaper, the daily record, with cash incentive cliff and big bold letters.

We had 74 million outstanding at the time that we were expecting to pay next year.

We've whittled that down substantially as we've had some things go our way with uh favorable budget adjustments.

Uh you've had a bill, Chair, Councilmember Howland, I think a few others up here.

The administration's even had a few bills putting excess funding against cash completion grants.

Uh Councilmember Miller had the uh piece of legislation to where now when the mayor submits the budget, there has to be designated funding source for a cash completion grant coming due that year.

And now this will help us in the future years as extra cash becomes available by ordinance in 106 has said, okay, as long as your operating reserves are good, you can do whatever you want.

If a council member whoever wants to do something with the rest of that carryover or recapture money, now it says operating reserves at a certain level are number one priority, and then funding unbudgeted future financial obligations in the form of cash completion grants, which is it's really finance one on one, right?

When you get extra money, fund your known unbudgeted items at that point.

Uh so I'm proud of how serious we've taken these cash completion grants.

I'm hoping that we never put ourselves in the position to where we would potentially have 74 million, which is a huge percentage of our uh discretionary portion of our budget.

Uh so I just hope we uh keep on making progress here.

So thanks for your support.

All right, Councilmember Diamond, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I just want to be out as a co-sponsor.

It's a great bill.

Uh sad that we need it.

It's kind of like taking OZEMPIC.

You know, shouldn't have had all the jelly donuts, but um, I'm glad that we're uh trying to take care of the problem.

All right, and I'd also like to be uh okay.

That was uh councilmember Salem, Councilmember Hallam, Councilmember Carlucci, Councilmember Arius, I'll add as a co-sponsor on the bill.

And um no, uh and there's no other speakers in the queue.

Um I'll just say this before we open the ballot and vote.

And did we already vote on this?

We haven't voted on it yet.

No.

The re the the main thing I love about this bill is this is gonna be here after we all leave.

That is the that is the the biggest part about this that I just I really really appreciate.

So thank you, Councilmember Lennon, for kind of having you know not only the short sight, what stuff we got to take care of now, but foresight for the future councils that now they're they're they're on a good path, and and I I really appreciate that.

So no one else in the queue.

Let's open the ballot, record your votes.

Six Y 0 nays.

By your action, you've approved 2026 213.

Item number eight, 2026, 214.

Second.

Motion and second on the bill, no one in the queue, open the ballot, record your vote.

Six Yero and A's.

By your action you've approved, 2026 214.

Item number nine, 2026, 215.

Move the bill.

Motion and second on the bill.

No discussion.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

6 yay, 0 and 8.

By your action you've approved, 2026 215.

Item number 10, 2026, 217.

Move the bill.

Motion to second on the bill.

No discussion.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Did you?

Okay.

That was council member Diamond as a co-sponsor on 217.

6J 0 nays.

And Councilmember.

And you know what?

Let's just go ahead and add all of us on as a co-sponsor.

That's just that's just what happens.

All right.

Councilmember Hallen, Carlucci, Arius.

Lenin.

I'm already there.

And Ron's already there.

What do you know?

If you could just add us on all the rest of the no.

All right, we already did item number 11.

We already did item number 12.

Item number 13, 2026 220.

Move the bill.

We have motion and second on the bill.

No one in the queue, no discussion.

Let's open the ballot, record your votes.

6Js, 0 and A's.

By your action, you've approved 2026 220.

Item number 14, 2026, 224.

Move it.

Second.

Motion and second on the bill.

No discussion.

Open the ballot.

Record your vote.

Six Jero and A's.

By direction you've approved 2026 224.

Item number 15, 2026, 225.

Move the bill second.

Motion and second on the bill.

No one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Six J 0 and A's.

By your action, you've approved 2026 225.

Item number 16, 21E 26, 226.

Motion to second on the bill.

No discussion.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

6Js, 0 and A's.

By reaction, you've approved 2026 226.

Item number 17, 2026, 227 is deferred and takes us to item number 18, 2026, 248.

Move the bill.

We have a motion and second on the bill.

No one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

6Js, 0 and A's.

By your action, you've approved 2026 248.

Item number 19, we already took up.

Item number 20, 2026, 259 is on second reading.

Item number 21, 2026, 260 is on second reading.

Item number 22, 2026, 261.

Move the emergency.

Second.

Motion to second on the emergency.

All in favor of the emergency signify by saying aye.

Any opposed?

The emergency passes.

Move the bills of emergency sections.

Motion to second on the bill as an emergency.

No discussion.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

Six Ya's, zero and nays.

By your action, you've approved, twenty twenty-six two sixty-one.

Item number twenty-three.

We have already taken up.

Items 24 and 25, 2026, 264, 265 are on second reading.

Item number 26, 2026, 268 is being deferred.

And item number 27, our last action item.

We have a motion and second on the amendment.

Mr.

Peterson, can you explain the amendment?

Your thing through the chair of the committee.

The amendment corrects the address of the packaging and logistics facility that will be constructed and then also places a revised agreement on file to update the base year for Rev grant purposes to 2026.

Correct specific default language as it relates to the number of jobs that need to be created and then indicates that all previous Rev grants with Johnson and Johnson are terminated in lieu of this one being approved.

All right.

No discussion.

All in favor of the amendment signified by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

The amendment carries.

Move the bill as amended.

Second.

Motion and second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember is recognized.

I think chair.

I just have a question for Mr.

Randolph, if possible.

Um I just want I'm understanding that this is for the uh creation of the packaging facility.

They're not moving from Centurion to Pekin Road, are they?

Are they gonna still be in uh Centurion?

Ed Randolph OED through the chair to Councilman Arius.

No, they're actually gonna be freeing up capacity in their south side location.

Uh so taking out the distribution and logistics element there and moving it to this new facility on the north side to to allow them to put my more manufacturing equipment in the south side.

Okay.

Thank you, sir.

Councilmember Landon, you're recognized.

Uh thank you, Chair.

As the OED liaison, I just want to point out this one has uh it's not gotten a ton of news, but this is absolutely huge.

This is 550 million dollars of investment.

Uh and a couple of things I just want to point out about this.

Uh it's in two separate parts of town, and it's parts of town that we don't always see a lot of uh incentive packages right on the border of myself and uh council member Arias's district, uh that up on the north side as well.

4.86 ROI, and it's Rev grant only.

Once again, OED is proving that we can do Rev grant only deals, and there's also a job component.

And frankly, it's not the job component that sticks out on this one as much as there's going to be a lot of uh employment, all albeit temporarily probably on the construction of a $550 million capital investment.

So uh through the chair of Mr.

Randolph, another great uh deal that uh OED is bringing uh to us.

So appreciate your team's work on that.

All right, Councilmember Aries recognized.

I don't see it here.

Uh through the chair of Councilman Aries, yes, there is an element in the economic development agreement, and they have been meeting the JC requirement each time we've entered into an agreement with them.

So there is a J subject.

Thank you, sir.

All right, we have no one else in the queue.

All right, so let's go ahead and open the ballot record your vote.

Item number 26, 288 is on second reading.

Council members, that concludes our meeting today.

This meeting is adjourned.