About this in the last minute, last minute.

The two issues that I have here today are going to be a we need to address a serious problem with grants in compliance because for the fact that it's been five months and they still haven't gotten funded, 26,000 each.

Um, that's a little bit of a slow approach.

But the second part is how do we make sure that we protect our city, the administration, city council as well when it comes to um to uh um funding any organization.

So um I reached out to Senator Clay Yarborough, which is the author of the bill.

He wrote 1134, and it was uh signed by the governor on April 22nd of this year.

All right, in this letter, which you have here is a three-page letter, you all could have it now and I'll forward it to anybody who needs it.

He clearly identifies that this bill is primarily to make sure that we mirror exactly what they're doing in the federal level, so the state level is trying to come uh come to the same uh standards as the federal level.

Uh we still could fund Hispanic organizations, Asian organizations, black organizations.

We can still recognize any kind of cultural month, uh, whether it's Italian Heritage Month, whatever the case is.

Uh no chambers or any entity have to change their name from call it the agent chamber of commerce to whatever.

You guys have the right to stay by your roots, your culture, and continue to represent it proudly, right?

The biggest thing is that we and you all cannot have start um uh taking in initiatives that practice DEI initiatives.

An example, the agent chamber.

I'm just gonna use that as an example.

If you guys are recruiting members, business owners, you can't say we're only gonna recruit Asian business owners, or if you're gonna have an event to showcase uh uh business excellence and all that, it can cannot only be for Asians.

Now you're being specifically inclusive to just that cultural group.

You have to be completely open to everybody.

Um that's one of the things that that the senator talked about.

Uh thank you, uh, Mr.

Romero for joining us today.

Another practice that you guys can't do, any chamber or any entity that we're gonna fund as a city or the state is any organization that says hey, we're gonna do a workshop on DEI inclusivity and things like that, that automatically is a red flag as well, too.

You have to always keep in mind that everything has to be for everybody and not specifically for one target group, whether it's a cultural group or any kind of group, right?

Um, so he goes into great details on this three-page letter um talking about the uh the essence of House Bill 1134, and I and I encourage you all to pick one of these up and read it.

Um, I want to thank uh Senator Tay Yarborough for not only stepping up to a plate and make sure that we address this, but uh for doing this in such a quick manner because like I said, I found out about this last Friday via the chambers and uh uh the news media reaching out to me.

So he did this over the course of the weekend.

Um so now let's go on to agenda item number two, which is funding that is already approved.

One of the things that the senator told me was to say, hey, um, this bill will take effect January 1st, 2027.

From now to then, if you guys have funded any initiatives, you have to continue.

You don't have to be you you should continue on and funding them.

This bill in this case was actually appropriate, was funded prior to the governor signing it, number one.

Number two, it's funded last year, and like I said, it's been five months since then, and they still haven't gotten funded.

So we as the city council are urging, at least myself, I speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure my colleagues are on the same page.

We urge the administration to please, all right, and I say this please very nicely, to go ahead and fund them immediately, because as you said, I already got cover from the author of the bill saying that yes, we can fund these, right?

And there are no excuses for the lack of um funding initiatives for these organizations or any organizations for that matter.

Um, yes, sir.

Oh, thank you.

Um, so that's that's one.

The second thing is um, coming the next budget cycle, which will start in the summer, we as a as a city council have to be mindful that that budget cycle is gonna be representing January 1st of 2027 as well.

So when we're looking at funding initiatives in our upcoming budget, we have to take this House bill in consideration, even though for the calendar year we're still in the 2026, it will affect 2027 calendar year.

So when you're looking at that, the senator was very clear on this.

Make sure that the city council um looks at this bill uh when funding um uh fiscal year 2026-27 for the upcoming budget.

Those are the two things.

So um, right now I'm gonna open up the floor to my colleagues to see if you have any questions or concerns that you want to talk about.

Mr.

Michaelucci, go ahead.

Uh thank you, Councilman.

Uh curious, uh, is did you invite the administration?

Absolutely.

They're right there?

Are they oh, I see.

Okay.

Um, so I was uh, uh sorry, so did you say that they were withdrawing funding this year right now?

Did I hear you say that?

Correct.

They were they were um pausing the funding for the organizations.

Yeah, can't can we get that?

Uh Ms.

Norris to maybe verify that.

Sure.

Ms.

Norris, if you don't mind coming up, please, and um, I will give you a microphone.

Ken, do you want to give her a microphone?

If possible, no?

Ken doesn't want to give you a microphone.

Sorry.

I I think it's not right.

He she got it.

I think it's I think it's imperative that we get that you know clear and on the record here.

And um, and then I think it would be uh well as a suggestion, and you probably already thought about this, you're smart guy.

I know how smart you are.

Um but uh as we roll into budget hearings, that we get ahead of that curve by having some workshops with the administration and those who would be a part of the budget uh on their side of the floor, uh, and strategizing on how we approach that uh next year, so we don't find ourselves uh behind the curve and uh trying to figure it out while we're in the middle of it, you know.

So great point, and you would be a good person to perhaps um uh uh lead that that charge, yeah.

So that's all I have to say.

But I would like to hear from Ms.

Norris as far as uh the pausing of the dollars.

Maybe they've paused them just because they're wanting to get their bearings because I gotta tell you right now you you you you tip the bounce of anything, you know, and before long you're under investigation, you know, and they may be wanting to make sure that doesn't happen.

So, thank you, Councilmember Carlucci.

Um to the body through the chair.

Uh withdrawal is probably not the correct term.

These dollars have just not gone out to the organizations at this point.

They still exist.

Um we appreciate that councilmember's support and getting clarification from Senator Yarbrough on this.

I think Councilman Carlucci's words are kind of accurate.

Um we seem to get pinged with things.

So we appreciate the joint effort here and showing support for the dollars for these organizations.

Norris, um, so the the question asks are they gonna get funded or not?

I believe so.

Seems like you guys want them to get funded, and we have your support in doing so.

Okay.

Uh Mr.

Salem.

Thank you, Chair.

There's a couple things here that really bother me.

Um these dollars were approved in last year's budget.

We are six months into this, and they've not received their dollars.

What concerns me is the comments that were made by Mr.

Weinstein at uh a committee meeting last week where he's flatly stated you guys can pass it, but we'll decide who's gonna uh what we're gonna implement.

That's and as I and I stood up then and said, Did you guys hear that?

And no one said anything other than myself.

We're the appropriators, they're the implementers.

We pass it, they should do it.

And these dollars should have been in the hands of these agencies months ago, months ago.

And this HP 134 is is just a red herring, in my opinion.

Um the administration needs to get these organizations the money.

We passed it in the budget.

It's as simple as that.

And stop all this other nonsense.

Thank you, Chair, sir.

Mr.

Diamond, go ahead and thank you.

Um I wasn't gonna speak, but since the administration said that we support, I want to be clear, I voted against all this.

I don't think that you should uh fund anything that uses people's immutable characteristics.

Um founding principle, but the issue of not spending money that's been appropriated is like a real one, and so uh the result of this is that that we are being hampered from doing our job as the elected legislative body.

And I think the remedy for that if it keeps happening and it is, especially in the CIP, is to do recapture.

So in six months, if the administration isn't spending money the way uh we've appropriated, we can recapture it so they can't repurpose it for other things.

And to revisit the budget uh mid-cycle uh for unspent funds.

So that's the legislative response to that.

Um as to the notion of getting pinged a lot.

If you follow the law, you don't get pinged.

It's really lovely thing about following the law.

All right, Mr.

Joe Carducci.

All right, thank you, Councilman Varius.

Um, when did y'all get like a Ms.

Norris?

Sorry, um, did y'all get like a legal legal advice to put out that statement to say like we're not gonna fund?

I don't know what the exact wording was, so I'm not trying to parse words or anything, but basically, I guess y'all told at least the black chamber, like, hey, we're not doing this.

Was there what was the internal discussion like in y'all's office?

Was it was it or you know, OGC consulted, or was it more um, you know, just an internal discussion of seeing how things kind of played out with um the state.

Uh we did speak with members of the Office of General Council in this.

Our concern was, and I appreciate the council members' note, um that bill was signed here in Jacksonville.

We had not yet inked agreements with the chambers, and so we were concerned about not violating the law, but rather the spirit of the law and where the state was headed.

That's the majority of our concern.

Okay, so so there was a consultation with OGC and their consult and and what was their advice or opinion given to you guys.

I think in the end we decided to act in the more cautious manner.

Okay.

So they more or less said it's gray.

I think we're less worried about more so the public reaction by some government, some public leaders, whether this was legal or not, how it might be framed.

Okay, so it was more of less about legality, more about just I guess perception and then the outfall that could come from that.

Okay, okay, that helps.

I just want I was just curious.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

All right, Mr.

Jimmy Pulso.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you for hosting this meeting.

And I'm I'm very happy to see as many people here and and I are we all kind of in agreement we want these dollars to be spent towards the chambers that we all wanted them to go to.

Right.

Seems like it seems like that's the case with the exception of Councilmember Diamond, who has problems with all sorts of stuff.

Um that's just on him.

But but the point being is is I'm I'm grateful that you uh uh that you stood up and you wanted to do this.

So thank you for that.

I think that takes a lot of courage given the political environment that we're in.

Um let's let's not act as if we haven't seen Tallahassee for over the past decade at the very least, try to put the hammer towards local governments.

It happens, it's been happening a lot.

This legislature has not been kind to local governments.

And now we have elected leaders that have come to Jacksonville multiple times now, including our attorney general and our CFO, that have constantly tried to make hay of things that this administration um data did not do, right?

So to the point of legality, there's plenty of things that legally this administration's done perfectly fine.

However, we start seeing people show up and start threatening, you know, X, Y, and Z actions.

And we've seen this governor remove elected officials, and then later on the court said you couldn't do that, but then it's five, six months later, and now the court can't force, you know, a certain I mean there was there was two uh uh state attorneys that were removed, for instance.

Point being is the it's a real it's a real concern, it's a real fear.

It's not something that that happens in other states, it's happened here.

So I understand some of the some of the concern from the administration to the point of whether or not the dollars should have been spent much earlier, couldn't agree more.

Uh and I and I do believe that that's probably a grants issue.

It's why I've kind of brought up uh multiple times in the past that our grants office probably needs a little more support.

I literally have a bill right now that's on its third iteration because the dollars still have not come out, you know, on time.

So I couldn't agree with you more on that.

That that part is a processing issue within the administration.

I um I am sorry to any of these organizations that have had to even see their names in the news.

Um the black chamber does incredible work, the Hispanic Chamber does incredible work, Asian American Chamber does incredible work.

I'm so grateful to the work you're doing.

I'm very sorry that this might mean that getting dollars towards these awesome organizations that represent a lot of small business owners may not get dollars in the future.

I don't know if the black expo is gonna be able to get funded now.

Point being is um I'm grateful to you for doing this.

I'm willing to to file a resolution or a bill to make sure that it's the the desire of this body to make sure these dollars do get spent um before this deadline hits, but but there's a future here that I am very concerned about for some of these organizations, and and I very much support making sure they get their dollars as soon as possible.

Alright, thank you, uh Mr.

Proof of the Words.

Uh, I'll take uh Mr.

Marao for the first time, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Just very quickly, I wanted to punctuate what was stated earlier by Councilmember Salem, echoed uh briefly by Councilmember uh Peluso.

And and that is the fact that these dollars have already been approved.

Approved, waiting to be spent as to why uh perhaps government process is holding it up.

I can't see how a law that takes effect at the start of the new year would impede the ability of these dollars to go forth.

And so I think we need to do whatever is necessary to uh move those dollars forward and then January one deal with whatever comes up then.

Um so I just wanted to punctuate what was stated earlier.

Um, and it's unfortunate that uh it's become a uh uh media PR nightmare and and it reflects on us when in fact uh these monies were appropriated.

And if I recall, they uh they came out of your contingency so you know um, yeah, let's let's move forward.

That's my point.

Thank you for that, sir.

All right.

Um second time we're gonna go in this, uh, so go ahead and Mr.

Matt Correcci.

Okay, yeah.

Um so uh what I wanted to ask uh uh uh the uh Ms.

Norris real quick.

Uh did you say that the dollars had been held up some because uh contracts had not been completed?

I am digging in with for clarity.

I believe the department uh Andy, with oversight of this is the Office of Economic Development, not the grants division.

Okay.

So I'm digging in with Mr.

Randolph to figure out what delayed the I'm not trying to lay blame, I'm just trying to make sure that we all know that you know I hope nobody was being ignored now.

And I say that because I've been on I've been a councilman for many years uh in different times, but we have always been uh careful in the city.

We have a tradition in this city to make sure that um a lot of different uh minority groups were included uh in a lot of things, like the minority business enterprise bill.

Uh Hispanics were included in that, black folks were included in that, the Philippines were included in that, and and we made a a real um serious attempt to make sure everybody had a chance.

So uh we have a history of that here in Jacksonville.

Uh second thing, uh I think it will be critical, critical that between now and uh budget, that we don't leave any of these wonderful organizations left out there uh wondering oh, I wonder if we can do that, or wonder if we can do that.

And I think it would be well also uh council member Arias uh as you do some more work on this in whatever group that wants to help you, uh, to put together a list of consistent policy guidelines for these organizations to have so that in order to they know where the guardrails are because we don't want one group maybe uh you know doing something very good, but oops, maybe they went outside of the the state guide guardrail somehow, and we we don't want the unintentional consequences on anybody because these folks they're not getting paid.

What they're to get what they're doing is they're creating jobs, opportunities for people that a lot of times may not get a chance.

And that's what that's why I don't like to solve this DEI business.

I think it's about to bull.

And I would complete that if I could, but I will not complete that sentence uh in this meeting.

Uh so I think a list of guidelines would be real real important because they know they need to know what their expectations are uh so that they can stay within that and do uh the best they can to help those in this community that uh need a little help and need a little support.

Thank you, sir.

Yeah, um, I'm actually working with the senator as part two to come up with those guidelines, like you said, because a lot of people, including myself and most of us probably don't know exactly what that checklist is.

Um so that's gonna be part of the next part that I'm gonna do uh moving forward.

Good for you.

Mr.

Salem, I know you had a question, and uh we have five minutes left.

So gentlemen, just make it as brief as you can.

Just a quick comment.

It it makes no difference to me whether I voted for this or not.

This legislation got 10 votes, and we all should honor that and make sure that it gets paid.

So that's the point I want to make.

I think I voted for this, but I don't recall.

But irrespective, it went through the budget and got passed.

It should have been done months ago.

We need to get it done.

Absolutely.

Thank you, sir.

Mr.

Joe Carucchi.

All right, thank you.

Mr.

I'll be quick, so I know we have another.

Um, in regards to uh Councilman Peluso with the resolution, I would just say I wouldn't necessarily love that idea only because it's it gets into the point of we already passed it, and then now we're having to say, oh, we really meant it.

We really meant it because the admin.

You know what I mean?

It just gets kind of sticky with that.

I mean, so I I don't want to get into this duplicative um role of okay, well, we didn't issue a resolution on all these other ones, but uh I'll just leave it at that.

I think I think this meeting here has done a good purpose.

I think you know, for the sake of cover, you know, this letter from the bill sponsor in the Florida Senate, uh Senator Yarborough, um, obviously carries probably a little bit more weight.

And um, yeah, with that, thank you, Mr.

Chair, for having this meeting.

I appreciate it, and let's get these organizations their dollars.

Thank you.

Mr.

Peluso, anything else?

No, all right.

Uh one more point of um clarity.

Um, like I said, I'll have follow-ups with everybody, but um I asked the senator some questions and he highlighted them here with some answers on page two and page three.

A simple question that I asked so that most people could understand is a very simple one is an example.

Let's say there's a Hispanic agency that deals with children battling with cancer.

Can we or can we not fund them?

And the answer was yes, we can, as long as they're not specifically only targeting Hispanic children with cancer.

So this is a very broad base approach.

This is new and it's a learning curve for a lot of people here.

Mr.

Uh, thank you, Vice President Holland, for joining us today.

Um, and so we were just kind of wrapping up.

Uh uh I had uh Senator Yarbrough uh send us a letter not only to cover us but also to protect the city from any uh potential lawsuits and to make sure that the administration honors their part, which is what we passed, which was uh funding uh these three entities in the room today.

So um, Mr.

Holland, if you have any questions, I will adjourn this meeting.

You made it to the last minute, but thank you for for making it.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Uh so recap of highlight will be um we passed this bill December 9th of 2025, uh April 22nd.

Governor DeSantis signed into action House Bill 1134, um, which was uh written by the author, Senator Kay Yarbo right here.

Um the administration uh called these entities telling them they're no longer getting funded.

Um this was last week, I got breaking news.

Immediately I called the senator to get clarification.

Over the weekend, he worked on this letter, and um to recap everything.

We're gonna be at least myself, I know I'm gonna be working with the senator moving forward as well to create a checklist to make sure that not just these three entities but any entities stay in compliance whenever they're seeking funding from the local or state level.

And essentially the reason why this bill was enacted was because we want to mimic what the federal level guidelines are as well, too.

The state level wants to do what federally they're being done.

Um so there's a lot into this letter.

I encourage you to read this too.

Um but that's in a nutshell a little bit of that.

Um so everybody, thank you for joining us today.

And this meeting, where you adjourned chambers, will be able to get their money.

Absolutely.

Administration already said they will, and um I yeah, we're gonna give it we're gonna give a checklist to not only the administration but to all of us and also uh any entity seeking funding.

Um and you do not have to change your name, Hispanic uh Asian or Black Chamber.

Keep your name, that's that's exactly what you guys represent, but you represent the city as well, too.

Um, that's the biggest thing.

We can't just be exclusively only to one group.

We have to be for all.

Um and yeah, if anybody has any more questions, please call me, contact me.

I'm here to answer any any questions.

Thank you, Councilman Aries, for getting this law clarified.

It was important.

Of course, thank you, sir.

All right, meeting adjourned.

Oh, you got to bring up the time.

We gotta look at it we've got another one.

That's around like there are three attacks.

We wanna talk about the talking.

Doing good.

So you're just doing this now or like you.

I started though.

Oh, okay.

I think you're because this is probably the only thing.

No, I'm just thank you.

But you know what?

I can tell you that.

I'm sure you need the story.

Yeah, so we can kind of put it over.