Good morning, everyone.

We'll go ahead and get started with the last meeting of the council year of the Transportation Energy and Utilities Committee.

We'll go ahead and get started with introductions starting to my left with Mr.

Delaney.

Good morning, Bill Delaney with the mayor's office.

Stephen Lebee, Council Research.

Carla Shell, Office of General Counsel.

Edward Linsky, Council Auditor's Office.

Will Lane and District Three.

Good morning, Tyrone O'Clack Murray, District 9.

I'd like it.

Everybody here in the back.

Oh, we'll make sure.

District 2 just visiting.

All right.

Good morning, everyone.

So this may be a first.

We have a total of one item on the agenda combining first and second read.

So the order we're going to do today is we are going to take up that item first.

It's a bill of council member gay, so we're going to take that up first.

We then have a presentation.

We have some folks here from Lights Out Northeast Florida, and they're going to give a 10 to 15 minute presentation on that.

Then we'll do public comment at the end if we have anyone.

And then at the uh end of the meeting, we'll go ahead and wrap up our last uh TU committee meeting of this council year.

So with that, we will go to item number one, 2026 0358.

Can I get a motion on the neighborhoods amendment?

Okay, motion second on the neighborhoods amendment.

Mr.

Linsky, could you walk us through that amendment, please?

Through the chair to the committee.

Uh the amendment before you today was approved in NCS yesterday, and uh modifies the city's record model, uh, their insurance requirements to follow a Florida Highway Patrol model, similar to that, but inclusive of $300,000 for garage keepers general liability.

Uh five uh sorry, $50,000 for on hook property liability and then $100,000, sorry.

$50,000 for off hook.

100,000 for on hook.

Thank you.

I have no one in the queue.

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

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay.

Amendment passes.

I got motion second on the bill as amended.

Councilmember Gay, do you want to say anything?

If not, uh we see the voting record that uh the other two committees have, and I have no one in the queue.

Questions only.

Councilmember gay is here for questions only on his bill.

I have no one in the queue.

Open the ballot, record your vote.

It is not coming up for me.

Legislative services.

I am a yes.

By our actions, we passed 2026 0358.

Uh, with that, we are going to uh go to our presentation, and it is already loaded.

If you switch to your presentation screen, and I'll invite uh Elizabeth up from Lights Out Northeast Florida to introduce uh herself and our other guest and uh get started on this presentation.

Good morning, everybody.

Can you hear me okay?

Yes, and also I'd like to acknowledge councilwoman uh Pittman has joined us.

Great.

Uh Elizabeth Philippelli, Lights Out Northeast Florida, Vice President of Um Duval Audubon and Conservation Director.

Mike Taylor, curator at uh Jacksonville Zoological Botanical Gardens.

Um, and also co-leader for Lights Out Northeast Florida.

Uh thank you everybody for this opportunity.

We are beyond thrilled.

Um we did present this same presentation at the downtown review board.

Mr.

Delaney, you were there.

You probably so you're gonna see the same thing.

We did jazz it up a little bit.

Uh one of the things we want to say right now, we want to look everybody in the eye is um we're here to build a relationship of trust.

Um we are not here, no one built a building to kill birds, but they are killing birds.

So we want to make sure we clear the air there.

And when we talk about dark sky, we don't mean making Jacksonville completely dark, and we don't want people running around thinking that Mike and I are completely crazy that we think that Jacksonville should be dark.

Because we've actually had that reaction.

So you can start the clock now, certainly.

Uh so lights Out Northeast Florida has been around for seven years.

We've had uh approximately 14 seasons of picking up the dead birds, if you will, that got killed by glass uh downtown.

And we have a little bit of that data here for you.

But Lights Out actually overall was created about 27 years ago in Chicago after there was a huge collision.

I know we're talking about strange things here at a council committee meeting.

Sorry, everybody, but we'll get to the good stuff because there's a lot of solutions here.

Um, that was about 27 years ago in Chicago.

Hundreds and hundreds of birds died, and people realized that they wanted to do something in the urban environment.

So we're here to talk about awareness.

I know some of you, I've been in front of quite a few of you.

We're here about awareness and education, and we want to partner with Jacksonville.

Next slide.

So why are we talking about birds?

Clear here, of course, in City Council.

Possibly this is the first time that we've done this.

Um over a billion birds die.

Our sources are U.S.

Fish and Wildlife and American Bird Conservancy, some of the experts, and Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

So, and of course, I have the Zooby sites here, so of course, you know, we know what we're doing here.

Um, the one thing that I want to point out to you here that's super important on this slide is yes, there's a bird on the left that we believe we saved, one of our collision monitors.

I honestly don't know what that building is.

Maybe someone here could tell me what that building is, but that's what we see generally in the morning.

The collision monitors get up.

Has anybody seen the collision monitors downtown with their yellow vests?

Anyone picking up the birds early in the morning?

Jamie has.

Um, the one thing that I want to point out here is while there is a problem, a billion birds die.

We know Jacksonville is a hot spot, but there we have a lot of solutions.

But look at the number there.

There are 107 billion dollars birders spent on birding.

So with Jacksonville having 400 parks here, we felt there's a lot of synergy here regarding what's happening with birds.

Birds are dying, but you know what?

We have a lot of birders here.

So maybe there's also an angle here for um ecotourism.

Next slide.

Okay, so we're gonna talk a little bit about the science since we're not gonna stay on this long, guys.

Don't worry.

Um, since 1970, um, we've lost 2.9 million birds.

And if you're a Baltimore Oreo lover, that's actually two out of the five birds that we've actually lost.

So it's pretty pretty dire where we are right now.

And again, we're gonna get to some of the solutions.

Um, so why do we want to protect birds?

There's quite a few reasons why.

I'm gonna not read every single thing here because we certainly don't have time.

Uh, certainly people spending 107 billion dollars on birding means they love birds, so there's a whole aspect here, but also birds have eco services that are important to us humans.

We don't remember, we don't think about them, it's pollinating and all those other kind of things that they do for us, but they're super important for us to be able to survive as humans, and they're a bit of a canary um canary in the cave.

Um, so with a nil a million, 100 million, sorry guys, I can't see it that good.

100 million birders, that's a huge number for us.

We have a million people in Jacksonville, so all you have to do is do the math.

Birders are important also for our people here, too.

And I know they're important to you guys here.

Okay, so in my we're gonna do a little bit of back to science class migration.

Um, the birds that we're talking about are the songbirds.

A lot of people think that they're falcons, they're not falcons, they're not like hawks.

We're talking about songbirds.

80% of these birds fly over us.

We are actually in the Atlantic flyway.

If you look at your screen, it's the purple, and it's the second largest flyway that um that we have in the North America continent.

Um, why do they fly at night?

Um, primarily because they want to be safe from predators, it's cooler, but you can understand that flying at night, um they actually look at the moon and the stars.

You can understand why coming over Jacksonville or New York City or Baltimore, it's a challenge for them, right?

Because they're attracted to lights.

Okay.

Um, this is just a snapshot of how many birds flew over us.

I gotta look at the date, guys.

I can't see it.

Anybody what's the date there, Mike?

Can you see it?

Thank you.

Seven million birds flew over us while we were sleeping one night.

That's bird cast.

It was created by um Coronel Lab of Ornithology.

We don't have time time go over that good fun stuff.

But basically, um, that helps us actually, and Mike, because Mike is the one who does our routes, and he's the one that sets up our 38 volunteers for success every season.

We run anywhere from 30 to 38 volunteers with our five routes.

Um, that helps us to figure out Rut Row.

There's a big migration coming in.

Um, let's try to do some communication out there on our social media to ask people to dim their lights, um, non-essential lights at night from like 11 p.m.

to 6 a.m.

You might have heard some of those things either on social media or um just basically through your own city of Jacksonville um social media site.

So here is our fall survey.

This is a summary of what we found in 2025.

Some of you know that we actually have the routes mapped out with the hot spots to show you with the hot spots.

Mike and I do kind outreach, so we don't out anybody.

We know the buildings that are the most um, I can see we're deadly here, the most biggest threat, if you will, to birds.

But um, we choose to choose this, but actually, when we got in front of iStar, we're able to pull their actual data to show them exactly what's happening.

We did that with the city hall, we did that with um the library and things like that.

And if you have any questions, Mike and I are around here.

Um the next two slides talk about community engagement and support from the community.

You can see that um I can't even actually fit all of the logos that we've been working with on this for the past like seven years, but the biggest highlight, of course, is I gotta throw the jaguars out there.

They joined lights out, they were the first uh NFL that I even to not, even to this day to join lights out, um, turning off their lights over daily's place.

So this shows, and what Will and Jamie did inviting us here today, this shows the commitment that we have from and we're really super excited about it.

Um, and this again is another huge highlight for us bird safe jacks.

This was the first lights out proclamation in all of Florida.

You guys might have seen it, you might have even come to our event.

But the most exciting thing about this is now we have four this year.

We have Duval's proclamation, and we have the three beaches that actually did the very first proclamations protecting sea turtle might and bird migration.

So, congratulations to Jacksonville.

We're being recognized all across the country for those kind of like um achievements.

Okay, so let's talk a little bit about um the problem.

Has anyone been to the um 9-11 memorial in New York?

Have you all been there?

Yeah, so can you see the little light, the little white spots there on your screen?

Those are actually birds, and birds do get attracted to light, and what happens is like us in Glare, we just you know, we get confused, they start flying around.

So at 9-11 memorial, what was happening is many, many birds were dying.

They were um they in the morning they would come in and they would find dead birds.

So this helped us in a sense, our industry, because what we realized was we needed to shut the light on and off.

So now when they can see a thousand birds up there in the air, someone physically turns the light off for a certain amount of time and then turns it back on again so that the birds can actually continue continue on their way.

It was a huge win for us in science.

Um, so birds have a trouble with lights, artificial light, but they also have a trouble with glass, just like us.

Has anybody hit their head on glass here?

Lord knows, I have nobody or not willing to say so.

Um, yes, so uh anyway, birds have a challenge with glass, they basically see habitat as you can see there, and they end up flying into it, and that's the reason why we're here.

We're here to work with you to talk about ways to mitigate that solutions, and some of them are almost they're so cheap it's it's ridiculous, and some of them actually are cost neutral.

That's the word I was looking for, cost neutral.

Um, so collisions happen everywhere, they happen in your homes, 44%, and we've been working there with the residents.

Some of you have seen us doing that.

Um, 56 happen in the low rays, and the reason why the low rise happens is because a lot of it is the tree foliage, right?

Because of the reflections.

I know quite a few people that work in buildings downtown that tell us all the time which the birds are hitting their windows pretty much daily, quite a few.

And then there's high rates.

I know Matt, you're looking like confused, right?

It is very confusing because the the bigger stories actually do get huge collision mitigations, trigger warning.

The next picture is a little tough.

We're gonna go through this.

I want to see we have five more minutes.

Um, this is Chicago's um, this is one of the biggest ones that happened in 2023.

I don't know if anyone to McCormick place, you probably saw this here.

Let me turn it off.

Sorry, Tyrone.

Um, these this happened in Chicago, and sorry about that, but um, let me just get to the next slide.

This actually turned into a great story because with all of those birds dying, McCormick placed um all of the residents and the businesses said we've had enough, we've been killing birds for 30 years.

The whole building now is wrapped by feather friendly.

We have samples here.

Mike has samples here of feather friendly and also the bird friendly glass from the zoo.

We'd love to show you.

We know you like show and tell.

Is it okay to do that, Bill?

Yep.

Okay, cool.

Thank you.

Let's sleep services.

Actually, let's just pass it around.

Let's go.

Bill, when you're done, just pass it to your right.

And then here's the dark sky.

This is for Councilman Johnson for sure because we Mike and I did talk to Councilman Johnson about uh lights and dark sky, and we think we scared you.

So we want to make sure you know that we don't mean turning off lights.

Okay, so um landscape and habitat is tough here.

The take a big takeaway here is how many people have plants by their windows.

I know a lot of people do in City Hall too.

We've talked about that with the Chante.

This is a tough part too because guess what?

The birds think they can fly into that and they think they're actually getting habitat or maybe a yummy worm.

That's a that's a threat for birds.

Oops, hold on, guys.

Sorry about that.

And then this is another one.

There's a couple of fly throughs in our town that we're still trying to get connected to that has become a huge threat in downtown.

And I'll tell you what's in the package too as we go.

Here are some bird-friendly glass options that you have.

We have better ones a little bit further on here, but to just show you in your house, yeah, you can do decals.

We don't recommend that.

We recommend the dots because they look better and they don't obstruct your um your vision.

But there's also the stripes on the side.

The whole thing with birds is it has to be a pattern two by two.

When you see the information that we're sending around, it needs to be two by two, it needs to be white on the outside primarily.

And the reason why is because the birds need to see it as an obstacle, almost like a stop sign, because then they can kind of fly through.

They think they can fly through it if it's if it's more than two inches.

And we have time to go okay, good.

So now we're gonna switch a little bit to lighting.

This is based on dark sky, and again, we can't reiterate enough.

We do not we know that light is needed, we know that light needs to be out there.

We can't live as humans without light.

But these are the five principles from dark sky that actually is being known all over.

And did anybody know that Tampa port actually is now dark sky certified?

I don't know if you all knew that.

So we're hoping that we can work with our port here to do the same thing.

Yeah, and we're talking about saving energy, using responsible lighting principles so that we can have targeted and also better for people, makes them feel much more safer.

And these are things that Mike and I can go into a lot more detail.

We are access to a lot of experts around the world.

We'd be happy to bring those experts in there as we partner forward.

Um, so here's our example of the zoo.

The glass is super heavy.

I don't know if we sent that around.

Mike has it here.

Um, this is the glass that the zoo put on.

It's walker bird-friendly glass, and um they have it.

If you've been to the zoo, you'll see it, it's at the gift store, and it's around the whole meeting space when you walk in.

And that's a huge win for us.

We'd love to invite you all out to come out there to see it so that you could touch it, feel it, and really it's so much better if you can actually see it.

We know it's tough to go from liking birds to maybe not caring about birds to actually doing something.

So, this process is for us to get close with all of you, create that relationship of trust, and um see what we can come up with together.

Um, the next one is the University of Florida.

So, I don't know if anyone has seen this building, but basically, feather-friendly, one of the products that's in your package there.

They actually applied that in advance at their factory, those onto those triangles.

I can't say I really like the building per se, but anyway, that's what they're those triangles are all bird friendly, and um University of Florida now has an ordinance that any of the new buildings actually have to have bird-friendly um design windows.

Um, here is uh Stetson University.

This is the aquatic center.

There's also a sample of what they did in that package there, and this building was um actually killing a lot of birds, but this solution actually helps.

So you can see there's a variety of solutions that you can actually do to mitigate this, and then the question is like where do we want to be in Jacksonville?

Like, what what do we want to talk about?

We just don't want to be Chicago, we don't want to be Philadelphia and they we don't want to be in New York.

We don't want us to be all over CNN.

That's why Mike and I do what we do.

We don't want that, we want to be more on the on the solution side.

Okay, so we invite you to be curious.

I don't know if anyone's ever said that to all of you, because this is a little bit of a different lane, right?

We want to partner with everybody here.

We were in front of downtown review board.

Um, we'd like you to give us a chance.

I know some of the things we talk about are a little bit maybe off plan from what the city council usually talks about, but um, we're here to create that partnership.

Downtown Vision started us here, and downtown vision, you can see in that square right there, you probably recognize Eduardo.

You probably recognize maybe Mike Ryan, the he's the manager of the downtown ambassadors.

They're now partnering with us to collect the birds that we can't collect.

We collect in the morning, and we only do it in fall and spring, but actually, downtown vision has decided that they're gonna help us and they're gonna collect the birds when we're not around.

So that's starting too, and that's gonna be added to our data.

And the last um item here on this slide I'd like to talk about is we're working with an expert, Rick Utling.

If you're a lighting person, you'd know who he is, he's internationally known.

He's taking us on for free, he's retired now.

But um, there's a case study there for the Dem, the Denver 16th Street Mall.

I don't know if you've all heard about that, but it's a great case study to show how you could have really really good lighting in your city and make people feel safe.

And I think that's my last slide.

Oh, next steps.

Plan to see us around more.

Um, we'd love to have feedback from you.

We'd love to have you reach out to us.

The biggest thing is we need connections.

We don't want to boil the ocean.

We want to know where can we get the best connections to continue to be mismessage and then eventually talk about uh bird friendly building design, code and ordinances and that kind of stuff.

Phew, I think I'm done.

Thanks, guys.

All right.

Well, you time, y'all timed it very well.

Thank you, Elizabeth.

And I meant to say at the beginning again, this is uh the whole purpose of this was to be an educational uh presentation for us.

Uh they mentioned some of the other groups they've been working with.

So I thought since they talked to uh uh downtown vision, other city departments uh give them the opportunity to come talk to us as well.

Uh, got two people in the queue for questions.

Councilmember Carlucci.

Okay.

Well, I was I was gonna say uh check in with the chamber um to make presentations to the chamber and/or their um they have uh councils of the chamber of commerce all around town.

They're like, we're gonna be able to crack in there, okay, good, okay.

So I'd I would do that.

Um and uh and and I would check with DVI, uh, downtown vision, see if they you know, would if they have a somehow for you to talk to a group, and um I'm just guessing that um like at my office I've got a lot of windows, but they got window blinds.

So I guess those window blinds would kind of act as a deterrent.

Unfortunately, they're on the inside.

And when it comes to the Sir, can you speak to the uh microphone?

I'm sorry.

Um the blinds are on the inside, and so that doesn't uh do anything for the reflection.

It it will help a little bit, especially if the blinds are partially open, so it looks like there's lines, but it will not solve the problem depending on the time of the day, and usually in the morning when the birds are coming from being um brought down from the lights and they go to leave, they see the reflection, they don't see what's behind the glass.

Okay, so unfortunately, so that may help a little bit, but it it does not solve the problem.

And as we've seen, we could show you the data um for specific buildings.

It it yeah, it doesn't okay.

Well, I was just curious because I seem like that would be a pretty good solution for a lot of people with small offices.

Uh and we keep our blinds open.

Well, we have offer free building um bird-friendly audits.

We can come by and do an audit map free of charge.

Okay, and tell you and give you solutions if you'd like.

Okay.

Well, we've not had a bird hit yet that I know of, but uh just was throwing that out there, and then a couple of other venue or uh organizations you can check in with.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Clark.

Good morning.

I was just thinking about um through the chair, what uh councilmember Carluti was saying in regards to the the blinds, because that's what I think too, because I do have a sunroom and I keep the blinds pretty much horizontal and but then again at my um my birds are like they're used to the hood, so they they know they notice around it so that you know they don't fly into the window, they may come to try to get one of the lizards, you know, that's in the window, but yeah, they don't.

But um, but I'm I'm um glad to hear that it's a deterrent because I didn't think that I thought that it would be because but you're saying that it isn't, but that that's good to know.

My question is about geese.

Believe it or not, I had a constituent to ask me about Canadian geese yesterday.

So, do you know anything about Canadian geese?

A little bit yes, ma'am.

Okay, so from what I've been told they are an invasive species for us in Florida, yes or no?

No.

They're not.

So they they should only be here in the winter, naturally, but unfortunately, people have released some barnyard geese, and I I talked to U.S.

Fish and Wildlife, or maybe it was Florida Wildlife Commission.

One of the two, um, one of their inspectors about geese.

It was FWC, yes.

Um, and I was surprised at that they didn't look at it the way you were just talking about because that's the way I look at them too.

They should not be here in the summertime, they should not be breeding.

That's historically that's how it should be.

But unfortunately, they cannot look at them in that way because some of those are native or native geese that would migrate, actually have decided not to migrate because they don't need to and have learned to live down here.

So they can't differentiate between the native and the released ones or descendants of the released ones.

So unfortunately, they won't do anything.

Um, I know Georgia has a program where they will take care of nuisance geese, and um USDA might have a branch that takes care of them.

Also, I've not asked that branch.

It's um I'm not sure what it's called, but it's like wildlife control.

Um, if you look at USDA, you might be able to find it.

Thank you so much for that.

So uh through the chair.

So is there you said as a basically as a government, there's not much that's that we're doing individual homeowners.

Because this homeowner, she has she's basically fed up.

And if you've if you know what I'm talking about, I'll give you an example.

There is a there are several football fields owned by DCPS, owned by the city, and the geese, they come in and they they eat, basically.

And as you pass by them, if you're like running on a track, they will hiss at you.

So and they will attack.

Yes.

So yes, I know it seems somewhat comical, but it is once again.

I was this question was asked of me yesterday.

So, in that case, what can one do?

Just basically try to avoid the geese.

There's no one for us to call.

Should we call Autobond the Autobond Society?

What should we do?

Um, I'm not if I don't call us.

So, so I hope that's not on record.

Can I uh do some research and get back to you?

Yes, please.

Because I I can try to find out if there is a branch that will take care of it.

Um and see if it's legal, because there are wildlife control um companies here in Jacksonville that may be able to take care of it, but before I go that route, I would like to find out if it's legal.

Yes, please, right.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for the presentation.

It was very informative.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilwoman Clark Murray, you raise a uh good question.

I'm gonna actually assign it to uh Bill Delaney because I think that is something good for us district council members to know if you get complaints like that.

Uh, because geese, I mean, we've had examples in my district that they do become invasive, they're never there for for months at a time, but I'll get calls.

Hey, what can we do about this?

And I don't know the right answer.

I don't know if it's an ACPS thing.

Like, I don't know if there's a city service that we can refer that person to.

So, Mr.

Delaney, if you could uh we're about to go and recess.

Maybe if you do have information, just email to the TEU committee when you get that answer.

Uh, through the chair to the body, yeah, absolutely.

I'll look into it and see if there's any uh city services.

Um, and also when you get complaints like that, feel free to reach out to me.

Uh we'll see.

Uh there may not be anything on the books that we can do, but I recall from working at UNF where the non-migrating geese uh found a very large and nice expanse uh to colonize that we had to hire a dog, it was be the dog, and the dog would go around and just stand next to the geese to make them move on.

Uh it was quite a thing to see, but it ended up cutting back on the problem.

Now, whether those geese ended up getting back to migrating or just migrated over to another property somewhere out there, I'm not sure.

Uh, but I'll definitely look into it.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Delaney.

Uh our last speaker, uh, Councilmember Amara.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you for the uh presentation.

Uh by the way, if you guys have not been to the zoo lately with its um newest buildings, uh they've employed uh this type of uh uh glass, if you will, and at first blush, it's like what in the world is wrong with the glass, but so there's always the issue for aesthetics that comes with um employing that type of uh bird protective glass.

Two questions.

Number one, um, does this add a cost to windows?

And number two, is it uh suggested within through the chair the the building code whenever there's construction to encourage uh the builders to use this type of glass?

That would be perfect.

So when you retrofit like we did on some of our exhibits at the zoo, it costs money, but when you design it, like the glass that I showed around that you just mentioned.

Um, if you design it into the construction of the building, it it's practically nothing or it adds nothing to the total cost.

We're talking at the most a percentage of a percent when you're talking about a brand new building.

If you design it in at that point, it's negligent, if nothing.

All right, thank you.

One more question through the chair.

Uh one of the stats on your presentation said that within the last 50 years, one in four birds uh disappeared from the landscape.

Was that through um an organic method?

I mean just natural extinction, or was it through some of these perils that they're facing every night?

They believe that was from human costs.

Um it ranges from glass, like we've been talking about, uh, lights that bring them down and puts them in the position to be killed by glass, um, light uh towers, telephone towers, um, cats, all are considered human causes because we put cats there, that's why cats are included.

Um, yes, all those birds, 2.9 billion birds in the last 50 years have declined because of human causes.

Yeah, and glasses up there.

Cats and glass are the two highest.

Um, may I say a couple things?

Um, we talked about the Canada geese.

Um, there is a study, and they did it out in California.

I'll try to find it and we'll get it over to you.

It was helpful and it was with dogs.

So I think they use shepherds, not that it matters, but um shepherds.

And then the other thing I want to say is we're on a working group for um cost estimates on gas.

So as soon as we get some of that information straight from the horse's mouth, um, we will get that to you.

Uh, we want to make sure you know that these are experts we're working with.

Mike and I don't come here with shoddy stuff.

There is a last slide here.

I forgot to show you guys.

I'm so sorry I can't get to it.

Um, it talked about legislation across our country.

Here we go.

These are the bird-friendly policies that are around the around the country right now, just to have you have a taste of it.

And thank you very much for your time.

All right, thank you so much, Elizabeth and Mike, and uh, we appreciate you sharing that information with us, and hopefully you uh you know that this committee loves all types of birds except one that we discussed in great detail.

So uh Canadian geese, not a uh committee favorite here.

Uh so thank you so much.

Uh do we have any public comment cards?

Thank you.

We have two.

Carnell Oliver.

Uh Mr.

Atkinson, I I did not know he had a card, but we already took up his business.

I assume that's what he was here to discuss.

I think he put down questions only on 2026 0358.

So we will put that one to the side because I don't see him.

Carnell Oliver, you get two minutes, and then we'll wrap up this committee for the year.

You know, Cardinal, our address is on foul.

It's it's pretty good to see that animals get more respect than human beings.

And uh, also make it pretty clear.

Um we don't need legislation on a local level to do something that's not necessarily needed, and I don't need this city waste any more money like a fool that did with the COVID 19 money on stuff that is not needed.

This council has been a crash done for the last two election cycles.

This mayor's administration has been completely ineffective in doing anything.

Let me tell you one thing about leadership.

What Trump has been able to do in the primary because the voters support him, he turned their voting base in certain districts against against them.

It's because of incompetent legislative body.

You don't burn every one of your bridges.

If we had a real strong man, she could protect some of y'all.

But since she's so vulnerable and weak.

One thing I'm gonna tell you, she's not gonna be all the one gone.

A large number of y'all are gonna be gone.

Because the one thing about it is that y'all have been ineffective of doing the actual work of the people, and you can't tell me I'm not lying.

Too much furniture got broke.

Keep your voice down a little, Mr.

Oliver.

This has been one of the stupidest councils, and one of the dumbest mayors I have done, Mr.

Oliver.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, it wasn't the note I was hoping to enter committee year on necessarily, but I do appreciate everyone's help.

Think we uh had a good lot of good uh presentations throughout the year, did our business.

And um, I think if it wasn't for Councilmember Pelusa, we would have been the lowest drama committee as well, too.

So thank you for your time.

Uh Jamie is passing out a uh card with my appreciation and uh something you can use at a district three establishment if you ever find yourself in that part of the neighborhood.

So no, it's my address is redacted, so nope.

Uh so uh councilmember Carlucci, I recognize you first.

I just want to congratulate you on a great year.

You have been a such a fair um and even-handed, and um uh chairman.

Uh you've been an honest broker, and uh, congratulations on next year of finance.

Well, you're going from the bottom right on up to the top, man.

This committee has prepared you.

But I I'm very happy for you, and uh you'll do a great job.

Thank you.

Councilmember Johnson, I don't think I announced your arrival, did I?

Because you're but you're here now and you're you're up next.

Thank you, sir.

I appreciate Mr.

Chair.

I wanted to echo the sentiments of council member Carlucci.

Thank you for running a stellar committee this year.

Um, I wanted to be the first, but I guess Councilmember Carlocci beat me to it, but publicly, um, and I I heard the interview on WJCT the other day where council president designate elect howland has said that you will be the new finance committee chair.

So, yes, we will be knocking on your door and bothering you, but you have really earned your stripes.

I know I you know we go to you often when it comes to financial matters um and all that you do, you bring a lot to the table.

But this committee has been one that initially when we were told I'm coming on to the committee.

While we do bring some things to it, they were like, Well, it's not the most exciting committee.

You've made it exciting, you've made the presentations available, um, got the right people in and made sure that it was a working functional functional committee.

Thank you for that.

Thank you for your leadership, your friendship, and always just being a listening ear, man.

Congratulations to you.

Had a great year.

Thank you, Councilman Pittman.

Well, you know, you and I have been working together quite a while, and what I want to say to you that you have deserved what you have received and and more.

Um, I would say out of the council members, the bottom line, you always pay attention to.

And sometimes with the council, we we definitely need to have diverse council members, and you bring the financial aspect, and to keep us on track, or if not that, to think about that.

I think each of us bring something different.

Um, you know, when you talk about institutional knowledge, and I think you bring that from the outside to the council.

And that means a lot because some of the things that we do, you know, when you bring it to our attention, then we see it from a different lens.

And so I look forward to working with you in this next year.

I know my time is limited as well, but um I must say that I've I've looked at different legislation differently once um you have weighed in on it.

And so I definitely look forward to you securing and making sure we keep our money tight for the people.

Thank you.

Councilmember Gaffney.

Thank you.

I appreciate it, Councilman.

It's been a pleasure.

Um I think this and the three years that I've been here, this is our first time serving together.

So, you know, I got to know more about you and this this last year and within like the first three years, but it's been a pleasure.

Just your communication, your organization, your leadership skills, um, been cool, calm, collected, you know.

So always watch you from afar, but the the get first hand glance, you know, on how you lead your committee meetings.

Um that's definitely um excellent.

But I appreciate you for all that you do.

Um, I look forward to the next year and um you'll be missed.

Thank you.

Thank you, Reggie.

With that, again, uh thank you everyone for a good TEU year and look forward to uh working with everyone.

Looking forward to oh, Councilmember Amara, you are not in the queue, but I'll recognize you.

Well, I thought I was there for a second.

Uh just very quickly, just to ditto ditto did that.

Uh, say thank you for your leadership.

Thank you for your uh your fairness, your objectivity, your uh insightfulness.

I um, you know, some folks get on board with anticipation or um uh see this as a runway to their next level, and I don't see that in you.

I see that you're here to serve and and that's uh a commendable thing because when you're here with that servant's heart, uh you will always put principle over politics.

And so I look forward to see what the next year brings for you.

So thank you for your leadership.

And Councilmember Mara.

Also wanted to uh uh say thank you to our council auditors.

Uh Ed Linsky's been there with us on uh every bill, Carla Shell as well, uh Steven and Research.

Uh even Bill Delaney, our goose expert here up with us, and then also uh Steve and Eric on the IT side as well.

So with that, we'll go ahead and gavel out and in this year's TEU committee.

All right.