The Value Adjustment Board (VAB) of Duval County held its organizational meeting on Thursday, August 6, 2026, at 12:50 PM in the Council Chambers at City Hall at St. James. The board adopted routine administrative items, heard a discussion on portability petition standing, and set the schedule for the 2026 VAB year.
Teresa, I'm gonna go ahead and gavel in, okay? All right, without any further ado, we are going to gavel in this 2026, Thursday, August 6, 2026, meeting of the Value Adjustment Board here in the Council Chambers at City Hall at St. James. Uh today's meeting will be conducted according to the published agenda and the applicable provisions of Florida Law and Administrative Rules. The board's adopted procedures and parliamentary procedure. Um where a legal or procedural question arises, we will certainly consult with the board attorney uh for any of those things. Pursuant to Florida law, uh the first thing we must do, we've called this meeting to order is a roll call of members. Uh we will do an introduction as you see for each of the members coming up, but at this point, I will start with a roll call. And if you could just say your name and present, please, and we'll start to my left. Will Lewis present Reginald Blunt, present. Rachman Johnson, city council, present. You got you got a mic, yours words, right? Does it work? No. Shirley Dasher, present. And we'll do introductions with the entirety, but that's the role. Uh Madam or Mr. Clerk, uh, do we have a quorum? We do, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Moving on before we start the meeting, our first order of business pursuant to Florida law is that we must um uh appoint legal counsel. And this year's legal counsel recommendation from the staff uh is Aaron Thalwitzer for the 2026 VAB year with no change. Uh the attorney will be paid an hourly fee, or the recommendation of the staff is for the attorney to be paid an hourly fee of 225 dollars an hour not to exceed the amount of sixty thousand dollars annually. Uh the not to exceed amount will be inclusive of all legal services, including litigation, mileage, and all other uh fees. There will be no cost for travel time. That's the recommendation of staff. I will certainly entertain a motion um to uh make that recommendation if there's one. I'll make a motion to recommend that we keep Mr. Okay, we have a mo it's been motioned and seconded that um we uh retain legal counsel Aaron Thalwitzer as our VAB attorney, uh VAB clerk, and then Mr. Thalwitzer, and if you'll accept, but VAB Clerk. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I was gonna just say that it might be good to confirm with Mr. Thalwitzer that that's his understanding of the agreement. I was gonna get to him before we took a vote. Yep, yep. Thank you, Mr. Clerk. Before we before we get to that, uh Mr. Thalwitzer, do you accept uh are you able to accept this obligation for this year? Yes, sir, and I'm grateful for it. Okay, thank you, and thank you for your work that you've done in the past. Thank you. Uh are there any uh discussion from the board itself? If not, there is a motion on the floor to retain Aaron Thalwitzer as our 2026 VAB year attorney. All in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? The eyes have it.