All

right, welcome everyone uh to the Financial Audit and Oversight Select Committee October 9th.

And

I

just wanted to go ahead and as we normally do and start off with introductions with Mr.

Russell, please.

Brandon Russell, Council Research.

Mary Stepopoulos, Office of General Counsel.

Philip Peterson, Council's Office.

Brian Parks, Council Auditor's Office.

Ron Salem, group two at large.

Good morning, Chris Miller,

at large group five.

Joe Carlucci, District Five.

Good morning, Nick Howland at large group three.

Do we uh I just want to want to check.

Do we have any any public comments from the thousands we have here in attendance?

No, not even John Nooney with his high white boots.

Not here.

Okay.

Well, given that we don't have any public comments, I'm gonna say one got a lot of echo here.

Is there a way to maybe address this?

Or do I need to stand back or sit back a little further from it?

Um

just uh thank you, thank

you.

I think I'll just I'll use the hand mic for now.

Um I'm gonna make a oh, and and we've been joined um by councilwoman uh clerk Murray, and welcome.

I'm gonna make a brief comment and then I'm gonna turn it over to our city council president um Nick Howland uh for his opening comments and then I'll come back with some additional uh comments going through the charge memorandum and talking about our focus before we turn it over to JTA.

Um but I just wanted to overall thank our City Council President Nick Howland.

Um I thank Past President Salem, Vice President Joe Carlucci, and even though he's not able to be here, he's on a deployment to help uh in his National Guard capacity to help with the uh hurricane, and that's Councilmember Rory Diamond, uh the JTA team, Mr.

Ferguson and company, um City Council Auditors, OGC, staff, ethics office, IG office, um, the administration, my wonderful assistant Carol, everyone's been working real well together in preparation for this meeting.

So um I think a lot of times we don't we don't say thanks enough.

So I just want to right up front thank everyone who's who's been working so that we can put this all together.

So um with those opening comments, I'll turn it over to City Council President Nick Howland.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair, and likewise I want to thank this committee.

We first set up the Financial Audit and Oversight Committee on July 20th to review JEA's unbuilt water unbilled water capacity fees.

And this committee led at the time by Chair Salem concluded its charge successfully in collaboration with JEA, and we're gonna have a very successful result there where they're changing their policy, they're gonna improve their collections of fees, and uh we should see it in the revenue line and future budgets.

And at the same time, most importantly, why this committee was stood up, you end up protecting ratepayers uh to some degree against future um rate increases by doing that because you're collecting uh costs that were properly owed by others, and instead, you know, will no longer be borne by JEA residential taxpayers.

So uh successful conclusion of the first charge of this committee.

Thank you.

Well, we've restood up this committee, um effect of October 5th, now looking at the Jacksonville um uh looking at JTA.

And uh part of

the

issue here in the context is that we've got the attorney general who's issued subpoenas.

Um we've got the JTA's own board who's looking at a forensic audit.

So what we're looking at here is clear.

It complements those efforts by focusing on JTA's financial stability, governance, operational performance, and very importantly, transportation priorities moving forward.

So part of this committee, when the chair decides it's right, we'll be looking at reopening the local option gas tax in collaboration with the administration and GT JTA to see if we need to change some of the projects in there given new core transportation priorities of G JTA and its leadership.

So if that happens, that does take council legislation.

Uh it's a negotiation between the administration, council, and JTA.

Um, but I think it given financial constraints, it will be imperative to do that moving forward.

And this is part of the scope of this committee.

I imagine we'll get there eventually.

Um, and that'll be very important for the community to watch because everyone should have input into how Jacksonville optimizes transit for families and for businesses, those who use JTA.

So uh again, uh new chair uh Miller, thank you for taking the helm on the select committee and um I appreciate in advance all the work that you guys will

do.

Thank you very much.

Um, yes, please.