Speaker numbers apply only to this recording. Names come from transcript evidence. “Possibly” marks uncertain attribution.
This was the fourth or fifth meeting of the special committee, held on October 21, 2026, at 3:30 PM. The committee focused on preventing drownings and elopement incidents involving children, especially those with autism. Presentations were given by the Northeast Florida Regional Council, Duval County Public Schools, St. Johns River Water Management District, Jacksonville Public Works, and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Dive Team. The committee discussed current regulations, design standards for retention ponds, enforcement challenges, and potential legislative and policy solutions.
Working Group Update (Tyler Nolan, Northeast Florida Regional Council): Nolan reported on the working group's progress, which has been synthesizing information from previous meetings into recommendations. Key areas include elopement prevention, elopement recovery, and flotation/swimming lessons. The group identified several initiatives: sustaining the working group to implement actions; partnering with Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) on school-based water safety; examining a 1,000-foot buffer around high-risk properties for risk analysis; targeting registry outreach; sourcing hardware and creating tiered toolkits for alarms and locks (with partners like Home Depot); and creating a centralized landing page and event calendar to improve public messaging. The group found that Duval County has 9,700 ponds, and many existing programs need better promotion. A final report is being prepared.
Duval County Public Schools Presentation (Dr. Heather Albritton and Jason Merkison): DCPS described current water safety education, which includes required information for families on drowning prevention and K-12 health/physical education benchmarks for water safety. They noted that DCPS can serve as a mouthpiece for community resources but faces barriers such as access, transportation, cost, and limited instructional time. Jason Merkison emphasized the need for accessible information for families of students with disabilities, including those with wandering tendencies, and highlighted work on adaptive swimming and transportation solutions. Regarding charter and private schools, DCPS noted that public-facing resources are available to all, but proprietary curriculum is DCPS-only.
St. Johns River Water Management District Presentation (Mary Ellen Winkler): Winkler explained the district's environmental resource permitting (ERP) program. For wet ponds, if side slopes are steeper than 4:1, fencing or a barrier is required. The district conducted a search and found fewer than 20 permitted ponds in Duval County with fencing requirements; all were in compliance. Permittees (e.g., HOAs) must inspect ponds every two years (or based on a 2024 rule update ranging from one to five years). The district does not have field preemption on this topic, so the city can adopt stricter regulations (e.g., requiring fencing on all ponds regardless of slope). Changing district rules would require rulemaking under Chapter 120, Florida Statutes, including cost analysis and potential legislative ratification. Winkler also noted that the district inspects larger projects and transfer points (developer to HOA) and investigates complaints. She offered to provide data on compliance over the last three years.
City of Jacksonville Public Works Presentation (Steve Long): Long presented the city's pond design criteria, which follow similar requirements: side slopes shall not be steeper than 4:1 unless fencing is provided (minimum 4 feet tall). City standards require fencing for steeper slopes, including specific cases for dry and wet ponds with varying depth triggers. The city does not approve vegetative barriers like hedges. Long stated that dry ponds are rare in Jacksonville due to soil and water table conditions. The city inspects its own ponds at least every three years under its NPDES permit, with more frequent maintenance inspections. There are currently no city ponds out of compliance. Complaints can be filed via 630-CITY or the MyJax system.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Dive Team (Sgt. Jet Overall): Overall described the dive team's role in recovering evidence and bodies from water, including the recent drownings of two children and an adult. He stated that design changes would not hinder their recovery efforts, as they train for various environments. In response to a question, he noted that children who elope and drown are typically found close to the bank, as they enter the water and lose footing on the slope.
Committee Member Discussion: Councilmember Gay suggested the city should take the lead by implementing precautionary measures on its own projects and encouraging private developers through incentives and zoning discussions. Councilmember Clark Murray called for research into legal aspects (Chapter 120 and Chapter 373, Florida Statutes) and permitting processes to understand how to codify requirements. She emphasized that the charge is to save lives. Chair Gaffney indicated the next meeting would be the final one, with the working group to present a wrap-up and all recommendations. He asked members to bring any draft legislation to the next meeting.
Good afternoon. It's 3 30. It's October 21st. Welcome to our special committee on drama prevention. We'll start with introductions to our left. Good afternoon, Joander Heese Mayor's Office. Stephen LeB, Council Research. Philip Hirson, Council Order. Good afternoon, Tyranna Clark Murray District 9. Good afternoon, Reginald Gaffney Jr. District 8. Mike Gay, District 2. Good, good. Thank you everyone for coming out today. I really appreciate it. I think we're on our fourth or fifth meeting, man. We have learned a lot. I know I have learned a lot, learned a lot of new initiatives, things we haven't been doing, things that we should be doing. We're getting close to it. And I think in the next couple of weeks, the next few weeks, I think it's my goal to you know wrap this up. You know, so I think after this meeting, what I would like to see potentially, we'll see how today's meeting go, but potentially wrapping this meeting up, this special committee up by next week. Um you guys, um, our special committee um have brought a lot of great information to our attention. And I I think I'm in a good place, me personally, um, in terms of know why I want to head in my direction in terms of legislation. So we got a loaded agenda today. We'll jump straight into it. Um before we get started, I want to make sure we get approval of uh October 7th um many minutes. Awesome. Thank you. All right, I appreciate that. So let's get into it. We got a um another great presentation, you know, from our special committee, and we'll get right into it. So thank you. Go for it. All right, good afternoon, uh, members of the committee. Tyler Nolan, Northeast Florida Regional Council, 40 East Adam Street. Um, Chief Ayub is here with me as well, but um he wanted me to pass the baton this meeting. Uh he was up before you a lot the last time. So a little update on the working group um since we last met. Obviously, you've seen this slide a couple of times, and that box keeps getting moved um further down that timeline. So we're working diligently um to be able to get you take every bit of information that we've been having from these meetings, synthesize it, put it into recommendations, and ultimately prepare for that final report that you all have tasked us with uh forming. At the last meeting, we had very lengthy discussions about the layering of prevention efforts that we are building in, right? Um, the elopement prevention piece of it. Um, if folks or individuals um with intellectual and developmental differences ultimately do get out of their home, um, the elopement recovery, how do we find them faster? Um, and then if forbid they do find themselves um in a retention pond or some other body of water, um, ways to potentially float and swimming lessons and things that hopefully still buy us some time to find them before the ultimate tragedy um happens.