The Ocala City Council met on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at 4:00 PM in the Council Chambers at City Hall. The meeting covered a wide range of topics including stormwater management, annexation and land use changes, alcohol license expansions, infrastructure contracts, and public comments on broadband construction and recycling. All votes were unanimous unless otherwise noted.
All items were approved unanimously (5-0) without separate discussion.
Good afternoon, everyone. If you would, Tony Clayton, would you come and give about invocation? Good afternoon, City Council, Mr. Mayor, uh, city staff and public. Would you please pray with me? Almighty God, ever wise father, thank you again for another beautiful day here in the City of O'Cal in Marion County. Father, we just praise you and thank you for the opportunity to gather and conduct business that continues to honor and glorify you. Father, just have uh your hand upon our meeting today, give us discernment and wisdom to make decisions that continue to glorify you. We praise you and we thank you in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Good evening. Here. Mr. Mansfield. Here. Mr. Holty. Ms. Dreyer. Here, Mr. Bethay. Here. Item two A. New employees. And when I call your name, please stand for us. Stephen Hawley. Public works. Jason Guess. On May twenty second, two thousand two thousand twenty-six on the City of O'Callis website. As a reminder, public comments and presentations are limited to three minutes unless authorized to attend beyond that time by the Council President on Majority of Council. All materials for the Mayor City Council must be given to the attendant staff for distribution. Prior to speaking at the podium, please state your name and address for the record and to maintain order. Speakers must be recognized by the Council President. Please silence your cell phones and all electronic devices for the duration of this meeting. Thank you. We will move to item 5A, our presentation on municipal separate storm sewer systems. Good evening, Sean Lanier, City Engineer. This presentation is required by our MS4 permit, municipal separate storm sewer system permit that we have. So I'm going to do a quick overview of our permit and our program. And by our administrative code, we're required to have a permit because we discharge to them. In our permit that we we uh control pollution that discharging in our stormwater, and we have uh five areas that we focus on our sanitation, of course, the stormwater, um, maintenance, fleet, water resources, and code enforcement. In 2025, there were 116 reports from our citizens, uh 34 sanitation, uh seven stormwater, 43 streets, uh 22 traffic, and a couple mosquito and miscellaneous. This is part of our requirement for our data gathering for our permit. Stormwater operations. Um the city and and all of the privately owned maintained drains retention areas are inspected for sinkholes, illicit discharge, erosion, uh, trash and debris, build up of sedimentation, and and they're basically on a rotating schedule annually. Only eight city and thirty private DRAs flow into the Florida Department of Transportation uh right-of-way that this eventually flows to the Silver River area known as Half Mile Creek, and that's the discharge of the water body of the U.S. 57 DRAs went through a demucking process this last year and uh 2025 by city staff or contractor services, depending on uh staffing and length of the project and the cost. Uh stormwater operations, they maintain certifications as part of our uh best management practice under a permit. There's 16 employees holding various certifications for stormwater systems and maintenance. Sanitation does its part.