Ocala City Council Work Session on Boards, Commissions, and CRA Policies - June 9, 2026
Ocala City Council Work Session: Boards, Commissions, and CRA Policy Review - June 9, 2026
The Ocala City Council held a work session on Tuesday, June 9, 2026, at 12:00 PM to review and discuss the structure, membership, and operations of numerous city boards and commissions. The discussion also covered proposed changes to Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) grant programs and advisory committee functions. Council members provided direction to staff on several items, with plans to return with ordinance changes and updated policies. One public comment was received.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Don Goling (address: 5083 SE 6th Avenue, member of downtown CRA advisory committee) expressed support for streamlining the CRA grant process. He suggested allowing property owners to start work at their own risk after submitting an application, with funding only after final inspection and certificate of occupancy. He also recommended reconsidering the downtown CRA's 50% match rate (vs. West Ocala's 75%), adjusting for inflation, and addressing the "donut hole" between the $50,000 commercial grant and the $500,000 catalytic grant threshold. Goling urged the council to consider board removal policies for members who miss two consecutive meetings unexcused or exceed 25% absenteeism, and to standardize four-year terms for all board appointments regardless of when a vacancy is filled. He also advocated for targeting retail on downtown ground floors and issuing grants to tenants rather than landlords for retail move-in costs.
Discussion Items
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Boards & Commissions Comprehensive Review: Council President Ire Bethea Sr. led the discussion, noting that the goal is to produce a comprehensive code edit covering all boards and commissions. Staff presented a policy document (Appendix A) with recommendations for each board.
- Planning and Zoning Commission, Board of Adjustment, and Brownfields Advisory Committee: The initial proposal was to combine all three into one board. Council members expressed strong opposition to merging the Board of Adjustment (BOA) with Planning and Zoning (P&Z), citing BOA's final decision-making authority on variances and special exceptions, and concerns about P&Z's current level of training and recent decisions (e.g., using school capacity as a basis for decisions). After discussion, council reached consensus to keep the BOA separate and to improve training for both P&Z and BOA members. The Brownfields functions will be incorporated into the P&Z commission.
- Utility Advisory Board: Council supported adding a fiber commercial customer and a fiber residential customer, and making the city council representative a non-voting member. The current vacancy could be reclassified to one of the new fiber seats.
- Firefighters, General Employees, and Police Retirement System Boards of Trustees: No major changes were proposed. Staff will research standardizing terms to four years and explore whether financial qualifications should be required. Council noted these boards have their own professional advisors.
- Affordable Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC): Council discussed whether to set the membership at 9 or 11. It was suggested to reduce to 9 to simplify quorum, but staff noted the statutory quorum requirement may be a fixed number (6) rather than 50%+1. Council directed staff to research the quorum rule and then decide on membership size. The term length will be changed from 3 to 4 years. Council also discussed improving recruitment and outreach for vacancies.
- Ocala Housing Authority Board: No changes proposed; council indicated the board is functioning well.
- Ocala Historic Preservation Advisory Board (OPAB): The proposal was to reduce from 9 to 7 members, but council decided to keep 9 members due to the difficulty of filling certain professional seats (e.g., architect). Term length will be changed from 3 to 4 years. Quorum will be set to simple majority. Council noted the board is passionate and effective, and that the few cancellations were not a major issue.
- Code Enforcement Board: No substantive changes, but term will be changed from 3 to 4 years. The board currently has a magistrate process being implemented. Council expressed support for the magistrate system.
- Airport Advisory Board: Staff proposed discontinuing the board due to frequent cancellations and added bureaucracy, but council decided to keep the board. Instead, the board will meet quarterly or every other month (instead of monthly), and code language will be added to allow items to come directly to council if a quorum is not met. The quorum will be set to 50%+1.
- Recreation Commission: Will change from monthly to every other month meetings, and term from 3 to 4 years. The Golf and Tennis Boards (which have no members and have not met in years) will be rolled into the Recreation Commission.
- Ocala Municipal Arts Commission: Status quo; no changes proposed.
- Tree Commission: Staff will clean up ordinance and policy to ensure meetings do not delay development applications. Council noted the city's 35-year Tree City USA designation.
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CRA Advisory Committees and Grant Program Changes: Roberto (Economic Development Manager) presented proposed changes to align with Vision 2050. Key recommendations included:
- Reducing CRA advisory committees from 7-9 members to 5 members, meeting quarterly on policy matters only.
- Streamlining the grant approval process by taking applications directly to the CRA board after staff review, cutting review time from ~76 days to ~49 days.
- Introducing expedited administrative approval for grants up to $10,000 (with a $50,000 annual cap per CRA), to be approved by the city manager (or council if manager is unavailable).
- Switching to rolling application intake (instead of monthly deadlines).
- For bid requirements: staff proposed allowing single bids for commercial and historic properties, but council directed that residential properties must still require two bids. Commercial and historic will be exempted from the two-bid rule.
- Clarifying rules for non-homestead properties (LLCs, rentals): one grant per property per fiscal year; council discussed potential caps on LLC grants and the need to balance slum/blight reduction with affordable housing.
- Council member Dreyer suggested that a property must close out an existing grant before applying for a new one on the same property (for residential). Council agreed.
- Staff will develop formal bylaws for CRA advisory committees, including attendance requirements, duties, and removal procedures.
- Council discussed downtown CRA's 50% match rate vs. West Ocala's 75%, and the need to incentivize ground-floor retail. Staff will explore a new grant tier for projects between $50,000 and $500,000, and consider targeting retail tenants directly.
Key Outcomes
- Board of Adjustment: Will remain separate from Planning and Zoning. Training for both boards will be enhanced.
- Utility Advisory Board: Fiber customers will be added; council member becomes non-voting.
- Affordable Housing Advisory Committee: Staff to research quorum requirement (50%+1 vs. fixed 6) before deciding on 9 or 11 members. Term changed to 4 years.
- Historic Preservation Board: Retained at 9 members; term changed to 4 years; quorum set to simple majority.
- Airport Advisory Board: Kept, but meeting frequency reduced to quarterly/every other month; code amended to allow direct council consideration if quorum fails.
- Recreation Commission: Meets every other month, 4-year terms, absorbs golf/tennis functions.
- CRA Grant Process: Applications will go directly to CRA board after staff review. Expedited approval up to $10k (city manager or council). Two bids required for residential; single bids allowed for commercial/historic. Rolling intake. New grant program for downtown mid-tier projects and retail tenant incentives to be developed.
- Board Membership Standards: Staff will include attendance requirements (e.g., removal after unexcused absences) and uniform four-year terms in the comprehensive code revision.
- Next Steps: Staff will prepare a comprehensive code edit incorporating all changes, which will require two public hearings. A review document will be presented to council at the first hearing. The timeline for implementation is not specified.
Meeting Transcript
Can you please make sure security knows good I have moved to the case? I hope they are insight. All right. Good good afternoon. Good afternoon. It is June. What did they do? 9th. At 12 noon. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Mr. Pete. Yes, sir. Thank you. So we have two items, and they're both related. One's the boards and commissions, as we told you, and then we'll talk about the CRAs at the end of that. To expedite this, I'm going to handle driving through this from my position on the on the dais, and the staff will come up as we need them. As we go through, the plan will be to edit the code, but this will be a comprehensive code edit. It'll take it'll take a little time to come back to the board to approve. We'll have to go through with the attorneys to make sure that we capture everything in the ordinance and all the references to each one of these commissions if we make any or boards if we make any changes to it. Our intents really to modify we have a policy. I laid it on the desk next to you on the left on the left side of your tablets, and it has appendix A on the top of a its policy, it's a policy and procedural guideline. Um that governs generally boards and commissions. Um it'll reference back to the place where those boards were created in the code. Um Mr. Sexton and our staff will oversee that. So getting into you and you'll have click through this, but you also have, and I apologize if I've already been put on notice about the the size two font that's on the front page of this. The rest of it you can read. I think it's not quite so small. But that page is small. So the the first one is the planning and zoning commission. Um two alternatives, or two alternates, I'm sorry. Jeez. Um the school board member would remain a non-voting member. The term's four years, it would stay that way. But what we are in the page is right behind planning and zoning are the Brownfield's advisory committee and the Board of Adjustment. We are proposing that we roll all of those into one board. Um and that they handle the administrative and quasi-judicial aspects of the Board of Adjustment, and that they handle the brown brownfields function when we we're in Brownfields. We will just we we'll have a language change in the code that uh establishes the brownfield functions as a part of planning and zoning or whatever we call the planning and zoning commission. Um, they handle all of our brownfield sites. Um they get public comment. We have at least two meetings per year when we have a brownfields when we when we're uh a brown field community. So you're saying you're gonna combine planning zoning, brown fields, and board of adjustment, yes, sir. You sure you want to do board of adjustment? Well, we're gonna that's to that's what the open discussion is about. Here's here's the thing. The board the Board of Adjustment meets infrequently, more due to lack of quorum, not like lack of quorum, but lack of items to consider. Um you know, they hear an authorized special exceptions and variances. They act as an appeals board when it's alleged that there's an error made by the building official in enforcement of the code. They also are authorized in one ten of the code to be the signed board of adjustment.
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