City Council - Regular Meeting

uh meeting for March 16th. We'll begin with the opening ceremonies with the invocation followed by the salute to the flag led by Mr. Jansen. Please rise.

Let us pray. Good and gracious heavenly father, as I lift my brother and sister up in prayer tonight, we thank you for your grace and mercies. And we understand that our mercies are renewed every morning. Lord, I just ask you to look over our first responders and our military as they preserve our peace as they go throughout their days. to keep their safety at hand. Lord, we also know when it comes to the day of judgment that the only paperwork we'll need is not our resumes, but the RSVP from your son who died on a cross for our salvation. For it's in his name we pray. Amen. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you. This meeting is called to order. Madam clerk, roll call. Council member Golding, here. Council member Horn, here. Council member Jansen, here. Council member Sutton. Council member Wagner here. Council member Wowers here. Mayor Hoffman here. Mr. Sutton is under the weather today and sends his regards. Um we hope he feels better soon. Moving on to approval of the minutes. Item A. I move we approve the minutes from the special city council briefing held on February 23rd, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item B.

I move we approve the minutes from the regular city council meeting held on March 2nd, 2022. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Approval of the agenda. I move to approve the agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying I.

Any opposed? Agenda is approved. Council announcements. Miss Golding. Thank you, mayor. Um, want wanted to start out by saying that um I had the pleasure of attending the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company soft opening on Saturday night and had lots of really good food and I was miserable when I left. Not because not because uh it was terrible food, but because I ate too much. Um, but I believe that they're supposed to be grand opening today. Um, at least that's what I thought. what I heard them say. Um, so great addition. Glad to see. I will say that it looks great. They did a really, really nice job on the inside. The place looks really good. Um, also wanted to give everybody a legislative session update really quickly. Um, a lot of the council probably knows this, but the but the audience may not. the um legisl legislature did not approve a budget, so they're going to have to go back for a special session. Um uh the bill for sovereign immunity did pass this year, but it passed with uh 350,000 per person and 500,000 per incident caps. So, um that bill that's been floating around for a while has uh finally passed and uh we we will see how that impacts our insurance. Um but then also there was another um another bill that my policy committee was following and it was a a local government spending bill which basically dictates what we as a municipality need to be reporting with regard to our budget. when we need to be reporting it and also a budget reduction

exercise that we're required to do prior to approval of the budget and that passed. Um I will say that the bill was not as bad as the original bill was. Um so hopefully it will not be um it will not have as big an impact on on us. But the other bill that that uh I was following and I've updated on a few times, I believe, is an affordable housing bill that w that actually got approved. It had accessory dwelling unit language that we were very concerned about because it basically would have required our municipality to allow accessory dwelling units in any residential zone. And uh anyway, at the last minute, the House removed all the accessory dwelling unit language. They did pass the affordable housing bill, but it did not have the accessory dwelling unit language. And I have I I did send a special thank you to Rep. Michael because I know she had told me that she had been talking to the bill sponsor a lot and telling the bill sponsor how uh that bill would have negatively impacted Jack Beach because it would not have prevented those accessory dwelling units from being used as vacation rentals and we already have a lot of issues with vacation rentals just in the residential homes that we have and could not imagine what our situation might look like if we also have vacation rentals and accessory dwelling units. So, we've been we've been spared for one more year with regard to the accessory dwelling unit issue. Um, also wanted to mention that I know we had a speaker here a few weeks ago who was um, expressing concerns about the Times Union uh, photo that they

posted of a woman with her dog off leash on the beach and what kind of message that was sending to the community about dogs off leash because we do have an issue with that. And I do wanted to mention to everybody that the Times Union did publish an article on the 14th about uh the beach rules with regard to dogs. So hopefully and I did see some television um some of the television stations had picked it up as well and they were sharing it on social media. So and I know that our um communications team has posted some things on our social media about the rules with dogs on the beach. Um so hopefully we will see that issue um improving if people will abide by the law. And last but not least I wanted to mention that uh Beaches Watch is hosting a state of our schools meeting on Wednesday April 1st and Dr. Christopher Bern Bernier and he's the Duvall school superintendent and April Carney who is the district 2 beaches school board representative will be um participating in the meeting providing an update on primarily uh all the issues related to our beaches schools as well as the schoolboard budget and uh the the halfsent sales tax and other things like that. So, should be a really good meeting. That's Wednesday, April 1st, 7:00 at the Beaches Branch Library. Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Golding. Just to go back to your um listing of the legislative issues that you've been watching, none of them have been signed by the governor at this point. Correct. Okay. So, just if anybody's following along at home, they've passed the legislature, but there's still another step, but I'm sure um not a lot that comes from the full legislature will probably get Well, you never say never. I'm just not even going to go there. Uh but they're not completely done through the process. Mr. Jansen.

Yes. First off, thank you, uh Member Golding for that update. Uh because I saw where the affordable housing passed, but I did not catch they stripped the language out of there. So that was a good catch on your behalf. Um uh just a quick note this morning I was with the Fletcher Jazz Machine in Matanzas, Florida where they uh they did very well. They got straight excellence. Only one school did better than them. I don't remember their name and nor will I ever. And so um but they continue to do a fantabulous job over there with the Fletcher band. both the uh marching band, the symphonic, and the jazz the Fletcher jazz machine as they're well known by. Thank you, Mr. Jansen. Mr. Waters.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, honorable Councilwoman Golden, now regarding what your your announcement regarding ADUs, um, please forgive me. I didn't quite understand what were you were you what happened in Tallahassee that impacts us regarding ADUs. Nothing passed with language uh for for ADUs. There were no bills that had AD AU language in them this year. They had language in that affordable housing bill that was going through the House and the Senate and they stripped it out at the last minute. They took the ADU language out at the last minute.

So they will not be imposing their will on our community. No,

I am so glad to hear that. Thank you for bringing us that update. You know, with uh our LDC update on the horizon, the one year I would like to remind my honorable colleagues that we do allow ADUs and RM1 and RM2, which is where a lot of folks live, which are right next to the places that they're not allowed in. And I hope we will all reconsider that because all the folks in Jacksonville Beach deserve be protected against these. And secondly, I'd like to mention um the Fletcher Mock trial team. They have won their district and they're going to the states in Orlando coming up in March 26. And they were trying to raise $6,000. and I contributed and uh I think I've contributed to some of my honorable colleagues of causes. So I'm asking all the Fletcher alumnists here who are proud to send their donations to 700 Seagate Avenue, Neptune Beach, Florida 32266. And let's help these kids come back with the championship. And I want to wish Amber Romantic and Jay How, the people have donated decades and decades of times to kids in our community. That was founded by Mr. Ed Lang, the late Mr. Ed Lang, the legend in our community. Thousands of people came to his uh funeral. So, good luck to the Fletcher mock trial team, and I'm wishing you all the best. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Wowers. Um, and thank you for mentioning the mock trial team. As far as the ADU issue, I can say, and I don't know if I speak on behalf of any of my colleagues, but I don't really appreciate one side of an issue being brought up at a point where we're not open to discussing the issue. That puts us in a very awkward position and does not deliver the entire um, information to anybody who might be watching this council right now and does not give us the opportunity to respond or debate. So in the future, I would really prefer that we use this for what it is, which is council announcements and not for what you are trying to do, which is lobbying the citizens or the audience as well as the rest of the council who are sitting here on the stasis. I apologize, ma'am.

Thank you. Um, I would like to add to the announce. Anybody else? I'd like to add that I was also at the Bubba Gump Shrimp opening and it was delicious and it looks really good and of course the view is fantastic. So nice to see that reopen. hopefully they will do well. And then I went down the street to the reopening of Green Room Brewing, which is under new ownership, but it's really um a great succession plan of someone who has worked there uh as a brewer for a long time. So, it was a really great event. Some of my colleagues were there. I don't know if they want me to mention their names. Mr. Wagner and Mr. Horn uh joined in the festivities of the ribbon cutting and uh the reopening there of the green room. So, we're very excited for them. Um, also on our consent agenda, I don't know, uh, we have a very big consent agenda. I don't know if anything will be pulled off, but I do want to take the opportunity, um, to mention many of these items have already been discussed in great detail at our, um, our council briefing, but I want to recognize uh, David Mig, who's our city attorney. His um, review is on the consent agenda. I just want to say thank you publicly here at the council meeting for um, doing a great job for us so far. um and and the work that you do and your commitment to Jacksonville Beach was really reflected uh in not only the council um reviews but also the the notes and comments from uh the department heads and executive leadership team. So, thank you and we look forward to continuing to work with you. Uh Mr. Jansen,

sorry, I would have been remiss if I forgot to mention though that the the Fletcher High School color guard and the Fletcher Middle School color guard had a competition on Saturday and they both placed second place. So kudos to them as well. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? Moving on to courtesy of the floor. We will start with Pete Keley. Come on up to the podium and you will have three minutes if you could start with your name and address. Excuse. Sorry.

Would you mind turning on your microphone? I want to make sure we catch this on the stream. It's just the button at the bottom. Thank you.

Do I get more time now? Just kidding. Um, so I know politically golf course tea times are low on the agenda, but I would think that it's one of those things it's going to be some nipping at your heels for months on end if we don't come up to something that's a little bit more equitable. I sent an email to everybody. Councilwoman Golding, Council Person Golding, thank you very much for getting back to me. So basic basically what I had discussed was that the tea times had been changed and um I know they were changed. I think it changed at the last meeting. I didn't know about it. A lot of the people there that that lost their tea times didn't know about it. Lived in Jack Beach since 1995. I've had a tea time there probably for the last six years guaranteed. And I understand that people look at that and say why do I deserve it over somebody else? That might be true. However, it got changed so that now only one side is reserved and one person controls those tea times and it's called, you know, I think they put it into as like a league, but that one person who now controls the tea times offers them to everybody that is in his group. I'm not in that group. None of the people in my tea time are in that group. We weren't invited to that group. I asked to be invited to that group, but no. Now, of the people that are in that group, many don't live in J Beach. So, why would you take a tea time away from a guy like myself who's been here for 30 years, who's paid money into the city of Jacksonville Beach Golf Course? I know it's self- sustaining now, but why do that? So, I had heard some things about, well, you know, it's guys that are on fixed income that now have it. Well, one of the guys I saw on fixed income came in a G Wagon. The other guy is in a Corvette. I don't know about you, but I if a fixed income that's he's doing pretty well, so I'm not buying

that. So the reality is that in in the interest of being equitable and I'm you know you guys decided to make a change but what you're going to find out is that less people will show up for tea times because there's no incentive for a person who makes a tea time to show up as opposed to what I am now where I get a tea time I show up because I know if I don't then they possibly give that away like I won't have it every week. The revenue is guaranteed now. There's just no incentive to do to show up for your tea time. Also, the tea time goes to non city of J Beach people. So, in the interest of equity, I think what's going to happen is the revenue is going to go down. You're going to create more problems for yourself. And there goes my time. So, I just want to have a few things to say. I hope that you guys look at it again at some point. Um, I will continue to kind of hold the flag for it and continue to try to get a better equitable solution at the golf course. Thanks for your time.

Thank you, Cheryl Wood Karak.

Cheryl Wood Comarak. I live at 533 11th Avenue South. Yesterday I went to the beach and I wanted to park on 16th Avenue South. The street end was blocked and it was Sunday. There's no construction material, no construction vehicles. It's the start of spring break for Duval County. It's TPC week. You have tons of medical tourism going to the beach. That's 30 parking spaces that are blocked. 12th Avenue South. Also, they're redoing the walkover, which is a good thing. They also blocked half the parking lot a week ago, Friday on a Friday afternoon, and there was no construction taking place all weekend. Why couldn't it be done on Monday? This morning I called and talked to Lauren, bless Lauren's heart, because she had to endure me at 10:00 this morning. I did call the police department, the non-emergency number yesterday, and I talked to the parking lady. And of course, she said, called the people on Monday. I realized from talking to Lauren this morning that on the 18th, which is Wednesday, there is some tilling of the sand taking place. That's fine. So, why are we blocking 5 days in advance? No need for it. There's at least 30 parking spaces there and there's at least 12 so on 12th Street Avenue South. So you got 40 over 40 parking spaces being blocked out. Now I walk four or five times a week from 16th to the

county line. I'm really uh concerned that it's blocked off so far in advance. I know they don't want to tow cars. I get it. I get it. But it's like going to the airport on Tuesday and you're flying on Wednesday. You're waiting for 24 hours. Doesn't make any sense. I'm just asking. Street could have been blocked on Tuesday. Could have been blocked on Monday morning even. But there's no reason to have blocked it all weekend. I'd like to see that improved. I've had to endure a lot of street closures and parking at the beach, 20 years of construction. I'm I'm aggravated. And I'm aggravated that a sign couldn't be posted. You know, why can there be a sign posted here? Don't park here starting Monday. It could have been open all weekend. Thank you. It's not lost on me that it's a privilege to speak. I do appreciate it. Thank you. And we normally reserve comment during um public comment, but just so that you know that we were all I probably can speak for everyone on this day is equally surprised and disappointed by this closure. 16th Street is not being closed by the city of Jacksonville Beach is the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Army Corps of Engineers who's operating on the beach. So they're using that lot as their equipment and materials lot. Believe me, the first thing I did was Google Duval spring break and realized that they line up perfectly. So um I don't we don't have control over that date or the um space that they're taking necessarily. So it's it was surprise to us as well. So any control that we can exert over that we we can and do. But in this case, we didn't and I'm we're not going to get into back and forth right now. I'm just going to tell you this wasn't a city of Jacksonville Beach decision. So, we do apologize for the inconvenience to our residents and the visitors to our area uh who aren't able to access the beach uh in that area because it is a very popular beach access. Uh that is it for my courtesy of the floor cards. Moving on to consent agenda.

I move we approve the consent agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Motion carries. We have one item uh for business a resolution. This will be Heather presenting this one. Miss Ireland.

Good evening, mayor. To all the consent agenda staff people, thank you for coming out. Stay dry. My feelings are a little hurt. They don't want to stay for my item. Um good evening everyone. Heather Ireland, planning and development director. Uh this resolution is in front of you tonight so that we can um formally so that council can formally provide their support uh for staff getting some transportation planning projects on the TPO's list of projects. Um as we discuss uh discussed in the council briefing, these are all planning studies. This is typically how we'll start with projects and you know we come up with an idea, we study it, we collect data. Should we move forward in future years? It can turn into more of an implementation or construction depending on the project. So, uh, we've already discussed these. I'm happy to answer any questions about the projects, but just kind of to remind everyone, we've already placed these, uh, projects on their lists for potential funding in future funding cycles. This is really just to kind of officially show our support. Um, staff would like to thank council for engaging with us on this since we're kind of newly getting into the asking for funding game from the DPO. Um, but it's exciting and we've did some work already this year with some safety studies on First Street and there's still the ebike regulation study going on right now. So, we'll have some more information uh from those studies to bring back to you guys. So, again, this is just the first step in the form of a resolution that you are supporting these projects and I'm happy to entertain any questions that you have.

Thank you, Director Ireland. Can I have a motion? I move we adopt resolution number 2206-2026 supporting the request for proposed transportation related planning projects to be added to the North Florida Transportation Planning Organizations draft 2026 unified planning work program study requests. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions? Mr. Wowers. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Please forgive me, Director. I've never heard of these people. How do they interface with uh S DOT or do they?

Yes, they do. So, the TPO, the transportation planning organization, it used to be called the MO or Metropolitan Transportation Organization. I believe they were changed across the state. Uh there's different pots of funding for transportation projects. A lot of it does come from the state. Uh so there's there's construction projects for interstates, there's trail projects, there's uh multimmobility projects, um public transportation projects. So the TPO and the DOT, our district is too. Um they they coordinate on all these efforts on where the funding will go based on prioritized lists developed by the TPO and their um technical advisory committee. And then there's a board that makes kind of that final decision on where funding will go. Well, do they have authority to make changes on Third Street then or are we just talking about like First Street and stuff?

Well, that that First Street study was just one example of a transportation planning study and data collection um project that we've undertaken. So, this is really um if you look at their transportation projects list, and I'll be happy to send you some links to that information on their website, it's everything from adding lanes to interstates to improving county roads. Um, if there's local projects though, this is where we get to come and ask for some funding and get on get on a couple different, you know, lists for different funding categories uh to do stuff on local projects. So, but still, if it's A1A that is a state road, it would have to be done by FDOT.

Well, I I'll look forward to talking with you uh privately about it because I don't want to take too much time. But let me just ask you one last question. Uh would this would they have authority on ADA walkovers like to get more ramps like or is that No. No. Okay. No, not FDRT. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes, sir. You're welcome.

Any other questions? Um thank you to you and your department for um putting some projects in. I think it is about time that we started um bringing in partners and uh expert. It's not just about the dollars, but it's about the expertise and kind of not reinventing the wheel to stay along the transportation uh theme here. So, um I'm really glad to see this list of projects going in. I think this could be a really great relationship that we have a lot of opportunities to uh to work with them. Any other questions or comments? Madam Clerk, roll call. Council member Golding, yes. Council member Horn, yes. Council member Jansen, yes. Council member Wagner, yes. Council member Wowers, yes. Mayor Hoffman.

Yes. Motion carries. That was our final item of business. Is there a motion to adjurnn? I move to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? It's made me