City Council - Regular Meeting

Can you guys hear me? Yeah? No one There it is. Down. Little down. Check check. Sibilance. All right, it's still 6:00, so we're on time. Uh welcome to the May 4th meeting, regular City Council meeting, and I'm so glad all of you are here to celebrate uh Municipal Clerks Week. Yay for our city clerks. And most importantly, it's May the 4th, which means it is our city attorney's birthday. Yay! Happy birthday, Mr. Miget, and we are going to continue to give the best gift of all, which is to not sing to you. So, you're welcome. But, happy birthday. That normally gets a bigger laugh. Come on, guys. Where are we? It's a happy day. Okay, we are um going to begin with the invocation led by Mr. Jansen, then I'm going to call up members of Troop 63 to deliver the Pledge of Allegiance. So, please rise for the invocation. Let us pray. Good and gracious heavenly Father, as I'm lifting up my sisters and brothers in prayer today, we just ask you that you lead us in spreading conversation to make decisions that guide the city that bring glory to your name. Lord, as we approach the semi-quincentennial of America, the 250th birthday, I just ask you that you put your blessings across our military as they're fighting abroad. Keep them safe from harm. Deliver freedom to America. Lord, I just ask you to look over our our first responders as they do their day-to-day to keep us safe. We ask you all these blessings in Jesus' name. Amen. Members of Troop 63, if you want to come up here to the podium. Come on up. Come on. Just right here. Here. Here.

[laughter]

We did not rehearse this. If you just want to press the red button, that'll turn the microphone on and just give us your name and where you go to school. Hello, I'm Hazel. I go to James Weldon Johnson. Welcome. Hello, I'm Logan Wellman, and I go to Fletcher Middle School. All right, go Senators. I am John Luke, and I go to Alimacani. Welcome, John. I'm Alister, and I go to Alimacani. Welcome. I'm Giovanni, and I go to Seabreeze Elementary. Welcome, Giovanni. Hello, Giovanni. I go to Jacksonville Classical Academy. Awesome. Welcome. I'm Zion Taber, and I'm homeschooled. Welcome. And what what badge are we working on? Citizenship and Society. Citizen- Citizenship and Society. That's a tongue twister. All right, are you ready to deliver the pledge? Everyone, please face the flag. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance, Scout Oath and Scout Law. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, for liberty and justice for all. You guys can do the Scout Oath if if you want to. I bet we have some other scouts in here. Do we have any on the dais? Um A scout Scout Oath On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. Do I sit down?

[applause]

That's good. Well, thank you for obliging in letting me put you on the spot right there. We will call this meeting to order. Madam Clerk, roll call. Council member Golding? Here. Council member Horn? Here. Council member Jansen? Here. Council member Sutton? Here. Council member Wagner? Who is joining us remotely. Yeah, he's on mute. Okay. I know he's here. Uh Council member Waters? Here. Mayor Hoffman? Here. Moving on to approval of minutes, item A. I move we approve the minutes from the regular City Council meeting held on April 6th, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion carries. Item B. I move we approve the minutes from the City Council briefing held on April 13th, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. Mr. Waters? Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um I I noticed in the minutes that uh a lot of future briefing topics were noted, but not the one that I had requested. So, I hope I know that May uh Mr. City Manager is kind of busy, but I hope we can I can look forward to that in June. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Waters. Any other discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Approval of the agenda? I move we approve the agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Council announcements. Ms. Golding. Thank you, Mayor. I have a couple of announcements. First of all, I wanted to let everyone know there will be a town hall with our Jacksonville City Council member Rory Diamond this Wednesday night, May 7th at 7:00 p.m. at the

Beaches Branch Library. This will be a great opportunity to It's open to the public, and it's a great opportunity to come and hear what Councilman Rory Diamond will be talking about and also ask him questions and interface with him. And then, I'm a little bit um It's a little bit delayed on this, but I wanted to mention that we had National Volunteer Week the end of April, and the City of Jax Beach has some amazing volunteers that I really feel like we need to recognize. First of all, we have our Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association that works with the Jax Beach Police Department, and uh they support projects at the police station, they help within the community, and they assist in the offices, and they contributed in 2025 2,454 hours. And then, we also have the Citizens on Patrol, which also support the Jax Beach Police Department. They allow our our officers to focus on higher priority calls, and they assist with more routine tasks like handling minor traffic crashes or crash reports, and then they maintain uh vehicle tow logs, direct traffic, and they manage simple found property cases. And they donated uh 1,399 hours in 2025 for a total of 3,853 hours that were donated to our police department. And then, that's not all. We also have the Volunteer Life Saving Corps, and um we got a briefing from them in our past briefing, and um they

spent 2,600 hours in training, which is a lot when you think about it. And then, they also volunteered 3,695 hours, primarily working on the beach for a total of 6,295 hours. So, when you put all of those hours together, um there is a uh a a value that's a national value that's assigned to volunteer hours, and for 2025, that volunteer hour value was $36.14. So, when you calculate how much how much those hours were valued to the city, that's $366,748 worth of volunteer heart and effort and commitment. And I just want to thank all the volunteers. As I said, the CPAA, the COPs, and the Volunteer Life Saving Corps, and um look forward to the amazing things that they're doing in 2026 as well. Thank you, Ms. Golding. Mr. Sutton. Uh thanks, Mayor. I just wanted to take a minute. I don't think we have mentioned this um and it didn't just happen, but happened recently, the passing of Bobby Jolly. And Bobby um volunteered his time uh for quite a few years in Jacksonville Beach on a few of our boards. I know at least the Board of Adjustment. I can't remember if he was on the Planning Commission back before me, which would have been a while ago. Um but uh Bobby's uh certainly uh served the City of Jacksonville Beach uh well for quite a few years. His service is a week from today, I believe, at St. Paul's at 11:00, so.

Thank you, Mr. Sutton. Mr. Waters. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Um Mike, are the uh pictures from Seabreeze available? I had the uh pleasure of substituting as a gym teacher at Seabreeze today, and I got a first look at the chicken coop we approved and the little ducklings. And um the assistant principal uh gave me the pleasure of naming three of the ducklings, so I named them Sandy, Chris, and Wags in their honor. But things are full steam ahead. They've had those there at the school with the classroom. So, I'm really proud of the dais for approving this, and I think it's going to be a great thing for the kids because these animals uh the gifted kids are going to get to work with them, so they learn to love things and you know, serve others, and it's a beautiful thing. So, I wanted to share that with you guys cuz it just all worked out. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Walters, and also for that honor, I think. Um a a nice to share. Uh any other council announcements? I can't believe no one got to this. I get to say um amazing opening of the beaches weekend. And we had um a weekend full of activities, and we've got uh members of our Parks and Rec team here, a few of the many people who worked really hard to make that whole weekend a big success from, I think, silent disco and fishing contest to the sandcastle contest out on the beach. Um that was apparently spectacular, and then uh it did not technically rain on our parade, but it rained for a full hour before the parade started. So, um luckily, everybody was in good spirits and got out there. I think we probably had it felt like the longest parade we've ever had, and I'm not saying that in a bad way. There was

just a lot of um a lot of great entrance and floats and uh participants in the parade. So, thank you to everyone who made that possible, and as well as the um inspection at the uh lifeguard station early that morning. So, the beaches are officially open, but as we all know around here, they hardly ever close. So, we're excited to welcome people out to uh the beach and start their summer off with us. Any other council announcements? And we will move on to courtesy of the floor. For those of you who are attending for the first time, um just so you kind of know how this flows, the um council announcements are, as you saw, for us to share um things of interest, upcoming meetings, things like that. Um courtesy of the floor is an opportunity for anyone who wants to to come up and speak to the council. Um they receive 3 minutes, and they can come up and talk to us about any issue that they want to. It's typically not a back-and-forth. It's just an opportunity for um citizens uh or you can you don't even have to be a citizen can come up here uh and be heard by the council. Um before I get to that, um city attorney pointed out, Miss Golding, that you said Wednesday, May 7th, but Wednesday is actually May 6th. So, is it Wednesday, May 6th or Thursday, May 7th? It's Wednesday, May 6th. Sorry, my bad.

That's what we thought. We just wanted to make sure that was clarified for anybody who might have put that right on their calendar. Um so, we're going to start off with courtesy of the floor. I think everyone who is here has done this before, but I'll say again, come on up to the podium, give us your name and address, and you will have 3 minutes to address the council. Victoria Yee. I'm not sure if Excuse me, I'm not sure. I think I'll leave these on. I have it detached right now. Victoria Yee, 1575 Marsh Inlet Court, Jacksonville Beach. And I'm here again to address the happenings and activity at the Discovery School. We continue to have safety issues along um 15th and Shadow uh all the way up, and I've noticed that the traffic coming down 15th Street is grown, not just specifically as part of Discovery, but traffic in general is expanding. And just last week, I saw a couple of near misses at the stop sign, people trying to go around. They're in a hurry. They don't want to wait for the four-way stop to get through it, so they go around, they get into the other lane, the oncoming lane, and then I also saw the other day trying to come out of our street that at 3:00, a parent trying to pick up their child was coming down, but they all parked on that side of the street, and so they just came around, did like a four-point turn, and to get parked over there, and it ended up blocking traffic. And again, near misses because people

are impatient and in a hurry. And at that time of day, especially at 3:00 with children out and a lot of additional traffic coming down that street, and I imagine it's only going to get worse when that land at Adventure Landing is developed and there are people living in those um apartments and condos because people no longer want to go down 3rd Street. Traffic is bad on 3rd Street, and they don't seem to want to go down 9th Street, either. So, they determined they identified 15th Street as another alternative to get out down by South Beach. Uh the other thing I wanted to address is again, privacy. Uh my house, unfortunately, sits right behind uh the new building that they built a year and a half ago. And I would invite any one of you at any time to come and see what I live with every day. Mr. Wagner came, and I think he was really surprised at how close that building is to the property line. And I don't uh 7 days a week, there is activity happening at that school. I cannot comfortably sit out in my backyard on my patio and have coffee in the morning, read a book, have dinner at night because I can never be assured when I will have privacy. There is always lawnmowers going, lawn leaf blowers, maintenance, cleaning, uh after school hours, and on weekends. And the third thing that I would like to address is property values. My property value has absolutely been reduced since that building has been there and all that activity is happening. So, uh again, thank you for your time. I would invite any one of you, if you would like to come and see the neighborhood, and you're more than welcome to come see it behind my house. Thank you, Miss Yee. Next Cheryl Brzezinski.

Hello again. Cheryl Brzezinski, 538 10th Street North. I've been up here a lot, it feels like. We tried talking to the city attorney. He says there's nothing he could do. He knows of no law that he can use to stop this. We write him a good letter, all the laws, write him all the documentation of the Discovery School plans. When he writes us back, he doesn't refer to the law anymore. Now he's throwing the person that was head the planning department under the bus cuz they're gone now, and it was her sole thing that did this. And obviously, he has no um what would you call it? authority over her to change anything, so they can't do it. We talked to the city manager. His response was quite interesting to me. He said it in front of a bunch of people, so obviously, he doesn't care if I repeat it here. He said, "I'm afraid to enforce the conditions against Discovery School. They may sue us." And I thought, "Well, how interesting is that?" Because the only time that someone has Not the only time, but the only lawsuit I know about is when someone sued the city because of preferential treatment was being shown by the city to Discovery School. So, that looks, again, what's to be happening here. They're getting preferential treatment. So, we come to the council because the staff is not going to do anything. And in this form of government, where you have a council and you have city manager and a city attorney, and they won't do what they're supposed to do for the people of this great city of Jacksonville Beach, then you guys have to step in. And now is the time. You've been waiting on this. You've been delaying this for months. You should know who I am. I should have spoke one time, and you should have

looked into it. You should have made a decision already. These are our constitutional rights. This is This is where you get to feel good about being a politician. You have to step in and do the right thing. The right thing is we're not going to let bureaucrats mess with the citizens of Jacksonville. And the way that you do that is you say order them to pause construction. Send it to the planning commission. And if it doesn't go with the original plans, then you stop it. You stop it. And if you don't stop it, then we have to wonder what is your relationship with Discovery School? And we don't want to go there. We are trusting you to defend the interest of the citizens, not the interest of Discovery School. They've added 150 students. Do you know how much 150 students make make them in 1 year? 3.5 million. Million. So, I ask you, please, do your constitutional duty. Protect the citizens from the bureaucrats who don't want to do it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Persisco. Barbara Black. Hello again. I'm Barbara Black. I live at 1516 Marsh Inlet Court. And for all the scouts that are here, this is a real lesson, I think, in civics. And we're here appealing to our council members who

were voted in by us to please help. You've appointed a planning commission. And the planning commission, I I tried to log in and see minutes. And where have has anything about Discovery School come up? There's nothing in the minutes about it. They canceled meetings. They canceled the planning commission on March 9th, April 13th, April 27th, and the upcoming one, May 11th. How are citizens supposed to meet and present their concerns when there's no meeting? So, we have a kind of erosion in public trust. You know, it's not unusual at the federal government, but in our sweet little city of Jacksonville Beach, I guess I expected better from a small town kind of thing, where we're neighbors. So, I would hope that uh you would take a look at how Discovery School has been bending the rules and seems to be not agreeing to what the planning commission uh had set forth. They're way outside the bounds. The number of students is almost double. They agreed to 200 students. Now they're at 350. Which means more traffic, more buildings, and they keep expanding. So, now they want an athletic field in our backyard. We are surrounded by athletic fields where we are. The city has a huge one.

You can hear the kids. I happen to like hearing the children, but not that close. It's not my backyard. So, we have systems. We have rules to prevent chaos and keep the order. I just wish [snorts]

you have the authority. And again, I'm going to echo, please do your jobs. Check with that planning commission. I don't know how Discovery School seems to be doing whatever the heck it wants to do. And there's no stop on it. And there's no input from its neighbors. There's processes to be followed, and I hope that you would do that. How does it affect me? The traffic, as Victoria um explained, my sprinkler heads, I constantly have to replace sprinkler heads because people come, they tu- turn around. I'm on the corner. And as they're trying to get in line for the parking, uh they run over the sprinkler heads a million times. So, it's an ongoing problem, which might seem minute, but I shouldn't have to deal with it. The other thing, the danger. Ms. Black, your time is expired.

Am I Can you just wrap it up?

That's okay. Well, I it's dangerous. If a policeman was there, we wouldn't get uh people who are in a big hurry cutting out and around. It's very dangerous. So, I appreciate your time. I appreciate being able to speak. Yay, America. This is what it's about. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Black. Donnie Persisco. Good evening, Mayor, Council. My name is Donnie Persisco. I live at 1511 Marsh Inlet Court, directly adjacent to Discovery School. My son, Xander, was almost hit by a car in front of school during the aftercare pickup. There was no crossing guard present. Discovery School operates under a conditional use approved by the planning commission, tied to a specific site plan, and a set of conditions that govern the operations to keep our residential neighborhood safe. It covers things like crossing guards at every single drop-off and pickup. These conditions exist for a reason. Public safety, traffic control, buffering, and protecting the sound surrounding neighborhood and property values. What's happening today does not match what was approved. The layout has changed. The use has changed. The intensity has changed. The development has expanded areas that were not part were not include included in the original approvals. And it's happening right now. Every day, dump trucks. Dump trucks bring more and more sand and more and more fill. The land development code is clear. If the site conditions change, the plan changes, it must must go back before the planning commission. That did not happen. We requested a review. It didn't happen. We asked for enforcement.

It didn't happen. We submitted complaints. They were closed without resolution. 1582 Shadow, which is central to the development plan, was acquired 4 years 4 years after the planning commission approvals. There's no public record that shows that the variances, conditions, or the site plan were conveyed to the new property. We've tried to follow the process. We've gone through the city staff. We've submitted complaints. We've requested records. We've asked for planning commission review. At every step, we've been ignored, misdirected, or denied. At some point in time, when the administrative process breaks down, the responsibility shifts. Under the land development code, the council has the authority to take action necessary to ensure the code is properly applied. And the planning commission is the body uh with reviewing and deciding conditional uses like this one. We're asking you to please use your authority to refer this matter back for proper review. Because if the process isn't followed, then the conditions mean nothing. And if the conditions mean nothing, then protections for our neighborhood, and every single neighborhood in Jacksonville Beach, are meaningless. This is not about stopping the school. This is about enforcing what has already been agreed to. What was already promised to our community. We're asking for three things. Pause construction. Initiate planning commission review. Enforce the conditions. That's it. That's the process. That's all we're asking for. Just follow the process. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Persisco. We have Daniel Brett, and uh Daniel does not wish to speak. Uh it's indicated that you

support Discovery School expansion. Is that You support Donnie. I will update the card. Thank you for being here. And then the final speaker, Mike Abernathy. Hello. My name is Mike Abernathy. I live at 1780 Marsh Inlet Court. Um so, as I was back there, we said the Pledge of Allegiance, right? And that last line, liberty and justice for all. And it's like, really? Is it really justice for all, or is it justice whoever has the biggest pockets? Cuz as you guys have heard, we have pleaded and pleaded. It's like our rights mean nothing when we challenge Discovery School. And with that said, the one thing I wanted to mention is that how many veterans do we have out here? All right. One thing I learned, you know, I spent a good part of my life in the military and leadership. Doing the right thing isn't always easy. Sometimes it's that path of least resistance that makes the best leader. So, you've already heard the cases where safety and money or property values are shot. All we're asking for is who on our council is going to be that leader who steps up. You might take it on the chin, who's going to speak up for us, you know, help us do what's right. That's all we're looking for. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Abernathy. That was our final uh courtesy of the floor. Uh we do not have a consent agenda today, and um now we're going to go ahead on to something exciting. We have our Citizen Information Academy graduation. Um so, you see them here throughout the room. They've uh gone through an intensive course learning all about how uh the city of Jacksonville Beach operates, and I just want to thank you all for taking your time to um learn about the city. Um some of you were employees, uh, citizens, uh a range of people who have been here their entire

lives, people that are new to our community. So, we really appreciate you um, coming out, taking time um, that you could be doing other things to learn about the city and I hope that it was a worthwhile experience. Okay, I see some heads nodding. Uh, I haven't seen you since your the first day and it seemed like it was going to be a really dynamic group. You guys really um, did a great job asking excellent questions of finance. I mean, they really dug in uh, with the CFO on some really good questions of all of all the departments. That's not what I expected, but it just shows me you guys were um, ready to pay attention. Um, and thank you as well to the city clerk's office who really works hard to put this together and make it a really special program. So, we um, cue the uh, pomp and circumstance. Nobody know? We need let's pipe that in next year. Um, so, I'm going to come around and we're going to call your name and come up and get the um, certificate. Is someone taking pictures? We'll do the grip and grin and then you can go over and get your bag full of wonderful gifts from some I think local businesses, probably Jacksonville Beach businesses. So, um, it'll be worth all that time you spent learning about uh, fats, oils, and grease. I see you. Okay. I know. I I got it. All right. Thank you, though. Wait. Um, Brock Askew. Alex Bigelow.

Melissa Harvey. Bridget Jordan. Martin Kennelly. Desiree Dodson. Robert Dodson. Wendy McDonald. Dave McCann. Mabel McQueen. Daniel Medico. Dorothy Mullins.

Ronald Mullins. Deb Naples. K Odom. Carol O'Donoghue. Barbara Quinn. John Shelby. Kurt Ski. Naveen Walker. And we have four graduates who couldn't make it today. We have Art Graham, Diane Halstead, Lindsey Haga, and Kevin Folsom.

Um, recent recent graduates, uh, we do welcome you to stay for the meeting. We actually don't have a huge agenda and they're in my opinion interesting items um, that you can probably all relate to, but uh, you don't have to. You might have graduation parties to go to. I get it. It's the season. Um, and I do thank you all for filling out your surveys so that we continue can continue to improve uh, every year. Okay, we'll let everybody We'll give everyone a second to clear the room. Okay, we'll go ahead and get started with uh, resolutions. We have Mr. Fitipaldi, Parks and Rec. Come on up. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Jason Fitipaldi, Parks and Recreation. Uh, this item we asking Council to approve a slight adjustment in some of our rates. Uh, this rate resolution was last um, increased I'm going to say about 3 years ago. Uh, the increases are not significant, but not significant in terms of the amount, but necessary uh, for us to keep up with the times. Uh, for the tennis center, we are asking for a slight increase predominantly to cover the cost of the card processing fees. Uh, we'll be able to start charging by credit card uh, come June 1st. Uh, other rates in our sports leagues, we just simply eliminated the deposits that we require for our adult softball and flag football.

And the other rate uh, was for the community center rental where um, we just keeping up in time with the increase in the security fees. If you approve this tonight, these rates should become effective on June 1st. Thank you, Mr. Patitis. Can we have a motion? I move we adopt resolution number 2208-2026 amending fee schedules for use of city parks and recreational facilities. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Welders. Thank you, Madam Mayor. Good evening, Director. I was just curious, will this affect the Little League kids who play in their games at all? No, not at all. Okay, I didn't think so, but I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you for keeping an eye on this. I think it's um especially the convention center is still a really good deal, or the community center still a really, really good deal. So, hopefully it's utilized quite a bit. Um we know the parks are We We definitely all see it. So, um they look great, and I'm glad to see so many in our community out there enjoying our our recreation spaces. See, no more questions, Madam Clerk, roll call. Council member Golding? Yes. Council member Horn? Yes. Council member Jansen? Yes. Council member Sutton? Yes. Council member Welders? Yes. Mayor Hoffman? Yes, motion carries. Resolution beep. So, this item again it minor adjustments to the resolution, mostly to keep up with the cost of the um bronze memorial plaque uh that went up from 450 to 650. It's basically covering the cost of that. And then one or two other just minor things

that give us a little bit more control uh in the future. So, that's all I have. Thank you. May we have a motion? I move we adopt resolution number 2214-2026 amending the memorial tree and bench program. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Another great program. So, thank you guys for the work involved in that. Madam Clerk, roll call. Council member Horn? Yes. Council member Jansen? Yes. Council member Sutton? Yes. Council member Welders? Yes. Council member Golding? Yes. Mayor Hoffman? Yes, motion carries. Is um Mr. Wagner not available to vote or We're having connection issues.

[snorts] Trying to work through [laughter] behind the scenes. I'm sorry that I brought it to everyone's attention.

But I don't know at this point if if he hasn't voted, can he vote on the next item? I can chime in. Yeah, the No. The minutes should well uh indicate that he stepped out of the meeting for anything he didn't vote on because state law does still does require him to vote if he's present. So, uh just like if one of you had to step out of a meeting when you're physically here, the minutes will just have to note note note that he was not here for certain votes, and then he's welcome to come back in if he's able to. Okay, it does look like I got him back. John, are you there? I am here. Nice. Okay. Okay. We We voted on the two resolutions and are now moving on to the ordinance. Welcome back. Okay, we are going to move on to the final item um and I will throw it over to city attorney. Mr. City Attorney, are there any updates since our last meeting? No updates since the last meeting. This has been publicly noticed and advertised for its second hearing tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Madam Clerk, will you read the ordinance by title? An ordinance of the city of Jacksonville Beach, Florida amending chapter 12, streets, food, and food products by creating section 12-34 establishing a food truck rally pilot program in the central business district providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, severability, codification, and an effective date. Thank you. This ordinance is before the council for a public hearing and consideration on its second reading. I will now open the public hearing on ordinance number 2026-8234. I do not have any comment cards on this item. Would anybody from the audience like to speak in favor of or against this ordinance? Seeing none,

I will close the public hearing and request a motion. I move we adopt ordinance number 2026-8234 on the second reading amending chapter 12, streets, food, and food products by creating section 12-34 establishing a food truck rally pilot program in the central business district. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any further discussion? Madam uh Ms. Golding? I I don't know if Mr. Wagner can hear me can hear me cuz I have a question for him. I can hear you. Okay. Um in our meeting on April 20th, I believe you said that Duncan was going to follow up with the businesses that had concerns about the food truck rally pilot program. And I just wanted to follow up because I spoke with Mr. Doherty, who is um he's the manager of Lynch's Irish Pub. Um and he had expressed concerns. He actually said that he never heard from Duncan. So, I wanted to bring that up as a concern because I I was under the impression that Duncan was going to follow up with the businesses that had expressed concerns to talk with them about the about the program. Yeah, I I received a note back from Duncan and said he had tried to or he had tried to talk to some of the folks which just not successful in getting to somebody and so on and so forth. We know that the We know that we know he's concerned and he's um I I will I will listen to his efforts to speak to connect with more than extended they wanted to.

Okay. Um that's that that's really my you know, my concern again is just the communication with the businesses and and in in particular the ones that have concerns because I was hopeful that was I mean, do you have anything to report out as far as like any of the other businesses that had concerns? So, you know you know, it's still like 18 18 businesses out there. So, you know, we still have to follow up with that. And some people don't I don't want to assume that hopefully Duncan here assumes that everybody's going to be for it because it's not everybody's going to come on cuz they look at the ticket and all of that. So, we don't expect everybody to just come out and say yes. And any emotional issues. So, um you know, I think that's why it's a pilot. As Duncan has told us before, I do know that Duncan has spent some time with some of the some other businesses. Duncan with the central business district that spent a lot of time with Mark Farrell and and some other folks that talked about how you make uh how you reactivate downtowns. Uh and really talking about the activity from the businesses. But so, there's some of those type of discussions that are more of a strategic overall program not really as much of addressing kind of one person's issue, but how do we make the community make that thing work? So, it benefits all the businesses. So, I do know that that's occurred and and I've gotten a lot of good feedback from those discussions. But regrettably, you know, we had you know, that's part of the downside of getting, you know, lots of people involved that also have day jobs. They you know, not always able to pull everything off. Okay, um so, I just I want to I wanted to say that

you know, if the if this is approved, I sincerely hope that when we loop back around to the businesses and the residents to follow up on the program and to get feedback on the program, that we make sure that we are talking to these businesses, especially the ones that had the concerns because you know, my hope would be that afterwards those businesses say, you know, everything was fine. But if they had concerns and then they still have concerns or had still have issues after the pilot after the first year of the pilot program, I think we need to know that. Um so, I just want to I want to make sure that that's noted and um and publicly shared that that's that's what I think we need to do. So, safety I will make a commitment to reach to I will reach out to everybody and make myself available uh the three businesses and if if there's more more businesses uh to have have a discussion with them uh make sure that we're connected and uh make sure that there's a connection with them and whoever's kind of helping up work the straight pieces, at least the majority of these events. So, I I I I have no problem with knocking these folks. I I thought that was going to be handled you know, a certain way and it it it just it didn't get pulled off. Okay, thank you, Mr. Wager. Mr. Wouters. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And thank you, Councilwoman Golden, for your thoughtful comments. Mr. Daugherty is a good man. And I do appreciate him greatly. Uh Councilman Wagner, can you hear me? Awesome.

Listen, so just to clarify my understanding of all this, this will only be occurring once a quarter. Is that true? The most it can occur is once a quarter. Okay, so the impact should whatever if there are any negative impacts, they should be quite minimal. Uh could I Okay.

recent data What the recent data has showed us is in cities where they've done this, because of the traffic, because of the limited nature of what the food trucks offer, it actually improves traffic to the local businesses. It doesn't detract from it. But like, you know, we'll have to see what our own experience is. And and that's your point, counselor. Uh that's why it's a a very limited pilot. Well, thank you, Councilman Wagner. And just as a small aside, were you able to hear my announcement? Was it Was it related to chickens? Yes, you you had the honor of having a chicken named after you. You're so kind. You're very welcome, friend. Have a good night. Uh thank you, Mr. Wouters. Mr. Sutton. Wow. I can't top that. Um I just wanted to say I agree with Councilwoman Golden and share the same concerns. Um and uh you know, I wouldn't be in favor of moving forward with this if in fact it were not a pilot. Uh and we're treating it as such, and I would hope um that members of this council you know, and and I'll take Councilman Wagner's word for it that he will be circling back, and I think it's imperative on all of us to continue to seek and listen to that feedback. Um and assuming that it's um you know, valid and uh you know, feedback that that has some legitimacy to it um that we can act on. Um hopefully um that we incorporate that into anything going forward uh should should we decide to extend it, which is not a guarantee. Thank you, Mr. Sutton. Mr. Horn. Hey, Mayor. Um again, I've read this, we've discussed it, read it again. Now that I've got some other things popping through my head.

Um section nine of uh section three, part nine so Yeah, D39, when it talks about the food truck rally hours maybe only permitted within the following windows of time: Fridays 5:00 to 10:00, Saturdays 12:00 to 10:00, and Sundays 12:00 to 8:00. But I don't see a specific time period on this as far as is this that whole Friday to Sunday? What is the when we have the window for this? And I I would I went back to look through this, and I didn't see it. So I'm trying to make sure I understand that and make sure we're not um I just I I was start to think about it again. I started processing this, but also trying to listen to everybody in the background. So This Oh, there we go. The food truck rally is a single day event that may occur no more than once per calendar quarter. So I guess So so it will be a single day, so either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, one of those three. Okay. Now I I I saw it again. That That makes sense to me. Um cuz I thought that's what it was, but I wanted to make sure. And I would think that if we have some of our local businesses who have significant concerns, I would think that if we are doing this on single day versus three full days, you know, like a whole weekend, like a festival, like a food truck rally festival, as it were. Um the only other thing in the back of my head that I wanted to ask about, um and this is for the city attorney, in section K, uh of the last portion there, it talks about expiration of January 1st, 2029, unless the city council of the city of Jacksonville Beach amends this by extending the expiration or repealing this section in its entirety. I I'm assuming this is the kill switch that we discussed. Yes, and it's it's self-executing. So if you all do nothing, this will expire December 31st, 2028. But do we have the We also have the ability to prior to that time say come to come together to the council and say, "Okay, this is not working. We've had complaints, we've had

problems. We're done. No more." Yes, it's it's being enacted by an ordinance, so it would take an ordinance to do such, so two public hearings. Okay, so okay. That's That's the only other thing I want cuz so since it's quarterly, I want to make sure that Okay, so well, we need our two meetings basically a month, and we'd be Okay, good. That's I wanted to verify that, and I want to put it on the record so that everybody can hear it. Anybody who's at home listening might have concerns. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Horn. Mr. Wouters. Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate uh Councilman Sutton and Councilman Horn's comments and all of y'all for trying to look out for the people who live here or do business here. And um the scrutiny that we're applying to this food truck uh pilot program, I hope we'll keep our eyes open and aware of the our new program on the boardwalk and give it the same scrutiny as we know we have concerned businesses, Bill and Gary and others, who are worried about the impact on their business. And so I understand the the opportunities on the boardwalk will not be quarterly, but be much more frequent. So I'm asking my fellow council members to have the same spirit while we investigate and see how that plays out. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Wouters. Ms. Golden. Thank you for the follow-up. It in in follow-up to Mr. Horn's point, uh I spoke with the city attorney about that section uh regarding the hours, and it's a little technical, maybe nitpicky wording thing that the fact that it says the hours would be within Friday until blah blah blah, Saturday until blah blah blah, and Sundays until blah blah blah. And because we know it's one day, I really think it should say or, and I think that would be more appropriate. So I would like to make a motion to amend the ordinance to change section

D 3 9 to say or instead of and. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion on the proposed amendment? Any concerns, Mr. City Attorney? None. Okay. Madam Clerk, roll call for the amendment. Councilmember Jansen. Yes. Councilmember Sutton. Yes. Councilmember Wagner. Yes. Councilmember Wouters. Yes. Councilmember Golden. Yes. Councilmember Horn. Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Yes, motion carried. Our amendment passes. Any other discussion? Mr. Wagner, since I don't have a light for you, do you have anything else to add before we vote? Um no, just not not as much just a little bit of difference in summary group. Kind of three kind of restate what some of the some of the other counselors have already brought up, but the one day limit really does is really intended once a quarter to really kind of put some really strong constraints on this to make sure that we're monitoring it. And then the commitment from at least one of the folks that have uh said they would step forward and try to organize these these to bring data forward to us so that we get both the quantitative, what what's the real impact number of people, polls, some surveying on satisfaction and that type of stuff. And then the qualitative of the different business owners and the impacts and maybe even quantitative from their their respects as well if it's significant enough to actually improve or detract from their their business. So I do think that this is a nice balance. And uh Counselor Wouters uh kind of cautions to the council, you know, I I do think that us being really careful and deliberate and putting solid constraints on things so that we can test and learn

and then move forward either with or without one of these things because we have people in our community who both support and don't support. And we we should not we should challenge ourselves to find a proper balance so that we're representing both groups of people and not just one. And so I I think this in my in my humble opinion, I think the way this has been crafted I really do appreciate David's all of David's efforts on this cuz I really do think it strikes that balance. And uh and I really do appreciate the dialogue that everybody's had on it. And the fact that it clearly there's enough difference of opinions that it's that we are striking uh kind of the right chord on this. So I I do appreciate everybody's attention to it. Uh thanks so much. Thank you, Mr. Wagner. Seeing no other lights, Madam Clerk, roll call. Councilmember Sutton. Yes. Councilmember Wagner. Yes. Councilmember Wouters. Yes. Councilmember Golden. Yes. Councilmember Horn. Yes. Councilmember Jansen. Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Yes, motion carries. Is there a motion to adjourn? I move to adjourn. Second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.

Any opposed? Aye. Okay.