City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. It is six o'clock so we will start our May 18th regular city council meeting. We're going to begin with the invocation followed by the salute to the flag delivered by Councilman Sutton. Please rise.

Let's pray. Father, we uh thank you for your grace and mercy and uh we lift up this council and pray for discernment and wisdom uh for this body and for the decisions that we face and uh this evening and and uh every day as we work for the citizens of Jack Beach. We lift up our city employees and leadership at the city. Uh we uh lift up our military and first responders and medical providers and um ask for their guidance and protection uh every day as they carry out their duties. Uh and anyone that has any special needs, we lift them up and uh and ask for your grace and mercy and healing on them. We ask these things in your son Jesus name. Amen. 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, with liberty and justice for all.

This meeting is called to order. Madam clerk, roll call. Council member Golding, here. Council member Horning. Council member Jansen, here. Council member Sutton, here. Council member Wagner. 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 20th, 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 special council briefing held on April 27th, 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second. Miss Golding.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, I would like to make a motion to amend the minutes to include uh that we discussed contacting Kevin Bodgege to assist with connecting to FDOP regarding the walkovers being overtaken by the dunes. That was just a a detail that wasn't included in the minutes. We have a motion to amend. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion on the amendment? Mr. Waters, is your comment related to the amendment? Pardon me, mayor. Is you have your light on? Oh, I wanted to say something else. Okay, that is not about the amendment. The amendment that Miss Golding. No, that covers. Thank you.

Um, any other discussion on the amendment? All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Um, the minutes are amended. Is there any further discussion on the minutes in general, Mr. Waters? No. Okay. Um, so voting on the minutes as amended. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Item C. I move we approve the minutes from the regular city council meeting held on 8 of May 8th, 2026. 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 we approve the agenda.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. Any opposed? Council announcements. Miss Golding. Thank you, mayor. Um, so first of all, I wanted to mention that Tall Pines Park, the playground equipment has been installed, and I was out there the other day, and the kids are definitely enjoying it. Uh, there's a vinyl fence that's also being installed around the park. And there's a basketball court expansion that's going to be happening. Uh, the demolition is expected to begin this month. And once that's done, then the uh the revitalization, I might say, of Tall Pines Park will be done. But in the meantime, the park will stay open while the basketball court is being redone. And I want to thank Parks and Wreck for all the great work that they've done because that is a park that has uh needed a little TLC and I think the the neighborhood is enjoying it. Uh, also want to let everyone know that there's a Memorial Day ceremony that happens every year at the Beaches Veterans Memorial Park and it's going to be Monday, May 25th at 9:00 a.m. So, I hope everyone would plan to go out for that event. It's a really good event. Also wanted to mention that um, Mr. Jansen and I attended the Florida League of Cities leadership class on Friday and uh, it was a really good class. It focused on trust, civility, and community impact. And one of the things that they mentioned that I wanted to share with the rest of the council, um, one of the speakers said that the sunshine law isn't the obstacle to building trust on the deis. It's actually the audience for it. So I think that's a really good reminder that just because the sunshine law means that we can't talk about things outside of the

sunshine, the deis is a good opportunity for us to bring a lot of things to to light. So I thought that was really good um a good piece of of information that we got out of the the uh training class. And also want to mention because it was such a it's it all the floor league of cities training classes that I've attended have been excellent and I just wanted to let anyone know that's on the on the council if if you haven't taken the institute for elected municipal officials one uh which is a prerequisite for this leadership class that Mr. Jansen and I took there is a class that's going to be June 5th and 6th and I I remember that was a very excellent class. Um, so if if uh anyone hasn't taken it, I highly recommend it. Then I also want to mention that when one of our fellow council members has a birthday coming up on May 31st before our next council meeting and I think the mayor will agree we will not sing happy birthday to you but we do want to wish you happy birthday in advance

and want to remind everybody that we have the sea turtle nesting season began May 1st and I want to thank Jacob who's our um communications manager for adding some information to our city's website about the sea turtles and our lighting ordinance. Uh so hopefully our citizens will be able to find that information easily. And then last but not least, I want to mention that we have some guests in the audience tonight. This is um Girl Scout Troop 63211. I want to thank them for coming tonight. They spent some time with us earlier, got a tour of city hall, got to sit up here on the deis and and uh actually try to pass some legislation that was rather interesting. And uh I want to thank the mayor for uh giving them the tour and walking them through the process so that they can understand a little bit better what we do. Um, and then before I ask the girls to come up because they have some comments they want to make, there's a video that the girls made and I want to share that with everyone. When baby sea turtles hatch, they follow the moonlights to the ocean. Sand castles, holes, and trash can trap them and confuse them.

That's why we keep the beach clean, dark, and uhoh.

What happened? Keep the beach dark. Help our sea baby sea turtles make it to the ocean. So, I just wanted to mention that I uh I was contacted by their troop co-leader, Sarah Jennings. Right. And Sarah, do you want to stand up? Um because the girls want to help the sea turtles. And when they uh reached out to me, uh that was about the time that we were talking about the sea turtle lighting ordinance and how people in our community need to know a little bit more about that and we need an opportunity to educate them on keeping their lights out at night. And so they are doing a project and it's going to they've done some some this year and they're going to also do some next year. So, um, I want to call the girls up for their presentation. I don't know. Sarah, did you want to say anything?

Okay. So, girls, come on up to the podium and and tell us about your project. Yes. behind them.

Good afternoon, Mayor, City Council members, and community leaders. My name is Mina. This is Robin, Haley, and Frankie. We are here with our fellow Girl Scouts from Troop 63211. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak today. This year, our troop chose sea turtle conservation as our bronze award project. We partnered with Michael's beach Michael's landing sea turtle patrol to learn more about these incredible animals and the and the challenges they face right here in our community. Through this experience, we learned that even local actions can have a big impact on wildlife. When baby sea turtles hatch, they rely on the natural light of the moon's moon of the moon and stars reflecting on the ocean to guide them safely to the to the water. Robin.

But today, bright lights from homes, streets, and businesses near the beach can confuse them. Instead of heading toward the ocean, many hatchlings move toward the city where they become where they may become exhausted, dehydrated, or injured. Sea turtles are considered a keystone species and are a vital part of the ocean's ecosystem by maintaining seagrass beds and protecting coral reefs. You're welcome. It's

and they're cute. We started to protect learning and education when um and then we took action. We participated in a beach cleanup where we removed trash and filled holes that could trap or injure sea turtles. During cookie season, we also shared what we learned with our community, collected petition, signatures to lighting laws in St. John's County. We raised over 1,3300 to sp dollars to sponsor two sea turtle nests. Artificial lighting can also affect adult turtles by discouraging them from nesting. This is why keeping our beaches dark at night is so important. We recently visited the Jackal Island Sea Turtle Center and the Tai Island Marine Science Center where we learned how sea turtles are rescued, treated, and protected. These experiences helped us understand how sea turtles grow, survive, and face dangers in the wild. Another important part of our project was spreading awareness. We designed stickers to remind people to turn off their lights during nesting season and to follow turtle safe practices at the beach. We've also worked on solutions to reduce light pollution and our troop has designed a 3D light cover that um directs the light downward so it's less harmful to sea turtles. And

next year, we hope to partner with the city council to expand our project by placing reminder window stickers on condo buildings along Jacksonville Beach. We plan to reach out to homeowner associations and work with the local community. and we hope to gain support from both the community and the city council to fund this to help fund this effort. We would also like to give a special thank you to the mayor for taking this time to speak with us in person and we would also like and we would also like to thank Sandy Golding for all the support and guidance she has given our troop this year. Thank you. Thank you girls. We really appreciate everything that you've been doing and look forward to working with you over the next year to do more good things to help the sea turtles here in Jack's Beach. Thank you so much. I just want to add, thank you ladies. That was it was really fun, I would say, even for Sandy and I to tour you around city hall and to see your ideas for um legislation regarding sea turtles and manatees and just now your presentation at the podium. Um I know it's intimidating. There's Robin hiding out down there. It can be intimidating, but you guys handled that so well and that was you did did better than some of our adults. So, so I really appreciate you putting uh those words together and for all of the work that you're doing um for the sea turtles and that you're doing to make

your communities better. We really appreciate that. Um and I'm excited to see uh where this experience takes you in your future. But if nothing else, hopefully it'll take you to be active and engaged citizens for the rest of your life. So, thank you. Um Mr. Sutton, follow that.

Yeah. Thanks, Troop. That That's a hard act to follow right there for sure. Um just want to follow up on uh Councilwoman Golding's comments on the parks. Uh Trevor, I don't see Jason here, but um had the opportunity to um be around Tall Pines this weekend and I think the work continued today on the fencing and it looks incredible. Um and and it was packed all weekend. Um, so I know I know I know it's still in progress and probably has I don't know another 30 days or so to go, whatever to uh fix the basketball court and do some more work. But it just looks incredible. That's a great little neighborhood park. Really doesn't need much shade. It's um, you know, it's just just a great little square block there park if you've never been to it. And um, it just really needed some lipstick on it. Just some some things just needed to be cleaned up and then and replaced. And uh, it looks really good. and you guys did a great job on Sunshine as well and the new the new turf down there. So, just a shout out. Appreciate it very much. Um, let's see. Next Monday, we've got a uh Veterans Day uh remembrance uh ceremony. I think that's the 25th I'm I'm sorry, Memorial Day uh ceremony at the what is it? The Beaches Memorial Veterans Memorial Park in Atlantic Beach. So that's at 9:00 a.m. uh next Monday for those that are interested in attending. It's always a very uh moving uh service. And yesterday and today I had the opportunity to participate in the uh Tom Coughlin J Fund um um fundraiser and tournament. And um it's always a great event and um if if you're an NFL fan, it's a great place to see a whole bunch of NFL current and past players. and um they raised almost $2 million in the last uh the last couple of days which was incredible and

they put on a really good event. Um it's in uh in honor of Jay Gillis who was a player for coach Coughlin at Boston College back before coach even got into the NFL who was uh stricken with um uh cancer and unfortunately passed away as a very very young man uh when he was attending Boston College. And so, uh, coach and and Kelly Coughlin, they've kept that, um, kept that going. This was the his number was 31 at Boston College, and this was the 31st year, uh, that they've had that going on, both in our community and in the New York community, where coach went on to, uh, to have much more success than he had in Jacksonville. And in fact, today, we had the honor of playing with Brandon Jacobs, who was um, two-time Super Bowl champion with Coach Coughlin up there. And shout out to my Florida Blue team who finally brought it home. Finally got the victory. We've been trying to win the JF fun tournament for years. So shout out to Andy Carroll and Michael Warner and Jim Clark and Brandon who also participated with us. Um even though golf I don't think is his game. He's used to hitting people. But um anyway uh thank you.

Thank you Mr. Sutton. Mr. Jansen.

Yeah I just wanted to uh piggy back on what council member Golding said. the uh leadership class and um put on by the Florida League of Cities. It's is fantastic. Not only is it uh are there great speakers, but it's also an opportunity to connect with other leaders across the state. Uh so it's a good good time to fellowship in that regard. I want to thank my colleagues on council and the city for supporting us in this uh in this trip in this mission. It means a lot to us. Um also thank you for the birthday wishes. I appreciate that. And then lastly, um I have the honor, so the city of Jacksonville puts on a Memorial Day ceremony as well, and I have the honor to represent Jacksonville Beach. Thank you, mayor, for that opportunity. And uh I'll be taking the stage for for the city of Jacksonville Beach in Jacksonville. So, thank you all very much for that.

Thank you, Mr. Jansen. Um, I'm going to be going out of town for the next 10 days. So, I appreciate everyone um stepping up to represent Jacksonville Beach and I think we have Fletcher graduation next week also. So, we've got a lot going on. Um, I appreciate everyone pitching in. Um, couple other little things. The Beaches Museum is just opened a right whale exhibit. So, we've talked a lot about um sea turtles today and manatees, but if you want to learn more about the right whales, come on over to the beaches museum. And this is the last week for the permanent exhibit as we know it. We're going to close it down and install an entirely new exhibit. We've done a big fundraising campaign um to be able to put a really great exhibit in. So, um come on by through Sunday. The Beaches Museum is free, open six days a week, so we hope to see you there. Um, and I did want to say, I know we missed a little bit of that video when we had the technical difficulties. So, hopefully we'll be putting it up on social media and you'll be able to see it um, and share it because that was really good. Well done. Um, ladies and Jacob, that was a pretty creative approach. That's what I do when I see sand castles on the beach. I just stomp around like Godzilla. It's better to wait till the kids are done building them before you do that, but it's important for the sea turtles. Mr. Jansen, your light's still on. Are you good? Okay. Uh, now we'll move on to courtesy of the floor to visitors. We'll start with Duke Lewis. Duke, come on up. Give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes to address the council.

Duke Lewis, 24 Alpson Road. Um, I just want to address the meeting that happened on May 8th about the Discovery School. I really appreciate it. I appreciate the cander and the ability, especially out of you, David, and you, Mike. Um, I know you took some tough questions, but the number one thing that you did is let's get the facts straight in a room together. Let's have a discussion firsthand, look at each other. I thank uh, you know, Mr. Horn for uh, calling the meeting or at least calling it where we could all get there and discuss it together. I really um, I hope other people will go back and listen to it because it it's really how things should be done. It was really a great opportunity. As you know, I've tried to become a little more um, to attend a few more meetings. It was one of the best ones I think I've been to as far as no one left feeling like they weren't hurt. They might have felt like they didn't get their way. But you laid out, we all could have other opinions, but we all got the same set of facts in that meeting. And I just want to thank all of you. Sandy, I'm sure you'd have been there if you were available, but it was a really great meeting and I think you should all be uh applauded and thanked for it. If you see opportunities to engage with the public like that on issues, it was a little tough there at times. I know people feel very strongly it was the right way to get it done. There was no reason to send emails back and forth. So again, I thank you all very much for uh having that meeting and participating in it and then moving forward with some of the things that were pointed out. Thank you again.

Thank you, Mr. Lewis. Doug Cony, Mayor, fellow council members, thank you so much for allowing me to come up and obviously see these five outstanding young women here tonight. Hopefully they get a chance to visit some of our outstanding conservation lands and get to see the plants and animals and resources that we're striving to protect. So that fits right into their passion. I just want had some things I wanted to just go over the uh the shortage that we're facing. Everybody's heard about you've done a great job posting it on the website. We appreciate all your help there. And there's some slides I'm going to quickly run through here from our board meeting last week that kind of highlight some of the things that people don't see uh that impact us. Obviously, we know the drought, but uh there's also the aquifer, which is the big one of the big issues in this.

Sorry to interrupt you. Can you just say your organization, too, just for everyone in the audience?

Yes, ma'am. Uh Doug Cony, 775 Bay Meadows Way, the St. John's River Water Management District. Uh the district is 18 counties, 310 miles long. The length of the St. John's River, in case you didn't want to know, young girls. Uh uh this first slide just kind of shows you that in April 26, you'll see there's a 12 month uh uh page number in there. You can see the counties up in northeast Florida are really really short on water or and that's what makes this drought really particularly strong because we didn't have any hurricanes and we've been in a drought for over a year which has really given it a lot of strength in a bad way. There's our annual and you can see that in the in the second page that it basically covers uh the the western half of our district but northeast Florida in general. And then the third slide is the rainfall needed to improve the drought. So if we wanted to get just to a moderate drought up in northeast Florida, we would need to see 26.21 inches of rain over three months. That doesn't get us out of the drought. To get us out of the drought, you can add another 20% to that. So that tells you how badly we are behind the power curve. Hey Doug, maybe you cover it here. What would we expect in the next three months, though?

Weather service says it's it's maybe a return to some normal uh rain as we transition to El Nino. Uh but obviously it's I'm like, you know, 26 in though,

you know, I don't think they're planning on unless we get a storm and what in two weeks you start hurricane season again. Uh the second line just kind of gives you uh what the in April 26 what the aquifer monitoring wells looked like and you can see there's a lot of brown and yellow in northeast Florida and you can see a lot of red diamonds which means these wells have dropped 10 another 10% or more. So that just tells you up here in northeast Florida the the impact of the octifer is becoming more and more dramatic. Then you slide this next one is the upper floor and it covers the whole district. But if you looked at those front slides, you saw some of the southern parts of the district have had some rains as fronts have come through us and stalled down there. But even then, when you look at all 18 counties, we're still at the 22% percent percentile and we're in the yellow. And what waters your eyes though is the next slide, the last slide, is that in at the April board meeting, you see what was briefed on the left. And yeah, we have uh some spots there that were 25% or less. And then you go to what was briefed and all of a sudden now we have a pandemic of those wells that are 10 percentile or worse. Basically that means 90% of the time we should have more water in the aquifer than what we have right now. Uh so that's the low fuel light in a car essentially meaning we need to find resources in a hurry. So I just want to give you some obviously a week ago today we uh instituted a phase three extreme water shortage and there are some key points to go through. Uh two key factors we've talked about rainfall and aquifer. All residential landscape irrigation is capped at one day a week. Uh landscape irrigation is prohibited for between 0800 and 1800 or 8 to six. So no watering during the day. Do everything at night. The new planting rule. So if we ask you you hold off any large plantings like a new front yard. But if you do it normally would be 60

days of extra watering. We are going 15305. And what that means is for the first 15 you can water every day. The next 30 you get three days a week and the last 15 you only get two days a week to get that sod uh to go in or any other plant. Uh golf courses and I know you're passionate about golf. You have a wonderful golf course here. Reduce wear on fairways. And this Yeah, I got a chuckle because I'm an ardent golfer. Uh reduce wear on fairways by restricting cart traffic to paths only. Reduce irrigation of fairways to once a week. uh and irrigate teas greens uh only three times a week. Most superintendents of golf courses are that's a that's going to be an impact but there is an exemption there. Aesthetic uses of water are prohibited. What's an aesthetic use? It's like a water fountain. Uh compliance with HOAs, and this is where the homeowners and HOAs kind of go, yes, one for the team. Compliance with HOAs or other aesthetic standards does not constitute necessary uh maintenance. Thus, no person or entity like an HOA or property manager shall enforce any deed restrictions or other community standards that would cause a violation of this order. So, the covenant restrictions, they can't force you. And in fact, the commissioner in Clay County emailed me. I got a letter here from my and I said, "Nope, they're they're preempted." Uh reclaimed water use. This is where uh you have utility, you have reclaimed water. If you're using reclaimed water, the utility will regulate your uh uh reclaimed water. And in fact, JEA and St. John's County actually do have some standards for reclaim because this is the time of year they run out, you know, and pressures go low and they have some extra restrictions, but you regulate that. Here's the rub though. If the reclaimed water is supplemented with any other source whether it's an augmentation well uh alternative water supply ponds or then you uh we ask that you follow the

phase three restrictions uh which is one day a week of restriction and no watering during the daytime. Uh so I know I talked to the parks director over there and things like that there it does talk about aesthetic your athletic parks. We just try to reduce the wear and tear on those because this is the time of year the kids are up doing an awful lot of activities. But here's my ask of you because you were a big part. We appreciate all your support with the water proclamation and on your front page you talked about the phase three right there. The district requests that every city and county commission, state and county attorney, sheriff, police officer, or other appropriate local government official assist in implementing and enforcing this order. I'm not saying we create the police state. I'm just saying I'm a big fan of common sense. If you see somebody constantly watering during the day, tink, you know, we got to knock that off or uh you see somebody watering the street, you know, just common sense. We're just trying to save our water. Everything's stressed and trying to get some rain. So, your your help is greatly appreciated. Uh and if there any questions and you always know how to get me and I'll be here for the rest of the meeting as well. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Funky. And thank you for these visuals. That's pretty it's pretty startling because I know we all know we're in a drought, but to see those figures,

it's because people don't they think drought, rain, that's what this is based on. But whereas whereas because you're getting your water that you're drinking and showering from several hundred feet and you can see the colors are not very pretty. They're not as green as these nice dresses. Thank you. All right, that is our last uh courtesy of the floor. So, we'll move 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. Okay. Now, what's Dennis getting up for? Oh, we have a proclamation.

Do you want to do that first? What's in order on the I'm very Ron Burgundy when it comes to the agenda. Okay, we have Thank you for your patience. We have a um Andy Koig and Bill Hurlbert um here to accept our proclamation on National Safe Boating Week. So, I will um read through it and then uh if you guys want to do a picture, we can do that. So whereas over 100 million Americans Whereas for over 100 million Americans, boating continues to be a popular recreational activity from coast to coast and everywhere in between, people are taking to the water and enjoying time together, boating, sailing, paddling, and fishing. And whereas safe boating begins with preparation, the Coast Guard estimates that human error accounts for most boating accidents and that life jackets could prevent nearly 75% of boating fatalities. And whereas through basic boat boating safety procedures, carrying life-saving emergency distress and communications equipment, wearing life jackets, attending safe boating courses, participating in free boat safety checks, and staying sober when navigating can help to ensure voters on America's coastal, inland, and offshore waters stay safe throughout the season. end. Whereas National Safe Boating Week is observed to bring attention to important life-saving tips for recreational boers so that they can have a safer and more fun experience out on the water throughout the year. And whereas on average 650 people die each year in boating related accidents in the US, 75% of these fatalities are caused by drowning. And whereas the vast majority of these accidents are caused by human error or poor judgment and not by the boat not by the boat equipment or environmental factors. And whereas a significant number of boers who lose their lives by drowning each year would be alive today had they worn their life jackets. Now therefore, I, Christine Hoffman, mayor of the city of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, by virtue

of the authority vested in me, do hereby proclaim May 16 through 22nd, 2026 as National Safe Boating Week, and urge all those who vote to practice safe boating habits and wear a life jacket at all times while boating. Thank you. Mr. Baron,

Alexer, good to see you again. Dennis Baron, I'm public works director. Um, did not get the memo about the sea turtles, but I got the the right shirt on for the meeting. Anyway, I get points for that. Um, so I have an item in front of you tonight for approving a purchase of a new dump truck uh in advance of its normal schedule. Um, and that's what it's here for you to um, talk about. I've got some other information included in the memo. I can provide some additional info if you've got it. Basically, our existing dump truck has a diesel fuel injector that is out. The estimate at the garage right now is over $8,000 to repair it. uh means we really don't want to take it out of town. So, it's down. Uh the good news is it was already um scheduled for replacement in the next budget cycle and so it meets all of the criteria for replacement and we're just four and a half months early and we're going to replace it in lie of repairing and making that repair.

Thank you, Mr. Marin. Is there a motion? I move we approve the purchase of a replacement tandem dump truck for $220,36 from Cumberland utilizing the Florida State Sheriff's Association Cooperative Purchasing Program. Second. We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Mr. Jansen.

Yeah. Uh just real quick. Um so my uh son-in-law sells heavy equipment for Alter Equipment and uh of course I had to run it by him and say, "What do you think? Is this a good dump truck? And uh you got the uh approval. He said it's fantastic. The specs are good. He liked everything about it. He says, and even the price point, he says uh you're on track. So, good job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jansen. Any other questions or comments for Mr. Baron? Madam Clerk, roll call. Council member Fing, yes. Council member Jansen, yes. Council member Sutton, yes. Council member Waters, yes. Mayor Hoffman,

yes. Motion carries. That's it. Thank you. Okay, moving on to ordinances. Uh, Mr. Polei.

Good evening, Christian Boli, senior planner. Uh what you have before you tonight is the draft ordinance for the uh extension of premise that was discussed at the council briefing in March. Um in essence, this would expand the existing program that we have. Uh it would retain all the rules that we have in place, all the reviews that we do. Um it would simply offer uh the businesses that are allowed to serve on premise the opportunity to have six additional um events that would coincide with the uh football season for the Jaguars. would give them the ability for the next uh two seasons uh basically to have these extended uh premise events where they can serve alcohol and have things outside under tents and things like that. Um it would still go through all the normal reviews for sound and uh police, fire and planting. Um as was discussed, the sound would be limited to just the speakers from the TV. Um the requirement for um an on-site parking and traffic plan was also included. Um and then uh in essence, this would go through February of 2028 as a pilot program while Jaguars do not have home stadium.

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mr. Pulley. Madam Clerk, will you read the ordinance by title, please? An ordinance of the city of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, amending chapter 4, alcoholic beverages, section 4-5, temporary extension of licensed premises, establishing a two-year pilot program to allow for a temporary increase in the number of temporary premises extension permits, providing for legislative findings, repeal of conflicting ordinances, severability, scrier's errors, codification, and an effective date. This ordinance is before the council for a public hearing and consideration on its first reading. I will now open the public hearing on ordinance number 2026-8236. We have two speaker cards, so we'll start with those. Kathy Hall Kathy Hall, 1639 6th Street South, Jacksonville Beach. Um, when I was made aware of this ordinance, I have very mixed feelings. I mean, it's not like I'm not a Jaguars fan. And it's not as if I don't want to help or that I feel badly that a business in our town might be making a little bit more profit on six Sundays. Um, but I have some concerns. Um, I have concerns that were maybe addressed in the council briefings and I thank you for making the audios available, but there is honors going through them and you can't fast forward really to an item that you're really looking for. Um, but as I'm thinking of this, the hours are an hour before and an hour after. Stadiums, I believe throughout everyone that I

looked up closes down alcohol sales an hour before or not an hour before um before the fourth quarter. Um, that's pretty standard procedure. drinking outside is pretty much limited to I think the parameters that are laid out in um in the statutes that everybody would have to follow and I don't have a concern about that. What I have a concern about is the logistics of this. How does a bar and let's just I mean thinking of the places that could really take advantage of this and there aren't a lot in Jacksonville Beach. um shut down an outdoor party while their internal business is still going on. So, you've got people out there and you're taking down the barricades and trying to store those barricades. Um it it sounds to me like a logistic nightmare. Um you know, places will do it on for instance St. Patty's Day up in Atlantic Beach. the restaurant does it, but they're open till the end. So, how do you tell someone there's a 9:30 game at 1:30, 2:30? Oh, you can't be outside anymore. Now, you've got to come inside or leave and you know, we're going to take our take your beards. I mean, there just seems to be a lot of loose ends within this. Um, also in that tape there was uh uh in the minutes of that briefing it basically says a conversation ensued including Chief Smith and and uh our city manager and attorney and planning. Um, but I have concerns about safety also and what kind of extra strain this puts on our police

department. And I would kind of like to hear from Chief Smith what he has to say about that. Um, and this Oh, I'm up. I could Can I go on a little bit? You just finish your thought.

Okay. Okay. Um, an alternative would really maybe be to just encourage these places that are going to uh draw a co crowd for a Jaguars game. Encourage them to have a fan party, you know, to advertise that on their own. They're going to have to advertise that they have an open outdoor area anyway anyways. So, it's not as if they're spending extra advertisement money. Okay, thank you. Jim Surell, I don't think I've ever seen you without a beard.

Incognito.

Jim, 428 North J Beach. I just want to mention the fact that I believe that we have sufficient number of uh allowances for the for the restaurants and bars in this city. We already have the two exceptions. I believe that's sufficient. And we also have had a program with outside dining. So they already have outside dining. sell out. So, you already have that in place. I don't think there's a need for additional. There's two they get two uh chances to have an expansion and I believe believe that that is that is a very liberal uh stance for the city to allow that in exception to what's already allowed. We already have plenty of uh of uh game. There's seven 17 games. So increasing it by half, all you're doing is increasing the uh number of uh number of uh times that there's going to be an overabundance of parking problems, traffic problems, and not only bad. You're talking about citywide there. It's going to be I don't know how many alcohol licenses are there about what 80s something alcohol licenses. It's going to be scattered throughout the state. It can be logistical nightmare for for our our uh poling staff for traffic control will be will be added. I don't think it's necessary to add another pilot program and and

reading all the comments about the boardwalk. 330 people answered that on the boardwalk, which an astronomical number in my opinion considering that the general opinion of the people are that they that their voice isn't heard anyway, but 330 people answered. If you read them, you notice that they're all were looking more for familyfriendly type events. So, in this particular case, a game is is a familyfriendly to a certain degree, but it's a game is only three to four hours long. It's not necessary, I think, to add uh any more additions or laws to allow any more people to come in and out. So, I'm engaging this pilot program and I hope uh you think twice about it and also limit the number if you are going in favor of it. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Serell. Would anyone like to speak in favor of or in opposition to the ordinance? Seeing none, public hearing is closed. May I have a motion? I move we approve ordinance number 2026-8236 on the first reading amending chapter 4 section 4-5 to establish a 2-year pilot program to increase the number of temporary extension of premises permits and schedule a second reading for June 1st, 2026.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Jansen. Uh Christian, I know we had conversation about I just don't recall. Were we limiting this to home games or was it every game or There was quite a bit of back and forth on that. Yeah, I don't remember exactly what we did. The consensus that I walked away with was basically it was going to be any game because there may be people who would want to do it on the game that wouldn't be at home. But I don't know that it was terribly clear from what I listened to. Okay. We did not limit it in this draft. All right. Thank you, Miss Golding.

Thank you, Mayor. Um, so in followup to Miss Hall's question, I guess, Chief, um, would you be willing to step up to the podium and and provide your thoughts about potential impacts to the police department from this pilot program?

Uh, June Paul Smith, police chief. Um, I told y'all before that um, this is not a a deal breaker for us as far as um, but it's one more thing we have to do and I don't think that's a surprise to any of you. I also think that um, this has the potential to be both good and no big deal or it could be really big and a big deal. I I can't predict the future. Um, I think y'all are well aware of of the the circumstances in this city from day to day, from week to week, from hour to hour, on weekends, football games and all stuff we have to do. Um, certainly I don't have to remind you that um there's a lot of research out there of problems with alcohol um and law enforcement and danger brings to the community. So I ultimately I give my personal opinion um the operational opinion is it's is how it's presented. if I can forecast in the future is not going to be a backb breaker for us, but I I don't know. It's it's the unknown. We've never quite done anything like this before. So, you all know the situation. I I would urge you to just take everything in consideration and make the best decision you can. I I can't predict the future. Um

Okay. Um do you want to share your personal opinion? You said you have a personal

Miss Golding, you can tell her as a citizen um as a taxpaying citizen. Um as a police chief, um I think it's put more on the police department as is everything, you know. Um but we're well funded and you take good care of us and um if it does affect us, you can be up there asking for more. Just the way it goes. Um, like I my personal opinion as a citizen, as a resident, I I wouldn't come out on driving around with my kids on a on a Sunday down at the beach or first street or anywhere in the city or go out to eat depending on what this turns into. You know, Sundays could be a bad time for us, but it's football season, so hopefully the fall will curtail some of the crowds. That's as far as I'm only going my personal opinion. the 18y old me. Yes, I would love it.

20 21 year old you, the current 40year-old I am now probably I apologize. I shouldn't have put you on the spot, but you said you had a personal opinion.

Um, okay. So, I do understand why this is being proposed, and I do appreciate the provisions that we discussed that were placed on this ordinance to put some guide rails and reduce potential problems. But I personally have several concerns. Um, I checked with the clerk's office and we have 101 establishments in Jack Beach that serve alcohol. That's restaurants, bars, you know, whatever. They all have the ability to serve alcohol, which means all 101 would have the ability to um participate in this extension apprentices um pilot program. Um and as Mr. Surell mentioned, I was able to see the results from the recent boardwalk survey as well, and I noticed that there were several written comments and feedback about alcohol, people not definitely don't want more alcohol. Um, and citizens wanting more family-friendly activities. My concern is that increasing the amount of alcohol that we sell here in Jacksonville Beach is not um is not supporting familyfriendly activities and events. And I I personally when I talk to residents, residents are telling me all the time that they don't think we need any more alcohol events here in Jacksonville Beach. And when I've done ride alongs with the police department, which I appreciate because those ride alongs are very eyeopening, most of the issues that they're the police department are dealing with to me seem to be alcoholrelated issues. Um, and I'm concerned about the impact that this will have on our police department. I understand that the police chief will do

whatever whatever we decide to do and and may have to come back if he needs additional support to to be able to deal with the issues any additional issues that we're having. But also too, when I look at our strategic plan and priority two is public safety, um my concern is that allowing extensions of premises for multiple properties at the same time because, you know, this isn't just going to be one property. It could be several properties. Um this isn't going to be good utilization of our police department resources and just contributes to safety perception issues um that we already have. I mean, we have um we've had to deal with the teen takeovers and and we have numerous special events, the seawalk that involve alcohol. Um we've just approved the food truck rally pilot program which is going to bring more people to our downtown area and the boardwalk activation pilot program. I feel like we have a lot going on and uh for me personally, I just don't think I can support this. Um I feel like we um we don't need to be adding more alcohol uh events to the community and so I I will not be able to support this tonight.

Mr. Sutton,

thank you, Mayor. Um it seems to me and recalling our discussions and it seems apparent in reading through the um ordinance and the notes here. The spirit of this was because of what's going to be going on at Everbank Stadium. Um which will be an impact this year. I think I think I think I'm not 100% sure. There are only six games at Everbank Stadium this year. Um because of because Yep. because of London games as well. And then um next year there'll be none because they'll be in Orlando. So um I I wouldn't be in favor of this being applicable to any game throughout the season. nothing's changed on awakenings. Um that would to me justify um you know the what I think was the spirit of the ordinance which were more home games. So I would I would be in favor of um limiting this to um home designated games only. So I guess that could include the London games. That it you good?

Yes. Are you making a motion to amend? I think I will. You turned it off. Thanks. I'd like to uh make a motion. Um and I think it could be um under section I of the ordinance. Item seven, which would be new to be limited to home designated games um for the 2627 and 2728 season. Second. There's a motion to amend. It has a second. Any discussion on the amendment?

Uh yes. Go ahead. Um, I would say it's home games that are included in the pilot in the period of the pilot program that works in the duration of the pilot program. Yeah. Which is Yeah. Which is 26 27 and 27 28. And and we do note that city council will review this after this coming season. And if you know if for some reason this is off the rails then you know we can the whole thing.

Yeah. I had a comment that would fall back on the original motion which is just that that I want to just bring back up like we did with the boardwalk and with the food truck program that this is a pilot program and if it looks like it's going in the wrong direction we bring a halt to it. That's the reason why it's a pilot program and not a permanent ordinance. So that's it. Any other discussion on the proposed amendment, city attorney?

Yes, I was just hoping to get some clarification from councelor Sutton. So, elsewhere in section 4-5, the existing two permits uh each year are for basically any calendar day. They're not related to football. So, I just wanted to clarify, uh, is it just the new additional six permits that would be for home football game days only, or is is that your intent or am I just did I misunderstand you? Um, that was my intent.

Yeah. I'm good. Okay, Mr. Rogers. Thank you, Madam Mayor. And I'd like to thank the honorable members of the DAS. I have concerns about this, too. And my thought was to eliminate the night games because that's where most trouble happens. But I am very comfortable with the consensus. I think we have reached and I thank all of you very much. Okay, we have an amendment and that has been seconded. Um, and that was to include that it's for designated home games only. Any other discussion on that amendment? Mr. Roberts,

I just want to clarify. What about the two preseason games? There's six regular season games and two preseason. I have no strong thoughts either way. Home games. I think it would be anything that's home, preseason or otherwise. Yeah. Okay. Madam Clerk, roll call on the amendment. Council member Jansen. Yes. Council member Sutton. Yes. Council member Waters. Yes. Council member Golding. Yes. Mayor Hoffman. Yes. Amendment passes. Back to the original motion. Any other discussion?

Um I just want to say, and we talked about this at the briefing, that this was brought to to me as an idea several years ago in anticipation of the fact that we're our stadium is going to be closed. Um, and it's by um, it was brought to me by a business operator in our downtown area that I respect very much and appreciate this kind of a creative approach to accommodating um, people that would normally be in the stadium for home games, but they're they're not going to have that opportunity for the next two years. So, um, I think that the constraints of the extension of premises permit um, and Christian, I'm going to rattle off some things and just nod your head if I'm right. They have to fence in the area where they're serving alcohol. They have to hire an offduty police officer. Nope, they do not. Okay. Got the head headshake from

They have to have security.

They have to have security. So, they have to have some sort of entry um gate control basically. Um you know, in a case of a they'd have to rent tables and chairs. They may have tent expense. They're going to have AV expense. um of the hundred and whatever alcohol um establishments that we have in our community, most of them are going to have be constrained just by not having the space that is their property. They're going to be either in a strip mall that they have to go through a management company, whatever. Doesn't mean they can't do it, but the barriers to entry on this thing are going to be pretty high. Um I have a number in my head of how many I think are actually going to take advantage of that and it is um on less than one hand. So, I think it's uh and I could be wrong um but I do appreciate the fact that we have an opportunity to do something creative here to allow our businesses but also our residents and visitors um take advantage of an opportunity to um watch football game together and um it's not just alcohol. There's plenty of food being served at any given football watch party. Um and there's also plenty of families watching football games and in presence of alcohol. So, I'm I'm not as concerned about that. Certainly, the fact that it's a pilot program and the fact that we have um we can keep a close eye on it, I think is um important and I'm glad we're moving forward with pilot projects just or programs just to see um see the impacts and that we can have a little bit of control if they don't go the way they we think. The person who originally asked me to consider this um when I sent him the the memo said that he wished we could add it make it two hours prior to the start of the game. Um he was fine with the one hour afterwards but wanted two hours prior. I think maybe the thinking is because games are at 1:00 so a lot of our games are at one o'clock so to get people in get their orders in and everything like that

before the game starts. So I'll throw that out um as feedback if anybody wants to take that up. Um, but I'll continue down the board. Mr. Sentin,

I just wanted to thank Mr. Sell and Miss Hall for your comments and um I do have similar concerns. Uh, and I think limiting this to um home games only, you know, essentially chops this in half. Um, and gets at the spirit of why we discussed doing this in the first place. And again, I'm glad we have it noted in the ordinance that this will be um brought up and reviewed after this coming season. And if uh things are um you know get off the rails, then we'll uh scrap it. So, thank you, Mr. Mr. Rogers.

Thank you, Madame Mayor. I don't know if this question is for you or Mr. But just so I understand, I know a lot of constituents who have bars and restaurants and a lot of them are in strip malls. Are they allowed to What area is this allowed in? Is it allowed on on the right ofway where parking spots are or who who who is not eligible to take care of it that to take advantage of it who has a liquor license or the ability to sell beer and wine in any way? So, uh it would have to be on private property. Um So, private property,

right? Couldn't be in the rightway. Uh can take up parking, but they have to do some kind of parking plan to address, you know, the spaces they're going to take up and what that might do to traffic. And that's true of any of them, not even just the new ones. Um, and so I think to the mayor's point, there are some of these facilities that are in shopping centers where they don't necessarily own the land in front of them. So, they would have to go through their property management company to get permission to use that space because they don't technically own it. They rent the inside of the building. So those are some, you know, complications that might happen for some of these. So it's not like the dining program we have around of, you know, from 1st to 6, I think, I believe it is, where they could be out on like the sidewalk area, have tables. No, no, it would have to be on their property. All right. Thank you very much.

You're welcome. Good clarification, Miss Golding. I want to thank Mr. Sutton for trying to uh to bring in the the provisions a little bit, make them a little bit tighter. Um I still have to say at this point I can't I still can't support it. It's it's one of those things where you know these establishments already have the ability to sell alcohol and to have events, watch parties for the football games. And again, I I just I don't feel like this is the right thing for our community nor for our police department. So, I will not be able to support this as amended.

Thank you, Miss Golding. Any other questions or comments from council? Mr. Waters. Thank you. I'd like to ask uh the honorable Councilwoman Golding, would you support it if we got if we did not allow the one night game that would be transpiring at home? I do not support it at all. Thank you. Any other questions? And they would be um governed by the noise ordinance. So if it if the if a game was going past 10 o'clock, they wouldn't be able to have amplified noise. Is that correct? Technically, the only amplified noise is from the TV speakers anyway. So they would be able to have it past 10 o'clock.

Hang on. I I don't think that was

the night game will start at 8:20. If we're issuing the permit, it gets kind of gray at that point. Um because we issue a permit for like construction always before 8. So it would there's festivals and stuff end at 10 and there's no um there is no um low volume sound after 10 and the festivals don't play after 10 but that's always kind of been an issue. Can we issue the permit and it kind of overrides everything? I'm not sure. That would have to be for

Okay, let's maybe we've got till the second reading to look if if it passes tonight u to look into that because I think that's something we're going to want to be prepared for before someone files a permit for that for that game. Um no other lights are on. Madam clerk, roll call. Council member Sutton, yes. Council member Waters, yes. Council member Golding, no. Council member Jansen, yes. Mayor Hoffman. Yes. Motion carries. There is no other business. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? I move to adjurnn. Second. We have a motion a second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. I. And