City Council - Regular Meeting

Keith Henry here. Lochman here. Oldenettle Pollock here. Ruben Dellis here. Scott Speed. Mayor Ezard here. City Attorney Salterman here. You do have a quum.

Thank you. I think everyone knows what the situation is and we appreciate you being here tonight. Um, unfortunately the students are going to be here but Dr. Charles Riggs, who we've worked with three years now, I believe. Uh this is his third class coming through and he's going to give a presentation on our RISE grant. And if you recall, our RISE grant is the grant that we received in the spring that is for housing and one of the class project or the he can explain it better than me, but that was what our engineers uh Jamie head and with Benton and Associates charged Dr. Riggs and there was a nice story about this and followed by the media and we appreciate that to give him a notch forward on establishing I believe a little bit of accreditation uh up the accreditation of your department and help in that area. So, anything the city can do to partner we we appreciate and we appreciate your time. So, Dr. You have the forcer.

covering a lot of area. Your students are uh I like some of those ideas in a different way. Yeah.

I mean I mean we're going to be able to have input with the devel the bid process. I mean, obviously, there's negotiations when you do things like this. And if there's something that maybe benefit the community in a way that would help everyone, not just that area, then you have to look into that. And that's where I see it. But, um, love what I see and I lot to be done on that, but I'll tell you, it's going to be a neat area one someday. And I hope we see this through and

thank you. We we that it does fit in every meeting as we've talked about when you go to a chamber meeting I sit in JREC Kuanas Rotary it doesn't matter when you ask an employer what some of the weaknesses we have it's workforce another what is another weakness housing it's a lot of towns are in the same boat Springfield's in the same boat they have their housing stocks down. Jacksonville is down and we don't want it to be down any longer and it's going to help everyone out. Um it's going to turn over houses which is going to help the realators which is going to help the folks coming in looking for variety and uh we'll put our best foot forward. We're going to make sure we're in that negotiate. We've already got the money settled. Now it's just taking care of that to the end and getting the state to get going on it. As far as the RFPs, what do we put in our RFP to the developer? Are you you know the parameters? There's a lot of those that have already been answered, but there's a few that haven't been. And when they're ready, we're ready. Thank you very much, Dr. Riggs. Tell your uh your team and your students. Thank you, too. Next up is city clerk's report. Thank you. Uh, city clerk's report discussed renewing website services agreement, including the addition of ADA accessibility features with revised software systems. Our current uh four-year contract with our revised host expired today. We've been working with a representative to renew that agreement for another four years. In order to comply with the current mandates regarding ADA website compliance and

avoid any fines for non-compliance, I felt it was necessary to look for someone knowledgeable to ensure our website is compliant. I had been contacted by Civic Plus offering to do that for us around 17,000 per year. I spoke with Sarah Poor uh the mayor's assistant about this and she contacted Revise to see what they had to offer. We both decided that since Revise was half of the cost of Civic Plus for the same services and that they already knew our website in and out, it made the most sense to go with Revise when we renewed our agreement for an additional cost of 5200 per year. A renewal agreement is on tonight's agenda for approval at a cost of 10,800 for 2026 up to 11,500 for 2029. And the agreement now states that Revise will perform an ADA compliance testing and reporting with PDF conversion services twice per year so that we can ensure our website is ADA compliant. And those are um federal mandates, federal and state mandates that we need to comply with. And the fine for non-compliance is extremely high. So $5,200 a year is really good. Does anybody have any questions?

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate that. Um committee reports tonight. Utility Alderman Py.

Thank you. We have one item tonight and it's discuss approving contract with drop collaborative for assistance with the pre-treatment program implementation project. And this um goes along with the ordinance that we passed for the industries um in our wastewater treatment. Um it is $48,000 a year. 48,000. And um that is covered. It's not in the budget, but there is money left over from the Myrtle Street main replacement. And so there was no She just pulled some money from there to cover this if it's approved. Anybody have any questions?

Any questions? No. Seeing none, any public comment at this time? Any public comment? No public comment. We'll adjourn the workshop session. And if I could have everybody please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice for all.

And I would ask the clerk to please call roll. Keith Henry here. Lachman here. here. Pollock here. Ruben Dellis here. Scott here. Speed. Mayor Ezard here. City Attorney Salterman here. You have a quorum. Thank you. Is there a reading of the minutes this evening? Make a motion to approve as circulated. Alderman Scott, second by Alderman Pollock. All those in favor of approving the minutes, please respond by saying I. I. Opposed. uh presentation of petitions. I know we have one, don't we?

We do. We have one one petition. Mike McKeen is requesting permission to close off portions of North and South Central Park leading up to the square and the portions of State Street from the square down to the first exit of Farmers State Bank on the west side and down to the alley behind the plaza on the east side for the downtown car show on June 13th from 8:00 am to yes, 8:00 am to 3:00 p.m. Cruise night will also take place on Morton Avenue from 5 to 9 that same night. Um, they are also requesting the same for the fall show, which is September 19th from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Community Park. Uh, cruise night on Morton Avenue from 5 to 9:00 p.m. Same format. Uh, they would like to have barricades in the park um at the parking spaces near the public restrooms and at the east entrance of Hardies from Diamond Street. And I believe Are you Mr. McKe? Yeah, he is here. If you have any questions, Yeah. Uh, we can pass this along to I mean, if the council's okay to move forward with it, we'll get it to John Green,

Chief Thompson, and Chief Summers, and everybody. And just for and Mr. McCardy out there, never forget Phil.

And just for clarity, before you bring these to the council, you always run it through the police chief first, right? You don't Okay. I thought for road closures we always ran it by the the police department and um you know the police chief, this fire chief just so that they're aware um the dispatch center so they're aware of what streets are actually closed in case of an emergency and they will have the contact information for Mr. or whoever they need for the request.

Has it always been like that? Yeah, I mean parade we people turn in parade forms and work with the police department on that. But as far as events, uh they've always written letters and they always come as to the council for approval and then we go from there. So I don't I don't think it's anything different from in the past, anything new. I'll still have all the guys and ladies look at it. But did you have a concern or No, just more a matter of um procedure

procedure um continuity and if we approve it and then it goes to the police department, you know, and then there could raise extra questions that maybe we weren't thinking about or we assumed it went to the police department because that's the way the parade um you know was facilitated. So, I know what you're saying and and we Yeah. If if we need I I know that one of if any of these folks would have a big issue with it, they would come back to and we would iron it out or just tell Mr. McCain, I'm sorry, you can't have, you know, but yeah, I get what you're saying.

And and this these events have, you know, happened for the past several years. So, it's the only thing he's asking in addition to is the State Street closures down to the and then behind the plaza for that one. Yeah, it's just a little bit different. You know, they just added those two requests, but we can Yeah, I don't mind shooting or I don't want to tell you they No, that's fine. I don't mind doing that ahead of time if that's what you would like me to do. Um, we've just never done it that way in the past for these types of requests.

And I'm not here mountain out of a mole hill. It's just a point of clarity and uh courtesy to those who are emergency personnel that have to get around to make sure that you know we're making sure we're keeping them in the loop. Sure. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. Communications. Any other communications? So, is everybody good with that? Okay, that's it. Okay. No claims this week. Under the mayor's report is one. It's an appointment of Dennis Garman to the Jacksonville Airport Authority. Term to expire March 9th, 2028. And Mr. Gar will take over for uh the retired Mr. Bob Zipri. Zipp. Is there a motion? Mr. German, Alderman Henry, second by Alderman Scott. All those in favor Oh, sorry. You got to read that or voice vote on that. An appointment. Okay. Voice vote. All those in favor of approving Mr. Gar to the Jacksonville Airport Authority, please respond by saying I.

I. Opposed. City clerk's report. Thank you. Resolution authorizing renewal of website services agreement with ADA accessibility features with revised software systems. Is there a motion? Alderman Pollock. Second by Alderman Large Old Hold. Uh be it resolved that the agreement for the design and development of the city's website with ADA accessibility features between the city of Jacksonville and Revis software system be approved. discussion. Seeing none, I would ask the clerk to please call roll.

Henry, yes. Lockchman, yes. Oldenettle, Pollock, yes. Ruben Dellis, yes. Scott, Motion carries. Thank you. Um, any public comment? No. Okay. I don't know what consent agenda items tonight, Alderman Pollock. There is one item tonight and it's the city treasures report for March 31st, 2026 and it's in your packets.

And any others? You wanted to read finance? Yeah, since we I just did finance. I mean, I'm sorry. Okay. You just want me to keep going? Okay. Um, we have two items tonight under utility. The first is resolution authorizing contract with drop collaborative for assistance with the pre-treatment program implementation project. And number two is resolution authorizing payments from the waterwork and sewage project fund for services rendered improvement projects. And I so move. Is there a second? Alderman Henry. You've heard the items under the consent agenda tonight. Is there any you wish to pull for further discussion?

Seeing none, I would ask the clerk to please call roll. Henry, yes. Lachman, yes. Old Nettle, yes. Pollock, Ruben Dellis, yes. Scott, Motion carries. Thank you. Any old business this evening or any new business? Yes.

Yeah. I just wanted to just remind everyone that there are lots of uh citywide cleanups happening throughout the county, South Jacksonville and Jacksonville. So, uh spread the word, spread it on your social medias, tell your friends. Um the first one is Saturday, May 2nd for the county and then South Jacksonville is the seventh, 8th, and 9th. And then of course ours is June 1st through the 5th. Very good. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Just real quick, some of you have a statement of economic interest in your folders. If I could get those back tonight, that would be great.

Thank you. Have I turned mine in yet? I did, didn't I? Okay. I thought I did. Okay. Any other new business? Seeing none, I I do appreciate uh the presentation and all those braving the weather to be in here tonight. Uh thank you very much. And with that motion to adjourn by Alderman Loachman, second by Alderman Henry. We are journed.