City Council - Special Meeting

session of june 1st 2026 sorry for the delay and beginning tonight but we will go ahead and get started if you would please stand for the pledge of allegiance and invocation i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god Please bow your head. Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for another beautiful day in the city of Lake City. And Lord, please help all those at the dais to make great decisions for citizens of today and in the future of our wonderful city. And in your name I pray. Amen. All right. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Jernigan.

Present.

Councilmember Harris. Present. Councilmember Young. Present. Councilmember Carter.

Present.

Mayor Walker. Here. City Manager Johnson. Here. City Attorney Martin. Here. Chief Butler. Here.

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lake City Council has opened its public meeting. And since 1968, the city code has prohibited any person from making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or becoming boisterous while addressing the city council. Yelling or making audible comments from the audience constitutes boisterous conduct, and such conduct will not be tolerated. There's only one approved manner of addressing the City Council and that's to be recognized and then to speak from the podium. Failure to abide by the rules of decorum will result in removal from the meeting. Now we'll move on to approval of the agenda.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve the agenda.

Second. Thank you.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Now we'll move on to discussion. Ms. Young?

I did see one error. It's the minor error. On the resolution number 2026-060, if you look down there, the third whereas, negotiate a contract with, it says SGS, but that should be, I mean, SMS, it should be SGS. Third where is? Second line.

I'm sorry, are we on the agenda itself or on the document? I'm so sorry. The document. On the document, okay.

Can you repeat that? You said it should be S? G. Yes, yeah. Okay.

G. Oh, okay.

All right, with the amendment. Yeah. Is that a change that we need to make to the agenda, Mr. Martin? I don't believe so.

I think it's a screw-up.

Mr. Mayor, we'll make sure that gets corrected in the final copy for execution.

Thank you very much. Okay. All right, so we've had discussion. Do we have any other discussion, questions, comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, like sign?

All right. Agenda is approved.

We'll move on to public participation. We don't have any proclamations, awards, or recognitions tonight. So we'll move on to people wishing to address the council. And we have three people signed up for public or four people signed up for public participation. So we will begin with Mr. Johnson from the American Legion.

Good afternoon. My name is Tom Johnson. I'm with the American Legion Post 423. We're a new post here in Lake City. We're located out in off of Gumsong Road. While I'm here, there's a couple of things. We're looking for a new home. We're hoping that the city can help us out here. We were looking at the bank downtown here to see if that's a possibility. But we want to remind you that our goal is to help our veterans, help our children. We're not looking to open up a bar, as a lot of posts around the United States have done. What we want to do is get our younger veterans involved with our community and to be able to help them out. Our four pillars were founded back in 1919 with Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation, National Security, Americanism, and Children and Youth. I am on the Department of Florida's Children and Youth uh, chair for children and youth. And also I'm an incoming commander for the new, uh, or the current post of four 23. So I'm pleading with you guys. If you guys have anything, um, like I said, we were looking around, driving around the area, looking for places. We did notice that the bank was, uh, uh, purchased by you folks, uh, would be a great location. We're thinking that it would bring a lot of people downtown. We need to bring people back downtown. to help out our businesses to grow and for our community to grow and for our veterans for a safe place to go. I so appreciate if you have anything and I thank you so much for your time. Is there any questions?

Well, we usually don't do a back-and-forth in public comment, but if you're done speaking then I'll open up the Floor for questions from council. Yes, sir. Okay. Does anybody have any questions for mr. Johnson? Well, we'll touch base with you after Thank You. Mr. Thank you, sir.

You guys have a pleasant day All right.

I'm next is miss Cecilia Davis. Oh

Hello everyone. And hello, uh, mayor and council members.

My name is Cecilia Davis.

Would you speak?

My name is Cecilia Davis and I'm an owner of property that was recently annexed into the city. I'm here tonight to respectfully ask the council to consider providing a special business or economic development grant or incentive to help me open my restaurant. This project will create jobs, generate tax revenues, serve local citizens, and growth to that area, which is in the city boundaries. I believe this is the kind of project annexation should support, being a new business, new revenue, and new services to the growing part of the city. I respectfully ask the council to direct staff to review available grants options economic development grants, small business assistance programs, or any lawful incentives the city can offer to help make this restaurant possible. Thank you for your time and your consideration and investment in a local citizen, a local business, and the future of the newly annexed area. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Davis. All right, up next we have Mr. Sylvester Warren.

Sylvester Warren my address is the black community to the body of legislators legislators before me this evening you all have been short-sighted and have lost the ability to reason and be logical when it comes to all kids as soon as an afterthought I'm sorry swimming lessons for kids came up but with great puzzling However, just for the record, there is a young lady by the name of Renee English Bradley. For about the last five or six years, she has advocated very strongly about the mortality rate of black kids that do not know how to swim. She has paved the way so much so that there is money allocated by the state through what is called florida kill so i don't think that the city should be spending money duplicating programs when there is someone already in the community has already made those funds available i think it's just a hard time sometimes that arrogance on the dice is don't listen to people in the community that have these type of uh insights um I go on to say that it makes no sense to duplicate the services. My second question, while I have these few minutes and I'll be back up on some other agenda items, is it a practice or policy that the city of Lake City does not hire convicted felons? I would love to hear from the HR director on this matter if possible, being that the city used inmate labor, but seems to be unwilling to hire those similarly situated. And lastly, Mr. Cardam, I am still wanting to know why the Olustee Festival got their permit, why the Charlie Kirk event got their permit, and the first annual Black American Festival was denied by a nun director. The reason I mention you on this matter is because you said you would get down to the bottom of it. And I don't know where that bottom is at. And Father Thomas, they're taking in the Grand Reapers out there somewhere in between that. And I just hope you can give me an answer before either you meet your maker or I meet mine. Thank you.

All right. Up next is Mr. Tony Bozzella.

Thank you. I come before you as a member of the Board of Directors of CareerSource of North Central Florida. Last Wednesday at our board meeting, we accepted your participation with us. in the summer youth employment program, which is so vital and needed in our community. Your support has afforded us the opportunity to employ 18 of the youth of our community. And that shows your commitment to promote all of the youth and we're very grateful for that. The funds will be well spent. And I know there's a lot more than 18 lining up to get those positions. I just want to say I appreciate all that you do for the youth of our community, and particularly Olustee Festival, which, as most people know, is one of the oldest, largest, and most successful festivals in our community. And it's all about history. and the unification of all of our citizens and we've been bringing that to you for over 50 years and we're very grateful for the partnership that we have in continuing to promote a very worthwhile and needed festival to help keep history alive the way it is not the way we would like it to be and also to provide for the entire community an opportunity to come together in unity to unify all the races in our community and that's part of why we were created by Alfonso Levy and others in the community so I want to thank you for that but I didn't come here for that but Again, on behalf of CareerSource, thank you for your participation in that. And the young people that will be employed this summer because of your support are going to be very grateful to your commitment. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Brazile. Up next, we have Ms. B. Coker.

Good evening. B. Coker, 636 Southeast Bay Drive. Thank you very much for allowing me to speak. A point was raised about some community grants for businesses and things, and I just happened to be going through some old records and noticed that at some point the city of Lake City may have began funding two types of chambers. One, the Lake City Columbia County Chamber, and then there appears to be some funding for the Lake City Black Chamber of Commerce. I think it's important for us to be very clear with citizens and as a board and understanding about what the role is of the City of Lake City with regard to economic development. What the role of the Chamber of Commerce is and and how it may be a better approach to determine where there is inadequacies with the chamber so that we can make sure that the funding is being directed in a way that helps all businesses in Lake City. I recently became aware of efforts of Columbia County. There's an economic development department of Columbia County. whose role is specifically to grow businesses. They identify grants, they identify joint ventures. It's ran up under Jennifer and Van Brown, but they do a very, very good job and it's a very, very good model for Lake City to see that instead of creating two separate approaches based on race, you bring some people to the table and determine what the needs are of all of the businesses. So instead of splitting $50,000, 25 here and 25 there, you're putting the money and the additional resources of the city in conjunction with what's available through the county to help these businesses be stronger so that everybody benefits. I'd also like to know, if we are still Lake City in the practice of separating the funding to the commerce such that is the city continuing to fund separately the Chamber of Commerce and the Lake City Black Chamber of Commerce? I think the public just needs to know that that money has been allocated, it has been spent, and what should they be expecting in terms of where do they go for resources? Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Coker. All right. That concludes our public participation. So we'll move into our consent agenda.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve consent agenda.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Thank you both. Do we have any discussion, questions, comments? All right. Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, would you please call the roll? Mr. Carter? Yes.

Ms. Harris? Yes. Ms. Young? Yes. Mr. Jernigan? Yes. Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Yes, thank you. All right, now we'll move on to presentations. We have a presentation tonight from Columbia County concerning the proposed municipal services taxing unit in ad valorem taxes for countywide law enforcement services provided by the sheriff and for countywide ambulance services, county management. So we're gonna ask you to come up to the podium, Mr. Krause. And Mr. Johnson, do you have anything to lead into this, or Mr. Martin, or just turn it over to you?

Okay. I have with me Joel Foreman, the county attorney, if you have any questions on the legally. So this all started with the, sorry about that, David Krause, Columbia County. This all started with the county commissioners wanting to be more transparent so that when you look at your tax bill, you know how much of your tax bill is going to the sheriff and how much is not because the sheriff does take up a large portion of the ad valorem taxes. So the thought was when you got your tax bill, you would have your county tax bill and you would also have what's called a municipal services taxing unit that shows how much of your tax dollars goes to law enforcement. As part of that then, EMS became a bigger issue. As you know, we have issues right now with EMS that we don't feel there's adequate protection. that there's not adequate response for both the city and the rural areas of the county. And we're trying everything we can to figure out a way to make sure people can get an ambulance when they need one. And so we said a good way of funding that equally to help everybody across the district was to do an MSTU for EMS services. So the theory behind an MSTU is the amount you raise in the MSTU is the amount you lower in the existing general fund taxes for the county. So it's not a tax that the city invokes, but the city has to participate. So you have the right to decide do you want to participate or not participate. That affects greatly how we handle the MSTU. On the EMS side, right now we contract out EMS for about $1.6 million next year. Response times haven't been what they should. We had a problem with Columbia EMS. We now have a new provider, Ameripro, that is ramping up and getting there. But we feel that additional ambulances are needed to represent the rural areas. And by doing that, then we won't be pulling resources out of the municipal, the urban areas, because we'll have extra resources in the rural areas to provide response times there. So again, the theory is as you raise one, you lower the other. But with the ambulance service, since the costs are going to be higher, it's like an assessment in terms of you base it on the costs. So let me go back to, I apologize, to the law enforcement. If the city decides to participate in the law enforcement, MSTU, it would be set at 3.7846 mils. I believe that's reflected in your ordinances. On the county side, in terms of fire, the cost of covering the current contract is 0.36 mils. The cost of the additional ambulances, personnel, and overtime would be one point, the whole bill would be 1.1867 mils. So there would be an increase of 0.8236. So you would see your county taxes decrease by 0.3645, And like I said, there'll be an offset. So basically they're trying to generate about $5 million for EMS services to provide more coverage for everybody. Having said that, the process, if the city adopts an ordinance that says you want to participate, then that'll affect us on the 18th when we have to adopt our ordinance to either do this or don't do this. So unlike a assessment where know it's done that way this is not a referendum issue this is literally something that's voted on but we need to know when we vote if the city's participating or not so that's why we come to you to see if you're willing to participate like i said ems service is something everybody in the county needs we are the only provider of ems service and we feel it's very critical law enforcement of course you have your own law enforcement but we're talking about those services that are provided by the sheriff Did you want to add anything? Okay, so we're here to answer any questions you might have. Mr. Martin, you have something then?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to make sure, it's a technical issue in the emergency medical services ordinance, but the ad valorem rate cap would be 1.1867, that's the correct number in the ordinance, or that should be in the ordinance?

Right, that is the maximum it could be. Okay. So the reason I say it that way is, This has to go through the trim process just like everything else. So the actual rate would be determined as part of the budget process and adopted just like you do your budget. So you'd have it posted, your maximum allowed millage rate, but then ultimately whatever's decided at the very end. And it cannot generate more money than is required by the service. So that if for some reason, like the hospital authority donates ambulances to the county, well, that immediately will lower at $1.6 million. So that rate won't be that high, but the rate that you're quoting is the maximum rate that it could be.

I have a question for you. Just to clarify what these are. These are, you're separating out for budget transparency these two items, one being EMS. You said fire, but it's just EMS. It's just EMS. Just EMS. And the other being sheriff or law enforcement. It's a blanket ad valorem to the entire county. Unless the city votes to opt out of one of those MST use is that correct? That is okay Okay is a secondary question on on EMS is this for the purpose of creating in an EMS Department at the county to serve a public EMS department or is that something that you guys don't know that that has yet not been decided This is literally

We have a deadline. We have to adopt this before July 1st because it has to be in place by July 1st if it's going to take effect this fall. So we know we need to do something about EMS. The service level is just not adequate. It is a countywide service that everybody participates with.

Mr. Jernigan, you have a question?

Yes, I have a question. You're done? Yeah, I've got a question. it appears to me that I'm gonna be paying taxes I think taxes already so why would we pay more taxes the county the city I don't know I'm just not I'm not grasping that because the county because we're already paying more taxes now, then we adopt this, we still gonna have to pay, whether we adopt it or not, we still gonna have to pay. Am I correct?

And that's what I was saying, that it's kind of a balance. If you increase the MSTU, we reduce the county taxes so that has a net effect of zero. We want more for the EMS side because, quite frankly, without it, you don't have adequate EMS service. And it's really a question of do you want adequate EMS service?

Yes. Well, who makes that decision?

What would be the county commissioners?

Right. So... I can't balance it out. Just like you say, one's here and one's there. It balances itself out, but for some reason it's not registered in my brain.

So you'll have a decrease on your county tax, equivalent to that increase on the MSTU, except when it comes to EMS, it'd be a little different. Yeah.

What does that balance? What does that balance increase?

Yeah. Let me give this a shot. So you have to look at it as two different things. These are the same kind of animal traveling at the same time, but under two very different circumstances. So on the law enforcement side, you're absolutely correct. Councilman Jernigan, you're already paying for that, right? You're already paying for the sheriff. You're paying on the order of about five mills out of your almost eight mills of county taxes is paying for the sheriff and for law enforcement. And so when you talk about the law enforcement, MSTU, You're going to take that amount of money that's already being paid for those sheriff services, and you're just going to move it from the ad valorem assessment over to the MSTU. So it's really a just reallocation, right? Taxes you're already paying over here. Now, if the city doesn't participate, right, everybody's going to get the same reduction, but there won't be a reallocation of that money in form of an MSTU to the city properties. Okay. Just absolute transparency. If the county goes forward with this and the city does not participate, It is a tax reduction for the city period on the law enforcement side. That's absolute transparency. Okay. The way to think about EMS though is very different. This is something you don't have currently. Okay. So up until a couple of years ago, EMS services were free to the taxpayers. Okay. Uh, we signed exclusive franchise agreements with the EMS carrier. They would come in, they would service the entire county. and not charge a penny because they made enough money off the insurance billing and the transports and all that stuff. The industry changed, and a couple years ago, Century, who was our exclusive contractor, came and said, hey, we'll keep doing this for you guys, but we're going to need a million, actually it was almost $2 million a year to keep doing that. Well, now we're paying for it, right? Well, the county was paying full boat, covering the city, town of Fort White, everybody. County paid for that. We're already paying $1.6 million out of general fund with your budget right now. for EMS services. Okay. So when we talk about the MSTU for EMS, what we've realized is this level of service is not acceptable. Okay. You have people on the north end of the county near the Georgia state line who are going to wait at least a half hour for an ambulance under the best of circumstances. You have people on the far south end of the county under the best of circumstances are going to wait a half an hour for an ambulance. The concept right now is to take what funding we do have available. And we're going to try to station ambulances on the north and south end of the county through the fire department. So the mayor's question was, is there going to be an EMS department? Maybe someday right now, what we're trying to do is hybridize our private solution with a public solution by allowing the public to acquire a couple of ambulances that can provide that outlier services. So we've still got to pay the $1.6 million a year for the private provider. The additional money from the MSTU, what, 0.3 mils, 0.4 mils that we anticipate, that'll be a tax increase for everybody, but it's to add services that do not currently exist, essential services, okay? So it's a weird situation. You're right to struggle, and that's why I came, frankly. I think this is really difficult to get. Law enforcement side is one universe. The EMS side is brand new services. And what we're trying to do is create more public stake in those services so that when they're not up to par, we have some leverage. Right now we have zero leverage, right, in the EMS game.

So what we experienced today is if there is a call in a rural area, that ambulance responds. Then if there's another call, they've got to pull resources from the urban area to respond to the rural areas. by adding the additional ambulances in the rural areas, that resource can stay in the urban area to respond to urban calls. It's really to reduce the amount of times we get to what's called a level zero, which is there's just no ambulances out there to respond.

Mr. Carter, you had a question?

I did, I had a couple. First question, is the MSTU, is this a set amount? Or does it vary in who sets the amount? It's a millage. Just a single?

It is a millage. You set it as a millage and it's based on property value.

But if we opt into this, do we set our percentage here at the city? No. That we pay into the county does?

Right.

Okay.

So if you participate, it's uniform, right? The millage rate is uniform. Sure. And the level of service is uniform.

Across the county?

Across the entire county. That millage rate is set through the trim process each and every year. Okay. Mr. Martin and I looked at the ordinance that you've got, the city always has the opportunity each and every year to stop participating in the MST, right? So it's not a lifetime commitment. It will automatically renew unless you say you don't wanna participate, but your consent to participation is annual.

Is the suggestion, and this part's where I think everybody's kind of, it seems like, won't understand correctly. If we opt in, then the tax will be levied on Lake City citizens to cover that particular set of services. But is there a suggestion that there will be a reduction in the county millage that somewhat offsets that? Yes. Or is intended to offset it specifically? Yes.

So on the EMS side, the $1.6 million we're currently spending for EMS does get offset, right? So you'll see a reduction of the millage for that 1.6 million that will get shifted over into the EMS MSTU. What we're telling you is that 1.6 million in the MSTU is not enough that only covers the private provider. So there will be increases there to fund the public services. That's where you'll see. That won't be offset. Right. Correct. That'd be brand new.

Just a new, and it's an increase.

That's another thing to commissioner, to councilman journey. The law enforcement one is a net zero proposition. No tax increase. The EMS one is absolutely a small, albeit real tax increase. But again, it's paying for a service and for something that none of the public has at this time. The city doesn't have it. The county doesn't have it. The public in this county is out of the EMS game. What we've learned in the last few years is counties of like and similar size have gotten back into the EMS game because the industry has changed and you can't get it for free anymore. So it's an economic reality.

Ms. Young, you had a question?

Yeah, so if this is, if the city votes yes on this, when does the taxes start and when does the services start?

So basically it's just like your budget. It would be adopted as part of the budget process. Obviously, it's collected as part of your taxes, so it would be the revenues would incur in January, but the services would be October or as soon as October basically.

And so, Councilwoman Young, the idea here is to go through this process, we have to have all this done by July 1st so we know if we can use it in our 26-27 budget. The assessments of the MSTUs and the reassessment on the ad valorem side, would be effective for the 27 tax year. And so you would see it really at your year end bills. And in 20, as you see your next year's bills, you'll start to see that getting reassessed. But in terms of the services, the anticipate or the expectation, the hope is that we could start doing these outlying services with our firefighters sooner than later, as soon as we can possibly afford to do it, quite frankly, is when we need to do it. This is a life safety issue. So we're really trying to kind of put the cart before the horse and get the firefighters ramped up, get these ambulances. We've got a few things we're working on, but we have to know that we can fund it for the future. Right. Which is really what the MSTU is about.

So the contract is still there. October one, that contract is still going to be there.

For Ameripro.

For Ameripro.

Yeah, we had them for three more years.

The difference is if you participate, that tells us whether we can go out and buy ambulances, hire staff, get the equipment necessary to provide the service. So there is a ramp-up period.

So for the next three years, it would be a supplemental situation where Ameripro would be primarily located in the urban areas, which is where the concentration of the calls are, and the county ambulances would be more towards the outlying areas. On an as-needed basis. So if you think about it, if you spread your resources out right, and if I only have five, six ambulances in the urban area and I get a call to go to Deep Creek, one of those ambulances that really needs to be in that more concentrated area is now spending probably half a day almost, if it's a real bad call, running up to Deep Creek, going to the hospital, sit at the hospital while they take care of the patient, all that kind of stuff. If we have an outlier ambulance out there that can go make that call instead of one of these five or six urban ambulances, they stay where they're supposed to be. So it's got a, it's got a real positive effect on the private provider. The private provider is very excited about this for obvious reasons. They don't like making those long runs any more than, than we want them to. So, um, we're trying hard. That's all I can tell you. We're trying real hard to come up with a hybridized solution that helps us to address the public safety issue because. That's what I perceive, and I think that's what my fire department perceives as a very serious public safety issue.

And again, if you get a call in Deep Creek or in the very south end of the county, it's going to take you 20 minutes to 30 minutes to get to Lake City. You then have time in the hospital and then another 20, 30 minutes. That particular call can tie up an ambulance two hours.

Mr. Jernigan, you had a question?

Yes. Mr. Foreman, one more question for you guys. So to me, it would make sense for us to opt in the EMS services. I totally get that. But on the law enforcement side of that, I don't think we should. Does that make sense to you?

It makes absolute sense. And your attorney and I have had very frank conversations, Councilman, You already pay a substantial sum of money every year for law enforcement services.

Right.

Which is why if you don't participate, right. And we do go forward with this MSTU, you would see your assessment go way down. Right. Your, your ad valorem taxes would go, cuz you would not participate, but cuz you have law enforcement covered.

That's right.

Right. You don't have emergency services covered, right? You don't have EMS covered. So that's what I mean about looking at these traveling in parallel. It actually, if you understand one, it helps you understand the other a little better. And so, um, yeah, I, I think you've kind of already hit the nail on the head. You're kind of ahead of, of where we were talking about, but, that is what makes the most sense, right? You can see why law enforcement doesn't make sense. And the reasons law enforcement doesn't make sense are the reasons the EMS one does make sense. Yes. I think that's where you're at.

One last question. What is the net change? One more time. What's the net change of the EMS increase? So the current contract is 0.3645. Millage, mills.

The total, the change, the increase would be .8236, so the total maximum millage would be the amount that your attorney was referencing, 1.1867.

Tell them what the anticipated budget, though, is, because it's not aimed.

Right. We anticipate we're trying to get donations of the ambulances. That will cut your budget by 1.6 million, therefore cutting what the necessary requirements. So that would go down. This is the absolute worst-case scenario for next year.

If you remember the trim process, you always have to show the most it can possibly be, and you always want to settle it less. So, again, in the effort of transparency, showing that higher front-end number, but with the objective. The reason we're saying maybe with the ambulances is we may have an opportunity to get those ambulances funded completely outside of our budget. If that happens, that would be a tremendous benefit.

So if we get the ambulance funded, instead of being 1.18, it's 0.8236.

Mr. Martin, you had something?

I just wanted to take a shot at an answer for Ms. Young. She asked the question earlier. Essentially, when does the bill come due on these? So if the millage rate is set through the upcoming budget process and there is a millage assessed for the 26-27 tax year, The taxes would not actually, and the tax bill would not actually come due until November of 27 is when that bill would actually hit, unless you've got some other special quarterly payment plan for taxes or something like that, but it would be November of 27.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. Carter?

Yeah, so we have EMS coverage now. at a certain rate. It is based, like you said, here in the more urban areas. Would it be a correct way to couch this that the city would be agreeing to pay more as well to help fund something that is happening in the county outside of the city limits?

Well, it should also benefit the city by providing more resources in the city. So it's really a question.

So the city would have more than it has now in it. Yes. Yes.

So that's what I was trying to say. So right now we have under contract, it's like five slash six, five, 24, seven, six, one, one, 12, seven ambulance ALS service unit. Okay. Which sounds like a lot, but it's not right. Cause as soon as one goes out to the Swanee County line or goes down to the lodge, it gets thin very fast.

Hmm.

And so what our firefighters have found is we probably need to be more like eight, nine, right? So by adding these two units at the far north and south end, even though they're located in the county, that allows these more urban ambulances to stay where they are.

What happens for the average citizen in Lake City if we do not opt into this for our EMS coverage as it currently stands? Is there a possibility that the county would no longer cover EMS within the city? Would we then have to go out and get our own track? I don't.

theoretically do i see that as being probable no if the city declined to participate in the ems mstu i think we probably just wouldn't do the mstu we'd have to go a different route a sales tax something like that how much how much thought or energy has been put into a sales tax i like a sales tax because our visitors help pay for that uh so it's not all on the people who live here so it's being looked at um we have a miss encinosa uh reviewing it right now she's our outside counsel We've already heard the rejoinder, you know, well, this means just property owners are paying, you know, just property owners are going to pay this tax. Well, that's your commercial property owners too, right? So that's your targets and your Walmarts and all your other, they're going to pay a substantial amount of money towards this.

Your sales tax can work.

Right. Um, it is going to require a little more political effort on everybody's part to get that passed. Um, they would be restricted funds. According to my understanding, it's a public safety fund. Uh, it's a surtax that's gonna be assessed. Um, I guess my word of, of caution when you talk about MSTU versus a sales tax is the nature of that tax. Who does that tax impact the most, right? So if it's your consumer and depending on what products are actually being taxed, it can actually have a regressive effect, right? Where your most capable taxpayers are paying less than your least capable taxpayers. So it's something to look at the MSTU is the only thing that's been explored on the County side to this point. Um, but we are currently at the request of two commissioners actively looking at a sales tax option, the issue. And again, that could come up through this budget process where we go that way. But unless we have the approval on the first reading tonight and approval on the second reading later this month, we can adopt it on June 18th. And if we don't adopt it on June 18th, we don't have it available for this budget year. So we lose a whole year.

just if I may yeah we've talked before in the past I'm not a big fan of something like this coming up and it's like and hey and also you have to decide or we are the deadlines a month in five weeks well that I didn't our staff and we didn't have anything to do with that so it is interesting but also I think when we talk about the stuff I feel like the businesses and the business community, the commercial taxpayer, is always the one who takes the brunt of that. And if we keep talking about it like that, we're going to make people less likely to want to do business here. I think that's important. For as many targets and things like that there are, there's also hardware stores, carpet stores.

Sure.

Local newspapers. I'm not thrilled about the idea either way. I was very impressed. I understand that it would be probably a more monumental effort, but I was very impressed with what the people behind the half-cent sales tax to help raise money for the schools was able to achieve, and they achieved raising a lot of money that's have done some tremendous building and again that lets us take advantage of the fact that we are the probably the you know most visited gas stations in the state you know I mean as people are coming into town taking part as they're as they're passing through so I don't know that I'm not a fan of at least exploring the sales tax option. I'm definitely not a fan of, and I mean no offense, but kind of being brought to us and saying, and you've got to tell us yes or no tonight. We've been rock and rolling one way for a while. It might not be ideal, but I'm not comfortable making a decision of a yes or no on either of these things. Obviously, I agree with Mr. Jernigan. You agree with me? I agree with Mr. Jernigan. Can you believe that? What's that, a blind squirrel? Anyway, I have no interest at all in the law enforcement aspect of this. I could see how we might need to consider the EMS thing, but I think there may be a different way to do that that may even bear more fruit.

So to answer your question, a sales tax. would have to go for a referendum in the fall, which means it would take place a year later after that. So the question is, what do we do this fall? How do we improve services this fall?

Again, that may be the case, but I'm not interested necessarily in being rushed into making this decision. So we might find ourselves, I'm one vote of five, obviously, but we might find ourselves, if others agree with me, in a pickle of we're going to wait another year either way. I don't know.

Ms. Young?

Yeah, I just, it's very important. I do, I get it. This is very important, very important decision to make. And even as with law enforcement, because we have tragedies, disasters, where it takes more than city, law enforcement. There are things that could happen where we need all city and county. So I think it's very imperative, you know, about this. I don't like the idea of the tax, and even though it... We, you know, make it as... Not make it as. We say it's really... It's really not an increase at the end, I think, sounds like we want to say.

Well, the EMS one is, though. It is. The EMS one, absolutely.

But I do believe, I see the importance of it. I really do. And like Carter said, it's just kind of pushy to make the decision.

Mm-hmm.

For me it is. It's just a lot to process right now.

And having said that, if at a later date the sales tax is adopted, you can't have both. Understood. So if the sales tax is dead, the MSTU has to go away.

And I also know, as I always say, tomorrow it'll be a different, increased cost. Everything is rising, nothing's lowering now. So we may come back and it end up being more.

And for the council's edification, But for the fact that we were told that we had to do this quickly, we would feel exactly the same.

Absolutely.

We try to be very deliberate about these things, but again, with, with the recent events with EMS that have occurred in the course of just this year, You know, we're basically scrambling for solutions. And absolutely, Councilman Carter, I'm not going to call you guys commissioners anymore, I promise. Councilman Carter, I completely understand where you're coming from. And I think, you know, patience does typically pay dividends. We just don't find ourselves in that situation right now.

Ms. Harris?

So when you said that there will be an increase on the EMS taxes, how much more are you talking about?

It's probably between .5 and .8 mils.

Okay. Let's say for a layperson, you need to know what that .5 is. Tell her what a mil is. Approximately, what are we talking about? Add it to the taxes we're already paying.

$1.6 million to the total tax bill. One mil is about $1.6 million.

Quick question for you. You said that if a sales tax was adopted that you could only have one. Are the commissioners also thinking about putting it on the ballot this year so that the taxpayer can decide?

That's something we're going to discuss Thursday.

We've had two commissioners express interest, and we've reached out to our council. We're going to get a full briefing on what the dynamic of that would look like. Again, all options are on the table, Mr. Mayor.

And that particular surtax, which is the emergency management fire and rescue facilities surtax can only be up to 1% and can only be done in quarter increments. So you could do 0.25, you could do 0.5, you could do 0.75, or you can do one. Ms. Harris, did you have something else?

I kind of like what Carter said about the half-cents tax. I kind of would like to get more information on how we can come about doing that. You all presented well, but I just would want to have another option. And it does feel like it's a rush, rush thing. So it puts us in a situation, I would say.

Just to further the thoughts I have, obviously I understand that if we don't opt in this time, it may make this year and the process a longer headache. I do get that. It's certainly not my intention to be But I see a world in which we could, for instance, opt in this year and then look at the sales tax thing, except that so often, you know, government makes a decision, the years start to grinding, and then you lose focus and stuff. And for me, I think the sales tax option may be the better option here, and I don't want us to do this thing and then end up never getting to doing the next thing. So...

for me that's that's kind of where i'm going to be with that um i do understand it's frustrating and i don't mean to be frustrating with our county partners but for me that's where i'm at right now yes sir mr johnson mayor i just want to remind the council that that we do have the option to opt out of this every year it's not something that is just gonna it it will definitely automatically renew but you do have the option every year to um get out of this agreement um I think, I'm sorry, I do believe that the EMS services will benefit the citizens of Lake City. I think we all have heard the issues that concern that as far as ambulances showing up 45 minutes later in the middle of town. So speaking with the city manager, we are in favor of the EMS tax right now. As the county has already stated that our police officers are already funded so we don't need that one But just wanted to let y'all know that the city manager's office is in favor of the EMS. I

And the worst-case scenario is we just live with the contract we have and the response that you're getting.

Mr. Jernigan. Yes, I'm glad Dee kind of shed some light on the EMS services. I'd rather go ahead and opt in the EMS part of that. Me, personally, if you needed services and... you can't get it, that's going to be a problem. So then if you don't do it, that's going to be a problem. So we're in a pickle right now. So I think that we should go ahead and opt in, and we can opt out next year or years to come. So if it's going to be every year, we opt in and opt out. So that's my thought process on it.

And Mr. Mayor, I'm going to have to take that personal privilege and head out in just a second. But what I wanted to say in response to Mr. Jernigan's point is, you know, you are blessed to have two readings.

Sure.

And so between now and your next reading, I can assure you we will have a significant amount more information with respect to that sales tax.

Okay.

So, you know, if we can keep that in mind, maybe get through tonight, and then we could have the final reading in a couple weeks where we could hopefully have more information for you.

Okay. And just for policy and procedure, we do have both these items up tonight as an ordinance in first reading. And if they pass, the second reading will come in two weeks.

Any other questions for Mr. Foreman and Mr. Krause?

Thank you both very much. Thank you very much. right um that closes out our presentations and we'll move on to item number seven uh city council ordinance number 2026-2371 and this has to deal with an annexation so i'm going to turn it over to you mr martin uh thank you mr mayor council members you have before you on first reading ordinance number 2026 23

Item 71, an ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida pursuant to petition number ANX 2604 submitted by Ring Power Corporation relating to voluntary annexation, annexing certain real property located in Columbia County, Florida, which is reasonably compact and to the boundaries of the City of Lake City, Florida, making certain findings of fact and support thereof, providing severability, repealing all ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody signed up to speak to item number seven, so we will move straight into council comments, questions.

Mr. Mayor, is it to approve city council ordinance 2026-2371?

We have a motion. Second. And a second. Thank you both. Do we have any final comments or questions? Hearing none, Ms. Sexley, please call the roll.

Mister Carter, yeah, Mister Jernigan, yes mission.

Yeah, this Harris mayor Walker, yes, anticipating that this next item item number 8 City Council ordinance number 2026 dash 2, 3, 4, 7, 5, might take a little bit we're going to take a 5 minute recess as a bathroom break. check all right let me say all that again um welcome back to city council regular session of june 1st we're currently on item number eight which is city council ordinance number 2026-2375 i will have you read it by title mr martin and then we'll open up for public participation

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, you have before you Ordinance Number 2026-2375, an ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida, requesting and consenting to the inclusion of all of the City of Lake City, Florida, within the Columbia County Law Enforcement Municipal Service Taxing Unit to fund law enforcement and correction services, facilities, and programs, providing for annual renewal of such requests and consent, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. I'll now open up for public participation. Mr. Warren, you're signed up.

Sylvester Warren, I think this issue goes a lot deeper one I hate when the county attorney and the county manager comes to the city house and rush them to make decisions and as if it's in the ninth hour and there's a building on fire and there's no way to put it out. They've been carrying this burden for a long time. The deal that got orchestrated, I was at the county meeting. I beg you all not to do it. Y'all said that y'all gonna give Kevin Kirby and allow some good old boys to invest into his ambulance services. And this is what was the end result of it. I asked y'all, I said, I got 20 plus years of experience in medical transportation. I asked, and David, you can tell me if I'm lying, I said take each non-emergency transportation company that's sufficient and give each one of them an ambulance service. That way you have multiple ambulance services within those Medicaid paid services. Therefore, it would not have been this burden for the simple fact there is no money in EMT. And that would have been the offset. You don't know what you're doing. Just like I told y'all, do not get into utility business. Now y'all gave that to the city. Told you do not get into emergency transportation. But to prevent a certain person from running against a certain person, politics has got y'all in this predicament. Backroom deals have got y'all in this predicament. And now y'all want the city taxpayers to pay y'all out of it? I don't think we should do it. I pay enough taxes. When y'all say it's going to hit commercial buildings, I own a lot of commercial buildings in the city and in the historical district. I'm not willing to give you more money for y'all political mistakes or y'all political backroom deals. I'm not for it. And I hope that the people that we elected up here on the diocese see the BS, call it BS. You don't call no meeting and tell a group of legislators, y'all got to make a decision right away or else we don't know what we're going to do. Well, do like you've been doing. Carry the burden. put it on for a vote, to put it for a half a cent sale tax. I was very successful in having the school board get a half a cent sale tax pass. on party, on color lines. And I'd be more than happy to go out there and fight for it again. I think everybody would be able to fight for it. That way that burden is being shared with more than just local residents. That burden is being shared with tourists, people that's coming in off of 90, and hopefully the black people that come in that the police chief and the sheriff won't keep running away because they'll still be helping to pay some of those taxes as well. But David, I told you a long time ago, Only address the council.

Only address the council. I am addressing the council. No, no, no. I'm going to give you 10 seconds back. I am addressing the council.

What do you mean stop? Stop interrupting me.

I'm resetting your time. I'm giving you one warning.

You're giving me one warning about what? I am talking to you.

I'm not addressing him. This is your last warning. Only address us.

Ain't no warning. Ain't no warning. I am talking. Who do you think I'm talking to? Out. Thank you. Out.

What am I out for? What did I do?

You're addressing people in the audience. I did not address anybody in the audience. I'm talking to you.

I'm going to ask to leave if you don't leave with the rest of the trespass.

I don't need y'all to touch me.

I haven't touched you. I just said you need to leave.

That was the only person we had signed up for public participation. I'll remind everybody, whenever you do come up for public participation, you are to address the council, not people in the audience. It is a disruption, and you are looking to incite a disruption in this meeting. Thank you. That closes public participation unless anybody else would like to line up at the podium. I'll give you an opportunity now because of that disruption. Nobody's moving, so we're going to move straight into council questions or comments.

Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. As I sort of made the point when the presentation was given a moment ago, it's not that I am not capable of nuanced thinking, but very generally, and I think we've told the staff this before, and I think the staff's gotten better about this. If anybody comes to the podium and says, hey, listen, we've got to do a thing, and it's going to cost the taxpayers money, and also we've got to hurry about it, I'm going to pretty much say no just about every time. I'm not comfortable with that. so if we need to spend the next year having conversations with the county and determine what we do at this time next year we do but i'm i'm just i'm just pretty much always going to say no to you know any and again i understand that it's not a it's not an act of malice right i'm not upset with the county for bringing it to us at kind of last minute But it is last minute, and for that reason, and especially with this particular ordinance with the law enforcement thing, this one seems wholly superfluous. We have a PD. We have mutual aid agreements when necessary for the two parties to work together. So I would say that we do not pass this tonight.

I was going to remind everybody that this is the law enforcement MSTU before we get into any further discussions on it.

Mr. Johnson, do you have anything? Or Mr. Martin, would you like to add anything before council has any further thoughts?

I think we said everything as far as our PD's already funded.

Perfect. All right, any further questions, comments, or would anybody like to make a motion? Or if we don't make a motion, if nothing goes, this won't pass, it won't pass on first reading. So you don't have to make a motion to defeat it. Only make a motion if you're looking to pass it, I would think, procedurally. All right, I think it failed to materialize. We'll move on to item number nine, which is city council ordinance number 2026-2376. Mr. Martin, would you read this by title, please?

Mr. Mayor, council members, you have before you ordinance number 2026-2376, an ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida requesting and consenting to the inclusion of all of the City of Lake City within the Columbia County Emergency Medical Services Municipal Taxing Unit to fund emergency medical services facilities and programs.

Providing for annual renewal of such requests and consent providing for severability and providing an effective date Thank You mr. Martin, we don't have anybody signed up currently for this item for public participation So we'll move straight into council questions comments. Yes, sir. Mr. Carter

Mr. Mayor, I would like to reiterate most of what I said just a moment ago with the previous potential ordinance, with the exception that I do not think these services are superfluous. They are certainly services that we need, but I, again, don't like the idea of rushing to make a decision. We have been handling it one way for a long period of time. I believe that it is not unreasonable to say that we can handle it this way one more year and spend the next year working with the county to determine how we wanna fund this. in a fashion in which this board does not feel like it must rush to a decision. That's that, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. Mr. Jernigan.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. I say that we approve City Ordinance Number 2026-2376 on the first reading.

okay i would um my comments would be that this is the first of two readings um procedurally if we pass it tonight and we decide not to pass it at the second reading it does not pass i would i'm interested in more information to see what the commissioners are actually if they're going to put together a sales tax i prefer sales taxes for reasons that were previously mentioned we have 70 000 people in town every day that aren't citizens of Lake City in Columbia County that can help shoulder that burden so those are my thoughts about it again if it passes tonight the second reading can be can be shot down for sure but I also don't like last-minute taxes coming up and I don't think that another year would you know it is EMS services so it may may critically injure somebody so it's hard to hard to do on short notice but those are my thoughts anybody else yes sir mr. Johnson I just want to echo what you just said is this is a service I'm sure we all have heard some stories of EMS not

having a response time we would like. It is coming more frequently, so I definitely think that we should at least entertain this ordinance until we get to the second reading to allow David to come back with some more information on it.

So that's administration's recommendation? Yes, sir.

I agree.

Any other comments, questions? Yes, sir, Mr. Jernigan.

Yeah. I said that I think we should approve city ordinance number 2026-2376 on the first reading. I didn't get a second on it.

Second.

Okay, so that was a motion and a second.

Sorry, I didn't realize that was a motion, Mr. Jernigan. So that's a motion and a second. Thank you both. Any further questions, comments?

I'm kind of interested in what the fire chief has to say concerning this and police chief. Our first responders.

I'm not real sure how much the police chief can answer on this one, but I'll answer any questions that you have.

Give me your insight on this.

We need to be able to have some input back in on what's going on in the emergency services. Where we're at now is not adequate. Even today, they were calls holding. That means no ambulance is available to take those Um, some of those are in turn are then sending a fire truck to them to sit. Um, and I may be sitting with someone who's, who's sick or ill, and then a fire happens. I can't leave that person. I have to stay until they can have. transport to the hospital. We really have no say or no control on what's going on in a lot of that right now. I know Ameripro is trying to get to where they need to be, but they're struggling. and even the the limits that have been set with them what their maximum units are going to be i don't think probably we're going to cover where we're at you're talking about their ambulances are running you can correct if i'm wrong about 2 800 calls a year they're saying staffing wise that anything over about 1500 calls for an ambulance you probably need to add another ambulance to sufficiently cover so with what the county is is proposing um I don't know if those units from the county would come inside the city to cover calls. That would be a question, but it will leave Ameripro to where if a Fort White truck or a Suwannee Valley truck takes calls, that's two trucks that are still inside the city limits. Um, is this the proper way to fund it? Uh, that's for you guys to decide, but we, we've got to have a change in our emergency medical services because, um, where we are now is not doing anybody in this public, uh, the service they deserve.

How often do our ambulances get so sorry to jump in? I just, to add onto that, how often do they get suspended out on the interstate?

Uh, what do you mean called?

How often do they get stuck out on the interstate to calls?

Um, that, that's hard to say, you know, they get called out there daily. Uh, when you get into your heavy travel weekends and Memorial day, 4th of July and things like that, they stay out there pretty frequently. Um, but to say that that's where they are constantly, I can't say that for sure, but I would say daily in a 24 hour period, they probably go at least once to somewhere on the interstate to some sort of call.

That's where I would. Yes, ma'am.

And that was a little different than what I was going to ask. But how often is it very frequent or just casual that you are delayed when you get to a call and have to wait for a substantial amount of time for EMS?

I would say it's daily. I would say it's daily. I'm not saying that they don't have a truck available, but you may have a call here at City Hall now and the only truck that they have available to send to you is from Fort White. And no matter how fast they drive, they're 20 minutes, 25 minutes from getting here. And that may be just how it is. They can't leave Fort White wide open and bring that truck to town already until the call comes up. cause you can't predict where it's going to happen. But I would say daily, um, you would hear 20, 25 minute response times when they're, when they're called out and their trucks are running continually.

And that could be alive.

Very much so. That's the same situation we got into with the prior company. Um, I think it got a little worse than that, but, um, it very much time matters in a lot of these calls.

So my question, Chief, I know sometimes you're the first at the scene or at the... Well, we often have to wait at least 20 to 30 minutes for an ambulance.

You know, we say seconds count. One of the reasons we combined our dispatch center, our 911 center, with the county was so we had a single point of contact so we can get the needed resources, police, fire, EMS, to the scene faster. Just last week, we had a tragedy where a police officer and a deputy had to take a child in the back of the car, perform CPR, and race the child to the hospital because there was no ambulance coming.

You took the child in the car?

The deputy was doing life-saving acts on the back. Unfortunately, the child didn't survive. But the police had to transport because There was no ambulance. So we rely on the fire department because they're the medical experts between the two of us. But the other thing that we're not talking about, if you have a critical incident like a SWAT call out, we'll call for an ambulance to stage. And what means they're sitting there sometimes for hours because if the SWAT team or somebody has to do something and an officer or the individual we're going in after gets injured, we want the ambulance there right away. And it's not unusual for them to keep saying, we have to leave. There was one time we blocked the ambulance in and said, you're not going anywhere. So that is not an unusual occurrence in the county or in the city. So again, the funding source, that's strictly up to the city council and the county commission, but I'm on board with the fire department where this is a critical need that has to be filled.

Yes, thank you. Thank you.

Any other questions, comments? Yes, Mayor. We had a motion. Yes, sir. Go for it.

Yes. And again, I think it's best to have it and not need it than to need it and we don't have it. So looking at this on the first reading, of course, it's going to come back to us again. And then if we decide to knock it down or whatever, that's fine. But as I read down, it gives the county something to work with. They're more confused than we are right now. But it gives them something to work with, because it is a crunch time for them. And again, I agree with Mr. Carter. you come up here and you you you crunching me uh you know my mind don't work as fast as some of these young people might work you know so i have to think about all this uh but this here is something that uh i believe that uh i give you something to work with and then if y'all can't figure it out comes back i'll be the first one to say i'm not with it thank you mr jernigan if there's no other comments uh we have a motion a second we've had discussion ms sykes will you please call the roll

Yes.

Harris? Yes. Ms. Young? Yes. Mr. Carter? Nay. Mayor Walker?

Yes. All right. That was the first reading from number nine. Now we're on to item number 10, which is the update on Young's Park Improvement Plan cost. So Brenda, I think this is just cost and timeline of how this is going to go.

It is. So you have the spreadsheet? It should be part of the document.

It's in the packet.

Okay. Click on it. There it is. Okay. There it is. So we got a quote from Game Time for the park equipment, the playground equipment, and that quote was off a piggyback contract. And the total cost for the playground park equipment is $403,858.05. We also got a quote from Vortex for the splash pad and that total cost is $463,758.73. And for the fencing, we currently have a contract with North Florida Fencing and that is the cost The access points for the gate, that's approximately cost, and the cameras. We currently only have three cameras. And they face the tennis courts, the basketball courts, and the parking lot. So I had spoke with IT, and they were working on getting quotes for more cameras. For the playground equipment, the time frame is six months. For the splash pad, it's four to five months. At the meeting on March 16th, it was approved to move $142,788.32 from the Mariah Fund to pay for the part of the playground equipment.

a question on the on the fencing how high is that fencing six foot and this and the access points would secure this park overnight is that correct it would access points for four gates perfect automatic locking correct anybody who's in there after the time that way we eliminate the public camping and some of the nastiness that happens in our parks currently

I have I have done all their report to councils for these for the playground equipment, the splash pad and the fencing, and that should be on the next agenda. We will have to decide where the additional funds are going to come from. Okay.

I anticipate that'll probably be on the next agenda too. Yes, sir. Mr. Johnson.

Mayor, I think we need approval to move forward with creating a PO for this. I think we're at crunch time right now where the prices are about to go up. I would love to lock these prices in and go ahead and get permission to move forward with purchasing the playground equipment.

Do you need a hard vote on that? consensus would be fine right I think that we're all wanting to move forward is that correct yes yeah so yeah thank you all right thank you guys very much very excited to watch dirt fly and cut those timelines down if possible all right now we're on to number item number 11 this is discussion impossible action for Richardson summer camp registration I think that we have some folks from Richardson but this is miss young I'm gonna let you introduce this one

okay thank you I'm here and I would like to um let you know that the information on background information that information was um sin and error but you should have um a separate

this item that was provided tonight. So not the item that was in the, not the items in the agenda, but this item from tonight.

Right, the one on the agenda was seen in error. And I would like to call, if you don't mind, Mayor, Ms. Nicole and Mr. Carradine. And this was mentioned in comments, I believe at the last meeting, if I'm not mistaken. And I said that I didn't know if it was too late. We've done this for the last two or three years. This is the third. This will be the third. This is the third year. Hopefully you all will vote for this. This is the third year. And it kind of slipped through the cracks this year. And I didn't know if we had time to get this in. So I said that if we couldn't, then let's look at swimming lessons. Well, Mr. Johnson, he checked into the swimming lesson, and we found out that that's already, someone has taken care of that, thank God for that. So here we are with the summer camp, and I would like for Richardson's staff to kind of inform us on how this summer camp.

Okay, good afternoon, good evening, Mayor and Council. Thank you for giving us a moment to speak about the Richardson summer camp. This summer camp has been going on since 2008 at the Richardson Community Center. It's looked different several years. It's taken different forms, but we've still been able to offer a summer program for the children of Columbia County, Lake City, to be able to have a structured educational fund program to do for the summer. As with everything, obviously, costs are going up. all over the place. We've had to increase our registration by $50 this year. So this year it is $400 per camper. That is for the seven-week program. They're getting services nine hours a day, so 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, which breaks down to roughly $57 a week. But I know that providing any type of service right now is getting tight for people. Our registration is down right now. Currently we are able to house 50 campers and The only restriction on that right now is the space that we have at the Richardson Community Center. We are looking at expanding. We have some things in the works with buildings that we have available. But right now, the area that we have is conducive to only 50 campers. As of right now, we have 13 that are signed up for camp. So it's going a little slowly. But we do still anticipate having the program. We just want to make sure that we're being able to provide this for the kids of the community. What you guys have is some of the program features as it pertains to the individual campers. I know that's kind of been a question in the past, like what are they getting at camp? Well, they're getting structured educational activities by certified teachers to help fill that educational gap that we know happens during the summer. They are experiencing fun field trips. by the parents, some of them are subsidized by the Richardson Community Center Board and the registration fees. Fun and engaging activities while we're at camp, there's different sports, field day activities, splash days to help foster teamwork and build some of those leadership skills in our students. Safe transportation, that is important. To and from our trips, we partner with the Columbia County School District. We lease a bus and a driver every summer to be able to offer that safe transportation. We provide afternoon snacks and we will do Friday lunches this summer, which are part of that fee. We do partner with the Columbia County School Food Service and provide breakfast and lunch Monday through Thursday, but we will be supplementing with snacks and Friday lunches. And then they'll all get a drawstring bag and a water bottle this year. We've done t-shirts in the past, but they're kind of hit and miss with shirts, but we're looking forward to seeing them don their bags and water bottles this summer. But summer camp is more than just somewhere to go and hang out every day. It does help foster a lot of these skills in our kids that we want to promote, which is the leadership. We want to promote education, safety education in there. We want to have those weekly discussions about not just gun safety, internet safety, bullying. What else did I say? Water safety. These are all things that kids may not get on a daily basis, but we want to try to hammer them in while we have their full attention during the summer. So I know I won't read through everything there. I did kind of lay out some of the things that we touch on in our program. That's kind of what we do at Richardson.

Mr. Jernigan, do you have a question? Oh, sorry. Yes.

Who are you and what's your position?

I'm sorry. I did just start around. My name is Nicole Callaman. I'm the summer camp director.

Someone can't direct it. And who is this gentleman you got standing beside you there?

Chris Carradine. And what's your position? Facility director. You the, what? Facility director. Facility director, okay.

I just wanted to make sure I got that right.

Sorry, Ms. Young.

Okay, so have you had any parents to call and ask about the registration and they're having hard times, have you had any inquiries?

Yes, we have.

We have parents calling, posting on Facebook, and everything else about it.

Okay, and another question, because I know we do have summer youth workers, And some of the summer youth workers, hopefully, we will be able to allow them, if administration approved, that they may have some interest in recreation because these summer youth programs are working to teach.

We've actually had them in the past, and we were hopefully looking forward to having a few more this year. Yes, they actually came in very...

helpful and they were um we were able to and i would i would um ask that um if we can if we decide to fund um this program that the ones who has already paid that we we cover it there's a there's a maximum you said there's a maximum of 50 campers yes sir and that's because there's less space this year than light because it was 100 last year right well we had two sites um before when we were part

We had partnered with you guys to use Teen Town at that time, but that's not an option right now.

And then you already have 13 signed up, is that right? Yes, sir. So 37 spots available. Mr. Carter, you had a question?

Just a quick question. Obviously, thank you guys so much. I think what you do is great. I appreciate it. I'm wondering... didn't in this most recent budget didn't we budget around 50,000 from the city to Richardson community center and I think that wasn't that based on kind of the request from last year am I wrong

I can answer that if you don't mind. Okay, the request was $100,000. And there was some miscommunication or something. The request was $100,000. The mayor offered $50,000 from the mayor's matching grant. And I thought the mayor said, and that'll be less from our operating budget, right? But somehow it got...

Yeah, my intention with that last year was to fund $50,000 and to take that money from the Mayor's Matching Grant because we had, I think, last year out of $100,000 in the Mayor's Matching Grant, I think we had $92,000 left coming into September, which means that we had $92,000 left unused. So the $50,000 cut the Mayor's Matching Grant down to $50,000 this year, and the $50,000 went to Richardson for youth programs as well.

Right, but did you understand what I'm saying here?

Yeah, I understood that they requested $100,000 and that we funded at $50,000.

Okay.

When that $50,000, was the intention to fund, what is that for? Because I thought it was at least in part this.

The $50,000 would include all of the programs that we do throughout the year, which would be, I don't have the extensive list, but basketball, the football, the e-gaming, the volleyball, all of the other programs that we put on at Richardson.

year-round program. That's what I understood to be was year-round programming, which could include this or it could include some of the other things. I know that you guys do tournaments and stuff like that. You guys do extensive youth programs, so that was what that was for. Ms. Harris, you had a question?

Okay, so how much are you asking for?

Well, if we can fund the $400 for the 50 kids, that would be $20,000.

All right. I saw where it says field trips, some are parent-paid, others are subsidized by RCC. What trips are paid by the parents?

I don't have the calendar, but it would be our daily trips like the swimming, bowling, skating. Those are more of the localized trips that are paid by the parents. And then More of the out-of-town trips we subsidize because they're a little bit more expensive, like the theme parks and the museums and the trampoline park.

Right.

The more expensive trips, we try to help cut the cost on that.

So the $20,000, because I see whereas the school board pays for the lunches and the breakfast, right?

They do cover lunch and breakfast, yes. All right.

And... Pretty much most of the trips, we'll just say, are paid by the parents. Majority of the, that's off grounds.

I believe we have about 5,000 budgeted for field trips out of our.

So pretty much all of this will be for, is it paying staff for working there or?

About 40% of the budget is staff, and then we have supplies. We have other operating costs.

Okay, so if we decided not to give you all this money, you all still would have staff at the facility, right?

We wouldn't be able to have as many staff. We would have to cut down according to the numbers of the campers that we have registered.

The staff that work at Richardson are not. allocated for camp. We have to watch open gym. It's only four of us.

So the gym will be open as well with the camp at the same time?

Correct.

So let's just say if I didn't join up for camp and I came there and I'm there at Richardson Gym and you already have the free lunches and I'm there, will I be able to get that free lunch?

Yes. Free lunches for anyone that even if they don't come to our program, if they're in the community, they can stop through and get a lunch and have lunch and then go home if they want to. That's great.

So pretty much the only thing y'all are offering if they decide to go swimming,

Well, it's our field trips. It's also the curriculum that we offer. We do classroom activities. There is a structured educational curriculum component to the summer program.

Okay. And staff oversight. Absolutely. What are the ages for the kids?

Five to 13. Okay.

Another question. Yes, ma'am. All right. As far as the staffing, we have a lot of youth that are out of school over the summer. Do you all use some of the youth, say, if they're at the high school or what have you, or?

We do, like I said, we've employed the summer youth program to help with our aides. I do have volunteers that come in from the high school. They get volunteer hours that goes towards scholarships and different things that they want at the high school, and they're able to help as aides and helpers as well. But as far as employing students, we just don't have the openings for those, the staff. We use the Florida Crown source, career source, has been very helpful the past couple of years of providing additional hands.

Oh, OK. Mr. Carter. Yes.

Yes, I'm done.

He said my name. was discussed a moment ago the summer youth program workers and also a significant amount of what you guys need covered here would be covering the cost of the staff would us first I don't know how many summer youth program workers we have that we could send but maybe D knows that but would that help mitigate costs as well would that help affect this 20,000 not the 20,000 because I actually kind of based on last year's budget kind of cut down little bit of staffing to incorporate the ones we anticipated getting second question um the county obviously is the the owner of the the community center uh is the county putting anything else in their budget towards the summer program or school board any is anyone else being approached about this is there is there someone else the city if the city wanted to contribute could be kind of splitting the pie with there yes

Well, the county does have us in our budget for funding annually. I believe it's about $17,500 or $18,000 that they're contributing every year.

Specifically for the summer?

For summer camp, yes, sir.

So that $20,000 here is not the total price? No. No. So the cost per camper is $400, and there are 50 campers. So that's $20,000, and the county puts $17,000 towards the summer program specifically. So is there a cost besides $400 times $50?

Yes, sir. Our budget last year was probably around $38,000, and that includes staffing, transportation, materials, food, curriculum.

$400 that you're charging per camper. It's not going to cover. No, sir. Okay.

Mr. Jernigan. 20,000. I think we should go ahead and approve that 20,000 for the summer camp. And not only that, just make sure that there's some transparency of everything that we use. And I think I know that young man right there that he's going to make sure that that is done. So I think we should do it, transparency. We may cut a check for $20,000, but if you have $8,000 left over, I think you should give that money back to us, and then we can use it for years to come. So transparency is going to be the key to everything. So I think that if that's what y'all are requiring, that's what y'all are asking for, Ms. Young, I think we should go ahead and give the $20,000. I don't know if we need a motion for that or what do we need to do?

Yeah, we'll need a motion. We'll have to go through the whole process. Ms. Young, you had something before we go into that procedure?

Okay, I was actually going to say, I just would like to say that $400 for seven weeks, you won't find it nowhere else. $400, close to $400 a week. And for one child, that's where daycare is right now. You'll know after a while.

Yeah, he knows now. He's got a little girl.

Yes. And the other thing when it comes to the summer workers, we have to be mindful that these are students. So we can't hold them accountable. And as far as open gym, open gym, the youth are either dropped off. They're dropped off, either brought in by a parent, left or whatever. But They don't really get, they don't, they're not really overseen per child. You know what I'm saying? So if they leave, they're not leaving the program. They're leaving the gym. Is that right? So there's a lot at stake here with the $400. I think it's well worth it. It's a great program as we see here. We can step in any time. Last year I stepped in a few times. And what was said to us that was going to happen, I witnessed it. It happened. So with that being said, I would like to make a motion if I can. Where are we?

Ms. Harris has one more thing. Let's finish council comments, and then we'll get to an action.

I would like to say, Mr. Carradine, you were not only an exceptional basketball player back in the day, but I have heard that you have turned Richardson Gym around. So I applaud you.

Mr. Carter, you have a question? Just a quick question. Ms. Young, where would you want the $20,000 to come from?

I'm not sure. I would like for us to allow administration to do a financial investigation. What?

Oh, and if y'all don't spend $8,000, don't bring that money back. Y'all spending on them kids.

Well, I was going to ask, are you asking if we don't get 50 registrants? Because I'm sure after tonight, we'll have 50 registrants.

There's a lot going on at Richardson Community Center. And it's really, if you ask me, I think it's lacking funding for what our youth get there. So I definitely wouldn't require, and they're always transparent. We know what's happening with the funds. So I say good rhythms.

Mr. Johnson, you had something.

I just wanted to let y'all know the reason we don't have a funding source, because I didn't have the amount until we got in here. But if y'all can direct the administration, we can bring it back and let you know where those funds come from, but we can go ahead and start the process. Absolutely.

My only request would be, you said that you would have 50 by, if we chose to fund it, would be to have an accounting of those applicants to administration. That way we know that dollars are going to children. Yes, sir.

and that's usually the process. They turn in a list and then we cut the check. We don't cut the check, then they turn the list in. I think we have a process.

We did that last year, yes sir, and it worked out just fine.

Okay. We've had discussion. The way that this will work now, because we didn't have a defined proposition, is if someone would like to make a motion to direct staff that way and it is seconded, then we will have public participation. If anybody's interested in public participation, then we'll come back to council for final discussion and a vote. Sound good?

Sound good. Thank you both. Okay.

If anybody, yeah, go for it. I was just releasing them.

Okay, thank you. I would like to make the motion that we fund this $400 per camper up to 50 camper summer camp and that administration will decide where the funds will be appropriately pulled from. Right, and let us know.

Okay. I second. I have a motion and a second. Ms. Sykes, did you need any clarification?

The only clarification, give me just one second. The only clarification was do we need to add the subject to component that you asked for, the accounting of the applicants? I mean, I know they're going to send it in the invoice, but do you want that built into the motion or no?

Subject to, yeah.

I don't need any clarification. Thank you.

I have one question. Yes, sir. I feel like we've done this in the past. Is there any stipulation that this is for city residents?

Last year we did do city residents.

If we're going to approve this, I think it should be clear that it is for city residents in the motion or how it needs to be.

Do you add that here? I think that that's appropriate too.

It is appropriate. I just don't like to turn a child around. But yes, that's fine.

That's fair. Yeah. Okay. All right, so we have a motion, a second. We've had some discussion now. I'm going to open it up for, because we didn't have a defined proposition, and this is new material. So if anybody is interested in coming to the podium to speak to this item, I'll give you some time. Nobody? Okay. So we will move straight back into final questions, comments by the council.

Any?

Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Ms. Young? Yes. Mr. Jernigan? Yes. Mr. Carter? Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes. Mayor Walker?

Yes. All right. Moves us to item number 12. So this is fire pension board trustee resignation by mr. David Brewer He was a council appointed trustee. He had been on the the pension board for 20 years He's a Yeah, a maven in finance. I believe that he works for First Federal, correct, or with a bank of that magnitude. He provides insight for several boards in town. I want to first thank him for his service to the pension board and express the whole that this is going to leave. We need to – the reason this is brought up is we need to publicize that we need somebody on this board with – significant financial experience who works in the market almost on a daily basis and knows the ins and outs of finance. Does that make sense? Do we have a, what does staff need from us here?

I was about to say, do we need to accept his resignation or?

No, we just need to discuss it so that, Mr. Martin.

I would just, no, you don't need to accept the resignation, it stands.

Thank you. We just needed to publicize it and let everybody know here that we do need somebody to fill that seat and they need some pretty heavy experience.

Mayor, may I just ask? Yes, ma'am. If any member knows of a person that would meet that criteria, encourage them to reach out to our office to make applications so that we can get those applications back in front of you.

Perfect. Mr. Mayor? Yes, sir. Do they have to be a citizen? Any citizen can apply? Do we have a stipulation of SBCPA or anything like that? Is the role financial in...

It is financial in nature, but I do not believe that there are any actual certifications that they need. He was a great board member because he spent 24-7 in the finance field and the machinations of the market. No, there's no pay for this. no okay this is very nice volunteer yeah great person yeah civic minded great at math yeah for sure all right um that moves us to item number 13 uh discussion possible action uh consideration of the following dates for budget workshops um We do need to approve these. So the dates are as follows. We have August 4th, 2026, which is Tuesday. This will be the day after our first meeting. So this week will be Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Monday will be our regular City Council session Tuesday will be budget our first budget workshop It'll start at 5 p.m. If you guys so wish that will cover capital projects Utilizing of GFOA, which is government financing officers Association budgeting format will have mr. Narducci here from NJ and consulting that day going over a couple different things and August 5th, which is Wednesday, 5 p.m., we'll have the general budget. We'll have our CRA budget. We'll have fire, airport, and debt service funds budget as well. And then August 6th will be Thursday, 5 p.m., we'll have utility funds. The reason we only had, I think, two days last year where we went through format this year and what we're looking for is for our directors to come up, present their staffing, their budget, all the big projects they have going on, and for us to take a deep dive in consideration of all things financial across that week. Make sense? Yes, sir. Mr. Carter.

We're also discussing whether or not the dates and times work, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Just put it out there. I work till six, two of these three days. I prefer to start the meetings at six. I could leave a few minutes early and get here easily. If I have to change my schedule, I probably can, but my request would be that we meet at six instead of five.

Okay. I'm fine with that. Which days do you know?

Yeah, Tuesday and Wednesday. I could be here at five on Thursday.

You guys fine with that? Tuesday and Wednesday.

Let's meet at 10 p.m. just a joke uh no we don't have a problem we could definitely make it happen for mr carter because uh he's not uh he's he's a um he needs to be here to these meetings so let's make it happen for him 6 p.m uh does that sound good 6 p.m on wednesday tuesday and wednesday i think it sounds great you want six are we going okay yeah and then and then that thursday that thursday we'll leave it at five that way we can thursday be at five yeah it's gonna be a problem

No, no, that's fine.

So 665, sounds good. All right. Noted? Noted. Right. Item number 14, so that closes out. Item number 13, do you need anything else from us on that, Angie? Yes, sir. Okay, very good. Thank you very much. Item number 14, discussion and possible action to create an intern administrative assistant position to work in the community programs department, assistant city manager Dee Johnson.

Thank you, Mayor. This request is just for the position. I'm not needing any additional funding. Laney, she's moving on to bigger and better things. She's going to college in August, and we do have funds within the current budget to hire another part-time worker to kind of shadow her and transition into this position at a later date.

Thank you. All right. Do we need to take action on that? Yes, we do.

Since it will work correctly. Yes, it would need council approval.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve this action.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Thank you both. This wasn't a defined action, so I will open it up for public comment now if anybody wants to speak to it. Seeing nobody moved to it, we'll come back to council. Final questions, comments, anybody? All right. We have a motion and a second. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Mr. Carter. Yes. Ms. Harris. Yes. Ms. Young.

Yes.

Mr. Jernigan.

Yes.

Mayor Walker.

Yes. All right. That concludes all of our items on tonight's agenda. So we will now move into comments by our charter officers. And tonight, that's you, Mr. Johnson, to kick us off. Well, thank you for having me. That's it. All right. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Mr. Martin. Nothing from the city attorney's office. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Ms. Sykes.

Yeah, I just had two things. I just wanted to give a quick reminder that we do have qualifying next week for the elections. So qualifying will take place Monday, June the 8th, starting at noon, and it will close Friday, June the 12th at noon. So if you are a candidate, we need to meet and get your paperwork together. And then the second thing that I wanted to mention is I just wanted to give a heartfelt condolences to former city council member George Ward's family. He passed away this past week. I worked with Mr. Ward for probably 20 years, Phenomenal council member, and I just wanted his family to know that they're in our thoughts and prayers.

Thank you for that reminder, Miss Sykes. Yeah. All right. Comments by council. We'll start with you, Vice Mayor Young.

Okay. I get to go first. I would like to really say that, you know, I don't like that Laney's leaving. I really like Laney. I think she works well. She's so helpful. I like the energy that she brings. But I guess this is like an oxymoron, but I do like that she's going to further her education. And maybe she'll come back and work for us in a higher position. And the other thing is the woods, the woods event. June the 18th from 6.30 to 9.30. Thank you. And it's at night because I'm told the lights are so beautiful out there. They are. Children are excited. Youth are excited. Parents are excited. I'm really excited, too. I haven't had fun in a long time. So that's that. I believe that's it for me, I think.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Young. Up next, Council Member Jernigan.

I'd just like to give a shout out to all the police department, fire department, the airport, finance, public works, procurement, and also I had an opportunity to to work with uh mr ward he gave me a lot of tips uh that he said he said in this seat right here for a number of years he gave me a lot of tips back in the day so my empathy sympathy goes out to the to the ward family if there's anything i can do to assist him ball barons whatever i need to do if they would just let us know they can let miss arjun know and i'll do everything i can to make sure i i get to that wake or funeral or whatever it may be that's it thank you mr chernigan uh up next council member carter

Yes. I would also like to reiterate that Councilman Ward was an excellent boon to the city and served for many years. And he was part of what was a really good team for the city leadership. And he will be missed. And he was also a great business owner downtown Lake City for decades. So I'd also like to issue my condolences to his family. And... congratulations to Laney getting accepted to college going going off bigger better things that's it for me tonight thank you

Thank you, Mr. Carter. Up next, Ms. Harris. Oh, sorry. Yes, that was from Mr. Ward, who was a council member in Ward's Jewelry. Yes, sir.

One other thing I was going to ask. It may already be in the works. We did the awards for the weightlifting team when they won state. In the same meeting, we gave some money to the softball lady, Lady Tigers, there for the thing, and then they went out and did big things. So I'm assuming that we're probably already moving towards that.

We'll see him on the 15th. Oh, wonderful.

We're ready to go.

Awesome. We'll see those young ladies, those champions on the 15th. Ms. Harris.

I'd like to send my condolences to the Ward family. I didn't personally know him, but when anybody passes, it almost feels like it's sad. But I said what I said, Carter. But I would also like to bring that recognition to our softball team. I am super duper proud of them. I am so glad that this council reached our loving hands out and hugged on them before they went. And it was fruitful, I'm so proud of them. I would also like to say, let us not forget, on August the 1st, we will be having our Unity Love Fest, and if you have said that you are gonna donate something to us having that, please make sure I get your funds. All of them. We don't want to do a payment plan. Please just make sure. Oh, I'd like to thank the mayor, because he did reach out and do it. So I'm looking forward to that happening. I'm looking forward to the, at the woods. The woods is beautiful. You have fun there. You really do. You'll feel like a kid. But I also, I am happy that we have Cecilia Davis here in our midst, trying to bring another business here in Lake City, Florida. I would, of course, like to thank our chief of police and all that he do. Yeah, see, I got a thing for chief. Chief is a cool dude. He really is. Steve, Dee, Don. I hate to start calling out names. Josh, the fire chief. Everybody that makes this city run smoothly. I am so proud to be on this team. So thank you. Mayor.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Harris. All right. Like my colleagues up here, I would like to extend my condolences to Mr. Ward's family. They were a longtime business in downtown, and he sat on this bench for a long time making decisions. for the betterment of our citizens then and in the future. So I appreciate him very much. Another George that I would like to show a little appreciation to is a gatekeeper down at Campbell Park, Mr. George Hudson. who make sure that those gates work every day. He does a good job with that, and he keeps that park clean, and he is alert to all that is Campbell Park and Lake Montgomery. So I appreciate him very much for his active citizenry. uh we have some other active citizens here in the crowd uh that have have done some great things with youth and that's miss uh coker and her family um they had some great things here in in april and of course mr bezella um and then miss miss cecilia davis i know uh we will uh talk to you about grants i know that here a brownfield grant i believe it was your property came came across uh here recently uh but there are other opportunities and we can definitely get you hooked up with the chamber which back to miss Cochran to answer the question that came up during public comment we we have funded one chamber last year and that was the Lake City Columbia County Chamber of Commerce that serves all businesses in Lake City and Columbia County to contractually they provide services to small businesses here and they would be a great resource as well We are quickly becoming Titletown, Florida. Yes. Which I appreciate very much. We've had the weightlifters here. We'll have the softball team here. But there are four students that are right now competing for a national championship in skills. And that is our drone team at CHS and our welding team at CHS. Two welders specifically. Miss Ruby. Oh, man. And... Ms. Ruby and Mason Doosan are there for welding at the National Championship in Atlanta. And I'll tell you, the welding programs here locally are quickly producing young people that can provide for themselves on a rapid basis. Mr. Thomas showed me five. hoods from kids who had gone through his program in the last five years and have already turned over pay stubs showing that they have made $100,000 on an annual basis. And that is incredible for kids under 20 coming out of high school being able to do that.

So I appreciate his time and stewardship of that youth.

I applaud them for being at nationals this week and hoping that they bring home even more hardware because they're already state champions. And we'll also have them appear in the coming weeks. That being said, we have City Night at the Woods with Mr. Michael Woods, who's someone who left Lake City and has come back and invested in this town and has a great facility there. Like many of the other entertainment businesses that have sprung up over the last couple of years, I appreciate him very much. Yes, ma'am.

You coming? Are you coming?

I intend to, however.

Because I dunked you, now I want to out-wrap you.

I'm not wrapping. I won't be wrapping. And this is the day after an official due date for my impending child. I think that that's coming sooner than that, but we'll see. And then we also have upcoming the Independence Day celebration, which will be Saturday, July 4th, at the fairgrounds, where you will have the opportunity to dunk me in a water tank once again, if you so choose. That being said, that's all we have tonight. Thank you, folks, for tuning in and your active citizenry. Have a great night.

Okay, I got a question.