City Council - Regular Meeting

Please help this board to make decisions that are good and for the good of our citizens, both now and in the future. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen.

All right.

Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Garnigan? Council Member Young?

Council Member Coffin? Are these on?

Could you check the mics?

Mayor Walker?

Here.

City Manager Rosenthal? 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 and pertinent 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 is only one approved manner of addressing the city council, and that's to be recognized and to speak from the podium. Failure to abide by the rules of decorum will result in removal from the meeting. I will stop now and say if anybody does want to address the council, please make sure you fill out a card in the back of the room and put it in the council, and one of our officers will bring it up. We will now move on to approval of the agenda.

Mr. Mayor? Yes. I'd like to ask for two, or I guess three changes to the agenda. Three changes. There are two items. Items... Items 13 and items 12. I'd ask that they be moved forward. Some citizens have requested that they be moved to the front of the agenda so that they don't have to sit through the entire meeting. If we could move those up. And then item four on the consent agenda, I would ask that that come off the consent agenda just for discussion.

Okay. 13, 12. 13 and 12 would like to put before old business. Yes.

And then item number four, off consent. Just to discuss.

Okay. In the same place. We'll put it right in the same place. So it'll be item 13 or item 12, 13, and then four. Does that sound good? Yes. Does that sound good for everybody else?

Just to discuss.

Just to discuss. Yeah.

Okay.

Sound good?

We would need action.

Well, it's a motion. I move to move items 12 and 13 up the agenda to just after old business and remove item four from consent.

Okay. All right, we have a motion. What are we going to place to that?

Right after the consent agenda.

Right after 12 and 13, right after the consent agenda. We have a motion. No second.

It has to be for all, is that correct?

Yes, that's the motion.

Mr. Mayor. Yes. I also have, I was just notified, we need to also table item 14 to the meeting on July 20th. That's when that item was noticed to be heard.

Okay.

Item 14 will also be tabled until July 20th.

I can amend my motion to table item 14 as well.

Okay. So we have a motion to move 12, 13, and 4 to right after consent agenda and then item 14 to the 20th of July.

Yes.

Okay. I'll say the motion fails for lack of second. Second.

would you like to amend your motion yes sure I'll amend the motion obviously the issue is item 4 to the rest of the council we still will have discussion on the consent agenda sure yeah terrific so I amend the motion to remove the removing of item 4 from the consent agenda

So what you're saying is you're moving items 13 and 12 up and tabling 14. Moving 12 and 13 to after the consent agenda and tabling 14 to the 20th.

Yes.

Okay. All right. We have a motion for that.

To be clear, if I have to clarify, there are some folks here, I've been requested, there are some folks that are elderly, and it would be easier for them to be able to be a part of that, which are the two items about immemorial for our fallen fire chiefs, and they would like it to be earlier in the meeting so they don't have to listen to us deliberate about everything else. So that's the reason that I'm asking for those things to be moved.

Understood. I'm going to second that motion.

Okay. We have a motion and a second to move item number 12 and 13, tabling item 14 from the agenda.

You said table 14? Is that your motion? We're tabling 14 because Mr. Martin said it needs to be. It hasn't been noticed in enough time to be discussed tonight. Okay. So the other two are the moving of the memorial statement.

And then the table of 14 as well.

Yes. Okay.

As long as I, just like you say, you wanted to clarify it, you know, my brain is, you know.

All right, perfect. We have a motion and a second. Any further questions, comments? Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. All right. Agenda has been approved as amended. We will now move to public participation. We have a group of people, and we will start with Ms. Rusty Ann Brown.

Oh, there you go.

You're recognized, Ms. Brown.

My name is Rusty Ann Brown. I'm a Navy veteran. I'm retired from the Veterans Benefit Administration. I'm a VA whistleblower. I'm a veteran advocate. I have been a veteran advocate for about 25 years now. I see what we're trying to do with this post, American Legion 423, is help more the community. We have an opportunity to possibly have a building Where people can literally walk in off the street and get information veterans resource information information that it's not easily gotten Information on how to do their claims any a number of things I would ask that the council listen to our proposal from our adjutant and seriously taken into consideration. We have a lot of individuals that do a lot of hard work for our veterans in this community. And we know we have a lot of veterans in this community that need to be helped. A lot that we see on the streets that don't have their benefits. They need their benefits. They need to know they deserve those benefits. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Brown. Up next, we have Mr. Mike Ziegler.

Good evening, Mayor, council members, fellow citizens. My name is Mike Ziegler. I am here today with our Commander Tom Johnson. our fellow board members for American Legion Post 423, our auxiliary president and some of her board members. We are here today with a simple request, but one that carries with it a profound purpose. We are asking for a permanent place to call home. When people hear the words American Legion, they often think of veterans gathering together. While that is certainly part of who we are, we are much more than a meeting hall. We are neighbors helping neighbors. We are volunteers serving our community. We are mentors teaching young people about citizenship, leadership, and love of country. We are the ones who stand beside veterans who may be struggling, widows who have lost loved ones, military families carrying heavy burdens, and community members looking for a place to belong. Every one of us has answered the call to serve. Some served in combat, some served stateside. Some continue serving today through the auxiliary, through the Sons of the American Legion, and through the American Legion Riders. We may have taken off our uniforms, but we have never stopped serving. Yet today, we have no permanent place where we can call home and where that service can grow. Imagine trying to build relationships when your meeting location changes. Imagine trying to invite a veteran who is lonely or struggling and saying, we're not sure where we're going to meet next month. Imagine planning youth programs, patriotic ceremonies, disaster relief efforts, scholarship presentations, or community dinners without a place to gather. A home isn't just four walls. A home is where hope begins. A home is where veterans who have carried invisible wounds find friendship instead of isolation. A home is where children learn what it truly means to honor our flag, respect those who serve, and become today's leaders. A home is where our community comes together, not divided by politics or circumstances, but united by service. This is not just about American Legion Post 423. This is about what kind of community we want Lake City to be. A community that remembers those who defended our freedoms. A community that invests in service instead of waiting for someone else to solve problems. A community that believes veterans deserve more than our applause on Veterans Day. They deserve our partnership every day of the year. We are not asking the city to build us something extravagant. We are asking you to help us find an opportunity. Whether it is an unused city building, a vacant property, or another creative partnership, we are prepared to do the work. We will maintain it. We will improve it. Most importantly, we will fill it with service to this community.

Thank you, Mr. Ziegler. Mr. Rosenthal, if you'll work with them, and then we'll work together in the future.

All right, Mayor, we'll do. Thank you.

All right. Up next, we have Sandy Gates.

Hi, how are you? I apologize. This is the first meeting like this I've ever been to, so I'm not sure how it works.

Could you speak into starter time over? Just make sure that you speak into the microphone.

This is the first meeting that I've been to. By the way, how are you doing? So hopefully I go by the rules. We received a notice that they were intending to rezone some property and to, from what I understand, build apartments. And I just bought a property there and they said it's within 300 feet that they're intending to do that building. I go down the street every day and pick up paper. It's my neighborhood. I want it to grow, and I want it to prosper, and I want it to look nice. I feel like all that traffic and extra building is just going to make that worse. The intention when I bought my property was for my grandchildren to come over, for us to be able to walk down the road because it's a pretty property. that I live right in front of the property they're intending to build on. And it's basically a bunch of woods. And there's a lot of birds, rabbits, squirrels, even occasional deer in there. So I just wanted to, I don't know, I'm not gonna say represent my neighborhood, but represent my husband and I as we're against this.

Can I ask you, where is the property?

My property is at 619 Northwest Early Street. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right. Mr. Warren. Sylvester Warren.

Good evening, Sylvester Warren, address the black community. I had no intentions on speaking at any future meetings, but I felt a little compelled to do so because I see that there's a room full of veterans. And my dad served. All of his brothers served. I have two active veterans. Siblings in the military currently My girlfriend daddy is a war veteran affair at the VA And I have a good friend in Jacksonville named Kim Strada who helped people get events and that being said you say you're looking for a home well, you came to the city and Mr. Carter moved you up front and AND YOU WANT A PERMANENT HOME, I CAN GIVE YOU A PERMANENT HOME. YOU CAN HAVE A PERMANENT HOME AT 341 NORTH MARY STREET. IT'S THE OLD McDUFFIE'S BUILDING. I WILL LET Y'ALL HAVE A PORTION OF IT IF THE CITY IS WILLING TO FIX IT UP. SO YOU HAVE A PERMANENT HOME. SO THEY CAN'T BS Y'ALL AND SAY THAT Y'ALL DON'T HAVE NOWHERE TO GO BECAUSE I JUST GAVE Y'ALL SOMEWHERE FREE TO GO. ALL Y'ALL HAVE TO DO IS GET IT HABITABLE AND Y'ALL CAN DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO IN THERE. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, MR. WARN. All right. That concludes everybody who was going to speak during open public comment. We'll now move on to the consent agenda. And we do have public participation signed up for on one of these items. So, Ms. Limley, I will now recognize you.

Barbara Limley. My concern is number four. I think this happened last year, and the money was given, and I don't see any real purpose. I remember coming back, and I don't remember getting any feedback from those who went to the Black Caucus in D.C., So I think this needs to be looked at thoroughly. And if the city decides to provide money, they need to provide information on what their purpose is and what their outcome is and some more information before, you know, if this money is approved. It needs to come back and tell us what they did. Thanks.

Thank you, Ms. Limley. All right. That concludes our public comment on consent agenda. So we will entertain a motion for the consent agenda, and then we will have discussion as requested. So approved, Mayor. We have a motion.

second and a second we have a motion a second for the consent agenda we will now have discussion at the council level mr carter mr mayor uh i have concerns and again to be clear i'm not necessarily against uh what's being proposed in item number four last year uh i believe it was miss harris attended and we discussed this item in a similar fashion And I remember saying in that meeting that I look forward to hearing what you learned there. And I kind of would hope that if we're sending someone 800 miles away, like we all go to things. If we go to a League of Cities event, it makes sense we're a city. We go to an airport conference, it makes sense we've got an airport. If we're going to send council members to Washington, D.C. for any reason, I think it's reasonable. I've had multiple constituents ask me, why are they going there? What is the purpose of that? And I think if you open up our agenda, generally speaking, if we go to a Florida League of Cities event, in the agenda, in the packet, there's a program that tells you what they're going, what's gonna be there, and it gives you an idea of what we're doing there and what we're gonna learn there. And I don't even know if that's necessarily enough. I don't think that if we're traveling on the Citizens Dime, for any reason not just this item but any item i believe we should probably come back and have some sort of explanation of what we did what we learned whether we're going to an ethics seminar whether we're going to i just think there's a higher level of transparency when it comes to travel there are people in our community who can't afford to take a vacation so if we're going to spend seven thousand dollars to send council members 800 miles away the citizens deserve to know why So my only, and all I wanted to discuss on this earlier, despite the lack of interest in discussing it, is if you open up our packet, if a citizen opens up our packet for this meeting to know why we're sending two members of our council to Washington, D.C. to attend a congressional black caucus, the only information is that it wasn't budgeted for, but there's money in another account that we can reallocate. There's no other information. It doesn't provide anything like, because I looked at the program for the Congressional Black Caucus. There's dozens of different possible events that can be attended. Maybe some of them are about housing. Maybe some of them are about streets and road improvements, et cetera, et cetera. If we're going to spend this kind of money and send members of our board to these events, the citizens deserve to know why we're doing it. And I think that... It wouldn't be a bad idea. This is almost somewhat special, right? We're a Florida city, so Florida League of Cities events make a lot of sense for us to attend. But if we're going to go to Washington for a once-a-year event, then I would love it if, for our own value and enrichment, that when Ms. Harris and Ms. Young get back from that event, they spend a little bit of time sharing with us what they have learned that we may be able to, as a group, apply to our community. Because if we're not learning things like this that we can apply to our community, there is no point in sending someone for $7,000 to Washington DC. I'm not saying there's never value in what happens in DC in relation to a small municipality in Florida, but I would say that frequently it's tangential at best. So if there's going to be a reason, I just feel like the community and this board deserve to know what it is and to know what's going on. There was no information, and I look at it and I say, I can't think of any particular reason why I would want to go to Washington, D.C. I don't think they've got a lot for me up there, you or any of us, for that matter. But to be clear, I don't know about this, and there's nothing in here that tells me about it. And if I were an average citizen and I opened up our agenda to learn, there's nothing in there that would tell them either. So what I'm getting at is our travel as a whole, I feel like we should be a little more transparent about what we're doing and why. This is a significant amount of money. When you put it all together, the council travel adds up to quite a bit. So I've had, like I said, multiple citizens say, why are we sending folks to the Congressional Black Caucus? What does that have to do with a small town in Lake City? I think that's a fair question. So all I wanted to know is why. Because the packet, which is supposed to tell you or at least give you an idea, doesn't.

That's all.

And again, I'm not opposed to it. I just want to know what we're hoping to achieve.

Thank you, Mr. Carter.

Thank you.

Ms. Young. I do understand as far as the background information. My concern is that you wait until you get to this dais to ask about background information. If it had been any other item, you would have asked for background information from the administration. That's my concern on that. Okay, you have it?

No.

Well, don't blame it for me. You asked for administration for it, didn't you? But not to talk at you, let me go on with this. Lake City has an airport, so that okays the airport conference. We are city of Lake City, so that okays the League of City. We have black council members, so that approves black caucuses. There is a great purpose for it. And it's not just for black people. There are quite a few white people who go. That's right. And as far as you attending, you're welcome to attend, but I don't think you really attend any of them. meetings, so that shouldn't be of great concern. Anywhere I go, I'm gonna be educated. I wouldn't go and waste the taxpayers' dollars if I wasn't getting something out of it. We have come back from no conference or meeting and gave an overview of what we've learned. It hasn't even been requested, so I'm kind of offended that you request for an overview because it says black caucus. To be clear, actually.

Wait, wait, wait. There was a pause. That was addressed. Let her finish and then we'll...

Thank you. Thank you. You'll get your turn. So, I don't have a problem coming back and saying what I learned. And when I go to Florida legal cities, I don't mind coming back and saying what I learned. But you can best believe if I leave... and come back, I have information. I've gathered information. First of all, I don't do joy trips. I don't do joy trips of no kind. And to go to Washington, New York, or wherever it is, there has to be a purpose for me. It has to be a purpose that will benefit the city of Lake City as well as myself. And yes, there is information in this conference that helps the community of black council people. Yes, there is. And Caucasian members are also welcome, as I said before, and many of them do attend, and I hear no complaints.

Mr. Carter. Just to be clear, my suggestion, and we can roll back the tape if we got to, is that we always do this from now on for all the things we do. So not just this, not just this time. But from now on, if we're going to spend thousands of dollars and send us halfway across the state or halfway across the country, we should tell the citizens what we're up to.

I think that's very transparent. Anybody else? I'm not saying anything. Okay. We've had a motion, a second. We've had discussion. Anything else? Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Mr. Dernigan?

Yes.

Ms. Young?

Yes.

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

Yes. All right. Now we will move. We've got two items that we moved up in the agenda, number 12 and number 13. So we will begin with number 12. And this is city council resolution number 2026-075. Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Council members, you have before you resolution number 2026-075. a resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, directing the erection of signs at the intersections along that certain segment of Northwest Madison Street situated between Northwest Main Boulevard and North Marion Avenue in honor of Fire Chief Randall Burnham, co-designating said street segment as Randy Burnham Street, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Chief, will you come up and speak to this?

Thank you. So as you all know, September 2021, we lost Chief Burnham to COVID. We have vowed to the family, to this community to never forget that. So our thought, we've thought about monuments, we've thought about all kinds of things. But new firefighters, family, community members turn on these roads every day. They see the fire station. And to have that area of road designated, and this does just say Randy Burnham Street, if we can make that Chief Randy Burnham Street, would definitely honor him and the family forever. So thank you for that. And I don't know if some of the family is here, if you want to hear from anybody. If anybody from the family would like to speak. this is uh devin burnham this is uh chief burnham's son how are y'all doing um if this goes through

It would mean a lot to me and my son and the generations of my family to come. I think it would be a really good thing for us. And while I'm up here, thank you for upholding what you promised me that day. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Burnham. All right. We don't have any public comment on item number 12, so we'll move straight into Dias questions, comments. I think this is a no-brainer. Yes, sir. Mr. Martin.

Mr. Mayor, in light of what Chief Wanger requested, I would ask that the resolution be amended, that the street be named Chief Randy Burnham Street.

Thank you. So whenever we make the motion, if someone will please include changing it to Chief Randy Burnham Street. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am.

I'd like to approve resolution number 2026-075. Second.

With that change, correct?

With that change.

We have a motion and a second. Thank you both. Any further discussion, questions, comments? Yes, ma'am.

Who seconded that? I'm so sorry.

Mr. Jernigan did. Okay.

Thank you.

Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Okay, Ms. Harris? Yes. Mr. Jernigan?

Yes.

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

Yes. All right, item number 13, Mr. Martin, if you'll read that by title, and then Chief, if you'll similarly introduce.

Certainly, Mr. Mayor, council members, you have before you resolution number 2026076, a resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, directing the erection of signs at the intersections along that certain segment of Northwest Alachua Avenue. situated between West Duval Street and North Marion Avenue in honor of Assistant Fire Chief Dwight E. Boozer, co-designating said street segment as Assistant Chief Dwight Boozer Avenue, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing an effective date.

Thank you. So again, shortly after Chief Burnham, February of 2023, is that correct?

February 28th of 23, right?

We lost Chief Boozer to cancer, which was directly related to the fire service. So again, in order to honor his legacy and 30 years of service to this community, we would like to designate that road as Chief Dwight Boozer. And if any of the family would like to say anything. He likes to talk. This is Chief Boozer's brother, David Boozer, who was also the chief at the county at one time.

Good evening and thank you all. You know, it's kind of, it's interesting how life comes about and how we all get connected. And the fire department family has been real. You know, what's interesting is, bless you, is the fact that Chief Burnham happened to marry our niece, so then we become family. And I think that's the main thing that we're wanting to emphasize here. The fire service is family. And these guys, no matter where they go or how they change in life, they've always had that bond and that connection. And when the guys mentioned it to me, I thought, what an honor to pull up at the station. And both their names are right there on that same corner. So we appreciate the thoughts, and I really appreciate the chief and assistant chief. They really, to take care of families, they really do. They're all then. And we thank you all for support and just pray that you will just advance this. And thank you for taking the time to honor them today.

Thank you, Mr. Bruiser.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chief. We don't have any public comment on this. So we will move into council questions, comments. Ms. Harris.

I would just like to say, Chief, I think that is a great idea, and that's awesome. That's awesome. With that being said, I would like to approve Resolution No. 2026-076. Second.

A motion and a second. We will now move into any further questions, comments from the council. Again, this is a no-brainer. Thank you very much for their lifetimes of service. We're very appreciative here in the city of Lake City. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes.

All right.

Thank you, everybody. We appreciate you guys coming and speaking on behalf of your family members. We will now move on to our open public hearing part of the meeting, and that is to begin with city council ordinance number 2026-2372 on ADUs. Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. You have before you ordinance number 2026-2372 on second and final reading. excuse me, an ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida amending the text of the City of Lake City land development regulations as amended pursuant to an application LDR 2602 by the Growth Management Department of Lake City, Florida providing for amending section 2.1 entitled definitions to add a definition for accessory dwelling units, providing for amending section 4.2.36 entitled provisions for accessory dwelling units, providing for amending section 4.4.3 entitled agriculture, permitted accessory uses and structures to add requirements for accessory dwelling units. Providing for amending section 4.4.7 entitled agriculture minimum yard requirements to add requirements for accessory dwelling units. Providing for amending section 4.5.3 entitled residential single family permitted accessory uses and structures to add requirements for accessory dwelling units. Providing for amending section 4.5.7 entitled residential single family minimum yard requirements to add requirements for accessory dwelling units. Providing for amending section four point six point three entitled Residential mixed single-family mobile home permitted accessory dwelling unit or uses and structures to add requirements for accessory dwelling units Providing for amending section four point six point seven entitled residential mixed single-family mobile home minimum yard requirements to add requirements for accessory dwelling units providing for amending section 4.7.3 entitled residential mobile home permitted accessory uses and structures to add requirements for accessory dwelling units providing for amending section 4.7.7 entitled residential mobile home minimum yard requirements to add requirements for accessory uses and structures and accessory dwelling units providing for amending Section 4.9.3, entitled Residential Multifamily Permitted Accessory Uses and Structures to Add Requirements for Accessory Dwelling Units, providing for amending Section 4.9.7, entitled Residential Multifamily Minimum Yard Requirements to Add Requirements for Accessory Dwelling Units, providing severability, repealing all ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Take a deep breath.

All right. This passed on first reading. We don't have anybody signed up from the public to speak on this item, so we'll move straight into council questions, comments, or I'll entertain a motion to adopt city council ordinance number 2026-2372 on final reading. Mr. Mayor, I move to approve Council Ordinance 2026-2372. I second it. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Thank you both. Any further questions, comments? Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. We're going to take a brief recess now, six minutes, and then we'll be back. Welcome back to the regular session of City Council, July 7th, 2026. We will now move on to, we just adopted City Council Ordinance number 2026-2372. We are now on an open public hearing on item number seven, which is City Council Ordinance number 2026-2373. Mr. Martin, will you read this by title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And before we proceed, just for clarification, this is a legislative matter. It is not quasi-judicial. Ordinance number 2026-2373 is before you on second and final reading. An ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida amending the future land use plan map of the City of Lake City Comprehensive Plan as amended relating to an amendment of 50 or less acres of land. Pursuant to an application, CPA 2606S by David M. Winsberg, the property owner said acreage under the amendment procedures established in sections 163.3161 through 163.3248 Florida statutes as amended providing for changing the future land use classification from residential medium density less than or equal to eight dwelling units per acre to residential high density less than or equal to 20 dwelling units per acre. of certain lands within the corporate limits of the City of Lake City, Florida, making findings of fact and support thereof, providing severability, repealing ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. Robert, would you like to introduce us?

All right, for you know tonight you have on second reading ordinance number 2026 as 2373 at this time. I just like to adopt my presentation and put on my application in the record from the 615 meeting and just like to put all that in the record. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Robert. We'll now open public comment on this item. We do have public comment signups for this. We will begin with Miss Barbara Mizell Perry.

Good evening and thank you. As we were sitting here, we heard Mr. Carter say, Mr. James Carter says that there are people who can't afford to take a vacation. I agree with him. And that's one reason, just one, why what I'm going to present to you is very important. There are people who can't afford to take a vacation. They go to work. They work. They come back. And their vacation is their home. That's all they have. They work for that. They pay their taxes for that. You know, the people who can't afford big, nice, luxury things, that's their haven right there because they can't afford to go on vacation. You heard the veteran whose name I didn't quite catch say, it's about community. It is about community, not just your community. It's about all of our community. When we think about what we vote on for others, we should think, okay, that would work for me also. So I'm going to agree with both of them. They were absolutely correct. So I am speaking on the apartments and the rezoning, wanting to change the zoning from single family to multiple density to high density on Early Street. So I want to tell you a little bit about Early Street. Now it won't be long because I want you to pay attention to things that I say. Early Street is a very short street, less than one half of a mile long, less than a half a mile long. Early Street is not even a mile, I don't think, away from Cedar Park. We have all the apartments right across from the Highway 41, right across from there, you have Cedar Park. A lot of people park at Cedar Park. And you have the roundabout right near there, which is, to me, has not been the best thing that Lake City could have voted for. And I'm just going by all the sirens I hear as I drive through there. So you have that. You have the roundabout. You have Cedar Park across from 41 North. You have Early Street, a little short street. At the beginning of Early Street, there's Lake City Villas, there's apartments, multiple duplexes over at the beginning of Early Street, okay? You have intercepting that, you have, I believe it is Clay Street. Clay Street is very short, it's just a little short street with some houses on one side of the street. This property that you're voting on today, Part of it is on the left side of Early Street. Part of it is on the right side of Early Street. Now, at the end of this less than one half of a mile street, this council has already voted that the property owner there could put apartments, at least 18 units. which I think he could have gotten 20, but he decided to go with 18.

Uh, we're going to extend this a minute. I said a precedent earlier in the meeting that we extended with Mr. Ziegler. So anybody who runs over, we'll also extend you a minute. Thank you.

Thank you. So in there, if you're going to put, do what he is proposing to do, you're definitely going to have a traffic jam. You're talking about an influx of maybe 200 cars or more. to travel up and down the street, plus the people who already live there, plus the people who already do, plus the visitors for the people who are going to be in these apartments. This is going to be a traffic jam. Are you planning to put in a traffic light? What's going to happen when the bus comes? Because apartments are going to bring children. What's going to happen when the bus comes and stops the traffic both ways? This is not fair to the people who have worked for what they have. And I think you should think about that because Mr. Winsberg is not going to live in this community. He's not going to build a multiple high-density thing right next to where he lived either because he's worked for something and he wants peace there. And that's what I'm asking of you.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Perry. Up next, we have Ms. Sandy Gates.

Thank you for your time. The intended place for these apartments is in my front yard. My husband and I worked for 50 years. We've been married 48. We started saving soon after we started dating. We just bought this property. We've been there approximately about four months. And the land that is in front of us is a big reason why we bought this property. We have two grandkids, and we walk up and down the street. You know, we walk in the afternoon, in the evenings. And to put those apartments, like she said, it's going to be a traffic jam. It's going to bring in drugs because, you know, when you bring in these kind of apartments, that's what you're going to bring in. You're going to bring in crime. Most of the places in this neighborhood is people who has worked for what they got. Just like she said, we have worked our whole life to get these little bit of land here in Lake City. And we would appreciate y'all representing us in that matter. That's all I have.

Thank you, Ms. Gates. Up next, we have Mr. Al Nelson.

Thank you to the mayor and all the city council officials, to the city manager. We thank you for allowing us to speak on this behalf. Mr. Wanger is here, or a representative from his company. Has there been a study that he has brought forth to us today to show us, has the property, once they build his previous property, Homes that he has built in other counties or other locations. Has the property decreased or increased? Has that been presented to us? Also, what about the crime? She just mentioned that. Has the crime went up or has the crime went down? Also, with the traffic, as Ms. Perry and the young lady just before me came before, about the traffic there's going to be some extra traffic coming down this half mile street that normally wouldn't be there so what as a city council have we done to get from him as the property owner to give us a breakdown of what has happened in his previous developments to help us here in columbia county because we here are not in support of this i am the pastor of the new day spring missionary baptist church And we have land that's less than 300 feet adjacent to this property as well. So we want to make sure that we are in compliance of what's going on so we'll have understanding what's going on as far as this development. And we don't need another... I hate to say it loosely, we don't need another villas or another Cedar Park in that area, tight buildings in that area. So we want to make sure that we are up and up, and he's presenting some valuable information to us as far as the crime, the traffic, and also the property increase or decrease.

Thank you, Mr. Nelson. That concludes our public comment, unless you'd like to fill out a card and speak.

Oh, I need to fill out a card?

Come speak first, and then we'll have you as a card. Yes, sir, Mr. Jernigan.

Okay, so I'm the applicant. My name's David Wentzberg. I'm an engineer. I've heard a lot of concerns from residents. Not sure exactly. It seems like people have different reasons why they're concerned about it, but I'm not so sure that everything is like kind of coherent. One thing somebody said is that they don't want apartments on there. The rezoning change that I'm wanting for not this one, but the other lot would allow me to put duplexes currently the other lot, which is we're not what we're discussing right now, which is number eight. That Curtain zoning doesn't allow duplexes. So, you know, I'm not necessarily opposed to putting duplexes instead of apartment buildings if that's better, but I'm not really sure what the complaints are. I mean, they seem to be kind of varied and I'd be willing to do whatever I can to address concerns of the residents. So for this, Let me back up. So I have two parcels. This one is the east parcel that's two and a half acres. And I'm asking for the density to be increased where currently I can put 20 units on it. And I'm asking to increase it to be 50. Originally, I wanted to increase the density on both parcels. And so right now I can currently put 60 residential units, the way it's zoned today, right now on both parcels. 60 single-family homes, not apartment buildings, not duplexes, but 60 single-family homes on both parcels, and I had previously wanted to increase that to 150 for both parcels, and we had pushback, too much traffic. People didn't like the idea of all this. They thought it was too much, so I just asked to increase on the east parcel, and Now for the item number eight, I'm going to be asking for, that's to rezone this, and it's also to rezone the other parcel, which is RSF3 to RMF1 so that it can put either apartment buildings or duplexes. Like I say, you know, maybe duplexes is better, but that one can't be, that currently can't have duplex on it right now with zoning where it is. Although this one that I'm talking about can, as far as traffic is concerned, I've done a traffic study. Um, they're talking about, um, several hundred cars. Um, that's not correct. Um, the, the increase would the maximum PM peak trips is only going to be 18.6, um, trips. Um, and so I, I understand the concerns, um, of the residents and I'd be willing to take this into account, um, But any questions?

Thank you, Mr. Winsberg. Is there any questions? As the applicant, you don't need to fill out a card. We already have your information. You are actually the item. So does anybody from the council have a question for Mr. Winsberg? We'll end public comment and start into council questions, comments. Mr. Jernigan, you did have a question first, and then we'll come to you, Mr. Carter.

When you went in there and you decided you wanted to do a development in that area, did you talk to any of the residents? And I'm not saying you had to, but I'm asking a question. Did you talk to anybody that's been in there? I think Ms. Monazel's been there quite a few years. And I know that church has been there quite a few years, and there's some people over there in that area that's been there quite a few years. So did you talk to any of the residents in that area?

I've owned the property for 10 years, and I haven't really interacted with the residents. The property's been vacant. I do think their input is important. I'm not sure the best way how to handle it. But, you know, I've heard concerns today, and I, you know, I do understand it's important. Being that the property is vacant, I don't visit it often. I don't live there every day. I certainly understand that residents, you know, know the issues of the area better than I do. So, I mean, that is a valid point.

Okay. All right. Thank you.

Mr. Carter?

I heard you say that you would be willing to do duplexes instead of a full-scale apartment building. So this is the rezoning, right? At this point, we don't ask for traffic studies. I understand that you're an engineer, but at this point in the process, we don't ask for traffic studies. This is whether or not the zoning makes sense based on their LDR, right? So after this... after this process, you would be coming back to us with site plans and things like that for the build out that you plan to do, at which point they would either get approved or denied by our Planning and Zoning Board, and then approved or denied by this board. I would say that happy neighbors is always a great way to go, so it is not a bad idea to talk with them, get an idea of what everyone may be able, it's your land, and at the end of the day, if the things go through, Theoretically, you can attempt to do whatever you like. I would say, for me anyway, I tend to follow our land development regulations and things like that. Obviously, everyone's input is important, but if we turn down every single thing that was ever spoke against, nothing would ever be built. Finding that happy medium, working with the people around it, is a great idea for getting your final site plan approved because You know, if you try to build a tower next to a bunch of residential houses, I don't imagine this board will end up approving that, right, when you come back to the site plan. If you determine that duplexes and things like that, though maybe less units overall, may be something that everyone finds a bit more palatable, it might not be a bad idea. But again, the board is five wide.

Can I address this? What you said, OK, I'll start with the traffic. I was required to do trip generation calculations, water and sewer usage, solid waste. I was to provide required to do capacity analysis as part of my application. Fortunately, I'm an engineer. I can do those calculations myself, but normally somebody would actually have to hire someone like me to do those calculations. So there is that what that information was. The traffic information was presented to the planning zoning board.

So. On this item, my other thoughts are not necessarily, I'm sorry, I apologize. On this item, my other thoughts are not necessarily questions for Mr. Weinberg, so we can move that until we have a council discussion.

Okay. Any other questions for Mr. Winsberg?

No, I don't have any questions.

Mary Young.

I don't have any questions.

I don't have any questions for him, but I would like to recognize who all that's in the audience now that live in the area close to or not far away from that area. Could you just raise your hands for me? Okay, and out of you people, how many want this? Because this is my district, and my thing of it is, we already have... I don't want to say it's like a real bad neighborhood or whatever, but when you have more people come to an area, things tend to happen. And who all wants this to be in their neighborhood, in their mom's neighborhood, or if you're here on behalf of your family or whatever, who wants this? So Mr. Weinberg, so he can see who thought it necessary to come up here and express how they feel out of this group of people that are here so he will know who wants this complex to happen.

So, hold on. Before we get out of control, if you'd like to do public comment, you can come up, but I'll need you to fill out a card, okay? After this one, we will close. Come up first. Come up and speak first, and then just make sure that you fill it out and get to the offer.

Because I think it's necessary that he knows... The people that live in that area and how they feel. That should have been his first thing that he should have found out. How does the people that live in that neighborhood feel about this happening?

So if you could, for a public comment, and like I said, we'll have this public comment, and then we're going to close public comment, and then we'll move into council questions, comments. Sarah, if you'll please state your name.

Fred Dace, thank you, Mayor Walker, council members, city manager. I don't live in that neighborhood. However, my church is in that neighborhood. And I'm not so concerned about the duplex or the apartments more than I'm concerned about the crime. The alternative to if he's wanting to develop, and of course he do, We would prefer single-family homes only. Number one, that would increase property. Number two, it would decrease crime. Number three, it could, in many ways, develop or increase employment. We're only concerned about single-family homes, no apartments, no duplexes, no trailer parks, none of these things in our neighborhood, especially close to our church. Already we have homeless people coming to the church. They'll plug their phones in, recharge. We're concerned about theft, break-ins, things of that nature. So absolutely, we do welcome a development. but along the line of single-family homes. Thank you.

Thank you. Okay, we're going to close public comment now. Mr. Winsberg, if you'll be available for other questions. Just in case. You don't have to stand up, but in case anybody has any questions for you. Thank you. Thank you for being here. We'll now move into questions, comments by the council, or if anyone would like to make a motion. Yes. I'll recognize you now, Mr. Thomason. Mr. Mayor, growth management staff would be happy to facilitate meetings between the homeowners and the applicant and maybe come up with an amicable solution on what they want developed.

If it's not apartment buildings, maybe single-family homes, and we think we can probably work something out with them.

Let me ask you a question. Would that be, and Mr. Martin, I'll need your input as well, would that be something that we'd want to do before any proceeding on this item?

It would affect the decision being made tonight would affect the ability to make those changes down the road. And so if the applicant desires to have those conversations, then the applicant may request a postponement of the two ordinances before the council tonight, 2373 and 2374. to consider that option with Mr. Thomason and the growth management staff, and then if he later decided that he wanted to take a different path, he certainly could request the withdrawal of the two ordinances following a meeting with community members. Thank you, Mr. Ryan.

I'm fine with tabling it so we can set up a meeting with people.

I'm sorry.

I'm fine with tabling it to another, the next session, so that I can set up a meeting with residents. I'm fine with that.

So we're gonna withdraw the items, the two items. Yes, sir, Mr. Carter.

Mr. Mayor, I move to table items. Is it seven and eight?

It is. It is 7 and 8. Sorry, Ms. Young. Thank you. We have a motion to table the two items. Hold on. Let's get a second person then.

I would say indefinitely until it's brought back.

Indefinitely would kill it. I would say until a future meeting in August would Mr. Thomason, do you think that would be adequate time? Until a future meeting in August of 2026.

We have a motion. I'll second. We got a second. Okay. Now, sorry, Ms. Young, I didn't recognize you earlier.

Okay. I do respect the postponement, and it's not definite. And I do appreciate... Mrs. Scott for offering that. It's a good idea. The residents and the homeowner, builder, property owner to come to an agreement because, you know, we do have a housing shortage. We need housing, but we also have to respect the fact that when we have sweet environment communities, I think it's worth protecting them. I think it's worth saving those sweet environment communities because if you look around and not just Lake City, many places, they're few in number. And I look at these residents and not to call nobody out by age, but I look at this sweet spirit woman here who I know she appreciate her home and her environment. around her and and i i appreciate that for her and i would love to save that for her so if they could come to an agreement it would be it would be lovely um so i'm i'm just glad scott that you brought that up good job and um hopefully that you all could come to a resolution thank you vice marianne councilwoman harris well to be honest um

If, for me to be honest, it really wouldn't matter what he come back and say. If it was my choice, I would say kill it tonight. And my reason being is strictly for the things that I have said. Crime, congestion, all of that. I would want to kill it tonight. And since it's being my district and things that happen in my district, I would be the person that everybody would be calling.

question thank you thank you miss uh harris mr jernigan and then mr carter and then miss young no no i don't uh i just want to say thank you for you know for your service and uh thank you for cooperating with with everyone uh again this is uh miss harris's district so that's it that's all i want to say thank you for what you what you said and what you did

Mr. Carter?

Yes.

A couple things. First of all, yeah, I think it's always a good idea. I think this community has seen it a lot recently. I think any folks that are looking to develop in the city or even in the county as some big projects in the last couple years have been voted down. due to similar issues. I think that folks looking to develop in our community, it's always a good idea to try to get some buy-in from the people around it first. It certainly can smooth out the process. But that being said, land use laws are land use laws, and there are all kinds of rules and laws already in place that protect Mr. Winsberg's rights to build and develop his land as well. So it has to be a bit of a give and take. At the beginning of tonight's meetings or in the meeting previous, we just got finished thanking some folks for building nice big apartment buildings because we need housing, right? So it feels a little incongruous that now, you know, Mr. Winsberg is kind of getting a little beat up over here for wanting to build apartments or what have you. So I think for developers, it's good to try to seek out some buy-in and a bit of a happy medium. But at the end of the day, as he stated earlier, he already has the zoning to build out quite a lot. And from a legal standpoint, we wouldn't be able to stop that anyway, right? So I appreciate that Mr. Winsberg is willing to work with that community and try to achieve some sort of homeostasis there. I think that's a very good thing. But I think it's important to remember that though it may be your district it's his land and also there's a lot of there's a lot of like vague general terms like crime traffic that I think I've been to plenty of apartment complexes and in my life I've lived in multiple apartment complexes that were not rife with crime so apartment doesn't equal crime I think that it might be very good that those folks in that community that may come to exist there have a church right there to go to you know I hope that if that were to happen, your flock grew. So there's some pluses and minuses I think folks should take into consideration there. We do need housing. We do want to see this sort of thing succeed. So I just think it's important to note that Mr. Winsberg has all kinds of rights here, and we can't necessarily trample on his rights either. So hopefully they're able to come to some sort of a happy medium there. But it's not as simple as, you know, it's my district, so you don't get to do the thing, right? There's more to it than that. And I know that that gets a little mixed up sometimes, but that's just how I feel.

Perhaps we should.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. Ms. Young?

Yes, sir, and to the property owner, I hope you don't feel like we trampled over you. I just think it came to a great resolution, and I was looking at the expression and the head nods, you know, that it's okay, we can do this. So I really appreciate you. It's not any overlook on you, and we know you have rights. But when you can come to a resolution... come to an agreement, that's great. And I even have in my note right here concerning we have Sweetwater Homes and then of course we do have Cedar Park and Cedar Park has great potential. I really don't like to say Cedar Park and give it a negative view because there's crime everywhere. There's crime in every district. So we can't really point at District 12 or District 10. There's crime in every district. Some we never hear about, but there's crime there. So my concern is the people. And I like to hear. And if I can make a difference in a safe community, I do like to do that. We have work to do in Cedar Park. The church, Reverend, the community, and the city. We all have a responsibility with Cedar Park and that it will come to a great space. Cedar Park is not bad. I love Cedar Park. And it just tells us that. And we have work to do everywhere, everywhere. I appreciate you. I appreciate you all for coming and sharing your concerns. And they do matter. Your concerns do matter. So hopefully we can come to a resolution.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. Ms. Harris.

perhaps we could um maybe find some property over there in 13 that we can put these same kind of apartments in but um and i do want you to know that this isn't a beat-up session that that is not what i'm doing so please don't take it that way but when i have already heard from so many constituents that happen to live in that area already and more than none saying that they don't want it. So yes, I'm gonna stick with my people. And when I say my people, those are the people that live in that area. It will cause congestion. And we know that crime is everywhere, but in some areas it's a little more than others. So that is one of the things that we're trying to stop. We don't want that. And Clay, if you can, I would like to talk to you about this afterwards. So please remind me.

Okay. Any further questions, comments? We have a motion to table in a second. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. Okay. Items 7 and 8 have been tabled. Thank you all for speaking out. Item will now move into new business. In our ordinances, we have City Council Ordinance No. 2026-2380. Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Yes, Mr. Mayor, give me just a second to get caught back up here.

Let's take a moment.

Okay. Go ahead, Mr. Martin. All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. You have before you on first reading ordinance number 2026-2380, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Lake City, Columbia County, Florida, amending chapter two, article seven, City of Lake City Code of Ordinances to expand the Community Redevelopment Board of Commissioners from five members to seven members, providing definitions, establishing eligibility criteria for said members, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody signed up for public comment on item number nine, so we'll move straight to council questions, comments, or I'll entertain a motion to adopt city council ordinance number 2026-2380 on first reading.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve Ordinance 2026-2380.

Second. Motion on second. Thank you both. Any final questions, comments from the dais? Hearing none, Ms. Iksley, please call the roll.

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

Yes. All right, now we'll move on to item number 10, which is City Council Ordinance number 2026-2381. First reading, Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Certainly, Mr. Mayor, council members, I have before you ordinance number 2026-2381, an ordinance of the City Council of the City of Lake City, Columbia County, Florida, amending Chapter 2, Article 7, Section 295, City of Lake City Code of Ordinances to provide additional detail to the legal descriptions defining the area of the City of Lake City Community Redevelopment Agency, making findings of fact and support thereof, providing for severability, providing for conflicts, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody signed up for item number 10 either, so we'll move straight to council questions, comments, or I'll entertain a motion to adopt city council ordinance number 2026-2381 on first reading.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve city council ordinance 2026-2381.

Second. Motion and second. Thank you both. Any final questions, comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, please call the roll.

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

Yes. All right. Now on to resolutions. The first resolution is a very exciting one. City Council Resolution Number 2026-072. It's a resolution approving certain agreement with Vortex on a splash pad. Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Certainly, Mr. Mayor, Council Members, I have before you Resolution No. 2026-072, a resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, approving that certain agreement between the City and Vortex USA, Inc., a Delaware corporation for splash pad components, equipment, and installation services at Young's Park, making certain findings of fact in support of the City approving said agreement, recognizing the authority of the Mayor to execute and bind the City to said agreement, directing the Mayor to execute and bind the City to said agreement, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody signed up for public comment on this, so we'll move straight into council questions, comments.

I'd like to move to approve resolution number 2026-072.

Motion and a second. Thank you both. Any final questions, comments? I'll say I can't wait to break ground and finish up.

Mr. Carter? I would like to say that me too.

It's going to be awesome. Great. All right. Anybody else? Ms. Hikes, please call the roll.

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

Mayor Walker. Yes. All right. Item number 12, city council resolution.

Oh, nope.

Sorry. folks we have already done 12 and 13 and 14 has been tabled so we are now on to item number 15 which is city council resolution number 2026-080 uh mr martin please read this by title as it pertains to the creation of the cra advisory

Certainly, Mr. Mayor, and after this particular resolution, if the mayor wouldn't mind, I had something pointed out to me that would cause us to maybe want to revisit item 13, resolution number 2026076.

Should we do that beforehand?

Go ahead and address it now? You can do it now or you can go ahead and take 80 and then come back.

Let's go ahead and address it now. That way we can get to 80 after. So let's move back to, sorry folks, item number 13, which we did approve city council resolution number 2026-076 on Chief Boozer's designation.

Yes, Mr. Mayor, it was pointed out to me in the break that the geography was a bit off, that the segment should be Northwest Alachua Avenue situated between West Duval Street and Northwest Veteran Street. There is no segment of Alachua Avenue situated between Duval and North Marion. Because they are perpendicular to each other. Okay. So the proper procedure would be, and we did this a couple of meetings ago, would be to entertain a motion to reconsider, vote on that, amend this, and then vote on it again.

I believe in that.

Now I remember, yes. All right. So I will now entertain a motion to reconsider this item.

Mr. Mayor, I'll make a motion to reconsider item 13, resolution 2026-076. Second.

We have a motion and a second to reconsider. Any questions, comments? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, like so? Great.

Now, yes, sir, Mr. Martin. I'm going to suggest the simplest amendment would be to amend the resolution to replace all references to North Marion Avenue with Northwest Veteran Street.

Okay. Okay.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to approve item 13, resolution 2026-076, with all references to North Marion Avenue replaced with North Marion Veteran Street. Otherwise, the rest remains unchanged.

Second. Motion and a second. Thank you both. Any questions, comments? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, like, sign?

Great.

Is that good? That would be good. All right. Motion has been fixed. Now we will move on to item number 15, City Council Resolution number 2026-080. Will you please read this one by title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. You have before you resolution number 2026-080, resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, creating a community redevelopment agency advisory committee, making certain findings of fact in support of the city, creating said advisory committee, directing the mayor to appoint the members of said advisory committee pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 7. Section 2-48, paragraph 1 of the City of Lake City Code of Ordinances as amended by City of Lake City Ordinance 2023-2254, directing the mayor to appoint the chairman of said advisory committee pursuant to Chapter 2, Article 7, Section 2-48, paragraph 1 of the City of Lake City Code of Ordinances as amended by City of Lake City Ordinance 2023-2254, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have any public comment on this, so we'll move straight to the council questions, comments, or entertain a motion to approve.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve Resolution 2026-080. Second.

Motion and second. Any further questions, comments? Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes, perfect. That concludes our items on the agenda, our numbered items. So we will now move into departmental administration and begin with comments by City Manager Rosenthal.

Thank you, Mayor. I have two short comments this evening. I want to bring to the Mayor and Board's attention an Officer Marcus Hardison that was shot on Easter Sunday two years ago and has returned to full duty last week.

Welcome back, Officer Hardison.

And then finally, I had the clerk pass this information out to each of you. Since October of 2024, the Director of Finance and the Assistant Director of Finance increased Lake City's rate of return on investments by nearly four times the rate from previous years. This results in an increase of approximately $1,500,000 per year across all funds, excluding pensions. In order to achieve these results, the director and staff conduct cash flow and forecasting on a regular basis to ensure there's enough cash for operating needs while maximizing our rates of return. They weren't doing that in the past. They're doing that now. The investment return success is all being done while following strict accounting principles and required investment procedures, as you'll see from our yearly review. The finance director and assistant began this process by attending various training sessions, special investment training, Florida Government Finance Office Association, and conference training. In addition, they meet with First Federal Bank on a regular basis. First Federal Bank has been a valuable partner throughout this process, as they have been for many years. The director prepares a monthly report for my review, which I'll be sending to the mayor and the city council on a regular basis so you can keep track of how much we're regaining in our investment income, and you all have a sample of that in front of you now. This report includes our actual interest earned compared to performance measures and general market conditions. I'd like to thank the finance director and the assistant director of finance for their dedication to this initiative, which has increased the city's rate of return while securing the city's available cash balances. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Rosenthal. That's all very good news. Well done finance. It's good stewardship of the taxpayers' funds. All right. That concludes Mr. Rosenthal's. Now we're on to you, Mr. Martin.

Nothing from the city attorney's office, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. On to you, Ms. Sykes.

Nothing from the city clerk's office.

Right. Thank you, Ms. Sykes. Now we will have comments by council members, beginning with Vice Mayor Young.

okay thank you um thank administration finance thank all of you just want to thank all the departments really um department heads um lake city is in a very good space and i'm proud to say that i'm a part of lake city i'm proud to say that i'm a part of this um council And I would like to say, and not to drag on it or anything, but I am moved in kind of a sour way about the Black Caucus trip. And don't even know that I would go, but if I decide to go, then I'm prepared as far as everything that needs to take place within the city. But let me make it very clear. in Councilwoman Harrison's voice. Let me make it very clear. For the last, I believe, eight years, I fly free of charge. I don't have to pay for flights. I can go anywhere, anywhere, and I don't have to pay for flights. My son is a flight attendant. So I don't lean on the city to go places. And I probably only have flown twice in all of that time. So I just want everybody to know Just want to lay it out plain. I do not lay on the city for joy trips. I don't have to. I can go anywhere I want to go. I do appreciate the opportunities for more education, more learning. It's very much necessary sitting on this council. come into meeting after meeting, you don't learn from meetings. You go out and you become educated. And that's the Florida Legal Cities, Black Caucus, and any other offerings of education. I think it's very important that we accept these offers with pride, with dignity. Go out and represent Lake City and come back and share what we have gained, what we have learned. And that's That's my intent. From now, as long as I sit this seat out, and I do appreciate it, and no harm, no, I just wanted to say, I just felt like I needed to say that. Thank you all so much, and I'll land this plane right now.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Young. Next is Councilman Jernigan.

Okay, I got a paragraph, Mayor, so y'all just bear with me, okay? The fire, the 250 history that was put on at the fairground That was an amazing event. We all got a chance to speak out there, and the fireworks, in my opinion, was a little bit better than it was in the past. So I just want to speak on that and give Terry and the crew that was out there. I think the fire department was out there, the police department, and I always give those individuals, and the sheriff's department too, those individuals their due. With that being said, I had a constituent talk to me about the vehicles that we drive, the four-door vehicles that we drive on the daily for our work crew. From my understanding, he said that if we change the vehicles to, instead of four-door, we go to two-door vehicles, we could save the city a lot more money. He said that the young man was talking about this. He said that you have four people in the vehicle, sometimes five, and it's only a couple people working. So if we cut that down to just two-door vehicles, it would be better. So I'm just sharing that information because it was shared. Mr. Rosenthal, y'all looking at it for me. I know Mr. Brown's not here. See if we can get that road paved. That's important to constituents over there. That road is long overdue to be paved. Now, it's not the worst of the worst, but it's been 40 years or so before that road was paved. And if you drive down it, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about. So I'm passing that information on to you as well. And the other thing was the impact fee. I think I talked to Mr. Rosenthal about that. The young lady was talking about the impact fees, how much it costs her to do a sprinkler or something to that effect. And I explained that to her. She sent me an email. I told Mr. Rosenthal about that. And I noticed today when I looked at my phone, Mr. Rosenthal had already responded to her. Now I can take that information back to her. Also, I want to talk a little bit about Circle K. How many people know this? It's interesting to know that before Mr. Carter was born, I was in Circle K, and that's what they had at Lake City Community College at that time, and I was one of the... One of the members of Circle K, and Circle K or Circle K makes sure that we do that, because they have a lot of things going on.

I had a couple quick things. Mr. Jernigan hit on it, but I'll tell you, it was an excellent event, the Fourth of July celebration, and I want to, and I think she gets it all the time here and there, but this was a uniquely interesting experience for me. at that event so obviously i got a new baby she's about eight months old this was the first time that she did not make it to the fireworks i think i got there too early but um But it was a great time. My mom, my dad, other family, my baby out there. It felt very safe. I mean, it was hot as the dickens, but other than that, it was a wonderful event. Saw great community spirit. And when I was leaving, me and my baby were walking through the field. We were parked out on the back side, and I'm coming from the far side of the field. I after five times I started counting and I had 11 people stop me before I made it to my truck and say, I just got to let you know, some version of Terry Phillips is a gym or Terry Phillips does an excellent job or she's been so helpful or, you know, just amazing how she organizes these things. Or we take part in the things they do downtown and then we've taken part in this and she's just constantly so helpful. and so I just want to extend as someone who gets to be a face for the city out there all the time putting these things together and stuff like that at 11 people just walking across the field stop me to say hey she does a great job so I can't let that go unnoticed I'm sad that she's not here tonight but but I just want to say thank you to miss Phillips she does an excellent job she makes everybody who takes part in our events feel welcome and and like they're well organized and With Kiwanis Club, we've been putting on events for years and stuff. Organizing things like that is not easy to make sure that everyone – listen, nobody's saying that about President Carter at the end of it. You know what I mean? I don't try to organize them because that's not my strong suit. But Terry just nails it, and a whole lot of people told me that Saturday. So I just wanted to point that out. Real quick, I don't think – I think it's possible that I was not clear enough earlier. But I had multiple constituents literally ask me about this. I've never had, in the two and a half years that I've been on the council, I've not had anyone ask me about council travel. No one said, hey, why are you going to that event or this event? So I've never had to answer the question. I had multiple people reach out to me in the last couple of days and ask me specifically about item four on the agenda tonight. So when I say... That I'd love to know what you guys learn when you come back. And again, I'm reemphasizing that I think that this should become a habit for us as a group. So when we go to the Florida League of Cities conference, I think we should come back and we should share a bit of what we learned, whether it be a part of our ethics things that we have to go to or whether it be the airport conference and some sort of new fuel thing that we're taking part in. Whatever it is, I think that there's a there's a. Through the conversations and my inability to adequately answer a couple of people's questions, I say, I don't know that we're necessarily transparent enough in this regard, so my suggestion is that we become a little more transparent, not about this event or this traveling thing, but just in general. We go about, and I'm sure that somewhere in this country, people take advantage of the opportunities to travel to a job like this. that affords us. So if we take the step to be transparent about what we're up to and what we're going to learn, I think that the constituents who are paying attention would appreciate that. And I think that, you know, yeah, I just think that they would appreciate knowing that we're actively learning about things specific and oriented to our community and putting in the time and the effort you know all of us have sat in four hour ethics seminars you know they're not exciting to talk about but absolutely they're necessary and there's a good reason we have to do that every year right so they should get to know a little bit of the boring stuff that we have to listen to and make sure that we nail it by the end of it you know what I mean that's all I'm saying so not just this event by any means and I don't mean to single it out it just happens to be the event that I was asked about the first time I was asked about it and I couldn't adequately answer the question That's all that I'm saying. And then my last thing, well, actually, one quick thing. Super glad to hear Officer Hardison's back in action. That's awesome. Obviously, we all, I don't even know what it would be like to get shot. So I have to go through all the stuff you had to go through to get them wings working again. Very exciting. Very exciting. I do know what it's like to be tased. Not great. Anyway, and then my last thing. Sugar Mill Apartments is about a mile from where I live. It's in my district. It's a nice big apartment complex. By and large, I've never noticed any significant issues at Sugar Mill. I'm sure there's probably issues somewhere, but there's issues across the street from my house every once in a while. That's a good example of an apartment complex that, from my experience, has not had any major issues going on there. I'm delighted that they're actively building an expansion to Sugar Mill right now. I would say significantly larger than what Mr. Winsberg was putting there today, and I can't wait to meet all my new constituents. So that being said, they are putting some new apartments over there in my district, and District 13 is, I think they're all right with it.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. Before we go to Ms. Harris, there's one other thing that I want to say, if I may. Sure. And that is I had an opportunity to attend the hero event up at the church. And they recognized a deputy that had 40 years of service there. Pete Spurlock. So I thought that was good. And that organization wants to come in and speak to the councils and explain to us exactly what they do and what they're about. But they wanna point out people like Ms. Terry Phillips, just like you just said, she's a hero in our community. So if we can get those people to come in or get Terry Phillips to go to them, they can recognize her. TB20 was there. I mean, it was a good showing. So it would be good to recognize somebody like Terry Phillips, our hero in our community. So just keep that in mind. And they will be coming out to speak to you. And I think they're going to speak to you too, Mr. Rosenthal. So from my understanding, that's what's going to happen. So just keep that in mind, okay?

Thank you for that, Mr. Jernigan. Councilwoman Harris?

Yes, there's a couple of things I have. The first thing I would like to talk about, I believe, I want to ask Don about a while back I spoke with you about a mural that was supposed to be done. Where are we at in that?

I asked, I signed it to somebody else. I have to get an update from them and get back to you.

Okay. Please get back with me on that. We'll do. I want to know. I rode to White Springs, and on the side of their library, they have a beautiful mural there.

We got a couple spots in town that would be nice for a nice meal. One looks right out of my window.

Okay, and the second thing I would like to ask the council and the mayor, the Unity Love Fest will be August the 1st, and it will be hot that day. So one of the things that Mr. Rosenthal reminded me to ask you guys was about us using the tent, one of the big city tents, so the people can eat up under there or what have you. Okay.

I think we're in consensus of that. Yes, ma'am, Ms. Young.

Oh, I wasn't going to say anything about that. You finished, Ms. Harris. No. You finished.

Well, go ahead. We're all in consensus that that tent should be used. Yeah, I believe so. Mr. Jernigan? Yes. Okay.

Okay, the next thing. I would like to applaud Terry Phillips. That was awesome. I loved being out there. The atmosphere was good. Actually, the entire day of July the 4th was good. It was a young man that lost his life. And a lot of the younger adults gathered around his family's houses. And I don't think no incident happened. And they had, on July the 4th, they had, over there where I live, we have our own 4th of July event. baby they they lighten up we lighten up to 12 o'clock so I would like to make a shout out to those streets because that Sunday morning when I got up I actually saw people out there sweeping up debris picking up trash and all that so I'm going to do that shout out right now Dixie Street Georgia Street Florida Street Alma Street Alabama Terrace Wilson Street Long Street and Jefferson Street they did that thing everybody was safe it was a good night I'm happy about that all right the next thing we're talking about the splash pad and I would like to know from the council because I I don't want it to be called the Young's Park splash pad I personally would like to name that Splash pad. What do you guys think? I want to name the splash pad.

Name it after James Carter.

I think if we put a discussion item on the future agenda to figure out how we want to, but honoring someone is always a nice thing.

Or, yeah, honoring someone. I think a couple different things. We could also do a contest for children to name the splash pad.

That's cool. Also, I just realized this, honestly. I've been playing at Young's Park since I was a baby. I don't know who Young is.

I tried to research it.

We might be able to learn it and make a plaque about it. At some point, someone thought Young was worth honoring, so maybe if we could figure that out and make a plaque about it, too. Do you know? Yeah. Clay has a funny face.

The vice mayor says it's her.

I was surprised, but not so much, knowing the deep history of the city. It goes way back to the earliest days of the city and was actually named when that part of the city was actually platted in the early 1900s. I think it stems from the name of the land company that...

Well, that's not terribly exciting, is it?

No, I thought he was going to say something. Now, I can say this. Be Faithful told me why Memorial Stadium was called Memorial Stadium. I thought that was fascinating. You want to share that with everybody? Yeah, I think we should know this because it was really good.

Come on, sweetheart. Well, hello there. Memorial Stadium received its name because it was Lake City's gift to the veterans returning from the World War II. So that's why it was named that. It was to welcome our veterans back to Lake City. That's wonderful. And awesome, awesome.

Thank you, Ms. Coker. You didn't share it with us, so...

But, um...

Next thing, so we're going to set up something so the smash pad can be named separately to Young's Park. Am I clear? Sure. We're clear on that?

I think that's a good idea. We'll have a discussion where we come to a finality on how to do that, and we'll put that on an August agenda. Sound good?

Naming in general, maybe Young's, if that's the name of the company that planted it.

maybe we just maybe there's a new name it's got to be something catchy it's got to be something okay other thing um i asked that two streets be renamed and i is there an update on that somebody can give me an update on it i know we were waiting for something to um come up i think robin could give me an update on that okay

So as we've discussed in the past, renaming the streets is a long process, about a two-year process. So what we're doing right now is Steve and his crew, Public Works, has made honorary signs that we can put up above the sign temporarily. until it's actually officially renamed to Betty L. Terrace, or I think I forget what the actual acronym is behind it, and then the foreman. Once that gets renamed actually in the system, it's got to go through the state, be approved by the state. Once the state approves it, then it'll come back to us and it'll actually be renamed. And in the meantime, we're going to put the honorary signs up. They are made, and that's one thing I needed to get with you. I was trying to get with Steve today. to see what kind of time frame he needs for his guys to be able to coordinate that, but didn't realize he wasn't here today. But we do have those signs are made.

Sounds good. So Robert, Steve's out of town. We'll be back next week.

Yeah, he's signing somewhere.

We'll do that. We'll get it planned out and end it with you. Thank you.

Thank you. Last thing, I spoke with Mr. Glenn Hunter a while back, and we had a discussion about the dog park. Has anything else come up about that or where we're going with that?

I've actually spoken with him on several occasions about the dog park. And if you talked to him, you know the area he's talking about. And we haven't went any farther than that because I didn't know the will of the board and the mayor. So once we're closer, I'll bring it back in front of the mayor and board and see what the direction is. Okay.

Okay.

I'll admit to something on that. It has come up in a gender prep, the dog park. And my insistence was that we push the children's park first. And once we get that settled into bed, then we worry about the dogs. Does that make sense?

Yes. And when we get the dog park, I would like to name that as well. I don't want to just be saying dog park.

Bark, bark. All right.

Oh, and 20, 30 vote for Noah Walker for the governor of the great state of Florida.

I appreciate that, Ms. Harris. Are you running for governor?

I'm not running for governor. I'm not running for governor. No, don't say it, Mayor. Before you go. Okay. Ms. Terry is sick. I spoke with her today. She's not feeling well, so I kind of begged her not to come because there's a lot of sickness going around. And I've just gotten over bronchitis, and I don't want nothing else, and I feel the same for you all. And she deserves the rest from such a beautiful weekend. Mayor, what I'd like to say and inform the council is concerning the benches, I actually – spoke to some of the business owners just to get their, how do they feel about the benches? Every one of them that I spoke with said, leave the benches alone. They serve more positive people. They're negative. And some of them, one thing that they all said is the homeless are not the only ones who utilize those benches. Some folk are waiting on their spouse or whatever, and you notice they sit on those benches. Of course, when there's events downtown and places, they use those benches. So they ask that the benches not be removed.

We did some extensive research on the minutes in that discussion from a few years ago, and that'll be part of our panhandling and homeless workshop. Okay. So we will have that discussion.

Okay, great. One other thing. Lake City Floors, is that your district? Okay, I direct it to you that that's your district.

It's actually, it's right on South Main here, so I believe it's right by Wendy's and Taco Bell. No, Tammy's north of 90.

Well, I'll take it.

I mean, if it's where it used to, if it's where I think it is, it's definitely where the video video is used to be. I got a big district map on the wall.

Okay. So it's right there by Wendy's. Right here.

Yep. Finish your thought.

Let me finish. Okay. So there are new owners. And the new owners are Ellsworth McGuire and his wife, his family. They own that now. And they will have a reopening, a ribbon cutting, and invites us to come. And that's actually going to take place on the 9th. And I believe it's at 430. At 430. Okay. And they invite us all. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you, Ms. Young. And I think it would be wise for us to know whose area that is. For sure.

Yeah.

All right.

Are you concluded?

Let me see.

Yes. All right. Kudos also on Independence Day. The Independence Day celebration, the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence was a huge success. There were 7,200 people clocked in roughly at the fairgrounds. So you know there had to have been 7,200. Wow. So if there was that many within that tiny little space, there had to have been 20 to 25,000 people along 90 and along Brantford Highway. Magnificent event, well executed, beautifully done. Thank you for keeping us safe. Lake City Police Department, Sheriff's Department, thank you for the nice display with the flag to kick us off, Chief Waringer. And for all of that to be coordinated was fantastic. Also, to keep it as clean as it was, was a feat in itself. So Public Works and the Public Works crews that were constantly dogging those trash cans, they were doing a great job. So kudos to everybody involved from the city, the county. Terry Phillips and Kimmy Roberts executed that very well done. Kimmy and Terry have been tenacious partners on that. Yes, sir, Mr. Rosenthal. I'll probably mention Laney, too. Yes, Laney as well. Yeah, Laney as well. and everybody involved great job wonderful job we had an issue tonight with development and and we spoke and thankfully the developer wants to meet with the constituents around that area I'd like to see how we can make that requirement on large-scale development in Lake City Yes, sir. Mr. Come on up. I think that it would be beneficial for both the developers and the constituents for if that was a requirement before it comes to us. They need to have those conversations and express those things.

Yeah. So one of the things that one of the tax members planning on doing is exactly that is adding language in the LDR that requires any kind of rezoning and comp plan amendment that they have a town hall meeting with the neighboring community to get some thought because sometimes when they go into that meeting, they may get a different vision than what they were planning and can go a different way and actually build something that the community wants and kind of work together on that. So it's definitely something we're planning.

Mr. Carter had a question, and I believe you have a question, Mr. Jernigan, Mr. Carter, and then Ms. Young. We all want to talk about it. Carter, I saw Mr. Carter, saw Mr. Jernigan, saw Ms. Young. We'll go in that order. Okay.

So I've been saying this a bunch lately. Like I said earlier, there's several big projects that were in the county in the last few years that have been squashed due to some of the same fears. And I think that... again, it's a really fine line. Like for instance, we can ask them that they have to do that first. Right. Uh, in some fashion or another, but at the end of the day, they have the right to come and ask. Correct. And whatever, that kind of stuff. But I do think that some of the projects that have been proposed and have been killed, uh, had a ton of potential and a handful of small changes or promises by the developers could have gotten a ton of buy-in right there there's this particular one i'm thinking of that i think that had they had they been a little bit more like yeah, we can help work with, build out traffic for, maybe expand a lane, whatever the stuff is, that there are things that could have been that won't now because of that. So I agree with Mayor Walker, and I'm glad that we're looking into some way of encouraging that. The only thing, when you say requiring that they have a town hall, is there... Are we requiring that they pay for a meeting space? There's some nuanced questions that I would have about how we go about requiring that sort of stuff.

I think if we're going to require it, we could probably offer council chambers for them to do something right here. Yeah, that's what I was saying.

Something like that.

Yeah, perfect. Yeah, that's what you said in the neighborhood. So for the neighborhood, because, yeah, that would be excellent. We could use this public space for that sort of thing.

And we can do it if they have a space in the neighborhood because the communities I've researched in the past typically hold it in that area or within a certain distance of the area so that the residents of that area can go and actually speak on it. Sometimes when you make it far away, some people may not be able to get there. And depending on the time of day. Sometimes that makes it different too. The other thing we would need to do is how are we going to vet that they actually had the meeting and what the outcome of the meeting was. So that's one other area that I've researched in the past too is do we have them present some kind of minutes to us or something like that.

Right, or even if there's some sort of committee or moderation that we can do and that sort of thing. Because what you don't want is to get a room full of people just yelling at a developer. Exactly. You could easily devolve into. So I think it's a great idea, but we definitely want to we want to make sure that it's got some sort of rails.

Correct. Mr. Jernigan, you had a question?

No, that's okay, go ahead.

Ms. Young?

What I will ask is, I think that's a great idea. What I will ask is that there be advertisement other than social media. You can have social media, but social media does not reach everybody. A lot of people get laid out because they're not a part of social media. So we need to find other means of getting the information out, dates and times of the events and all. I'm very serious about that.

Thank you. No problem.

And traffic study. Traffic study is not to kill the project.

No.

Traffic study really gives us ways to make it work.

Yes. Yeah, sometimes they realize that, you know, when they get into a traffic study, they can realize that, you know, they're going to have to put a turn lane in or something like that. That should be part of their feasibility study anyways to understand what they need to do to make this project feasible. And, you know, we're going, you know, something with like the mobility fee and fund, that can help with some of that too. Thank you, Mr. Robert. All right. Thank you.

Looking for good symbiotic growth in Lake City. Good growth. Thank you, Robert. You're welcome. Up next, well, for me, I'm going down my list. The playground out next to First Federal is a city playground, and it's in Tatters as well. So we need to make sure that we're thinking about all these playgrounds and upkeep whenever it comes to budget. That's all I have to say tonight. Add on?

I did a question about that playground, and there was something interesting about it. It is city, but what?

I think it was all donated. I think all the items were donated to build that and the space was donated to the city as well. But it's falling apart.

It is falling apart.

We're already working on something with that.

Perfect. That being said, that's all I have tonight.

Don't forget about Salome Jerry. It's coming up. It's coming up. Y'all keep your eyes open when you pass by. Kind of cut you out of there to see what's different.

I've been looking. Every time I go to the corner, I look for it.

And don't go out there thinking about the swim because you see the blue mulch.

Don't swim in the mulch. All right, everybody, have a good night.

Thank you very much.