City Council - Regular Meeting

Welcome everyone to the City Council regular session meeting of August 3, 2026. If you will please stand for the pledge and invocation.

Please bow your heads.

Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for another beautiful day in the city of Lake City. Lord, please help this council make decisions that are good for both our current and future residents. In your name I pray, Lord. Amen. All right. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Jernigan? Present. Council Member Harris? Present. Council Member Young? Here. Council Member Carter? Present. 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. Since 1968, the City Code has prohibited any person from making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or becoming boisterous while addressing the City Council. Yelling or making audible comments from the audience constitutes boisterous conduct. Such conduct will not be tolerated. There's only one approved manner of addressing the city council, and that's to be recognized and then to speak from the podium. Failure to abide by the rules of decorum will result in the removal from the meeting. Quick reminder on the mics. I've been asked to share not to move these too much. It seems to disrupt the audio every time that we do, so make sure that we speak into them directionally and minimally touch. Okay, Phil? All right. All right, we'll move on to approval of the agenda. So approval, Mayor. Second. Motion and a second. Thank you both. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, like sign? All right. Agenda is approved. We will now move into our proclamations, awards, and recognitions. We have a couple of very special... Awards to give out tonight for our new gatekeepers. And these gatekeepers are going to be recognized tonight because they went to a national championship. They won state championships, but they went to a national championship representing in SkillsUSA. chs and columbia county so we're going to recognize you guys now we're going to read the letter for all of you guys and then we'll have each team come down front accept your award and then we'll get everybody up for a photo together sound good all right The Gatekeeper Commendation Award is as follows. On behalf of the citizens of Lake City, it is my great honor to recognize these folks tonight as a recipient of the Gatekeeper Award. The Gatekeeper Award is bestowed upon individuals who exemplify outstanding citizenship and who bring honor pride integrity and excellence to our community through service leadership achievement perseverance and good works as the proud gateway to florida lake city is represented each day by the people who live work serve and lead within it those recognized by this award embody the spirit values and character that make our city a source of pride for generations past present and future Recipients of this recognition distinguish themselves through actions that strengthen our community, inspire others, and positively reflect the heart of Lake City. Whether through volunteerism, professional excellence, mentorship, advocacy, acts of compassion, civic leadership, or personal triumph, Gatekeepers serve as ambassadors of the values that define our city. The City of Lake City proudly acknowledges the lasting impact made by individuals such as these individuals tonight, whose dedication and example uphold the honor and reputation of our community as the gateway to Florida. I will begin tonight by recognizing Miss Ruby Chandler. And Miss Ruby. This Ruby and these folks are recognized for attending the 2026 SkillsUSA National Championship as well as she is a state championship welding in sculpture.

Our next recipient tonight is Mr. Mason Doosan.

Jason won this award for 2026 SkillsUSA State Champion in Individual Welding.

Congratulations.

And last but not least for the welding team is their coach, Mr. Daryl Thomas, who had a gold medalist and title winner of the 2026 Florida State Champions in the commercial of SkillsUSA Welding. Sorry about that. Wait, coach. let's bring the other two willers come on up to photo with mr thomas if you guys want to come me the next one that's good that's good So the drone team finalists couldn't make it tonight, but we do want to recognize that both Rylan Moses and Kevin Windham were recipients as well as state champions at the SkillsUSA for commercial drone UAS drone category and gold medalists as well. And their coach, George Jones, is here tonight that we will recognize as well. So come on up. Get everybody from the SkillsUSA that went up there. We'll get one more with the whole council. Come on down.

And then these are for the other students. Right here.

Right here. Is there anything in front of you?

Make sure you speak into the microphone for the people at home, too. Oh, okay.

Okay, first I'd like to say thank you, because You know, usually CTE programs like ours, we don't really get recognized. I mean, it don't matter what you do, unless you play football or baseball. Sometimes you don't really get noticed. But this really did. And they had the fire department line the road for us all the way out. And, you know, that's something these kids will remember for the rest of their life. It was pretty cool. And they went there, and our first time going, We just started skills a year ago, so to win state already was kind of phenomenal. We're proud of our kids, and we hope to do better even next year because now we kind of know what to expect moving forward at the national level because it was way more than we thought. I mean, it was really, really tough. So we're looking forward to the future, and these kids blazed a trail for the next group, and we hope that we can continue to make Lake City proud.

Thank you, gentlemen. These two gentlemen are giving kids life skills that they can immediately make money with right out of high school, and I think that's really valuable and very commendable. So thank you both for mentoring those kids to that high level. All right. We're now going to move on to public participation. We have several folks signed up, and we will begin with Mr. Sylvester Warren.

Sylvester Warren. My address is the black community. As it relates to public comments, I would like to know what happened to the agreement to fund the skateboard park. A promise was made to fund it, and then the board reneged and said that they would try for a grant, and if the grant was unsuccessful, then they would fund it. No discussion about that has happened. I find that to breach the lack of public trust between taxpayers and those that sit on the dices and want people to elect them, and it lacks accountability. Madam Clerk, if you would, could you get me the records of that vote? I think it was back when Mayor Witt and Todd Sampson, Ricky Jernigan, Jake Hill, and Shavella Young was on the council. Also, Madam Clerk, if you would, I would also like the public records request of the motion and the vote that was made to never fund Animatics Park by Ricky Jernigan, Jake Hill, Chevalier Young, Mayor Witt, and Todd Sampson. Lastly, Madam Clerk, outstanding. I've put my money up front. It's PR 2026. and it is still outstanding. The last thing I would want to think is that you're playing with my money and not giving me what I paid for. I'm not saying that's the case, but I don't want that to be the perception. I think the courts say a reasonable amount of time. I don't know what the holdup is. I got a text message, an email that said that I was going to get it the next day. That was back on July the 7th. I hate someone in my city because it really costs the taxpayers, which is me. But again, if I can't get this in a reasonable amount of time as I've request for it and have paid for it because I was told when you pay for things that Typically the work has already been laid out and done and then when you pay the deposit you're just really waiting for The information to come in and then you pay the difference but There's just been too many ill things that have taken place between me and this diocese and so I want to know, I guess, maybe from you, Madam Clerk, if not today, maybe by email when I can expect it. Or if not, then we just move forward with taking it to court. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Warren. Up next, we have Jerry Presley.

Thank you, Mayor Walker, members of the council. My name is Jerry Presley. You all know me. I am the president of U.S. Operations for a company called Creative Outdoor. And I'm coming to talk to you about the bus bench program. I know that at your July 20th meeting, you guys made the decision to terminate the existing contract and stop the RFP award that was granted to us. by participating in the RFP that the city issued for the continued placement of benches in the community. Now, this program began back in 2001-2002 under our subsidiary, Metropolitan Systems, as a joint venture between initially the JCs, but then it became a joint venture with the Kiwanis Club as a community service project. The current contract was executed between the parties back in 2014 and was set to expire in February of this year. That contract was extended for a six month period to give this council and the city the opportunity to issue an RFP, which was done I believe in February, early March, and then that process was completed and our firm was selected as the firm that was chosen during that process. When we were informed about the item being put on the agenda for the July 20th meeting, we were only told that it was being put on there as an award. that it was being presented to the council for final approval. We were not given any sort of information that the council was considering not awarding it, canceling the award, or even canceling the existing contract. If that had been the case, we certainly would have made arrangements to be here. But I'm coming to address a number of issues that came up during that meeting that I think is important for us to address with you. First and foremost, we want to make sure that you understand that COA, we have been a proud partner of this program since we acquired Metropolitan Systems in 2019. When we acquired this contract, and the company, we made a diligent effort to try to modernize the infrastructure. There were some really old ugly concrete and wood units that were out there. They look bad in the community. And we wanted to make Lake City a flagship for our communities that are under 30,000 population. And that's exactly what we did. Your community has been recognized by just hundreds of communities all over the country that are under population 30,000. and even some that are over 30,000 of what can be done for smaller communities and how you can create a walkable, sustainable community that encourages people to use the public infrastructure that's built for them. We spend millions of dollars building sidewalks and trail systems, and we don't give people a comfortable place to rest. But you guys made that commitment to your community, and I encourage you not to terminate the program altogether. We do have a six-month extension. Per the terms of the contract, use that six months to do your diligent research. But go forward and make the right decisions for your community.

If you have information that you want to present to the council, make sure that it gets to the end of the dais. But thank you very much.

Thank you.

All right. That's all we had signed up for public participation, open public comment. So we will now move on to approval of the consent agenda.

Second. Second.

Motion to approve by Mr. Jernigan, second by Mr. Carter. Before we move on any further, we do have public comment on a consent item. So, Mr. Warren, on item number four.

Am I going to be able to, if I talk longer than three minutes, I'm going to get longer than three minutes?

Stop you at three minutes.

But you didn't stop him at three minutes. We now recognize him. Okay. So, mark that, Clay. I want to have you, Mel, since, you know, you think you're so bright. to explain to the community and myself the $50,000 that the Lowe's program is going to give, what would that money be allocated for and why was the request made and what was made in request of and for. So for those of us that may not be here, that may be watching, that Don't come to the meetings. A bright boy like yourself may be able to explain it to us, if you don't mind.

We're still within your three minutes, so I'll do it after your three minutes, unless you're finished.

Nah.

I'm going to just let my two minutes run down. That way I can have something to compare what you did not allow me to do that you allowed the other speaker to do. Wouldn't that be fair, Clay?

I'm sorry, could you say that?

Wouldn't that be fair that he's not going to allow me to go over three minutes, but he allowed the other speaker to do so? Would that be fair?

He didn't allow the other speaker to go past three minutes.

He didn't?

He did not.

He didn't tell him to stop and escort him, did he? Okay. I'm glad you got that on record as well and you testified to that. This is going to be lovely. Good evidence.

While you're not speaking, I'll speak to it.

But if you start speaking, I'll give it back to you. No, no, no. You said you were not going to interfere with my time. You said you were going to wait until I finish unless you lie. Which one is it? You truth or you lie?

I'll use the dead space if it's there.

No, I'm saying you truth or lie. You just promised me that you were going to wait until my minutes was up, then you were going to say it. That's the problem, y'all lack transparency, lack of trust, no accountability. This is why. But I guess it's what court systems are made for to make you guys understand that people have civil rights and to violate them is costly. At least violating my civil rights. All right, take it away, boy.

Thank you, Mr. Warren. That closes public comment. We had a motion, a second. Ms. Sykes, will you please, do we have any other questions, comments on the dais? Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. To answer that question, it's for small renovations provided by the Lowe's Corporation within our fire department that they themselves will do some of the work. So that's what that grant is for. It's a free $50,000 for our fire department. Up next, we have item number five. So we're moving on to old business, open public hearing. Mr. Martin, will you please take that away?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Members of the Council, we have before you on second and final reading, Ordinance Number 2026-2378, 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 2607S by Elizabeth Steele, the property owner of 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 county commercial to city commercial of certain lands within the corporate limits of the City of Lake City, Florida, making findings of fact and support thereof, providing severability, repealing all ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. Thompson.

Yes, we'd like to adopt the presentation from the first reading and move it into record. I know the applicant is here. They don't have a presentation, but they are here for questions.

Do we have any questions? We have no public comment on this item, so we'll move straight to Dyess. Questions, comments? Do we have any questions or comments, or would anybody like to make a motion to adopt City Council Ordinance No. 2026-2378 on final reading?

Mr. Mayor, move to adopt Ordinance 2026-2378.

Second. Second. Thank you both. Do we have any further questions or comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Mayor Walker. Yes. All right. Now we'll move on to item number six, which is city council ordinance number 2026-2379. Mr. Martin, I'll turn this one back over to you.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, this ordinance, ordinance 2026-2379 on final reading is a quasi-judicial matter. It's an ordinance amending the official zoning atlas pursuant to application Z2605S submitted by Elizabeth Steeley, the property owner. This is the companion rezoning to the conference plan amendment you just adopted. We'll follow the usual procedure of presentations from the city, the applicant, followed by public comment if there is any, and then cross-examination, any additional response, questions from the council, final arguments if there is any, I'll advise council as to law and findings, and the council can deliberate and vote. The standard that the city council should use is whether the evidence on the record is competent, substantial evidence to support uh the conclusion of the council at this time i'll do an inquiry as to ex parte communications on this matter ex parte communications are communications that occurred outside of the formal hearing tonight uh starting at the end of the dice with miss young have you had any expert communications on this matter i have not uh mr carter uh as stated last meeting i watched the proceedings uh watched the meetings for the plan zoning board of this that do not affect my ability to be objective Okay, thank you. Mr. Jernigan? No. Ms. Harris? No.

And Mr. Mayer? Spoke to the owners tonight very informally, but no, that will not have an effect on my decision. All right, thank you.

Mr. Thomason, if you could raise your right hand, take an oath, and stand up. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? All right, thank you. Council members, you have before you proposed ordinance 2026-2379, an ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida, amending the official zoning atlas of the City of Lake City land development regulations as amended relating to the rezoning of less than 10 acres of land pursuant to an application Z2605S by Elizabeth Steele, the property owner of said acreage, providing for rezoning from county commercial intensive to city commercial intensive of certain lands within the corporate limits of the City of Lake City, Florida, providing severability, repealing all ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Mr. Thomason?

Yes, we again want to adopt the presentation from the first reading, move it into the record, and the applicant is here if you have any questions.

Thank you, and I confirm with Ms. Steeley she did not have any comments tonight, just here to answer questions. Is that still the case, Ms. Steeley? Okay, thank you. I don't have any record of any party interveners. Is there any public comment on this particular item, Mayor?

No, sir.

All right, thank you. Parties are waiving cross-examination, and are there any questions from the council for any of the participants? Mr. Mayor?

No, sir.

Okay, thank you. The parties are waiving final closing comments. Okay. At this time, the decision of the council should be based only on evidence provided by sworn witnesses. In addition, the council shall take into consideration the recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Board and those matters listed in section 15.2.2 of the city's land development regulations. At this time, the council may discuss the ordinance and following an appropriate motion, vote on this ordinance on second reading. Is it read by Todd?

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Do we have any questions, comments, or would anybody like to adopt City Council Ordinance No. 2026-2379 on final reading?

Mr. Mayor, move to adopt Ordinance 2026-2379.

Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further questions or comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes.

right now we'll move on to item number seven city council ordinance number 2026-2382 uh mr martin will you please read this ordinance by title thank you mr mayor council members this ordinance is also before you on uh second and final reading or december 2026 2382 an ordinance of the city of lake city florida relating to the criminal background screening of certain public service providers, municipal employees, vendors, contractors, contractor employees, and appointees, including volunteers, amending Chapter 70, Article 1, Section 70-1 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Lake City, Florida, providing for criminal background screening of such individuals, making findings of fact and support thereof, repealing all ordinances in conflict herewith, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We'll open public comment on this now. We do have somebody signed up to speak on this ordinance dealing with state standard background checks to be implemented in the city, and that's you, Mr. Warren.

Yes, as it relates to Ordinance 2026-2382 on final read, I have no problem with background checks across the board on all levels. It's just mighty funny that all of a sudden we're just not getting to this point, which is ridiculous. This is something that should have been happening across the board a long time ago. And then it brings to mind of a conversation as the folks on the diocese are applying background checks, where is the item on the agenda to consider filling some of the vacant position with those who have backgrounds? So that's something that the public would love to see on the agenda that you're giving people a second chance at employment. Because I've seen the city work prisoners and then those only prisoners come back. And once they get out of jail or prison, they can't get a job with the city. But y'all parade them all around town and work them for free. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Warren. That's the only person we had signed up for public comment on city council ordinance number 2026-2382. So we'll move straight to the dais questions, comments.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve ordinance 2026-2382. Second.

Motion and second. Thank you both. Do we have any further questions or comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. All right, we will move to item number eight, which is city council ordinance number 2026-2383. Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. This ordinance is before you on first reading. Ordinance number 2026-2383, an ordinance of the city of Lake City, Florida, pursuant to petition number ANX-2605, submitted by... Ajay U. Matre, Anjali U. Matre, Shilpa U. Matre, Umesh M. Matre, Anita Matre, Mahalchik, and the Mahatre Aerobical Family Trust, dated December 27, 1990, relating to voluntary annexation, annexing certain real property located in Columbia County, Florida, which is reasonably compact, into the boundaries of the city of Lake City, Florida, making certain findings of fact and support thereof, providing several ability, repealing ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Mr. Thomason.

Thank you, Mayor. This is Ordinance 2026-2383. Clicker's not working. Applicant has requested annex parcel 08895-000 into the city. It's located at the corner of Highway 47 and County Road 242. Here it is on the map. This is all part of the ISBA. Staff has confirmed it does not create an enclave, pocket, or finger. It is in the joint planning area. Staff's recommendation is to approve ordinance 2026-2383. I believe the applicant has representatives here if they have any questions or if they have a presentation. I'm not sure.

Thank you, Mr. Thomason. All right. We don't have anybody signed up for public comment on this, so we'll move straight to council questions, comments. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Thomason or the applicant?

Mr. Mayor, move to approve City Council Ordinance 2026-2383.

Second.

Welcome to the city.

We have a motion and a second. Do we have any further questions, comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. All right, now we'll move on to item number nine in our resolution, city council resolution number 2026-084 on the fire assessment. Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Mr. Mayor, council members, I have before you resolution number 2026-084, a resolution of the city council of the city of Lake City, Florida, constituting the fiscal year 2026-27 preliminary fire assessment resolution. providing authority, providing purpose and definitions relating to the provision of fire protection services, facilities, and programs in the City of Lake City, Florida, confirming previous resolutions as amended, reimposing fire protection assessments, and establishing fire protection not to exceed assessment rates, directing the preparation of the preliminary assessment role, authorizing a public hearing, and directing the provision of notice thereof, providing for application of assessment proceeds, providing for conflicts, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We do have public comment on this item, so Mr. Warren.

Personally, I'm tired of hearing everything about the fire department. Between them and the police department, they take up the most budget. They went from taking the money that was supposed to be a city hall to building the fire department to a 100-foot truck ladder to $200,000 worth of furniture. I don't have anything personally against them. I'm just talking about money being allocated fairly across the board and places that it needs to be. And there's places that there's money that have not been allocated where it needs to be. And I just don't find that to be fair as a taxpayer. And let me go on directly and say this. If the fire department, needs anything and we're city taxpayers and we are double tax, you guys are so smart. Well, not you, Noah, because you've messed up every board you sat on, but Carter, you seem to have a little bit more reason and logic about yourself. Why y'all hadn't sat down or sent Rosenstaff over there to work out a deal to consolidate some of these services so that we're having a reduction in fees and that we all know inflation is up still. We see that the new chairman, the Fed chairman has really wanted to raise interest rate, but they're frozen. A big fight down in DC about that. And so, property taxes is gonna be on the ballot. Mortatorium against potential data centers. Come on. I mean, how much more do we need to talk about before we decide to make some strategic, smart, progressive decisions that would benefit everyday people down the road instead of maybe your buddies and nepotism and the good old boys and things of that nature? It's just food for thought. And playing with the concept and playing with the ideal of doing something like consolidating doesn't mean that we're consolidating the city into the county like Jacksonville did, but there are duplication of services that may need to be looked at that a small elected board, in my opinion, will begin to look at before we start having probably these many recessions that's probably gonna happen. If you're watching GDP and you're watching all of the other economic tickets, which maybe you do, Mr. Carter, I can't speak for nobody else. They probably watch soap operas. I'm talking about the black council members. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Warren. All right. That closes public comment for item number nine. So we'll move straight to council questions, comments at the dais.

Just a comment. You know, we advertised a rollback rate this year on the taxes. We did a significant fire assessment increase last year. I know we're being asked to advertise the highest rate for the sake of figuring things out. I have no particular interest or intention of voting to increase it this year. What do the rest of you guys think? This is not about advertising the rate?

No.

I misunderstood. My conversation with Mr. Rosenthal before the meeting led me to believe that we were voting to advertise a specific rate.

Yes, sir, Mr. Martin. Mr. Mayor, I see the finance director over there. She may be able to clarify the substance of the resolution.

So this is for the advertisement on the trim notice, so we have to get this to the tax collector tomorrow. But we are advertising the same rate. We did not do a study, so the rate will stay the same this year.

Okay. Mr. Mayor, move to approve Resolution 2026-084. We have a motion.

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

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

Yes. All right. On to other items. We have item number 10 for discussion, a criteria naming for the splash pad at Young's Park. We do have a public comment on this. I'll go ahead and open it up to Mr. Warren.

As it relates to the criteria of

I don't know. Have we even got to a proposition yet?

We haven't, no.

I think maybe not get to a proposition. You want to wait to get to a proposition?

All right, we'll come back to council questions, comments. I put this, or I asked for this to be put on the agenda to talk about naming of the splash pad. Specifically, I made a comment at the end of the last meeting that I would like to see the splash pad sponsored on an annual basis where we could take that money and roll it into a youth engagement fund or something along those lines. And that's what I wanted to discuss tonight. What do you guys think?

So you're you're suggesting that we have a like a new sponsor or at least even if it's the same sponsor, a sponsor each year that donates a certain amount of money to a fund to put towards youth programs? Yeah. But this says the naming of Splash Pad. So that'd be two separate things. Mr. Mayor, are you suggesting we determine a name for the place and then also have a annual sponsorship?

I just think that like, so let me, let me make an example. Uh, company a decides to sponsor the splash pad. It would be company a splash pad at Young's park that year.

So the idea is that it would maybe be changing each year. Like it's Chick-fil-A splash pad this year and Zaxby's next. Maybe I just want chicken.

I would offer tiered sponsorship so that it would be like one year or three year or five year, depending on if they wanted to pay to maintain it.

It's an interesting idea.

Mr. Jernigan, you had a question before.

Yes. I was basically on the same thing. It was two separate things. And so you clarified that. So I kind of like the idea. I would like to maybe the Kiwanis Club sponsor it one year, five years, and then the next one goes to Chick-fil-A or the next one goes to... Even after a judge or a lawyer, whoever wants to sponsor it, I just want to make sure that we own a term from three to five years, not every year. That would make, I don't know if that would make good sense to do it every year, change the name and sponsorship, you know. Every three to five years would be perfect.

Thank you, Mr. Jernigan. Ms. Young?

Yes, I believe we should just set a name, and that's the name of the splash park. I don't think the name should change. Of course, sponsorship is great, and maybe you can subtitle it some kind of way, but I think it should have one name and that carry out for the duration of the splash park.

Ms. Harris.

I'm in agreement with her because if we went by sponsorship, that means every however many years. After two years, it could change. After three more years, it could change. I think it should just be one name, period.

Okay.

We can maybe have a sponsor board out there saying such and such sponsor this year or something like that, but the name shouldn't change.

Mr. Carter.

I'm not necessarily bullish either way. Like I say, are you, you're kind of going for like a sports stadium sort of a thing, like a daily's place or what have you. Of course, those are, I don't know if they do those. They're just many year contracts, I think. So I guess there is the idea that you could theoretically get a very long contract with a community partner and have a similar result. Like, cause at this point people call it daily's, but I know it's changing now, but so that's kind of the, the idea though, is that it is a corporate sponsored name. You could have both if you wanted to. I will say, just because we're on the topic and it's adjacent, when we first talked about this like three meetings ago, I think, there was a brief discussion about not knowing who Young was and the idea of potentially looking into that. I do think it would be a good idea to keep Young's Park called Young's Park. Since that meeting, I know a local historian, Dr. Essing, Chris Essing, reached out to me and I think some other people at the city saying, shared kind of an interesting history uh mr young was not what we what we kind of thought maybe was like a just a construction company or something but he was like a real pillar of the community and uh it was named in his honor for many many good deeds he did so just to be clear i wouldn't support changing the park's name i know the splash pad is kind of going to be its own sort of thing at the park so it having a name um i think the idea of the corporate sponsorship is is a good one whether it has its own name or a different one i don't whatever the will of the council is on that. Jim?

I stand by what I said.

Mayor? Yes, sir. And again, you know, there's some things you could change, but it won't change. Like, you know, I've been known for Young's Park to be Young's Park for over 60 years, and if we were to change the name to another name, for example, It'll still be Young's Park in my mind and most of the generations. But as time change, it may. But I think it'll stay Young's Park forever. And again, that's my opinion. That's my belief. In my mind, it will stay Young's Park. Yes, sir.

Real quick, as I'm thinking about it, I mean, the splash pad is at Young's Park. I don't know that there's necessarily a need to name it at all. It's at Young's Park, so it's part of Young's Park. So you could sort of do what you're doing anyway, what you're suggesting anyway, and you can have a sponsor for the splash pad and have a big... sign and it can change from time to time but it won't the splash pad is at the park and the park has a name so i mean that the splash pad never needed a separate name i guess is what i'm getting at we could you could just have a corporate sponsorship for the sake of youth programs i think that and and that that's good i think that um having a sponsored by or having areas sponsored by different corporate partners i think was a good revenue opportunity for us yes ma'am miss young

Yes, concerning the name, because we did say that we were going to ask some youth group or someone to, I think that came up in the last discussion about the parking, which I think is a good idea that we include the youth. It is a youth park. Do we have a swim team?

CHS has a swim team, I think.

Not this year.

Not this year? Okay, I was going to suggest that the swim team come up with the name for the splash park.

Here's another idea is we could put it out to school starts and... About two weeks, a week or two weeks. We could put it out to all the principals of the elementary schools in the area and have elementary schools each nominate a name and then have them get together and pick. So put it out to the elementary schools to pick a name.

I think we would need to select a grade because it'll be too broad. So maybe the last grade in the elementary school, fifth grade.

And then have it. Yes, sir. Mr. Jernigan.

Let's we're just going to name this last pad. Am I correct? I think Miss Harris, this is somewhat in her district and this is her baby here. I think. Am I correct, Miss Harris? You're correct. So I would think that. Ms. Harris would have a great word. She thought of it. She's getting it done. She's moving forward with it. I would think that Ms. Harris, whatever she directed the council to do and coming up with that great name for the splash pad, I think we should go along with that. And again, there's two things, a splash pad and his young spark. Young spark won't ever change, but the splash pad could have sponsors, whatever Ms. Harris decided to do in that area. That's what I think that should happen.

What do you think?

Well, I already had a name prepared, but I was going to listen to see what everybody thought about it.

Well, I didn't know that because when the mayor said the young people, I think you said it was a good idea. That's why I kind of elaborated on that. What's your name? Yeah. Oh, you don't want to give it out yet? Oh, I could tell you. I wanted it to be called Noah's Crossing.

I don't think so.

Look, water, Noah's Ark, that's all.

I'll be against that. Oh, my.

I appreciate that. It had nothing to do with you.

Except that it shares a name with me. I'd prefer it not share a name with me.

but I believe that the part should say Young's Park. And if we would like to name the splash pad part of it, we can name that and then have a signage up there saying sponsor for first year, two year, however many, have that posted up there somewhere. And then maybe in another however many years after that, somebody else could change that versus changing the name completely. Yeah.

Any other thoughts? all right i don't have any other thoughts on it either i just wanted to see what we thought about getting sponsorships to name it um inconclusive Do we want to turn? Yes, sir.

I would just say it seems like we're all kind of down with the idea of creating a sponsorship program for at least that section of the park. It doesn't seem like any of us feel a strong urge to name it something different, though. That's fairly conclusive.

Do we want to run a competition for the youth to name it?

I think it would be something good for the children to feel included.

Included, yeah. Is that something everybody wants to do? Sure.

Maybe the council, each one of us can come up with a name, present it to the schools, and let the children pick the better name out, and we'll go with that.

Thoughts? Sounds fine. Okay. Ms. Young?

That's fine, or if you decide to do the fifth grade, do it by classroom, let each class present instead of each student in the class. let the class decide upon one name, so that'll be less names that we would choose from.

That's what I was thinking, each school would put one forward. How many elementary schools do we have? We have three in town now? They've moved around a lot lately.

Five, I think?

In town, in the City of Lake City.

East side, not black.

And that's community involvement as well, so.

To put it up to the schools to give us a name, one name each?

Yes.

Mr. Martin, you have something to say? Mr. Mayor, would it just be limited to public schools in town or private charters? those sorts of things as well.

I'd say within the city limits. Within the city limits.

So it would include those schools as well.

Elementary schools within the city limits.

Okay.

All right. So that's our proposition is to have a competition or have schools offer names up within the city limits and then create a sponsorship program for the park and the splash pad. Sound good? I think we're all in consensus for that. Does the administration have any questions on that?

The administration would like clear direction. We got the first part about the children, but what about the sponsorship for the splash pad?

I would like for the administration to create a sponsorship package or program for the splash pad and park. Is that good for everybody else?

Where would these funds go?

These funds would go toward a youth engagement and gun violence prevention, for gun violence prevention, right? So it would be earmarked for projects or events that we could put on specifically for that to offset budget items that we allocate for that.

Does that make sense?

Makes sense.

Yes. You look like you have something else, Mr. Martin.

Oh, no, I'm just making notes. Very good.

Do you need any other info, Mr. Rosenthal? We're good, Mayor. Thank you. Do you want to take public comment? Yep, I will take public comment. Now, we're not voting on anything, so there's no actual proposition, but I'll offer you the opportunity to speak to public comment.

No proposition.

Okay. All right, so we'll move on to item number 11, then discussion and possible action of flock cameras, and this is brought forward by Mr. Carter.

All right. Hello, Council, Mr. Mayor. I brought forward this item for discussion, and I have kind of an idea I'd like to share with you guys. Obviously, if you've seen the packet, you've seen at least part of the idea. The topic that's getting a lot more and more attention these days, flock cameras. and the like, automatic license plate readers, the cameras that you kind of see and pop up on poles all over the place. A lot of people find these things, they make them uncomfortable. A lot of people find them to be a violation of Fourth Amendment rights to privacy. primarily the idea that they are collecting data from citizens without a warrant, storing that data, holding that data. A frequent argument for, and I've prepared a small statement for this, but a frequent argument for this type of surveillance is that if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. But that's not the point. The Fourth Amendment isn't about whether or not citizens have something to hide. It's based on the principle that government should not monitor or search people without appropriate legal justification. Rights belong to innocent people because they're innocent people. Another common argument is private companies track you already. What's the big deal? There's myriad differences between private companies and the government. Private companies do not have the ability to arrest you, prosecute you, exercise the powers of the state against you. Comparing the two is a false equivalency. and just because large corporations are compiling data on its customers does not necessarily give the government a right to be complicit in the establishment of what effectively becomes a digital dossier of your private and ostensibly innocent citizens. The main argument that you hear in favor of these is that this type of surveillance helps catch bad guys. And sometimes it does. The question I would argue is whether surveillance can be, isn't whether or not surveillance like this can be useful, but whether the usefulness alone justifies the expanding of government power over everybody else. If convenience is the standard, constitutional limits will eventually be treated as mere obstacles instead of protection. When I brought this up to staff, and I spoke to a couple members of staff about this, someone said, you know, London is the most surveilled city in the Western world. And it's true, upon looking it up, London has over 800,000 residents. television cameras across the city. They say that the average Londoner is on camera roughly 300 times a day. You effectively can't go anywhere in London without being on one of these cameras. Most of those cameras were installed since the mid-1980s. If you look at crime statistics for London since 1980 to now, it's pretty even. So they've increased by nearly a million cameras in the city, and everyone's on camera all the time. But they have not necessarily had a a statistical effect, so to speak, on the crime stats in London. So I would argue that this is a much broader issue about developing the beginning pieces of a surveillance state. I don't really wanna be in communist China, and I don't really wanna be in London. I believe we fought a war to not be London. So for me, these items make me uncomfortable. I don't like the idea that anyone is tracking and storing data on any innocent citizen without a warrant or without cause. That being said, I've talked to a lot of people about this particular issue. I've listened to a lot of folks talk about it and it is very divided. So that's, I've just shared with you my opinion, but, uh, I would say that I do not feel like I've heard the argument lean hard one direction or the other. I've heard a lot of people share my opinion and a lot of people say, you know, Hey, they made me feel safer, et cetera. So what I've, what I'm proposing we do, uh, if the council will humor me, is I got with Mr. Martin, had him draw up a pretty simple referendum. We have the unique opportunity this year and this time, with the election coming up, to add a question to the ballot in November, and you'll see that's attached here, it's in the packet that was released this morning, and also I think it was on the dais with everybody here.

would mr mayor would i ask the uh the attorney to read this yeah that was my next step was before we go to public comment mr martin will you please read the resolution prepared by title certainly mr mayor council members you have before you resolution number 2026 094 a resolution of the city of lake city florida calling for a non-binding referendum question to be placed before the qualified voters of the city of lake city at a special election to be held on tuesday november 3rd 2026 in conjunction with the 2026 state of florida general election providing a non-binding referendum question determining whether the city of lake city or its contractors shall continue installation and maintenance of automatic license plate readers and cameras that collect and store license plate and other vehicular data providing for requisite ballot language providing direction to the city clerk appealing all resolutions in conflict providing for severability and providing an effective date

Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Mr. Martin, if I can just wrap up my thoughts. Sure. The reason I wanted to put this question to the voters is because, like I said, I've heard quite a lot of voters in full support of this, quite a lot of them against it. And I think it's because, generally speaking, you know, we're elected to do the hard stuff and make the decisions and things like that. So I'm not for putting every decision or everything we have before us in front of the voters for poll after poll after poll. We are a representative government, not a democracy as such. But this, to me, constitutes such a cultural concept. And because while we still have home rule in Florida, this gives us the opportunity, if we want to be the kind of community that has these things and does this stuff, or if we don't, we have the opportunity to be or not to be. So in that case, didn't mean to Shakespeare that one, but in that case, we can find out from the voters in a couple of months, and everyone who feels strongly about this can have a couple of months to make their cases. So I think that we should put it to the voters, and I'd be interested to hear what you guys think. Prior to public comment, does anybody have any thoughts?

I just want to ask one question. How did you get this attorney to do anything before they spoke? It was brought to us first.

I asked if he could write a... Is that legal?

Yeah.

I'm sorry?

Is that legal?

It is legal.

For either one of us to come to you for a referendum before the rest of the council is notified about?

Well, it's a resolution, and I routinely draft resolutions at the request of council members to accomplish whatever it is they need to get in front of council. Yeah, we do it all the time. These matters typically are brought before council as by resolution.

Ms. Young?

No, we don't do it all the time. First of all, let's make that clear. We don't do it all the time. And it's too much that we've desperately needed to get done and not been able to get it done. And we get a resolution in that. No. But besides all of that, I want to speak on the flop cameras. First of all, they were placed there for safety, they have made a great difference in our city. We don't live in London, we live in Lake City. And I believe you said that, let me see, I wrote it down. Flock has gotten much attention. the cameras have gotten much attention, that's what you said. But before the flock cameras, crime was getting all the attention. So which do we want to get the most attention? There has been, and I'm sure somebody will probably call Chief up, there has been a great difference in crime in our city. And these flock cameras have made the difference. And one other thing I thought about is that, and I know people are uncomfortable, but, I mean, get it. Cameras are everywhere now. We're always on camera. You have cameras at your home? You don't have cameras at your home. Well, I have them at mine. And anybody that has is going to read it. And some have it, they call it out. They don't just read it. They announce who's passing. And I think that's very important, the safety of our elderly people. to get crime down in our city, they're there, and I was one of the ones who voted in, and I will vote today, well, we won't vote today, but I say they're there, they made a great difference, and we expect them to keep making a difference in our city, that our citizens are safe, and that's what matters.

Thank you, Ms. Young. Mr. Jernigan.

Thank you, Mayor. Let's just think about this for a minute or so. Flock cameras. I think there was citizens that wanted flock cameras in this community for certain reasons. now that we got the flock cameras now that we have citizens want to probably remove the cameras uh i mean i i've been in law enforcement for a long time i don't think uh anybody up here has been in law enforcement as much as the chief has and when when we get into flock I think that the chief, again, I said I think that the chief can come up here and help us direct the citizens of this community and to make sure that the flock cameras are doing exactly what they are supposed to do and anything other than what they're supposed to do if we have somebody violating that that person should be a person should be terminated I don't care if it's a contract. I don't care if it's a law enforcement officer, whatever the case may be. But the flock cameras, it is needed in certain situations. areas of our community and we are always almost always on video and some of us be on audio for example you can run this red light up here and they can look at that and tell who hit who from that red light but what I like to see is the chief of this of this city come up and tell us the pros versus the cons. If we have more pros than we have cons, I think we should keep them. But if we have more cons than we have pros, I think we should eliminate them. So Chief, ma'am, can I do that? Yeah, come on up, Chief.

we haven't defined a proposition yeah to be to be clear uh if if it isn't clear the suggestion and this is the suggestion is putting the question on the ballot and it is a non-binding referendum all it will do if we add it to it is inform us what the voters feel about the issue it doesn't change a rule that we don't change afterwards like if we get back a thing and it comes back and it's 90 voters say they love it then my recommendation would be that we do nothing come on chief uh

Let me define something for the crowd real fast. Chief, you can go ahead and come on up. Once the motion is seconded, then we'll move to public comment on it. So we'll have a motion, a second, public comment, then council comments and questions will further.

For the sake of procedure, should I go ahead and make a motion if one's to be made? Mr. Mayor, I move to approve City Council Resolution 2026-0900.

For discussion, I'll second it. So we have a motion and a second. We'll now have, Chief, if you'll mind just stepping aside, we'll have public comment now for procedural purpose.

And then we'll have Chief come back up and answer questions and comments.

We'll begin our public comments with Mr. Eric Tober.

All righty, ladies and gentlemen, it's good to see you all here again. I had a good time speaking to you all last time regarding the flock cameras. I didn't know that Mr. Carter felt about them the way that he does. So I would like to bring forth a couple of more points. A couple of points that were made now by Ms. Young, Ms. Harris, that we are always on video. Our communities need this. I'm not sure if the public knows, but there is a very large distinction between being on video on privately owned cameras versus on cameras that are owned by the government. If law enforcement wants to pull footage from privately owned cameras, they need probable cause, they need a warrant. It is not at their disposition at all time whenever they want it. The cameras that we're referring to, there is no warrant required. Your information is stored for at least 30 days. It is viewed by any law enforcement officer with a investigation, as they deem it so. And there is no protection for your privacy in the sense of, in order for them to pull the footage, they need a warrant. It's available at all times. And when you mentioned, Ms. Young, that you have cameras at your dwelling. That's great. I do too. The difference is that law enforcement cannot log in there and see what I'm doing at my residence. They can't see what I'm doing in my front yard, right? And these cameras, they can. That is a big difference. In my remaining time, I'm not sure if you all are familiar with the book 1984. where Winston is living in a society, in a civilization where there is surveillance in every corner. You cannot breathe without that being surveilled. Is that the kind of society that we want? Where you are being surveilled in your every move, whether you are a law-abiding citizen or not? We look at China that has long been said to have an oppressive mass surveillance system. What difference is the one that we are creating here? Because if we look back to COVID, a very interesting thing that happened, thankfully not in the state of Florida, but throughout the United States, was that unconstitutional mandates were imposed by local communities, counties, and governors that were unconstitutional and trampled upon the rights of citizens, and yet nothing was done for a period of time. Now imagine if those things were imposed, do not leave your home, do not go to place X, Y, and Z with the surveillance infrastructure that we're creating now. it would be impossible to escape, right? And if it said that you're supposed to be a good boy for the government, you're not supposed to do anything wrong, I agree with that. But sometimes the definitions of right and wrong change. And if you're equipping the government with this infrastructure, it's a dangerous thing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Up next, we have Mr. Sylvester Warren.

I want to say something to you real quick and I'm going to get into it. One, I don't know anything about your people fighting the war to be free from London. It was my ancestors that helped your ancestors to be free from London. Then your ancestors turned around and enslaved my ancestors and created shadow slavery. That's the history of the London issue. So I want to get that clear. So to expand on this whole issue, let's have a moment of truth. How did these flock cameras come about? We panicked. We were having a crime issue in Lake City. We panic. Nobody wants to tell the truth. I came up with the flock camera idea in the license plate reader. Chevelle Young can tell you when she want to be honest. The chief first came up behind me and Ms. Madam Clerk, if they think I'm lying, I want that public records request as well, where I was here at the podium. I asked for the flock cameras. The chief said it was a bad idea and a waste of money. Ms. Young called me and told me that the chief was going to come a few months later and represent it because it was a good idea after the fact. We did not know as much about the flock cameras as we do now. We were just trying to do anything we could to get a reset on the crime. When that happens and we find out that something that we have done, even though it may have helped with the issue, if it violates the Constitution, because that democracy stuff y'all think we are? We are not, we're a republic, we are a nation of laws. So if the nation of laws, which is our Constitution, is being violated, then we have a moral obligation and you all have a constitutional obligation to make sure that that Fourth Amendment is not being infringed upon, regardless of what it do and what it don't do, what it fix and what it does not fix. It does not give us the right to violate the Fourth Amendment. And every statistic and every study and everything I've watched, it is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And you're gonna find yourselves getting sued like other cities and municipalities are being sued and cops going to jail for looking into information they should be looking into information for. Do you want that to be the headlines of Lake City? That would be my question. Crime can always be adjusted and fixed and fought in other ways. But you start violating the Constitution and you start giving Big Brother more power than he's supposed to have and start circumventing the Constitution, then what good is it? I couldn't even stand up here and speak. I'm not going to give up my fourth or my first. I'm not going to give up my first or my fourth. So I say put it on the damn ballot. Good job.

Thank you, Mr. Warren. Up next, we have Mr. David Nobles.

Hello, my name is David Nobles. I live here in Lake City. Members of the council, I'm here today to address the flock cameras, the flock safety automated license plate readers. I support law enforcement. I think they should have the modern tools that we have at our disposal to solve crime. But we need to be very cautious when thinking about the idea of mass surveillance without oversight, especially when it comes to the Constitution. Because the reality of the situation is, There is more options for transparency and there's accountability when it comes to local law enforcement and it comes to local municipalities that isn't going to be equal when it's a third party. This is a private company. Now, the court has allowed license plate readers, and they've reaffirmed that throughout recent history with things like red lights, as was brought up earlier. But the thing is, there's a distinction. Courts allow license plate readers under the assumption that they are intermittent public observation, single snapshots of vehicles on public roads. FLOC does not operate as an isolated camera system. When incorporated into and across multiplied systems, integrated into the Flock OS ecosystem, combining license plate readers, real-time videos, and CAD dispatch, it stops being an intermittent snapshot and becomes a continuous location tracking. Under the Mosaic theory, put forth in Carpenter versus the United States, 2018, and Charter, I might be mispronouncing that, United States versus the United States in 2016. The Supreme Court ruled that citizens retain a reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of their physical movements, even on public roads. More importantly for the council, here's something to consider. Corporate liability shifts. Flock's legal defense relies on the idea that they are a third party. Therefore, when there's utilization between private companies, HOAs, commercial zoning, neighboring departments, when the legal challenges are brought up about mass surveillance, reach the court, the Flock Corporation's attorneys will step back, leaving our municipality government and our taxpayers to foot the bill for civil lawsuits, because that's how they're structured. They're designed to be a Motten Bailey to circumvent being held accountable. There's also a significant amount of concern on whether they're just license plate readers because they also use technology to mark individual markers on vehicles like roof racks, bumper stickers, and also facial recognition software. On top of this, they can be utilized to ping the Bluetooth in your phone to track where you go and who is passing by. I would like to just point out that there is ways to have accountability. And Benjamin Franklin said...

Thank you, Mr. Knowles. Up next, we have Mr. Mark Eshbaugh.

It's good to be back. Mr. Carter, thank you for putting your face on this and putting yourself on the line. Mayor, thank you for responding to my email. Better late than never. So to address the remark of we're not London, we're not Los Angeles either, but the LAPD, not the city, the police department, one of the biggest in the country, cut their contract with Flock due to privacy and constitutional amendment concerns. If that police department's cutting it, that should tell you something. But we're not Los Angeles, I guess, so maybe we shouldn't do it. Although I think we should. And then to continue, I'm glad the technology is being mentioned of, and I'm glad somebody mentioned what's essentially called signal trace, where they can capture signals from your cell phone or anyone else in your car. Now as a cybersecurity student, cellular data usually requires, as far unless I'm being taught wrong in my school, cellular data usually requires a warrant. Phones can get taken, put in Faraday bags so they can't transmit or receive signal, and then once a warrant's received, they crack the phone, get data. And I'm going to quote this quote. He who would give up his Fourth Amendment right because he has nothing to hide would give up their First Amendment right because they have nothing to say. I have nothing to hide, but I don't live in a glass house. And I got something to say because clearly I'm here saying it. And I also want to make clear, should this come to the vote and the citizens vote no, Does this just say no flock cameras? Because you have Axon, which the police forces usually know because that's body cameras. Are we going to get ALPRs from Axon, Gentech, Genoptic, Leonardo, Motorola Solutions? There are other companies with skin in this game, and they are actively watching cities that pull their flock contracts like vultures so they can slip right in and then put their cameras in place. In fact, Axon already has a solution to people cutting down poles. They're just putting them right on traffic lights now. get more trouble cutting down a traffic pole than you would a regular camera pole. Not that I advocate for either, but that's their solution instead of just not making the cameras all together. And I guess a little more of a personal note, I went to the OCLR range recently just out of curiosity to see if it was open. And I frequent in that place in my four years of living here. They got two cameras at that range, one pointing towards the parking lot and towards one of the ranges and one pointing away from the parking lot. So if anyone watching or in here is an avid practitioner of their Second Amendment rights, now it's on camera, stored, who's going to the range, when they're going, and how long they're going there for once it opens back up. And as a gun owner and someone who practices their rights, you cannot... to me, convince me in any way, shape, or form how that's OK. I've been to that range for as long as I've been here. We police ourselves there. I've had nothing but great experiences, especially when people come out of town to our range, because it's a free range. So that is a more of a close to home, very concerning thing to me. Not to say that you can't have government with gun ownership, but usually that's a very fine line that gets towed. So again, I think this should go to vote, but, and to reiterate my very important question, does this vote just mean no more flock safety or does this mean no more ALPR technology period? Because again, there, THESE OTHER COMPANIES ARE WATCHING FOR CITIES TO PULL THEIR FLOCK CONTRACTS LIKE VULTURES, LIKE HYENAS, SWOOP RIGHT IN TO PUT THEIR TECHNOLOGY IN PLACE WHERE THE OTHER ONES LEFT. I'LL YIELD BACK THE REST OF MY TIME. THANK YOU.

THANK YOU, MR. ASHBAUGH. UP NEXT WE HAVE MS. BE FAITHFUL COKER.

GOOD EVENING, COUNCIL. SO FEAR IS THE REASON FOR THE IMPOSITION OF THE FLOCK CAMERAS. and if fear was the reason for the imposition, I caution you to not now act out of fear of litigation. Columbia County currently has approximately 30 unsolved murders. On June 15, 2018, my brother's murder became one of those in the presence of other people who out of fear, reprisal and other reasons, chose not to identify the person who walked up and shot my brother in front of them. Had we have had flock cameras, not only could it have helped assist law enforcement, it could have provided some assistance to some of the other 30 unsolved murders. If in fact Amendment 4 is being violated and the flock cameras are as much in discussion as it has been conveyed, then you don't need a referendum to pull them. As soon as it's deemed to violate the Constitution, the existence stop. So in bringing this issue to citizens on referendum, given the reason to cause doubt in the resources and tools that law enforcement's using to protect us, you put us in harm's way. We don't live in a community where people come forward and identify crime that's being committed. We don't even live in a community where people can come and address this council without reprisal. Until we are at a place where safety is totally provided to citizens, they need assistance to get justice. And that assistance comes by way of flock cameras. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms. Coker.

All right.

Thank you, guys. We will now close public comment and move straight to council questions, comments. Yes, ma'am.

Yes. The first thing I would like to say is my Fourth Amendment right ain't worth a darn if I'm in the grave. And this flock camera compared to my Fourth Amendment right makes no sense. I just can't make no sense out of that. There have been, as someone has already stated, murder solved. There has been children who has been found through flock cameras, and that happened just last week. Probably about eight years ago, I was stopped by probably eight to 10 law enforcement, and yes, it was Lake City. I was stopped because my car supposedly had been identified.

Sorry.

to be a car who they were looking for.

All the officers, all the way across the road had guns pointed.

I had three, four of my grandchildren in the vehicle. My child, my grandchild who is with me now was eight months old. They yelled, put your hands up. Even the eight-year-old put his hands up. All of us terrified. And to this day, nobody stood up and said it happened. The cameras were edited. When I watched the camera, nothing that had happened was able to be viewed on that camera. But I know what happened. But had flop cameras been there, I wouldn't have had to depend on even law enforcement cameras. And I'm just being real, people. They are necessary because law enforcement are humans too. And we're in 2026. Amendments, our Fourth Amendment, our right to speak, our right to privacy. What good is privacy if you're in the grave? We need these flock camels. We need the safety. And if you can't think about it for yourself, if it's not for yourself, think about your neighbor. Think about the elderly who can't speak for themselves. Think about the children who can't speak for themselves. And the citizens put you here to make a sound decision. And you're going to throw a black back at them? We have a responsibility here. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this is safety. The chief has come up and spoken and still we can't get it. Again, we're in 2026. We're in 2026. We're in 2026. It's not like it was when we were inside the house and sleep with our windows up. How many of you lock your door at night? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Jernigan.

Yes, I still would like the chief to come up and tell us the pros and cons of these cameras. Again, like again if it's uh if it's more cons uh i'm not for it but if it's more pros i'm gonna be for uh the the block camera um i mean i mean just think about it uh my heart goes out to somebody like uh miss coker here her brother I know of another situation that happened, and we were able to solve that with the flock camera. So in other words, for the most part is needed. There are some cases that it's not. But if it's not doing what it's supposed to do and they're gathering information on any of us, including me, no, I'm not for something like that. So I'm hoping that these cameras, it's not violating anybody's rights. And if we have a law enforcement agency here and he is responsible for law and order, And he doesn't feel that it's necessary to have him, or if he feels like it's necessary to have him, I would like to know. I want everybody to know what he knows. So I'm going to leave it up to you, Chief.

One correction first, please. I said you heard, but I meant to say you were here. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Young. All right. So Mr. Jernigan's asked you to present about flock cameras.

Sure. When I became chief about five years ago, obviously we had a gun violence issue in the city. We still have gun violence. However, the flock system, along with other law enforcement techniques, have contributed to significantly reducing the amount of gun violence in the city. You don't have to believe me. Look at the actual numbers.

They're there.

Mayor, you were with me at a meeting up in the north end with some of the church members, and they thanked us for everything we're doing for the violence up in those communities. And that's a positive. So, and again, when I became chief, every member of the council, current members and former members, met with me and said, Chief, we need to do something about the gun violence. Well, we have. The numbers show our gun violence is down. Again, this is in part because of the license plate reader system. People are coming up talking about Fourth Amendment. Now, I could be wrong, but I don't think I am. No court with jurisdiction has determined that a license plate reader system is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. When they do, the Lake City Police Department will immediately alter our processes to conform to whatever that court's jurisdiction says needs to be done.

I'm sorry, can you say that one more time?

Repeat that one more time. No court with jurisdiction, to the best of my knowledge, has ruled that the license plate reader systems are a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And I'll tell you, if they say it's a violation of the Fourth Amendment, they get turned off immediately. because that will be the order of the court. We wouldn't even have a choice in the matter. Now, let me highlight some of the cases that this system has helped take care of in the Lake City, and also I've got some from the Highway Patrol. Home invasion. Multiple armed home invasions were subjects were announcing themselves in law enforcement officers, then kicking in doors and holding all members of households at gunpoint. This includes children. they would then ransack the home. Five suspects were ultimately identified and arrested after the vehicle was identified through the FLOC license plate reader system. Attempted murder. After identifying a suspect while utilizing our FLOC system, two suspects were identified and arrested for attempted murder after chasing down a vehicle and shooting the driver. We currently have a racketeering case open where people are coming from out of state and committing robberies, and we're using the flock system to track their movements on the highway. Now, when people talk about facial recognition, the flock system takes a picture of the back of the vehicle. the license plate, and the vehicle. It does use artificial intelligence. If you have a gun rack or a luggage rack or damage to the car, if you've got bumper stickers or something along those lines, we have used that feature in order to try and identify the vehicles. It does not take a picture of the driver. The system that we have is not tied into the 911 system. It is not tied into any kind of combined system with the county. It's a standalone system. It takes the picture. It doesn't seize your cell phone information, which would require a warrant. I will agree with that. Our Internet Crimes Against Children's Unit regularly uses the FLOC license plate reader system as a critical tool to identify the travelers. The reason we call them travelers, they come from outside the area into Lake City in order to do with children. This system has directly identified 15 suspects who've traveled to what they believe to be minor children for unlawful sexual activity in the city. We have additional ones here. The homicide on Ashley Street. Flock was utilized by using the artificial intelligence to provide, because all the witnesses were able to provide was the description of the vehicle, not the plate. Because of the flock's ability to search for vehicles without a tag, we were able to locate the vehicle and the registered owner. Two suspects were then arrested and convicted. As far as using the system. Officers have to log on dual authentication, which means it goes to their city issued cell phone. Then they have to hit the acknowledge button with the facial recognition because that's how they log into the phone with the face ID like all the phones do now. When they log on, they have to put in a case number and the type of call that they're doing the research on. My operations lieutenant monthly gets an audit to see who's running the plates to see if there's any patterns. The system will also tell us if there's unusual activity, something we need to keep an eye on. I'll give you a perfect example. We have a detective that's looking for a vehicle. She was running the plate. She accidentally transposed two of the case numbers. It flagged it saying there's a problem here. Not that I don't trust my lieutenant, but I keep the gunshot detection system on on my computer in my office, which is part of the flock system, I, about once a week, I jump onto the audit trail to make sure the lieutenant's auditing what he's supposed to be auditing. So we are keeping an eye on that. Again, like the councilwoman said, a 13 year old girl who was abducted from Ocala in June was saved after the flock system picked up the car on the highway. from the highway patrol. There was a hit in Georgia regarding a warrant for kidnapping. The trooper stopped the vehicle. Two children who were in fact kidnapped were in the vehicle and they were rescued. On January 31st of 25, a vehicle versus bicycle crash occurred on 90 in Columbia County. after the crashed vehicle fled the scene, leaving an eight-year-old girl with fatal injuries. FHP, using the flock system, was able to identify the vehicle and made an arrest. We have other items here, and I know everybody's gonna say about giving up your freedoms and everything. We take that very seriously. We only use the system for, legitimate law enforcement purposes. You know, the numbers prove it as far as the violent crime being down. There's still work to be done now. Is it only the license plate readers or the gunshot detection? No. We've worked hard to develop relationships with the community so they'll feel freer to call us when something's going on. However, that is a critical component, and I'm concerned that if we do remove that, that could affect our ability to keep the violent crime rate down, along with other investigations.

Go ahead, Mr. Drang, and finish your question thought.

Let me be clear now. So you say you're in favor of the camera system, am I correct?

If I wasn't, I would have recommended getting rid of them before this.

Yes.

And you oversee that...

That system, am I correct? For Lake City, yes. That's all I'm concerned with right now is Lake City. And nobody's rights, constitutional rights, since you've been there, have been violated from my understanding. And no court has determined that it is a violation of the rights. Okay. Chief, I really appreciate that.

And so everybody's aware the gun range, that's a state camera that is not property or leased by us. The camera that is at the Montgomery boat ramp, that's FWC. That is not us. A couple of people called me up thinking we put a license plate reader at the aquatic center by the pool. That is part of the gunshot detection system. That is not a license plate reader system. So there are many more gunshot detection poles around the city than there are LPRs. Ms. Harris.

Chief, I have a couple of questions.

How long have these cameras been in use?

About five years now, four years.

About five years. And in that five years, five to four years, we'll say, you said that the crime rate has went down.

Correct. The violent crime.

All right, that includes murder?

Yes.

So I think we can all agree that it is very important for us to be safe, and we want our family and friends and our neighbors to be safe. We understand that. But when it comes to infringing on people's Fourth Amendment rights, I kind of take pause to it. Now, in District 12, I'm just gonna talk about District 12. If it was left up to me, I would love for the cameras to stay. And I would love for the cameras to stay because it does make me feel safer. Now, y'all not getting people that's running their stop signs or anything, but... I think that it would make me feel safe. But for it to go anything that we have to rush and vote on like this referendum, it could be a possible good idea. But I like to go home, sleep on something before I just say, yeah, put it on there. Anything I feel like I'm rushed to do. I don't think that's a good idea.

If I could add though, you mentioned it, if this does, if I'm told to take those down, that also means the school zone cameras will not go up, because part of the critical component of that are the LPRs.

Mr. Kerner.

So I'll start out by saying everything bad any government's ever done has had good reasons to do it, according to that government. when the chief, when Mr. Jernigan drives past one of those cameras, does it, does it take a picture of the back of his car and apply AI to the mirrors and the rooftop and the color and stuff like that?

It captures that information.

Yes. And when I do it, it does. And when all these folks do, it does. I would say again, like I said at the beginning, ostensibly, this is a room full of innocent people. And my suggestion is that the government shouldn't be collecting data on innocent people without cause, which is the whole point. Like I said, again, I feel like if I were in the chief's shoes, I would probably feel the way the chief does. Obviously it's a tool, and obviously that tool has a value. My point of view comes from the perspective of our rights, which generally speaking, The chief is put into a position, and his job is to try to solve crimes, keep crime low, all that sort of stuff. He's doing what makes perfect sense to him. But legislators and people in our position generally are more focused on things like the rights and the policies of a community. So the suggestion is only, again, to ask – and someone asked about this earlier. I will be clear. The question that I'm suggesting we put on the ballot says – installation maintenance and of automatic license plate readers and cameras that collect and store license plate data and other vehicle data. Voting yes supports such installation, voting no opposes such installation. This is a non-minding referendum. The City of Lake City will not result in any changes to current law without further action. So to be clear, what it will be telling us, it's effectively a poll, it's a straw poll. We're just asking the community what they think about it. We're getting their opinion. I think that it is worth And because we have the opportunity, because there is an election coming up. We've already paid the supervisor elections to handle our election. We have the opportunity to add this with no additional cost, you know, a special election. Referendums like that oftentimes cost tens of thousands of dollars to hold separately, but we're already paying for an election to be held. This, you know, it checks the temperature of the community. I think if, like I said before, no matter what my personal opinion on this is, if we get this back and the community is in overwhelming support of using these things, then I'll say, you know, I have clearly a minority opinion. I'm not... I'm not... I'm not... I'm just not bullish on it. I'm not trying to ram my opinion down everybody else's throat, if you will. But I have heard, I have experienced quite a lot of pros and anti-N4 for this, and like I said, this is not just here, there's cities all over the state and all over the country are asking similar questions and trying to get to the bottom of whether or not they want to be this sort of place, for me personally.

I have a question, Chief. I have noticed there has been a great decline of police presence. I don't see police officers riding around as much as once upon a time they were. Are you guys relying on this flock more versus people actually seeing police officers out and about?

Well, one of the issues, the call volume's been going up steadily over the last few years, and the officers are on calls for service instead of patrolling. We have had some staffing issues, which I've been addressing. Actually, we just brought four more recruits into our FTO program and part of that will go to patrol. But right now, the main issue is our call volume is increasing and we've got to respond to the calls for service.

Mr. Carter, you had another question?

Yeah, one more clarification. The topic that we're talking about now, and this does not include, and I have not brought up anything about the gunshot detection system, that is a sonar-type triangulation device that, in my opinion, I don't have any particular issues with it, and it does seem to be very effective at isolating where a gun was fired and when. So to be clear, this question is only about cameras. It has nothing to do, and it doesn't specify flaws.

Well, with the cameras, does that include the security cameras in the parks? Does that include my in-car cameras? So I have questions as far as are you looking at that? And the LPRs, the city's LPRs, I can't talk about anybody else's. The Lake City LPRs are only pointed at city streets. They are not pointed at any private properties. The ones you see at the businesses, the ones you see at some of the apartment complexes, Those are privately owned license plate readers. Those are not ours.

I would say no. The way this reads specifically, license plate readers and cameras that collect and store license plate and other vehicular data specifically. Also, there is a whole other issue with the fact that this data, a gentleman mentioned it earlier, but that this data is stored privately. We're not owning and holding it. If we put a camera outside this building or at the park or whatever, we own that data. The government has the data, which means the people own the data. There's a whole other issue with a private organization like Flock collecting all of this data, selling this data. And again, like I said, we're entering this world where people have the ability, big tech companies have the ability to track so much of the stuff already and we don't have control over it, right? We don't have control of what Walmart does. Whenever you use your Winn-Dixie card, they're keeping track of what you're buying, your buying habits and things like this, developing a digital dossier. My suggestion is that the government itself does not have to be complicit in the process of compiling us into a bunch of numbers and selling those numbers to the highest bidder so that people can better market to us, better track us and effectively digitally read our minds.

Well, as far as the cameras go, and IT can correct me if I'm wrong, but the city has been moving toward all the cameras being stored on the cloud, not on city servers. So they're moving toward that. Our financials are all stored by a private company that the finance department works through, does our payroll, has all of our personal information. I understand the concern. But also the fact that a third party, we do that more and more. You're going to see less and less massive servers because there's financial, you just can't keep them up and running. You know, the IT department, you know, I see them always on the servers in-house like my RMS system with the SmartCom. They're always on, they're maintaining it, updating it. patches, this, when you have the cloud, then that's not an issue. I understand your concern that, you know, if something's inside the building, you know, we have control of it. But, you know, the way everything's moving now with the cloud, they've got a lot of security. And none of our CJIS, criminal justice information, none of the information captured by Flock is CJIS. Everything is visible from the public. You really have no expectation of privacy here. on a city street. Now, inside your vehicle you do, but driving by you do not.

Real quick, could you reiterate what data the plate collectors collect? They're not pinging anybody's Bluetooth or pulling any data out of their cell phone?

We pay for the license plate reader. As a car goes by, It takes a picture of the back of the vehicle. Obviously, it gets the rear license plate. It captures the vehicle itself, part of the hood, or usually the entire top of the car. Most of the time, we can't even tell if there's somebody inside the car, never mind who they are. That's where we get with our investigations and start looking into who would possibly be the operator. Now, if you had probable cause, then we would get cell phone records and everything else. So it's one component of an arrest. People have mentioned facial recognition. I've told most of the council here. I am not comfortable with facial recognition at this point. I've had a discussion with the city manager because I think there's too many false positives where people get accused of doing something where it's not there yet. I understand that, and currently I'm not in favor of using it. I don't think it's effective enough. However, the license plate reader is not in that category.

One more time, what are the safeguards that you guys have against improper use in the cases that we've seen in other municipalities of, for lack of a better term, creeps creeping on people?

When an officer logs on, number one, they log on and it gives them, they have to do it through dual authentication, so it goes to their city-issued cell phone. They've got to acknowledge that to get into the system. Once they log on, it's going to ask for a specific case number. They've got to put the case number in. Then it also asks for the type of case. And they put that in. And with that in there, and the officer is already identified by the dual authentication, it knows what officer logged on. And then it tracks that. And then our lieutenant, at least once a month, usually he does it every week just because It's part of his regular routine. He audits those to make sure that something that doesn't look right isn't occurring. The system also will monitor if something isn't right. Like when I said the detective transposed two numbers in the report, it flagged that saying there's something wrong with this. We found out what it was and made the correction.

For you, Mr. Martin, actually, I'll let Mr. Carter ask you a question, then I've got a question for Mr. Martin.

I'm glad that you feel that way about the facial recognition stuff, because I do, too. So, obviously, these devices or cameras, they can be updated, they can be changed. They're run on software. A camera's a camera's a camera. You tell the camera what to do. So... It sounds like there's a suite of services, some of which we are paying for, and others we're not, like Bluetooth pinging something or something or facial recognition stuff. So those things, these machines can do that. We are just not paying for them right now.

With Flock, I'm familiar with the LPR that we currently have and the high-speed LPR, which we also have on 90 multi-lane. So we had to do an upgrade on that. That's all we use it for. If we want an enhancement, Flock doesn't do anything for free. I'd have to come in front of the council and say, here's the features we want to add. And given the current environment, I'm sure I'd have a lot of questions to answer before that. And honestly, I have no interest in any of that right now because for cell phones and you know, yeah, I consider your cell phone like your computer on your desk with your photos and everything like that. For something like that, we do need a warrant for that. We should need a warrant. The geofencing, the shattery case that they're referencing with geofence warrants needed to be tightened up. That's a good thing. I understand that. If I need something off somebody's phone, I say,

all right welcome back everybody uh we're now on our last item item number 12 in departmental and administration uh i'm going to turn this over to you uh mr rosenthal i know i caught you with a mouthful there sorry about that this is discussion possible action approval of ada risk safety director position Please make sure to speak into the microphone.

Is this working, Phil?

Testing. Testing, one, two.

This is for our position as ADA safety director position. We couldn't find anybody that had any one person that had both those skill sets, so we took the same funding, split it up, and we would like to hire a director and a coordinator, safety coordinator, ADA director. And we would like to do it on a temporary basis to see how it works out.

Okay, we don't have anybody signed up for a public comment on this one. I don't see any seats in the basket, so we'll move straight to council questions, comments. I'll open the floor. Who wants to go?

Mr. Jernigan, I heard you first. I'll go first. I think that this is something that we have needed for such a long time, and all I can do is say for Mr. Rosenthal and our HR director, Ms. Bible, and D. Johnson, I would like to say I really appreciate you guys going out of your way and doing the things that we need to make sure that our city is pretty safe. So whatever we have to do to make sure our city is safe, I think we should accept that approach. Very good. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Journey. And up next, Mr. Harris.

I want to make sure I get a good understanding of this. You're suggesting that we have two separate positions added on?

Yes. We would have one would be the director of ADA. The other would be the safety coordinator. We couldn't find any one person that had both those skill sets. And I use the word temporary. But what we wanted to do is hire somebody and sort of like see how it works out. I see Billy Joe. Come on, Billy Joe.

OK. We're not asking for a director. approved a director position, Mr. Rosenthal, because we had a hard time finding somebody that fit the ADA and the risk safety position. He wanted to downgrade that position into an ADA risk safety manager and then hire a safety coordinator to split those duties up.

It actually sounded so much better. Thank you, Billy Joe. Gotcha.

Yes, ma'am. Ms. Young.

So I believe, help me if I'm not hitting the mark. So part of, half of it is pretty much clerical in office. And the other part is so much ground, outside safety. Correct. Okay, so we couldn't all get it in one basket, so we kind of split it in two baskets. I think that makes perfectly great sense.

Ms. Harris?

Weren't you over risk management?

I still am currently.

You still are, so you won't have that.

That is correct. They are taking that and putting it over here.

Mr. Kerner?

Obviously it's been an experiment in how we're gonna manage this and we need to get some of this stuff on the ball by what, next spring is April, right, is the deadline for some of those ADA compliance?

Correct, but our goal is sooner than that.

Sure, sure, absolutely. No, I mean, I would say do it and see how it works.

Great potential.

Same. Does anybody, Mr. Jernigan?

No, I would say I'm all for it. Let's go ahead and move forward.

I make a motion that we move forward on the board. I second.

Thank you very much. We had a motion by Ms. Harris, a second by Mr. Jernigan was the first that I heard. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

I just want to clarify the motion. So we're changing a previously approved ADA risk safety director position to an ADA risk safety manager and also adding a safety coordinator position. Is that your motion, Ms. Harris? Yes. Okay. Mr. Jernigan, is that your second?

I second it.

Okay, I'll call vote.

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

Yes. Okay. All right, that concludes our numbered items on tonight's agenda, so now we'll move into comments by, and we'll begin with City Manager Don Rosenthal.

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to bring your attention, our police department has won a Traffic Safety Award, and the Chief wants to talk about it.

I like it. Thank you. Once again, the Lake City Police Department took first place in our category in the FDOT Traffic Safety Award. A lot of it goes toward serious accident reduction, our enforcement, and I want to thank the officers for everybody for the job that they do. They really worked hard to get this. Again, we were awarded first place. One thing, the Out of the categories, they had a raffle and the Lake City Police Department won a speed trailer. So the Florida Department of Transportation will be delivering that within two months. So we got that also. We won a what? Speed trailer. Nice. And it's nice because it's smaller. So if we need to put it on the grass next to a sidewalk or something, we don't have to put it out on the road like our current speed trailer. But that's free of charge. And next year, we're going to try and get into the champion category again. Thank you. Hold on, Chief.

That's all I have, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Rosenthal. Mr. Martin. Nothing from the city attorney, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Ms. Sykes.

Nothing from the city court's office.

Thank you, Ms. Sykes. Vice Mayor Young.

Gatekeepers Award at home. So I just would like to thank the citizens who came to the meeting tonight. We had some who returned, some who may have been the first time. We're just so grateful that you're here. It's very important that you come. It's just no justice online. But when you come and sit in the meeting and get it first hand, and want to invite you sometimes when you have something you want to say, don't be too bashful to come to the mic, and we will receive it well with respect. Thank you so much. I believe that's all I have.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Young. Councilman Jernigan.

Oh yeah, I got a couple of things here I'd like to give a shout out to Classy Balloons. I think she has got a small business and she does balloons. So if you ever need any balloons done in a certain way, you can always call Classy Balloons. And we have a mom and pop store, Vintage Balloons. vintage store mom and pops if you would sometimes you need old vintage clothes or antiques they have got some good things in there with that store it's located right down on 90 east there the events over the weekend Oh, my God. There were so many events over the weekend, along with it was positive and negative events. You know, I think I attended like three funerals that day, patronized the event that Miss Councilwoman Harris put on. I think that it was it was very, very good. And also. than one at the Richardson Community Center. I was told that there was over 1,000 kids or children that came through there for book bags and things of that nature back to school over the weekend as well. Again, our police department and our fire department is first class. I'd like to thank them. I just want to put it out there. We have roads to be paved. We have a lot of things that need to be done for our city. There is a procedure in place. Me personally, I can't just say pave a road, Mr. Rosenthal. There's procedures in place to have roads paved. You, one person, cannot do that. And when I hear, I don't care who you are, say that you can pave a road in this community, the city of Lake City, that's not true. So it's a procedure in place. And I want to say, I think we have five roads a year that we can pave, and that money comes from, where's that money come from? Avalor? Yes. So I just want to make sure that everybody understands that. It may sound crazy to you. Again, this is not a block camera. This is me talking. So I just want to make sure everybody understands that, that we as a collective unit, along with this administration, is the one that get those roads paved. So y'all keep that in mind. And a shout out to this council right here. We may agree or disagree, but I really think that this is a very, very good council. So shout out to all of the council members on the board right now.

That's it. Thank you, Mr. Jernigan. Up next, Councilman Carter.

Thank you. Yes, obviously I talked a lot. I'll be brief now. And that's fair. Flock camera, otherwise I almost never know what you're talking about, Mr. Rickey. I'll just end with this. 1984 was brought up a few times today. The author of that book is Aldous Huxley. The ends cannot justify the means for the simple and obvious reason that the means employed to determine the nature of the ends produced. That's it, thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. Up next, Councilwoman Harris.

I almost took my breath, it was so brief. I want to thank Bo. Bo that's in, where does Bo work? Public Works. Bo did his thing on behalf of the city. Everything I needed, he was there to make sure it happened for me. I mean, just pleasant. I want to thank the police department for coming out there, doing that thing with the obstacle course. I think it was over 30 children that ended up signing something saying about They signed a pledge not to be on drugs and all of that. They got their helmets free and everything. I want to thank the police, I mean the fire department. Those burgers were delicious. I went home and I stewed some, and they were good. They were good as a burger, but they were even better when I stewed them. But I want to thank everybody that came out to help me. I want to thank Dee for calling me and just giving me some encouraging words. I want to thank Councilman Jernigan for coming out, showing support. I want to thank the mayor for giving me some encouraging words. And I also want to thank Audrey for coming out as well, just to see if I was okay, if everything was good. So I want to just say we have a great council. We have great people that are working in the city. Y'all just ain't gonna get no better than this. I mean, you may think you would, and possibly you possibly would, but I'm just going by what we have now. We have a lot of incredible things that's going on in the city. It's gonna take another year for them to come to fruition. Nevertheless, we came up with it as a board. We fussed, we argued, but we got the job done. And I wanna give a hand clap to all of the people that I work with here at the city.

Awesome.

Thank you, Councilwoman Harris. All right. I attended a wedding on Saturday night, so I want to give congratulations to Michaela Collins for that wedding and her family. A local lady that got married. Also want to give a shout out to our clerk's office and our events team and everybody who was involved for making the Suwannee River League of Cities dinner a huge success. It was a great event and we were able to showcase our downtown location. to a lot of people from across north florida and it was a really bright spot for us um the backpack success backpack event success and miss harrison's success i want to laud you guys for doing a great job this weekend for the community uh mr jernigan's right there was over a thousand people that came through according to dr mobley uh and they were able to give out 750 backpacks to kids and that's very important to make sure that those kids are equipped and and uh feeling loved in our city um There's another backpack event coming up this weekend. If anybody missed it, there's one coming up. It's at the end of Memorial Stadium, and that'll be this Saturday. I want to give a shout-out to one of Chief's members, Detective Petit, who is really good at putting predators behind bars. Yes, he is. And I appreciate him for doing it. If I could unleash him wholeheartedly to pursue predators around this nation, which he does. He's over here in the corner. Send him all over, but really keep our kids safe here at home. You do a great job. I want to give you a huge shout out to everybody at the department for that. Thank you guys for that. The GOP event last week was a good event. It was like a pure inhalation of democracy with the stump speeches and everything. It was a great event. I encourage folks to go to your local election showcases that are coming up. There's still one coming up, I believe, at Richardson Community Center on August 10th, which will be another good one. If you like to hear the vision being cast, I really encourage you to go to these things because they're great events. Creamy Colada, if you know where the old donut shop, the recently closed donut shop, Ed and Barb's was right on Main Boulevard. There's now a wonderful little ice cream shop that my daughter loves. It's called Creamy Colada. We've been there a couple times. I encourage you to show up, check that out. It's a brand new local business. Huge shout out, like Miss Young said, to the citizens who participated tonight. There were a lot of them. I would also encourage other people to speak. Obviously, we've got some main characters that like to use the podium, but it's always refreshing to hear a lot of different views from around the community. So please come speak. And then shout out to management and public works for beginning to address the issues that are underpass on Highway 90 and some of the trash that's collected there. So excited to see this community clean up and move forward. Yes, ma'am. Ms. Young.

Seven is ribbon cutting.

Oh, that's right. August the 7th, ribbon cutting at the park, Sally Jerry Park, the grand reopening at that park. And that's on North May, Marion. Looking forward to that. It's going to be at 10 a.m. 10 a.m. Grand reopening at Sally May Jerry Park. That'll be the only park in the city open for a little while as we renovate.

That's right. And if I may say, Mayor.

Yes, ma'am.

It will be a ribbon cutting. We won't really have any more other festivities, but there will come a real grand opening at a later date. We just need to go ahead and get this park open because that'll be the only one open.

There's a slide. You can always slide. If the ribbon cutting isn't enough for you, there is a full playground you can hop on and have a good time. Don't break anything, though. Council budget workshops this week. Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday. That's August 4th, 5th, and 6th. August 4th will be 6 p.m. start. August 5th will be 6 p.m. start. August 6th will be a 5 p.m. start. That's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Tuesday and Wednesday will be 6 p.m. Thursday will be a 5 p.m. All right. With that being said, I hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Thank you for participating with us and good night.

Good night.