City Council - Regular Meeting

scheduled actually it's an oddly scheduled City Council regular session of the City of Lake City September 10th 2026 if you will please stand for the pledge and invocation Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for another beautiful day in downtown Lake City. Lord, please put your hands on this council and help us to make good decisions for the constituents of Lake City today and in the future. In your name I pray. Amen.

Amen.

All right. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Jernigan?

Present.

Member Harris. Present. Council Member Young. Here. Council Member Carter. Present. Mayor Walker. Present. City Manager Rosenthal. Here. City Attorney Martin. Here. Chief Butler. Here.

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

We'll now move on to approval of the agenda. Mr. Mayor, move to approve the agenda.

Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Thank you both. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, like son? All right. The agenda is approved. We don't have any proclamations, awards, or recognitions tonight, so we will move on to public participation. We have a couple people signed up, and we will begin with Mr. Sylvester Warren.

sylvester warren um my address is the black community as always um mayor council um can make a few comments and i'm out of here i have public records requests and i've spoke to hr director and she can confirm that this statement is true that the city has no policy against high convicted felons but yet when some convicted felons apply, they're not hired based on their criminal past. However, on the other hand, the city current has a few convicted felons currently working for the city. My position is, or my question rather is to the council, does the city not hire convicted felons or does the city just not hire black convicted felons? That is a serious question that needs to be discussed. It's a serious question that needs to be answered. And it's one that I'm going to raise. Either we raise it through the legislative process or we raise it through the federal courts. My second comment or question rather to the council deals with the removal of blight specifically. abandoned houses. It was stated in private and public conversations that Clay Martin was going to start filing foreclosures on those properties about two years ago. I would like to know how many has he filed in that time period? And Madam Clerk, could I have documented public records request on that said, Madam? LASTLY, MADAM CLERK, NO RUSH, BUT I WOULD LIKE THE REMAINING OPEN PUBLIC RECORDS REQUESTS REGARDING CHILL, WHO IS THE ADA SPECIALIST SLASH I guess she will also be doing risk management as well, slash risk management. And I will also, Madam Clerk, want the harassment of the three city officers that harassed my ADO grandmother two days ago on her private property without a warrant and a probable cause. I have that recorded and I have also an email records in which I talked to the assistant police chief. So there's no debate. and I have the receipts to prove, and I have the audio, and I have the cam from the security cam videos to prove and demonstrate it as well. So hopefully we can handle that through the legislative process rather than handle that through the courts. Lastly, if you will, Mel, Ms. Harris, I say this, I see you in Tallahassee on October the 23rd as it relates to one of the three ethics complaints. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Warren.

Mayor, I need some clarity on the public records request that he made, if he doesn't mind. I'm not sure. Could you please repeat what you had asked something about a harassment of three city officers? What are you asking me to produce? I'm sorry, I missed that.

So I sent over the weekend a public records request asking for

You did submit one via email already? Yes, ma'am. Okay. I just haven't seen it yet. Okay. I'll make sure that the staff has that. I'm sure they processed it. I just did not see if it was a PDE.

Yes, ma'am. And Miles can attest to it. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Sykes. Up next, we have Ms. Layla Williams.

Hello, council members. My name is Lela Williams. I was born and raised in Lake City. And there's a cemetery on Wilson Street that does not have a name. And it's an 1800 cemetery. So I was just wondering if the city could put a sign out there We have military buried out there, and it's an 1800 cemetery. So I was just wondering if there's anything that the city could do as far as putting a sign out there so people know that it's a cemetery there.

That's a good question. Mr. Rosenthal, you want to address that?

Yes, Mayor. We just recently took ownership of that cemetery. Very good. And we're in the process of doing some things there. We'll get a sign out there. Great.

We'll make it happen. You're going to make it happen? Yeah.

Yes, ma'am. We'll get a sign up there.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Williams. All right. That closes public comment. We don't have anybody else that submitted anything. I'm looking around the room. So we will now close public participation, and we will move on to city clerk to announce the results from the primary election held on August 18, 2026. I'll turn it over to you, Ms. Sykes.

The results of the August 18, 2026 election as submitted by the Columbia County Supervisory Elections Office are as follows. City Council District 10, Jennifer Jones, 256 votes. Chevella Reed Young, 217 votes. For a total votes cast, District 10, 473. City Council District 14, Daniel Carlucci, 68 votes. Be Faithful Coker, 51 votes. Ricky Jernigan, 85 votes. Normie Ronsonette, 285 votes. For total votes cast, District 14, 489. Thank you, Ms. Sykes.

That leads us into item number two, which is City Council Resolution number 2026.

Motion to accept the results, please.

Okay. Sorry about that. Mr. Mayor, I move to accept the results.

All right. We have a motion and a second to accept the results on item number one. Do we have any further comment and questions? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed, like sign. All right. We'll move on to item number two, City Council Resolution number 2026-105. Mr. Martin, will you please read that by title?

Certainly, Mr. Mayor, council members, you have before you resolution number 2026105, a resolution of the City Council of the City of Lake City, Florida, declaring Jennifer Jones to have been elected City Council member for District 10 in the August 18, 2026 municipal election, making certain findings of fact and support thereof, recognizing the expiration of said term on the first regularly scheduled City Council meeting following the November 18, 2020, I'm sorry, 2030 state general election directing the city clerk to reflect that election and expiration of term in such records of the city as is necessary and prudent, making certain findings of fact in support of the city clerk reflecting such election and expiration of term in the records of the city, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody signed up to speak to item number two, so we'll move straight into council questions, comments, or I'll entertain a motion to adopt city council resolution number 2026-105.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to approve resolution number 2026-105. Thank you, Mr. Jernigan.

Second. And a second. We have a motion and a second. Thank you both. Any further discussion questions?

I would like to make a comment. Yeah, absolutely, yeah. I would like to say at this time, first of all, congratulations to Ms. Jones. And second of all... I'm elated, and I've learned a lot behind this dais, but I just want you all to know I'm not gonna disappear. I'll serve more on the other side of the dais, put a pin in that, because I enjoy serving people. That's what I have done, that's what I'll continue to do. Teaching, educating, serving, and I'll look forward to still working with this council and also administration.

Those are fantastic words and true spirit of America. Thank you, Ms. Young. Appreciate you. All right, so we have a motion and a second. We've had comments. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Mr. Jernigan?

Yes.

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

Yes. All right, now we'll move on to item number three, City Council Resolution number 2026-106.

Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title? Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Council Members. You have before you Resolution number 2026-106. A resolution of the City Council of the City of Lake City, Florida, declaring Norby Ronsonet to have been elected City Council Member for District 14 in the August 18th, 2026 municipal election, making certain findings of fact and support thereof, recognizing the expiration of said term at the first regularly scheduled City Council meeting following the November 2030 state general election. Directing the city clerk to reflect that election and expiration of term in such records of the city is as necessary improvement Making certain findings of fact in support of the city clerk reflecting such election and expiration of term in the records of the city Repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date. Thank you. Mr. Martin.

Yes, sir Make sure you say mr. Norby Ross in that junior He's a junior He is not a junior

He's not a junior? No, sir.

Why did they put junior there, not JR?

Where did you, we made a correction. We had JR on the original agenda, but it was incorrect, so we did modify it.

Oh, okay. Yes, I'm sorry.

We did make that error.

Okay.

All right. Thank you, Mr. Jernigan. We don't have anybody signed up to speak to this from the public, so I'll take council comments, questions, or entertain a motion.

Mr. Mayor, with that being said, I want to approve city council resolution number 2026-106. We have a motion and a second. Thank you both.

Do we have any further questions or comments?

Yes, I do. I just want to congratulate all of the candidates that ran for this position. It is a life-changing experience to serve a community such as Lake City, Florida. So congratulations to everybody that ran Be Faithful Coker, Danny Carlucci, and of course, with Rossinette being the winner. Just want to congratulate everybody. It's going to be a life changing experience for you to be behind this dice. So tune in and enjoy the ride. I really had a very, very good moment with the city. I served my country, I served my state for 38 and a half years, I served my city for four years. There's not much more you can do but help the city move forward. uh again that that uh police department and that fire department as long as we got people like that that's working for us and this administration uh every department that we have uh if we continue to do that i'm almost positive that we'll be headed in the right direction so y'all keep up the work good work and i appreciate everybody uh mr um the guy back there next to the chief uh excellent uh you gotta depend on that guy there now i'm just telling you uh he you got to depend on him so congratulations to everybody thank you very much mr german again uh all right uh we've had uh comments questions on city council resolution number 2026-016 and now we'll move into a vote miss sykes will you please call the roll

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

Yes. All right. That concludes that portion of the meeting. So we will now move into the open public hearing on proposed fire protection assessment rates. And I will actually... We don't have anybody signed up for public comment on this item, so we'll move in directly into reading of the resolution, Mr. Martin, City Council Resolution Number 2026-095.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council Members, you have before you Resolution Number 2026-095. a resolution of the City Council of the City of Lake City, Florida, constituting the fiscal year 2026-2027 annual fire assessment resolution relating to the provision of fire protection services, facilities, and programs in the City of Lake City, Florida, providing findings, providing authority, providing definitions and interpretation, providing for re-imposition of fire protection assessments against assessed property located within the City of Lake City for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2026, approving final fire assessment rates, approving the final assessment role, confirming the 2026 preliminary rate resolution, providing for effective adoption of annual resolution, providing for conflicts, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Again, we don't have anybody signed up from the public to speak to this item. So we'll move straight into questions, comments, or if anyone would like to make a motion to adopt city council resolution number 2026-095. I'll make one comment before anybody does that. Just for the clarity of the public, we're not making any changes to this. It has not gone up. It has not gone down. This is the same fire assessment rate as 2025.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve City Council Resolution 2026-095. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Thank you. I think we had three seconds on that, so thanks, everybody on the diaspora. Does anybody have any further questions or comments on this item? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. All right, now it's a little more structured as we move into the open tentative hearing of the fiscal year 2026-2027 budget. Our next item of business is to consider this budget and the millage rate for the city of Lake City. First issue to be discussed is the tentative millage. This is item number five, and I will turn it over to you, Ms. Angie.

The computed rollback rate for the City of Lake City 2026-2027 fiscal year is 4.7824. The tentative proposed operating millage rate is 4.7824 mills. The percentage change in property taxes brought about by the proposed tentative millage rate compared to the rollback rate represents a 0.001%. percent increased meaning this tentative rate does not exceed the rollback rate should the council adopt it the millage rate would would be levied would will be 4.78 to 4 mils okay uh does anyone from the public have any comments regarding the proposed millage rate

First, I'll ask Mr. Martin to read city council resolution number 2026-096, and if anybody is interested, please indicate.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. You have before you resolution number 2026-096, a resolution of the city of Lake City, Florida, adopting the tentative millage rate and tentative levy of ad valorem taxes for fiscal year 2026-2027. making certain findings of fact in support of the city adopting said tentative millage rate and tentative levy of ad valorem taxes, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date.

Thank you very much, Mr. Martin. Now I'll look to the audience. I don't see anybody moving to the podium, so we will close public comment on this item. Do any council members have any comments regarding the proposed tentative millage? I'll only say that it's the rollback rate. Again, we're going down in property taxes assessed per household, which is a good thing for the year of 2026-2027. So that's my only comment. If we don't have any other comments, I will entertain a vote or motion from any council members who wish to set the tentative millage rate at 4.7824.

Mr. Mayor, I would like to approve resolution number 2026-096 at 4.824 to 4.7824. Yeah, I got it wrote down a little bit backwards.

Perfect. Thank you very much, Mr. Jernigan. We have a motion and a second. Thank you both. Do we have any other questions or comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll on this item?

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

Yes.

All right. The second issue to be discussed is the tentative budget. Ms. Angie, can you please proceed from here?

Yes. Yes, sir. The tentative budget is $96,766,795 in total revenues and $96,766,795 in total expenditures. I'll pass it back over to you, Mayor.

Thank you very much. Mr. Martin, will you please read this resolution by title? Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Council members, you have before you Resolution No. 2026-097, a resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, adopting the tentative budget for fiscal year 2026-2027, making certain findings of fact in support of the City adopting said tentative budget, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Martin.

We'll now move into public comment. Does anybody have any comments that they would like to step up and make? All right. I will now close public comment. We'll go to council comments or questions. Anybody from the dais?

Mr. Mayor, move to approve city council resolution 2026-097.

We have a motion and a second. I'll make a quick comment before we take this vote. Two years ago, we had a budget of $77, $78 million. This budget is roughly $19 million more than that. $16.5 million of that are grants from the state and federal government. We also have transfers in expenditures to buy the water plant and fix things like Wind Lake and fix up Five Points, which is the majority of that difference in budget. So this is, while it could look wildly different, it is actually lower in operations, including those things, than we were two years ago. I just want to point that out. I think it's really important. as you look around at how these budgets are looked at around the state. That being said, we have a motion in a second. Does anybody else have any comments on this? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. All right. That concludes our millage rate and budget hearings. We will now move on to our next order of business. which is our consent agenda.

So approve, Mayor. Second.

A motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. Do we have any further questions or comments? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, please call the roll.

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

Yes. All right. No presentations tonight. So we will move straight into new business in our ordinances and that begins item number 13 City Council ordinance number 2026 dash 2366 on first reading Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title?

Thank you. Mr. Mayor council members you have before you on first reading ordinance number 2026 2366 An ordinance of the City of Lake City, Florida, amending Chapter 86, entitled Streets, Sidewalks, and Other Places of the City of Lake City Code of Ordinances, creating Chapter 86, Article 6, entitled Mobility Fee System, adopting the mobility plan, adopting the mobility fee technical report, establishing purpose and intent. providing for definitions, imposition, and exemptions, establishing a mobility fee schedule, providing for determination agreements and credits, establishing a benefit district and mobility fee fund account, providing for expenditures, refunds, land development code impact, administration reports, updates, appeals, vested rights, and penalties, providing for codification, providing for scrivener's errors, providing for conflicts, providing for severability, and providing for an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Martin.

I'll now ask Mr. Angelo and our consultant to come up and say a couple words on this.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, Lauren Rushing, Transportation Planner with New Urban Concepts. It's good to see everyone again this evening. So this is new business, but it's not the first time that you've seen it. We have held three workshops over the course of the last year to discuss the mobility plan and mobility fee issues. You also have had a few rounds of one on one meetings with your staff to delve into this topic deeper. So you are well versed on this item now. But just as a recap, the mobility plan is intended to be a vision for the city's transportation system and to guide transportation capital improvement projects and the implementation of those projects. over the lifetime of the plan. The cost of the projects in that plan serve as the basis for the development of a mobility fee. That is going to be a fee that is a one-time fee charged to new development and redevelopment that would be expected to have an additional impact on the transportation system. And the intent of that is to mitigate that impact. So that is not a tax on existing residents or a fee on existing residents. It's something that is only charged to new development when they want to come into the city. And that also is intended to replace your existing transportation concurrency system. So this would be followed by a comprehensive plan amendment to remove any language related to transportation concurrency. and replace that with the mobility fee system. Most of what's been provided to you as the backup for this today is the same as what you saw at our workshop back in April. There were a few items of discussion at that workshop. We have since then worked with your legal counsel to address those items. And they have been incorporated into the updated draft ordinance that was provided to you. And so with that, I'm just here to answer any questions you may have.

Any questions? I have one. Please repeat, if you don't mind, that there's no raising taxes on our constituents or our citizens in the city of Lake City. Can you repeat that?

Yes. So this is a fee that would only be charged to new development or redevelopment that comes in for a building permit. So this is not a fee or a tax that is charged to any existing residents.

Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

Of course. Any other questions, comments?

Mr. Mayor, move to approve City Council Ordinance 2026-2366.

We have a motion. Second.

And a second.

Thank you both.

All right. Any further questions, comments at the dais? 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, moving on to city council ordinance number 2026-2384. Mr. Martin, will you please read this one by title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor, council members. You have before you ordinance number 2026-2384, an ordinance of the city of Lake City, Florida, relating to rates, charges, and fees for water and sewer utility service, amending chapter 102, article 2, section 102-210.1 of the code of ordinance of the city of Lake City, Florida, establishing rates charges and fees for water and sewer utility service as of October 1 2026 making findings of fact and support thereof repealing all ordinances in conflict or with and providing an effective date Thank You mr. Martin we don't have anybody signed up for public comment on this item so we'll move straight to council questions comments

To kick it off, I will say, yes, sir, Mr. Martin.

Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to put on the record the purpose of this ordinance is to give effect to the council's stated desire that rates, fees, and charges for water and sewer service for the upcoming year remain the same.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. That's all I was going to say was no change in utilities, no change in water sewer for constituents in the city of Lake City or our customers. That being said, does anybody else have any questions or comments? I'll entertain a motion to adopt City Council Ordinance Number 2026-2384.

Mayor, I'd like to move to approve Ordinance Number 2026-2385. Second. 2384.

Four, I'm sorry, 84. And a second by you, Mr. Carter. Thank you both. Any further questions or comments? Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes.

are now on item 15 city council ordinance number 2026-2385 uh mr martin will you please read this one by title thank you mr mayor council members you have before you on first reading ordinance number 2026 2385 an ordinance of the city of lake city florida pursuant to petition number anx 2606 submitted by rmc 47 and 242 a llc relating to voluntary annexation annexing certain real property located in Columbia County, Florida, which is reasonably compact and to the boundaries of the city of Lake City, Florida, making certain findings of fact and support thereof, providing several ability, repealing ordinances in conflict, and providing an effective date. Thank you, Mr. Martin.

Mr. Angelo, you have a presentation on this annexation?

Yes, sir. So before you tonight, Mayor and City Council, you have ordinance number 2026-2385. As for annexation number 2606, the applicant... All right. So applicant has requested to annex parcel number 08563-003 into the city. This parcel is located at the corner of Highway 47 and County Road 242A. There we go. And you can see the parcel there highlighted in orange is the proposed annexation, and they're at the corner of Highway 47 and 242A. And therefore, staff has confirmed that this does not create an enclave, a pocket finger, or a serpentine pattern. Staff has confirmed that the property is located in our joint planning area and within that area. And therefore, staff recommends the approval ordinance number 20262385.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Angelo. We don't have anybody signed up for public comment on this item, so we'll move to the dais. This is for layman in layman's terms. This is the field across from the ring court entrance just north of the sun stop at 75 and 47. Does anybody have any questions, comments? Or would like to make a motion to adopt city council ordinance number 2026-2385.

Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve ordinance number 2026-2385. Second.

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

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

Yes.

All right, now we'll move into resolutions, and we're going to begin those with City Council Resolution No. 2026-102, and this is the collective bargaining for the FOP agreement. Mr. Martin, will you please read this one by title?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, you have before you resolution number 2026102, a resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, approving that certain collective bargaining agreement between the City and Florida State Lodge Fraternal Order of Police, making certain findings of fact in support of the City approving said agreement, recognizing the authority of the Mayor to execute and bind the City to said agreement, directing the Mayor to execute and bind the City to said agreement, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date.

Fantastic. Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody signed up for public comment on this item, so we will move straight to questions, comments on the dais.

Mr. Mayor, move to approve Council Resolution 2026-102. Second.

A motion and a second. Thank you both. 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.

yes um all right now on to item number 17 city council resolution number 2026-103 this is a resolution for the collective bargaining for the firefighters local number 2288 mr martin will you please read this by title thank you mr mayor council members you have before you resolution number 2026103

resolution of the city of Lake City Florida approving that certain collective bargaining agreement between the city and local number two two eight eight of the International Association of firefighters AFL CIO making certain findings of fact in support of the city approving set agreement recognizing the authority of the mayor to execute and bind the city to set agreement directing the mayor to execute and bind the city to set agreement repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date Thank you, Mr. Martin.

We don't have anybody signed up to speak to this from the public, so we'll move straight to council questions or comments. Or if anybody would like to make a motion to approve city council resolution number 2026-103.

May I make a motion to approve resolution 2026-103? Second.

Thank you both. Any further questions or comments? Ms. Hikeslee, please call the roll.

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

Yes. All right. Now we're on to number 18, which is City Council Resolution number 2026-104. And this is to reappoint Ms. Brenda Douglas back to the PNZ board.

Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title? thank you mr mayor council members you have before you resolution number 2026104 the resolution of the city of lake city florida reappointing brenda douglas to serve an additional term of four years in seat 1a on the city's planning and zoning board board of adjustment and historic preservation agency boards such term commencing at the end of the current term on october 31st 2026. making certain findings of fact in support thereof, recognizing the expiration of said additional term on October 31st, 2030, directing the city clerk to reflect said reappointment and expiration of term in such records of the city as are necessary and prudent, making certain findings of fact in support of the city clerk reflecting such reappointment and expiration of term in the records of the city, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict and providing an effective date.

thank you mr martin um we don't have anybody signed up to speak to this from the public and i don't see anybody uh motioning to do so so we'll move to council questions comments mr mayor move to approve resolution 2026-104 and i thank miss douglas for serving on that board

We have a motion. Second. And a second. Thank you both. Do we have any further questions or comments from the dais? Hearing none, Ms. Sykes, would you please call the roll?

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

Yes. Now we're moving on to item 19, city council resolution number 2026-123. This is an FAA grant to reconstruct several taxi lanes at the airport.

Mr. Martin, will you please read this by title? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Council members, you have before you resolution number 2026-123. A resolution of the City of Lake City, Florida, approving that certain agreement between the City and the United States Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration for administration of grant funds from the Airport Infrastructure Grant Program, making certain findings of fact in support of the City, approving said agreement, recognizing the authority of the Mayor to execute and bind the City to said agreement, directing the Mayor to execute and bind the City to said agreement, repealing all prior resolutions in conflict, and providing an effective date.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. We don't have anybody from the public that is signed up to speak to this item, so we will move into questions, comments from the dais.

Mayor, I move to approve. Approve resolution number 2026123. Second. Thank you both.

All right, we have a motion and a second to approve City Council Resolution number 2026-123. I don't see any questions or comments further, so Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

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

Yes. All right, that concludes all of our resolutions. So we will now move on to other items. And for discussion, we have a discussion of the youth recreation committee, which we talked about during budget. So I will, we have some items in the packet and I would, what's the best way to kick this off?

Go ahead. If I may, if we would take youth off because it's not just youth recreation committee. because it's actually seniors, youth, Families, we want it to be a community, not just youth recreation. And that may not be a big deal to some, but I think it's necessary that we point that out. And I do appreciate this being on the agenda today. I really do. And one of the requests I've asked that those items which were proposed by myself, I would like to have those items set in place. and hopefully running by my departure of this seat. That means a lot to me, and I certainly appreciate it. And this is one of those. So I believe my question would be, well, I would open with a question if you don't mind. So my question would be, so our discussion is how we're going to select this committee or what we're,

So the establishment of the committee itself, I think, is the establishment and how we want it to look, right? What we want it to do, how we want it to look, and how we want it to function. So the discussion as a whole, and I think part of, you know, you had a good kickoff for discussion on removing, making it more than youth, right? Making it more of a community recreation system. So what we want it, what we want to do is have a broad discussion of one, the operation of this committee, what we want it to do, how we want it to operate to how we want this committee to be composed, um, So we've got function and composure. Mr. Martin, help me out, because you did some research into other cities on this.

Certainly, Mr. Mayor. So what you have before you, and I think they're really the broad areas you just touched on, it would be composition of the committee. It would be the function or charge of the committee. What is its purpose? What is it directed to do? And then it would be finally the functions of the committee and how it operates on a day-to-day basis and how the appointment process itself works.

So function, composition, and charge. Yes. Okay. Very good. Yes, ma'am.

If I may, once we determine the function, the purpose, once we determine the purpose, then we will have a better idea of what the committee should look like.

I think that's right. Mr. Carter.

So we set aside some funds in conjunction with this committee at our previous meeting. I think that the basic function of the committee will be to review applications for those funds and offer suggestions to us, the board, on how we should spend those funds. someone applies for the funds, they go before the board, if it matches certain qualifications, which we will obviously determine. And I do think that we may need to have a workshop on this to really get into some... That's why I suggested before, because we're going to have to talk about what we want the funds for, how we want them divvied up, is there a cap on how much each individual... All those sort of things, right? So I don't know that a council meeting and other items is necessarily the end-all, be-all for how to put this together. But the overall function, it seems to me, would be to be a... a filter slash idea group before it gets to us. And I think a couple of points that I think are important. We had suggested in the previous meeting that perhaps Councilwoman Young would chair it, I've evolved a little on that. I think that it would be an interesting idea, I don't know how the rest of the council feels, to have a council member and or mayor serve as chair on a rotating annual basis so that each member of our board gets to sit on that board and be a part of those conversations at some point throughout the process. I think we should have a representative from Richardson Community Center, as we discussed, i think we should have a representative from animatics park or their board rather i think if he would if he would be interested i think mr nelson would be a great addition to that board i think that there should be a representative or at least ask the United Way would like to put forward a person to serve on that board I think the United Way works with a lot of folks who have who are struggling in various ways they may be able to shine a light on certain things that are missing certain gaps that can be filled in the community when it comes to programs and again the United Way serves not just youth but you know people who need help so currently I think Those are meaningful members of the board. I think it should be either five or seven members. Five is probably plenty. And I think a member of our board should chair it on a rotating basis.

Ms. Young.

My question, when it comes to the chairperson being on the council, and this is a question, would that in some way become conflict of interest when it's time to vote? Yes. I don't think so.

Well, I would say definitely not a... Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. May I be recognized?

Let's see if Mr. Martin has an objective answer to that, and if not, then we'll go to subjective.

I don't... Assuming that there is no inurement of personal gain or loss to the individual from the council, either chairing or otherwise sitting on that board, or to their employer, or to certain family members, I do not think merely sitting on that board in and of itself would create a conflict of interest under the ethics law.

I disagree with that.

Well, my thought on that is if it's a majority recommendation, if it operates democratically, then the majority could be voting a different way than the chair of that board, but the recommendation is still made to this board, and then it has to be voted on again by this board. Does that make sense?

No, if it has to come to the board for a final vote of whatever, I think that one of us should not be already sitting in and listening in on what we desire to happen. I think that it should be separate. We should use somebody from the community and then they chair it. I don't think we should chair it. I believe somebody from the community should chair it. They come up with the board, they do all the lay stuff, then they bring it to us, and then we make the final decision of it. I think that's like double dipping. If I'm on the board, and I'm gonna convince everybody on the board to do what I want, then I'm gonna bring it up here, and then we're talking about it, Make it make sense. That doesn't make sense. It's like double dipping.

Ms. Young and then Mr. Carter.

It might not be legal. I don't think that would be legal.

So, Mayor, and again, we haven't really said the purpose of the board. And I know Councilman Carter said the money, but it's greater than that. I mean, if you think about it, you would want this board to identify recreational needs. throughout the city, the community. So I think there are responsibilities that are great. Now it would come down to the funding, but there's some criterias that would need to be dealt with before. Because first of all, the operation, and we know we have proposed two entities. and working as one unit, if I can put it in that way. And I hear workshop, and I know that takes more time, but if it require workshop, then it requires a workshop. But I truly believe that it's very imperative that we set this orderly and that we set the expectations, make them plain, make them clear, so that we will have an effective board to work this recreation in our community. This is a great start, but we really have to take it serious. And then working with different, like we said, with youth, adults, seniors, we really have to be mindful of the persons whom we select as these committee members.

Mr. Carter, just to clarify something I said before, because I agree with you that the role itself ought to lend itself to the people that are on this committee should feel that it is part of their responsibility to bring ideas to us. So it's not necessarily always a specific organization or specific thing. If they see multiple applications or if they talk to people and they experience a, this is something we need, then a representative of that committee can bring to the council Like, hey, I think we ought to do blank because it will serve blank. So to be clear, I agree that they should feel that it is a mandate of the role to be – which is why my suggestion on who serves in this are who they are. So obviously someone from Richardson, some from Antimatic, some from United Way, if we want to get the – if we want to make sure we're covering the gamut age-wise, perhaps someone from the Lifestyle Enrichment Center, which is the – senior service local senior services maybe a good ask see if they would like to provide someone for the board so as far as that goes I do agree with you on that back at the the idea about the member of the council serving as a chair first of all it's not at all uncommon that when a body like ours creates a committee like this that a member or sometimes even multiple members will serve on that committee I don't know. Yes, sometimes, for sure. Like, for instance, I mean, just a good example, not that that's going very well, is the utility thing that the county and Suwannee County has been doing. That board was originally put together by members of each individual body. But, no, it's very common that a member of a body like ours serves on a committee like that. And the reason I suggest that it rotates is because it allows us – to be a part of a different kind of conversation. And the committees tend to be a little bit more open. They don't come before the committee and necessarily have three minutes to talk. Maybe they come and they have a 20 minute presentation or they want to have a conversation. A committee meeting can allow itself to be a little bit more organic and fluid and a little less rigid than the council meetings tend to be because they're just dealing with a different sort of topic. Also, conflict of interest very specifically is about financial gain of some kind. So just because someone is there and here doesn't make it a conflict of interest. Again, the council person would be one of five. So they would have a minority stake in the overall choice of that committee for whatever they decide to bring before us. So I think it would be a good idea for each of us to have the opportunity to be a part of those conversations at that level and give us a bit of an idea about what's really going on in the communities and with the problems that we're trying to solve with this.

Thank you. Ms. Harris.

Though it may be common, that does not make it the best fit for this. I stand on what I say as far as it not dealing with the council being a part of that. I don't know how your day-to-day thing goes, but my real life, I have a job, I'm a wife, I'm a mother. I have several other things to do versus adding more to my plate. and I just happen not to be a sitting councilwoman. Let me finish. I happen not to be a sitting councilwoman, but I am a working councilwoman in my district. So that means I don't have a whole lot of time to be talking about meeting someone that we can get someone that we count on that is in the community that can come up with some ideas and then bring it to us, and then we have a discussion about it. So I stand on that. Okay, as far as the money that is being allocated, I think we put aside, was it 140,000? 140,000. Am I wrong when I say I thought that money was 70,000 that was allocated to Richardson, 70,000 that was allocated to Anna Maddox? Correct me if I'm wrong, finance person, please. That wasn't my understanding. No. Okay, well, clear me up on that so I can pass it over to the manager. Can she clear that for me? I need that clarification right now.

Well, let me give you my understanding of it, and you can— No, let the finance person talk. I mean, the minutes will state that we all came to a conclusion that we were going to put $140,000 in the pot and that it would be doled out by the Recreation Committee. So those organizations, those organizations.

Okay, okay.

That's not what we, that's not it.

I didn't think so either, but. We'll have to take a look at the minutes.

I'm not saying to keep it that way. I mean, whatever, because it was, that is budget, the way it was budgeted. And those funds were budgeted as to 72 Richardson and 72 Anna Meadows. That's what it was. But listen, listen, let me say this. That's why this committee is very important. Because it may be something that Richardson or nor Annie Meadows offer. And it may be something really great for the community. You know what I'm saying? So if that's the case, the programs have to match. Operational programs have to match before those funds are distributed to either, right? So I'm saying if Annie Madoff or Richardson does not present a particular, a very important program because I don't think neither does seniors specifically. So if we have a, and we did not discuss this in budgeting because we were discussing budget, not specifically programs. But if we, something comes for seniors and neither entity, has something to support that, then we should have space. We should have room to be able to fund that. Does that make sense?

It does. So let's, can we just go ahead and vote on what?

Well, we're not voting tonight. So we were going to discuss next steps. If we had the discussion tonight on how to solidify it, we would come back with a resolution and vote on it at a future date. But I think we still had, did you?

Can we have that, this will be put on the next agenda then?

We have to define what we're voting on first. Okay. Yeah. Mr. Carter.

Real quick, so where we got to in the last meeting, how we got to being a more amorphous sort of thing instead of a specific, specific thing was just for such an occasion as if, for instance, the Lifestyle Enrichment Center wanted to ask us for funding for a certain program for seniors or or something like that. The idea being that it became a general community fund that could help anyone in Lake City, not just specifically those two areas. So obviously, as we discussed before, when it comes to most of these things, those two areas tend to do the great majority of the things. So obviously, at least at first, they will probably be the great majority of the applicants, I would think. So they'll probably end up getting the lion's share of the funds that we distribute this first time around. And hopefully through community partnerships and corporate partnerships and things like that. And we discussed that briefly, too. We're able to grow this fund the next time around. Hopefully we see success in the first year and more organizations are able to come and take part in that. And it can grow and continue, as we discussed last time. That this thing we've created is going to be something of a seed that we hope to grow more and more for our parks and our programs for the community so I had a second thing, I forgot. Go ahead. No problem.

I just needed clarification on that. So if it wasn't, if it was just money that was set aside, I'm with that. I just thought it was just for those two places. But if it works in some of the capacity, that is fine.

Mr. Martin, you had something. Then Angie, you have something. So, Mr. Martin, Angie. I think Ms. Young had her hand up first. Okay, Ms. Young.

If I can get us back to speed to why we're here in this part of the agenda. Perfect. That's what we need to get back to. So, we need to get back to how we're going to – set this committee. That's what we need to get to. So the funding will come after.

Function, charge, and composition. So a function sounds like to identify and support recreation and represent those ideas to the council. That's what the function sounds like. Mr. Carter, then Mr. Martin.

Well, I just have a question primarily for Mr. Martin. On committees like this, is there generally a set of bylaws? How do governments put into place all the different verbiage necessary to make the thing official? And if that's the case, have you already had the opportunity to seek out some frameworks that already exist in other communities? And if not, I think that's probably a good place to start when we're putting together information for the workshops.

So in answer to that question, it happens in various ways depending on the community. Sometimes the matter of bylaws and internal operations is something that's never addressed at all formally. It just kind of evolves. using general principles of meeting management and decorum. If this board wanted to give particular direction and create particular processes, the way you would do it would be in the process of organizing and composing the committee, either by resolution or ordinance, which is actually why I was raising my hand, and I'll dive into that in just a second. Another way I've seen it done is this board could just simply say that the advisory committee shall adopt its own bylaws and punt it over to them. So it can happen in multiple different ways. It just depends on the preference of the organizing body, which is the council in this case. as a matter of process and how this gets created. So the city currently has an ordinance that sets out a very definite way that advisory committees are created and composed. Generally speaking, well not generally, specifically the ordinance says that the mayor appoints the members and the mayor appoints the chairman. Presumably those appointments are made on nominations received either from the council or the public, but that doesn't necessarily have to be the case based on the ordinance. If the council wants to go about having this committee created and composed in a different way, the way to do that would be rather than doing it by resolution to give effect to your current existing ordinance, you would need to adopt a new ordinance. So the difference would be basically whether you do it in a resolution that requires one reading or whether you do it by ordinance that requires two, And the path that is taken there depends on whether you use the current mechanism that's already in your ordinances or if you want to go an alternate route. Go alternate route. It just needs to be done by ordinance. Go with existing system where mayor does all the appointments. You can do it by resolution once the council arrives at what they want it to look like otherwise. Yes, ma'am.

So once

So what are your thoughts, Mayor, on that before I ask this question?

So my thoughts are the city used to have a ton of committees, right? A ton of committees, a ton of councils. And they were dismantled during COVID, right? Am I right with that? That's my understanding. So I would wonder how we were doing that before. Were we doing that by resolution? I don't think it matters whether we do it by – I think resolution is fine. um resolution is fine i don't think that we need a first and second reading to create these committees um and then we we have an open solicitation for people to show their interest um and then we make a selection based on that interest does that make sense i agree and i would like to say if i may this is a very unique this is not a um

Just a casual board. This is not going to be a board that we see in the city around all the time. This is a very unique committee. And one thing, I do believe that this needs to carry on for two years and us not have to look at it every year.

Mm-hmm.

And that's even with the budgeting, like next budget. And we're doing it every year. Does that make sense? I don't think we have to look at this. You have to look at this every year. We need to determine how long the members will actually sit. I agree with that. And to piggyback off what Councilwoman Harris said, we're living in microwave time. era yeah busy busy busy so you got to think about quorum at least seven because your people just not may not show up and you don't want a waste wasted time set you see what i'm saying i agree um so then again um searching out through these applications it's very important to that we be able to identify people who are really serious, serious about it. Someone whose knowledge, experience in youth recreation, some on senior recreation, and these people, when they're already experienced in these areas, they're going to be more willing because they most times like what they do. So, yes. Oh, Mayor.

Yes, ma'am.

I think. Take it easy. I'm gonna disagree with you as far as having it every two years, at least to start it. Because it's brand new, we wanna probably bring it back at least for the first two years to make sure it's rolling pretty well. You know what I mean?

What the hell are we just saying? You said every two years, right? Yes, I said, look at it again, not every year, but maybe two years.

I think it should be every year until we're comfortable that it's flowing. You know how fast a year goes by.

You ain't give them time to sit. We haven't learned the position.

We can keep abreast of what they're doing, how it's going. Is it flowing? Do we need to bring something else new? Do we need to create something else? Take something away, put something on. Yeah, you got to give it time, too. That's why you will come every year.

Mr. Carter.

I think it makes plenty of sense to make the term of the seat two years. That's pretty common. I think that's like our P&Z board and stuff like that, for instance. Is that four? Are those four? Whichever your choice, if we make the seat two years, three years, four years, I mean, we're still able, it's not like they're hidden away somewhere in a closet. I'm expecting us to get fairly regular reports from the committee, so we'll be able to maintain, and of course, we ought to also make sure that when we're putting together the verbiage here, we have the power to remove someone if they're not participating adequately. You know, again, like we have certain, certain boards and committees have rules like, you know, three absences in a row or whatever. Um, so obviously we, we're, we're still the boss. So, you know, if we have someone who's not doing the thing that we can remove them, you know, we should be, regardless of how long the term is for each person, we should be interacting in a fairly regular basis with this committee. So, I mean, I think we'll have a good eye on it and obviously it's important to all of us. So we're all going to be paying pretty close attention to it. Um, from that standpoint. But setting like a fairly normal length term for the seats themselves is fine. Also to be clear, when I was talking before about a member of our board serving on it, it is my opinion that a member from the council should serve on it. Obviously, it is not my opinion. Well, if it's not obvious, it's not my opinion that on a rotational basis, a member should be forced to do it. Obviously, if you, Ms. Harris, do not have the time and do not wish to serve on that particular board, that's fine. I don't think we should suggest that you have to.

You know how awful that would sound to my constituents to hear that I wouldn't have time for that? I don't even think that should be...

I'm still recognized. But to be clear... You said that a moment ago, and it's not unfair. We all have, well, most of us have day jobs. I have a full-time day job. I believe Ms. Young also has a full-time day job. You do. The mayor does. Mr. Rickey, I think, is retired.

I got a full-time job.

Okay, there you go. Well, either way, so to be clear, I don't think anyone in the city is under the mistaken assumption that we don't also have full-time jobs, children, lives, grandchildren, what have you. Yeah. So, no, I mean, that's not anyone who would criticize you for saying I don't have time to serve on that would not be being fair to you. But I think that someone from the board should do it. I mean, I'm happy to volunteer for the first time. I think that someone on our board should be a part of those meetings. And if you guys don't think they should be the chair of the meeting, again, that's fine, too. But I think that a member of the council should be a member of that committee.

As far as the seats, there's actually – so in this dummy resolution, I'll call it that, on this item, there are seven seats established, two-year terms. The first ones would run through 2028, 2029, and 2030 in a staggered fashion so that you wouldn't have a full turnover of the board. I think that's a wise thing to do. a smart thing to do another thing that was included on here was that it would be the vice mayor position and the vice mayor's responsibility to oversee that board i think that that's also something um that that is i think that's the right thing to do um whoever the vice mayor is at the time should oversee that board and it should be part of the consideration of becoming the vice mayor right that this is something that you're going to dive into. You're going to oversee this. You're going to bring recreation and youth outreach or recreation and outreach back to the board and help us grow in the community and grow the community in a responsible way. So I think those two things. Do you guys want to set a full workshop for this and lay it out and have a structured composition, hammer it out? Yeah. Purpose, we'll finalize the purpose. We'll have a proposed purpose. I think that our proposed purpose should be overarching to identify and support recreation to the council from the community. Yes, sir.

be clear i just think uh i think this should not be a five o'clock before a six o'clock meeting workshop it should be a separate day okay we should be i mean we should be prepared to dig in it could take more than an hour to figure all this out it shouldn't take we've just spent about an hour well that's the point if we just spent 30 minutes talking about it we've gotten not very far we may need a couple of hours at least to do this mr rosenthal you've indicated that you'd like to say something

Yes, just based on what the board mayor said already, we're looking for something for recreation ideas and opportunities for recreation. We've talked about a five-member board. That board would make recommendations to the council on recreation ideas, recreation proposals. They review opportunities for recreation and review all applications. The members will stay on the board. We've talked about two years. And they will utilize the resolution process instead of the ordinance process. So I'm reading that because if you like, staff can come up with some general ideas to give you a format to work from. That way you should be able to operate a little bit more efficiently when you consider that. Sounds great.

If you would like us to do that. Good notes taken. Good notes taken. I think that we should take the opportunity to do a workshop to take the bones from this conversation Again, to finalize the function of the board, the charge of the board in terms of accountability and overall function, and then the composition of the board. I think that we could do that in an hour, hour and a half. I think that it'll probably run over if we do it at 5 o'clock into a next meeting. And currently, and here's just an addendum to that as well, September 21st, our next meeting, we have a CRA meeting scheduled. prior to to help finalize some of the function of the CRA going forward in the new development. So things like the residential program and the expanded business grant program so that we know how we're allocating those funds going forward. So that's why I would say in order for us to get this done and have it voted on in October, ready to roll, we should probably have it as a separate day.

But what day will you? I don't know.

I don't know. That's a good question. Does anybody have a day of the week that's preferable to everybody else's?

Mr. Mayor, Mondays and Thursdays are good days for me.

Mondays and Thursdays. I think that we could probably in two weeks have one in two weeks around the same time as our or the following week of our September 21st meeting, because we have two weeks in between there and October 5th. There will be two consecutive Mondays in between those.

Does that make sense?

So one of those Mondays?

Two consecutive Mondays when?

Between our next one. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm adding time to the calendar.

I like that.

I just can't do math sometimes.

Sorry about that. Mayor, I think he said something about a five-member committee. I think you were talking about seven. Seven-member, yeah.

Okay, I'll change that. Thank you. But this would be something that, so these recommendations, and it should be pretty structured for us to have our conversation around based on the bones that he picked up. so that we can hammer these items out in that workshop. Wham, bam.

Very good. So you were talking about what date now?

I was actually, I was thinking that we had two Mondays in between our next meeting and October 5th. I was wrong. We have one. We could use the 28th, which is a Monday, September 28th.

Would be fine with me.

Yeah, there's no meeting that night. There's no currently scheduled meeting that night. So we'd only meet for this workshop.

Just don't put that in stone right now, because I have to look at it.

Tentatively.

I think the 28th I am.

Tentatively the 28th.

At what time, Mayor? Six o'clock. We're not putting that in stone right now.

Yeah, we're not. Tentatively the 28th at 530. Happy medium.

So, question, Mayor. Yes, ma'am. The seven members, that's not inclusive of the...

It would include the chair. It would be the vice, in my mind.

Not include.

It would include.

Would include.

It would include. Unless we made him an ex officio. But we can discuss that in that workshop, too.

Because in the voting, in the meeting, is the council going to be a part of that voting?

Well, that's why we say if it's ex officio or not. We do need to hammer that out. I would say yes, but it needs to be a discussion to hammer out. So let's have that discussion tentatively September 28th at 5.30 p.m. Is that okay? Thank you. All right, very good.

Tentatively.

Councilwoman Harris. All right. Well, that concludes that item. Our next item shouldn't be as full of discussion. So we're closed out with item number 21. Sorry, folks. Item number 20, we're moving on to item number 21, which is the fire pension board vacancy. Council appointed trustee to serve a two-year term. This was advertised. Ms. Sykes, did we get anybody that responded to these?

No, sir. I advertised that. I have a note somewhere. Back in July, July 17th, I sent it in, and it was supposed to run on, and it ran on the 18th, and we did not get any movement on that at all.

So this is, they must be city residents, they must serve a two year term, ideally they would be aggressively experienced with almost cpa level investment capability um i think it was david tell me what his name david uh cfo of first federal was the last had to step out of this this seat um so do we need to advertise it again or what do we need to do thoughts Yes, sir.

Mr. Mayor. If we don't have any applicants, well, quick question. Is the board capable of functioning with the number of people that are currently on it? Like, do they have a quorum? Or do they lack a quorum without this?

Sometimes it's difficult for them. They have asked for us to please find someone to fill that vacancy.

Then I would suggest that we advertise it again, but then I would also suggest that maybe the five of us, you know.

Do significant outreach.

Do some outreach. Find somebody, find some bodies to apply.

I've reached out to a handful of financial institutions this week to see, just based on this discussion, to see if there was anybody that was interested, local institutions. I mean, I've gotten a couple of tugs on the line, but we'll see how it pans out. All right. Anybody else have any discussion on this item? All right. Well, that's it for item number 21 then. We'll re-advertise it.

we'll all reach out and bring some people back all right so now we will move on to our comments and we'll begin with departmental administrative with you Mr. Rosenthal thank you mayor some time ago we acquired a house from Columbia County located 854 Monroe and we said we were open for deposition suggestions as what we would do with that house we had a suggestion with Councilwoman Harris that she wanted to present to the board okay

Do you want to do it now or do you want to do it as a future discussion item?

No. I said that Councilwoman Harris had a possible use of the House of 854 Monroe.

Oh yeah, since we do not have, we'll say something for the homeless, I'll use that term loosely, I would rather say transitional housing, because we don't want somebody to just be there, we want while they're there, they're learning to maybe fill out a job application, have an address to sign up for social security or whatever we want them to have a home. So with that being said, since the county gave the city that house, I was wondering if I would be able to use that house as a transitional house. First of all, that house has a lot of issues.

We're going to get it checked out.

If it's a good house, if One of my concerns was asbestos and other stuff that could be going on with the house. So of course, if we cannot use it for the house, if we cannot use the house, of course we won't use it. But what else are we gonna do with that house? A question.

Yes, ma'am.

I like to say that sister. Councilwoman Harris, when you say transitional, kind of tell me, what is the time when you say transitional?

You give them a period of time to stay there. Say for instance, just I think last week it was a lady that was, she ended up killing herself. She was homeless and to get on housing authority and get in one of those homes that will help you with rent and stuff, the list is so long. And because she was unable to find housing, you have to have a house to have an address. You have to have an address in order to get social security check if you're eligible for that or your VA check or whatever. You have to have an address. So they will be there, not just living there doing nothing. They will have to have a job. There's certain things that they will have to do. Me and... Clay would be going to something so I can learn more of what they offer. Right, Clay, on the 24th, the thing that you were just telling me about?

Yes, Mr. Mayor. So I'd ask Ms. Harris to attend with me an organization I've been involved with, asked, it's an organization called Family Promise. It is a national organization with a chapter in Alachua County that after hearing from Ms. Harris, I said, wait a minute, I know somebody who does this I can connect you with. They happen to be having their annual meeting in about exactly actually two weeks from today. And I was gonna go to that luncheon and she happened to mention this to me the other day and I said, well, I'm going to this luncheon, why don't you come with me and I can introduce you to people that do exactly what you're talking about. So that's what she's referencing. Thank you, Ms. Vernon.

So this will be a city operation? Operated by a city? No.

What I'm going to need is I want to be able to rent the house for so many years up under my own 501c3. We have done that before, right Clay? We have rented out homes or whatever, not necessarily homes, but buildings or whatever to constituents, to 5013Cs or something like that. Maybe, wait, wait, wait, let's back up. Let me go and visit this and find out as much as I can. That way I can come back and give you all something more concrete versus me guessing on it. That way when you ask me a question like that, I'll be done, done the research, will be done, done the research, right? And I'll be able to answer that question more effectively versus me guessing. Great.

Mr. Carter and then Mr. Rosenthal.

Just one little thought. If there's an organization out there that we can give a house to that can put it to good use, I'm fine with the idea of giving it to them. Obviously, the county just gave it to us. Other than that, I would say we knock it down and put it back on the market. So somebody can build something new there. If it's an old dilapidated house full of asbestos, et cetera, et cetera.

I don't know if it is.

Well, it definitely seems like it's had some troubles. But the same thing when we talk about a housing authority, I have no interest in the city being anybody's landlords if we can help it. So I don't know that that – and in all fairness, that sounds like it could be what is called a conflict of interest.

We definitely need to be careful with that. Yeah.

Mr. Rosenthal, we're still on your items. Mayor, I was just going to say that that was the end of what I had to bring up, that item discussion.

Thank you, Mr. Rosenthal.

So, Clay, I have a question. Is that common that, and all of us, we're up here, we're fairly new, so we would not know, but is that fairly common that a city has done that before, particularly Lake City? Do you know of?

Cities do lease properties to nonprofits to fulfill their organizational purposes. Thank you.

Thank you. Mr. Martin, it's your turn. Comments? Departmental comments?

No comment.

Thank you, Mr. Martin. Ms. Sykes?

No comment. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Young?

I think I'm good.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Young.

Mr. Jernigan. Again, you know, I just want to thank everybody for working hand and feet with me on my tour of duty here with the City of Lake City. Thank my wife for standing by me all the way through this thing. doing the things that she did. And I just, you know, I love this police department and this fire department. And, you know, I appreciate everything that they have done for the city, Lake City and Columbia County, to be honest with you. So I just want to keep that going. I don't know which one of you guys are going to do it, but uh always recognizing that that uh city and uh uh the city of lake city police department and our city uh fire department and and all these other uh uh department heads that we have here you know uh the water guys this poor guy back there i mean these guys are like uh the finance over here you know these guys are like uh very clever and uh i give uh mr rothendahl his his his his accolades or whatever you wanna call it. But without this committee that they have out here, look at procurement back there. These guys are so good in what they do. So I just want, Ms. Sykes is right here beside us every day. I just wanna thank y'all for what y'all have done for the city of Lake City and please do not stop. Just keep up the good work. They can't do anything without you guys. I don't think so anyway.

um but anyway that's it uh let's have a good good uh let's have a good time okay thank you mr jernigan oh i'm sorry yes vice marianna i've got so tickled i forgot to say there's one more very important thing that um that i really want to get um called out on this diet so we can get it closed out and everything. And that's the CRA residential. And we're gonna have it on the next agenda, hopefully. Okay, there we go.

It'll be on the next CRA agenda. Which is the 21st. Which is the 21st, the CRA.

All right, thank you, Vice Mayor Young. Councilman Carter.

Hello. All right. I've got a couple things. One long thing, one quick thing. Actually, the long thing doesn't necessarily have to be that long. And honestly, some of this is through lack of negligence, I think, on our part, though obviously we have a lot of things going on at any given time. But there is, and I think Mr. Thomason back there can probably agree with me, and Mr. Angelo definitely would if he were here, a pretty significant issue with an important aspect of our government and that being the attendance and function and use of our planning and zoning board. I previously served on that board, our previous mayor served on the board for 12 years. The board does an important function that is currently suffering severely. We rely on them to listen to the community, to listen to staff, and to make recommendations to us. We see them on our agenda all the time on how we ought to go about replanting a piece of property, approving various site plans, et cetera, et cetera. Most of the time, their meetings are not vigorously attended but I'll tell you sometimes they deal with very very very important things when I was on that board I had to sit through an 11 hour meeting at one point so we have I don't know if the rest you guys watch those at all but we have had well I was in I was on the board at the time I couldn't escape but we had I try to watch as many of them as I can. And one of the issues is we have a very consistent level of no-shows or quite late to the meetings. There's three members of the seven-member board that are consistently there on time. Our chair, Ms. Douglas, who we reappointed tonight, previous chair, Christopher Lydic, and Danny Carlucci, I think is maybe the newest member of that board. Those three people generally are there on time and ready to go. And obviously, Mr. Lydic chaired it for many years, has a good breadth of knowledge on the subjects that they're dealing with. what I would like staff to do and look at is first of all who needs to be removed from that board because they are consistently not coming to the meetings who needs to at least be said hey listen if you don't start coming you're going to be removed from the board secondly we've talked about this before whenever we appoint people we at the moment have but one real qualification to be on the board and that is be an adult who lives in Lake City I don't think that's enough I think we need to determine little bit a little bit more specific standards for for who serves on that board I need to and then furthermore I think that the city should provide the people who serve on that board with a level of annual or biannual training so so they go to because those things exist there's a lot of organizations that put on training like for instance the North Central Florida Regional Planning Council um among others but i think that the people that serve on that board need to understand what that board is and what it does and i do not think well i don't know because half the board never shows up i do not think that that is currently the case at least not for all the members furthermore and to re-emphasize my point i know for a fact that at least twice one being this past tuesday in the last six months the board tried to convene did not have a quorum and had to Had to cancel a meeting. Tuesday's meeting, there was a gentleman who drove from Atlanta to our meeting representing Racetrack and then had to be told, whoops, sorry, we don't have a quorum because the seven people on this board couldn't get together at the same time, even though it's the same time every month. So if you don't want to be on the board, if you don't want to come to the meetings, you should be removed from the board. And I think we need to put into place more stringent standards for how you get on that board. And I think that the people we put on the board need to be educated to a fair degree on what it is doing. And I think that the city owns some of the responsibility, at least, for making sure that we give them a basic level of understanding through some training for that board. Because it isn't a joke, but it's starting to look like one. I don't think that has anything to do with staff, though. To be clear, I don't hold any member of staff responsible for it. It's just an issue. And really, it's our issue. So I think that we need to have staff look into perhaps what some communities that have well-functioning P&Z boards do as far as their parameters for being on it and staying on it. Because when we get recommendations, they need to be good ones. And quite frankly, I'm glad that I have served on that board before, and when I watch the meetings, I tend to know what's going on there, but I don't feel like we're getting recommendations from a board right now that knows what they're recommending. I've seen several of those meetings where they've made decisions that went directly counter to our LDR, which is the Bible of that board, and so there's a lot of issues there, and I'd love for staff to share with us what their thoughts are and come back with some more, you know.

You need to share that forward.

Yes, sir, Mr. Thomas.

So we have identified one member who has missed several meetings in the last six months, and it's going to be our recommendation to replace that person. I have directed staff to start calling the board members the week before and making sure they're going to be there, and if they're not going to be there, to let us know. That's something they have not been doing. They have been sending emails, but... they don't always look at their emails. So I said, well, let's call them and follow up with an email. That way we have some sort of documentation as well. As far as training goes, staff has identified training. We just sent two over to the Plaka area for some training. Our budget is kind of constrained when it comes to training, but we're trying to identify lower cost training. We wanted to send a bunch of members down to some more advanced training, but the cost was just outside of our reach. So we are working on things and trying to figure out how we can make sure they get the training they need and also make sure they show up because it is important. It was rather embarrassing that we didn't have a quorum the other night.

Yes, sir.

And to be clear, I agree with you. I think we need to do some training. I don't necessarily think we need to give these folks like a degree in land use. Right. Obviously, this is a community volunteer board. But but honestly, just a little bit of guidance and a little bit of training can go a long way. Most of the stuff, if you know, if you have a general idea of what you're really supposed to be doing there, the LDR will teach you most of it. And hopefully people who serve on this board are opening that up also.

And I will also add that we just recently passed an ordinance allowing staff to the LDR administrator to approve a lot of things. So it will take some pressure off the board.

Yes, sir, Mr. President. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Scott.

Appreciate it. So that was my first thing. My second thing, that was the long thing, right? My second thing is just this. I know certain people are going to get tired of hearing it, but I'm just going to stick to it because it's how I feel. The Constitution of the United States does not give you rights. It protects them, and free people do not live in a surveillance state. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Kerner. Up next, we have Councilwoman Harris.

Good evening, everybody. Okay, I have a couple of things that I would like to say. I'd like to thank the Mayor, Carter, and Jernigan, along with Don and Bo and Steve, all of them for coming to the street naming change of Foreman Terrace and Betty Lane. I thank y'all for coming, it was a real nice thing. All right, I would also like to thank Commissioner Parnell for meeting with me on Long and Main Streets. I went and purchased some flowers and we put our flowers out on Main Street, so you all go by and pass by and look at those. I'd like to personally thank him, County Commissioner Parnell. The third thing, this is just a question, I don't know if we'll be able to do this or not, but if we could possibly pass a referendum or something whereas we pass by retention ponds and they're either growed up, have no fence around them or anything at businesses. I think that we should have something in place whereas a business have to have a fence around it. I saw on the news the other day a child had wandered out there and in Florida we have a lot of those where children get be drowned for those retention lines so we can do maybe a referendum or something whereas we were um put in place where the people have to have fencing around that retention pond and keep it cleaned out so i don't know what what we could do that would be part of the standards the building standards mr thompson can you speak to that

So our land development regulations do require several things about retention ponds. One is that they look like a natural shape. They don't necessarily require a fence unless they are a certain depth. I think it's a good idea. I'm very much pro drowning prevention, and I think that's a great idea. Our code enforcement does respond to complaints, and we have several that we've addressed. I'm not going to mention the businesses, but we've made them clean them up. So it's always a work in progress. If you see any, just give us a call, and we'll make sure we get them cleaned up.

If it's a business and you all have went out several times to make them, your words, not mine, to clean them up, should there be some type of, I mean, something that's put in place, okay, we done told you three times and you keep doing the same thing. Is there anything put in place whereas we can make them continue to keep it clean up without us having to... Because Code Enforcement, y'all have a big job already. So just to keep riding around having to go and tell the same people the same thing year after year about cleaning up their property when they very well know that they should.

We do have a lot of repeat offenders, and that's something that we're trying to work with the magistrate on and allowing us to be a little more... Strict or or because right now we're giving them slap on the wrist and that does nothing So we want to be able to kind of penalize them a little bit more Is there anything that we could us being the council in the mirror that we can do to possibly?

put something in place whereas they have to have a fence up or something

It's something we can look at. A number of the retention ponds we have may be Department of Transportation, and so that may be a matter of reaching out directly to them to see what the engineering of that pond is, to see if it warrants a fence or not, and work with DOT to fence theirs. If it's on private property, what I'm hearing is we already have established ordinances in place. It's just a matter of compliance. I'm not sure exactly what the compliance rate is. If most comply on the warning or second warning and they come into compliance, then we're getting the compliance. It's just a matter of probably the number of retention ponds that we just have in the city. and the number of codes enforcement staff that we have.

So if they're a business in the city limits and we have to go to DOT about them putting something around it?

Well, if the retention pond is actually owned by DOT, and many of them are, we would have to go to DOT because they're the property owner. But as Mr. Thomason said, many times the retention ponds are designed to hold little or no water, but there are others that hold very deep water that you can drown in very easily. And so it's on a case-by-case basis, but I'm hearing that we've got the law in place. It's just a matter of enforcement and compliance.

So do you believe we need to have something in place whereas you all don't went to the same business three, four times and they keep doing the same thing?

We would love to be able to do a little bit more. And again, we've been trying to push the magistrate on that.

Mr. Carter, you have a question?

I hear you saying that we would love to do a bit more, so I'm just asking, what needs doing? What is the magistrate doing or not doing? Is there anything that we can do, Mr. Martin, about a magistrate doing or not doing something?

I would, we would like to, because what we do currently is if they don't come into compliance in a certain amount of time, we impose daily fines. And a lot of times if they clean it up, it's hard to get those fines. So we want, and that's not just for retainage bonds. That just goes for code enforcement in general. But we do have a lot of repeat offenders where we get properties cleaned up And a couple months later, everything is overgrown. It's trashed again. And the same with the retainage ponds. And it's a recurring cycle. And all we do is slap them on the hand or the wrist, and it's not a big deal to them. So we want to be able to maybe increase our penalties, or if there's a repeat offender, we can kind of increase the fines, hit them in the pocketbook, and maybe they're going to start wanting to stay compliant.

Or a more immediate fine. Ms. Young?

Am I hearing that we have set compliances, but no consequences for noncompliance?

I don't think that's correct.

It's a lengthy process. So whenever, like when a house is overgrown or something like that, if code enforcement goes out to it, they document it. They have to bring documentation to the magistrate. The magistrate meets once a month, right? And... may just tell those folks, hey, you need to knock those weeds down or in 30 days you're going to start getting a $50 fine a day. Well, those folks will knock the weeds down that time, but then not do anything about it for the next 100 days and it's grown back up. And by the time code enforcement's gotten back around, it's worse than it was the first time.

Okay, so we're looking for something in the in-between.

We're looking for a magistrate. Oh, yeah.

So, because there's something I've been dealing with for, what, a year and a half that's at the magistrate's desk, it's got to be piled at high.

It's got to be, yeah.

So, yes, something has to be done.

Yes, sir, Mr. Martin. I was just going to say this is something I wasn't aware of. I was going to ask if I can get with codes enforcement staff and do a deep dive on it and just learn more about what the actual situation is, get with Ms. Harris. get an idea of exactly some of the places she's looking at that seem to be continuing problems and see if we can match facts to law.

I think I speak for everybody up here. It's a safety issue when we're talking about this. It's a safety issue, so it needs to be as quickly as possible.

I think that we'd all be in agreement that that would be a good action. Thank you, Mr. Martin. Thank you, Ms. Harris.

And Ms. Harris, if you have them, just let me know and we'll make sure we get codes of enforcement out there.

Dollar General, you probably have been passed by.

That's a repeat offender, yes.

Yeah. Okay, thank you. All right. I have a question about the Flocker cameras. Flock, I'm sorry. Flock cameras. So, with that being said, you know, our governor came out with something about them, right? I want to know from Chief, where are we with that here in Lake City? Because I know a lot of the surrounding communities, they have been taking them up or whatever.

Yeah, by the governor's order.

State roads, but not.

State roads. We've been in contact with the company. They're aware. They've got, I believe, Lieutenant Milligan's the one who normally handles it, like 1,200 that they've got to take down or more. They have told us that they will get it down within the 30-day period that the governor's mandated. If anything happens and for some reason they don't, we told them we want them shut off and we'll have them physically covered until they can take them down. But the ones on the state roads, we will comply with the governor's order.

How many we have on a state road?

Seven, I believe.

Seven?

Seven. Oh, okay. All right. Most of them on 90.

All right. That's it, Chief. Okay. We need to...

Thanks, Chief.

Thank you, Chief. Talk about the flock of cameras a little bit more in depth. Flock cameras.

Mr. Mayor, I agree.

All right. Y'all can clap. Okay. So the next thing I want to say is I had the pleasure of being with Ms. Natalie Moore on September the 1st. They had a suicide awareness event at the Darby Pavilion. and it was about mental health and as I thought about, as I was there and I listened to many of the stories about, I work in mental health so I'm used to people, feeling a certain kind of way, but when she, they brought it home when they were talking about people like lawyers, doctors, and all of that. They have a high rate of suicides and stuff going on. I thought about us as politicians. I have... I've been in this seat for almost two years come November. And being in this seat, I have never in my life seen human beings belittle, berate, just darn near rip people to shreds consistently. And we feel strong today, but my thoughts of that is we don't know what tomorrow may bring when somebody is consistently belittling you, consistently criticizing you, consistently fighting against you. Like I said, we're strong today, but we don't know what our tomorrow may be. I might be dealing with something home, and that might be the last little drop in the bucket. find out something's on Facebook, I hear something. And with that being said, I think that the city, we should protect our own as far as our politicians, when we're in this, when we're sitting up here, because we get beat up, I mean, consistently, and some more than others. I feel like that we should have something in place whereas we could get help. And I don't know what that looked like. I think that at first I was thinking about maybe something like free healthcare for us. I looked at the healthcare when I was at HR filling out my healthcare work.

It's almost half this little check we get.

And it's for two people. And it's funny when you're sitting up here, but when you need health care or when you're going through something and you feel like you're in a place where you can't go out and get help because you don't have that health care, that's a big deal to you. Or most of us have jobs up here or whatever, but let's just say if we lost that job and this was our only source of income and we do not have health care but we need some mental health, that would be a problem.

Yeah, Councilwoman, I'm going to have HR talk about our EAP program. Thank you, Mr. Rosenbaugh.

The city does have an employee assistance plan. It doesn't provide financial assistance, but it does point employees into the right direction to where they can get assistance for mental health. And most mental health in this country is free, even if you don't have insurance. You can get free mental health counseling.

Okay. Free mental health. I work to a mental health place.

I'm not going out there.

I know too many people, so it would definitely have to be some side place or something like that I would have to go to because I would not want to. That's a private matter.

Right. And in addition, just for those of you that aren't aware, For the city's group health insurance, the city pays 80% of employee and dependents. The employees only paying 20%. So that rate that you see is, and our increase this year was nowhere near as high as what some of our other municipalities and counties got this year.

That's good to know. Thank you. How have I been sitting back here for two years and I could have been suggesting that to Vice Mayor Young that long.

but thank you so much thank you so much hey miss uh miss uh billy joe uh i heard you say something about mental health and yeah i heard the uh uh the city manager say something about eap do they have eap for uh for aa for alcohol anonymous because i think some people around here really needs that that the eap covers a lot of different facets it will it will cover um

Any kind of mental health, it will cover gambling, it covers alcohol, drug addiction. There's a lot of facets to that.

Okay, thank you.

Did you know someone that you would like to?

Anything further, Councilwoman?

I just asked him a question. Oh, okay. What did you ask him? Why did you know someone that might be interested in AA?

Yeah, they probably need AA, BACA.

Very good.

I'll be done for right now.

Okay. My comments are last night a student from LCMS got critically injured playing at Memorial Stadium, so I just want to put my thoughts and prayers out to his family. I hope that he comes through and recovers. I know that he was lifelighted. So put your thoughts and prayers out to him. 9-11 is tomorrow. It's the 25th anniversary of probably one of the most pivotal moments in American history, if not the single most pivotal moment in American history since December 7, 1942. We... we've traveled a long distance in time uh since those planes hit the towers uh we as americans have um you know to build off what mr carter said we've been somewhat of a frog in boiling water with our rights in terms of surveillance and all of those things. We carry around surveillance every day. There are satellites that can check your driveway twice a day. It's all legal. None of these things were in place before 9-11. So we have foregone a lot of those things. And it's sad to see that slide over 25 years as the American people. But I want to remember the brave men and women who were pulling people out of burning rubble on those days and for weeks past. So definitely carry that in your thoughts tomorrow. It's a somber day for America for many, many reasons. Events from the Fire Department and Police Department. National Night Out is coming up on October 6, 2026. This is going to be from 5 to 8 p.m. This is a great time. So if you have a family, I know I'll be bringing my kids out to it. It'll be a really good time. Thor had a good time checking out the new fire truck last year and all the face painting and everything that goes on there. Tomorrow, also, the city is hosting the 25th anniversary of September 11th. We will be in the bays at the fire department. So if you're interested in joining us for that, that'll be a great memorial that they're doing. I'd also like to wish a happy birthday to Jason Dumas, our IT director. So happy birthday to you. I won't sing to you here publicly. Go up, go up. but happy birthday um and also uh to build off of something that uh mr jernigan said earlier um running for office is not easy it's not easy so kudos to everybody who did and came through those primaries kudos to to uh all of you and and what's even harder is is sitting in the chair so kudos to you two who just went through that process and have been sitting in these chairs and giving it your all last couple years so and thank you honestly and then one more thing there was a discussion earlier that I was having with the city manager and I think it would build off of what mr. Carter was talking about with the ability to farm proactively good citizenry for our boards And that would be to include on our website an area where citizens could state their interests for different things, whether it be youth and recreation or whether it be in serving planning and zoning and taking an active interest in our community. I think that that would be an absolute awesome thing to include on our website. Um, and it's probably so it's a very easy low hanging fruit that we could probably, um, accomplish with the birthday boy in the back of the room. So thank you, Jason. Happy birthday. And there's a task for you given to you, um, for your birthday. That being said, I have nothing else. Uh, I hope you guys have a wonderful day, uh, tomorrow, but remember that it's nine 11, uh, and to memorialize those heroes that we, that we saw 25 years ago. Have a good night, everybody.