City Council - Regular Meeting

good evening everyone it is time for our meeting uh i'm stepping in on dan jansen vice mayor for city of jacksville beach for the mayor she seems to be running behind a little bit so um with no further ado welcome to the june 15th city council meeting in jacksville beach uh we'll get started with an invocation followed by the pledge of allegiance everybody please rise I came across this statement from a podcast I thought I'd share before we pray. It's real quick. It says, offense is what pride does when it encounters grace that it did not earn and cannot control. Let us pray. Good and gracious Heavenly Father, as I lift up my brothers and sister in prayer tonight, we just ask for your blessings in making wise choices, wise decisions, and discernment. Lord, we just ask you that you bless our colleagues on council and that We make decisions that point towards you, Lord. And we ask you to look over our first responders as they go through their day to protect our peace. Lord, please bless them. And Lord, we just ask you to be with our military as they also protect their peace. And those that are coming back from the Middle East and those that have to stay there and still fight and defend our country. Lord, we just thank you for all these blessings. For it's in your son, Jesus, name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Golding. Here. Council Member Horne.

Here.

Council Member Jansen.

Here.

Council Member Sutton.

Here.

Council Member Wagner.

Here.

Council Member Wilders.

Here.

Mayor Hoffman.

Sorry, folks, we're working through this. I had to get my agenda. All right. Approval of the minutes.

I move that we approve the minutes from the regular city council meeting held on May 18th, 2026. Second.

We've got a first and a second. Any questions, comments?

Yes. I'd like to point out that on page 4 of 5, it's in the ordinance 2026-8236, which was the extension of premises ordinance. In the vote on the amended motion, I voted no. However, the meeting minutes reflect that I voted yes. So I move that we amend the minutes to properly reflect my vote on Ordinance 2026-8236. Second.

Okay, we've got a motion and a second. Any questions, comments? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, moving to...

Now the motion's been amended.

Oh, that's right. The motion's been amended, so now we need to get approval for the minutes. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any nays? All right. Minutes are clear. All right. Approval of the minutes. I mean, approval of the agenda.

I move that we approve the agenda.

Second. All right. We've got a first and a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, moving on to announcements. Ms. Golding.

Thank you, Vice Mayor. I have a few announcements. I wanted to thank Mike for doing the presentation at the June 3rd Beaches Watch meeting about the Property Tax Amendment Act. and how property taxes are used by Jacksonville Beach. If anyone would like to watch that, it was recorded in a video and it was very, very good. Helps everyone understand how our tax dollars are being used. And also in February, he did a presentation that was a basic budget 101 presentation, which was excellent as well. And you can go to beacheswatch.com and both of those presentations are posted on that website. Also wanted to mention that a few of us attended the ribbon cutting for Players by the Sea. And it was wonderful to see the theater, our wonderful community theater reopened completely after the fire. And I encourage anyone to please plan to check out some of the things, some of the plays that they've got coming up. It's, we always have a great time there and I encourage you to support our local community theater. Just want to remind everybody that tomorrow we've got the farmer's market from three to seven at Latham Plaza and yoga at the pavilion from six to seven. And then want to congratulate after candidate qualifying this past week, I want to, congratulate our colleagues, Councilman Wagner and Councilman Horn, who are officially reelected without opposition, and also want to congratulate Art Graham, who has previously served on the City Council and will be serving District 3, which is my district when my term ends. And also want to congratulate Rep. Michael, Representative Michael and Senator Yarbrough, who both were also elected to represent us in Tallahassee again without opposition. And just want to let everyone know that City Hall is going to be closed this Friday for Juneteenth. And last but not least, July 8th, Beaches Watch is having their annual police panel. which will have all three of the beach police departments represented. Chief Smith, I believe this will be his last time to do that presentation since he's retiring, and Atlantic Beach Chief Guadalupe will also be there, and Neptune Beach will have a representative. They'll be talking about public safety here at our beaches, status of our public safety issues, as well as events like July 4th and that sort of thing. That will be Wednesday, July 8th at 7 o'clock at the Beaches Branch Library.

Thank you, Council Member Golding. Councilman Sutton.

Thank you, Vice Mayor Jansen. Just piggybacking on Councilwoman Golding's congratulations there certainly to Councilman Wagner. It's been a pleasure serving with you for over two years now. And very glad that you'll be, as of November, on council for another four years in Councilman Horn. We were sworn in the same evening in the last almost four years. It's been a pleasure and I appreciate your service and glad you'll be on for four more years. And congratulations to Art Graham, former Councilman Art Graham here in Jacksonville Beach and former Councilman in Jacksonville as well. After, I think, a 20-plus year hiatus from Jacksonville Beach, he'll be rejoining us in November. So that, although no one can fill Councilwoman Golding's shoes, Mr. Graham will certainly be a good addition. I believe, in addition to... Senator Yarbrough and Representative Michaels on opposition. I think here at the beach. Now I'm really going out on a limb. I believe Councilman Horvath in Neptune Beach went unopposed. No, he didn't. Somebody did in Neptune Beach.

Jerry Wetzel.

Okay. Jerry Wetzel will be new Councilman in Neptune Beach. And then Councilwoman Ring. And Atlantic Beach, I believe, went unopposed. So she will also be serving another term. So congratulations to them. And speaking of Neptune Beach, they had their Jarboe Jubilee this past weekend, which was very hot, but very well attended. And so congrats to Mayor Byland and everyone from Neptune Beach on that. And then we have the Country Fest here. and Jack's Beach Saturday, and I had to dodge some weather there in and out, but a good crowd. Dwindled some with the storms that rolled through, but appreciate Parks and Rec and certainly PD for everything they did in carrying out that event. Thanks.

Thank you, sir. Not to beat up all the thanks, but yes, congratulations to my colleagues on council. You're stalwarts of the community and continue to do the good work that you have been doing. Also, to add to the list of local officials who ran uncontested, Congressman Bean also was... I guess re-elected as Congressman, unopposed. So yes, and CountryFest was a really good time. My hats off to Parks and Rec. They always do a fabulous job with that. It keeps growing. albeit the weather this time. So I think the problems we may have in the future is how do we keep it under control when it keeps getting bigger and bigger and better and better. But it's a really great event. If you haven't been, you really should attend it. And also hats off to our law enforcement, our partners in law enforcement, because they make sure that the event goes on without a hitch, without any problems. And if there is a problem, they remove it immediately so nobody ever sees it. So thank you to all that. Get involved with Country Fest. All right, moving on to... Councilman Horn. That one was hidden behind my laptop. That's okay.

No, no. I just want to say we did attend the Neptune Beach Festival for the celebration, and we told Mayor Byland if next year she could request slightly cooler weather, we would appreciate that. She can do what she can. Country Fest was amazing, and again, happy to see those things. I'm going to echo the comments of my other council members, and this weekend I had the opportunity slash privilege of cooking on Sunday, well, Saturday evening and Sunday morning, and Councilman Sutton and I went down and we served and brought lunch for everybody from the Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue and the Volunteer Life Saving Corps, and we fed about 50 hungry lifeguards, and there were many full bellies and many happy lifeguards, and it's always a pleasure to serve. And thank you very much, Councilor Sutton, for your grueling expertise.

Apologies for being late, everyone. What did I miss? Start over? No? Just kidding. So we're doing council announcements? Anybody else besides Mr. Horn? Did anyone talk about? Did anyone congratulate our newly reelected? Okay. Did we talk about Country Fest? Okay. Did we talk about the farmer's market being canceled?

The farmer's market. I got one.

Farmer's market tomorrow is canceled due to projected inclement weather. Yoga is still TBD. So in case you are going to get out there doing your pigeon pose or down dog or whatever, keep an eye on the weather for that. Okay. Moving right along. Courtesy of the floor to visitors. We have David McLean. Come on up. Give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes to address the council.

Hey, my name is David McLean. I live on 21st Street South, close to the old Joe's Grad Shack. And thank you for hearing me. I've got a little thing I prepared, so I'd just like to read it. This is about flock. I'd like to say that I support keeping the community safe, but flock cameras are deeply concerning. Right now, under our local government, we might be fine, but we don't and we shouldn't write rules for the government we trust today. We should write them for the government we might get tomorrow, the one that doesn't share our values, Given the trend of ever-expanding government, what happens when a future administration here in Tallahassee or Washington wants to know who's attending what political rallies or worshiping at particular places? What happens during the next emergency when unheard of authority is seized by government like COVID? I realize now the access is limited to the police department, but surveillance infrastructure always expands when left unchecked. This chills free speech, freedom of association, and the right to move freely without constant government tracking. We need real protections now while we still control the decision. We need to ban sharing our residents' data with outside agencies without a court order. We need full transparency in the form of public audit logs so we can see who's querying what and why. And we need clear rules limiting use to serious crimes only and not for phishing. If we can't put ironclad safeguards in place today that would still protect us under the worst possible future conditions and against the worst possible governments, then we shouldn't have this system at all. Safety shouldn't come at the cost of turning every drive through Jacksonville Beach into a permanent government record. And lastly, as Benjamin Franklin said, those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety. Let's get this right before it becomes impossible to walk back. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. McLean. Scott O'Connell.

Scott O'Connell, 2302 Sawgrass Road, Jacksonville Beach. Good evening, Mayor, City Council, City Manager, City Staff, residents of Jacksonville Beach, Florida. I stand before you tonight as president of the Fraternal Order Police Lodge 17, and I'm here to speak on behalf of the men and women of Jacksonville Beach who patrol our streets daily. And I'm here to urge you to select the next chief of police from within our own ranks. Choosing a police chief dictates the direction of our community, the safety of our streets, and the morale of our officers. While it's always tempting to look outward for a fresh perspective, Jacksonville Beach is not a generic coastal town. We do not need an outsider to tell us who we are or how to police our streets. First, let's talk about our unique culture. We deal with complex shifting dynamics every single day, from managing the massive influx of seasonal tourism to the highly specific challenges of downtown entertainment districts, all while maintaining quiet and safe neighborhood streets that we all enjoy, especially those who are year-round residents. A chief brought in from the outside will spend their first year just trying to understand the rhythm of this city. And we don't have a year to spend on the learning curve. Our internal candidates already know the pulse of the city because they are the ones who have been managing it. They understand our organizational management frameworks and are ready to execute on day one. They aren't arriving with generic ideas and they are already possessing 90 day, 180 day and one year roadmap specifically tailored to the real needs of our department. Second, I ask you to consider the absolute transparency that internal promotion guarantees. When you look at a resume from an internal candidate, you will see exactly what you want to see, the highlights and the polished successes of those. But when you have an internal candidate, you see their unvarnished truth. You have watched our leaders come up through the ranks. You know their names, you know their records, you know how they handle crises and how they utilize data. excuse me, data-driven analytics to allocate resources to manage our city in crisis. They are proven, tested leaders, and I ask you to consider these internal candidates. You know how they will treat their officers when their cameras are off. That's very important as the union leader of Internal Order of Police to me. Their histories are an open book. They're built right here in our community and their level of transparency is invaluable and simply cannot be replicated by a panel interview. I'm going to speed up because I went a little slow. Finally, effective policing here relies entirely on community access. Our citizens and business owners expect their police leadership to be approachable and instantly responsive. Our internal leaders don't need an orientation tour or a list of stakeholders to start doing their jobs. They have the cell phone numbers of local business owners and neighborhood watch captains and school administrators. And very important, they have stood in the living rooms of grieving families of Jacksonville Beach residents. They've already done the hard work to earn the trust of the people they serve. And the men and women of Lodge 17 are looking for a leader who has stood shoulder to shoulder with them. We want someone who doesn't just want a job as a police chief, but we want someone who is invested in leading this department. And I close with, our internal candidates have the talent, the dedication, and the strategic vision right here. I strongly urge you to recognize the investment our leaders have made in Jacksonville Beach and promote from within. Thank you for your time and your continued support. And I apologize for going over just a few seconds my first time.

You're fine. You did great. Thank you. That is it for our courtesy of the floor cards. We'll move on to a consent agenda.

I move we approve the consent agenda.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. And I see some hardware up here. I think we've got some award presentations coming up. Come on up, Mr. Putnam. Putnam.

Putnam. the Florida Municipal Power Agency. I'm not going to steal any of his information or thunder. His staff did a lot of work to put this information together. So I'll introduce Jacob. And also we have Sharon Adams, head of HR or something, member services or something. Yes. All right.

Mayor, Council, and the leadership of Jacksonville Beach. It's our honor to be here tonight to recognize what a wonderful electric utility you have here. And if we got the slides up, we got some awards tonight. But before we make the award, we want to just paint the picture real quick. I have the pleasure of leading Florida Municipal Power Agency. It's the agency of which you are a member and, frankly, and owner of the power plants that provide service to you. And although there are 33 municipal electric utilities in the state of Florida, there are 13 that own all the assets, essentially all the assets within FMPA, and another 13 communities that we provide at least some of the power to. So we're the wholesale power provider. Allen and team distribute and do all the customer service and all those things that go on. But you see the list of cities. Municipal electric utilities represent 3 million people in the state of Florida. 14% of the population gets electricity from a municipal electric provider in the state. With that as a bit of background, we're here to recognize Visa's energy for delivering outstanding reliability and outstanding affordability. You are truly uniquely served by one of the leading utilities in the state, bar none. And both in terms of reliability and affordability, there is not a... you know, of the big investor on utilities, there's not one that does it better than you all do by a long shot. And we'll lay that out. And a few big steps here in terms of reducing outage time this year. But it's not something that's happened accident. For 12 years, you've had a remarkable track record. We'll talk about that. And your rates here in Jacksonville are lower, 14% lower than the best investor on utility in the state and one of the lowest in the states. And you have one of the best reliabilities in the state as well. So you are providing great value to your customers. I'll mention just the rates real quick. This just shows you Beaches Energy residential rate for 1,000 kilowatt hour. The municipal average, the municipals are below all the investor-owned utilities in the state on average, and Beaches is well below the municipal average. So you're one of the, I think, one of the lowest five or seven in the state, and so something to be proud of. You're saving your customers money. And you're providing some of the best reliability in the state. What a deal. So you do a wonderful job there. The awards we're going to give tonight are based on actual data. This isn't kind of the contest to kind of see what you think. This is what the data shows. And the data shows in terms of the big metric that we look at is the number of minutes a year that an average customer is out. That's a big metric. And the gold standard in the industry is 60 minutes. Well, Beecher's energy blows that away. This last year, you were at 19, just under 20 minutes. That's unbelievable. There's only one other utility in the state in your size or above that does it. And you are right next to and battle back and forth. And you go back to 2017, actually, you were actually lower at 18 minutes. So, you know, it's a wonderful achievement compared to everybody else in the state. These are all the municipals that are below the 60-minute standard. There are 16 of them that were below the standard, and 12 are below the lowest investor-owned utility, that being FPO. So you all add significantly more value than the other utilities in the area. So again, I want to recognize Alan and the team here. They've done a remarkable job over the last 12 years, not just a few. And again, you see the metrics in terms of where Beaches is compared to the municipal average, well below in what you do. So all kinds of reasons as to how there's all the planning that goes in. It's not an accident. These things take years to do. All the undergrounding that's been done, all the substation redundancy Allen builds in and all that. So we have four awards tonight. You won all four awards. We only have four, and you won all four of them. This is only the second utility to win all four awards in a year, and that's because of your team that is here and some of the guys in the back. So with that, I want to take you through the awards, and then maybe afterwards we can have whatever you want to do, pictures or whatever. But the first is... to have the greatest improvement in terms of reliability year on year. You had a 60% reduction in outage minutes, which is hard to do when you're so low already. So, Beaches was the one that did more than 10% reduction in the last year. The second one is, how many years have you been under the gold standard of 60 minutes? And Beaches and KUA, Kissimmee Utility, have done it for 12 years in a row. Nobody else in the state, in the municipal world, has been anywhere close to that. You can see the others that are there. So, again, outstanding. And then the two big awards. You all had the largest reduction in terms of outage minutes this past year, a 60% reduction. It is an outstanding thing. And then finally, what I would call really the biggest award is for your category, you were the most reliable in the state for your size category. And you were number one. 1.1, right at number one in terms of the best reliable in the state. So being that and low cost, congratulations. We've got all these awards here we'd like to give out to the team. And you'll be honored at the annual conference, which is next month down at down at the Breakers in Palm Beach, where we give out the annual awards and all that. And so you'll be the big winner there, but wanted to go ahead and do it here for the council as well. So with that, I thank you.

Yeah, why not? Beaches Energy team, why don't you come on up? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Jansen.

Yeah, quick question for you, Mr. Wentz. So I have to know, who are we tied with in reliability so I can... I'm sorry?

Who are we tied with in reliability? Kissimmee Utility Authority is right there with you all, and they're the ones who've done 12 years in a row as well. Yeah, they run Mickey Mouse operations.

So bring that back to League of Cities. Thank you so much for that presentation. Congratulations, Beaches Energy. Can we all give them a round of applause? It's one thing to receive the awards, but to be able to see the data and everything that goes behind it, and especially how much we're kicking everybody else's butt around the state, we really appreciate that. So thank you for bringing that presentation. Okay, you guys, come on out up front. Council, you want to just stand behind, stand up behind the team?

Okay.

And Mayor, I did want to make one comment. You said the reliability. Remember, you did this while being very low cost. That's a tough trick. You could be one or the other. To be both is great. So congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you, Beaches Energy team, for continuing to make us very proud. We will move on to... Did I already do consent agenda? Yes. Okay. Just kidding. Beaches Energy. Mr. Seeley.

Good evening, Mayor Hoffman, esteemed council, Molly, Mike, David. Good to see you. Thank you for your time. Sorry. It was. That was like the perfect segue. So not that we timed that or planned that, right? So, again, before we turn to the agenda, I would like to thank the Florida Municipal Power Agency for recognizing us tonight for reliability. I know I share our feelings from the team when I tell you, like, what an honor it is to work for an organization that gets to provide this level of service to this community. It really is. It's just amazing. I can't tell you, working from an investor-owned to a large municipal, I just, we love working here. We really do. So we appreciate your support in everything that we do. It's that commitment tonight to reliable services exactly why we're here, to bring this item before you. We're asking for one thing, kind of has two parts, the purchasing or the spending authority and the purchasing mechanism to purchase a transformer, 138 to 264 substation transformer. We currently operate three transformers that are pretty identical, and the idea is that they'll be replaced by identical transformers. So if anything breaks, it's plug and play. We'll have the similar parts across the board for all of those. They're all 1982 vintage. That was three, so that was a good year. I love these. Can't go wrong there. They're all three approaching the end of life, and we've kind of taken a linear approach to wanting to replace them. The goal is to replace all before 2032, which they'll be 50 years old. And substations normally have, substation transformers normally have a 40-year life. And we did a service life extension. So that's kind of, if you're familiar with roof and you kind of have that treatment done, you get another 10 years, but you really, we don't want to go past that right now. And so they'll be approaching 50 years. So from a reliability and mitigating risk perspective, we'd like to start getting these replaced. If you're familiar, in fiscal year 25, we had a Transformer budgeted to purchase, and that was dependent on a grant, which we're still waiting for. It's still in the works, and we still expect to get it, but we're just not sure exactly when for that Ford Diego Transformer. And so it's still, in order to qualify, we have about a three-year lead time right now for Transformers. And that's increasing daily with the AI data centers and everything like that. And so we have a hard completion date for that grant if it gets approved of October 1st, 2029. They're not likely to extend that. So in order to be able to make that, we want to bring this forward. So what we kind of want to do is the next transform line, which was FY28, we want to bring that forward. And we're asking for your permission tonight to basically authorize that purchase. It's not going to change our timing. This can be used in any location. The good news is if that grant comes through, we talk to the manufacturer and we would come back to you to ask for permission to buy a second one with that grant. They will switch the delivery dates so that we can still be on track in order to accomplish this and complete the project on time. We do believe that we would be able to do both projects concurrently. That was not the original plan, but we would be able to manage that. So, again, why now? Why are we moving for this? Why do we feel like the urgency is now? The surge really has a lot to do with data center development. They're spending money like crazy, and they're cutting in line in some places. So the earlier we can get this in, it's straining substation transformer manufacturing sector, lengthening lead times, and increasing price. And so we really want to try to get our position in line right now sooner than later. So our neighbors across the ditch actually did the same process we would for this transformer for the piggyback request. And so we wouldn't be doing anything differently. That's the nice thing. And the Waukesha transformer, they agreed to honor that price. It's a little bit increased because our spec was slightly different, but they still gave us a price within that trend, if you will. Again, we're managing risk right now. We're not relying on the grant. This transformer replaces any one of those three that are aging in 1982 unit that must retire regardless. So we're not going to change any of our plan. We'll still be able to follow through even if the grant does not come through. We're mitigating our risk. We're proceeding with the next transformer and replacement queue now rather than waiting, again, just because of the rising prices and lengthening lead times. It does not change our ability to complete the grant on time. FINANCIALLY, FUNDING FOR THIS PROJECT IS AVAILABLE WITHIN THE FY26 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT BUDGET BASED ON THE TIMING OF OTHER PLANNED PROJECTS. SO THE GOOD NEWS IS WE WON'T HAVE TO DO A BUDGET ADJUSTMENT. THE PURCHASE STANDS ON ITS OWN MERITS, REPLACING THE AGING 1982 INFRASTRUCTURE AND SECURING MANUFACTURER CAPACITY IN A TIGHTENING MARKET WHILE KEEPING THE GRANT FULLY AVAILABLE IF IT'S AWARDED. ANY QUESTIONS? And by the way, I do have Nick Johnson, substation relay engineer, recently got his professional engineer. Congratulations. And Scott Miller, who's substation manager, is just doing a phenomenal job keeping everything in the light zone in challenging times. So if you have any technical questions, for sure.

Thank you, Mr. Seeley. Can I have a motion?

I move we approve the purchase of 138 kilovolt to 26 volt. 26.4 kilovolt substation transformer utilizing a piggyback purchasing method of JEA's RFP number 1411282646 with Prolix GE Waukesha Incorporated.

Second. That was a good one. We have a motion and a second. We have a couple of lights. Mr. Wagner.

I want to start by a Thank you, Director Putnam, for responding to my question that I asked earlier around just kind of the risk of the strategy related to the grant. And that kind of left me with maybe just a level of A question for just to make sure I have the right understanding. So if the vote is approved tonight, we go forward, we have one that takes three years to build. So it's 26, that's 29. If we get awarded the one in 29, they'll swap the, potentially swap those two out or not. If we don't get awarded, we still have one in 29. But with the three-year lead time, so let's assume we get the grant. So we have one being built over the next three years, get awarded in 29. That takes three years. That takes us to the end of the 50-year period. When should council be expecting the third one to come? Would it come after the 50-year mark per request or?

No. So originally it would have been. FY 25, 28. No, you are correct. FY 25, we wanted last year and then 28. And then I believe it's Samson after that in 30. So yes, it would be a little bit after that. Now, the nice thing is that if we take some of these other transformers out of service, the idea is we do want to kind of consider looking at any of them kind of when you change the tire taking the best one and making it your spare exact same concept so we do want to review these and possibly look at making it a spare so if we have an issue because of that three-year late time that would be the plan so that so that's kind of the risk management yes exactly good question yes sir thank you mr wagner mr routers thank you mayor and i'm glad you could make it we missed you

The Honorable Councilman Jansen had alluded to something, and I'm not sure if I understood his comments correct, but you mentioned AI. Did I hear you say that, Mr. Seeley? Data centers, yes, sir. Right, and it's my understanding they draw a tremendous amount of power? Yes. Right, and I read in the news where certain municipalities and counties are banning AI centers.

Is that a concern for us here at the beaches? As of now, Florida has been pretty strongly resistant. There's incentives not to build here, like hurricanes, temperatures, because they do require a great deal of cooling. And you need real estate. You need transmission lines close by. So there's not a lot of concern for our community. I'm not really sure. Again, I think Governor DeSantis is at a pretty big stance on against AI. So there hasn't been a lot of development. But it's more up north where you see cooler temperatures happening. and farmland to build and convert a lot easier.

I defer to your judgment, but I just don't want us to be caught unawares and have things sneak up on us that we didn't anticipate as maybe we've seen in the past. Thank you. No, I appreciate that. You're absolutely right.

Just to clarify, I think the reason it was brought up in this case is that we are competing nationally to purchase this type of equipment. So even if they may not be happening in our area or in our state, we're still competing with data centers for transformers or anybody else.

Personally, I know my hometown in Hobart, Indiana, the Amazon went in there and said, we'll give the city council 45 million to convert a thousand acres of farmland, just whatever you want to do with the money. So, and again, they're going to have to have substation redundant transformers and all that. And so absolutely they're, they're spending big money to get this done quickly. Thank you, Mr. Horne.

I hope you know the answer. The grant we requested or were filing for, how much is that for? What would that cover up? What's the cost or the return there? I'll defer to the experts, Nick and Don. 75%? 75%.

So of the total project, 75% would be reimbursed.

Outstanding. I'm a huge fan of grant requests. I'm a huge fan of us getting our tax dollars back from the government. Because if we don't get our tax dollars, and if that's for all departments, whether it be law enforcement, whether it be public works, parks, whoever, just because it's our money. And if we don't get the money back or at least try and get it, then somebody will spend it on whatever shenanigans they do, you know. basket weaving for one-armed farmers. I don't know, whatever the waste of money, I'd rather get it for something that we're going to use and be appropriate. Thank you.

Thank you. Absolutely.

You're going to wake up the one-armed farmer basket weaver lobby and you're going to get all sorts of emails. Mr. Jansen.

Just real quick, if I'm not mistaken, I think the legislature just passed a bill that does require any data centers to provide their own energy. So they're on the hook for their own power supplies, if I'm not mistaken.

Mr. Wouters? I just wanted to quickly thank Councilman Wagner for having his eye on the ball and helping edify myself and anyone else who didn't quite understand it. Thank you.

Any other questions or comments? Madam Clerk, roll call. Council Member Golding? Yes. Council Member Horne?

Yes.

Council Member Jansen? Yes. Council Member Sutton?

Yes.

Council Member Wagner?

Yes.

Council Member Waters?

Yes.

Mayor Hoffman? Yes.

Motion carries. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. It is... We'll give our Beaches Energy folks a minute to... to part. Thank you guys all for being here, and thank you for your hard work. We've got League of Cities annual conference coming up, so we've got a couple of motions associated with that, as well as with the policy committees, and I just, again, want to thank our council for active participation in those committees, council and staff. We've got really good representation, I think, on every single policy committee, so Appreciate you guys putting in the time for that. So we'll start with the first motion.

Yeah, we authorize all elected officials that travel to the Florida League of Cities annual conference August 13th through the 15th, 2026 in Hollywood, Florida.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk roll call.

Council Member Horne.

Yes.

Council Member Jansen.

Yes.

Council Member Sutton.

Yes.

Council Member Wagner. Yes. Council Member Watters.

Yes.

Council Member Golding. Yes. Mayor Hoffman.

Yes. And the next one is to regarding the voting delegate and the backup delegate. And I don't think we need to make any nominations. It's traditionally been the mayor and the mayor pro tem. Do you want to just go ahead and make that motion, Mr. Jansen?

Sure. I move we authorize the following elected officials as the voting delegate and backup delegate at the Florida League of Cities annual conference. It would be the mayor and mayor pro tem.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Jansen.

Yes.

Council Member Sutton. Yes. Council Member Wagner.

Yes.

Council Member Watters. Yes. Council Member Golding. Yes. Council Member Horne. Yes. Mayor Hockman.

Yes. Motion carries. And the next one is regarding travel to the League of Cities Policy Committee meeting's in Orlando, if you want to just flip your lights on if you would like to be included in this motion. That is everyone except me, Mr. Jansen, if you want to make that motion.

Okay. I move we authorize the following elected officials for travel to Florida League of Cities Policy Committee meetings in Orlando, Florida. Council Member Golding, Councilman Jansen, Councilman Wagner, Councilman Walters, Councilman Horn, Councilman Sutton, and Mayor Hoffman.

Not me.

Oh, not you. Yeah.

And City Manager has his light on.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I just wanted to point out there are six lights on, but there's only five policy committees. and the Florida League only allows for one person per committee.

So if all six of you go, only five of you are gonna be participating. So what we discussed was there is the policy, or the Education and Communication Committee that I attend, so I represent two separate committees, and that one, Councilor Wilders would represent us on that committee. It's not one of the policies, but it is an active committee at each of the meetings.

Yeah, I volunteer based on my discussions with Councilman Wagner as we talked about in our briefing. I mean, if I don't have anything to do, I don't want to go. If I can't help, I'm never gone.

Did we get a second on that motion? Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Wagner, lights on.

Madam Clerk, roll call. Council Member Sutton.

Yes.

Council Member Wagner.

Yes.

Council Member Watters.

Yes.

Council Member Golding. Yes. Council Member Horne.

Yes.

Council Member Janssen.

Yes.

Mayor Hoffman. Yes.

Item four.

I move we authorize all elected officials for travel to the Florida League of Cities legislative conference December 3rd and 4th, 2026 in Orlando, Florida.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Mr. Janssen.

Yeah, just real quick. I do want to thank my colleagues on council and mayor. We have a unified front when it comes to these policy committees and fighting for legislation for our city in Jacksonville Beach. And I think I'm very proud to stand and represent Jacksonville Beach along with my colleagues. It really takes a lot to get over there and fight for what we believe in. And I look around other cities throughout the state and nobody shows up like Jacksonville Beach does. So thank you all for being committed to a great stalwarts of our city.

Thank you, Mr. Janssen. Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Wagner?

Yes.

Council Member Watters?

Yes.

Council Member Golding? Yes. Council Member Horne?

Yes.

Council Member Janssen?

Yes.

Council Member Sutton? Yes.

Yes.

Mayor Hoffman.

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Mr. Taylor, you're up.

Good evening, Madam Mayor, council members, administrators. Again, Joel Taylor, Chief Information Officer for the City of Jacksonville Beach. I'm here to present two connected initiatives that are essential for the safety and reliability of our water reclamation facility. First, our current network at the water reclamation facility is more than five years old and was never designed for a mission-critical utility environment. As our SCADA systems and automation needs grow, the aging network is creating real operational and cybersecurity risks. Upgrading to an enterprise class switching platform will give us the reliability, security, and stability needed to support our central services now and into the future. The network upgrade is also a prerequisite for the second project, installing a model, modern security camera system at the water reclamation facility. There are high-value, high-risk sites, and cameras provide real-time monitoring, improved safety, regulatory compliance, and crucial visibility during emergencies and incidents. The new camera system depends on secure power delivery traffic separation and consistent connectivity capabilities the current network system cannot provide. The new network platform will ensure that the cameras can operate reliably and securely for years to come. From a financial perspective, both projects are responsibly managed through respective piggyback agreements and are part of the Information Services Fiscal Year 26 Capital Improvement Plan. The network replacement project totals $105,491.51, slightly above the original CIP allocation, but fully offset by savings from the camera project. The security camera initiative is significantly under plan, coming in at $194,421.02 against an approved capital improvement plan of $300,000. In short, these two projects work hand in hand. The cameras enhance our physical security and the network ensures the technology behind them is stable and secure. Together, they strengthen the resilience of some of the city's most critical infrastructure. I respectfully recommend approval for both of the network and upgrade to camera installation. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Can I have a motion?

I move we approve proceeding with the replacement of the network gear and cameras at the water reclamation facility.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Mr. Watters.

Thank you, Madam Mayor. When we approved or were looking at approving bunch of money for the filters and the tanks. I took a tour, which I believe was Mr. Phil, if I remember his name correctly, who I've known over the years. I was observed, you guys were showing me the whole facility, and while we were looking at the cameras, they turned off. They were blinking on and off. They were not functioning properly. And I thought that was very concerning. So I want you to know you have my full support, and I hope we can move forward on this. Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments?

Madam Clerk, roll call. Council Member Watters?

Yes.

Council Member Golding? Yes. Council Member Horne?

Yes.

Council Member Jansen? Yes. Council Member Sutton?

Yes.

Council Member Wagner?

Yes.

Mayor Hoffman?

Yes. Motion carries.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Taylor. Okay, moving on to our ordinances. We will start...

with our ldc ordinance um mr mr papoli do you have any updates for us i do and once again uh oh thanks to council member golding for pointing out some really uh in the weed stuff that needed to be addressed um So as this is the second reading, you've seen most of this before, and we did make some changes last time. The biggest change when we were looking at what I thought was a relatively small change in the commercial business district regarding how we deal with the boardwalk and allowing buildings to address the boardwalk as their front. Once I realized the intent from talking to the city attorney, it became pretty clear that there were a bunch of unintended consequences that ran down the chain. So I think we've captured all of them to basically preserve the way we've been treating First Street, but also allowing this additional option by containing the architectural requirements and facing requirements on First Street to maintain that pedestrian design, but also allowing it to exist on the boardwalk as well. So it's a lot of changes, a lot of little changes, but it's intended to sort of make sure that allowing this doesn't cause this. The other changes, so Council Member Golding pointed out that the footnote that we put in for how we notice residents for land use actions doesn't need to redundantly say 300 feet because it's really just referencing the method, not the distance. And I agree with her. There may be a reason at some point that we changed the table above. And rather than having to track this as well, we would take that out. And then the next section is basically directly related. So we had put the notification requirement in for short-term vacation rentals, but since it's not a land use action, it's not covered by the previous table. So she suggested we put the same language in for how we measure that distance into that section as well. So that's basically what we did with the removal of the distance requirement. So that's the majority of the update. I'm assuming you'll have some questions, so I'll be available for those if I need them.

Thank you. Madam Clerk, will you read the ordinance by title, please? An ordinance of the city of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, amending articles 3, 5, 6, and 7 of Chapter 34 Land Development Code, providing for legislative findings, repeal of conflicting ordinances, severability, scrivener's errors, codification, and an effective date.

This ordinance for the amendment of the land development code is before this council for a public hearing and consideration on its second reading. Under the laws of the state of Florida, an ordinance which changes the actual list of permitted, conditional, or prohibited uses within a zoning category or which otherwise changes the text of the land development code is a legislative proceeding. A legislative proceeding means that a governing body is acting in its rulemaking capacity. It is the duty of the council to arrive at sound decisions regarding the use of property within the city. This includes receiving citizen input regarding the proposed uses within the zoning category. The application has been reviewed by the staff and the Planning Commission for consistency with other portions of the Land Development Code and the Comprehensive Plan. The Council may hear from all interested parties in the legislative determination of an amendment to the text of the Land Development Code. I will now open the public hearing on Ordinance Number 2026-8237. We don't have an applicant in this case. We already heard from staff. I do not have any comment cards on this item. Would anyone from the audience like to speak in favor of or against the ordinance? Seeing none, public hearing is closed. May I have a motion?

I move we adopt ordinance number 2026-8237 on the second reading amending chapter 34, land development code articles three, five, six, and seven.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Before opening the floor for discussion or questions by the council, please be reminded that our decision will be based on the criteria set forth in the Land Development Code, staff's report, the recommendation of the Planning Commission, and public input at all hearings. We'll open the floor for discussion by council. Mr. Wouders.

Madam Mayor, Mr. Popoli, has there been any changes to the side setbacks in RM1, RM2, or RS2 and RS3?

Side setbacks?

I'm under the impression there has been in RM2. But I may be mistaken, as I often am.

There's a lot. Don't feel bad. No, we did not make any changes to the setbacks. We simply changed the lot coverage and impervious service ratio for two-unit townhomes. were no no intended changes in the setbacks for that section thank you miss golding thank you mayor um

First of all, I want to thank Christian for being so quick with your responses to all of my questions and very good thorough responses, by the way, because they helped me better understand the proposed changes. So I do appreciate that. I do want to make a statement. I am a little bit concerned about the process, the way this has come about in two ways. two particular things. One, when we got this agenda packet, it was not obvious what the changes were between our June 1st meeting and tonight's meeting. So to, you know, there was a mention in the memo about there being some additional changes, but in all honesty, I had to go page by page to do a direct comparison to the June 1st ordinance. And so that's concerning to me. And I just want to make a statement that I really feel like we need to address this. This needs to, we, not just for us, but for the citizens, whenever we have changes like this, because these weren't discussed in our previous meetings. So it's all brand new to us. I think we need to do a better job of explaining the changes, but also making those changes obvious. And I think that was all I was going to say about that. So, you know, I mean, after having talked to Mr. Popoli, I feel comfortable with the proposed changes, but there are some things that I still would like to see changed. So, like, and I want to make sure that we don't lose sight of a few things that we discussed in the previous meetings. We did discuss in the previous meeting that we wanted to discuss limited retail, how we were going to define that. And we kind of forgot to do that in the last meeting. So I want to make sure we cover that this meeting. Also, I want to follow up with the city attorney about the digital signs. concern that was raised by Mr. Deloach. I know you did some research since the last meeting. So just wanted to ask you to please share that with us. And then I have another change that I wanted to bring up as well, but we'll go ahead and cover the digital sign research that you did.

Sure. I'd be happy to. Yes. In response to council discussion two weeks ago, this relates specifically to page 30 of 32 under section 21 of the ordinance, the proposed changes to 34755X, new paragraph 2, saying changeable copy signs strictly for governmental use owned and operated by the city to serve the public may change message or copy once every three minutes. Contrast that with the previous section where it All other signs are once every 24 hours. So I did conduct the research, as I said I would, and a very interesting case out of Florida, and I know I sound like a nerdy attorney saying that, but it was actually a very interesting case. It came out in 2015, and they adopted what had just come out earlier that year up in Atlanta in the 11th Circuit, and that was that, pardon me, this was the 11th Circuit adopting another Supreme Court precedent from that year, that in 2015, the Supreme Court found that the free speech clause of the First Amendment does not regulate government speech. It does restrict government regulation of private speech, but it doesn't apply to government speech. So therefore, we are perfectly within our means, and it is permissible if we want to allow government signage to be able to change more frequently. That is not a violation in any way of the First Amendment. So it's perfectly permissible. So as a result, I recommend leaving the exact language in there the same as it was at the first reading. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you, David. I appreciate that. The other thing I wanted to bring up, and I talked to Mr. Popoli about this, and this is on page 15 of 32 in the ordinance. Subsection B, building facade, where we're adding the sentence, no blank, excuse me, I have a little note here and I can't see it. No blank unadorned walls shall be allowed along First Street. And my question there was, okay, how do we define unadorned? And Mr. Popoli mentioned that we probably should reference It's subsection 7G. It's not in this ordinance that we have before us, but if you had the LDC, you would see it. And I have it. And it basically provides criteria or general design features that all buildings shall utilize at least three of the following design features. to provide visual relief along all street-facing elevations of the building. And then it lists several things that three of which could be chosen to make sure that the building is not just a blank wall. And so I think it would It would be good for us to just add that clarification or the reference to that section. I would move that we amend section 34-623F7G to read no blank unadorned walls shall be allowed along First Street. Buildings must utilize the general requirements or excuse me, must utilize at least three design features in subsection 7G for any design feature other than varied roof lines and copulas. And Mr. Sorry, I'll just.

Second.

We have a motion to amend and a second. Discussion on the proposed amendment?

I have a quick question. In the beginning of your motion, what code section did you reference?

I said 34623F7G. Okay. Or sorry, F7B. B. Sorry. I apologize. Okay.

Perfect. Thanks.

And I guess, could you just maybe just explain, because I know when you and I were talking, out of the list of things, the three design or the design features, you suggested that we exclude roof lines and cupolas.

So just a brief background on this. Those design features are intended to focus the design of the building along First Street and ensure that it is pedestrian-oriented, pedestrian-friendly, and has a degree of variation from story to story to make sure it's not just the standard monolith of a building. This applies to the entire district, but particularly along those noted streets in the beginning. That is a pedestrian centered area. It's the same area that we exempted the parking from. My only concern with the way the code currently is written just for that area is that it's such an enclosed space where we're encouraging awnings and things like that, that things like changes in roofline and cupolas aren't going to be visible or really make much of an impact. So my thought process at least was for this section here that's referenced would be basically just those elements taken out and then any of those three should be able to provide that characterization of the property for pedestrian experience there are other elements built into this that require some things to be done naturally and so awnings and shade structures and things like that window height those are all also covered but these are specific to that area and then this would basically ensure that if you're fronting on the boardwalk your rear, so to speak, would also be of a similar design to make sure we don't lose that corridor along first.

Okay. Yeah, thank you. And I don't know if everybody got the email, but you put some really good examples of Margaritaville and spring spring hill suites yes to show the difference uh so i think i think everybody was forwarded did everybody get that okay okay and and i i was glad to see that because i think we definitely want to see something more like spring hill suites as opposed to just the flat wall that you see at margaritaville so thank you i appreciate that any other comments on the motion to amend

Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Golding? Yes. Council Member Horne? Yes. Council Member Jansen?

Yes.

Council Member Sutton?

Yes.

Council Member Wagner? Yes. Council Member Waters? Yes. Mayor Hoffman?

Yes. Amendment passes back to the original motion. Ms. Golding?

And I believe, do we also need to amend... the ordinance per the changes that are outlined in the June 15th memo?

Yes. Okay. Which includes this whole section.

So, I would also like to, I'd like to make a motion to amend the ordinance with the changes as outlined by Mr. Poli in the June 15th memo.

Second.

We have a motion and a second. Is there any discussion? Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Horne?

Yes.

Council Member Jansen?

Yes.

Council Member Sutton?

Yes.

Council Member Wagner?

Yes.

Council Member Wilders? Yes. Council Member Golding? Yes. Mayor Hoffman?

Yes. Motion carries. Any other comments? Ms. Golding?

I'd like for us to discuss what is limited retail? Okay. I wasn't going to forget it this time. Do you have any thoughts on that, Mr. Popoli?

So I had gone back and listened to the audio from the briefing, and there was generally a consensus we were talking about some kind of small rack of things for sale. There wasn't really a clear drill down into what that would be. I think the intent is that, like most merchants, there are, you know, racks of clothes or purses or something that they want to put out. But I think... We could probably tie it to some specific categories or maybe a size of the rack or square footage or something like that. But I don't know if there's a good way to specifically define what the retail items will be. So it's really kind of you can't define everything. So you keep kind of general, but. If you have some concerns about limitation, there is a total square footage that's limited on all of these outdoor displays. And if you want anything more detailed or more restrictive, we can explore some options. As far as what limited retail means, though, I don't know that that's an exhaustive or productive conversation to really get at the individual thing.

I'm a little bit concerned about opening that box and having limited retail without it being better defined. And if we aren't comfortable with coming up with a definition tonight, I would be willing to remove it for now and then we can add it in later. I'm sorry, go ahead. So I would, I'm not sure what section, let me find that section again.

While you're looking for that, I will say that I would support keeping it. And at this point, we've had enough call from our business owners that are really trying to find a way to better advertise and promote their businesses. And I think that this is in response to that. I think it would be really hard to define it. I mean, we know it when we see it, which is not how the land development code should be applied. But I think that this is one that we need to watch. for potential adjustments. But I do think that we need to give our business owners a reasonable accommodation for advertising their goods outside. They're limited by their store frontage, by the sidewalks, by handicap access, all of these things. So I think this is something that we need to have some flexibility on. And a bunch of lights are on now. I'm not sure who came on first, but I'll go with Mr. Wagner.

I just want to show my support for your comments. I think they're right on. And, you know, I think opportunities for us to be pro-business in our community should be seized. You know, if we implement something like this and we see through a year of experience that there's some way to make, you know, something that's unanticipated that we can address, we can address it then. But I'd sure hate to forego the opportunity for businesses in these difficult times to survive and do better because we can't define it. They're only going to sell what they carry.

Thank you, Mr. Wagner. Mr. Janssen?

Yeah, so I think Councilmember Golding has some good points as far as the definitions are concerned. However, I would also say this, just as a reminder, that we review this annually. So we do have an opportunity to see which direction this goes and if it ends up being a problem somewhere along the lines, and we certainly can address it. City Attorney, this is also something that we could address in the interim if it came to be a real problem, or are we handcuffed to the annual review?

You all could review this as often as you'd like. So it's not limited to once a year.

Thank you. So that's the point I was trying to make there. It's just that if it really becomes a problem, we certainly could address it. But I would recommend just keep it in there for now. And then if we see a need to tighten it up by definition, we certainly can do that.

Thank you, Mr. Jansen. Mr. Wilders?

Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to ask Mr. Rapoli a quick question related to this discussion. And that is, it has been... my experience that the planning director and the code enforcement have wide latitude in interpreting this code, however their judgment, wherever their judgment leads them. Is that true?

I mean, to an extent. There's limitations, and there are other elements written into the code that help with generally defined terms versus specifically defined terms. So there are reference points that would guide them.

But just to be clear, they do have wide power here to interpret this and apply it as they see. I would say they have some power.

I wouldn't say wide power. Okay. Thank you.

Ms. Golding?

So, Christian, just a question. So, if a smoke shop wanted to put stuff out in front of their shop, would that be considered limited retail?

I think it would depend on what it is. There are some state and federal regulations on how you can display certain items and where they have to be as far as like access to minors and things like that. So actual, you know, consumable products might not be able to be put out there if it's, you know, cigar cutters and humidor boxes or other things like that potentially. But that would really be a, we'd have to look at what it is and then what potential implications would be. Which, yeah, I mean, in essence, they shouldn't be able to put actual tobacco products out for display on the street. But they might be able to put out any of their other products. And just as a comment, there are restrictions in here, but those are applied generally to all of these items. If you think that there is a restriction that would help with this in some way to smooth out the decision, we can certainly put some other details in this as well. Because right now it basically limits it to the storefront and no more than 200 square feet, plus all the ADA sidewalk issues. So that's really the limitation. It has to go in at the end of business hours so you can come back at the beginning of business hours.

Okay, I'm willing to see how things go. Given the option that we can't address this if we feel that there's a problem, I just want us to be careful about what we are allowing to be out in front of the businesses.

Mr. Sutton?

Yeah, this is a tough one because we can't call out everything for every sort of business, and you don't want it to get out of hand. So I'm sort of, with Councilwoman Golding, willing to move forward with it, but I would like for the planning department, along with possibly council, to begin working on something now that would sort of define, you know, some criteria around this as to whether, you know, it's going to have to be pretty general to cover all retail. But, you know, I don't know, maybe something along the lines of goods that are normally sold at that business and maybe not to exceed a certain number of category of items. I don't know what all it could be, but I'm sure we can... you know, create something that would at least put some guardrails around it to a degree.

And I concur with the city attorney. You can adjust your code at any point in time, however many times you like, you know, according to how many staff hours we have. But practically speaking, if this doesn't work or if we want to look at it and come back in a couple months with some ideas, absolutely do it.

Well, I'm asking for some work to be done around a recommendation.

Mr. Wagner.

Sorry to revisit, but just kind of piggybacking on Councillor Sutton's comments and kind of digesting Councillor Golding's, maybe the solution isn't to define everything that could be. But to define the things we specifically don't want, I mean, for example, you know, alcohol, firearms and tobacco and things like that, you know, like things probably a bad idea. Maybe a shorter, easier list to A, identify and B, to reinforce and to enforce. Yeah, trying to define beauty because it's, you know, it's a little more difficult. But I think we all know what we don't want, probably within some give or take. And that may be an easier way to come up with something that we would all feel really good about. And this year or some time period between now and then would probably allow us a little bit of kind of testing and seeing what folks are willing to do, trying to do. And I think that kind of sounds to me like it kind of addresses everybody's thoughts, but maybe not in the exact same timing. Thank you.

I'm also fine with looking at this, keeping an eye on it and seeing if we can come up with some reasonable guidelines here. But I don't think we need to duplicate the things that already would be prohibited by law from being out front. You cannot put a cooler of beer out front of your store. And I'm glad we have some police officers here nodding in the background. So there's controlled items that you cannot put out that cannot be self-serve. That is not up to us. That is up to state and federal law. So we don't need to define, we don't need to further define that because that is something that we are going to have to then keep up with any changes there. So I think anytime we put something specific in here, we open ourselves up to, you know, there's a can of worms of what, well, we can't limit this, but we can limit that. And we're having to pick and choose which retailers to. we want to allow to do this. The other thing is these store owners are going to have to watch shoplifting, shrinkage, damage, weather. There's so many limitations here to what they would be willing to even put out front that I think that that's going to be self-selective too, as well as the entities that even have the space to do it or the space within their control. And I just remember how big of an uproar everyone got about Home Depot putting plants outside. And now it would look crazy if there weren't a million plants and trees and mulch and everything outside of Home Depot. So I think that's the kind of thing, you know, stores putting out things that they would like to let the community know they're selling. I don't know how to define that. I don't know if we're going to be able to find a way to define it. I do agree that we should keep an eye on it. Are there any other questions from council?

I know we have briefings pretty much getting through September, but maybe this is something that could go on a briefing, which basically be after the summer where we might have some data to work with.

Any other comments we have? Mr. Wappers.

Thank you. I'm still, you know, learning the procedure here. After, if we close this discussion, are we going right to the vote? Okay. Well, I did want to take this opportunity to thank Councilwoman Golding for mentioning the difficulty in understanding what the old code was versus the changes. Because when this code first came out, it was a monumental task to truly understand all the changes that took place because there were so many. So I'm glad we should be keeping an eye on the LDC, and thank you for doing that.

Thank you, Mr. Wouters. Any other comments from council?

Madam Clerk, roll call. Council Member Janssen.

Yes.

Council Member Sutton?

Yes.

Council Member Wagner?

Yes.

Council Member Watters?

No.

Council Member Golding? Yes. Council Member Horne? Yes. Mayor Hoffman?

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Ripolli. We appreciate your work and we will see you again every month when we're going to revise the land development code again.

Just kidding.

I'm not, I might not be kidding. I don't know. We'll see. All right. Moving on to item ordinance B, we have a food truck related ordinance. And I think we're going to hear from Mr. McGitt on this one.

Councilor, you all discussed this at a recent briefing. Presently our food truck ordinance, ORDINANCE STATES THAT FOOD DISPENSING VEHICLES MUST BE REMOVED FROM THEIR APPROVED LOCATIONS DURING IMPREMISSIBLE HOURS OF OPERATION. detailed discussion as to why that might be extended to allow certain trucks to be able to stay up to six nights. And when I say certain, it would be only those vehicles who sell only prepackaged food and have all necessary support equipment located in the unit with property owner permission and documentation of that. They could stay up to six consecutive nights is what's proposed, after which time the food truck would have to be removed from that piece of property for a minimum of one night. And that one additional requirement is that permission, documentation that permission would have to be updated with the city at least once a year. So very minor change. You all discussed this, but I'd be happy to answer any questions regarding this. This is the first reading of this ordinance.

Thank you, Mr. Miget. Madam Clerk, will you read the ordinance by title?

An ordinance of the City of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, amending Chapter 12, Streets, Food, and Food Products, Section 12-33-3, Hours of Operation, Signage, and Noise, to provide an exemption for overnight parking for mobile food dispensing vehicles, providing for repeal of conflicting ordinances, severability, codification, and an effective date.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. This ordinance is before the council for a public hearing and consideration on its first reading. I will now open the public hearing on ordinance number 2026-8238. We have already heard from city attorney and we have discussed this item a couple of times in briefings. I don't have any speaker cards. Does anyone from the audience wish to speak in favor of or in opposition to this ordinance? Seeing none, we'll close the public hearing and request a motion.

I move we approve ordinance number 2026-8238 on the first reading amending chapter 12, streets, food, and food products, section 12-33, subsection 3, hours of operation, silence, and noise to provide an exemption for overnight parking for mobile food dispensing vehicles and schedule a second reading for July 20th, 2026.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion from council? As I mentioned, we have talked about this a couple of times in briefings. So we've had a good opportunity to discuss. And thank you, Mr. City Attorney, for coming up with what seems to be a pretty reasonable solution. Mr. Wouters.

I just wanted to ask the Honorable Councilman Horn to explain the genesis of this idea.

This was brought to me by somebody who had some concerns about the fact that our local ordinances, similar to what we were discussing a few minutes ago, were a little bit more restrictive than what the rules are at the state level. And so as I brought this out, the goal was to make our ordinance more in line with the state ordinances and the state rules, specifically, again, supporting local businesses. That's where we are.

Thank you. I just wanted to get that on the record and say you have my full support. Thank you.

Mr. Horne.

I just want to say thank you to the whole council for, you know, just being willing to listen and, again, support small local businesses. Thank you all.

Any other questions or comments? Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Sutton.

Yes.

Council Member Wagner.

Yes.

Council Member Watters.

Yes.

Council Member Golding. Yes. Council Member Horne. Yes.

Council Member Jansen.

Yes. Mayor Hoffman.

Yes, motion carries. All right, I made it through. It was a rocky start, but we did it, guys. Thank you all for being here this evening. Can I have a motion to adjourn?

Move to adjourn.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.