City Council - Regular Meeting

Sorry, you're just getting called out all over the place. Comes in like he owns the place. Good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for August 3rd. We will begin as we always do with invocation and salute to the flag led by Mr. Wagner. Please rise.

If you'll bow your heads and open your hearts. As it says in Proverbs 17, 17, a friend loves at all times. They are there to help when trouble comes. As we come together as a group of representatives of our community, we want to come together in the spirit of friendship that we lean into troubles and we do everything we can in our power and under the Lord's wisdom to make our community better. Whether it's our First responders, our educators, those that take care of our youth, our clinicians, we need everybody to lean in and help guide and learn from his wisdom. For our city council and our city staff, we need to work together as friends because when trouble comes, we need to make it better. For our residents and our community, in your name we pray, amen.

This meeting is called to order.

Council Member Golding. Here. Council Member Horn.

Here.

Council Member Jansen.

Here.

Council Member Sutton. Here. Council Member Wagner.

Here.

Council Member Watters.

Here.

Mayor Hoffman. Here.

Moving on to approval of minutes.

Item A. I move to approve the minutes from the council briefing held on July 13th, 2026.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Aye. Motion carries. Approval of the agenda.

I move we approve the agenda.

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

Thank you, Mayor. First of all, I want to thank our city staff for the great council retreat that we had about a week ago and for their participation, because I think it really it made it a really good retreat for the audience. We had a retreat focused on how do we improve communications internally. And so we had a lot of great discussion with city staff and we they were able to provide us a lot of good feedback. And so again, it was a great retreat and I want to thank everyone. Also want to remind everyone that we've got our budget workshops going on right now. We had our budget tour on Friday. Thank the staff for that as well. That was a, I think, honestly, I think we saw more things in that budget tour than we've ever seen in previous budget tours. We crept, crammed in a lot in in that time so a lot of great work being done by the staff to prepare the budget and then help us understand the budget as well we had a budget workshop today and then we will have another workshop tomorrow at 5 30 we'll be here at city hall and we'll be covering the police department budget, the beaches energy budget, and the parks and rec budget. And then next Monday, August 10th at 530, we will have public works planning and development and redevelopment. Their budgets will be going over them. As citizens who pay taxes to the city of Jacksonville Beach and with the proposed property tax elimination or reduction amendment, It's really important that citizens understand what your money is doing in your community. So I would encourage you to try to come to these budget workshops so you can better understand what our tax dollars are doing before you vote in November on the property tax amendment. And then I also wanted to recognize our Jack's Beach Police Department, who achieved or received CALEA accreditation again for the 10th time. And this marks 31 years that our police department has been accredited, CALEA accredited. And it's recognized as a gold standard. And they go through a rather intense assessment process. and they prove that they are doing things as accepted by international standards for public safety. It's a huge accomplishment and just want to recognize our police department for achieving that again. And then also want to let everyone know that there is going to be a District 2 School Board candidate forum on Thursday, August 6th at 7 o'clock at the Community Presbyterian Church. Church Fellowship Hall, and that's in Atlantic Beach on 150 Sherry Drive. All three of the school board candidates in District 2 is our district, so the candidates running for this position will be representing our beaches schools. All three of the candidates are confirmed, and I want to remind everybody that early voting does start Friday, August 7th, and goes till Sunday, August 16th. And we have a new early voting site in Jack's Beach that you can actually go to, which is the community center down near Sunshine Park. And early voting times are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. We're excited to see. Hopefully people will take advantage of the new early voting site. And last but not least, well, I want to mention everybody knows school is starting August 10th, right? So boo, maybe, right? But just want to remind everyone to be careful because I live really close to the schools and lots of kids will be headed back to school. So we want everyone to be mindful of that. Drive carefully. Watch for kids. and encourage kids, please wear your bicycle helmets so that you can stay safe. And then last but not least, I want to wish happy birthday. August 5th, we have two people celebrating birthdays. Councilman Wilders will be celebrating his birthday, and our city clerk, Molly Alliger, will be celebrating her birthday on August 5th as well. So we want to wish them happy birthday, and we will not be singing to them.

You're welcome. Thank you, Ms. Golding. Mr. Jansen.

Yeah, I just want to piggyback off of what Member Golding said. I do appreciate the city staff's involvement with the council retreat and the budget workshop. in the budget showcase. It was an amazing job. They always do a really good job. All of that, just to also say that I could not be any more prouder of them as a city administration and our departments, because here we are. If you live in the city of Jacksonville Beach, you should be proud as well. We are a debt-free city, which is almost unheard of in this day and time. Look across the 411 cities across the state of Florida, and I doubt you're going to find too many that are debt-free. You can probably count them on one hand, maybe. So they're doing an amazing job. We've rebuilt several city parks from the ground up. Increase the size of our police department by 6% and backfill some attrition. We've got several infrastructure projects that are in place and completed, all without raising the millage rate and all without raising taxes. So, mad applause for our city staff and our city departments. They're doing an amazing job.

Thank you, Mr. Jansen. Mr. Horn.

Thank you very much. Sorry for the noise there a few minutes ago. You young people out there in the crowd, this is a pager. So you can ask your parents what that is. Occasionally, you'll still have to have a job as you become an adult where you have to have one of those. So I apologize for the noise a moment ago. I also apologize to my colleagues for my tardiness this evening, but I did make it technically to the meeting. I look forward to speaking with Mike about the meeting tonight and some I will not, and I want to let the other staff members and council members know, I will not be here tomorrow. I'll be on the meeting remotely because myself and several members of the Volunteer Lifesaving Corps, as well as separately several members of Jackson Beach Ocean Rescue, will be traveling to Fort Lauderdale for the United States Lifesaving Association National Championships. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we'll be competing in the waters off of Fort Lauderdale for glory and hopefully no injuries. And thank you very much for being here. Also, I want to say that the showcase we had, just like my counterparts have said, was amazing. Thank you.

Mr. Wilders?

Thank you, Madam Mayor. I appreciate all the comments of my esteemed colleagues, and I won't piggyback on anything. But I do want to wish all the students and the educators who Councilman, my friend John, mentioned in his invocation quite thoughtfully. And a special shout out to the principals Mattingly, Brown, and Mr. Ledford as they guide our youth through this next year. And let's all pray for them. And let's take Councilman Golding's advice and please be careful of the kids. Good luck to all of y'all.

Thank you, Mr. Wouders. I was asked by the clerk to make an announcement that the door to the bathroom is closed, but it is unlocked. So if you need to go there, it's just out down the hall. And I wanted to welcome back to council chambers, one of our former colleagues, Steve Hartemeyer, who served on the Jacksonville Beach City Council for two terms, but I don't remember the years, but six to 14. And we have a seat up here open if you want to... He can move. And then he slipped in, but our former colleague who was vice mayor, I think at the end of his term, Corey Nichols, has slipped in the back here. Welcome back, Corey and Steve. Thank you guys for being here. And you'll learn why Steve is here in just a minute. We have a few more items to get through, and then we will get to our special presentations. But next we have courtesy of the floor to visitors, and I have one speaker card, Jennifer Burns. If you want to come up to the podium and give us your name and address, and you'll have three minutes to address the council.

Jennifer Burns, address 3929 Grande Boulevard, over there. I just wanted to discuss, and I know it's not on the agenda, The application number 26-100046, the abandonment of right-of-way alleyways and things like that behind homeowners, behind houses. Basically, that's fine. I'm just bringing it up because I won't be able to attend the next two meetings and I don't know when you'll have it on the agenda. The public notice was dated July 9th that went out to everyone that was affected by this. Basically, it's the alley behind my house. Anyway, sorry. I'm a little nervous.

Doing great.

I just wanted to let you guys know that currently we're working with Public Works because there's some dead or dying trees in that alleyway. And we're one of the newer builds. So the fence was outside of that easement. You know what I mean? Our back fence. And then there's the seven feet, which I guess will be our responsibility. Once this is approved, which I don't know, you know, what meeting that's going to happen at. So I just wanted to say a word. maybe bring up that Public Works is still working on that. So I just didn't want it to be transferred over to us. And here we're dealing with these dead and dying trees that we didn't know the city wasn't looking at or maintaining. We didn't know that either until the Public Works guy came out to our house and said, oh no, we don't go back there. I've never been there. So I'm not sure what, if anything else I need to do. I spoke with somebody at City Hall who sent me to Public Works I spoke with Patrick Deegan at Public Works. So is that possible to, you know, keep that ticket open until that's completed?

Hand your card to the city manager, and he will look into it, and we'll pass along your comments, too, since you're not able to be there whenever it's heard.

Yeah, and I don't know when, you know, you guys will be on the agenda either. I'll keep looking, but I won't be in town for the next two or so. Okay. That's it. No worries. Thank you. Thank you. And that's my Stepopolis. Stepopolis, yep.

Could you turn the microphone off? Sorry. Thank you. Okay, that was our only courtesy of the floor. So now, in case you're wondering why there's so much pink in the room, we are really, really excited to welcome the... Just kidding.

God, I'm so excited.

Moving on to your consent agenda. I move we approve the consent agenda. Second. We have motion and second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. Okay. Now, all the pink in the room is because we have the two-time world champion Infinity All-Stars Royal cheerleading team. And we're so excited to have you. Can we get some cheers? So I'm going to read a proclamation and then we are going to get to see the award winning performance. And and then Mr. Horn has learned the performance and has offered to give his. No, you can do it after or if you want to do it along with the video, you can do that. You need to get a bow in your hair though. That's a required uniform. Okay. Whereas infinity all-stars cheerleading located in Jacksonville beach, Florida is the longest standing all-star cheerleading program in Northeast Florida. And whereas most of these athletes have trained within the infinity all-stars program for many years, dedicating them, dedicating themselves to growth, both as athletes and young women. And whereas their journey reflects the values of the program. So, The values of the program strives to instill loyalty, perseverance, discipline, and commitment, and whereas the Infinity All-Stars Royals won their first world championship title in 2019, and whereas competing in one of the largest and most competitive divisions at the USASF World Championships, the team rose above 32 elite teams to claim their second world's title in 2026 through exceptional performance, teamwork, and determination. And now, therefore, I, Christine A. Choffman, Mayor of the City of Jacksonville Beach, do hereby proclaim August 3rd, 2026 as Infinity All-Stars Royals Day in Jacksonville Beach and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and celebrating this accomplishment in our community. Congratulations. All right, let's roll the tape.

The royals are in the building. Now everyone bow. Remember, you must not take my secrets. Crown in the show. Respect or you will meet the hounds.

Come on, girls. Let no poison rush the world.

I'll be powering with a battle for your girl's presence now. So much hater touch. This my crown. You're in town. You know you can't come back to this royal air. Every step another slay. All you can do is stare. Get ready for the royal. Pay attention. If you're a peasant, we go last. Yo, we got tickets, we got rings, call it treasure. Quizzo Parade, all the energy, we came to serve. Bounce to the ground, yeah, we run this show. Oil and reckless, everybody knows. Sass with a smile, got that glitter and gold. We're loud, we're proud, unstoppable souls. It's our time to serve. Give an honor, guys, that's what you deserve. Oil's in the game, get on back. Now we right. Browns on our head. We run the court. No shame. Where my Royals at? Royals on the front to the back. Get your hands out. I know you're feeling that. Don't know. I wore off that truck. Feel the music. Ain't gonna get caught. Like three back thumbs gonna rock me up. Like a doxyderm in that thing. Let's go. Let's see how low you can go. Fuck that bag. Put on the show. We too cold like zero below. Now you're wrong. The show. Royals in the hell we at. You know we raise some praise. With that crown on our head. I don't want it.

I'm the throne of the sky.

I can't know why. The crown is eternal. It shines in our eyes. We are loyal forever. We can't explain. Ain't there some power in the storm and the rain? Glorious and fearless. It ain't never true.

The crown of the heavens belongs.

Give it up for the Royals of infinity all-stars

Bill?

I'm going to need Councilman Jansen, our city manager, and maybe Councilman Wilders and possibly a police officer to help me with a couple of these moves. But I think we'll get it.

That was absolutely incredible. Did you guys know you hit it? Like, did you know you had it at the end of that performance? That was really incredible. And I just watched enough of it earlier today to make sure it was going to work. So to watch the whole thing all together, the stamina and the enthusiasm that you guys have to keep up that whole time is just so impressive. Coming from a marching band girl. really, really impressive. So, all right, let's come up for a picture. Steve, is this who I buy poinsettias from every year?

Is this who I buy poinsettias from every year? Okay.

They do beautiful poinsettias at Christmas time. Do you want to come over and speak with the city clerk? I tried to get them to stay for the meeting, but it's okay. They're excited. Oh, were you here with them?

I love it.

Yeah, Cory, let's see. He's been line dancing. Lot of line dancing. Good to see you. Okay, everybody ready? We will move on to our resolution. Do we have a presentation or do we even need a presentation? We've talked about this a few times in briefing. Ms. Nelson?

I'll be brief. Karen Nelson, Deputy City Manager. As the Mayor said, we have talked about this in some detail at a council briefing. We also talked about it at the budget tour on Friday afternoon. This resolution will formally adopt the branding design for the life-saving station. We do have some graphics. Attachment A is the official building logo, the life-saving station logo. And then there's one design for each of the four elevations, the south side. The east side will be adding both logos, the Jaybor logo on the left and the VLSC logo on the right. And then the west side will be home of Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue. Mike, if you wouldn't mind going back just to the east elevation. I think we kind of passed by that one. On the east, I'm sorry, south. On the south side, we will be adding the word since 1912 to home of the Volunteer Life Saving Corps. We also have representing VLSC tonight, Ryan Karish. And I think Ryan would like to say a couple of words.

to say it in the form of a cheer though.

Ryan Karish, captain of the Volunteer Life Saving Corps. Thank you guys so much for voting on this tonight. It means a lot to everybody at the lifeguard station to have the building in full display for all the beach goers to actually know what that building is. I will say this past weekend, in conjunction with Ocean Rescue, they had six towers on the beach plus the peg, and the Volunteer Life Saving Corps had eight towers on the beach. are continuing to step up our efforts to provide as much coverage as we can. So this is just one more step in the direction that we'd all like to see. Thank you to the council for your support, as well as the city behind the scenes. I really appreciate that. So thank you.

Thank you. That's awesome. Okay. Are we done? We're done. Okay. Did I already do a motion?

Nope.

Not yet. Motion.

I move to adopt resolution number 2219-2026, establishing the official logo and branding design for the Jacksonville Beach Life Saving Station.

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

Council Member Golding. Yes. Council Member Horne.

Yes.

Council Member Jansen.

Yes.

Council Member Wagner.

Yes.

Council Member Wilders.

Yes.

Mayor Hoffman.

Yes. Motion carries. Mr. Miggott, would you like to present the next item?

Certainly. So this is the ordinance regarding the Paw's Dog Park that came up at April briefing. But actually, I will not be presenting it because I'm going to have our legal intern present it before he comes up here. I'd like to briefly introduce him. We are fortunate that we applied for and received the grant from the Florida Bar. 100% of what we asked for. We were able to get a summer intern this year. Nick Chinaris is entering the second year of law school this fall at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, which is consistently ranked as the best law school in Florida, one of the top law schools in the entire country. They have a lot of really, really good alumni. I can think of one specifically right now. But it's been a great experience, and when this came in in April, originally it was on a slower pace, and I thought this would be a great project for Mr. Chenieros to work on and also expedite it. It seemed like council was on board from the start. So my apologies if you all expected this to come back at another briefing, but we fast-tracked it. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Chenieros to make a presentation, and then, of course, Mayor will also follow the standard procedure for ordinances. Thank you.

Thank you all, and a big thank you to the city of Jacksonville Beach for hosting me this summer. It's been a great experience. Before you unite, on first reading is ordinance number 2026-8239, which would amend section 20-15 of the Code of Ordinances governing Paws Dog Park. The amendment arose, like Mr. McGitt said, from the April 13th City Council briefing, where Councilmember Golding brought up an incident of animal cruelty at a nearby dog park and noted that the current code contains no provision which would allow the city to exclude individuals who commit such acts from the dog park. So the proposed amendment addresses the gap by adding a subsection C, which would allow the city to deny, revoke, suspend park membership from anyone convicted of or being investigated for animal cruelty. It also establishes a discretionary path for reinstatement that's contingent on completing animal cruelty prevention education course. The requested action is approval of the ordinance on first reading with the second reading scheduled for August 17th.

Thank you. If you want to hang tight in case we have any questions. Madam Clerk, will you read the ordinance by title?

An ordinance of the City of Jacksonville Beach, Florida, amending Chapter 20, Section 20-15, Paws Dog Park, of the Code of Ordinances to add a new subsection C, authorizing the denial, suspension, or revocation of membership for certain persons investigated for or convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses, providing for enforcement, codification, repeal of conflicts, severability, and an effective date.

And a motion.

I move we approve ordinance number 2026-8239 on the first reading amending chapter 20, section 20-15, Paul's Dog Park, of the Code of Ordinances to add a new subsection C authorizing the denial, suspension, or revocation of membership for certain persons investigated for or convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses and schedule a second reading for August 17, 2026. Second. Second.

We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Ms. Golding.

Thank you so much. And thank you for all that you did as an intern. It's wonderful that you were able to be here and work with David. I'm sure it was a good experience. I'm sure he kept you laughing too, probably. Yeah. And thank you, David, for your support on this as well as Jason, because, you know, 20 years ago when the dog park was first opened, we never contemplated anything like this because, you know, the dog park is a place where it's fun, right? And people and dogs are having a good time. But when this incident happened at our neighboring dog park, It was actually rather eye-opening, and I reached out to Jason and said, hey, do we have a way to handle situations like this? And it's sad that we have to add this to our code, but I'm glad that we're doing it, and I hope we don't have to use it.

Thank you, Ms. Golding. Mr. Wouters.

Thank you, Mayor. I'm not sure, is it Mr. Chindris? Chenares. I'm sorry. No. Anyway, who adjudicates this? Would that be the director of parks? This would be up to the city manager. Oh, okay. Because I was just curious where it says, like, if there were an unfounded accusation, it says investigated for or convicted. Would that preclude them from using it if it was an unfounded accusation?

It would be up to the city manager's discretion. This was written intentionally to allow for investigation, not just conviction, to give the city manager that power because the incident that gave rise to this was, as Council Member Golding said, a viral video. So here, if such a horrible thing were to happen at PAWS, the city manager could take immediate action.

Well, I love animals as much as anyone in this room, so I'm glad we're doing this, but I just wanted to understand it. Thank you.

Mr. Horn?

I'll throw this out there just for the day. Let's see if there's... I thought about this over the weekend, and I was planning on sending this through to Mr. Miggitt this morning, and then my day got away from me. I was tempted to put in the words, persons investigated for or convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses or crimes against minors. And crimes against minors... Everybody on the dais may know my – and again, I just kind of – I think you can – persons who are cruel to animals or cruel to minors or have crimes against minors, kind of the same thought. I don't know if there's any – Anybody on, maybe this might be a stretch. I see a couple of perplexed looks. I don't know. You all know my feelings about anybody, minors and things like that. I think they can all burn. And I know I'm on camera. I don't care. Just a thought. Anybody?

I turned my switch on.

Mr. Jansen?

I would lean on Mr. Megan, to see if there was a nexus for that or not. I hear what you're saying, for sure. But I think we'd almost have to draw a nexus of some sort for a legal challenge. Yes.

So you took the actual word that popped in my brain about 30 seconds ago. So either kudos to you or we're both way off. But yeah, I'm concerned about it being related. My initial thought when you just brought this up is My suggestion is let's continue with this ordinance because there's no reason why we couldn't further amend it in the very near future. But, you know, it would take some research. It would delay this ordinance. If council wants to explore that further, we'd be happy to look at it, but maybe not close that too.

And like I said, I literally did not have the chance to bring this up to you earlier today, so I apologize. And, you know, I'm okay with that because as long as we have the opportunity in the future.

Mr. Jansen?

Yeah, so I just, off that topic, I just wanted to say thank you for your expertise. And Matt Props, once again, to our city attorney for diving into an internship program. I worked at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for 28 years, and at one point I was in charge of the cold case unit. And I did reach out to UNF to see if we could get some interns to come in there because they have a college of criminal law program. which we are going to establish that program, and it was funded as well. So I think that's awesome for our city and awesome for the opportunity for persons just like yourself to take advantage of it. So thank you, and thank you, city attorney.

I'll echo the comments. Thank you for your service to our city this summer, and congratulations on being smart enough to choose the University of Florida, and I'll just leave it with go Gators. Any other comments? Madam Clerk, roll call.

Council Member Horne. Yes. Council Member Jansen.

Yes.

Council Member Wagner.

Yes.

Council Member Watters. Yes. Council Member Golding. Yes. Mayor Hoffman.

Yes. Motion carries. A double gator, no less. I just got that news. Oh, even smarter. All right. Seeing no other business, do I have a motion to adjourn?

I move we adjourn.

Second. All in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?