City Council - workshop

Welcome everyone to the City Council Budget Workshop of August 6, 2026. We're dealing with overflow from other issues tonight. We will go ahead and begin with a pledge and invocation if you'll join me in standing. Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for gathering us all here again today. Lord, and thank you for sparing most of us from the rain for most of the day, but thank you for the rain, Lord. Thank you for replenishing our groundwater. And Lord, please help those here at the dais make decisions that are both good for our citizens today and those in the future. In your name I pray. Amen. All right. Ms. Sykes, will you please call the roll?

Council Member Jernigan?

Present.

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

Here.

All right. Ladies and gentlemen, the Lake City Council has opened its public meeting. And since 1968, the city code has prohibited any person from making personal, impertinent, or slanderous remarks or becoming boisterous while addressing the city council. Yelling or making audible comments from the audience constitutes boisterous conduct. Such conduct will not be tolerated, and there is only one approved manner of addressing the city council, and that's to be recognized and then speak from the podium. Failure to abide by the rules of decorum will result in removal from the meeting. Like I said, tonight is overflow and further discussion as needed, and then we will have public participation at the end. So if you are interested in public participation and not called to the podium during our items tonight, please make sure that you fill out a card in the back of the room, and we will make sure that you are recognized in that portion. All right. That being said, let's begin, Mr. Carter. Hey.

what's up council how you guys doing today i have an idea i would like to i would like to float i thought about our meeting last night a whole lot last night um i understand that district 10 uh is facing unique challenges to to district 10 um and i think this may be a solution that we could get behind and shape a little bit uh so what i'm going to suggest is that we give Richardson Community Center, the 70,000 that we gave them last year, that we create a committee. We can call it the District 10 Youth Program Committee or something like that. The committee would be made up of five people Some of this stuff obviously can change if people have different ideas, but my idea is four of them appointed by the council and the council person, whoever it may be in perpetuity, from District 10 would chair that committee. That committee, I'm suggesting at this point, have a budget or a pool to pool from of $70,000. So we're looking at 140 being spent overall on the idea. I'm not at all comfortable with, and it seemed like the majority of the board last night was not comfortable with, writing checks to a private park such as Annie Maddox. But I do know Annie Maddox hosts many events, some stuff that's even put on by Richardson Community Center. So the suggestion, in a loose way, would be that that committee would be advisory. It would have $70,000 a year to advise spending for. If we authorize that, we could let Mr. Rosenthal authorize and sign the checks based on the recommendations of that committee for various programs brought to that committee, whether it be a program held at Annie Maddox Park, at Richardson Community Center, at the softball fields for that matter, or any other youth programs. I know that Ms. Coker comes up here a lot and shares different programs they got going on, so she would be able to apply to that committee as well, or what have you, but basically, We keep Richardson going at what we gave them last year. We put aside the same amount to be recommended from a committee we create. So it's not 200,000. It's 140 towards the same goal. I think that, I feel like that's 200,000 this year when we're trying to cut back on everything else. It's just too big a chunk to bite. And also the suggestion puts a lot of responsibility on the District 10 Council person. But I think that, again, it would seem to me whoever's there now or 20 years from now would wanna take a special interest in the youth of the district and the unique challenges that they are trying to overcome.

Mr. Jernigan.

Thank you for that. I'd like to start off by saying I apologize to Vice Mayor Young. I was a bit confused on the $200,000, which she was clear. But again, being clear sometimes, to me, it fogged my brain, I guess. And then when Carter said something about giving the Richardson Community Center 70,000. I just agree with that. Uh, So I want to apologize to her because it looked like I was Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, I guess you could say. So I want to make sure I get this out here. I'm in favor of the $100,000 for Richardson Community Center. I'm totally in favor with that. Not 70,000, but 100,000. Now, when it comes to Anna Maddox Park, I didn't think that from what I had seen in the past years that they had responsible people in charge over there. So therefore, I was not in favor of giving them anything. Nothing.

However,

with Ms. Young being the overseer of that district and that's something that she wants to accomplish, I'm in favor of giving them something. That amount, I don't know just yet. I got a piece of paper up here today With some of the activities and programs that they have out there that community. I mean that animatics Park so Whatever we come up with I'm gonna do all I can to make sure that whatever council vice mayor wants We're gonna come I think we should come close to it to make sure the mission is accomplished that she's trying to do because Her thought is the children. I don't think she's got any other interest in there but the children. And that overflow from the community center to Animadox to the community center. So I hope you accept my apology. But if not, I'm still going to heaven because I asked you for an apology.

Still going to heaven. My thought is very similar to Mr. Carter's, which is interesting because Pastor Nelson and I were talking before this meeting and I shared something similar that I was going to propose. I I'm in favor of that. The only thing that I would change at all is having a Lake City Youth Committee. I think that's a good idea. I don't know that it should be district-specific on who sits on that board, but have the vice mayor, whoever the vice mayor is, and Vice Mayor Young would initiate the chair of that committee and just have whoever the vice mayor is at the time be the chair of that committee. I think that's a fair way to do it, and it it allows more input from the community and makes a collaborative effort rather than creating silos for people to stay separate in their opportunities and energy to help children in the community.

Yes, ma'am, Ms. Harris. I want to be clear with what you said. $70,000 for Richardson alone. $70,000 for any medics and anybody else that wants to use money out of that? Or is that $70,000 for...

Yes, my suggestion would be then that that committee is basically like, because it's advisory, it's not like just handing it out off on its own, but it's an advisory committee with a pool of money to advise to spend from of $70,000 towards youth programs. So if you have a program, you come to that committee and say, this is what we'd like to do, and this is how much we're asking for. Maybe they get some, maybe they get all, and then that is recommended to... And I don't know if it needs to come before the council or if once the committee has made a recommendation, you know.

My question was, you said $70,000 for Richardson alone. Yes. $70,000 for not just Animatics, but for other organizations that need to get money out of that $70,000? Yes. It's not specifically going to Animatics?

No. As a matter of fact, I'm not in favor of any checks being written by the city government saying to Animatics Park. It's a problem. Not to say that they aren't programs hosted at Enigmatics Park. Like I said, if I understood it correctly last night, many of these football programs like that have their own organizations or leagues or what have you. I'm not in favor of the city giving money. I thought some of us were on the same page with a private organization that has the ability to at any point close their doors. I'm not saying they're going to. I'm not saying that they are likely to. But there is a significant difference between a publicly owned park and a privately owned park.

So you said you agreed with him, what he was talking about?

70 to Richardson, and then forming a committee like Vice Mayor Young suggested the first night.

So you're saying the 70,000 will be not for Annie Maddox, but it will be for anybody that comes. That's what you're saying as well?

Yeah, but primarily in the people who have their stuff together here tonight and have a budget, I would imagine they'd be able to approach that committee pretty quickly. My thought actually would be to have somebody from both boards on that committee have youth pastors, have the vice mayor at the time, and to make sure that money was allocated for the wellness and oversight of good programs and after-school programs and stuff like that for children, yeah. whoever's hosting them and putting them on at the time. Because let's be fair, it might not be, the park could be leased out by an entity because it is a private park. They could choose to lease that entity or to an entity. But that's, I know that they're not saying that, but the possibility is there because it is a private, it is private land. It is a private asset.

Yeah, but you all keep bringing up leasing and all of this. They're not saying that. The only thing they need is they want to have funding in order to run certain programs there. It has been clear. that funds have at Richardson Community Center, their overflow a lot of time goes to Anna Maddox. The city, we do not have anything recreational for the children, period. So if children are our true concern, Anna Maddox should be our concern as well, whether it is private or not, if they are running programs for the children, the same children, our children.

Mr. Carter. Canucks is not the only private organization that runs money for children. It's not the only private organization that survives mostly on donations.

Hold on.

Let's not speak over each other. Yes, but there's something called a can of worms.

And if you start doing that, you're going to have every private organization that runs programs for children come in here and asking for money. And at some point, there won't be any left. That's why the main focus of what I'm trying to say is keeping things somewhat general.

That still can happen with the 70K. That still can happen.

Well, two things, though. One, it hasn't set a precedent. of giving to one specific private organization over another. Two, it's got a limit. It's got a hard limit. $70,000. Once it's spent, it's gone for that year. If we find that it is a successful program and that it is thriving, I can't imagine a situation in which this board doesn't increase its budget the next year. If we're getting what we want out of this, if we're seeing youth succeeding and all the stuff that we hope it does, then I can't imagine it not continuing to grow. But my thought is we've got to start somewhere. I get that much. This is, like, again, I can't emphasize enough, a year when we've had every department in the city cut everywhere they can. So...

And you say that, but we sat right here and we added another, which I wanna revisit that, as far as having a CRA person, we added something else. We had all the departments cutting everything, but we added another position that we don't even know what that person is gonna do. So we're cutting, but it's just, it seems like we're choosing what we wanna cut on, we're choosing what we wanna add onto. Then we had, I don't want to point nobody out, but we had the Humane Society come up here, jump from 201,000 up to 300,000. But when it comes to children, there is a problem with, make it make sense to me, because after I slept on that last night, it bothered me.

May I just real quick? Sure. We didn't agree last night to pay the Humane Society another $100,000. We very clearly, as far as I can tell, we told them, well, the services that you've been providing for us are now going out for RFP and we get some competitive bids on those things. So we didn't agree. Y'all got that? Yeah, we didn't agree to pay them. Their contract ends in... in a month and a half, and so we didn't agree to continue paying for that. As a matter of fact, I look forward to seeing those RFPs, and I want to see some competitive and interesting solutions to the animal issues, right? So they've done well the last six months. That's cool. I don't want to get too far into the weeds with that, but there have been a lot of issues that I think that some of them may be solved in the future with some of the ways that we've decided to break up the RFPs for the animal stuff. But we didn't agree to pay them for that. Also, yes, we did majority agree to add a position for something that we literally have to do based on a state mandate that we have to meet these requirements by next spring. We're going to talk about that. We've spent the last year with the administration. Hold on.

Let him finish.

We've spent the last year, administration, not being able to meet those goals. So the administration has determined that we need a person whose job that is, or in this case, two people whose job that is.

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

I'll speak to the CRA though.

Are you finished?

We'll get back to that. I mean, you, you mentioned it. I'm sorry.

I got that. We added more than one position yesterday.

We said that we would add that position. We just funded the CRA at $1.2 million to roll out programs for, I mean, so to be fair to Annie Max, I want to read what this is real fast, right? So he presented a budget. It's very well put together. It's on a quarterly basis. But half of this, in terms of probably miscellaneous and improvements to that part, can be pulled out of the CRA. That CRA manager who will be overseeing those funds can help process grants to pay for renovations, to pay for improvements, et cetera, et cetera. That person will also be helping folks who are in our community, our constituents. within the CRA, which is mainly downtown and north of town, to renovate the facade of their house and all those things. I imagine that's going to be a pretty heavy load and a very popular thing for people to come up to the city and be able to get grants to improve their property because it's good for them. If you're itching to say something, go for it.

I don't wanna talk about CRA and all that. What we are talking about, I just, I wanna talk about giving money to Anna Maddox and to Richardson. And I say this, we do not have anything in the city for our children, nothing. If our children are going to Annie Maddox Park and if our children are going to Richardson, why would it take Richardson to get 70 and then Annie Maddox Park where everybody else have to split that pot? Everybody else isn't up here asking for money.

That's why there's an advisory council that would be overseeing that.

And they'll be able to see that. Don't separate Richardson Community Center from Anna Maddox or anybody else. Put it all in one pot and let the advisory board give out the money to whomever like that.

So I'm going to finish my point now. My point is based on, my view is based on a meeting that I had with several of our pastors from that area about three weeks ago. Pastor Nelson was involved in that meeting. What they said and what I took away from it was that the children need several things. They need counseling. They need tutoring. They need all of these things. But when I asked, where would this be, Pastor Nelson, what did they say? They said, we need to put funds into Richardson. And then have somewhere that these kids can get counseling as well. So that's where I started thinking, okay, Richardson was mentioned specifically. And I didn't hear any Maddox mentioned in that. It might have been. I never heard it. Richardson Community Center at $70,000. We know we've given them money the last two years. I think $30,000. No, actually, we just started last year. We gave them the guaranteed $50,000 last year for the first time. And then when they came back, we gave them the other $20,000 for the summer camp to provide summer camp for kids within the city. The other $70,000 will be a generous plenty, I think, to go toward whatever programs. And then if there are enhancements that want to be made to any properties, the CRA can help manage that. Yes, sir. Mr. Croner.

Just to piggyback off of what you're saying, yesterday when Mr. Nelson first came up and spoke to us, when he began the list of needs, they were needs that weren't necessarily programs, but they were needs that the CRA can absolutely help with. So there's two different things going on here. If the facility needs all kinds of upgrades, I think the CRA can help with that. Furthermore, we did just fund the CRA to a degree that it hasn't been funded in years. It would be irresponsible to not put someone in charge of that. So... There's two different ways that they can be successful in this way, and in my opinion, significantly more than we've done in many years for anybody. I think that there's all kinds of opportunities for the CRA for that facility to help improve itself because it's in the CRA, physically, facade stuff and the like.

And the programs we funded.

And then the programs is just a separate thing. And there's a degree in which, again, I just think we ought to be best to keep it general. So that if there is someone who's across town but still a Lake City resident who has a great program that wants to do something over in your district over there or mine or Ricky's district over here. They can come to that committee that we're starting to create and say, we have this program. We're looking to get, I don't know, $5,000, $10,000 or something like that. In addition to creating this thing, we'd have to have rules for it. Like, are we matching 50-50? Are we just giving to a maximum amount? But the idea of it staying general feels more fair. Obviously, its focus will mostly be oriented towards District 10. That's where a lot of this is going. But that's also why the guaranteed $70,000 to... Richardson Community Center is wholly focused, obviously, on District 10. It is in District 10. It primarily services youth in District 10.

Ms. Young. I'm just, I'm hopeful, I'm just, praying that we come to a resolve tonight. And let us keep in mind, this is not about Annie Maddox Park. We're not talking about the property. We're not talking about the basketball courts. We're not talking about the lighting. We're not talking about the building. We're not talking about the pavilion. It's not about us board members. We're not talking about City of Lake City board members. It's not even about Annie Maddox board.

It's not about the board.

And I think we've gotten off on some personals and beating around the bush and be transparent and say what you say and mean what you mean so that we can get through this. Our children are suffering because of foolishness like this. We got to get past all of that, people. We have to get past. It's not about all of that. But this decision tonight is about Lake City's future. We talk about crime. What can we do? Where do we go from here? We talk about crime. And the majority of it is in our young people. We say we don't have recreation. What are we going to do for recreation? We don't have recreation. We don't have anything for them to do. We don't have any place for them to go. We're crying hunger with a loaf of bread upon our arms. We have two recreation programs. facilities right here, but we wanna use Antimatter Ops. Oh, let's use the facility, but we're not gonna feed them. We'll feed them on their property, but somebody else has to get the money. Come on, we got to be realistic here. And if you recall, Richardson Community Center was in the same space, and we allowed them a opportunity to redeem themselves. And if something's been harbored like that, Annie Maddox Park, Annie Maddox, should be allowed the opportunity to show us. I don't know who else can show you this. And I know this to be true. I know Dr. Dwight Pollock, certified game trainer in youth and adults. I know that to be true. I know. Pastor Brandon Bowden, Hamilton County. I know this to be true. Travis Davis, college prep. Dr. Lawrence, military. I know this to be true. Now, I don't know about that Santa Claus. I know this to be true. We have, these are people, this is not just somebody we went on the streets and picked and say, will you come and do this? And you know what else this does? This is bringing the church back in the community. So it's a much greater picture than what we're looking at. And this is what's needed, people in our community. Forget about us. Forget about a board. Forget about what happened with monies two, three years or whatever ago. Forget about that. And allow an opportunity. You're laughing, but you've done something in your life that you had to be forgiven for. This is not about us. But this is about our community. We say our children are our future, but our children are our today. No, no, you stay over there now. Stay over there. Our children are our today. And this decision we make today, today, today, it is for today and it's for our future. And I propose, the proposal that I presented, I stand on what I propose. and I'm sure you are, and you went along with it, it sounds like you received the proposal, but then you wanna look at this person, and you wanna look at this person, wherein everyone who stand at that podium has an all, have a fault, and we've looked over it. And it's not about forgetting, but it's about allowing an opportunity, and we watch. And that's what the board is for. That's what the advisory board is for. So if you have something you want to say, just say it. Just told you to calm down. No, you don't tell me to calm down. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

Hey, we're not going to. We'll go in order.

Say what the issue is. That's the problem here. If we get over that bridge, then we can come to a resolve.

Mr. Carter, you indicated that you wanted to speak?

Yes. Miss Young, I admire your passion. I have spent the last 18 years of my life in Kiwanis Club of Lake City. I have been eagerly in my spare time attempting to serve and help children. I appreciate your goals. I appreciate your passion. I have no interest at all forgetting anything because that's not how you learn. You live and you learn, and you make judgment calls based on past experience. So, no, we are on the same page as far as our ultimate goals. We want to help children. We want to find ways to help them thrive. That is, I don't think anyone here disagrees with that. But that doesn't mean that you just fling money in any direction you can and you don't have all kinds of rules for how it is spent, where it is spent, and in what way it is spent. I'm sorry, this isn't our money. It's not your money. It's not my money. It's not their money. It is the citizens' money, and the citizens expect us to be incredibly responsible with the money. And quite frankly, the citizens of this town are not. super confident in our ability to be incredibly responsible with the money. So I'm insisting on an element of responsibility, a standard of somewhat generality, okay? And also, you came yesterday, I'm at 70,000 and you're at 200,000. I walked into this meeting and I said, hey, how about 140? That is more than I had ever thought about spending on this at this juncture. I think that that is a solid compromise. You said you wanted a committee. I said, let's give you the committee and let's put you in charge of the committee.

So that wasn't your idea. It was actually her idea. You just repeated it today.

Yeah, well, we didn't forget yesterday happened. I said I thought a whole lot about it, and I came back and said that's a good idea. I like it. And I specifically like this particular aspect of it being the role of the District 10. Now, we can cut it up into pieces and make it something else as we all talk about it, but I think that the District 10 city councilor has a vested interest in these issues, and I think that that person serving as the chair of that committee is excellent. regardless of who's vice mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Carter. Ms. Young?

Mayor, I appreciate you. I appreciate you. Mayor, yesterday, I said, I'm not saying put $100,000 in Annie Maddow's account. That's not what I proposed. But what I proposed is that it be broken down into quarters. And it may not be Anna Maddox who received the first quarter. And matter of fact, cut the first quarter in half. Come on, mathematician. Cut the first quarter in half. And the first quarter kickoffs. Get this started. First quarter. This is Anna, who came up with this? This is Reverend Nelson. Pastor Nelson bringing all these pastors and educators and all who we need to play a part in our community are on here. I say take that first quarter, allow this to come together. It takes money to run anything. If you run out that door to your car, it take money. allow that first half, half of that first quarter to bring this together and see what it does for our community. I guess you just don't see the big picture. But in order to do this, you gotta write a check to Adam and Oz. You can't get past that. And we're monitoring, we're watching, So, and after the first quarter, you can pretty much see where you're going, the first half of the first quarter, right? You see where you're going, you see how many, look at that STEAM program, tutoring. I don't know of any free tutoring. I just don't know of any. So we bring all of this All of these needs that we're crying about, we have an opportunity to host them at a park, which we say is a private park. We really don't know what that park is. It might be a public park. We don't know. And that's another thing we'll talk about that in just a little bit. We don't know what the park is, but we know we use it as a public park. But we'll pull a 501c from wherever, and they can go to... their house and holding a meeting or tutoring or teach or tutoring. That's a private property. Am I right? Do we check where it's going to be held? I haven't heard us ask that from 501C. Where are you holding your event? I haven't heard that. But let's talk about Annie Meadows because we need to get to the problem, to the root of the problem. And once we get to the root of the problem, then we can move on. Does anybody have anything to say about the root?

I would say this because I think there was a fair amount of failed accusations there. And I don't know that I can address them all. Ms. Harris asked why 70 to Richardson, why 70 that's allocated to everybody else. I think it's a fair question. And after thinking about it and listening to Ms. Young say it doesn't matter who... I think you're right. So I think that we take the full sum that was proposed by Mr. Carter at 140 and we create that council and we let them allocate it to youth programs that come and ask for it, regardless of where they are, as long as it's as long as it is not for operational or structural payments, but it is for the actual programs that serve children. I think that's the right thing to do. Yes, sir. Mr. Carter.

to clarify then that would be a general Lake City Community Youth Program Committee fund pool, right? So to be clear, and this is the only thing, I'm fine with that. That sounds fine with me. I think that the average citizen from across the city would probably find that more amenable. If they had a complaint before, it might be that one district is getting something the other districts are not. But to be clear, that is the case. If we go with something like that, there was an element that was focused directly in District 10.

Please repeat that. I missed that. One district, what now?

I said, someone that lives in a different district could say, hey, why is $140,000, $70,000 being spent specifically in one district on a specific thing? Whereas if we go with a general 140 across the board, that is something I'm saying that the entire community from anywhere they live could say, okay, that's fine with. But to be clear, my original suggestion made sure half of that money stayed in District 10 no matter what. I understand.

I would still have whoever is the vice mayor over that. But what this would do is it would disable the silos of each board from not working together. It would force people to work together. right to to not duplicate or even triplicate the same programs but work together so that if we want to get more done and do more things for the kids we're not doing three or four of the same thing we're doing one of the same thing and coming to that committee for that money mayor that makes it not organized I think that having it split up into five or six different entities makes it not organized. That's what you did there. I didn't. Actually, I said you would have one committee allocating all of the money. You would have everybody coming to that committee, and they would be able to say, okay, we've already allocated for youth counseling this year. at with x program we've already allocated for youth stem this year with x program we've already allocated for football we've already allocated for athletics at x program x program and it keeps you from duplicating spend expenditure on the same types of programs so it allows people to build up those programs wherever they are and it makes people work together Yes, ma'am, Ms. Harris.

Okay, we have a majority of the Animaddox board here. Could y'all stand up for us? Y'all came out here for the money, right? Yes, ma'am. So the list of stuff. Yeah, y'all come to the podium. Y'all come to the podium.

Mayor, council, Mr. Rosenthal, chief in the back. Thank y'all.

Yes, sir.

For about 10 minutes, I want y'all to take something out of your mind about Annie Maddox being a private park. I want you to take that out of your thinking about it being a private park. It's not a private park. It's in the midst of our city, open to the entire public. It don't matter white, black, Latino. It's open to the entire public. The board is formed in order to make sure that that property that Ms. Annie Maddox donated a long time ago stays within the community. That's the only thing that you can say that's private is that it's a board that's gathered. Different people come on the board that has no general gain. They does not get paid. They work off their own merit, right? Their own sweat and tears. Matter of fact, there's seven half to 10 acres out there. You know who's keeping it up? People from that board. that cost them money to keep that property up. There's children and coaches that are here that came to us and said, we ain't got nowhere else to go. Nobody else will take us in. Matter of fact, there was a young lady, she's not here tonight, but she's told me about three weeks ago, she said, Mr. Lewis, She said, my grandfather made a statement to me about 20 years ago when I was watching my little brother play football at Andy Maddox. He said, we should not have to come to nigger town to play football. This young lady came back to me two, three weeks ago and said, now this is the only place we have to go. So we've got to reinvest in what we think is skepticism. Annie Maddox is open to anybody who wants to come, enjoy themselves, have family picnics, family functions. They're welcome. Annie Maddox is not a public, I mean, not a private park. It is a very public place for anybody in this community and beyond who wants to come to share their time and their enjoyment. All we're asking is for a little bit of support. So Coach Godwin then will have somewhere to take On average, probably 200 kids in the afternoon with their parents out there going over homework with them, right? They jammed in that place because they got nowhere else to go. I don't want to see them have to go anywhere else. I want them to be able to come to that park anytime they get ready to.

Thank you. One more time, your name, sir?

Anthony Lewis.

Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

To the mayor, vice mayor, to the chief city manager, Al Nelson, at that meeting that we did have, Mr. Mayor, Richardson and Animatics was mentioned, but Richardson dominated the conversation. So that's why it was mentioned, Animatics was mentioned. but the conversation was dominated by the individual that was talking about the Richardson Community Center because he was a member of that advisory board and he was a chair of that board. So that's why you can recall a lot of the information being spoken about was about Richardson. Mr. Carter, I feel some type of way today that you say you will not give a dime to Animatics Park. You said I would not give any money to Animatics Park. And I sat right there and I said, wow. We can go back and play the tape if you like, but you say you will not give not one dime to Anna Mattis Park. You will not write a check to Anna Mattis Park. We can go back after the recording is over on YouTube and you can go back and play it, but if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. But if you said it, that's disheartening that you said that you will not give back to a community where children are. At the end of the day, you need to close your eyes And if Animatics was anywhere in the Columbia County and we come with all these programs and the things that we're doing with your eyes closed, no matter what color or creed they are or background they are, would you give them the money? If you had your eyes closed and everybody come to this podium, you don't look at no color, don't look at no gender, but you just listen to the facts. No matter where the organization is coming from, no matter where the park is located, at the end of the day, would you with your eyes closed, would you give them the money? That's what you have to think about tonight. Because at the end of the day, it's about the children. We don't do this to get no fame, no gain, no nothing. Because at the end of the day, what the children need is us. And I was relaying this to the mayor as we came in this earlier today. Animatics Park is one of the main bus stops for our school system. When those kids get off that bus, that means to me, as being an educator, that they are not able to go to the after-school programs that are offered at those schools. So when the time comes, they can come into our facility or at the pavilion. So when coach get ready for practice, they can come and hang out with us. We provide them with snacks, help them with their tutoring, help them with their homework. And when it's time for practice, they can go in the restroom, change, and then they're ready for practice. That's what we all were trying to do. I have to Certify educators that's in the system right now. That's ready to tutor. I got a retired Educator that's ready to retire tutor and I'll give up my time because I'm okay with mathematics So I'll help them with mathematics on part of the stem. We have retired Individuals that's here. That's why I put the arts there because the young people are not going to school for for education or for different degrees, we have to teach them the old things like HVAC. We still need electricians. We still need plumbers. We still need people to take care of lawn care. And these ladies here that are sitting right here to my left, they do alterations. Why we can't teach not just our women, but teach men how to sew. How to knit. We have to be open-minded in what we're doing. Right now, we're closed-minded. Right now, we're closed-minded. We're closed in what we can do with our community, and most importantly, for our children. Because at the end of the day, whatever's decided tonight, you have to remember it's going to affect every child that's in our community, whether you say yes or no. No matter how much money you give to this area or that area, at the end of the day, you're going to affect every one of these children in our city. I'm closing with this. I see you, Mayor. You have to remember, there's four schools that's been combined into two. Five points and Menejay became one. Melrose and Eastside became one. Menejay housed over 500 students. Eastside is going to house over 700 students. That's 1,200 students. They have after-school programs, but they are capped off at 100 apiece. So that means there are 1,000 students in our area, if we want to be specific, in District 10 area that need some tutoring and something to go in the afternoons. Why you can't give something to Animatics Park to at least get a percentage of that 1,000 students that's going to have something to do in the afternoons? Yes, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Nelson. I've got a question for you.

Yes, sir.

The programs that you have at Antimatic Spark, is there anywhere else that has those programs that duplicate those programs?

I can't say yes or no because I haven't been to those programs. But one thing I do know, and I know you said this. It's going to be duplicated because everything is going to be duplicated because whatever is done at one area is going to be duplicated somewhere else. But it's the matter of you're duplicating it, but you're servicing different people.

Let me ask you another question. On that board, and I think that we can all look at it, are there any monies for youth services on that board currently?

I don't know. You have to explain it to them because I just see words.

Animal shelter, senior services, historical museum, chamber of commerce, none.

Right.

I'm not saying don't give you guys any money. I'm saying let's put all of it into a youth council so that the organizations of the community can work together to best allocate those funds for the most use and the most impact on the most children. Okay, I got one question. I think that I was misinterpreted whenever I said that.

I just got one question. You don't trust that we won't be good stewards of the money that you give us? That's what that statement comes to me. Because now we got to ask an advisory board to come back to you all to write a check. And when you can just write it directly, you should have a good trust and believe that whatever check you write to us, that we're going to do it the right way and spin it the right way. Because now we're going through a whole nother person because now it seems like we're not being truthful in the matter. That's what it seems to me.

It might seem that way to you, but it's not true. What that advisory council would do is they'd be able to look at the allocation, the programs that they allocated to, and say, hey, maybe this money could better be spent in your programs doing this because we already have a tutoring or this because we already have a counseling. So no, absolutely not. Well, I can tell you now. I dismissed that premise that you're saying that I don't trust you because I've gone from – no money to money by an advisory council that can oversee it and make sure that we're not duplicating funds into different buckets and serving less kids where we could be serving more kids.

Okay. Can I give you a breakdown?

We'll have public comment at the end of the meeting. So what I would say is make sure that you sign up for public comment at the end of the meeting. We're talking to the Antimatics Board right now because it was invoked by Ms. Harris. But we will have that order.

All right. Can this be a consideration? This is consideration. Because the math guy that I am, how about you just give $45,000 to Richardson Community Center. give $45,000 to Animatics Park, and then let the advisory be responsible for $50,000, and within that $50,000, Richardson Community Center still has an opportunity to get $25,000, because there's still $25,000 left in there. Because, as you stated earlier, if some other entity want to come in and get some of that money, the money will be there, and enough money will still be in there for Richardson Community Center, which is half of the $50,000.

Yes, Mr. Carter has been waiting, then Ms. Young.

I want to address like seven things real quick. First of all, a lot of people have been calling you Pastor Nelson. I don't know you as that. I know you as Coach Nelson. You taught me in school. I understand why you would feel distrustful. I understand why you would feel like you're not being treated fairly by anybody. And I understand why what I said earlier may have been misconstrued as in some way distrust. But I want to first assure you that I don't need to close my eyes. None of the considerations that one would need to close their eyes for are relevant to me at all. Okay, we have to be responsible with this money. Quite frankly, as I said in yesterday's meeting, I would love to see the city inch its way back to a meaningful parks and rec department and to having true facilities. I think it's very sad to every time I drive by and see city trucks parked on the tennis courts at the old Southside Rec place where I learned to play chess, where I learned to play tennis, where I went every day after school while my mama worked. I am sad that those things no longer exist. The board that we're talking about creating is not some board that is gonna come and be some sort of mean arbiters and judgmental pass routers or this, that, and the other. In my opinion, I see it as a teeny tiny little baby seed to beginning the process of getting back there and not just serving Annie Maddox Park or Richardson Community Center, but the entire community. If we're going to put any meaningful amount of money, $140,000 is a meaningful amount of money to start with, to begin those sort of things, putting together a board whose job it is to pay specific attention, because we got a lot of things that come before us, but whose job it is to pay specific attention to youth programs across the city of Lake City, because to be clear, the money is coming from the entire city of Lake City. It's not coming from one district. It's coming from the whole city. If it's going to be done, and it's going to be done right, it should be done to serve the whole city. So the way this ends, Antimatics may not get all the money it's asked for. Richardson Community Center never gets all the money it asked for. But many programs across the city may get something towards it, and it's a start. And also, at the beginning, I did say that I have no interest in a check being written to Antimatics Park specifically. I wanna be super duper clear about this. It's got nothing to do with who it is, who runs the park, what the park is. It's got everything to do with simply the fact that it is, it is a private park. Many, it is, you guys treat it as open to the public and that's wonderful, but the public does not own the park. The public owns Richardson Community Center. The public owns Young's Park. Had Young's Park been a privately owned piece of land run by a private board, I would not have suggested we spend the million dollars that we just spent on that park. It's because it is the people's park that I think the people's money be spent on that, and I think we all agreed there. So as much as you guys treat the park as public, and I think that's wonderful and kind, I have no issue with that. It is a private park, and so that's where my frustration or my issue with writing a check to a private organization like that. However, a moment ago... When he said we ought to go general with this and create the whole thing, and he said, you're right, it doesn't matter where it's at. I said, I agree, fine. So I've already stepped back on that. If we're going to allow organizations that do programs to come to this board and ask for a piece of that $140,000, Annie Maddox can be one of those organizations too.

Can I address something? Absolutely. From last night, the city manager made a statement that they have a lease contract with the cameras that are at Animatics Park, correct? Right, is that right? All right, so at Animatics Park, we pay for the light bill, we pay the water bill, we pay for the Wi-Fi that runs the cameras, right? So when Mr. Dumas or somebody from the tech building call, if we didn't pay the light bill or the Wi-Fi bill because they can't get on the cameras and watch what's going on in animatics, we get a phone call, and I'm going to be relevant to you and realistic to you, it happened this morning. Because I got a phone call and said, Mr. Nelson, your bill hasn't been paid. And I said, how can that be? We got automatic drafts. Well, the car that's on file has expired because somebody from the tech building want to look at the cameras and couldn't because they were not on. So my thing is if the city can use our cameras where we're paying the Wi-Fi and the electric for it, why we have to keep consider being a private part. When we are the ones taking care of all the bills and Mr. Dumas and his tech team, if something goes wrong, we get a phone call. And I got this phone call before 9 o'clock this morning.

I agree with you. There's no way that we shouldn't be self-supporting on that technology. So if we're working on that network, then we should be paying for it.

So that's where I'm at. You keep saying it was private, but yet and still, we're the private entity that's playing for all this public access and Mr. Dumas and his team.

And Mayor Walker, I went home two weeks ago, got my own poles off, and came and cut limbs out of Mr. Dumas because they said they couldn't get a signal. For the cameras. I didn't change words with them. I went home, got my personal equipment. Zip, zip, zip. Anything else you need, Mr. Dumas? We're here at your begging call.

We're going to address that because we should be self-sustaining on our own network for sure.

The city has multiple powers.

Yeah, absolutely. Again, if we're operating, if that's part of our operations, we need to be self-sustaining. So, Mr. Rosenthal, would you like to address that?

Well, I would like to review that contract. I don't know what the original installation was about. I wasn't here when that happened. So, I'd like to review that contract and get back with the board.

Okay, Ms. Young, you've been waiting to speak, and then Mr. Carr.

We have it. We ought to have everything we need. Every question come up, we ought to have it.

Everyone has a copy.

I don't have that. Oh, okay. Okay, so, yeah.

Resolution 422-49.

We have it right here. Richardson Community Center has been our saving grace for STEAM, science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. And how can we pull out now? Because we're, they asked for $100,000. So we should not put their money in a cubby and then it be distributed out to them as we requested. They've been our saving grace. Long as I've been here and probably before that. Now, so we need to deal with Richardson Community Center and then deal with this side of the scale differently.

I'm going to ask you another question, Mr. Nelson. Yes, sir. And I asked you this before the meeting. Did your board work with Richardson Community Center board?

No, sir.

Is there a reason why?

I don't know. When I came on the board, there was some contention and I just left it like that. I didn't ask no questions.

Do you think that if there was a collaborative board with representation from Annie Maddox and representation from Richardson Community Center, that those people could work together to allocate funds to serve more children?

My gut feeling, I say no. That's just my own personal opinion. I say no. But at the end of the day, I'm willing to sit down with the boards and that we talk and see if that's something that we can come to a resolution about.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on, sir. If you want to come up, come to the podium and speak. We can't have yelling from the audience because the people at home need to also hear why this is an issue.

The reason that there is no longer Animax Richardson Collaborated is because the county pulled away and it cut that board.

Yes, ma'am.

Mayor, I have spoken with both sides. And for the record, this has been, I've been working on this, working with the community, talking to the pastors, wanting to bring everybody collectively to work for our community. So my question is, to the pastors was, are you all willing to come out? Will you come out and work with the community and let's get in our proper perspective, the church. I have asked Richardson Community Center if they could work together with Annie Meadows. And like I said, we need each other. And this is just, to me, this is the ideal moment. This is the ideal opportunity to bring our community together. If our entities come together and work together, if our 501Cs come together and work together, and our youth see this, we'll see a difference in our youth. But we gotta get it together.

I am having a hard time saying that that's not what I'm proposing. That we have one board that everybody is coming together to work together on it.

I didn't say that either.

Well, that's what I've been saying. And you guys have been saying, no, that's not going to work. No, I'm saying everybody come together. Everybody come together and allocate those funds out to serve more children in more ways.

Yes, but listen, I don't agree with putting all the funds in one pot. What I asked was, and like I said, I stand on that, Richardson, $100,000. Whatever the other amount is, that's the amount that would be allocated.

Okay, I'm inclined to go with.

Wait, so we did Mr. Carter, and then you're next.

All right. Sorry. So, whatever issues there exist between various boards communication-wise, there is no issue, because I just heard Mr. Nelson say if the two of them got together, he's not confident they could get much done.

No, I say I'm open to it. I say I'm open to it.

Like you said, I don't think so.

I say that's my own opinion. I say I don't think so, but I said I'm willing to sit down at the table.

To be clear, if we're creating, I want to be super clear, if we're creating this committee, I'd be recommending that you're on it. I'd be recommending that the young lady from Richardson Community Center yesterday is on it. I'd be recommending that Ms. Jennifer Anchors at the United Way or someone that works with her who helps serve underprivileged communities is on it. I mean, to be clear, I'm buying in. I'm buying in to the idea of getting you guys involved, trying not to exclude you. There is issues with the fact that you're a private park, and people will bring it up. Other people will bring it up. People bring it up all the time. In the past, when the city gave money to you guys for various things, people had a problem with it then. It will probably continue to be an issue. If at any point the organization ever thinks they'd like to, like some of the parks that do exist here in town now, deed it to the city and make it a true public park, then no one will ever fuss about it again. Because I believe some of our large parks in this area were indeed deeded to the city. Yes, absolutely they can. Absolutely they can. The two parks that Kiwanis built in the last 20 years are both given to the city. They didn't own them ahead of time. They gave them to the city, and then they became true, full-on public parks. They just did, and that is true. But either way, I'm really trying not to be stuck on it. I'm just saying it will be an issue for some people. But... I mean, if the groups, if two organizations that are literally right next to each other trying to do the exact same thing can't get along. Don't say that. Don't say that. I get the impression. I don't think so. I think it's madness to think that they couldn't get along. I think you definitely could. Especially, like I said, Ms. Young as the chair and the leader of that committee, you know, I think a lot could get done. So I'm hearing negativity, not putting it out there. Like I said, Mr. Nelson or someone from your organization I think should be on the board. Someone from Richardson Community Center, and we can go on down the line. You need an odd number of people, we get five or we get seven from various organizations that already do these sort of things and help spend the money that we're allocating to the issue. But the more and more this conversation goes on, the more and more I feel like it needs to be a general fund. Quite frankly, Annie Maddox and Richardson Community Center may be just about the only people that come and apply the first year. You're liable to get everything you ask for. No, because the idea hopefully is that it grows and more organizations come next year and there's more success in this department across the city. Oh, Ms. Harris. Yeah, have at it. I can't think of much more to say.

I like the suggestion that you made, whereas Richardson get $45,000, and the Maddox get $45,000, and then the advisory board get $50,000. and do it like that.

May I ask you a question, Mr. Mayor? Why would Richardson and Annie Maddox each get a set amount of money and then there's an advisory?

That is what your suggestion, if you may.

I know, I know, my original suggestion was Richardson Community Center, as Ms. Young has said, has been our tried and true. They've been there, they've nailed it every time for the last couple of years, they've done a great job, we give them the money, they do the thing. So there is an element of the first suggestion I made saying the 70 that we gave them last year, we give them again because we know that they're gonna do what they did with it last year and it's great.

That was my initial suggestion. Technically, it's because they always come up here asking for money. They should make sure they get their $70,000. And because Annie Maddox don't come up here often and ask for some money, they should be put in the pot with everybody else to get some of that.

No, that's not what I said. I said what I said. I said they came, they got, they did. They came, they got, they did. They've done it for the last three years that I've been on this board. They have been successful with the thing. So saying all of a sudden now, no, you don't get that and stuff like that. And that was the suggestion when I came in was I was going to protect the amount that they had gotten last year and then create a pot for everybody else. And that idea had been shouted down. So Mr. Mayor came up with a general pot that everybody can come to. And I said, that's a great idea, too. And quite frankly, it is the fairest idea.

And let me be clear, Anna Maddox have a lot of people going there as well. It's not just Richardson Gym that everybody is visiting. They come to Anna Maddox just as much as they, probably even more. Because even when Richardson shut down for the evening, Anna Maddox is open. They have their fields open, the basketball courts, and all of that stuff, and people are there. So I think we don't, like I said, the city does not have anything for recreation. So to me, this would be like an investment. Investing in our own So I believe we should go by the way he said, which I wish it was 100K. I wouldn't mind for it to be 100K each.

I have a question, Mr. Mayor. So it seems like there's kind of two general things going on here, right? There's either a $140,000 pot to be kind of spent by an advisory committee that we create on youth recreation, or there is... 45, 45, 70, or whatever the math is. 50. So there's two things here, right? There's five of us. Mr. Rickey hasn't said much in a little while, but I don't think anybody wants to watch us argue about this for another hour. Can we kind of start nailing it down to something? Ms. Young, you had one more thing.

But I would like to bring, and you brought $140,000. We started out $200,000. Well, you did. That's what I just said.

You said we.

We talked about 200,000 yesterday. You brought 140 here today. One thing I am not is a liar. This is what Richardson offers during the summer, right? Summer camp. We're talking about throughout the school term and summer. So I think that's a plus. That our children will be offered steam throughout the summer. school year as well as throughout the summer. I'm telling you, this has me won. When I see these men with these credentials and knowing them personally, these people, I'm sold.

Let's get down to the number. How much are we going to give them? Because at the end of the day, they're here for money, and we don't talk about this for an hour.

Yeah, so again, we have two defined ideas. One is to break money up. One is to throw it on the pot. So what do we want to do? Yes, sir, Mr.

If I may just one more time advocate for a particular idea. Like I said before, we all agree that That it is a shame that the city government is not more involved in recreation. Used to be very involved, isn't anymore. We all agree on that. A general focus is going to be much easier to generally grow from over time. That committee will have the opportunity to get more and more institutional knowledge. more and better members as it goes on. More people will want to serve on that committee. The people will recognize the importance of the committee to the youth in the community. I think the way to go is straight line, through the middle. We create a pot of money, we create an advisory board over that money, and that board's job is to help determine how the city ought to spend its money on youth programs. I hope that over the years, it will grow, and I hope that over the years, you will see more and more recreation, come back into the city. The other option that we currently have on the table, not to say that it's the only option that has to happen, but we are making the budget right now, is a random disjointed allocation to specific entities. I think that the way to go is the beginning of a youth recreation committee knowing that That the heart of the board here is that we get better and better at this and more and more involved. And for no other reason than it will be so much easier and more simple to grow as time goes on. There won't be someone coming up next year that we hadn't heard of before that's like, well, now they get this and they get this. Now we want that. It's just one is elegant and simple. The other one is, to me, inviting people to fight over various aspects of it. And to be clear, again, like I said, Mr. Nelson ought to be on that board. I forget the lady's name from the Richardson Community Center, but she ought to be on the board.

I also think, to add to that, I think that having a committee like that makes it attractive for other partnerships and to add to that pot. It's seeded by the city, and then you have corporate sponsors that have allocated youth funds like Blue Cross Blue Shield, TD Bank, First Federal Bank, monies out there in the community that can also go into that pot to serve that mission. that is then allocated out to the people who are doing the work.

The sign on the splash pad that we were talking about the other day. Whoever pays X amount of money to put their sign on the splash pad, that money would be going into that pot, theoretically. Creating an organization under our umbrella like that may allow us to apply for grants. I can't imagine all the grants I know that are for that sort of thing. We may need that committee in existence in order to get grants like that. We could grow that fund theoretically the way the mayor just said through local sponsorships and through theoretical grants way more than the city would have to put money directly into it.

Mr. Jernigan.

My God, man, we're going back and forth and forth and back. You know, it's in District 10. We have to recognize that. We have the schools that just come out combined, and it appears that Mr. Nelson has got a passion, just like Ms. Young does. She's got a passion for children in that district. I think that me personally, if, listen carefully, if it's not a private park, I think that we should honor Vice Mayor's Young request. 100,000 for Richardson Community Center, 100,000 for Anna Maddox. Is that what you said first, Ms. Young?

It is.

I think we should honor that request.

Yes, ma'am, Ms. Angela.

So I just need direction from the board where this money will come from because currently we were talking about or the council was talking about splitting the mayor's matching grant 50-50. I need to know where you would like to pull those funds from.

That other $150,000, yeah.

So I just need direction.

Mm-hmm.

We'll get to that once we come to an agreement of what we're going to do, see how much the money we're talking about.

Well, that's a good start. Mr. Jernigan, the figure, I mean, we've had $140,000 and we've had $200,000 tossed out. Which one?

I'm going to go by her request. She said $200,000. That's where I'm going. Ms. Harris?

Mr. Mayor.

Yes, sir.

Mr. Jernigan started out his comment by saying, if it's not a private park. It is. It is objectively a private park. I'm not still stuck on the idea that we don't write that park checks for certain programs they're having, to be clear. But it is a private park. There's no confusion about that. It 100% is a private park.

Well, Mr. Nelson just got up and said it wasn't.

No, he said the public is welcome to come. The public is welcome to go to Walmart. The public is welcome to walk into any store in town.

Hold on, we're not taking, you cannot yell from the audience. We do need clarification on this. Last night we looked it up on the property appraiser. It's owned by the Annie Maddox board, right? Yes, ma'am.

Why don't we get a title search done on that property?

I thought they just got one. Oh, that's not a title search.

No, I know, but I didn't think about nothing private about this.

Didn't you all have a, and correct me if I'm wrong, didn't you all have a title search done on that piece of property? That's correct. It's owned by the board.

Okay, so it's owned by the board. Just like Richardson, it's pretty much owned by the board. So you may want to, no, the county owns Richardson Community Center. It's a public-owned entity.

I think that may reflect on one of the deeds. That's not a title search.

I believe you need a title search. Do you guys know for sure?

Okay, that's what I thought.

So it's private ownership. So would you like to clarify your comments, Mr. Dringen?

We're investing in programs.

Well, again, Ms. Young, I think she's got a passion for those children. I'm looking at it from that perspective. And with those two schools close by, I still think we should honor Ms. Young's request.

Okay, so you're saying $200,000. Okay, we're just going on the number right now.

$200,000, Mr. Jernigan, yes or no? Yeah, $100,000 for Richardson Community Center, that's no question. $100,000 for Animadox, no question, because that is the request of Vice Mayor Young.

Okay, all right. Mr. Jernigan says $200,000. Yes, ma'am.

So we will talk about that the $100,000 doesn't go directly into the account. It would be quarterly distributions. Does it go quarterly into the account?

Let's just talk about the number first. The number first. Ms. Harris.

My suggestion would be $70,000 for Richardson because that's what they wanted. $70,000 for Annie Maddox because that's what they wanted. Take the remaining $60,000 and put it for the advisory board. So if anybody else come up and... Y'all killing me here.

That was my first idea.

So...

So $200,000 for Ms. Harris as well. I'm going to say $140,000 myself. We're just talking about the number right now.

No, but I'm saying, oh, you're talking about the $140,000. Just the number, yeah.

I'm at $140,000. I'm at $140,000.

I think the numbers that she just added up, I think are $140,000.

She said $70,000, $70,000, $60,000. So she said $200,000. Oh, yeah. Ms. Young?

I requested $200,000.

$200,000, okay. So now we need to talk about where this $200,000 is coming from. Staff, do you have any recommendations? Because $50,000 is coming out of the Mayor's Matching Grant, so...

I was going to leave that up to the board. I know you all talked about cutting some of your travel, but I don't know how much that is.

So we cut about $30,000 out of float rental and an event out of that promotional budget. That still leaves us in a $120,000 deficit. I'm cutting about, I think, $15,000 in events.

Have you reallocated any of that that we've spoken about cutting yet, Angela?

Actually, I just took it out of the surplus, so we weren't using as much surplus to balance the budget.

Sure. So if you just took it out of the surplus, if you just took it out of what we're taking out of surplus, it sounds like this full amount is likely to come out of surplus, which is a dangerous investment. That's correct.

Sure.

Any suggestions?

I'll open, yeah, Mr. Jernigan. No suggestions. I just, who's the president of the Animatics Board? President? Ms. Warman, right?

We don't have one at this time. You don't have a president? They don't have a president. Okay, good.

Any suggestions? Yes.

Suggestions as?

As to where to pull that $150,000 out of. I would like to start by making a suggestion.

I would just appeal to my fellow council members to pull back to a slightly more responsible number. We just cut a bunch out of our own budget and every other department in the city just cut mine. We just advertised and are going with the rollback rate. We're bringing in no new revenue this year.

but we have nothing for recreation.

We're already at a point where we're talking about 100 to 140,000. That's a number in the middle from the original 15 and the 100 that was asked for.

And this is no surprise to administration because I've been asking asking, asking, where's recreation? We can't just drop recreation. So no, they should not be alarmed. And going through pages right now, you should already have some sort of idea of where the money will come from.

To be fair, we did just drop a rollback on them and they have a million dollars in recreation allocated where we're building a million dollars worth of parks right now.

Sounds good. Exactly. That needs to be emphasized. We just spent a million dollars

On recreation.

I mean, that we have not spent in many, many, many, many, many years.

I'm going to suggest that we take a five-minute break. Thank you.

It's been eight minutes. All right, welcome back, everybody, officially.

We left, and we're speaking about where to get the $200,000 proposed from. Yes, sir, Mr. Recorder. I have an idea.

This is a great idea. Everybody loves all my ideas. It's just an idea. Listen, this year we've chopped this budget to pieces. We've tried to cut everywhere we could. But this money has to come from somewhere. I do not think that it's a good idea to make a habit out of pulling the money from contingency for various things just because it's what we want. We still have to make smart budget decisions. Here's my idea. Staff, Mr. Rosenthal, maybe Mr. Brown question. How much money is in the budget this year for roads and District 10? Can we go to that roads and District 10?

Don't even try it. Don't even try it. Shut that down right now. I'm just asking. I'm just asking.

I think it's close to $200,000. I think it's close to $200,000.

I think it was a million.

Well, to be clear, I was suggesting that we do a smaller amount and we centralize it to the whole community where it feels like we're turning back to a much larger amount and very specifically where it's being spent. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. All I ask, this isn't necessarily how it would need to be handled every year, but this year, We roll back. This year, we cut everywhere. This year, we have to find the money somewhere. And if y'all want to spend $200,000, we've got to find it somewhere. I don't know. I mean, I can't. Listen, there's five of us. It's going to be an even and an odd number. I can't convince everybody that $200,000 this year is too much to spend on it, evidently. This year, by the way, just this year. Next year's a whole new game, a whole new set of rules and all the stuff. This year I'm suggesting that that's too much. I think that it's unfair to do what we've done to the city's budget and then add this to it. this way but I'm just asking because to be clear I believe that that money is there in that department and also to be clear also I don't know the state of the roads that's planned to be I don't know if they could perhaps be put off one more year so that we could get this party started you know but that's just a math question

That's what I was about to say. When you think about District 10 and the road, we have one road that's very imperative that we take care of, and it's gonna cost quite a bit of money. So let's find another curb.

Okay.

What road is that?

Center. Center Street. Yeah, I can go one more year without you. No, no, no.

Yes, sir, Mr. Carter.

If I may continue to elaborate. All right. Obviously, when we started out yesterday, we were spending, based on what we did last year, $70,000. $50,000, $50,000. Mayor talked about maybe doing another $50,000 to $100,000. I was pretty stuck at that $75,000 mark, understanding that we're constraining ourselves fiscally this year. I feel like we started out $70,000 and $200,000. I came in earnestly wanting to be like, you know, listen, we're still going to have to find somewhere to get it from. We're going to have to take it from somewhere. But trying to meet in the middle, right? Trying to serve as many people as we can with the funds. Because I can't emphasize enough, the tax dollars aren't coming from one district. They're coming from all the districts. If we're going to dedicate any amount of money to it, it is not unfair to make it general. I think it is super clear at the moment that if we did this thing, I would imagine the Annie Maddox Park and Richardson Community Center would get most of the funding that they're asking for, most of the funding that we allocate. At the moment, they are indeed the only folks that are trying. I would also say, I don't know about the rest of the board, but I know that I would, and I think the mayor has talked about doing this plenty of times. I'm happy to spend portions of my time throughout the next year hoping to grow that fund with local partners so that the next year there's more money in the pot. and more organizations that can be served. And again, I cannot emphasize enough, this is possibly a baby little seed back into recreation in earnest. It's not a random here, there, and everywhere this year kind of thing. This is the start of a snowball that could roll downhill and one day could be full strength, serving everybody better than we ever have before.

Do any mayors get funding from the county?

No, Ms. Young.

It's funded from the county. Because it's owned by the county. They still get the funding.

Ms. Young.

Mayor, let me make something clear. These two recreation centers are in District 10, but they don't only serve as District 10. So I think it's very inconsiderate to say, don't pave a road in District 10. and take the money from District 10. These two recreation centers serve Lake City. Many of your constituents comes to Richardson Community Center. About this time of the evening, go right there. It's Lake City. So it's kind of, I take offense to that.

We, to be clear, I mean no offense.

I'm just doing some math. I understand. It might be too much. I understand. I understand.

Let's do 70. 70,000 for Richardson and 70,000 for Ann and Maddox. And do the advisory board to get the money to them quarterly. And that will lower the amount of money we have to come up with versus 200,000. That'll be 140,000.

Mr. Mayor, I have a question of clarification. If we're just gonna give 70 to one organization and 70 to the other, that makes the board pointless. What's the board gonna do? We're just giving each organization 70.

Are you saying put it in the advisory committee? She's essentially saying.

And do it quarterly, whatever.

But what is this?

That's 140,000.

So is the suggestion, sorry, I'm sorry, go ahead.

And quarterly we. Distribution.

Distribution.

but is it a suggestion that the board exists to determine what those two organizations get only? I'm asking.

I'm sorry. I'm trying to understand.

Hold on. Mr. Jernigan, yes. See, this is where I got caught up in night before last and came up with the $70,000 because Mr. Carter had suggested that. So that's where I got caught up in it because it didn't appear that the $100,000 for Richardson Community Center and 100,000 for Anna Maddox Park was gonna survive. So when he suggested the 70,000, that's where I said I agree with him. So that's how I got, I didn't flip or flop, but that's where I got it from. And you know, Mr. Carter says some things that's very clear.

And some things they say make sense, I gotta say that now.

We asked all the departments, I usually do that too Dee, we asked all the departments to cut back. 10%, 18%, 17%, 69%, 18%, so forth and so on. All these departments we had to cut back. This year here, I think it's a bad year now, listening to all of the, where are we going to get the money from? How are we going to do this? And we requested everybody to cut back. So this year here, I would hope that Animata understands we are in a pickle right now. So with that being said, I don't think that we could fund the amount of money that you're requesting. But I do think we can give you some monies. For example, we can give maybe Mayor's Matching Grant $50,000 to the Richardson... community center, then we can give $50,000 to Animatics Park, something to that effect. And I know that's not something that's not feasible to Ms. Young, but if we don't have it, we can't get blood for maternity. I don't want to cut this or add this or cut that. I think that what they're suggesting, I think the mayor came up with a good idea. I think Ms. Harris and I think Mr. Carter, where's that 70-70 and then create this board and that way all the kids in the community can benefit from it. I think that's a pretty good option. So I'm just thinking of all the options that I've heard throughout the last couple of days. And I believe that, I hope they understand that this year here is tough. So whatever Mr. Carter, Mayor, Ms. Harris, and some of those things we can do, And then some of them we cannot do. So this year here is going to be tough. I definitely don't want to pull money from somewhere else to do this and put money for that. But mayor's got a matching grant out there. I think he said 50 and 50 or something like that. So that's it. Give them 50 at one end and 50 on the other one. And we just keep going.

It's Ms. Young, then Mr. Carter. Mayor, and Jeremy has agreed with everything everybody said. I don't know. Everybody. Mayor, I really want to use the advisory board, and especially if it's going to have youth on it. That's something that... I've been wanting to do for some time.

We're all in agreement of that.

Okay, so the advisory board. And it's not the only responsibility in the funding. There'll be other responsibilities that will come with the advisory board, and we can talk about that later, right? So we're all agreed by the advisory board. Okay, so I'll agree to the 140. I'll agree to the 140. And I'll agree to Richardson with the 70, right? And the other 70, I'll agree for Annie Meadows. But I do want it in quarterly. Now Richardson has, like I say, they have a relationship with the city. They've redeemed themselves. So I want to see Annie Meadows working toward getting in that same space So the 70,000 for Annie Maddox, I would like to see it in quarters, if you all agree with it. I would like to see it done quarterly. And then the report to this will be brought back to us to see where the progress has come with this each quarter. Is that fair enough?

Mr. Carter.

Real quick. First, some math. Mayor's matching grant fund is $100,000, $50,000 of which you were going to allocate to the Richardson Community Center originally, right?

Yeah.

We cut $30,000 out for the codification situation from our budget. We cut $12,000 out for the float that nobody wanted. And we cut $15,000 out for Lovefest, right? From our budget. So that is, I'm hearing, $100,000. Basically, $30,000 and $30,000. I'm hearing $160,000 is money that we just made. That's the stack I just made up is $160,000. So my suggestion is if we're doing a $140,000, that's where it comes from. We've got a float that we're not getting. We've got $30,000 that we're not codifying. And we've got $100,000 in the mayor's matching grant.

I was only saying $50,000 from the mayor.

Well, last night at the end of the meeting, you had suggested that you were going to suggest another $50,000. So I'm asking if we're trying to find the money, I've found the money. $100,000 that's out of the Mayor's Matching Grant Fund. That would work.

So we're going to eliminate the Mayor's Matching Grant Fund?

I would say that we're going to empty it. We're trying to find the money.

There's just a lot of people that use that throughout the year.

I'm trying to find the money.

If we want to pave Center Street, that's fine. So we don't get to use that one. I'm just saying, we don't get to use that. We don't get to use that. I'm trying to find the money. At the end of the day, it's all just math.

Okay, I can go for that. But what I don't care for, if we're going to, the Animadocs have to report errors. Can I just finish? I was almost done.

I was real close to done. This is the last time I'm going to try to make this point. And I promise, after this, I'm going to give up. Until next year. And listen, let me just say to everybody that's here and everybody that's left, I thank you all, everybody who serves the children in their communities. I thank you so much.

Thank you.

Again, I can't emphasize enough what I said earlier. It hurt my heart, Mr. Nelson, that you thought that I might be looking at some way, some kind of thing that wasn't that way. It is not that. I promise it's not that. As a matter of fact, I can't wait to talk to you after the meeting because I want to find something out there that I can help do. Okay?

Praise Jesus.

That's what I'm talking about. But we do a math. We do a math. So anyway, to be clear, though, because I'm coming back around to something that may aggravate people. That's why I said the nice stuff first. Do we want to take the money that we are going to spend? We just come up with it. We just come up with where we can fund it, theoretically. Do we want to take that money and piecemeal it to a couple of organizations this time as a thing that we're doing? Or do we want to start something? Do we want to begin something, something real that can grow into something more? That's what I'm saying here. I'm trying to say, listen, we all agree we want a Parks and Rec Department one day. This thing I've been saying is that little baby, little baby. The only thing that's different between what you just suggested, Ms. Young, and what I'm suggesting now is that another organization across the town might also come and ask for a few bucks. That's the only real difference. And why would we be in a position to be like, no, this money is just for these two organizations. And again, I'm hoping to see this money grow. So that's my last fight for one of these days. I'd like to have a terrific Parks and Rec Department, and I think this is a wonderful, tiny little spot to start.

Okay.

Ms. Harris and then Ms. Young.

Okay. Can we use the K of the CRA? Okay. Finance? You can? I don't believe so. What's up? So, I'm with you on that. The only thing I do not like is, I don't like it, whereas it feels like, to me, Richardson doesn't have to be accountable every three months on what they're going to spend their money for, but with Annie Maddox, it's like, there's a be sought out in quarterly. So, if you're going to do it for Annie Maddox, let's do it for Richardson.

Can I respond?

I mean, you have a lot of faith in Richardson, I thank God for you, whatever, but you can't speak for all of us with Richardson in that area.

The reason I say that is because Annie Meadows have no programs going now. There's no organized programs going effectively. Maybe one. So this gives Annie Meadows, give them time to build this program fully. and let us see progress. Richardson pretty much had to do the same, not quarterly because we just didn't come up with it then, but they had to... You challenged them really because of a situation, right? So... This is not saying I don't trust them. I know all of them. It's not saying I don't trust them, but it's not about me. It's about the taxpayers' dollars, and we just want to see progress, and then... Distribution, progress, distribution. I mean, it just, okay, let's go ahead and vote because I stand on what I say.

Mr. Carter. Mr. Mayor, let me, Ms. Harris, let me appeal to you specifically. It doesn't necessarily matter if you do or don't trust the Richardson Community Center. If you go with the plan. I did not say that. I said do or don't. I said do or don't. If you go with a plan more like my plan. If you help me out here and you vote in this direction that I'm trying to steer us, it doesn't really matter if you're comfortable or not comfortable, trust, don't trust, because there'll be a board and it will look at each program individually and see what they're gonna do with each program individually, one at a time. And again, all that my thing does that this other stuff doesn't do is it does not exclude something or another across town. That's all it does, is does not exclude.

It also gives a centralized entity for businesses to write checks to.

Absolutely.

Ms. Young.

I want to ask Pastor Nelson, Reverend Nelson, I want to ask him a question, if that's okay.

Yeah, absolutely.

How do you feel about the quarterly reporting and the quarterly distributions?

I'm in favor of the quarterly distribution. And because with anybody, if you give it all to me at one time, I'm not going to be surplus. That's most, that's most what most people do, but I'm very cheap and fugal about things. But for us as a board, I will say, give it to a quarterly. But if you're going to ask for a report from us, same has to be from Richardson as well of the breakdown of the monies that spent, even though they are established. But if we want to toe the line for one, We got to be able to toe the line for everybody. Yeah.

They turn in a roster for all the programs that they provide.

That's not the same.

That ain't the same.

That's not the same.

Okay, Mr. Carter. I have a real quick procedural question. I feel like we haven't done our best to confound Mr. Martin tonight. Real quick, as we're talking about a lot of things at once here, we're talking about creating a committee. Once we make this decision, it will be very soon that some of these financial balls will be rolling. Is there a way that the current council can serve as that committee until the committee is created? So that there is a committee effectively pretty soon? Is there something like that?

So I'm making notes, and I had at least one question right now. I think I've got a good handle on a good bit of what that committee does and will look like. So the budget won't go into effect until October 1, which gives us six weeks in a couple of three meetings to get this pulled together. Sure. And I think we can do that if me and the manager, Mr. Johnson, put our heads together pretty quickly.

I guess to be clear, what I'm not sure about is how stringent the requirements are from a legal standpoint for a committee versus like a board or some sort of...

For what we're discussing, I believe it can be implemented just by resolution, but the resolution really is going to kind of touch on a lot of elements of this because it's really going to also, at least the way I'm envisioning it, is also touch on grant administration and then that ties into also the function of this group. this committee and I kind of have the group's function broken down just kind of based on what I'm hearing in the two broad categories and that's administration and oversight. Administration being the allocation of the funds, the oversight being reviewing the receipts to determine whether they've met the conditions to get the next quarter's installment or not. And I'm hearing five members, there may need to be a little more feedback in the future. I may take a stab at drafting how that board is composed and then y'all can give me feedback on whether I nailed it or not. And then I'm hearing that generally speaking, the funds are to be used for programs. and not for capital expenditures and maintenance and things like that. And I think that's enough of a framework for me to be able to begin to hang some meat on if everything I'm saying is pretty much the consensus of the five of you.

So the facts that we seem to have stacked up so far, it feels like I think we're all at 140,000. I think we're all for an advisory board. I think right now it's whether or not that advisory board is in charge of managing giving money to and how they give money to particular organizations or any organization that does youth programs in Lake City. So we're almost there.

And then the other element of this is because it will be a well-defined set of criteria on what the money can be spent for, the resolution could empower the city manager or his designee to be the one who actually receives the recommendations from that advisory board. and acts on it, but knowing that they're in an advisory capacity. So if, for whatever reason, in his wisdom as manager, he sees that something's going on off in left field, He would not necessarily have to act on the recommendation based on his independent professional judgment. Or he could say, I want to take this back to the board for feed to the council board for feedback before I act on that particular recommendation, just to make sure we're in line with everybody's intent. And so that was the other part of the flow is the board and the advisory capacity would be advising the manager to cut the check or not based on whether the organizations are meeting the criteria of effectively what is a grant program.

Right.

Let me say this. I did not mean show a receipt for every penny you spend. When I say progress, show progress, I'm concerned about the organized programs rather than whether you went to Walmart and spent $20. That's not what I'm saying. You said receipts. Help me with that. Is that what you meant? No. Wait.

Go ahead. I'm talking to him. When you're talking about accountability from a finance perspective, typically that's what you do. If the council wants to have a lesser standard, then that's up to the council. That's just what I'm typically used to when you talk about accountability for money.

Okay. When we say accountability... And I don't want to keep bringing up Richardson. Richardson, how many students enrolled? How much does it cost per student? Just say $400. $400 per student. We don't ask them to break down that $400. Well, lunch was $6. Breakfast was $12. That's not, no.

No. And again, I can draft it to whatever level of accountability the council wants. That is just what I'm accustomed to is kind of the default. But if we want to do something that's a little less stringent, we can do that.

When we take our children, I'm sorry, Mayor. When we take our children to daycare, they give us a cost per child. And we don't know how much that breakfast costs. We don't know how much that tablet costs. that they use. We just know how much it was per child. So I want to see progress on these programs. That's what I'm, that's my baby.

All right, Mr. Croner.

It's actually, that last part you said, Ms. Young, it kind of, it's funny.

And go ahead on.

Not that kind of funny. If you ask the daycare what they spend it on and how, they'll tell you I do, actually. Because I've learned this last year how much daycare costs. It's pretty... To be clear, but no. Honestly, like... Mr. Dakota left, but you ask when... Anytime anybody gets grants for anything from any legitimate organization, it's a pretty stringent process with all kinds of things, receipts and this, that, and the other. So, yeah, anybody who's getting grant fund money from the city should be providing... very clear accounts for what they're doing with the money. I mean, the idea that we give money out and someone doesn't have to do anything but tell us it feels good is absurd. We've done that quite a lot over the years as an organization, quite frankly, before I got here, so I can't take credit for any of that. But yeah, no, we need receipts. Absolutely we need receipts. We need receipts from anybody. It's not your money. If you don't want to ask the daycare how they're breaking down the money, you don't have to because it's your money. This isn't Ms. Young's money. This isn't my money or the mayor's money. It's the citizens' money, so we need receipts. And to be clear, Mr. Martin said that because that's just procedure. That's how it goes and works everywhere. That part of it shouldn't be a question.

Okay, Ms. Young.

I don't have a problem with receipts.

Okay, thank you.

But pen and for pen and no. Your mayor's matching grants. Do we get receipts? Yes. Is it dollar for dollar? Yes.

They have to submit those to be, because it's a reimbursement grant. So it's.

Be what they give before and tell me what they give after.

So they do an application, then they have to submit.

It's a reimbursement grant. Yes, ma'am. They turn in their receipts.

Oh, that's not a reimbursement grant. It's not a reimbursement grant. But I don't have a problem with receipts.

I don't have a problem with receipts. If you all say receipts.

Let's get this money.

If we say receipts, that's what y'all say. That's what y'all say. But I don't see penny for penny. I mean, go ahead.

Yes, Mr. Jernigan. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mayor. you know I think I know Dr. Pollack several of the people that's on this list here so you know spending let's say we spend $25 where is the money going are we paying the people who's putting on the after school programs is that what we're doing if they require it is that what we're doing here

We don't know.

Mr. Jernigan, you're asking me something.

Okay, the reason why I'm asking you that question, I'm going somewhere with that.

Sure.

And if I take too long in questioning and action, I apologize for that. However... Most people, when I was coming up in school, attending Anna Maddox and Richardson Community Center, and then when I graduated, I came back to the city of Lake City from the military. I volunteered my services. So I'm just looking at the professional people that's down here, these folks. And when I see Santa Claus, but I I volunteered my time. So I'm just wondering where the money is going to be made. Just maybe we would have to buy some merchandise, like maybe a tablet or I don't know, paper or pencil or something, you know. So but the bottom line is. I volunteered a lot of my time when it came to the young people of my community. I remember going to the school, volunteering my time at the school, going to the Richardson Community Center and volunteering my time there. I didn't get paid for that. So, again, you guys don't care where the money is being spent. That's on you guys. But I like to know where that money goes. for these people.

Thank you, Mr. Jernigan.

Let's go ahead and get these people this money so we can move on. We're going to beat this cow. It done been two hours and we only talked about this one thing. Now we done came up with the agreement of 70K to Richardson, 70K to Annie Maddox. I say if we gonna need this money, 50K for the mayor's grant, that position we made for the CRA, that's for 47, that's another, we can use that, we gonna take that.

The CRA is a whole separate funnel.

say the position.

But the CRA is funded differently.

Mr. Mayor, if I may, we don't have to do that part. We just don't have to because we've already found the money. For the sake of math, we found the money. Mr. Mayor, Council, we got two things. Is it general or is it specific? It should be general. It is the community's tax dollars. It should be general. Please see reason and hit it with the general. It should be general and it's something we can grow off of. Please.

Agreed. All right, so it is a decision point there, so we're going to come down the line and get the tally on it. Mr. Jernigan, the— Go down there, please. Sure.

Do what you were doing. He don't run it. You run it.

You know what? I'll start. I'll give you—I'll start in the middle, and I'll work my way back in. So be prepared, because, Mr. Jernigan, I'm coming to you next, and then Ms. Young, and then Ms. Harris, then Mr. Carter. There's a proposition here for two different things. One is to put money into a general committee that will allocate the funds from that committee. We've agreed on $140,000. The other option is to take and split that 70 and 70 and give 70 to Richardson Community Center, give 70 to Annie Maddox Park, and create a committee that just does oversight. Does nothing. Does very little. So I'll tell you what I'd like. I'd like to create that committee, have the money go into a general pot, and is allocated by that committee. Quarterly or however. I think that they probably meet monthly, and that way they can see things as they come in. That is my choice. Mr. Jernigan, now it's up to you.

Same thing as you, ma'am. I'm with you, ma'am. Thank you.

Okay, all right. Well, that's three. Let's go.

So there we go.

So we're going to create the committee. All $140,000 is going to go into that committee, and then they are going to allocate the money. Okay.

Sounds good.

Sounds good. Great. Well, that was our one thing for resolution.

Mayor. Yes, sir. Before the meeting is over, I'd like to take a moment to recognize our finance department. Sure, yeah. This year's budget was an especially complex budget with the rollback. And the team approached this with professionalism, accuracy, and they're really committed to serving this community. They worked long hours and navigated changing priorities because it was my priorities that was changing based on the needs of the council. And they delivered a document that's clear, responsible, and aligned with the city's goals. And I want the finance department to know that I'm grateful for the hard work that you did and the standards that you continue to set. Thank you very much. I'd recommend it.

All right. Now that we've finished our overflow, Yes.

Yes, ma'am. It's Angie.

I just wanted to give kudos to my team as well, and I appreciate Ms. Audrey's team for helping me out with preparing the books and helping out with the food and everything. Thank you very much.

That's right. Collaboration is key. All right, so that closes out our one item. We do have public participation, so I will now... Mr. Mayor, I just have two sentences to add to this.

No, listen. It's just... Hear me out. As soon as we can, I think we should set a workshop.

Mayor? I'm listening.

As soon as we can, I think we should set a workshop to go ahead and begin the process of putting together this committee. I want the organizations that need the money to be able to access it as soon as possible.

Thank you.

So as soon as we can. I don't want them to feel like it's going to be six months from now before there's a committee and they can ask. I want there to be a committee as soon as we can get it together in October 1st and we're new budget year, then we can start however it works. But I just think we should next week. staff figure out when the committee, I mean, when the workshop will work for everybody and take this very seriously. I'm very excited about this.

Okay.

Thank you. Can I get a high five?

Yes, ma'am. Ms. Sykes, you got a question?

Can we please not do it next week? We've had budget workshops all this week. Absolutely. Give us a week off. As soon as we can, not next week. Thank you.

Do we have a workshop the first meeting in September? Maybe.

Yes, sir.

I don't think that I know of. We've got one in September. And I've messaged about it or emailed about it this week, but I don't think it's registered because we've all been busy with this. But there was going to be a request for a shade meeting to present the two union contracts at the next council meeting on the 17th. August 17th. Okay, yeah. I would take that 5 o'clock slot then. And so unless we did a special workshop, the next available date would be on September 10th.

And that is a non-regularly scheduled meeting because it's not going to be on Monday. It falls on the week of Labor Day. And because of our budget, we are doing it on the 10th because we couldn't have it on the same night as the school board or the county. So the 10th was our only option there to fall within those guidelines. So we will have that workshop before the 10th. And it will be a Thursday night. On the 10th? Yes. That's our council meeting, and that's when that workshop will be for the creation of that committee.

what I got to do on the 10th.

Well, that was our only option.

Wait, hold on. Yeah. 10th of what?

10th of September. Oh, September.

September, yeah. It's a Thursday night.

I've already sent you. That's the one that we rescheduled a while back when I sent you all a text message.

You all probably have that.

That's probably what's sounding familiar. Yeah, okay.

You guys have a pit in finance's stomach because that's our only night available. We have to approve our budget that night. Okay.

I had two things I wanted to talk about, but y'all done drilled their holes over there.

You want to go back into budget? Yeah. Okay.

I want to talk about it.

I mean, we're going to talk about it. Let's talk about it. Okay, so we're not done. We're not done, apparently. I'm sorry, folks. Ms. Harris.

I want to talk about City Hall. We were talking about, it was said that we had already voted for the City Hall to be

the brown van place no no we hadn't voted for it to be anything yeah they they gave me the authority to research the possibilities with that and we researched in advance the possibilities for a new uh city hall now i i asked procurement i don't know whether she got around to it or not or sending all that to your boxes to your information boxes so you should have that so you're gonna you're gonna tell us how much you want to sell it to us for the renovations and all of that look right we're gonna we're gonna pay the appraised price minus a hundred thousand dollars that we just recently negotiated with the vans to take off okay uh but i sent all that or i asked procurement to send all that to everybody's box so everybody should have that okay i wanted to talk about the cra position yes ma'am um after i slept on that

I don't think we should create another position. And it's just like I said before, we have cut everybody this and that. And then we're going to add on a position, put more money into something.

If I may, the CRA is separately funded by the CRA?

Okay. Okay.

I would say on that, with the amount of rollout that we're doing and the anticipated workload of the CRA this year, which we haven't had the funding to do anything... up to this point we're putting i think five times more than put in in the last decade to roll out for a residential program for a a commercial program and and really to develop other programs that could benefit the people who live within the cra and bring up their property values i i think it's a necessary position

I feel like that too, but my thought process is we don't cut everybody else's and then we're gonna add something on it. There's nobody in that office. He said he had eight people, nobody else in there could do whatever.

nobody's specifically working on this. Nobody's focused on the CRA. In my opinion, if it's going to work, need somebody laser focused on the CRA and CRA only.

And take somebody out of a current position. And whoever it is would have to be. We're paying for something and we don't even know what they're going to be doing. We're talking about, what, $47,000? We don't.

Whoever does the work has to be paid by the CRA.

Okay, one of ours is about a CRA. Then that's the salary go back into our fund.

So the cost will be essentially the same. We have to get somebody to do the work. So whoever we pay, we pay it out of CRA. The CRA is not the city's funding per se.

All right.

Mr. Carter.

I got it.

All right. Okay. She said she was done.

Any other items to go back into? We're done with the budget? Yes, ma'am. Ms. Young.

Thank y'all so much. I mean, I'm not totally satisfied, but I do understand sometimes we have to meet.

Close to the middle. But you could always give up that role. You could always give up that role.

That what?

Oh, I'm giving up the role.

You could have been through. You could have gave up that role. You could have been done. I ain't giving it up. All right, y'all. Appreciate y'all so much.

I think partial satisfaction is a true hallmark of democracy.

Amen. It's the spirit of compromise.

Yes, sir. Mr. Jernigan. Yes. Again, I'd like to appreciate... Angie and her team over there and Mr. Rosenthal and all the department heads for cutting the way they did. So I think that's amazing in times like this when everything's very, very expensive. So I'd just like to let you guys know how much we really appreciate each department head for cutting the way they did. So thank you all very much.

So now we'll conclude the budget. However, that does not conclude the meeting. We do have public participation because I announced at the beginning of the meeting that we would have public participation at the end. So we will now open up public participation. We had two people sign up. I believe the young lady, Ms. Caitlin Register, is no longer here. I do not see her anymore in the audience. But we do have Mr. Michael Harris, and we will now recognize you.

That's my husband. What? Recess, let me find out what you're talking about.

Trust me. Greetings, everybody. This is the first time up here other than swearing in ceremony. I thought it was important and prudent that I come here tonight. You know, I watch it on things, and recreation always been a thing of mine. I grew up right down the street from Annie Matters Park. I coached.

I coach sports.

I love fundamentals. And it's the things I want to go over. To bring to your attention, maybe to show where I stand, and most of you probably stand there as well once I get finished. When we had the softball championship team come in, everyone up there appreciated that, right? Right. Everyone was all for it. Our champions, our weightlifting team, and all the folks that come through. That's important. I spent a lot of times in Alachua County. I have a grandchild over there, and I get to witness firsthand, and I'm in awe on the recreation. They have all these facilities. Not only the gym for basketball, they have the soccer field and other things going on. It is amazing. And these children are small. They're getting training earlier for future. And I'm seeing championship teams coming from over there. That's very important in so many aspects just other than sports. But it's something good that's for the children to do. My phrase always been by any means necessary. And that's dealing with children. Anything to get them going, to keep them from in front of the television, playing Fortnite, getting desensitized to violence and crime, which a lot of them do for various reasons. I think it's important they need to have sports that they could go to. We need to invest into our children that they may have some things to go to. Places like Richardson Community Center and Anna Matters Park, you know, other than the sports, they have tutoring, academics to keep their minds going and write for the future. The children are our future and that's very important. Very important. We need to do more for our youth and keep them off the streets. And I just wanted to run over those things right quick. I went over faster than I thought I would. I pray that y'all understood me. But I just had to come say something right quick. I came in after I beat the time to speak to the chief, so I didn't want to get at the end. It's very important. I see that going on a lot through county. They shouldn't beat us out. We have champions from here. We should always go on with whatever it's in, weightlifting, softball, football, basketball, and academics, and welding. It's amazing. It's amazing. So I think that we need to always consider that and make that investment into our youth. That's all I have to say.

Thank you, Mr. Harris. And to recap, I want to commend this board because we are putting more money toward recreation this year than we have since it got cut out, and more money than this board ever has. Close to $100,000 more than we put into it last year in our budget. Thank you. The youth are important, and that's why we're spending a million dollars on parks, and we have sown the seed of recreating recreation again here during this process. That's all I have to say, and that's all we've got for tonight.

Actually, just kidding.

Okay. Have a good night.