City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening. Our invocation will be offered by Chaplain Joe Hassler. And after that, we will have the Pledge of Allegiance.

I will pledge allegiance to the flag. It is now 4 o'clock on Tuesday, September 15, 2026, and this meeting of the Ocala City Council is called to order. Clerk, please call the roll.

Here. The clerk will now provide the public notice for this evening's meeting.

We are at item 4A on the agenda, and it is the presentation of the Mayor's Citizen Recognition Award to Ms. Kimberly Wilkerson.

Yes, sir. Well, every month we recognize someone who's doing outstanding work in the community, and we've recognized some amazing citizens, and we get to recognize another amazing citizen for the work that she's doing. And I know Kim personally, and she has a tenacity to make a difference in this community. Her heart to serve is huge, and we are so grateful for the work you do. So I want to read your nomination. For more than a decade, Kimberly Wilkerson has been a steadfast advocate for children, families, and communities affected by gun violence. Through her vision, compassion, and unwaverin

And then everybody stand around her. Okay.

Item 4B is the presentation of the National Arts and Humanities Month Proclamation to Jay Bailey, Executive Director for Marion County Cultural Alliance at Brick City Center of the Arts.

Thank you so much. Hey, how are you? I just saw your dad the other day. Yeah, good to see you. A proclamation to recognize National Arts and Humanities Month, whereas October is recognized throughout the United States as National Arts and Humanities Month, a time to celebrate the vital role of arts, culture, and humanities play in enriching our communities, strengthening our economy and educating our citizens and enhancing the quality of life. Whereas the city of Ocala recognizes that arts inspire creativity, encourage dialogue, preserve our history and heritage, foster understanding, and crea

Item 4C is the presentation of the Give for Marion Proclamation to the Community Foundation for Ocala Marion County, CEO Lauren D'Orio. I hope she don't get mad at me. I know that's...

This is by far, I think, the largest group we've ever had. So congratulations. I love it. I love it. This is just such a great time of year. So grateful for the Community Foundation putting this on in this event. So I'm going to read the proclamation for today, and then we're going to let you say a few words. So proclamation for Give for Marion Day. Whereas the Community Foundation of Ocala Marion Services serves as a trusted leader and resource for charitable giving throughout Marion County, connecting generosity and community needs and strengthening the quality of life for all of our residen

Item 4D is the presentation of the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation to representatives of the Ocala Chamber and Economic Partnership.

Great to see you, Tony. Thank you for being here. Good to see you, as always. Absolutely. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. Great to see you. Hey, how are you? Good to see you. How are we doing? Thanks for being here. Good to see you.

All right. Well, it is my honor to recognize Hispanic Heritage Month, whereas the National Hispanic Heritage Month is observed annually from September 15th through October 15th to celebrate the histories, cultures, and countless contributions of Hispanics and Latino Americans whose leadership, entrepreneurship, and service has enriched communities throughout our nation. Whereas Hispanic-owned businesses, professionals, educators, skilled workers, and community leaders are an integral part of our community. cultural vitality, helping to create jobs, strengthen industries, and enrich the quality

Item 4E is the presentation of a service award to Captain Jason Craig for 25 years of service with Ocala Fire Rescue.

Agenda item number five, presentations. 5A is a presentation of the State of Downtown by Ocala Main Street Executive Director, Sarah Lambert.

You did a great job. Thank you. Is there any questions from anyone out in the audience in regards to her presentation? Council?

I got a couple. So what are we doing to, like, talk to all the businesses downtown? How are we going to try to market that?

Okay. Are we working with CEP on any of this?

WE COME TO OUR CONSIDERED AGENDA. ARE THERE ANY ITEMS WHICH THE COUNCIL WOULD LIKE TO BE REMOVED FOR INDIVIDUAL DISCUSSIONS OR CONSIDERATIONS? HAVING NONE, HEARING NONE, I ACCEPT A MOTION TO APPROVE THE CONSIDERED AGENDA. Is there a second? Second. Any comments from the public on this matter? Clerk, call the roll.

Aye. We're on agenda item 8, introduction, first reading of ordinances. Item 8A is the introduction and first reading of ordinances. 2026-35. Is there a member of the City Council who will introduce this item? I will. Thank you, sir.

IN ORDER TO ENSURE THAT WE CONSIDER THE FULL MILLAGE AND BUDGET ITEMS AFTER 5 PM, WHICH IS REQUIRED BY FLORIDA LAW, WE WILL CONSIDER AGENDA ITEMS 10A THROUGH 10K NOW AND COME BACK TO AGENDA ITEMS 9 AFTER THAT TIME. SO ITEM 10A IS THE ADOPTION OF BUDGET RESOLUTION 2026-174. Do I hear a motion to approve this item?

Planning Director Aubrey Hale is recognized for his presentation.

Are there any comments from the public? Any questions from the council? Call the roll.

Aye. Item 10B is the approval of the purchase of Trip Saver 2 reclosures. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? Is there a second? Second. Utility Director Doug Peebles is recognized for presentation.

Any questions from the public? Council? Call the roll.

Aye. Thank you. Item 10C is the approval of utility service expenditures for Duke Energy for fiscal year 2026-27. Do I hear a motion to approve? So moved. Water Resource Director Brian Heller is recognized for a presentation.

Are there any questions from the public on this item?

Aye. 10D, the adoption of Resolution 2026-56. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Transportation Director Tom Duncan is recognized for his presentation.

Any questions from the public? Council. Call the roll.

Aye. Item 10E is the approval of a contract for construction services for the O'Kellar Fiber Network Administration Building. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved.

Comments, questions from council? Call the roll.

Aye. Item 10F is the approval of additional expenditures under the Florida Department of Management service contract. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second?

Fleet Management Division Head Liza Walmart. Did I say that correct? No.

Okay. Lisa, what about your last name, ma'am? Okay. It's recognized for staff presentation.

Questions from the audience? Council, questions or comments?

Aye. Thank you. Item 10G is the approval of a five-year agreement with Premise Health Employer Solutions, LLC. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Second. HR and Risk Management Director Todd Swanson is recognized for the staff presentation.

Council comments, questions? Call the roll.

Aye. Items 10H through 10K concern the renewal of the employment contract for the four chartered officers, the city clerk, the police chief, the city manager, and the city attorney. I will accept motion for each one. Then we will hear a single staff presentation for all four. And finally, we will vote on each one separately. Item 10H.

All right. So you have been approved and second, right? Yes, sir. All right. Item 10-H. 10-I. 10-I? You sure? I is the renewal of the employment agreement for Police Chief Michael Balkan. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second?

Okay. Item 10-J. It's the renewal of the employment agreement for City Manager Peter Lee. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Item 10K is the renewal of the employment agreement for City Attorney William Saxton. Do I hear a motion to approve this item?

Chief of Staff Chris Watt is recognized for staff presentation.

So are there any comments from the public? All right. Any comments?

That's Jay. Yeah, that's on... H-I-J. On J. We're doing these individually.

Yeah. In just a moment. All right. So item H-A, city clerk. If there's no comment, call the roll.

Aye. Well, item 10-I, police chief. If there are any comment from the public, council, call the roll.

Aye. All right. For item 10J, city manager, if there are any comment from the public, I have one. Mr. Clay Albright? Aye. Members of the board. Yes, sir.

Thank you for your coming up. Okay. So, Pete, you don't have no.

I have one. So I totally disagree with that, but I do agree with Clay's on some of the stuff in that division. So we have been talking, and I've been working with Pete on this, And it's harder than, you know, it's easy to say that guy did something bad. And I agree that, you know, as somebody running a company, you've got a lot of employees. I've got a lot of employees responsible. And sometimes they'd screw up. I mean, let's face it. Now, on Clay's deal, I actually, I'm sort of in the middle now. I think he's doing a great job. I'm just point blank telling you. There are some divisions that I

Well, then that's something we'll have to take up with those people. But, you know, as far as the other people.

did they know i can't explain why i say from now we'll take a step well now i'll back up there i will tell you this i hear from them to on the first one the fricking calls him not calm for clay you know i say hey we've got this problem here now i didn't know about this latest one to the day and now we'll say you know people talk about this But as far as, you know, I get contractors call me all the time, say, hey, we got a problem here. So I always call and I always, you know, help them work through the problem. I think, and we have done tremendous amount of, unless you're in the business, I do

Thank you. I wholeheartedly support Pete. Having served on the Code Enforcement Board for numerous years, both serving on the board and being a code enforcement employee can be a very thankless job. Very rarely are you making somebody happy. But I've had numerous people throughout the year complain to me about somebody who's not doing their job, either at their business or at their home, and keeping up with grass, weeds, other unsightly material. And then that's what it's called, other unsightly material. It is a thankless job. Did we have the wrong man in the job? I think Pete's addressed tha

I will also. So is there any other comments?

I'm just going to say – I'm a big believer in when you have complaints, and I'm talking about us, I like to go directly to the person that my complaint is with and discuss it with them, right? And so anything that I think I should have had to hash out with you, I didn't need to write it down in my report, in my evaluation, because I've already talked to you about this. There's nothing that would have been a surprise, and a lot of it's been addressed. Now, it's really simple, and I think a lot of us do this in personal relationships that we have. And our relationship is a personal relationship.

I'd like to just say a few words. As far as some of the businesses in Ocala with the grass grow, and I've been one of the biggest sticklers on that, is I think it's important that we keep our community looking good. So I'm calling code enforcement on a lot of these things. Maybe I should be taking the blame on that. But also, I just say, show me someone who doesn't have some faults. I think about the faults that I have. Overall, I think Pete's job is to lead the city and lead the staff and create a good culture. I think that's what we want, right? And I get to see day in and day out the cultur

I do just want to add that Jeff Shrum is doing a great job over growth services, so please do not take that the wrong way wherever you are. Okay.

Thank you. We are ready to vote. Clerk, call the roll.

Aye. For item 10K, city attorney, the clerk will call the, wait, is there any questions, comments on the city attorney from the public, from the council?

Will, I remember when we hired you several years ago, and having worked with an outside attorney for so long on council, I was questioning how this was really going to work. You have made a seamless transaction to become now our city attorney. You give very thoughtful advice, and that's accurate. And I appreciate everything that you've done. You've come in here. You're part of the Ocala family, and I want to say thank you for doing a good job. I want you here for another two years at least.

I just have a comment, too, is basically I've come to know Will through, you know, obviously all the stuff we deal with. He's the only attorney that I've ever had that actually sits down and has common sense. I'm sorry.

We sit down, we go through, and he has common sense. And then number two is Chris. We really do appreciate what you bring to the table and what you have done for the city. And, again, I'm positive.

Do we vote on him? No, Chris. We don't vote on you, do we? Why? He can fire me any time. We need to talk about him. Okay.

Aye. All right. Resolution 2026-170 is adopted. We don't do that yet, do we? All right. I got to ask questions because we're moving around today a little bit. All right, so it's after 5.01. So we are ready to go back to 9.08. I will now open a public hearing for the Downtown Development District's millage rate and budget. The clerk will now announce the millage information for the districts.

Do I hear a motion to adopt Revolution 2026-170, establishing the fiscal year 2026-2027 millage rate for downtown development districts? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Our presentation will be provided by Chief Financial Officer Janice Mitchell.

Are there any public comments on this matter? Any questions or comments from the council? The clerk will call the roll.

Yes. It is 5.14 p.m. The clerk will now announce the total fiscal year 2026-27 budget for the Downtown Development Fund.

Do I hear a motion to adopt budget resolution 2026-171 to adopt the fiscal year 2026-27 budget for the downtown development fund?

Are there any public comment on this matter? Any questions from council? The clerk will call the roll.

Aye. Budget Resolution 2026-171 is adopted at 5.15 p.m. Thank you. This public hearing is closed. Next, I will open a public hearing for the basic city millage rate and budget. The clerk will now announce the millage information for the city of Ocala.

Do I hear a motion to adopt Resolution 2026-172, establishing the fiscal year 2026-27, millage rate for all taxable property within the City of Ocala. So moved. Is there a second? Second.

This presentation will also be by Chief Financial Officer Janice Mitchell.

Are there any questions from the public? Are there any questions or comments from counsel?

Council President, can I just say quickly that one of the local online news outlets was reporting that we were raising millage, and I just want to go on record as saying this is not a raise to the millage rate. This is the same rate we've had now for 11 or 12 years. Twelve years.

Twelve years, yeah. Technically, it's a tax increase because we didn't use the rollback rate, but it is not a raise to the millage rate. It's not a raise to the millage. That's clickbait.

Thank you for that comment. All right. The city clerk will call the roll.

Aye. It is 518. The clerk will now announce the fiscal year 2026-27 general fund budget and total budget for the city of Ocala.

Do I hear a motion to adopt budget resolution 2026-173 to adopt a fiscal year 2026-27 budget for the city of Ocala? So moved. Second? Are there any public comments on this matter? Any comments or questions from the council? The clerk will call the roll.

Aye. This budget resolution was adopted at 5.19 p.m. This public hearing is closed. Did we cover everything? Yes, sir. All right. So... We got to go back to nine, don't we? Going to. All right, agenda item 11, internal auditor report. Mr. Vincent Ovino.

Yes. Vince. Yes. We do a lot of cybersecurity training here. even up here amongst council members. We do a lot of it. With a long-time career in banking, I was subject to a lot of it. So I know the red flags. I know how these criminals try to infiltrate your systems, and they always try to come up with another way. But would you agree with me that had the procedures been followed initially, this incident would have never have occurred?

We did have and we have now sufficient training to ensure that compliance. This employee, for whatever reason, just chose not to do that step.

Well, I think you're... recommendation for the tabletop which i'm assuming is just reinforcing the current training and adding these are the additional tricks that we're seeing scamsters and fraudsters try to pull and i wholeheartedly agree you got to do that and i know chris's department is is on top of that and i think every employees that handles uh this type of sensitive stuff their eyes are probably wide open as to we've got to follow these policies and procedures. I think your report's well written, well done. The bottom line is had the employee followed the procedures, we wouldn't be ha

Just a curiosity, how many transactions do we do a day or a week?

A month. So we've got one time full. This is only doing 11.

You've lost me on that. That is incorrect. You're asking two different things. We do probably hundreds of EFT transactions, but you specifically asked for how many times is it being changed. No, no, no. I'm sorry.

Then how many – that person or that department, how many transactions do they do a day or how many payments? What is – Mr. Burns?

How many do we do a day? Hold on. Barry, Pete, I think can ask the question.

If we do 1,000 a week, then we've done what? How many a year? A bunch.

So 52,000. And have we had this problem before? I know, again, so I guess what I'm saying is when I'm looking at it, we have systems set in place. And yes, somebody made a mistake, that's for sure. However, are our systems good enough that we've now done 52,000, well, 52, I'm sorry, 51,999 transactions, okay. But we had that one transaction.

Barry, you can't, when somebody does not follow the established procedures, then you're opening yourself wide open to fraud. And that's what happened here. And that's why the employees need to know this is 100% compliance, not 99.99. It's 100% compliance. If you comply with the policies and procedures 100% of the time, you will not – this type of scam will not occur. And they're getting smarter every day. But, again, what I'm saying is we – If you're speaking to a known person on the other end of the phone at a known phone number, at a known way to contact, then that assures that any updates t

Okay. And then the final thing is the supervisory employee who got a call from a receiving bank on an EFT called to say that the names don't appear. That is a red flag that's so big and so bright because the receiving bank very rarely ever does that, especially Bank of America. So they're calling you up, wink, wink, maybe you need to request this one to come back. We didn't do that.

And so two huge mistakes made that gave us the opportunity to thwart this crime in the very beginning. I've had, and I'm sure you all have had too, I've had a lot of people question me, why isn't anybody being arrested? And I would say to them, the employees did a poor job. You don't arrest employees for doing a poor job. The real crime was on the other end when somebody imitated a potential vendor. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay. Thank you, sir. City Manager Pete Lee. Thank you, sir.

So I just brought this up like privately between me, you, Will, and Aubrey, so maybe we just give a back story for everybody.

I think it makes the most sense. I don't know why we wouldn't want to do that. We've had the golf carts long enough now. We know that it's not like of disaster all the time, right? So I think I would say yes. I was honestly, I was surprised that we did not include the parking garage to begin with until somebody brought it up to me the other day. I'm like, what are you talking about? And then lo and behold, it was not in the map. So I know that I have heard feedback from some of the people in my district that they want to park in the parking garage. So I don't know why we would not have that.

Um, and I'm okay with that. I, I originally remember us excluding it. And at that time I was against the golf carts going, um, West of main street. I think it was. Um, but I've since seen that the compliance with local traffic is much more improved, um, with golf cart drivers and to some of council's other comments about, you know, trying to promote, um, retail downtown, I think a lot of your customers for that probably are coming from an area that is served by a golf cart. So let's make it retail friendly.

You could designate a golf cart area and just have the spot smaller. I agree with that. Then people get frustrated. They come in there and see it. you know, a golf cart parked in a big spot. And if we're interested in getting a bunch of golf carts in there, just have a designated area.

I would not do that. Then you take away, look, if I'm going downtown and I can't bring my golf cart, I'm going to bring my car. What's the difference, right? Like I'm parking a car in the car spot. Let me take up a whole entire parking spot for a golf cart. I think that's fine. But when you start having golf cart specific spots, you've literally taken away spots from cars. I don't know.

I think it's just paint, right? Like we can just restripe things as we go. So at this point, I think it's an observation of what the needs are. And if it winds up being what you're saying, then we just adapt to it.

Anybody else have a question? All right. At one time we was having issues getting offices. Okay. And right now you're about full except for one vacancy, right? What do you attribute that to?

Would you also say that the increase that we have been able to give in the last few years helped recruit You know, I know we're not paying a million dollars, but I'm just saying. We was paying $5, so now we're paying $8. So you understand what I'm saying?

Good, good. Thank you. I appreciate it. I would like to just say, you know, I have an opportunity to meet with all the new officers when they come on. And I do ask the question. And, you know, one of the things that they say is they want to work for Chief Balkan. He's created a great job with the culture there. One of the things that I truly believe, we have one of the best police departments in the country. And it's just the expectation that you're going to do a good job. And if you don't do a good job, you're going to be held accountable. Sometimes I have to pull Chief off a little bit becau

When was the last time you were this full? Ever?

Very good. Good job. Thank you. Fire Chief Claiborne, Will Bourne.

How is our vacancy for Ocala Fire? Are we pretty full?

Yeah. And how was the contract received by the firefighters? Oh, very well.

Thank you, Chief. Thank you. City Attorney.

Information or items? Everybody, you can find that.

No, we have not done general public comments.

There you go. So is there any public comments?

You have just made some enemies with that comment.

Yeah, and I know some of the neighbors over there have tried to overcome that by getting street legal golf carts, right? So they cross anyway because they can. But I think we've talked about that in the past, but I think we talked about incorporating West Ocala into that as well.

Yeah, especially with the Forge open now. I mean, it's a pretty busy place. It is. During the weekends and at night.

Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mitchell. All right. Yes, sir. Number 17, all of you can read the information there, the different meetings and stuff that we need to attend. All right. 18 comments by mayor. Thank you. What? Yeah. City council members. We'll start with you, Mr. Manfield. I'm good. Mayor. I'm good.

I'm going to end on a high note. We have a business here in the Ocala Professional Park by the airport who is owned by two young ladies named Becca Dahlman and Jenna Butler. It's called Fun Delivered, and it's basically like blind bags of returned FedEx and UPS packages. So you order a box from them. You do not know what you're getting, and that's what makes it fun. Oh, my gosh. But they will be on Shark Tank on September 30th at 9 p.m. So I just wanted to give them a shout out because I think that's super cool for Ocala to make the map like that.

Yeah, I got just one comment about the budget. When Kristen brought up the incorrect headline on raising our millage rate, it reminded me that the story written in the Gazette during the last week on how our taxes are calculated and how the whole thing works was probably the best story I've ever seen on really truth and you know, and how this budget is really presented. And we're not spending $1.2 million. We're moving our $1.2 billion. We're moving $1.2 billion around in and out of reserve accounts. And I think the general fund is probably a little bit more accurate description of what we rea

All right. I don't have no comments. I supported all of you that we that we hire and we supervise because of the exemplary job that you all have done. Now, we know that in an operation this size, there's going to be some glitches. And somebody's going to be held accountable. I think on most fronts, we make sure that those people are held accountable. So I supported each one of you and continue to do a great job. If there is no other business before this council, meeting is adjourned.

Did you have an opportunity to meet with Angie today? I did.