City Council - Regular Meeting

Our invocation today will be Chaplain Joe Hassler. It will be followed by the Pledge of Allegiance.

Amen. I will pledge allegiance to the flag, It is now 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026, and this meeting of the Ocala City Council is called to order. Clerk, please call the roll.

Here. Item two on our agenda is new employees. When I call your name, please stand up for us. And I've been to mess this one up. Nathaniel Rodriguez. And he's with Public Works. Yes, sir. And no, I don't see the other person. Hey, let's welcome him. The clerk will provide the public notice for this evening meeting.

Thank you. Item 4A is a service award recognizing Priscilla Davis for 20 years of service with Recreation and Parks.

Item 4C is a service award recognizing Linda Roos for 25 years of service with Ocala Police Department.

Item 4D is a service award recognizing Captain Sandra Duryea for 30 years of service with Ocala Police Department.

ITEM 5, PRESENTATIONS. THERE ARE NONE. ITEM 6 IS OUR CONSENT AGENDA. ARE THERE ANY ITEMS WHICH COUNCIL WOULD LIKE REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT AGENDA FOR INDIVIDUAL DISCUSSION AND OR CONSIDERATION? Hearing none, I will accept the motion to approve the consider agenda. So moved. Is there a second? Second. Are there any comments from the public on this matter? The clerk will call the roll.

Aye. Item eight, introduction and first reading of ordinances. 8A is an introduction and first reading of ordinance 2026-22. Is there a member of the city council who will introduce this item? I'll introduce it. Thank you. The clerk will read the ordinance by title.

Item 8B. It's an introduction and first reading of Ordinance 2026-23. Is there a member of the City Council who will introduce this item? I'll introduce. Thank you. The clerk will read the ordinance by title.

Item HC is an introduction and first reading of Ordinance 2026-24. Is there a member of the City Council who will introduce this item?

Item 8D is an introduction and first reading of ordinance 2026-25. Is there a member of the council? Who will introduce this item? Thank you. The clerk will read the ordinance.

Thank you. 8E, introduction and first reading of ordinance 2026-26. Is there a member of the city council who will introduce this item?

Thank you. The clerk will read the ordinance by towel.

Agenda item nine, public hearings and second readings of ordinances 9A is the adoption of ordinance 2026-21. Councilman Manfield, who introduced this item, is recognized for a motion.

Mr. President, I move that ordinance number 2026-21 be adopted as provided by the Charter of the City of Ocala, Florida and based upon evidence presented to City Council. except that adoption by sections on the second reading be waived.

Is there a second? Second. The clerk will read the ordinance by title.

Chief financial officer Janice Mitchell is recognized for a presentation.

Are there any comments from the public? Any questions or comments from the council? Clerk, call the roll.

General business agenda item 10. 10A is the adoption of additional expenditure for the purchase of two auto transformers. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Electric Utility Deputy Director Chad Lynch is recognized for presentation.

Any comments from the public? Council, comments, considerations? Call the roll.

Aye. Thank you. Item 10B is the approval of a contract with C&M Lawn Care and Tree Service for grounds maintenance services. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Second. City Engineer Sean Lanier is recognized for a presentation.

Any questions from the public? Questions or comments from the council? Call the roll.

Aye. 10C is the approval of the second amendment to a contract with Polydyn Inc. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Second. Mr. Lanier is recognized for a presentation.

Questions from the public? Council? Call the roll.

Aye. Thank you. Item 10D is the approval of a three-year contract for janitorial services with J.J. Holdings and Services, LLC. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Police Chief Michael Barkin.

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

Aye. Thank you. Item 10E is the approval of Fourth Amendment to Agreement with Wear Gloves, Inc. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? Is there a second? Second. Public Works Director Darren Potts is recognized for staff presentation.

I would just, I know Ken and Wendy are here. I just got to say they do a great job. I mean, I'd love to see this contract even grow to get some of the other homeless people that are, you know, in some of our parks. They do an amazing job getting people off the streets and back on their feet. And our city is clean because of what they're doing. So thank you, both of you.

Well, I like to echo that because I see them somewhere everywhere, and I'm sure there's some supervision there somewhere, but it seems like they're well-trained as well. I mean, you see them all over the city, and it's a good thing. It's a positive thing, so I echo that sentiment. All right. No further comment? Call the roll.

Aye. Thank you. Item 10F is the approval of the Second Amendment to an Agreement with Infrastructure Consultants and Engineering PLLC. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Our Port Director, Matthew Groh, is recognized for staff presentation.

Comments from the public? Council? Call the roll.

Aye. Item 10G is the approval of the second amendment to an agreement with McFarland Johnson, Inc. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Groves recognized for staff presentation.

Are there any comments from the public? Council, call the roll.

Aye. Item 10H is the approval of Resolution 2026-44. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? So moved. There's a second. Second. Mr. Grove, you're recognized.

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

Okay. What about 10-I? I'm sorry. That's okay. Is it 10-J you want to pull?

Item 10-I. Is the approval of budget resolution 2026-151. Do I hear a motion to approve this item? Is there a second? Second. Mr. Groh, you are recognized for staff presentation.

Did there any comments from the public? Any from council?

Okay. Any further comments? Call the roll.

Item 10J is pulled. All right, so we have the city manager's report.

Ten years from now, they'll be saying, where did they go?

I hope not, too. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Lee. Ocala Police Department report. Chief Balkan.

Thank you, sir. Agenda item 14, Fire Chief Cliff Welborn, recognized for his presentation.

Thank you, sir. Any questions for Chief Welbon? Thank you, sir. City Attorney's Report.

Public comments. We have a couple. Christopher Diplom.

Okay, so when you get to the mic, I want you to give me your name and your address. And you do have three minutes if you want to take that. My name is Christopher Dippin.

Yes. Sir? Sir? Come back up for a second. Okay, so we do appreciate you come sharing with us. Only thing I can say to you is this. I THINK THAT THE POLICE DEPARTMENT IS FOLLOWING THEIR PROTOCOL. I'M PRETTY SURE SOMEONE DID COMMUNICATE WITH YOU, CORRECT? I'M SORRY? SOMEONE FROM OPD DID COMMUNICATE WITH YOU.

Sir, sir, sir. So, yeah, you do what you got to do. Yeah. All right? That's not a problem.

We hear you. That's all I can say to you. I'm going to say to you is I apologize for any misconduct. I'm not talking about our police department. Don't have to do that. I'm talking about another citizen carrying on in that manner, right?

Well, maybe, but I'm not sure that it...

We appreciate you. All right. Ms. Alicia Gonzalez? Julius? Is that correct?

Thank you, Ian. Thank you, sir. Is there any other? Thank you. All right. Agenda item 17, information items. Councilmembers, you can look at your information items on your sheet. Remember those dates. Remember August the 25th, TPO is at 2 p.m. instead of 3 p.m.?

Mayor. Thank you, Council President. First, I want to thank Alyssa and Ian for coming in tonight. It takes a lot of courage to do what they did, and I'm very grateful. You know, I talked on Kratom about six months ago and how serious it is, and it's becoming more and more of an issue. You know, several of the stories have been presented. I emailed you out an email from Dr. Acevedo, He's seen specifically cases where a gentleman turned blue. He lost his loved one. At OPD, we've seen that people have overdosed with packages of Kratom next to them, and they're deceased. Numerous people have reach

I have a couple questions. How old are you? Young man. Twenty-one. That's pretty bad. I mean, I have to admit, you know, my kids, I've got a son a little bit older than you now, but I mean, you go into a store and you look at this and say, hey, let's go have some fun. Whether I agree with, you know, it's like you're thinking you're going to buy something you can go out and have some fun with. I'm just going to kill you. So, I mean, I've heard the same things. I believe we should take a stance. I believe that I don't see why we can't just say, hey, or at least put, if we can't legally, and I kn

THAT WOULD BE ONE OPTION TO USE CODE ENFORCEMENT, AND THEN MY OFFICERS would support that process. In fact, we'd be the ones to monitor it. But if we wanted to make it where they're breaking the law, it's a second misdemeanor, we could go that route. But we felt like the code enforcement option would be the easiest to keep it out of the courts to be able to essentially use our law enforcement to enforce it.

Yeah, you can buy it in shots. And it's right on the counter, right next to everything else, next to the candy. You can buy it in a powder form, a pill form. And I didn't even speak in the amount of people. I've spoken to people who... You know, they've become so highly addicted. They say that you can actually have a harder time coming off this than an opioid once you become addicted to this. So it is a serious issue in the community. But yeah, if you were to go into a gas station, the major chains do not carry this. And I think that speaks volumes that the major chains are not carrying it. It

Marion County Children's Alliance does environmental scans. In other words, send people into these gas stations and stuff and read the labels and stuff. And just like with some of this stuff, it has THC in it. It has to be below a certain level of THC. I mean, not the kratom, but, I mean, it's just a bunch of stuff in these small chain gas stations that, you know, if your kid get hold of that, ain't no telling what might happen.

Yeah. You know, I talked to, so I went one step further. I actually talked to some guys that I know that are in the medical marijuana market, you might say. And they're not even for some of this stuff. You know, they just, because their market, because it's federal and it has, they've actually, they're regulated. They have to show exactly what they have, what kind of potency. They have to go through a lot of tests. And so they're even like, hey, this stuff is not regulated. It's not. There's no way to test it right now, and you don't know what you're buying. That's the whole idea. You just don

We have Mr. Will to talk with the county, find out more, bring it back to us. Absolutely, yeah.

Well, we need to come up with an ordinance. That would be what we could do at our level.

Well, yes. And the point is, though. to get to know just what they plan on doing. Not to say we got to do just what they do or whatever, but let's, I mean, sometimes there's an abundance of information, all right? We may have part of it. Somebody else may have another part of it. But we put all that together, then we got a stronger fight for what we want to really do to accomplish. That's what I'm trying to get at.

So that's what we're going to ask our staff to do? Yes. Pete, you here? Yep. Mr. Will?

THAT'S A COMPOUND OF CRATEM. OTHER KINDS.

You know, the worst thing is they sell this thing that's like mint chocolate. Let's go buy some mint chocolate. How many people have traveled overseas? So we've traveled a lot. Have you ever bought a, I know you haven't bought it, but I'm just saying when you walk through the stores and you see the packs of the cigarettes, overseas in Europe, there's pictures of what a throat cancer looks like, and they're mandated on the packs of cartons of cigarettes.

You should go look at that. And you pick it up and you go, ooh, that's pretty nasty. Instead of warning signs, they have a picture of what a throat cancer looked like. It's pretty interesting. We shouldn't do that in the United States. This one you could have put a picture of somebody in a stretcher maybe. Say, okay, you buy this stuff. This is what you're going to look like. Anyhow, I agree, okay?

I'm finished. Actually, you know what? I don't know if James Haynes is here tonight. I just want to recognize him. Over the last three weeks, he's, I would say, at least five instances where he's helped individuals. He's calling me late at night trying to find housing for veterans or different scenarios, but the guy really just goes out of his way and does an amazing job. Brothers Keeper has been a great resource for us lately to help people that are struggling, but I just wanted to acknowledge James, and then I also want to acknowledge Matt Groh. I don't know if he left. I heard he did an ama

That's all I got. Thanks. Councilman Manfield.

I, too, would like to say something about... electorate, but I'm not going to do it today. I'm going to wait until they come up and show us their award, and then I will have something. So when we had the storm, what was it, the 11th?

A lot of departments... had to do some work at some tedious times. And they ought to be recommended for their outstanding job that they've done. I'll tell you, we have an outstanding family here with the city. I like to call them family because you are. And I like to try to give you praise when we can because a lot of times we're knocking you on your head, you know, and we work you very hard. But that's what it takes to make this city the place it is. We're always talking about a great place to live, work, and prosper. It's because of you employees, your due diligence, and your job. Keep it up