City Council - Regular Meeting

all right it's six o'clock welcome to our regular city council meeting for monday august 17th we will begin as always with our invocation followed by the salute to the flag led by mr jansen please rise let us pray good and gracious heavenly father as i lift my brother and sister up in prayer tonight lord i just ask you to give us wisdom and strength and

and discernment and decision-making as we guide and mold this city. And we just ask that all of our decisions ultimately point back to you, Lord. And Lord, I just ask you to put your blanket of armor protection around our first responders, our health care workers, our lifeguards, and our military. Bless them, Lord. And Lord, we just ask you for all these things in your son Jesus' name. Amen.

This meeting is called to order. Madam Clerk, roll call.

Item A. I move that we approve the minutes from the regular city council meeting held on July 20th, 2026. Second.

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

Item B. I move we approve the minutes from the City Council Workshop held on July 27, 2026.

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

Item C. I move we approve the minutes from the Budget Showcase held on July 31, 2026.

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

Item D. I move we approve the minutes from the budget workshop held on August 3rd, 2026.

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

Item E. I move that we approve the minutes from the budget workshop held on August 4th, 2026.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carried. Approval of the agenda. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Agenda is approved. Council announcements. Mr. Jansen, first on the light.

It seemed to be the light. I saw it. Way to go, Councilman. Just real quick. So this past week, we attended the Florida League of Cities annual conference. There was several workshops there. I was fortunate enough to be asked to moderate the one on data centers. It was well attended, and there was a lot of useful information that came out of there. Obviously, I can't go through that entirely in announcements tonight, but if you get a chance to review it, it's nice. I felt like the conference was a great benefit to us. It's always like continued education, and I'm exceptionally proud that our e

So it wasn't like the A division where it was 200 plus, and that also went for the age?

Well, congratulations. Thank you for that report. I don't see any other lights, so I'll go ahead and go. We did just finish early voting yesterday. As Ms. Golding mentioned, we have election day tomorrow. You can see the equipment here at some point. The poll workers will be here to set up. I think they picked the right day, the right agenda, hopefully to have to not be here to all hours of the night. Many of you know, I know Jason and Trevor are very familiar with the fact that we added a new early voting location for our County at the Jacksonville beach, um, convention center or community bu

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't think about it, but it's nice to wear something bright so you can spot yourself. But the beach bike breakers logo was orange. So I was just trying to match my hat. So it worked out, but we had a few, you can see on my right to the left of the photo, we had two officers on bikes that rode the whole way. And that was really fun. I called them my police escort. I don't think it had anything to do with me being there, but it was pretty cute. So we had a great time. It was a great success and it was hot and muggy, but by that time it was starting to get really nice out at the b

Thank you, Mayor. And the orange was a good choice. Absolutely. Can you vote at Sunshine Park tomorrow?

You cannot vote at Sunshine Park tomorrow. You have to go to your designated polling location.

Okay. It used to be City Hall, but now I guess I have to go to the library.

Nope. It's not going to be the library. If you used to vote at City Hall, you probably still vote at City Hall. Yes, that's what the equipment there in the back is. We did go from six polling locations to three in the last election, but wherever you voted in 2024 is... I would always recommend that you verify this on the Supervisor of Elections website. Where I voted in 2024 is where I would vote tomorrow if I needed to vote. I voted down at the library, but... that only if you early voted, if you voted on election day, you need to vote at your precinct.

Okay. And I do want to congratulate Councilman Horn, but he's not saving lives, being a great family man or loving on his dogs or his wife, Carrie. He's out there competing and kicking butt. Way to go. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Watters. Anybody else? All right. We do not have any speaker cards, so we will skip courtesy of the floor and onto consent agenda.

I move that we approve the concept agenda.

Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Moving on to City Manager New Business, Mr. Hughes.

Thank you, Mr. Hughes. Can we get a motion?

I move we approve a lease with EZO for 72 golf carts, 72 GPS units, one utility vehicle, and one range picker contingent upon approval of the resolutions authorizing the negotiation, execution, and delivery of each lease agreement.

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

Thank you, Mayor. It's good to see you, Trevor, as always. So just to be clear, this $592,000... It's not coming out of the general fund, but out of the golf course revenue?

I move we adopt number 2222-2026 authorizing the negotiation, execution, and delivery of lease number 2-0-0-0-0-0-5-3-9-0-9 dated August 5th, 2026 for 72-2027 easy go RXV elite golf carts between the city of Jacksonville Beach and the Huntington National Bank.

Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions or comments from council?

I move we adopt resolution number 2223-2026, authorizing the negotiation, execution, and delivery of lease number 200000053910, dated August 5th, 2026, for 72 PACE 10EX GPS units between City of Jacksonville Beach and the Huntington National Bank.

I move we adopt resolution number 2224-2026, authorizing the negotiation, execution, and delivery of lease number 200000053911, dated August 5th, 2026, for one 2027 Cushman 800X gas and one 2027 Cushman Hall or Pro Elite between the City of Jacksonville Beach and the Huntington National Bank.

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

Mayor Hoffman. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Jansen. You haven't had a mouthful like that in a while. So well done. Um, and also thank you, Mr. Hughes and Mr. Fatidis. Um, it's always refreshing for me to not feel like we're throwing money at the golf course after we've lit it on fire. So, This was well done and we look forward to more great things out of the golf course. Okay, moving on. Our final item of business is our ordinance.

Thank you, Madam Clerk. This ordinance is before the council for a public hearing and consideration on its second reading. I will now open the public hearing on ordinance number 2026-8239. I do not have any comment cards on this item. Is there anyone from the audience who would like to speak in favor of or against the ordinance?

Can you just give us your name and role again for the record?

Thank you very much for your work on this item. Let's see, where was I? Any other speakers on this item? Public hearing is closed. If you want to hang close just in case there's any questions. Public hearing is closed. Can I have a motion?

I move we adopt ordinance number 2026-8239 of the second reading amending chapter 20, section 20-15, Paws Dog Park, on the court of ordinances to add a new subsection C, authorizing the denial, suspension, or revocation of membership for certain persons investigated or convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses.

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

Just a question I had, and it sounds like we've got the experts here to answer this. Do we have any concern with just the term investigated versus convicted of?

That was the question I was going to ask. Thank you, counsel.

My only concern is, you know, if this were taken literally, if somebody reported an incident, their neighbor that they don't like was there and they just reported an incident, at that point, literally, they could be banned from the dog park, whether it was valid, not valid. I guess we would do some investigation to try and determine that, but... That's the only issue I would have with the term investigated in there versus if we actually conclude that there was something legit about the complaint.

I think that's a question. I have the same question that Council Member Sutton had. I think it has to rise a little bit, and this is for our city attorney, to rise a little bit more above prima facie evidence. Because I can see this being challenged in a constitutional law, because if you're just being investigated, in fact, even if you were arrested, you have to be convicted before before sanctions apply to you or punishment applies to you in the court of law. So I do have some concerns. It may never ever get challenged and we might be perfectly fine, but I'd like to get our attorney's though

I'm comfortable with the way this is. If you are, if you think that we have good legal standing, I just don't like to see us be challenged in court under a constitutional right. But if you feel that it's strong enough that it'll stand on its own, I'm good with it. Thank you.

I'm going to throw it to the city manager before we get to the remaining council lights.

Thank you, Mayor. And I appreciate the thoughts of all my councilmen. I think we can all agree we love animals here on this dais. But for me, having been a schoolteacher and seeing kids make false accusations left and right, and what Councilman Jensen, I mean, Sutton had said, You know, I don't like this guy. I'm going to make a false accusation. But what Councilman Horn said, perhaps somehow we could work in being investigated for with substantial prima facie evidence. Because, I mean, innocent, we are presumed innocent in America until proven guilty. I'm just not comfortable with the way tha

Do you see now why I had you stay at the podium? Second readings can do this. Before I give it to Mr. Jansen for a revisit, I want to say that I think we're overthinking this. I think that this is... If you have spent any time at the dog park, there's, I don't want to say vigilante justice, but if something is going wrong, phones are whipped out and it is documented. And I'm glad that this is here or that we're about to have this here, hopefully, because that gives the people that use the dog park the reassurance that someone who is abusive to animals and dogs I don't know if my dog runs by so

Sure. My challenge of the wording had nothing to do with that incident. I agree that what I saw, because I saw the video as well, that the incident was uncalled for and it should have been investigated. So it was more of the premise of whether or not it had legal standing or not the way it was written. That's my only concern. However, I do appreciate that the city manager brought up the point that there should be And maybe as a fixture, a temporary suspension before you enter into a full suspension, pending investigation or pending the results of an arrest or a conviction, that makes much more

Suspend doesn't mean eviction to me. Suspend is... Not indefinitely. It could be any amount of time. That doesn't mean you're evicted from membership.

Sure, but now that we've got it clarified that it was temporary, then yeah.

So can you state it in the form of an amendment?

We have a motion to amend and a second. Any discussion on the amendment? Mr. Horn, your light's on. Do you want to speak to this amendment?

But the word revoke is already in here. So that is permanent to me. Revoke. I think at this point we're just playing out this rainstorm. Let's see how much longer we can go. Mr. Sutton.

So I like the amendment that's in the detail of Section 2, right, is where we're talking about. which calls out that they could be temporarily suspended during an investigation, it may be that we, this is not part of the amendment necessarily, but then maybe we clarify the ordinance name where we say denial, suspension, or revocation of membership of certain persons, or maybe it can stay the same and the detail of section two is where it calls it out of exactly what can happen, so. I'd be comfortable with that.

And the truth of the matter is all of those things in the title can happen depending on how far, you know, if you're investigated and convicted or whatever the case may be or found guilty.

Ms. Goulding, is your comment on the amendment?

Thank you, Ms. Golding. Any other comments on the amendment, on the Wagner amendment to add temporary and temporarily to, I'm not going to repeat it. Hopefully Madam Clerk has it all. So if you vote yes on the amendment, you're only voting on the amendment to make the changes as recommended by Mr. Wagner. Madam Clerk, roll call. Who made the second? Mr. Jansen.

Yes, amendment passes. I can't believe there haven't been more WAG references so far in this discussion. Okay, we are back to the ordinance as amended. Any other discussion? Madam Clerk, roll call.

Mayor Hoffman? Yes. Motion carries. Please, for the record, note that that was an affirmative vote by Mr. Wagner. Motion carries. Mr. City Attorney?

So are you going to go for municipal law, or what do you think? Good answer. Good answer. All right. Well, thank you for your service to the city and for your work on this issue. We do not have any other items on the agenda. It's still raining. Does anybody have anything they want to just chit-chat about? No? Okay.

Oh, yeah. Let's see. Can I have a motion to adjourn? Second. We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Meeting adjourned. Make sure to vote.