Remarks by James Carter
149 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 3 of 6
- Play at 1:13:48
“Mr. Mayor, Mondays and Thursdays are good days for me.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:17:50
“Mr. Mayor. If we don't have any applicants, well, quick question. Is the board capable of functioning with the number of people that are currently on it? Like, do they have a quorum? Or do they lack a quorum without this?”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:18:07
“Then I would suggest that we advertise it again, but then I would also suggest that maybe the five of us, you know.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:18:15
“Do some outreach. Find somebody, find some bodies to apply.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:23:32
“Just one little thought. If there's an organization out there that we can give a house to that can put it to good use, I'm fine with the idea of giving it to them. Obviously, the county just gave it to us. Other than that, I would say we knock it down and put it back on the market. So somebody can build something new there. If it's an old dilapidated house full of asbestos, et cetera, et cetera.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:23:51
“Well, it definitely seems like it's had some troubles. But the same thing when we talk about a housing authority, I have no interest in the city being anybody's landlords if we can help it. So I don't know that that – and in all fairness, that sounds like it could be what is called a conflict of interest.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:27:42
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:33:56
“And to be clear, I agree with you. I think we need to do some training. I don't necessarily think we need to give these folks like a degree in land use. Right. Obviously, this is a community volunteer board. But but honestly, just a little bit of guidance and a little bit of training can go a long way. Most of the stuff, if you know, if you have a general idea of what you're really supposed to be doing there, the LDR will teach you most of it. And hopefully people who serve on this board are opening that up also.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:34:40
“Appreciate it. So that was my first thing. My second thing, that was the long thing, right? My second thing is just this. I know certain people are going to get tired of hearing it, but I'm just going to stick to it because it's how I feel. The Constitution of the United States does not give you rights. It protects them, and free people do not live in a surveillance state. Thank you.”
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 1:40:47
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 10, 2026
- Play at 6:42
“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…”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 13:29
“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.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 14:14
“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…”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 16:51
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 17:04
“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.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 17:22
“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…”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 18:50
“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,…”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 19:51
“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.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 20:17
“I got that. We added more than one position yesterday.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 23:37
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 24:26
“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…”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 30:05
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 31:48
“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.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 36:48
“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.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026
- Play at 37:22
“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.”
City Council · Aug 6, 2026