Remarks by Jay A. Musleh
41 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 51:37
“That's Jay. Yeah, that's on... H-I-J. On J. We're doing these individually.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:04:03
“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…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:10:26
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:18:53
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:24:42
“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?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:25:23
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:26:17
“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…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:27:54
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:28:30
“How many do we do a day? Hold on. Barry, Pete, I think can ask the question.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:30:00
“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…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:31:29
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:31:58
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:36:06
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:38:57
“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.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:45:55
“When was the last time you were this full? Ever?”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:49:43
“No, we have not done general public comments.”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 1:53:44
“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…”
City Council · Sep 15, 2026
- Play at 12:21
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 52:33
“Council President, I move that ordinance number 2026-29 be adopted as provided by the Charter of the City of Ocala and based upon evidence presented to City Council, accept that adoption by sections on second reading be waived.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:28:57
“I'd like to make a comment, too. I've known Robert Little for 34 years. I've worked for him at two banks. He hired me one time, and he didn't regret it. I also know Camp. I know his family, and it comes from a very, very good family. Fine young man. Robert also owns a plane and has it in a hangar at the airport, and I think he would make a good addition, as Camp would. Don't know the other gentleman at all.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:41:34
“Without knowing how much it costs for the, I mean, I've read the report, and I don't see anything in here that would alarm me that you need to do a deep dive. I do think that Vincent's a relatively new auditor to us, and this is a little bit, I'm thinking it's a little bit out of your comfort zone because it's finance, but everything I've seen, But if you want to take it to the pension boards, then since we've talked about it, it won't hurt to take it to them and let them decide whether they want to engage a forensic audit and what the cost would be. We'll do that.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 1:49:04
“Good evening, Clint Wellborn. Fire Chief.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:02:46
“Comments by mayor, council. Comments by mayor, comments by council. Man, what's wrong with you?”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:11:59
“I just want to say thank you to the staff, too. It's been, I think, a difficult month. Y'all have done a very professional job, and I appreciate it. I'd also like to single out Will. You are under no obligation to give any legal advice to anybody else other than council or a staff member. So good job. Thank you for not even acknowledging the question.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026
- Play at 2:12:34
“Thank you. Doesn't surprise me. Nothing else.”
City Council · Sep 1, 2026