Sorry, you're getting just getting called out all over the place. [laughter] Comes in like he owns the place. Good evening and welcome to the regular city council meeting for August 3rd. We will begin as we always do with invocation
and salute by salute to the flag led by Mr. Wagner. Please rise. If you'll bow your heads and open your hearts, as it says in Proverbs 17:17, "A friend loves at all times. They are there to help when trouble comes."
As we come together as a group of representatives of our community, we want to come together in the spirit of friendship that we lean into troubles and we do everything we can in our power and under the Lord's wisdom to make our community better. Whether it's our first
responders, our educators, those that take care of our youth, uh our clinicians, we need everybody to lean in and help guide and learn from his wisdom. For our city council and our city staff, we need to work together as friends because when trouble comes, we
need to make it better. For our residents and our community in your name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it
stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> This meeting is called to order. Madam clerk, roll call. >> Council member Golding here. >> Council member Horn >> here. >> Council member Jansen >> here.
>> Council member Sutton. >> Council member Wagner >> here. >> Council member Waters >> here. Mayor Hoffman >> here. Moving on to approval of minutes. Item A. >> I move to approve the minutes from the council briefing held on July 13th, 2026. >> Second. We have a motion and a second.
Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Approval of the agenda. >> I move we approve the agenda. >> Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Council
announcements. Miss Golding. >> Thank you, Mayor. Um, first of all, I want to uh thank our city staff for uh the great council retreat that we had about a week ago um and for their
participation because I think it really it made it a really good retreat for the audience. We had a retreat focused on how do we improve communications internally and so we had a lot of great discussion with city staff and we they were able to provide us a lot of good
feedback and so again it was a great retreat and I want to thank everyone. Um also want to remind everyone that we've got our budget workshops going on right now. Uh we had our budget tour on Friday. Thank the staff for that as well. That was a I think honestly I
think we saw more things in that budget tour than we've ever seen in previous budget tours. We crammed in a lot in in that time. So um a lot of great work being done by the staff to prepare the budget and then help us understand the
budget as well. We had a budget workshop today and then we will have another workshop tomorrow at 5:30. will be here at city hall and we'll be covering the police department budget, the beaches energy budget, and the parks and wreck budget. And then next Monday, August
10th, at 5:30, we will have public works planning and development and redevelopment, their budgets. We'll be go going over them. um as citizens who pay taxes to the city of Jacksonville Beach and with the uh proposed property tax uh elimination or reduction
amendment, it's really important that citizens understand what what your money is doing in your community. So, I would encourage you to try to come to these budget workshops and so you can better understand what our tax dollars are
doing and before you vote in November on the property tax amendment. And then I also wanted to recognize our Jack Beach Police Department who achieved uh or received Kala accreditation again for
the 10th time. And this marks 31 years that our police department has been accredited um clea accredited and uh it's recognized as a gold standard and they go through a rather intense assessment and they prove that they are
doing things um a as accepted by international standards for public safety. So, it's a it's a huge accomplishment and just want to recognize our police department for for
achieving that again. And then also want to let everyone know that there is going to be a District 2 school board candidate forum uh on Thursday, August 6th at 7 o'clock at the Community Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall and
that's in Atlantic Beach on 150 Sherry Drive. All three of the school board candidates in district two is our district. So, the candidates running for this position will be representing our beaches schools. Um, all three of the
candidates are confirmed and want to remind everybody that early voting does start Friday, August 7th, and goes till Sunday, August 16th. And we have a new early voting site in J Beach that you can actually go to, which is the
community center down near Sunshine Park. Uh, and early voting times are 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 pm. So, we're excited to see hopefully people will take advantage of the new early voting site. And, um, last but not least, well, I
want to mention, everybody knows school is starting August 10th, right? So, boo maybe, right? But, um, just want to remind everyone to be careful because I live really close to the schools and lots of kids will be headed back to school. So, we want everyone to be
mindful of that. Drive carefully, watch for kids. Um, and encourage kids, please wear your bicycle helmets so that you can stay safe. And then last but not least, I want to wish happy birthday. August 5th, we have two people
celebrating birthdays. Councilman Wilders will be celebrating his birthday and our city clerk, Molly Alagher, will be celebrating her birthday on August 5th as well. So, we want to wish them happy birthday and we will not be singing to them.
>> You're welcome. Thank you, Miss Golding. Mr. Jansen. Yeah, I just want to piggy back off of what member Golding said that um I do appreciate the city staff's involvement with uh with the uh city the council retreat and the the budget workshop and
the budget showcase. It was an amazing job. Uh they always do a really good job. Um all of that just to also say that I could not be any more prouder of them as a city administration and our departments because here we are if you live in the city of Jacksonville Beach
you should be proud as well. We are a debt-free city which is almost unheard of in this day and time. Look across the 411 cities across the state of Florida and I doubt you're going to find too many that are debtree. You can probably count them on one hand maybe. Um so
they're doing amazing job. Uh we've rebuilt several city parks from the ground up. We've um increased the size of our police department by 6% and backfilled some attrition. Uh we've got several infrastructure projects that are in place and completed all without
raising the millage rate and all without raising tax taxes. So uh mad applause for our city staff and our city departments. They're doing an amazing job. >> Thank you Mr. Jansen. Mr. Horn, >> thank you very much. Um sorry for the noise there a few minutes ago. You young
people out there in the crowd, this is a pain. So you can ask your parents what that is. Occasionally, you'll still have to have a job as you become an adult where you have to have one of those. So, I apologize for the noise a moment ago. Um, I also apologize to my colleagues for my tardiness this evening, but I did make it to tech clear to the meeting.
Um, I look forward to speaking with Mike about the uh um about the meeting tonight and some uh I will not and I want to let the other staff members and council members know I will not be here tomorrow. I'll be uh uh on the meeting remotely um because myself and several
members of the Volunteer Life Saving Corps as well as um separately several members of the Jackson Beach Ocean Rescue will be traveling to Fort Lauderdale for the United States Life Saving Association National Championships. So, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, we'll be competing in the waters
off of Fort Lauderdale uh for glory and um hopefully no injuries. Uh and thank you very much for being here. Also, I want to say that the showcase we had, just like my u counterparts have said, was amazing. Thank you,
>> Mr. Wilders. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, I appreciate all the comments of my esteemed colleagues and I won't piggyback on anything, but I do want to wish all the students and the educators who
councilman, my friend John mentioned in his invocation quite thoughtfully and a special shout out to the principles Mattingly Brown and Mr. Leadford as they guide our youth through this next year.
And let's all pray for them and let's take Councilman Golding's advice and please be careful of the kids. Good luck to all of y'all. >> Thank you, Mr. Wowers. Um I was asked by the clerk to make an announcement that the door to the bathroom is closed, but it is unlocked. So, if you need to go
there, it's just out uh down the hall. And I wanted to uh welcome back to council chambers one of our former colleagues, Steve Harktoire, who served on the uh Jacksonville Beach City Council for two terms, but I don't remember the years, but
>> six to 14. And we have a seat up here open if you want to. Uh [laughter] we could he can move. And then uh he slipped he slipped in but our former colleague uh who was vice mayor I think it at the end of his term Corey Nichols
has slipped in the back here. Welcome back uh Corey and Steve. Thank you guys for being here and you'll learn why uh Steve is here in just a minute. Um we have a few more items to get through and then we will get to our special presentation. Um but next we have courtesy of the floor to visitors and I
have one speaker card Jennifer Burns. if you want to come up to the podium and uh give us your name and address and you'll have three minutes to address the council. >> Okay. >> Uh Jennifer Burns, address 3929 Grande
Boulevard, check speech over there. Um, I just wanted to discuss and I know it's not on the agenda, the um application number 26-100046, the abandonment of rightway alleyways and things like that behind uh
homeowners behind the houses. Uh, basically that's fine. I I I'm just bringing up because I won't be able to attend the next two meetings and I don't know when you'll have it on the agenda. Um, the public notice was dated July 9th that went out to you know, everyone that was affected by
this. Uh, basically, um, it's the alley behind my house. Anyway, sorry, I'm a little nervous. Um, >> doing great. Uh, I just wanted to um let you guys
know that uh currently we're working with public works because there's some dead or dying trees in that alleyway and we're one of the newer builds. So, the fence
was outside of that easement. You know what I mean? our back fence and then there's the seven feet which I guess will be our responsibility that once this is approved which I don't know you know what meeting that's going to happen at
so I just wanted to state or maybe bring up that public works is still working on that so I just didn't want it to be transferred over to us and here we're dealing with these dead and dying trees that we didn't know the city wasn't looking at or maintaining We we didn't
know that either until the public works guy came out to our house and said, "Oh, no. I've we don't go back there. I've never been there." [laughter] So, I'm not sure what if anything else I need to do. I spoke with somebody at city hall who sent me to public works.
Um I spoke with Patrick Degan at public works. So, is that possible to, you know, keep that ticket open until that's completed? But hand your card to the city manager >> and he will look into it and we'll pass
along your comments to since you're not able to be there whenever it's hurt. >> Yeah. And I don't know when you know you guys will uh when it'll be on the agenda either. I'll keep looking but I won't be in town for the next two. So >> Okay. >> Okay. That's all.
>> That's it. No worries. Thank you. >> Thank you. And that's my stuff >> Stephopoulos. Yep. >> Could you turn the microphone off? Sorry. Thank you. Okay, that was our only uh courtesy of the floor. So now, in case you're
wondering why there's so much pink in the room, we are really really excited to welcome the >> Just kidding. God looks excited. >> Moving on to consent agenda. >> I move we approve [laughter] the consent agenda.
>> Second. We have a motion, a second. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed? Consent agenda passes. Okay. Now, all the pink in the room is because we have the twotime world champion Infinity Allstars Royal Cheerleading Team. And we're so excited
to have you. Can we get some cheers? So, I'm going to read a proclamation and then we are going to get to see the award-winning uh performance and uh and then Mr. Horn has learned the
performance and has offered to give his No, you can do it after or you if you want to do it along with the video, you can do that. [laughter] >> You need to get a bow in your hair though. That's a required uniform. Okay. Whereas Infinity Allstars Cheerleading
located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida is the longest standing all-star cheerleading program in Northeast Florida. And whereas most of these athletes have trained within the Infinity Allstars program for many years, dedicating them dedicating themselves to growth both as athletes
and young women. And whereas their journey reflects the values of the program. The values the program strives to instill loyalty, perseverance, discipline, and commitment. And whereas the Infinity Allstars Royals won their first world championship title in 2019.
And whereas competing in one of the largest and most competitive competitive divisions at the USAF World's Championship, the team rose above 32 elite teams to claim their second world's title in 2026 through exceptional performance, teamwork, and
determination. And now, therefore, I, Christine H. Hoffman, mayor of the city of Jacksonville Beach, do here brought here hereby proclaim August 3rd, 2026 as Infinity Allstars Royals Day in Jacksonville Beach and encourage all residents to join in recognizing and
celebrating this accomplishment in our community. Congratulations. All right, let's roll the tape. Our next she is from Florida. Here to close out competition at extra small senior limited level six representing
Cheersport. These are the Royals of Infinity Allstars. [cheering] [screaming] You got this. [cheering] Let's go. [cheering] [screaming] >> Are in the building now. EVERYONE
REMEMBER the show respect OR YOU WILL MEET THE house for YOUR GIRLS PRESER CLASH MY GROUND. YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T COMPARE to this war. Hurry up another
pay attention. If you're a peasant, we go bless you. We got we got jackets. We got rings. CALL IT TRASH. >> Please don't. [screaming] [music] Everybody knows where they glitter and gold.
We're proud unable. >> It's our time to serve. Giving all username. We don't bow. WE RIGHT ON OUR HEAD. WE RUN THE COURT. NO SHAME. ROYAL. Feel the music. GET LIKE ME UP LIKE A
DUCK. LET'S see how long you can go. THAT THING. WE TOOK LIKE ZERO NOT IN THE hell we know we supreme WITH A CROWN ON OUR HEAD BUT WE LIVE ON OUR DREAMS WE RUN SO respect the NAMES
ROYALS ROYALS we all royal divas to THE >> TRIPLE CROWN DADDY WITH A PINK MINDSET IN my pink LIVES MATTER I DON'T WANT
TO THE QUEEN. I'm the throne [music] of the skies. Our kingdom will rise. The crown is eternal. I am forever explain the power the rain
belongs to us everywhere. We came up. >> Give it up for the Royals of Infinity All Stars. [screaming] Bill, did
>> I'm gonna need Councilman Jansen, [laughter] our city manager, and maybe Councilman Wers and possibly a police officer to help you with a couple of these moves, but uh I think we'll get it. >> That was absolutely incredible. Did you guys know you hit it? Like, did you know you had it at the end of that performance? That was that was really
incredible. And I just watched enough of it earlier today to make sure it was going to work. So to watch the whole thing all together, the stamina and the enthusiasm that you guys have to keep up that whole time is just so impressive coming from a marching band girl. Really, really impressive. So, all
right, let's come up for a picture. Steve, is this who I buy poinsettas from every year? Is this who I buy poinsettas from every year? Okay. >> Thank you. >> They do beautiful poinsettas at Christmas time. Do you want to come over and um speak
with the city clerk? >> I tried to get them to stay for the meeting, but [laughter] >> it's okay. They're excited. >> Oh, were you here with them? >> I love it. Isy gonna do some
>> Yeah, Corey. Let's see. He's been uh line dancing. >> Lot of line dancing. >> Good to see you. Okay, everybody ready? >> We will move on to our um resolution. Do
we have a presentation or do we even need a presentation? We've talked about this a few times in briefing. Miss Nelson, >> I'll be brief. Karen Nelson, deputy city manager. Um, as the mayor said, we have talked about this in some detail at a
council briefing. We also talked about it at the budget tour on Friday afternoon. Uh, but this resolution will formally adopt the branding design for the life savings station. We do have some graphics. Uh, attachment A is the official building logo, the life saving
station logo. Um, and then there are there's one design for each of the four elevations. The south side, the east side will have uh will be adding both logos, the JBR logo on the left and the VLSC logo on the right and then the west
side will be home of Jacksonville Beach Ocean Rescue. Mike, if you wouldn't mind going back just to to the east elevation. I think we we kind of passed by that one. Uh on the east, I'm sorry, south. On the south side, we will be adding the word since 1912 to home of
the volunteer life saving corps. Uh we also have representing VLSC tonight, Ryan Carish. And I think Ryan would like to say a couple of words. >> Have to say it in the form of a cheer though. That's >> Oh, yeah. Um Ryan Carish, captain of the
volunteer life saving corp. Um thank you guys so much for uh voting on this tonight. It means a lot to everybody at the lifeguard station to have the building in full display for all the beachgoers to actually know what that building is. Um, I will say this past
weekend in conjunction with Ocean Rescue, uh, they had six towers on the beach plus the PEG and the Volunteer Life Saving Corps had eight towers on the beach. So, we, uh, are continuing to step up our efforts to provide as much
coverage as we can. Um, so, this is just one more step in the direction that we'd all like to see. Thank you uh to the council for your support as well as the city uh behind the scenes. I I really appreciate that. So, thank you.
>> Thank you. That's awesome. Okay. Any Are we done? >> We're done. >> Okay. Did I already do a motion? >> Nope. >> Not yet. >> Okay. Motion. [laughter] >> I move to adopt resolution number 2219-2026 establishing the official logo and branding design for the Jacksonville Beach Life Saving Station.
>> Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam clerk, roll call. >> Council member Golding, >> yes. >> Council member Horn, >> yes. >> Council member Jansen, >> yes. >> Council member Wagner, >> yes. >> Council member Wowers, >> yes. >> Mayor Hoffman,
>> yes. Motion carries. >> Uh, Mr. Met, would you like to present the next item? >> Certainly. So, this is the ordinance regarding the pause dog park that came up at uh April
briefing. Um, but actually I will not be presenting it because I'm going to have our legal intern uh present it before he comes up here. I'd like to briefly introduce him. Uh we we are fortunate that we applied for and received a grant from the Florida Bar uh 100% of what we
asked for. Uh we were able to get a summer intern uh this year. Um Nick Chanerys is entering the second year of law school this fall at the University of Florida 11 College of Law which is consistently ranked as the best law school in Florida. Uh the one of the top
law schools in the entire country. They have a lot of really really good alumni. Um I can think of one specifically right now. Um but it's been a great experience. And when this came in in in April, um originally it was on a slower pace and I thought this would be a great
project for Mr. Chenerys to work on and also expedite it. Uh it seemed like council was on board from the start. So my apologies if you all expected this to come back at another briefing, but we we fasttracked it. And with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Cher to make a presentation and then of course mayor
will also follow the standard procedure for ordinances. Thank you. Thank you all and a big thank you to the city of Jacksonville Beach for hosting me this summer. It's been a great experience. Um before you unite on first
reading is ordinance number 2026 8239 which would amend section 20-15 of the code of ordinances governing Paws dog park. The amendment arose like Mr. Mad said from the April 13th city council briefing where council member Golding
brought up an incident of animal cruelty at a nearby dog park and noted that the current code contains no provision which would allow the city to exclude individuals uh who commit such acts from the dog park. So, the proposed amendment addresses the gap by adding a subsection
C, which would allow the city to deny, revoke, suspend park membership from anyone convicted of or being investigated for animal cruelty. Uh, it also establishes a discretionary path for reinstatement that's contingent on completing animal cruelty prevention
education course. Uh, the requested action is approval of the ordinance on first reading with the second reading scheduled for August 17th. >> Thank you. If you want to hang tight in case we have any questions, u madam clerk, will you read the ordinance by title? >> An ordinance of the city of Jacksonville
Beach, Florida, amending chapter 20, section 20-15, pause dog park of the code of ordinances to add a se a new subsection C authorizing the denial, suspension, or revocation of membership for certain
persons investigated for or convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses. providing for enforcement, codification, repeal of conflicts, severability, and an effective date. And a motion. I move we approve ordinance number 20
26-8239 on the first reading amending chapter 20 section 20-15 policy dog park of the code north code of ordinances to add a new subsection C authorizing the denial suspension or revocation of membership
for certain persons investigated for or convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses and schedule a second reading for August 17th 2026 >> second we have a motion in a second. Any discussion? Miss Golding.
>> Um, thank you so much and thank you for all that you did as an intern. It's wonderful that you were able to to be here and work with David. I'm sure it was a good experience. I'm sure he kept you laughing too probably. Yeah. Um, and thank you David
for your support on this as well as Jason because um, you know, 20 years ago when the dog park was first opened, we never contemplated anything like this because you know the dog park is a place where it's fun, right? And people and
dogs are having a good time. But uh when this incident happened at the at our neighboring dog park, it was um it was actually rather eye opening and I reached out to Jason and said, "Hey, do we have a way to handle situations like
this?" And it's sad that we have to add this to our code, but I'm glad that we're doing it and I hope we don't have to use it. >> Thank you, Miss Golding. Mr. Wowers. Thank you, mayor. I'm not sure if is it
Mr. Chindress, >> Chinerys? >> I'm sorry. Anyway, uh who adjudicates this? Would that be the the director of parks? >> This would be up to the city manager. >> Oh, okay. And because I was just curious where it says like if there were an
unfounded accusation, it says investigated for or convicted. Would would that preclude them from using it if there was an unfounded accusation? It would be up to the city manager's discretion. This was written intentionally to allow for uh
investigation, not just conviction, to give the city manager that power because um the incident that gave rise to this was, as Council Member Golding said, viral video. So here, if such a horrible thing were to happen at pause, uh the city manager could take immediate action.
>> Well, I love animals as much as anyone in this room, so I'm glad we're doing this, but I just wanted to understand it. Thank you. Mr. Horn. >> Um, I'll throw this out there just to the day to see if there's um I thought about this over the weekend and I was
planning on sending this through to um Mr. Megan this morning and then my day got away from me. Um I was tempted to put in the words uh persons uh investigated for convicted of animal cruelty or related offenses or crimes against minors
and crimes against minors. Everybody on the desk might know my and again I just kind of I think you can um persons who are cruel to animals or cruel to minors or have crimes against
minors. Kind of the same thought. I don't know if there's any um uh anybody on maybe this might be a stretch. I see a couple of perplex looks. I don't know. You all know my feelings about anybody minors and things like that. I think they can all burn and
I know I'm on the camera say I don't care. Um just a thought anybody >> I turned my switch on >> Mr. Jansen. >> Um I would I would lean on uh Mr. Mega to see if there was a nexus for that or
not. Um I I hear what you're saying for sure, but I think we'd almost have to draw a nexus of some sort for a legal challenge. Yes. >> So, you took the actual word that popped in my brain about 30 seconds ago to so either kudos to you or or we're both way
off, but yeah, I'm concerned about about the it being related. Uh my initial thought when you know when you just brought this up is my suggestion is let's continue with this ordinance uh because there's no reason why we couldn't further amend it in the very
near future. Um, but you know, it would take some research. It would delay this ordinance. Um, if if council wants to explore that further, we'd be we'd be happy to look at it, but maybe not cause that to, >> like I said, I literally did not have the chance to bring this up to you earlier today, so I apologize. And uh,
no, I'm I'm okay with that because long as we have the opportunity in the future, >> Mr. Jansen, >> did you >> Yeah. So, I just off off that topic. Um, I just want to say thank you for uh your uh expertise and and uh Matt props uh
once again to our city attorney for diving into an internship program. Uh I worked at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office for 28 years and at one point I was in charge of the cold case unit and I did reach out to UNF to see if we could get some interns to come in there
because they have a college of criminal law which we able to establish that program and it was funded as well. So, uh, I think that's awesome for our city and awesome for, uh, the opportunity for you persons just like yourself to to take advantage of it. So, so thank you
and thank you, uh, city attorney. >> I'll echo the comments. Thank you for your service to our city this summer and congratulations on being smart enough to choose the University of Florida. And I'll just leave it with go Gators. Any other comments? Madam Clerk, roll call.
>> Council member Horn. >> Yes. Council member Jansen, >> yes. >> Council member Wagner, >> yes. >> Council member Waters, >> yes. >> Council member Golding, >> yes. >> Mayor Hawkman, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Double gator. >> A double gator, no less. I just got that
news. Even smarter. All right. Um, seeing no other business, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> I move we adjourn. >> Second. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Any post?