--------- ladies and gentlemen thank you for uh for being here with us today uh we're going to it's 3:00 on my clock Although our wall clock is about 6 minutes behind Mr County administrators we need to fix that and my computer here says 3:21 so I'm hoping it's 3:00 uh thank you all
for being here we're going to get this uh regular meeting of the Leon County Board of County Commissioners underway uh we are going to start off with our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance and I will hand it off to uh my vice chair
uh commissioner caban to introduce our guests good afterno afternoon everyone it is my pleasure to introduce Miss Angel Carter from Bible uh Believers Church um Miss Carter is a church
pianist and she's in charge of the leadership of women's Ministries and conferences where she's just her gift to nurture and Inspire the church Community she is known amongst our community out in Fort Braden the highway 20 and at bible Believers for her warm encouraging demeanor and her ability to connect uh
all church members from all ages so thank you for being here miss Carter all right thank you for this honor heavenly father I want to start off today by thanking you first of all for loving the world enough to send your precious son to die for each and every one of us in this room I pray that you'd guide my steps with wisdom and all of our steps
and may I be like the Proverbs 31 Woman Guided by your wisdom and discernment and all my decisions and actions Lord Empower me with your strength and Grace and help me to always work diligently to be resourceful and to manage my time and resources mind um wisely and I pray that you'd help me to always strive to be a
blessing may my actions and words be a sour of comfort and encouragement to all around me my family and the people in our church Lord and I pray Lord that you'd strengthen my faith help me to cultivate a strong faith in others help me to seek your guidance and rely on your promises help me to be a strong
woman or powerful prayer always Lord and I pray that I may always be a woman who prays in your power and seeks to glorify you in all that I say and do may be be a woman of undeniable Integrity a woman who is trustworthy and honest always reflecting the proverbs 31 woman's character may I be a woman of wisdom who
speaks not only wisely but also giving faithful instructions to those around me may I be a woman of heartfelt praise to you Lord and help me to give honor with my life as I live daily help others to always see you in me and I may I never take for granted that you holy God chose
me to be a daughter a sister an aunt a mother a grandmother and above all a daughter of the king of kings bless every single person in this room today Lord I pray that you'd help us to all re um strive to daily bless others around us and may you be honored by all we see and do today and every day of our life
in your name I pray amen amen thank you Miss Carter uh stand for the pledge please I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with
liberty and justice for all thank you Mr Vice chair uh commissioners great to see everybody hope hope it's been a a good month or however long it's been since I've seen you all last um we've got quite a few Awards and presentations and
proclamations uh this afternoon so uh at this time I would like to recognize commissioner Cummings uh for a proclamation recognizing March 2025 as women's History Month
yeah uh anyone here on behalf of that Proclamation can join join commissioner Cummings at the at the podium okay some people can come on this side awesome awesome thank you all for being here and
it's certainly my pleasure and honor to present this Proclamation and recognition of March as women history month so who wants to hold you okay okay I'll let you hold it
while I read the proclamation and it goes whereas throughout history extraordinary women of every race class and ethnic background have made countless significant contributions to the growth
and strength of our County State and nation and whereas through leadership Innovation and Ingenuity generations of women have played and continue to play critical economic cultural and social roles as a significant portion of the
labor force outside and inside the home and where whether serving in elected positions Across America leading groundbreaking civil rights movements venturing into unknown Frontiers or programming revolutionary Technologies
generations of women were keenly aware that their genda was not an obstacle to what they could accomplish women have stirred new ideas opened new doors and have had a profound and positive impact
on our country whereas despite their contributions the role of women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in many areas including literature education and culture and
whereas we honor and celebrate the victories of countless trailblazing women and commit to work with them to build a society where our daughters have the possibilities the same possibilities as our sons and whereas the Oasis Center
for Women and girls the Tallahasse Leon County Commission on the status of women and girls and many other organizations work locally to make the invisible history of women and girls visible and
whereas in 2025 in honor of several women and groups who have worked to make Leon County great special recognition is being given to the contributions of Miss
Kathleen a The Honorable Nikki an Clark Mrs tiia Edwards Mrs curan Jones Wilson Mrs Carla Reed Miss Katrina tuggerson Miss hassini
yogala and the volares now therefore be it proclaimed that the board of County commissioners of Leon County Florida hereby recognized the month of March
2025 as women's History Month in honor and celebration of the significant contributions that women have made to leyon County dated this 18th day of March 2025 and is signed by our commission
chair Mr briyan Welch all the other Commissioners and it's attested to by our great County Administrator thank you congratulations to all of you we're so proud of all the work that you all
do is anybody well let's see do we want the Commissioners to speak first and then hear from the women the women okay thank you commissioner attorney Glenda Thorn hello everyone I'm Glenda
Thornton and I'm privileged to serve as the president of the board of directors of the oasa Center for Women and girls and I'm proud to live in a community where our leaders recognize the contribution of women especially in today's time when our contributions are
not only being ignored but in some cases erased and in other cases not even mentioned we need to do this not just for us but because our girls are watching us and we need to do it for them to let them know that what they do matters and
is important and we want to celebrate them so thank you very much good afternoon and thank you for having us here today I'm Dr Adela gimi and I have the privilege of serving in my second year as the chair of the Tallahassee Leon County Commission on
the status of women and girls and as the chair of the cswg I'm honored to to lead this group of dynamic women that are working hard to identify challenges that impact women and girls in our community and so that we can craft policy-driven solutions that can create lasting
systemic change women's history month is a time to reflect on how far we've come and how much work remains we celebrate the Trailblazers who fought for the rights and opportunities we have today but we must also acknowledge that progress is fragile the status of women and girls around the world remains
tenuous recent events have shown us just how easily Decades of hard one and empowerment and protection for women can be rolled back and yet despite unimaginable struggle and suffering we've also seen astonishing courage and resilience women have always LED at all
levels in every place across time it is to those that came before us we owe our deepest gratitude because of them we're able to be here today leading and shaping the future and because of them we refuse to be silenced and let history be erased or Rewritten to diminish our
contributions because we are still Rising their sacrifices courage and unwavering commitment to Justice laid the foundation for progress and we carry their legacy forward the rights of women and marginalized communities continue to be challenged but we will remain on the front lines and we will not be silenced
we know that investing in women and girls isn't just the right thing to do it's the smart thing to do and we know that research shows that when we Empower women through education political leadership Reproductive Rights and economic opportunities entire communities and economies flourish so
today let us take a moment to honor the women in our lives and recommit ourselves to building a future we investing in the women and girls of our community is not just an act of justice but a Cornerstone of smart policy a future where every woman and girl has the opportunity to thrive we'll continue
to uplift women's voices advocate for policies that protect our rights and fight for a future where every woman has access to Economic Security Quality Health Care education and freedom to live without the fear of gender-based violence vience alongside my fellow cswg
Commissioners and our dedicated elected officials we will continue to push forward ensuring that Tass and Leon County remain a gold standard for women's Excellence resilience and progress thank you and happy women's history month thank you all right y all they going to take a
couple pictures of you so yall get close there come need you to hold it Gabby Gabby come around right here you want us to come up I can't see the camera to come up let come
up Katrina trying to hide I'm pinch I know yeah but I just like do what to be for anybody it's just like I can hide people all right thank you all so much thank you wait wait wait I don't know
say are you good um Commissioners I would be remiss if I did not uh acknowledge um the important role that our own uh our own uh like our den mother um commissioner Cummings plays on on this dis and how much we
value uh her leadership in this organization and also our uh our County attorney and all of the females within our Leon County government and all of the capability and expertise and everything they bring to our
organization so um thank you madam immediate chair uh immediate past chair uh all right we're going to move on to our second Proclamation this one's commissioner Maddox recognize oh I'm sorry commissioner Miner you want to say a few words yes pleas you don't mind sure thank you Mr chair I listen I I just wanted to thank everybody for being
here for women's History Month uh I must admit in my 20s uh as a young man I didn't quite understand the importance of designating a month like like this month at for women's history but um uh as many of you know I Married an incredible woman
uh she has served as vice president of the National League of Women Voters and I also uh with her have raised uh are raising two incredibly uh amazing young daughters and so I live in a house with three women uh my life is better because
of it I constantly hear um the importance of women power and girl power and um how many girl dads do we have in here by the way any girl dads yeah we knew girls are the best right um I wanted to I wanted to thank all of you
for being here uh showing our young daughters are our Our Girls uh that we need to have respect for the historical background that that women play uh in the country in leyon county is very important and so thank you for being
here very proud of Leon County for designating women's history month thank you Mr chairman thank you commissioner Miner all right commissioner Maddox uh uh to uh uh give a proclamation recognizing March 2025 as multiple sclerosis awareness month if there's
anybody here to stand with commissioner Maddox please join him at the podium whereas multiple sclerosis is a neurological disease of the central nervous system affecting nearly 1 million people in the United States alone and whereas multiple scoris
generally strikes people in the prime of Life between ages 20 through 50 and the cause and course of the of often dehabitation symptoms of MS remain unknown and no cure currently exist and
whereas the Multiple Sclerosis Society is committed to a world free of Ms heighten heightening public knowledge about the insights into the disease and whereas together we have transformed what it means to live with MS and
provided Global Leadership to help achieve our vision of a world free of Ms and whereas since 1946 the national MS Society has been a driving force of MS research relentlessly pursuing
prevention treatments in a cure and has invested more than 1 billion in groundbreaking research and whereas funding uh whereas funds raised through the MS Society National MS Society fuel research on Pathways to Ms cures and
invest in the MS research Workforce at the best medical centers universities and other institutions throughout the US and abroad leading to many uh breakthroughs in the treatment of Ms and where as the mission of the national MS
Society is to cure Ms while empowering people affected by Ms to live their best lives and one all Americans and Floridians should support and whereas Leon County recognized the importance of finding the cause and cure of Ms and expresses its appreciation for the
dedication that the national MS Society North Florida Chapter and the Big Ben Tallahassee Ms group has shown towards creating a world free of Ms now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of Leon County Commissioners Leon County Florida that the month of March 2025
being known as National Ms awareness month we encourage all residents of Leon County to learn more about Ms and what they can do to to support individuals with MS and their families this assigned by the chair as well as well as the rest of the commission and attested to by the
County Administrator congratulations thank you all thank you commissioner madx uh thank you to commissioner madx and the rest of the County Commissioners for this Proclamation recognizing March as Ms awareness month this is more than a declaration it's a powerful reminder
that we are seen heard and supported in our fight against Ms as many of you know or hopefully you know this past Saturday we hosted our Tallahasse big Benin Walky way event at the North Florida fairgrounds where the over 500 Warriors living with Ms our families and friends
in the Big Bend were able to come together to walk fund raise and show that we are stronger together and we are grateful and thankful to the over 100 volunteers sponsors vendors and participants that celebrated with us the
energy resilience and sense of unity at our walk event provided that we are taking a step to bring more awareness and visibility to Ms in our community but awareness alone isn't enough we would love to turn this recognition into action bringing critical funding and
resources back into Leon County to directly support those living with Ms as an MS Ambassador I recognize the potential and growth that we have in our community whether that is research opportunities healthare forums or particip excuse me Partnerships with our
local universities I know we can do more last year I founded a nonprofit on my nerves Incorporated dedicated to creating a safe space for our MS Community to Thrive through advocacy education research fundraising and the creation of local programming so that we
can continue to host more community-led events like our walk our goal is to bridge the gaps in care provide essential support and ensure that no one in our community faces this disease alone so this Proclamation strengthens our mission but the real work continues
in our communities in our policies and in our support we extend every day so on behalf of our growing organization the tlh MS group all my nerves Incorporated and everyone impacted by Ms thank you for standing with us let's keep walking
advocating and fighting because Ms ends with us thank you all right thank you so much commissioner Maddox uh you are next up to honor um coach lard Hamilton for 22 years of service of the FSU basketball
team I would like to call my fellow bethelite commissioner as well as uh commissioner Proctor because commissioner Proctor last week leaned over to me at last meeting said hey you going to ask for that Proclamation yeah so come on come
down coach n you you can't come you can't come not yet not yet Co what y'all don't know is coach is a is a homeboy of mine we he's from Gastonia North Carolina and I was born in Shelby North Carolina which is about
30 minutes apart uh so I know know a good bit about where this young man is from uh coach didn't know I was a I was a guard I was a better point guard than you though bill so I know you better but coach need to know I did play guard help him oh my goodness um coach
congratulations Proclamation reads whereas Leonard H Hamilton is a native of Gastonia North Carolina and and been his coaching career at Austin P uh State University as a graduate assistant ultimately moving to a full-time
assistant from 1974 I mean sorry 1973 to 1974 and whereas L Leonard Hamilton began his tenure as head basketball coach at Florida State University in 2002 and is now the most successful
coach in Florida State history having 404 wins he is the semo's alltime winningest coach in the fifth alltime winning his coach in ACC history with 404 wins whereas coach Lon Hamilton's most
honored accomplishments include honor uh honors championships and prize recognitions he is proud of Florida State and uh he is a he is proud of Florida State enjoying the best year in the classroom in 2023 the semal earned a
team grade point average of 3.16 the highest during coach Hamilton's 21-year career and the highest in the history of the program you may applaud for that as well and whereas coach lonard Hamilton has been recognized throughout his career
and inducted into seven athletic Halls of fames and named as an alumnist of Distinction by Gaston College where during his college career set a School record by scoring 54 points in a game and whereas coach lonard Hamilton in his
23 years of dedicated service and unwavering commitment to Excellence has emerged emerged one of the winningest B coaches in the country guiding countless athletes to success and molding them into not only skilled players but also
exemplary individuals in whereas coach Hamilton's commitment to Excellence has earned him the the respect and admiration of his peers players and fans inspiring future generations to strive for greatness both on and off the court
in whereas his incredible achievements and Leadership has solidified his legacy as one of the greatest to ever lead a basketball team not only in win in wins but also in character and in art now therefore be it proclaimed by the board
of County Commissioners in Leon County Florida that we recognize and honor coach L Leonard Hamilton for his unparalleled accomp accomplishments his legacy of excellence and tremendous impact on the Florida State University basketball program in the community from
2002 to 2025 let this day serve as a tribute to to his dedication leadership and remarkable influence on the world of basketball this is signed by the chair as well as wrest commission and tested to by the County Administrator congratulations
coach thank you um Mr um commissioner madx um quickly uh coach Hamilton uh shot 54 points in a game and I just want everybody to know for the public record that I I had a double
digit average too uh I I average 5.4 points a game that's two D two double dig 5.4 points a game in the ninth grade uh season so but coach never gave me a chance to try out you know for guard and
I had a lot uh going on secondly I like to say that this is my first time ever seen this coach in courthouse and it uh underscores the point of what uh commissioner madok said the High character and when you have a coach
who's who's played a rather who's coached for 22 season and you've not seen that coach in this building to see about his players he's done a hell of a job let's give him another hand and finally um I want want to make
sure uh coach I don't think ever told you but I said suggested to president Thrasher that you were in the wrong position at Florida State and that uh when a cumulative uh record of all of
his coaching years uh he has graduated over 90% of his players and I suggest the president Thrasher that you should be provos and not the basketball coach to get all the graduation up to where you are at over 90% And when you find or you
won't find another coach who takes in people's children sons and graduate 90% plus that's a fantastic record please let's applaud one more time I don't think it's good to give a basketball coach a
microphone you know s them like this sometimes we don't know when to shut up so I'm going to try to keep this brief uh I have tried to avoid the courthouse no doubt about that but I do consider it an honor and a pleasure to have the opportunity to have invited for
this recognition but more than anything else I think it's been a privilege for me to represent not only FSU the Leon County Tallahasse Community uh I've taken that responsibility seriously and uh we my family and I
we've enjoyed uh this community and hopefully as we ride on into the sunset that we can be a little bit more involved uh in the community in some way shape or form so if y'all got anything in mind just kind of uh send it to my trusty
assistant over here Karen she's she keeps me straight uh but as as I sit here though and look at the monitors and I see the recognition that you are recogniz especially
the month of March being recognition of women and and girls you know I I real I was taken back and I realized how important what you guys do in in this community um you you're almost like
basketball coaches taking care of of all the people in the community and I got to uh I got to recognize you for a job well done just looking at the different programs you have and looking at uh how important
U what you do for all of us in our community I want to tell you how much I appreciate it because I I know how hard it has been uh if you can imagine uh these days it's not easy uh to with all the distractions especially
we have uh to get everything right and I I want to applaud you for all your hard work and your dedication and the time that you all spend trying to make sure that everything runs smooth in our Cy so thank you very much um I won't be long
bill bill is U snatch me on the coat here I went to a funeral once and I talked so long they start playing music and and I thought they wanted me to sing so I started singing and every the church start singing with me I didn't
know they saying shut sit down and shut up so I'm not going to put y'all in that situ situation but I want to thank you so much for for the privilege of being here and being exposed to what you're doing I'm going to start just dropping by CU this is really heartwarming and uh
to realize all the hard work you guys do I've enjoyed my my career especially here in in Tallahassee and I hope that I can continue to be of of some significance in the community as I ride on into the sunset which I don't think
you called it the sunset I'm just going to take a little pause here then I might be down here beating on the desk like everybody else thank You' all very much I want to say something real fast Mr chair just very briefly uh I agree
with everything that has been said about Coach Hamilton he's such an humble Spirit but I just want to congratulate him for all his successes at FSU the ACC Champions
championships uh but I also know he and his wife as my fellow parisher for the last 20-some years we set handshakes from each other at the church uh when
he's in town he and his wife are at church so not only is he a great basketball coach but he has a great heart he's a a great Christian and he gives back to the community as well so I
want to just congratulate him and wish him God speed in the next phase of his career because it's not over congratulations coach what can I say yeah Mr M you want
to say anything or yeah yeah yeah all right thank you'all so much uh commissioner Maddox you got some something else one more thing I I made some comments but what I wanted to say was that you know we are very fortunate here in Leon County if you think about
it um we've had the privilege of having uh some of the best athletes come through here that will ever play the game and the sport that they played in but along with that we've had the privilege to have some of the best coaches and I'm not just talking about in one sport you got L Leonard Hamilton
in basketball you got Bobby Bal in football you know you got you know we are we had a we had an Allstar in our in our volleyball program softball you know all these sports are led by people human beings who care about the players that
they get to coach and have long sustaining careers that turn into legacies that will never be replicated in time and we get the opportunity to recognize what they what they do for us and here for here for the students that come through Leon County and happen to
play sports don't let it Rush by you that a legend a legend of a basketball coach took the time from his busy schedule to come to the Leon County courthouse and the County Commission Chambers to AC accept a proclamation
from this Commission this isn't a guy who just you know we we just recognizing this is a guy who has coached at the highest of highest of levels of basketball who was humble enough to come here and talked about how much he loved
Leon County and how much he appreciated the work that Leon County does for our citizens and for the people that play for him and so coach thank you for your humility but most of all let us all think about In This Moment the
coaches in the time that they put into those players and how those players go on to become productive members of society not only here in Leon County but across the world thank you co absolutely another thing one last thing Mr chair and I know
it's not appropriate at this time but I just want coach Hamilton to know that during commission time I will raise the issue with the entire uh Board of County Commissioners that we sent a letter of support to the president of f FSU to
name the sports complex at the Civic Center the Leonard Hamilton FSU Sports Complex thank you m Mr chairman all the rules have been broken
by I'm just swaye you know wrongdoing sometimes attracts you coach Hamilton going to have to come pull on your coat commissioner Brer well long as the organ don't start I won't start thank um I think that um I've asked
um uh coach Hamilton the pressure of coaching in front of um your pastor and Reverend Holmes sits directly behind coach Hamilton at all the home games and I've asked Rend Holmes about
the vocabulary of the coaching and what does he hear but he has never said that he's heard any you know in erent Word uh anything that couldn't be said in Sunday school for accommodations R Mahomes be right there behind him but that's a lot
of pressure to go coach with the pastor behind you listening I wanted to um indicate um I had bought this picture in and it shows um in today's newspaper coach Hamilton and the new coach uh how
you say his last name what's his name LS LS uh coach Luke LS and it's significant that multiple years ago the new coach was coached by the current coach and the
passing of the torch in Baton uh generates a headline that says we are family which means that to the credit of this great coach development of those players that his successor is actually one he taught so coach I'm not good at
this but uh just for the record I would publicly ask you you please autograph this picture just for me thank you very much did we get a picture get a picture all right um we've got commissioner Proctor you
got a couple proclamations whenever you're ready uh after you get your autograph coach Hamilton I just wanted to say I wanted to uh number one I want to say commissioner o'keef and I admire your hairstyle thank you for rocking it like that um and secondly I think
commissioner Maddox made a very poignant commentary and that is Leon County in Tallahassee has a way of capturing you okay and when you look at coach Bowen and you look at coach Martin and yourself and Coach graph at softball and
and and that Legacy that we have of these long tenur coaches in Leon County I think it speaks to the nature of our community in a way that is extremely understandable for most people in a business that is increasingly jaded and increasingly uh Mo you know
fluid you have managed to stay for a long time in a community that has embraced you and that you have embraced and we are just so proud of everything you've done and want you to know that your legacy in Leon County is profound and cemented forever and we are glad you
chose 22 years ago to come here I know you spent some time in Miami I think like a lot of people you made a good choice you came North and you planted you planted your roots here uh and we're glad you're here we hope you stay here and we continue to look forward to everything you're going to do in the community so thank you again all right
commissioner Proctor you are up to recognize miss Karen Woodall for her Decades of community advocacy Miss Woodall if you please join us if Miss Woodall coach ham I I I asked uh Sheriff Gilmore was did your handwriting look
like chicken scratch and she said no it looks like a million dooll autograph that's what she said Miss what how are you doing I am so excited uh I'm so honored um to have the singular privilege of presenting to you on behalf
of our Board of County Commissioners this Proclamation today um it reads whereas a native Floridian Karen Woodall graduated from Florida State University with degrees in Psychology Social Work
Community organizing and government featuring social welfare policy development and whereas Karen served as executive director of Florida impact from 1980 through 1990 a Statewide organization sponsored by Mainline
Protestant denomination and Jewish federations working on social and economic justice issues and whereas in 18 Excuse Me 1986 I humbly apologize that's why they gave you know
big writing for me and you have the proclamation right here um in 1986 87 an immersed in Florida's Antiquated tax structure Karen Woodall served on a state commission that examined and recommended adopting a
sales tax on services and from 1990 to 97 Miss Woodall worked as an independent contractor continuing work on social and economic justice issues with organizations throughout Florida and whereas Karen Woodall served on the
farmw work advisory counselor under Governor Bob Graham the state wages board we need to put your back on the state wages board the kid care coordinating Council chair the Statewide Health and Human Services Board and the district 2 HHS board was a
founding member of the commission on the status of women and the Commissioner of Agriculture bom worker advisory Council and whereas in 2007 Miss woodall's advocacy led her to co-found and direct the Florida Center for fiscal and
economic policy and in 2015 she founded the Florida people's advocacy Advocacy Center as part of the FCF she continues to direct this organization in Florida Pack and whereas
Karen Woodall continues to work on contracts with the Southern Poverty Law Center Earth Justice Sierra Club and Latina Institute Florida supporting policies and programs that protect and
ensure the treatment of others as met with dignity and respect now therefore be it proclaimed by lean County Board of County Commissioners that we honor miss Karen Woodall for more than 46 years of
advocating to improve the lives of women children seniors migrant and seasonal Farm Workers immigrants refugees and other vulner vulnerable populations dated this 18th day of March
2025 it's signed by our County Commissioners attested to by County Administrator and Karen we say to you um we appreciate you and in this month of women's um history we share this Proclamation God bless you
but you don't want my autograph oh you don't have a picture just kidding just kidding thank you very much um thank you for commissioner Proctor and and all of you for this um you know I'm a big believer in none of us do anything on our own it
truly does take a village and I've been blessed to have a wonderful Village around me all of my life and um working now with young people and getting them trained to take over and and really you
know bring all this change to being and um we just look forward to leaning into the belief that um we must be the change that we want to see in the world so thank you very much I appreciate this
and thank you for all the work that you do and helping us to make those changes all right thank you Miss Woodall uh commissioner Miner and commissioner o'keef and everybody okay thank you Mr chair
um Karen Woodall if I am ever on the other side of an issue from you I it's something I always have to question myself on hard I'm lucky to not often be on that position so I also know that um often you are the person leading the way
dragging uh sometimes this body often others Kicking and Screaming into the future um to do the right thing and to make progress and I invite you to drag that Proclamation and wave it in our face every time you are having trouble getting us follow your lead um to make
progress for justice for people in our community commiss Miner thank you Mr chairman you know about 20 years ago um I would um spend some time up at the capital in in the house on the house side and and I I believe that's the first time I met Karen Woodall and uh
she was there to talk about to fight for uh KidCare program funding and I specifically remember funding for the KidCare Outreach which was something that was is really important and you know the hardest job in this town is to be a lobbyist and fight for those folks
who don't have a lot of money to pay you um so you have to use facts you have to be persuasive you have to use arguments that are sound and incredibly strong in order to in some cases for people to do the right thing uh but Karen has always been particularly Adept at doing that
even though her clients can't afford to pay her to be represented at the capital and so Karen I just want to thank you for your um many years of of service to the people in this state that can't speak for themselves that don't have the money to come to Tallahassee to fight for uh their interest so thank you very
much thank you Mr chairman yes sir uh anybody else Mr Cummings uh yes very briefly uh Mr chair I just want to personally thank uh Karen for all of her Advocacy she is always right out there
promoting what's best for the community and for over 20 years she and I have shared the the same Block in Frenchtown her Center in my law office so I just want you to know that we appreciate you and we look forward to your continued
advocacy thank you thank you commissioner Cummings commissioner Maddox same is chair um I had the privilege just recently of working with Karen and I think you said something that's very important her office is INF French toown uh right there in the midst of it and she does good hard work for
the people that that that live there and the people people who who need her advocacy and so uh Karen I don't want you to to think that uh we don't notice what you're doing in in the proclamation that you received commission from from commissioner Pro is well deserved but I
think we can't let the moment pass by without thinking about the heart of Karen Woodall it's not it's not the work that she does to make her a lot of money uh it doesn't it doesn't get her a lot of a lot of Spotlight but it to me what
I what I see and when I had opportunity to work with her was that it pleases her heart and that means a lot to me that we have people like you in our community so thank you all right thank you thank you Mr W commiss Proctor you are recognized for
a proclamation for Miss Barbara Dain will the legend herself please for with Miss Barbara Dain marara some hugs are worth getting before you read to Legend how you doing today oh my allergies have me down today
but I'm still kicking good good good I'm so glad you're here none of that 1800 stuff let me make sure ain't no dates in here all right here we go whereas Barbara dain's activism began at the age
of 12 when she ran for student counsel and continued through high school and college in student government numerous clubs and organizations and whereas Barbara attended Jennings High School graduating in should I skip that that's not that's
not 18 no it's 19 got the right Century in 1960 as valedictorian she completed her Bachelor of Arts in English from valala State College in 1964 preparing her as an educator and in
1967 Barbara's activism began in her third year of teaching in the swan County School System when she was suspended by the school board for making a speech on fairness and public meetings of teachers and the school board as well
as on a decision to roll back salaries by 11% to compensate for a mistake made in enrollment attendance I am not surprised facing being dismissed Barbara contacted her teachers union they hired
a lawyer and two weeks later the school board apologized to her and put her back to work and whereas a few weeks later in January of 1968 she resigned from her job in the Statewide teacher
walkout 6 weeks later there was a settlement and she returned to her classroom the following year she served as membership chair for her teachers union and tripled the membership of the Swan County Teachers Union and whereas
in 1968-69 she moved to the faculty of all black Douglas High School in Live Oak marking the most significant years of her 15-year teaching career leading her
to fight for civil rights Justice and equality for all and whereas Barbara moved to tasse where she taught at Griffin Middle School from 1972 through 19 79 she immediately joined the Leon County Education
Association and the lcea board later becoming president of the Tallahassee Federation of teachers Mr Dain remains a lifetime FEA member of Florida Education Association during the mid 70s she was one of three labor leaders who chared
the Big Ben Central labor Council AFL CIO she remains a delegate and serves as secretary and whereas Barbara's full-time life mission began in 1979 as an organizer and lobbyist across many
states and National campaigns barara has been honored for her efforts through numerous Awards including the Democratic party golden Democratic award the MLK Justice award equality Florida voice of
equality award Tallahasse equality and ownown and on on and on and whereas with many or with 40 years of service Mr vain States my activism is fuel by the belief that my mission in life is the
empowerment of women workers minorities and now retirees now therefore be it proclaimed by the Leon County Board of County Commissioners that we honor Miss Barbara devain for more than 40 Years of advocating for the issues that are
important to the lives of women workers minorities and retirees dated this 18th day of March 20 and 25 and um we want to share and present this Proclamation not that sheet of
paper but this Proclamation Mr Bain uh only to you and might I say um Commissioners and ladies and gentlemen that just yesterday uh I shared the podium with Miss Dain as um she again out front and
amassed uh had over 140 people out at the Social Security office uh concerned advocating uh beseeching our United States uh Congressman to um shed light
on his position with regard to uh Social Security matters uh now being contemplated in the nation so so Mr vain just on yesterday I felt the spark in the glory of your glow and it's
magnificent I want you to say a word now thank you thank you so much this means a lot to me as an old history teacher I had to teach I just had to do this I had to put the books back on the
shelf and teach real American history to my eth graders which included of course women's history black history Native American history we all made this nation great
because when I took history in school I guess about the only woman you heard about was Betsy Ross throwing up the flag and that's not all we do we do so many things
and thank you so much for honoring so many great women in this room today I wasn't born in the century before but I was born during World War II in
1942 and I'll be 83 and I'm very proud of it of all my years on this Earth I'll be 83 in August I'm very fortunate in that I have pretty good health I don't sound like it today but my allergies are trying to
take me down and I'm determined they're not going to because I just left the capital I hope they don't hear about what you doing over here because right
now in committee where I have some of my bosses CU I still work talking about preempting your right to do things like this preempting any
Dei anywhere in government and education what a shame what evil people there is a war on women over in that Capital but thank goodness you have the foresight and the
stamina and you're not cowards that you would honor women and all that we have contributed to American history and the well-being of our communities I am a very lucky woman
because all of my adult life I've known what my mission in life is I could have gone after money but no I have less than $100 probably in my checking account right now and tomorrow
is the third Wednesday of the month and if my social security check doesn't come you guys in uniform might be chasing me around or AO or Washington it will be a disaster I won't be able to pay my
mortgage or buy groceries or gas to get to the capital every day because now I'm very proud that I have a contract to lobby for the National Organization for Women and that's why I'm so proud of all of you for the recognition you've given
us probably the greatest one of the greatest awards are things that was ever said about me was when I was called a warrior for justice and that has been my path the empowerment of
women minorities workers and now retirees and we're going to fight to the end to protect all those groups in society because it wasn't just white men
that made this nation one of the greatest nations in history and I just hope to God that all of you will help us maintain that status in the world thank you so much I love what I do so many of
you up here I've worked in your campaigns I love you all for your service because the greatest service in life is public service I truly believe that so thank you again um I will cherish
this Proclamation and I love fighting on the front lines with people like I call him Wild Bill Proctor we had a great time yesterday and it ain't over yet we'll be in front of City Hall where dun has an
office next Monday at 11 o' so if you cherish your social security or that you want to have it one day come join us next Monday at 11 o'clock over at City Hall thank you very much Jesus Christ I can believe it hold
wa wait wait believe it all right this is women history month and you two are don't y'all get jealous sold know that that's right all right thank youall L
appreciate uh commissioner o'keef commissioner Cummings up if it's okay I'll let commissioner Cummings go first all right commissioner Cummings oh thank you just very briefly Mr chair uh I just want to say to uh Miss Barbara Dain congratulations very welld deserved when
I moved to tahash some years ago I was given a list of names of people that I I should meet and should get to know and you were one of those and you've always fought for what is right what is fair and I've always admired you so thank you
and congratulations on your continued advocacy and I did see you yesterday advocating against cutting Social Security so keep up the good work and you know if you need any assistance you know how to call us thank you so much commissioner O'Keefe then commissioner
Maddox thank you so much instead of listing all the accom complimen you had I just also want to thank especially for your work as a teacher which often goes so underappreciated and as a organized labor leader which often goes
underappreciated two things that we need as much as we can now I'm going forward thank you so much thank you commissioner o'keef commissioner Maddox uh when I was first elected there was a couple people that uh uh sat down with me and kind of taught me the ropes the first was Pam Hall she taught me about comp plan and
all that good stuff and um one of the best conversations I had was with was with Barbara Dain U the thing that I can say about her is that she always uh was fighting on behalf of the little man in in Leon County in CED of Tallahassee and she impressed impressed
upon me how important it was that I continue to do that and that history uh was one of the most important things that that we have in Leon County and that she uh looked for us to make sure that we kept th that that that history in place and that we kept respect for it
and we haven't always been on the same side of things and uh she had she's had a few Choice words for me at times um but what I can say is that I respect Barbara Dain I love Barbara Dain and and more than not um um when she said things
I have agreed with them um Barbara thank you for fighting for the mother that I had and the child that I was and the people that grew up around me and you'll never know how much of a difference that you that you make in their lives and that the fact that because you fight the
way you do is the reason that young men who grew up the way I grew up could sit on a diet at the County Commission and call themselves commissioner it's because of you thank you oh commissioner Meer thank you Mr chairman first of all
I want to I want to thank commissioner Proctor for having the foresight on delivering proclamations to two incredible women during women's History Month uh so Props to you um also with Barbara Dain I just I wanted to to just tell you I mean I've I've also known
like Karen i' I've known you for I think over 20 years and um I don't know anyone that I've ever met that is able to take the passion that they have for doing the right thing and convert that into just an incredible amount of energy and grit
and determination um and perseverance to fighting for the things that we care about and um you are an inspiration Barbara both to me and and Jess and uh we're we're better people for knowing you and uh just want to congratulate you
on on this recognition it is very well deserved again I want to thank commissioner Proctor for recognizing both you and and Karen thank you Mr chairman thank you commissioner Miner all right we got a couple more proclamations for our friends from the Leon County Sheriff's office so I will be delivering those thank you Commissioners have
anybody from lcsl want to join us up here uh feel free to crowd in here behind me um we're going to uh give some love to our uh our great men and women in uniform over at the Leon County Sheriff's Office for some of the things that they've been up to lately uh the
first Proclamation is in response to uh uh where I'll just read it whereas in response to Hurricane Milton the Leon County Sheriff's Office mobilized and deployed numerous agency members to provide critical relief efforts in Taylor and Pasco counties and whereas these dedicated men and women willingly
Place themselves In Harm's Way and separated themselves from their families to support fellow Floridians during a time of Crisis and whereas their selfless service courage and unwavering commitment exemplify the highest ideals of Duty integrity and Community protection and whereas the relief
efforts and Taylor and Pasco Counties have played a vital role in safeguarding lives protecting property and assisting communities in recovering from the devastating impacts of Hurricane Milton and whereas the board of County commissioners of Leon County wishes to formally recognize and extend its
heartfelt gratitude to these exemplary individuals for their outstanding service and sacrifice now therefore be it proclaimed that the board of County commissioners of Leon County hereby recognizes and expresses sincere appreciation to the following members of the Leon County Sheriff's Office for
their selfless service during the hurricane Milton relief efforts there's too many individuals on this to name so if there if you are with us is this everybody that we've got sheriff is there anybody else in the room that participated in those efforts we want to uh thank you let's give him a big round of
applause uh let it further be Proclaim that the exceptional commitment and sacrifice demonstrated by these lcso members during the hurricane Milton relief efforts stands as a shining example of the dedication to public service that defines leyon County and that's dated this 18th day of March 2025
uh signed and attested to 1820 did I say 1825 1925 2025 I don't know the the work of the Leon County Sheriff's Office is timeless and we appreciate it no matter what century it is um and I've got another one for you guys so I'm just going to go ahead and knock that out if
that's cool Mr assistant Sheriff you hold that for us um and then we're going to give you guys your flowers after I read the second one because we love you you know um so we've got another Proclamation uh again honoring our Leon County Sheriff's Office whereas the Leon County Sheriff's office has consistently
demonstrated an unwavering commitment to Excellence and law enforcement service and management and whereas the commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies has conferred upon the Leon County Sheriff's Office the prestigious Advanced law enforcement accreditation and whereas this
distinguished accreditation stands as a testament to the to the agency's dedication to maintaining the highest standards of Public Safety and its ongoing pursuit of continuous Improvement and whereas the rigorous C Kalia we're going to call it Kalia uh accreditation process involves a
comprehensive evaluation of the gen's policies procedures and practices to ensure compliance with internationally recognized standards and whereas achieving this accreditation signifies that the leyon county sheriff's office has met or exceeded these stringent standards thereby setting a benchmark
for excellence in law enforcement and whereas the leyon County Board of County Commissioners wishes to formally recognize and commend the leyon County Sheriff's Office and its dedicated Personnel for this outstanding accomplishment now therefore be it proclaimed that the board of County commissioners of Leon County hereby
recognizes and commends the Leon County Sheriff's Office for achieving Clea that's uh Commission on accreditation for law enforcement agencies Advanced law enforcement accreditation and encourages all residents to join in celebrating this
exemplary commitment to law enforcement Excellence dated this 18th day of March 2025 let's give him a round of applause I just want to uh I just want to add you know I know that we have a tremendous working relationship with our Leon
County Sheriff's Office Partners uh tremendous amount of respect for everything that y'all do um you are crucial to making this community wonderful a great place to live where everybody loves it we get to sit up here and do what we do but you all are putting in the work out on the streets making sure that everything is safe that
our businesses can Thrive and we appreciate you more than you know and congratulate you on achieving such a high standard of accredit while also we know that you guys are quick to respond when our neighboring Counties have crisis or you need to deploy as partner agencies and we
appreciate and respect you all so much for that we know it's hard leaving your families going out in the field and helping our neighbors and uh and that's what y'all are what make Leon County great so thank you once again and I'll invite the sheriff or assistant Sheriff C anybody'd like to speak
thank you Mr chairman uh and thank you Commissioners for this recognition on both of those occasions but I'd be uh speaking Way Beyond uh my involvement in those efforts I will tell you we are very lucky and fortunate here in Leon
County to have a sheriff's office that has the most professionals you can find anywhere in this country I am just proud to be in a position to help lead and give direction with respect to the jobs they do I can tell you I'm also so uh happy about the fact that you've offered
us us this opportunity to be here during women's appreciation month I can tell you that uh we talk about being Allin uh this community led by people like Barbara Dain assures us that we will
always be marching together dealing with the various issues that confront us the fact that we had hurricanes that impacted our communities doesn't detour us from what we have to do the men and women of the County Sheriff's off will be there the tal police department has a
slogan that says here for you we have an affirmation that says we're all in those two join together with the city and the county make us what we are this is not so much about us as a ly County Sheriff's Office this is about us as a
community so thank you for our recognition but know that we don't do this alone we do this with all of us pitching in thank you God bless you any Commissioners like to say anything commission Keef go ahead um Mr Sheriff
all the deputies here you are the law enforcement agency I feel the most proud of and I can't think of any other agency in the country that uh any County Commissioner should feel as safe with uh as appreciative to
and um I know that in everything you do you carry out um caring for the public in our community um and I just can't say enough to thank you and how good it is for me to sit up here and know that our county is protected and served by the
sheriff's office thank you you thank you commissioner o'keef commissioner Miner thank you Mr chairman I sheriff and and and and deputies and everybody I just want to thank all of you for what you do uh as commissioner Keef said I mean it is a it is a great pleasure and honor to work with you uh in the community and I
I I work with officer patch you know I've been out with him uh uh and some of his his his colleagues uh around downtown during the point in time count or Captain Jimmy Goodman and Mr orti on on neighborhood safety meetings uh and some other things that we've got in in
the hopper too so just want to thank all of you for everything that you do um we may not always see everything that you do from day to day but you're there Sheriff um Sheriff this is a hard day up here and um commissioner caban wants you
to open up a new Sheriff's Office on Pensacola Street and um I know you can't open an office up for caban out there on Pensacola uh minor wants you to come up on Northman Road and just stay up there
and you know and you know Keith thinks you're spending too much money um it's a hard Des to work with point a personal privilege uh not my words there's an association to something prop made those words and
um if I've said anything about you Sheriff that's um that's not stately it's it's just the company I'm keeping and they make you say things about the sheriff sometimes but on a personal note
about a month ago uh the orchestration of your office with um um citizen manner was conducted highly professionally uh Exquisite um
excellence and um I appreciate the standards that have been imbued um to further uplift and to amplify uh the professionalism of the Sheriff's Office and um and indeed you
do set and all of you set uh a high standard of efficiency and possibly just possibly I get to look a little bit more into um some of the details of the sheriff as chair of the Public Safety Council which my colleagues have allowed
me to serve as so monthly um I get to hear the numbers learn about the operations of the sheriff's office a little bit more and I can tell you you that um during the tenure of Walt mcneel we have many
reasons to remain proud uh for your leadership so if you hear me say some things sometimes it's just a tough crowd up here Sher that's all I know you Bill tough crowd shair thank you m thank you commissioner Proctor anyone else uh
commissioner Cummings oh thank you um Mr chair just very briefly um Sheriff mcneel congratulations on the proclamations that were presented to you and we congratulate you on the underlying work they brought those proclamations to the commission today
this being women's History Month I also want to congratulate you on the diversity of your team that's here before us and just on your your entire staff we're very proud of uh assistant uh Sheriff Gil Moore and and all the
other women that you have included in your staff keep up the good work I want you to know know that women uh in this community feel safer with you at the hell and we certainly appreciate all the work that your deputies do to keep all
the citizens in Leon County safe thank you very much congratulations Comm command thank you Mr chair uh Sheriff I just want to say briefly that I I really do appreciate our working relationship and I appreciate all the efforts uh you and your team have done in District 2 from
the national forest uh Deputy position that was implemented last fall into all the efforts along Pensacola Street Corridor um you know I'm going to sit up here continually and fight for more but I do want to say that we do appreciate it and uh to all the deputies and your team um I want to say that you know it's
easy for us to sit here and make the policy but it's you guys that go out there and enforce the policy and put your lives on the line to do that every day and so I really do appreciate that thank you so much thank you Mr madx yes sir Sheriff again like everybody else said I appreciate your leadership but most of all I appreciate your
temperament in the way you carry yourself throughout throughout our community uh that temperament uh goes down to your to your leadership team as rest as well as the rest of your deputies and what I can say that people tell me about uh the sheriff's office that we have here is that they're that
they're good to work with uh and that's that's something that's important to be said when it comes to the constition we have and how they work with law enforcement uh as a young child or most people that look like me will say that they fear law enforcement or I don't feel like they're fairly treated by law
enforcement but I've never heard that about our Leon County Sheriffs uh and our Sheriff Mark uh Walman Neil and so I appreciate uh the temperament of more more than anything that you guys carry yourself and the way you help our community and protect our community
thank you thank you amen thank you Commissioners and uh before we take our picture you guys I I just want you to know now 90% of the time you see me in public or on social media I'm wearing an Allin t-shirt all right Ron Cav sent me a bunch of them so I just want to uh uh close this out by just saying again
reiterating how how much we appreciate everything that you do Mr Sheriff you really are Elite at what you do and when people ask me in the public there are never any doubts or questions about our Sheriff's Office I mean you are running a top-notch organization and I I think
it's important for us to acknowledge that you are doing a great job thank you so we're going to take a picture of you guys so y'all y'all kind of around in oh come on yeah yeah good I'm a short guy I gotta do it prompts right over yeah yeah story my
life commissioner Cummings have you ever done a a ride along with the sheriff you have okay good good thank you I
did roll me all right thank you uh I tell you what commissioner Proctor I did a ride along with the sheriff's deputy uh a couple years ago and it was an a really eye openening experience I would encourage anybody out there to do it sign up for it anybody can do
it and it is eye openening and it will give you a newfound respect for the difficulties of that job so uh thank you Commissioners and thank you everybody for uh giving us some time for the proclamations we are now uh almost to our consent agenda we have citizens to
be heard on non-agenda items and consent thank you Mr chairman you have two citizens to be heard on consent and non-agenda items the first is Alan Ballas to be followed by Stanley Sims we give us your name and address for the
record please Road Tallahassee Florida 32305 thank you I want to start by commending and thanking commissioner Bill brocker I know you've been a commissioner since the 1800s there's been many of times he and
I have never agreed and there's many of times we do agree but he's always treated me with dignity and respect and anytime I've contacted him he returned my call immediately last time I contacted him the next day he was out with me writing looking at this homeless
situation there is um I called commissioner cavan's office several times uh left several messages no phone call back I gave this information here to commissioner Proctor and he asked me to call the U County attorney her staff
said that she refused to speak with me commissioner Proctor you're incredible and I understand why they keep re-electing you there's another page if you notice uh on the top there
there's 16 1262 of the first page was the intent of the article for health safety and general welfare of the citizens to assure free ordering Undisputed movement of motorized vehicles in public it shall be unlawful for person to occupy sidewalks public Street
traffic median bicycle lane make physical contact with exchange Fe physical items including documents money pamphlets Etc it shall be unlawful to stand remain in the medium while holding or displaying advertisement sign it shall be unlawful for any person to make physical contact with or in exchange
physical item including documents money pamphlets and any now I've heard from yall that there's not not going to be an ordinance um the County Attorney is so afraid to put it up Abby uh Thomas what
a wonderful lady she put together what I called a multi-jurisdictional task force look at the names of the people that were there and present I was so honored I thought that I was actually going to be able to help and do something no it
was just an attempt for um for lamby um to to berak me all these other people that were there all they did was introduce themselves if y'all would like help I'd be glad to it's you know I've only came here to help the county and if
you need me I'll be glad to but you know when somebody gets hurt from this it is going to be your liability because you did nothing you know doing the same thing expecting different results the definition of
insanity I took this the Friday night right after our the meeting we had here this is at Crawfordville Road and um and um C Capital Circle this lady needs some help this was that freezing night where it was
below 20° here not below 20 below 30 and and they're not doing anything you've just kicked the can down the road you know it was not even on the agenda for today to um you know to address this item that yall asked the
County Attorney to bring up I thank you for your help if you do ever need me please feel free to call me I volunteer in my time I'm willing to help and willing to help the county thank you thank you next speaker Stanley Sims Mr Sims you still
around Mr chairman look like your cousin done left uh-oh I was going to say 1326 avendelle way but I know folks my cousin
so uh I guess we don't have Mr Sim so we're going to move on to um consent Commissioners I did not see anything was pulled so do we have a motion on the consent agenda so move Mr chairman so move Mr commissioner Miner seconded by commissioner Maddox any
discussion seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I consent agenda passes unanimously we are now on to General business Commissioners um Mr County Administrator would you present the first item thank you Mr chairman I
sure will Commissioners uh this item is your FY 2026 maximum discretionary funding levels for outside agencies uh this is pursuant to your uh the Leon County's discretionary funding ordinance and policy on fiscal planning it presents one of the early considerations
for the board in the budget development process with the establishment again of Maximum discretionary funding levels for outside agencies including chsp dedicated homelessness services and special events uh for FY 2026 as you will recall Commissioners
since 2018 uh the chsp uh funding uh has been provided on a 2-year cycle uh this being the second year of funding uh similarly last year the board made uh two-year funding commitment uh for emergency homeless shelters so uh FY 26 will be
the second year of that funding as well options 1 through four recommend maintaining funding levels for chsp special events Commissioner Office Accounts out side funding agencies but I would um uh take a minute to point out that option five also speaks to uh
executing an agreement with the appalachi regional planning Council to formalize a scope of service to be provided to the county each year that aligns with the arc's uh new dues structure happy to answer any questions on on this or anything Commissioners uh
included in the item let me just take an extra a minute here to say uh looking ahead in the budget cycle Commissioners our preliminary forecast uh anticipate as you'll find in the item modest General Revenue growth uh continued inflation for operating and
capital Improvement budgets increased costs as a result of recent tariffs on us trade Partners uh and uh increased operational needs of uh County departments and constitutional officers I should also note Commissioners um as you know very well the the legislature
uh is in session now and there are a number of of bills filed that could have a significant impact on the development of the FY 26 budget that's why when we come back to you uh in your budget workshops uh this summer uh we'll do so
once the uh picture becomes a lot more clear and we're able to be a lot more definitive for now Commissioners again early step in the process uh this item recommends uh approval of options one through five and again we're happy to answer any questions you might have thank you Mr chairman thank you Mr administrator I do have one speaker on
this item although I believe he might have left Stanley since Stanley's back but would you guys be okay or would can we wave the rules to go back and let Stanley speak on his non-agenda item um can we give him like six minutes yeah can we combine those Mr Sims if you want
six minutes thank you my you got it man um name and address for the record please my name is Stanley Sims I'm at 1600 Pennsylvania I mean that's my other house my name is Stanley Sims I'm at 3220 Avendale way man that was close um
for clarification I'm going to do the under gendered first so I can land on a beautiful note my my my under gendered item is I I'm I'm very concerned and I think that we need to have Community
engagement in reference to um the article that came out in the paper even though it doesn't relate to the sheriff department because I spoke with the sheriff they said that they do have a partnership with ice and that's
just to to detain them and not to locate them well I'm concerned because you can be a United States citizen and still be detained and deported I just wanted a fact see if anybody going to say I'm
lying cuz I'm not and with that I'm concerned I think that we need to educate our community as the role of the sheriff department that needs to be
somewhere if you read that article in the paper your Municipal pal they don't think so the city manager didn't even consult the City attorney well I'm glad I know the County Attorney so if I have any problem I can call her Miss chassid they
got me over here on mayem Drive locked down she might tell me I can't do nothing for you now but I know you're out there I tell Vince why because I have a rapport with them and despite what the tallah Hasa Democrat put it in the paper about Vince
and and and and the State Attorney office and yeah I send Vince a lot of stuff I ain't shame of it I ain't shame of it and guess what I still say that Vince is the number one County Administrator worldwide amen Mr
worldwide why do I say that I said it in his face and behind his back because I know that if you guys would have sent dirty text messages derogatory Tech Vince would have handled me in a better
place than the way they did I know that if County administrators I mean County Employees would have talked nasty to me Vince would have handled that I don't know what the state attorney may
do yeah they friend they fly around but when Vince gets on his job he's a fair man I wish he would tell his friend across the street to be fair that's my other three minutes now I'm trying to land all right next three minutes my
name is stay only Sims praise God I'm here today because because this funding homelessness is nothing you can plan for if my wife loses her job
today I'm 30 minutes from a uh 903 months from a foreclosure I want that to resonate I'm not the only one it is tight out here people and I just cannot
understand why we can't say it I can't understand how someone at a club Four Women could beat a man to death and I where I come from in the country you ain't got to die to be beat to death and it gets all of this
here our seniors are losing their social security and I guess what I'm I'm trying to say Mr o'key is that I need to know y'all give a damn and that's Rick N that's not with a speech commissioner W that's not sitting
on the DI and saying something that's going out there hearing our side of the story maybe we could then talk about how we can better improve our
funding because our funding is not going up it's going down and I guess where I'm at in a hard place because I I I've got this year goal is to speak without being offensive
and listen without being of judgmental and it holds me accountable but sometime Miss Cassidy this is hard I'm tired of telling people I don't know there's no
money have you heard anything let's do a better education of informing our people even when we have to tell them no even when you have to say there's no money let's not create an illusion that
maybe we can do something for you next week cuz they going to come back thank you Mr Sims all right Commissioners we are on the item number 20 um I've got commissioner Miner and then commissioner Maddox in the Q oh thank you Mr chairman uh I'll move for
options one through five okay uh we've got a motion for staff recommendation options 1 through five is there a second second commissioner Cummings now commissioner Maddox you are up Mr chair um so I'm going to have to recuse myself from one so what I want to do is I want
to make a substitute motion for options two through five okay and then let the commission come back to one a second okay so we've got a substitute motion for options two through five made by commissioner Maddox seconded by commissioner Miner we are on options two through five is there any discussion commissioner Proctor I'm on
page six I I wanted to be clear I understood um uh the conversation and the balancing and this realignment language with the Children's Services Council and the uh chsp process for children services
through FY 2027 I didn't understand this paragraph and what can someone tell me on page six of the First full paragraph what does this mean and how does this impact
children services Council Mr administrator thank you Mr chairman uh Commissioners what this uh says is that the uh current funding uh for children in the chsp categories is is in place no
changes there based on uh move that the commission made I think last fiscal year uh maybe two fiscal years ago now uh to make sure that we used some onetime revenues to ensure that that there was there was no um displacement of funds
for children Services because you may recall that uh you utilized some additional funding for uh for homelessness Services anyway when you boil it down what what this says is that um based on the board direction for the
CSC to consider replicating the um the uh the the chsp process I know a lot of acronyms in there but we requested that the CH U or that the CSC uh duplicate the uh children's Services funding
category um uh from the chsp process um we are working with them to do so to ensure that there's no drop off in funding in future fiscal years that's all this is trying to say and we'll be back to the board to give you an update on that once we have those issues finalized with the CSC very good I I I
just want to uh say uh I know commissioner Cummings um late eyes and Eagles eyes on on that paragraph that I was not sure if um the children's uh
Services counsil uh was leaking blood as a result of this this this movement of this language but if the status quo is uh intact then it's great I think Commissioners at um at a time or in a
Time such as this that this item is very very significant um Mr Sims indicated the difficulties of um of people's lives and for me every
year uh this reflects the values uh this reflects our who we are this and um looking at the assorted um
agencies that we're making efforts to recognize to include with public dollars um it it it it's it's it's a heartfelt uh support and um I know that
in these particular times uh we like to get uh fiscally um um conservative but I appreciate and respect this board uh I appreciate and respect our staff uh for
not attempting to balance our budget of 26 and 27 uh along the lines of the human services that have been outlined here uh that we're supporting so I think that in
these particular times that it's important for the community to respect and appreciate uh we are walking uh our talk and this reflects our hearts
our care and we have not retreated retrenched and we ain't let nobody down as we're going forward in these difficult times so shouts out to staff for your recommendation and um shouts
out to our commission that out of everything we we we we talking about this right here is um very meaningful so thank you all thank you all thank you commissioner Proctor
commissioner comman you're up in the que and then commissioner o'keef thank you Mr chair um I just want to briefly say that I fully intend to support the motion and support all these line items uh however I do want to just bring a point up that there are there are
several uh legislative bills in the the Florida legislation right now that could have uh severe impact on our budget as the the County Administrator said um just throwing this out there not as a motion but potential idea I think with
we are putting the the cart in front of the horse uh particularly with the timetable of this because we're committing funding which you know to several nonprofit and organizations that I'm assuming if we have impacts on our
budget could could likely change um and so you know I plan to support this but just some food for thought to kind of have us think about that we could have significant impacts to our budget and uh 2 months from now 3 months from now we could be sitting in a different position
and so um typically you know I would say let's look at let's come back to these items in May or June when we have an understanding of what our budget is going to look like um if there's no board sentiment there I fully intend to support all the items here it's just more of of a timing and procedural uh
perspective thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner or Mr Vice chair um commissioner O'Keefe and then commissioner Cummings uh thank you Mr chair um uh I do want to confirm I guess it's uh information our motion is setting a
maximum so am I correct in that we are not voting to set a budget that will come back in in two months we are saying when you plan a budget this is up to the amount we would like you to consider is that an accurate summary that's accurate you're uh you are setting the maximum
you can go below that through the process as you make adjustments that sort of thing this is more this is something um the county did many years ago really to ensure uh budget certainty for the agencies again I hate to say in normal years because you know there's not many normal years but but uh but
what commissioner caban said is is absolutely right that we may very well need that level of flexibility later in the budget process thank you um I appreciate again I want to Echo uh commissioner Proctor s uh sentiment that uh I appreciate our staff and our our
miss being dedicated to keeping the the funding and not looking for our human uh Health and Human Services and Community needs to to balance the the budget on that being said I do think that we ought to consider as we go forward this year
the significant implications on our community's members who need it most and that may be people who have always had a job but who get wrapped up in thousands of people being laid off in an email or a tweet uh and a state that has said that they are looking to do the same
thing to a State Workforce that is uh a large part of our community and we also know we see uh actual funding cuts and um proposed funding cuts for uh programs that help feed educate house um our
community our children and our families and so I think that it's important for us as we go through this year and this budget process um that we keep in mind that over the years we have been very prudent
and set aside a fund uh what we would often call a rainy day fund and uh we also have coming from the state as was said threats of of new things that remove property taxes and things that uh I could spend all night explaining all
of the things that could possibly come down and really attempt to our ability to serve our community in the way that we currently do but I'd like to just keep in mind that perhaps we are approaching what would be a rainy day and that our community has worked so
hard through our joint efforts of the Council on the status of women and girls of men and boys uh of our us uh uh I want to say USPS state employee but uh United Human Services Partnerships our community our chsp we have worked so
hard to make progress that uh letting overall funding and programs get scaled back and cancelled um we can't let ourselves get set back in how we help our community and again that doesn't change the motion there's so much uncertainty but I really think we should start considering that we really
evaluate when is a rainy day and when is our when do our people need us to um to step up with that umbrella thank you thank you commissioner O'Keefe uh commissioner Cummings you were in the queue are you still good okay commissioner Cummings thank you then commissioner Proctor uh thank you Mr
chair here um I want to thank our County Administrator and the staff for this uh projection on the budget and and I know last year the voters in Florida voted for the inflationary inflationary
adjustment to our property taxes uh and and just to be clear the projection on this budget considered that am I correct Mr County Administrator you are correct oh okay okay and we anticipate that to be a short fall of about
$300,000 okay but we know now that the legislature is considering uh reinstating the cost of living adjustment for a Florida retirement that has not passed yet but it's being considered and so we're just
looking at a projected increase in in our budget uh but that's not uh demonstrated in what we have here as far as our first step in um in doing our budget for this year am I
correct that's correct that'll all be presented to you at your summer workshops as as it comes okay but we're being very conser conservative with our budget here due primarily now on what we know is going to happen and we know
we'll have a shortfall uh as it relates to property taxes because of the inflationary adjustment correct yes we're just uh at this point in time we're just taking a conservative approach from the very first step in the
process and and just one other question I apologize I didn't I didn't ask this Mr County Administrator during during uh my briefing but I'm I'm just a little confused not really confused but just just want some
um clarification and Assurance as far as our projection if the legisl should passes the the cola adjustment for Florida retirement retirees and I believe the information said we are
looking at maybe a $10 million shortfall now is that just for retirees for the county we're looking at Leon County retirees yes I'd have to the legislation changes so I I would just let me ask
Nikki what the latest is the bill has been filed but it has not been scheduled to be heard yet but it has the same bad provisions of last year um that it would increase uh the cost of living adjustment are reinstated for 3% um and
that would be applied to County Employees that's where our cost share would come from um and it would look like an almost $10 million increase 10 million just for Leon County retire what number are we talking about number of
retirees uh those who oh I I don't know the actual number of retirees that we have okay do you know Mr count Ministry not we don't have it available to us yeah okay all right thank you thank you for for that information
um that's all I have Mr chair thank you thank you commissioner Cummings commissioner Proctor Mr chair following up on commissioner Cummings is that 10 million isolated for County Employees as state workers are state workers across the that's County employees I would
think that are receiving pensions currently okay good good good that would be a 10 million excuse me I'm sorry Mr Proctor that'd be 10 million every year right and and plus some in perpetuity yes yes but the the the first year of implementation is always the most
difficult because in future years you can kind of contemplate it in your budget so the first year of implementation is always the very difficult one this is a new program these are these are legis the proposals that that we're talking about now okay I wanted to
ask the question uh of our County attorney uh with respect to Senator y world's Bill uh to uh force uh municipalities to eliminate
Dei um that legislation uh Ken or whoever might know uh would that mean that if it passes that the Oasis Center um in the um the commission on the status of women and girls that we would
have to cancel this commission that we would not fund this commission uh in what context are we to understand the existence of the commission on the status of women if
Senate Bill 420 uh is passed so there Senate before 20 or at least a committee substitute Was Heard for Senate Bill 420 yesterday in its first committee it was adopted uh the vote was 5 to3 uh so the version of
Senate Bill 420 has changed it's no longer identical to the house bill version which is 1571 uh but 420 currently includes a definition of diversity equity and inclusion uh to mean any effort to
manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to color sex or ethnicity other than to assure that hiring is conducted in accordance with state and federal anti-discrimination law so that doesn't impact those organizations but it also then further
defines uh those terms to mean promote or provide deferential treat deferential or preferential treatment or special benefits to a person or group based on that person's or group's race color sex ethnicity gender identity or sexual
orientation or promote or adopt training programming or activities designed or implemented with reference to race color sex ethnicity gender identity or sexual orientation so to your question commissioner Proctor there are no bill analyses out for either one of these
versions of the bill currently but there could be potential impacts not only to those programs that you mentioned but also to the mwbe program uh and policy that uh the city and the county have adopted jointly as well the county would
have to do a comprehensive review of all programs policies uh rules ordinances Etc to determine the potential impacts and of course that would all be based on whatever final version of such a bill passed it's very much a moving Target at
this point so um thank you very much so to your your um your comments um my concern which I was going to bring up later in the meeting but um when um commissioner caban begin to
lift up like I said to the sheriff caban always triggers and make you think about stuff and say stuff but um to think about what's occurring across the street its impact to um The Oasis Center and
any of these other organizations which might come under the uh oses of Bill 420 but I'm very much concerned about um and you mentioned it Council uh our
office of um um the oev component of minority business and would that be or the school boards or any other um office of MBE that's of a local um nature
flavor uh are those the targets with which this language is directed Mr chair you go ahead yes it seems so okay I mean there's no bill analysis so and there's been no real explanation but they would come under the umbrella potentially yes right Mr
chairman um I I just want to say this because I think that your hearing and is in sync and we're in Rhythm but I wanted to say that when I learn about this bill and its possibilities and after 200 years what we as a
community have sought to Fashion uh hearing Barbara dain's comments that this world is not built solely by white men uh thinking all the parts that contribute for our legislature to take
Aim uh at those who are not white men um is an amazing thing um 2025 but I wanted to to um suggest that if our employees are under the same impacts of
a doge system which I consider Senate Bill 420 to be a doge complement uh that we asking for staff U and hopefully board support would absorb
and find new descriptions or jobs for the talent that that's um already a part of the County's family and I am not um inclined to allow Senator
yoro to decimate the lives of Leon County government employees uh if possible um this is very hideous uh it provides no moral purpose
that lifts up the Spirit uh the productivity nor even the financial gain of our community to um do away with something which personally he and musk don't like
um and I'm just suggesting uh Commissioners that whatever these programs that have to take a hit because yor is having target practice against blacks women and everybody else he don't
like that we have the compassion the fairness of spirit heart mind all of that and that we uh retain the services and find new job descriptions for workers who have
demonstrated and have borne their burdens In the Heat of the day equal and alike to all others over a period of time so those are my thoughts uh no they're beyond thoughts those are my
convictions and I'm asking this board with your awareness um I've never been a Jew I don't know what that feeling was but I did listen to um Senator Chuck Schumer on The View
today and his comments about um his grandparents and what happened and his family's lives in Germany to be targeted but the minority leader of the US Senate um spoke before a group of
women and that show would be targeted as a group of women but he shared um what his new book was about uh capturing the U essence of being targeted by the government and this is very much
what some of us feel like uh who are women who are black who are brown uh your question somebody's question about the sheriff rounding up
people and uh to the lead story in today's paper that the Tallahassee Police joined Florida's immigration Crackdown um and on the notion of the cck down speaking of due process or the
absence of due process you're just going to be a suspect of a gang member in Venezuela who in the hell know what a gang member in Venezuela look like is a suspect but that's
how arbitrary capricious the standard is so that our local law enforcements are being galvanized forced and that uh law enforcement
agents are held personally liable but not joining the gang of Roundup is amazing if y'all have not been black um and you go to
heaven you've missed a hell of a reason to understand why black people might might be shouting a little louder than everybody else if we get there it's been hell since
1619 trying to be a citizen of America and I don't care how much blood sweat labor tears it just ain't enough folk keep coming for you another
form of post reconstruction and um I'm going stop there uh I wish you could feel it I hope that we will not
suffer to allow for yal and um weak-minded people like him to hurt the lives of people who have done nothing wrong um to be targeted as if they were
Jewish in German thank you Mr chairman all right commissioner Maddox you still got some no Okay so we've got a motion on staff recommendation for options 2 through five and a second commissioner minor substitute motion uh seeing no further debate all those in favor signify by
saying I I I all opposed passes unanimously we are back on option one commissioner Maddox do you want to State the reason of your for your refusal uh I am CEO of family promising the big bin and some of the funding that's within option number one uh will benefit or organization thank you Mr
chair all right thank you so we are on option number one Commissioners with commissioner Maddox recused is there a motion so Mo okay we got a motion for for uh by commissioner caban second by commissioner Proctor um we are in discussion on option
one all right seeing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes unanimously with commissioner Maddox uh recused thank you Commissioners we are now on uh the next item Mr County ministr 21 thank you Mr
chairman thank you Mr chairman item number 21 seeks your consideration of a funding request for the Henry Hill Foundation you may recall Commissioners that uh the board at your last meeting asked that this item or directed this item be agenda uh the item again uh
seeks board Direction regarding a $155,000 request from the Henry Hill Foundation for the annual emancipation Day celebration uh the board previously provided $6,000 for the event in 202 for and uh during the again during the commission meeting last month uh
directed that this item uh come before you the item has all of the analysis included included with respect uh to uh this uh request and provide several options uh for the board and seeks board Direction and happy to answer any
question we have no speakers on this item thank you Mr administrator uh commissioner Proctor Mr chairman thank you very much Commissioners I uh solicit your support as I make motion for for item two uh that we would approve the budget of amendment allocating $155,000
from the general fund contingency for the Henry Hill foundation's annual emancipation Day celebration my motion second all right we have a motion for option two and a from commissioner Proctor and a second from commissioner C or commissioner
O'Keefe we are in discussion yep commissioner o'keef uh any discussion commissioner um okay I I will uh I am I'm willing to support the will of the board but obviously I feel like
this needs to go through the tourism Grant process this is the second year uh that the foundation has come to us and asked for uh unbudgeted funds was 6,000 last year now it's 15,000 this year I
would just say that again I'm willing to support the motion if that's the will of the board but I would like to ask the Henry Hill Foundation uh and we can we can I think we can probably Mr County Administrator can we do multiple options here
because I would like to add at a very minimum the requirement that the Henry Hill Foundation if they seek funding next year they go through the tourism process the grant process is that Mr administrator that would be a good motion if okay so which
one was direct staff to include in the special events funding category with maximum discretionary funding levels would that be option four that that you were saying that they should seek a tourism funding you I'm saying like we can if the will of the board is to give them $155,000 today can
we do that but also add that next year they must go through the the tourism process that would be option uh yes that would be option uh two and one two and and one okay so I would feel more comfortable if we either did options one
and two or we just amended option two to say that next year they have to go through the process of receiving a tourism Grant okay um so commissioner Proctor it's simply suggesting that should the Henry Hill Foundation seek funding again
next year that they have to go through the tourism Grant process in which every other event must go through especially now that the the amount has more than doubled from one year to the next is
that an amended motion Mr chair uh well I'm I'm I'm suggesting that as an amended motion it's commissioner Proctor's motion and commissioner o'keef second so they would have to I'm not I can't make a substitute motion so point of information sure uh for the tourism
Development Council grants typically those require out word marketing to to bring people to Tallahassee and my understanding of this event is that that's not its main mission its main mission is a community recognition event for the community and so they may not
even qualify under the tourism one if this organization's goal isn't to bring people to Tallahassee I was wondering if that's accurate about the process for TDC that is an an accurate statement they would be uh incumbent on the
applicant to make a determination whether they wish to expand their marketing and to potentially be eligible for the tdt dollars so commissioner o Keef my concern then is where does this end um next year is it 25,000 is it
15,000 in perpetuity it was six last year it's 15 now um if it's a local neighborhood event we we're setting a precedent here by more than doubling it from one year to the next with no I mean what there's many neighborhood events where people
would like to receive $155,000 or $6,000 um so I think it's prudent as a board that we say we approve the $155,000 but if you seek this funding if you plan to seek this funding in perpetuity which this event has gone on
for a long time so it's an easy assumption to say you you've got to go through the tourism Grant process and if you're not eligible through that process you're not eligible I'm sure our presedent you know our limit is whatever the board decides each year we we do
budget items that go up that go down and every year we do those and and in fact I think one of the items uh one of the options is to say we're do it this year but we want them to be part of our annual events budget ahead of time going forward which it would be a proper prog
that's what I'm suggesting and and that's not that's different than the tourism development which is its own thing that is where we have special events where um that's a a separate vote of the board and and I I I do want to at least give it's what the board wishes is
most prudent um of course but the other thing is I I do want to recognize that the motion maker last meeting did something that we don't usually do for these events is ask for the agenda we've historically had this thing where we say unanimous vote you know with no notice but I do like that we're at an agenda
item for it um that's all I have thank you okay Mr chair commissioner Cummings uh I'm sorry I've got commissioner Cummings can I pause you I got commissioner Miner in the queue then Proctor and then are you able to see me I do see you yes ma'am commissioner
Miner thank you Mr chair I appreciate it um I I spoke with uh the president of the foundation earlier today and I've known him for 20 years and it's it's a great event it's it's an important event um but like commissioner like chairman Walch says I do have concerns about
about following the process because as worthy as an event this is if we don't won't follow the process in this case how do we say no to the next event that comes along right I mean that's what the that's what the rules are for um according to our agenda um and I
spoke with Mr Williams about it I mean there was the deadline for the tdt Grant application uh as well as the uh fiscal year 25 grant application for the county and and he said they didn't know about the deadlines what I'd like to do is is have a offer a substitute motion
accepting option two but but asking the foundation to seek application for tdt as well as the fy2 grant funding for the county going through those processes for next year for the following uh fiscal year I think that's important I mean I
think um it's an important event it's been going on for over 100 years um but we still need to follow the process uh because when another person another organization comes to us could be a month from now 3 months from now how do we say no to that organization even
though it might be a worthy cause uh that's what these rules are for that's what our policy is for when it comes to organization seeking money so my motion is option two but requiring the foundation next fiscal year to apply for tdt and for fiscal year 25 grant funds
going through that process all right we have a substitute motion is there a second can I second motions I will second that motion for sure uh so we have a motion a new or substitute motion on the table that is to approve the
$155,000 and require the foundation to seek tdt funding through the grant process there or the FY 25 County Grant process correct yeah an objective process okay commiss Proctor you are in the que thank you U Commissioners I want you all to understand uh the freedom of
black people is not a tourist attraction this is not by tourism what make you think that this is a tourism why must we have to go through another step it was a lot of steps to to get out of slavery we done stepped out of
slavery and you want to require that to celebrate we got to go through the step through the tourist people this ain't no clown show it was last year and I'm on the tourist Development Council would you allow me to serve it was under the 200th Year
celebration of the County that this celebration was lifted up as a part of what we've done For What 100 and over 30 years that's a
significant part of wounded people coming together as a result of policies endorsed by this County to hold the ancestors of the he kills
Williams to hold them as slaves there's a reason that I said before that going out there to the Goodwood Plantation is the wrong place to have a County's Retreat people buried out there who
could never leave at 5:00 or the weekends or to take spring break what part of that you don't understand Mr Williams has contributed
long his family he don't want to be jumping through hoops after we done stepped out of slavery we got to step through some more stuff I'm asking y'all to do what's right and to recognize how wrong our County's government our City's
government our state's government we didn't get an apology for slavery to 2007 from the state Florida I hope this is not that difficult don't make this celebration Trot through uh a tourist board it ain't a
tourist attraction it's a freedom celebration if you can't distinguish that proceed with what you're doing proceed commissioner Cummings uh thank you thank you Mr
chair um uh Mr chair I've got mixed emotions about this particular item I know this family I know the individuals and if you guys remember last month um when Mr Hill
came and Mr Williams came they're older people older than I am and for Generations the older people have organized this
celebration okay black history celebration but I think the last year when we celebrated the the my centennial of Leon County tallah Hasa we emphasized that it was everybody's history that we were
celebrating history Young County history of city of Tallahassee um black people were involved building the capital uh building the city the county so it's everybody's history so even though the Hill Foundation has this
celebration uh every year and they're celebrating the announcement that they were freed from enslavement it's part of American history is all of our history it's not just the heel family's history but
beyond that what we're doing Mr chair we're dealing with individuals that are not uh computer savvy they're not um Savage as as far as
um Electronics social media that type thing I think perhaps some sometimes maybe in the near future some of the younger individuals in that family might take over and and try to move it maybe
into you know into this Century but right now it's older people that have organized it it's the older people that have funded it uh all these all these years uh and when they came before us
last month they indicated how the Cs have gone up cuz they've tried to do it themselves and I agree with commissioner uh Proctor it it's it's not a tourism attraction uh it's a it's a celebration but even though they have family members
coming from far and near um they stay in hotels uh they stay with other family members but they don't look at it as a tourism attraction but
i' I'd like to see if if we can just you know re a compromise on this they have it every year I I would not like to have that heel family come here every year
before the commission with the same ass and I get the sense that they will not be applying for uh tourism development tax because that's just that's just not in their DNA right now perhaps when so
younger people take over perhaps they will uh what I would like to do and I just like to get some feedback from the Commissioners I'd like to include uh this particular celebration as one of our line item budgeted
items um in our budget and at some point when the younger people or whomever take it over and recognize that it costs a lot more than it has in the past and when they
recognize that perhaps with all the people that they are drawing to this particular function that they can perhaps apply for tourism tax and perhaps justify receiving more than the
amount that we're able to give here um um you know straight out from from the commission from our budget then it could be removed from the budget and allow them to perhaps get more uh I'm just
floating that around as a way for compromise uh from from this commission and perhaps commissioner Proctor if if we could look at the numbers last year we gave them 6,000 maybe let it be a line item in the
budget every year for 10,000 and if they you know some of the younger people become um more you know more involved or have it a line item for the amount that they
have asked for this year but I I I just really don't want to vote to put that family in the position of going through that step when they pretty much told us for the last two years they they're not interested and I
think beyond that they're not in a position to do that Mr chair so I'm not going to do it as a substitute motion just now but I I just want to get um a feeling I I want to compromise I don't want this
particular um agenda item to to die because of dissension and not support thank you commissioner Cummings um I believe we would have to have a a second agenda item if it says here
provide a separate agenda item providing FIS year 2026 maximum discretionary funding levels can you clarify Mr administrator sure um again I'm not proposing this but just for clarity and and to put it in the right posture going on what um commissioner Cummings was
just saying if that was one of the options that the board wanted to consider because we're dealing with two fiscal years here so it can get a little bit confusing so for the current fiscal year uh and the motion that's on the table uh to approve the the $155,000 at general fund contingency that would take
care of the current fiscal year and for next fiscal year if the board wanted to again as commissioner suggested have a line item dedicated for this in the previous item you just established your line item funding to that for that and the county attorney and I were just
discussing that probably the way you'd want to do that is also if you wanted to do that amend your previous motion to include this um line item for next year uh to include in the FY 26 budget so again I hope that's clear but I can I
can try to clarify further uh if the board wants but again just to put that in the right posture again for this year the the the motion on the floor should that be what the majority of the board wish to do is is in the proper posture uh funding it out of uh a contingency
for the current year for next year you'd have to amend the motion you just made on the previous item to include this as a line item anyway happy to answer any other questions okay so do you understand that okay I'm confused on that um so we've got a
substitute motion we can't make a substitute to a substitute so we've got a substitute motion we need to exercise um we can debate on it more if you want now um Kathleen is here from coka and she mentioned to me that she is willing
to work with the foundation to try and explore alternate funding options for them in the future but again guys my concern is simply precedent it is simply the slippery slope of you now have two years in a row that you're funding out
of contingency an event that doesn't want to go through the tourism development Grant process and it opens the door for any family event with any historical significance to come and ask for money so there's no objective
analysis going on and that's the problem so um we really need to commissioner Proctor's ahead of you commissioner Miner but um we may not even get through do you want to amend your motion or anything yes please if I may uh Mr chairman thank you very much so based on
I think commissioner Cummings had some really good points um what I'll do is I'll I'll withdraw my substitute motion but offer something along the lines of what commissioner Cummings has said um where we we F so we're withdrawing the the the substitute motion substitute motion so we're back on the original
motion which is just number two no are you going to do another substitute motion yes so in withdrawing The Substitute motion off in a different substitute motion that is along the lines of what commissioner Cummings has said 15,000 for this fiscal year um a budget item for next fiscal year but
what I'd like to do is ask our our County CMR Department to work with the family with the foundation to promote this event to Leon County so I hear the concerns about the tdt I I don't think it's a tourist attraction that that kind
of cheapens the discussion I think it's really emancipation day is something that all of Florida celebrates it's a holiday for our County exactly well but it's it's all of Florida was emancipated all of Florida was emancipated almes Barnes has been
promoting the Statewide uh as an as an additional holiday in addition to June June juneth so I mean it's a Statewide celebration for for the State of Florida so what I'd like to do is my motion has 15,000 for this year a budget item for
next year but Leon County CMR works with the foundation to promote this event to leyon County residents it's it's it's County budget money it's something that should be promoted to all of Leon County so we can all celebrate uh emancipation day so I I'll second your motion
commissioner Miner I think that's a good that's a good balancing act because what it does is it at least gives us the opportunity to help the foundation promote their event to the general public because this is general public money so that maybe the general public will take interest and show up and it's
not just family members and Friends of family members that are showing up to this event because that makes it more meaningful in terms of a public allocation it ensures that the public overall and Leon County resents are invited to this we'll go Okay so we've got a second now guys we at 5:30 I'd
like to have a hard stop so we can uh recess before our 6 p.m. so we got 11 minutes and we have one more item so we have a us a substitute motion that provides $115,000 in this year's out of contingency and then would create a line
item budget item next year with the caveat that the hill foundation work with CMR to promote the event both years both this year and next year so what's the line item for next year what do you want it to be 15 okay
so we have a continuing line item of $115,000 only they will work with CMR to let's make this event big and help bring some people in and tell people about it I mean this is not far from my district I would probably go to this event if I knew about it it's on cville road so we got a substitute
motion and a second M commissioner Pro you want to talk on it some more or well I think that um uh commissioner Miner has um captured the essence of and shaped this framed it with commissioner com's input
and um I'm quite satisfied so appreciate your um champ ion uh orchestration thank you uh seeing no further discussion uh all those in favor signify by saying I I I'll oppose none passes un substitute motion passes
unanimously thank you Commissioners that was a great discussion we are now on our last General business item Mr County Administrator thank you Mr chairman this will be a quick one the item seeks uh board approval to realign a million dollars in federal ra funding previously approved by the board uh the realignment will ensure that the ER funds are
utilized by the federal expenditure deadlines for the Columbia Gardens project um and we are recommending options one and two happy answer any questions we have no speakers on this item okay we've got a motion from commissioner Maddox is there a second second second commissioner command
commissioner Proctor you're in the queue um this is a smart move it's time sensitive uh I appreciate the presence of um housing Champion Brenda Williams here um shington um and anytime I see
his name and signature um I know that it's thoroughly and comprehensively vetted so I'm very comfortable and um appreciative that we're making this move thank you thank you commissioner Proctor all right we've got a motion from commissioner madx second from
commissioner caban for staff recommendations options one and two uh seeing no further debate all those in favor signify by saying I I all opposed passes unanimously uh that closes out our General business agenda Commissioners I'm going to recess us
until 6:00 p.m. for our uh chair one other yes sir um Mr chairman my um interns I want I said I was going to call their names um please uh ladies y'all where y'all got my interns back
interns my interns are tell them come here they don't sit here 2 hours and I was supposed to recognize how does one apply how do I become a commissioner Proctor intern oh it's hard you get me it's really tough okay it's
rigorous all right come here ladies um this is um Clara manella is that right MTI Montello I'm working on my Spanish I'm get this it's Italian not Spanish Italian it's like Italian not Spanish it's Italian okay um
she's a political science major at Florida State University thing you want to say real fast um no I'm just really glad to be here with you all and learning from all of you guys okay that sounds really good and Miss Jin Johnson a philosophy major at FAMU where you
from John Washington right Washington DC and um Jocelyn was a student in my class last semester and and um just just just fills my heart um she's a sweet wonderful young lady J you want to say
something hi everybody um it was really great to learn from you guys and to watch you guys today all right thank you all so much this is team Proctor all right all right thank you Mr sherff thank you Comm thank you commissioner
Proctor we will be in recess till 6 p.m. Part: 2
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all right all right it is 6:00 and we will uh begin our public hearing our scheduled public hearing Mr County Administrator thank you Mr chairman uh this item is the first of two public hearings on the Community Development Block Grant application opportunity uh
the item before you Commissioners again requests that you conduct the first public hearing uh and that um uh again provides a lot of background that the Commissioners may know that the county was recently awarded uh a 750
,000 uh cdbg for uh funding our housing housing rehabilitation program uh and um this is sort of an extra round if you will uh we're happy to see those they don't happen all the time but we certainly take advantage of them every
time that they do um again the item goes on uh and talks a little bit about the requirements of the public hearing under Florida Administrative Code um and it and it gives us um um additional credit uh toward our our application to do so and just in just a moment I'm going to
ask shington Lamy to come up and he's got some required um uh issues to bring up uh before the board uh again to give us a little greater competitive uh advantage in our application uh but this again Commissioners is the first public hearing uh it's limited to general
information about the grant opportunity uh which again staff will present here in just a moment uh the board cannot at this time take any action during ing uh the first public hearing however as detailed in the item uh the County's uh
cdbg citizen task force um uh met prior to the public hearing uh again to position the county for eligibility for the maximum allowable points the task force recommended that the county seek the cdbg funding uh for improvements to the Fort Braden Community Center as the
most uh competitive project uh and to build on the County's uh successful application uh or previous application which uh was for the mikasuki community cent center which again we were successful uh in getting and at this
point let me bring up shankton Lamy who again um has a little bit of a a few issues to bring up uh consistent with the application process shankton all right thank you Mr County Administrator good evening Commissioners um yes this
will I'll run through this very brief presentation but required um by Florida commer and answer any questions that you have at the end so Community Development BL Grant or cdbg is administered by Hud to invest in projects that improve the quality of
life and economic opportunities for load to moderate income households cdbt funds are distributed directly to States and entitlement communities now cdb uh population size is what determines
whether a community is an entitlement or non-entitlement Community cities with at least 50,000 um or more in population and counties with at least 200,000 not including their city populations are what are considered
entitlement communities all other communities are considered non-entitlement by communities we talking about local governments here locally the city of Tallahassee of course is entitlement Community because their population is well over 50,000 and for Leon County unincorporated um our unincorporated
numbers is well under 200,000 so we are are not in ement community so as a as an entitlement Community the city receives um approximately $3 million annually which they can um invest into housing homelessness and um those different types of
programs in Florida non-t communities like Leon County can apply to the state for cdbg through the Florida small city cdbg um program it's a competitive Grant process which means funding is not guaranteed but as the County Administrator mentioned we have been
highly successful over the years with receiving um cdbg dollars and we recently of course received $750,000 for housing rehab last month Florida commerce announced the availability of another $40 million in cdbg funding and
that application window opened on March 5th and it will close on May 2nd leyon County can apply for can apply for funding in one of four areas that you see are listed up here on the SL that must benefit low to moderate
income households and I'll quickly touch on each very quickly so with housing rehab as we all know that provides major repairs to homes of low-income households such as roof and septic tank Replacements which of course we just received those dollars and um are
excited to finally when we get opportunity to actually get a contract in place bring that back before the board um neighborhood revitalization is another category and funds can be utilized for neighborhood improvements like Community Center Renovations Parks public streets and sidewalks as well as
water and sewer infrastructures as we mentioned in an item in 2021 the county actually received $3.6 million um in this category for improvements to the Miki Community Center under the commercial re revitalization cdbg funds can use be used to assist commercial
property owners for renovations to bled structures and then finally the the the and in the economic development category that provides funding for projects similar to those under commercial revitalization except those projects actually have to also create um private
sector jobs for low Mar income households so the reason we are holding this first public hearing is because of recent changes that Florida commerce made for upcoming funding opportunities um typically local governments that recently have been awarded cdbg funds likely on County
cannot apply for um sub for a subsequent round however Florida commerce is allowing all non non entitlement governments um to apply for this opportunity in order for them to more rapidly allocate um the federal dollars
that they currently have also there is no maximum funding cap this round which is typically about $750,000 this will allow the county then to apply for more cdbg dollars at a higher amount uh applications still have
to be scored um utilizing a point system and a local government as the County Administrator mentioned can receive the highest points for citizen part for part participation when their citizen advisory Task Force Team meets prior to the first public hearing to make a
recommendation well guess what our task force did that and um they did that earlier this month at which time they um made a present staff made a presentation there was an opportunity for citizen input and at that time they made the recommendation that the county um seek
cdbg funding for the improvements at Fort Braden Community Center um primarily because of course this will it will well pos position our application to be competitive as well as it would be in line with what we did with over at mck Community Center now the county uh
the board is prohibited from discussing or taking any action regarding that um task force recommendation this evening during the first public hearing um or any other any any other opportunities that might come up um the purpose of the tonight's meeting of
course is to obtain additional citizen input if there are any on community needs that could be addressed with cdbg funding it will actually be at the second public hearing that the board will um that the board can consider the task force recommendation as well as a
Draft cdbg application that will be brought before you for your consideration also and the second public hearing um is the reason that we're recommending that that be held as you can see in your item to be scheduled for April 8th at 6:
p.m. with that I'm happy to answer any questions thank you shington Mr County Administrator anything else thank you Mr chairman we have no speakers on this item all right Commissioners uh any we need U commissioner Pro shton I um of for a long time
desired and I saw fire hydrants uh listed uh um I've heard commissioner Miner um in madx report uh that Crawfordville roads widening um is
imminent um going down to last weekend I saw the pink things on the side of the road may be expanded is there a possibility we can get fire hydrants uh to come down cville Road um to serve um
communities um on that on that stretch of highway uh beginning at Glover Glover Road uh going down to um what's the East West Highway called um commiss proor can we get a motion first before you get into all that um
staff recommendation as options one and two so move all right we got a motion second thank you um from Crawfordville to Woodville what's that road between those those two commissioner commissioner command is
O I was just making a point of order um commissioner Proctor we're not on commissioner discussion time right now no we respon he's asking he's asking uh he's asking sh a question about the C I thought you were okay no no no I was
like no no no no no I I was asking what's that road that divides our North and South Boundary of District Capital Capital Circle Southwest no uh come down Crawfordville and make a left is that oakd oid road Oakridge okay yes sir so
between Glover Road and Oakridge Road is like trillion houses and uh over on the right side uh west side of uh Crawfordville Road which also divides our boundaries their homes sprinkle up in
there can we get fire hydrants down uh Crawfordville Road Service I'm going to have to um recognized Charles of course to maybe answer the question but let me just add that in looking at and identifying potential projects that
we could potentially apply for for cdbg we actually got a chance to meet with Florida commerce staff and they worked with us to identifying what type of projects that could be potentially competitive for cdbg funding and that's how we were able to evaluate and look at
the projects that we have that's available in unincorporated area and determine that um for the fort braen Commerce I mean Ford braen Community Center um was the project that would be that would well position the county to be competitive for this funding
opportunity but however I will let Charles talk a little bit so we're limited to one um project yes you can apply one application one okay okay that's okay I I I'm I'm good Charles we only can apply for one I can support for
Braden uh but please note that when I saw fire hydrant and there was no cap on No Cap right well this is our opportunity so um being that we can only apply for one project um um I will allow
my thoughts to languish and to be dormant on someday we might get fire hydrants down the Glover Road Way Trail and uh Oakridge Road thank you Mr like the teenagers Say No Cap No Cap no capping I mean you give them you give an
elect offishal No Cap uh Commissioners we got a motion and a second uh commissioner Cummings uh oh thank you Mr chair I I just want to I mean meeting after meeting year after year uh our County
Administrator and staff they're just they're just on top of applying for Grants and receiving grants from the county and and we obviously have some great grant writers as County Employees because we apply and we receive those
grants and I just I just just want to just give accolades to the County Administrator and his staff I mean they if it's a grant somewhere on the federal level on the state level they know about it and they apply and nine times out of
10 we receive the funds so I don't I I Support options one and two but I you know it just goes without saying I I don't want to go without saying how much we just appreciate that diligence and bringing what funds they to the county
we Grant you great things uh all right uh seeing no other comments uh all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes unanimously um Commissioners that's the end of our uh main agenda so I think now
we're on discussion items um our citizens to be heard on non-agenda items any of those we have no speakers Mr chairman no speakers okay awesome uh Madam County attorney would you like you have any items for us no Mr chairman thank you oh thank you
Madame County attorney Mr County Administrator thank you Mr chairman aent oh my gosh you guys oh my gosh we're like butter we're on a roll um uh all right so now we're in discussion items by Commissioners
commissioner Proctor we'll start with you work our way back over here thank you Mr chairman I previously brought up commissioner's uh concerns with Senate bill for 20 uh by Senator yor uh I wanted to uh recommend uh he
suggested uh that if it is an eventuality that uh our County uh moves to protect Safeguard uh the interest of uh our
employees uh that they're not uh made victims uh and lose their jobs because the titles of their jobs um somehow warrant them to go in front of the state's firing
squad Madame um attorney I don't know if that's a u if you're looking for a recommendation but how would you advise this board to protect our employees um do we need to modify their titles now uh
do we need to White out the part that people don't want to hear and um last week uh the president came up with 200 words uh that the federal Administration was uh
told that they could not use those included things like black um African-American discrimination Equity uh stuff like that discriminate you couldn't use these words you can't use these words no more uh they don't
exist Concepts don't exist what do we do to protect um our uh employees of years and years from this meanness Mr chairman yes ma'am uh I
wouldn't recommend that we would take any action at this time again as we can see from Senate Bill 420 it is changing it could very well change again before it reaches its final committee destination it would have to make the floor it has hasn't passed both Chambers
and it has not been considered by the governor so I think any action at this point to do anything related to that would be premature of course staff is monitoring this bill and many others that could potentially impact the county and will be well positioned if this bill
in whatever form becomes law to evaluate any impacts to employees and mitigate those impacts to the greatest extent possible so we take steps right now I wouldn't recommend it it's too early in
the legislative process I I would not do anything at this point okay okay thank you well Commissioners I wanted to plant that seed of uh Protection security for workers against anything uh that would
mock uh the professional years that they've given serving uh our community uh secondly this this evening I want to bring attention to to the March 27th Woodville community meeting and um
I believe commissioner command is going to be there um commissioner command will we have a ban there just just checking uh but you all are invited to come to the Woodville community meeting on March
27 again I uh ask U for street lights on Crawfordville Road and um I don't know if that was come under cdbg I didn't see street lights on the on the list Shon but if there's any way before um the
Lord returns that we could get street lights on Crawfordville Road um from Wilson green that would be much much valued also Commissioners uh I would
um um am curious to note if the governor call for the elimination of property taxes in the state if that is a matter that is um gained any tractions County
attorney uh has that matter gained any traction um and have would we be looking uh or have we modeled uh any scenarios uh going
forward of what we as a county would do adjust to if the state um eliminated um at valorian property taxes we could ask U Nikki to see if there's any update on the
legislation um related to there's several property tax bills filed but in terms of the elimination of property taxes I'd have to ask Nikki about anything specific fil um no not yet um there's been a lot of Buzz around it the governor has supported it um but like
Vince said there's a number of proposed exemptions um that have been filed this session um but for each of those um it wouldn't just require a 35th majority passive legislature that would also then have to go to the general election
ballot in 2020 uh 6 to then um be approved and it wouldn't affect our budget until fiscal year 2027 is there uh a formal bill has been filed to eliminate uh State uh Statewide in the house there has been a
bill filed um not to outright eliminate eliminate property taxes but instead um impose a study to be conducted to explore uh what impacts would be associated with the elimination of property taxes and what alternatives
could be then uh developed or identified to replace those revenues in that uh proposal um is it prescribed
uh the uh tools the uh options of local governments uh or will we be free and open to contemplate our own measures of uh the next steps I don't think that's clear I think at this point it would just uh at the
state level direct um a study be conducted to see what the financial impacts would be um and then again potential Alternatives uh to generate the revenue to replace them um thank you Nikki in the climate
Commissioners that we're in uh it occurs to me that um we have a cap on our sales tax is that accurate yes and if we were forced to do away with property and only reason I'm bringing this up I'm only bringing this up because
the leader of our state has brought it up and when you stand in front of the legislature of Florida and declare that this is the direction that you're seeking um I I take that seriously uh he has the support of the
house and the Senate on many things um just take it seriously but if we're CA with our um sales tax and if there's not a lift lifting of the cap um I'm not altogether clear just in my speculative
thoughts of how we could offset and make the difference uh we would be uh in purgatory uh for real but looking at the Doge like mentality uh that uh Hoovers
above um government um today um it seems that nobody's concerned what happens to uh um and in our um communities also speak to the U the
effort to pierce into Municipal governance and even with our um um home rule status as a county there
are measures that continue to flow that would Pierce through the veil of our home room status and would um limit restrict or either compel our compliance
with standards which are not ours but would be imposed Upon Us by the state serious time thank you very much Nikki thank you um Mr Missy and then commissioners
of um city ordinance Tallis City ordinance 1262 um which uh Mr ballos mentioned earlier um against panh handling um in the
median and I wanted to ask um our our County attorney um can we get a mirror of the city's ordinance 12.62 can we get a County ordinance to make uniform what already exist in the
city and to complement the existence of the safety standards against um pan handling uh in the middle of the road Mr chairman yes ma'am so based on board Direction at the last board
meeting we are doing a a a we are updating our comprehensive review of all regulations throughout the State of Florida including all current and other completed litigation of which there are many around the State of
Florida related to those sorts of regulations we'll of course take a look at the city of Tallahasse we always want to try to make our ordinance consistent with the cities because from an enforcement perspective it's easier to enforce it also doesn't generate confusion for constituents um when
there's consistency between city and county regulations uh to the extent we believe it is legally defensible we will see what we see and we'll bring something back to the board for its consideration as the board directed to the last
meeting um general counsel I'm understand what you said and we've heard your discussion previously but I'm curious as to what gives the city of tallah hases such security uh that they have 12.62 on the
books and it stands the test um called time uh but you're reticent to mirror are to allow for this board to mirror um the cities 12.62 they have not been sued
and I'm sure here in the capital somebody knows uh this exists chairman yes ma'am I don't determine whether somebody sues there are many state laws potentially federal laws County ordinances on the books
every where that are potentially not constitutional some of them have never been challenged and until they are they're the law but I represent the county I'm going to bring back to the county what I believe is legally defensible and
constitutional not and I don't care what any other jurisdiction has adopted that's not I don't I don't represent them okay I like to offer that as a policy maker of this County there
are some things I'm willing to defend and um among those uh is elimination of pan handling in the middle of the street and I'm hopeful that you will bring back a mirror of
1262 if there are four of us here who also don't mind defending what we think is intelligent Public Safety um I would like to see that as an option that'll be the will of the majority of the board well you're bringing a range
of things back would you include that as a part of your offerings if that's the direction of the board absolutely M Mr chairman what makes this the direction of the board I ass we have to vote on that and you would ask to make the motion that uh included among
considerations um that the County's attorney brings back for our consideration is that the policy of the city of Tallahassee um is also one that we can reflect on um marinate on and consider oh we have a motion um is there
a second second from commissioner Cummings we're in discussion on that motion to ask that the County Attorney take a look at the city of tallahassee's uh ordinances relating to media and panhandling uh commissioner
o'keef point of information isn't this the same or um board direction we gave at the last meeting and we're just waiting for uh staff to bring back consideration it is but but now commissioner prer is specifically asking as one of the options to to basically
replicate what the city of Tallahassee has when I come back to the board thank okay any more discussion all right we have oh commissioner Maddox quickly so it that will come back as a option um on top of whatever else you may bring back to us all right thank you all right
motion a second all those in favor signify by saying I I passes unanimously sorry sorry commissioner O'Keefe was a nay on that 61 commissioner Proctor back to you thank you Commissioners um thank you for your
support um hopefully we'll be a seamless um um public policy uh with the city matching the city that uh law enforcement of all varieties will have the sameness to to um um execute uh
Public Safety um from pan handling thank you um Commissioners I've shared with you um uh this memo and Public Announcement coming from the secretary secretaries of the Department of um
interior and the uh uh Secretary of Hud I was so excited tonight um to read on page two of uh agenda 22 um in agenda 22 um I saw this paragraph that Leon
County is committed to increasing the stock of affordable housing in the community as demonstrated through the investment of 5.8 million in direct funding and authorization of approximately 183 million and bond
financing that has a will develop more than 1,200 affordable rental units over the next 12 to 8 18 months that paragraph goes on to speak for itself uh with respect to um our commitment to
affordable housing complimenting our commitment uh Commissioners uh I Shar with you the uh announcement coming out of uh HUD and interior that the federal government um which oversees the
department of interior more than 500 million Acres a federal land but they've made this statement that America needs more affordable housing and the Federal Government Can Make It Happen by making
federal land available to build affordable housing stock uh last week I wrote to president Trump uh seeking to secure uh hearing uh his
utterances to make available land uh public land I don't know how many acres if 500 million is enough um you know I don't know how many you know but but what is being offered now for
affordable housing this public land I'd like to um ask this commission um that we step hurriedly swiftly to uh look at this opportunity uh for lands that might be
made uh affordable uh free 3.99 if it is to carry out the purpose that we've indicated in item 22 tonight that Leon County is committed to increasing the
stock of affordable housing and that the federal government is willing to put the land up to increase the stock of affordable housing them two things right there to me go together I'd like to ask uh for the
board to uh to foster a a task force to look at this task force and to be Swift and being at the front of the line and
identifying the um the U elements of qualifying and what steps we can do to move forward uh I make think that is a motion that we U develop a task force or
direct our staff to look into uh all the things that we need to do to make affordable housing I met today relle what's the name of that group we met with down there J Park huh Kum yeah we met with Kum
today um to hear their plea to hear their yearning for affordable housing uh affordable rental units affordable anything that got a roof over it and um I had no idea before our
scheduled meeting with Kim today uh who will have a public meeting on March 31st March 31st at March 31st the ne M meeting uh is going to
invite all of us uh to hear uh their desires for housing for people who are unhoused and then this comes out yesterday and um I'm really excited I'm trying to really excited and i' like to
offer that as a motion and um Mr chairman could you restate that motion commissioner Proctor that we ask our staff to create for us a a a task
force did I say task force yes sir a task force to review uh this new policy direction from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development and the department of interior that we might Advantage uh our
own goals of advancing affordable housing my motion all right we have a motion do we have a second all right we have a second from commissioner Cummings any discussion go ahead commissioner Cummings commissioner o'keef you're next uh thank
you Mr chair I appreciate uh commissioner uh proly bringing this uh to our attention and I support the motion because what we have here is an announcement on the federal level that they have organized a task force as well
uh to look at federal land that could be suitable for housing so I think it's a proactive I was thinking at first that perhaps it might be a little premature let us allow them to get themselves together first but they've got a task
force they've got um you know contact information by way of a address and what have you so perhaps it's not uh premature for us to go on have staff uh Mr County Administrator organize the task force whether or not they would be
prohibited for doing anything proactive right now but but I think it's it's feasible to just go on and get it organized perhaps so we'll be on board and ready if something comes down commissioner o'keef before you go the County Administrator has some commentary just two things again uh just
to offer if this turns out to be a motion that the board uh wishes to support just to remind that you've got the affordable um housing advisory committee in place and the Housing Finance Authority in place if that if
the those groups were something that the board uh wanted us to ask them to to uh monitor this and stay advised of it make any recommendations I just offer that those are two committees that you have in place where you have commissioner
representation uh on U one of them uh the other thing I would just offer is that uh this is really more than a task force and this isn't a value statement obviously this is the direction of the board this is more than a task force this would be a policy position that the
board would be taking that's distinct from anything you've done before which is that you are actively interested in pursuing National Forest lands and public lands for the purpose of affordable housing you the direction that we have currently that the board is
sort of Taken thus far is to give us the direction to actively monitor Surplus lands that come available and certainly we do that this is just again uh a bit of a different um another step forward in that regard just wanted to point that out commissioner o'keef then
commissioner caban thank you Mr chair um I cannot support this creating of a task force um partly because of what the explanation that um County administrators gave um and I think it is it would be premature premature to
create a task force or establish a U-turn in policy based on one oped from HUD secretaries from an Administration that has told us on one day they'll do one thing and on the next day they're going to probably eliminate HUD so we're
going to create a task force and Trust one press release one oped and change our whole policy when next thing we know there might next week there might not be a department of interior there might not be a Hut um this is I just don't trust this Administration enough to take a
Wall Street Journal oped and change our policy 180 degrees commissioner command and then commissioner Miner thank you Mr chair uh I am going to agree with sentiment from the County Administrator and uh commissioner o'keef commissioner Proctor
you know I love you but uh this is something that I will not get behind and I'm going to be consistent with the direction that this board has given uh staff previously which is to explore um federal land for affordable housing that
is in Surplus and that does not um and that do not occur inside the National Force so um additionally I I do I do know that we have some advisory committees and committees specifically for affordable housing so I don't want to create like redundant government
which could be counterproductive so thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Vice chair commissioner Miner thank you Mr chairman um commissioner Proctor I I understand your intent of this which is to create more land available for affordable housing and that's something that we all want um and we've been
spending a lot of time talking with Kum about it and us here at at the dis as well as the The General Community I I can't get behind this either I I um you know anything that would be coming from federal lands would be outside the urban
Services area uh leyon County and the City of Tallahassee have committed to um striving for the infrastructure within the urban Services area to provide services to our neighborhoods sewer water electricity um something that
would be in the federal lands that would then become available for how affordable housing will be outside the current boundaries of the of the urban Services area which brings up a lot of infrastructure cost that we have not factored in uh not to mention just the principle of the idea of taking lands
that have been designated for preservation um for for for uh residential use when we actually have our comp plan proposals coming up in the next couple months which we'll be talking about in detail that talks about
our efforts to encourage Urban infill which which is where I think we need to focus so I'm I'm I'm against the motion I understand your intent I admire the intent I agree with you on the intent of creating more affordable housing I just can't do it in this way thank you Mr chairman yes sir commissioner proor we're back to you thank you commor
commissioner Proctor commissioner Maddox is okay want's the chime in before we get back to you um looking at what's going on right now as far as board comment is concerned I think County Administrator uh suggestion might be the right thing to do or the best thing to
do right now commissioner partner and that uh I am on the affordable housing committee I do think it's interesting to know that federal government is looking at um opening up some of that Federal some of those Federal lands for affordable housing uh to allow to give
direction to the uh HFA as well as uh the affordable housing Committee of the county to evaluate that and come back with with a report of recommendations on
on how we should move forward as a County on that might be a good Avenue to go down right now uh given the fact that I think uh as commissioner O'Keefe said it is just a report in the paper and from what I
understand the federal government president Trump is is throwing a lot of things against the wall and seeing what sticks and he and that and his Administration has been known to throw something there see how much
how big the public outcry is and then pull it back within weeks and so what I would ask commissioner pror is that you allow for the affordable housing committee as well as HFA to take a look at this uh on behalf of the board and
send back up recommendations or their thoughts on how the board should move forward and then allow for us as a commission to Che on those recommendations to see if there something that um staff can come back with with some recommendations on thank
you Mr chair thank you commissioner uh Maddox we're back to commissioner Proctor thank you commissioner your your thinking on this is uh uh consistent
um seldom I disagree with the County Administrator but when I do um I do and today uh not withstanding everything that you've said about this
Administration uh there are reasons that you should be cautious um the Interior Department and the uh HUD is making an
offer and um from a Administration that has offered nothing but has destroyed much this is the only clear thing that
this Administration has offered that that I have seen constructive that does not dismantle and tear down lives government the seeks to enhance it's the only thing I've seen if you can find a rose any place else in a
cowp pass let me know but I just want to share uh their statement that working together our agencies can inventory of underused underused federal properties
transfer or lease them to States or localities to address housing needs and support the infrastructure required to make the development viable so with this land the support of
infrastructure if it's for affordable housing comes with that package that they pay for all while ensuring affordability remains as the core of the mission we said that that was one of the
County's goals we've gone down rabbit holes and come up empty before and I don't quite understand why we would refuse to um to consider this as as as valid now what's very interesting here
is there a statement that streamlining the regulatory process is a Cornerstone of this partnership and historically building on Federal Land as a nightmare of red tape this partnership will cut through the bureaucracy interior will reduce the red tape behind
land transfers or leases to public housing authorities nonprofits and local government that's our name local government HUD will ensure these projects align with affordability goals
and development needs um I have never in 28 years seen anything to gift local government from interior or HUD and I speak to you um javelle where
at um um as having been um US senator Bob Grahams liaison to HUD housing Urban Development and I speak to you with the
experience of federal background in housing I'm telling y'all never seen nothing like this um javel uh preceded me in working in US senator Bob Grahams
office uh I wish I'd never worked there CU they like to kill me with work and um Vince your a Regina worked in US sen Bob Graham's office for 13 14 years very
talented but this right here is well worth and I'm asking you all to uh review it to allow to marinate and possibly to come back and give it another thought while we're independently
elected we're not a group um I should disclose to you that I will continue to look into the um the variables that will make this real it could be throwing something on
the wall to see what will stick uh but it could be the possibility of those who first in line May well find treasure I'm going to
take that chance and um independent of you uh my searching for uh the stability of This Promise uh is what I'm going to proceed to do so I'm very grateful for
y'all giving me a opportunity to share this information and um where where does new wine go uh where do you put new wine where do you put new
thinking where do you put new thinking well Jesus said that you can't put new wine in old wine skins or it burst and it spills on the ground thank you very much um Mr
chairman thank you commissioner P commissioner Cummings wait um is the motion tell Flor we have a motion okay and we have a second from commissioner Cummings I'm going to go after okay Mr chairman i' like to withdraw my motion I withdraw my motion you want to withdraw your motion yes sir okay okay so I have
no motion okay commissioner Maddox I do think commission I do think the County Administrator does have an idea uh commission pner and I hate to let the opportunity pass when I read it I was excited about it too I don't know what when they say fed lands I know I don't want to mess with the national fors but
are there other fed lands that we could look at it's not a bad idea for it for someone to evaluate it uh so what I'll do is I'll make a motion that we ask as the County Administrator said the board asked the HFA as well as the affordable housing committee for the county to to
look at these proposals coming down from the federal government and give recommendation um um an evaluation of uh those proposals that' be my motion Mr chair I'll second it Mr chair all right we have a motion in a
second um all right any further discussion yeah oh I I never did get a chance to come okay go ahead commissioner Cummings uh thank you uh Mr chair uh a couple of things um I think we need to recognize that this is the
federal government that's going to be doing the dentification it's a federal government's land and based on what we have here in some other articles that we have it says that these two federal agencies have formed the task force and
they will be looking at Federal properties in various States they might not even look at Florida we we don't know but they will be doing uh the identification so I think it's good if we have already have an affordable housing committee already established
with the member of the commission as part of that committee I think it's a great idea as recommended by commissioner Proctor that we have that committee as lays on to look at it in
the event property in for Florida and specifically in Leon County is identified by the federal government but based on my reading of this it's not us to identify the property they will identify a property that they feel might
be in line uh with their their policies and procedures to increase affordable housing so it might just go right over us we don't know Mr chair thank you commissioner cumings um commissioner Max before you go I've got commissioner caban and then um commissioner O'Keefe
and then I'll come back to you commissioner madx but I want to chime in just real quickly I will not support the motion I think that the what the County Administrator is saying to us is that we are putting ourselves in a different posture if we
subscribe to this this idea that the federal government through the department of interior and the department of Hud are going to make Federal lands potentially available for for housing 500 million Acres of federal land they're not talking about like an inner city block of land they're talking
about national parks and national forests and there is no scenario in which I would support if the federal government came to us right now and said you can have 500 Acres of the national forest I would say no I don't want 500 Acres of the national forest it's a national
Forest so there is no scenario under this idea that I could support so I think that by taking this posture as a board we're sort of saying okay well we're willing to consider that
I'm not willing to consider that um we we're supposed to be building housing in our inner city um we're supposed to be infilling our comp plan amendments are taking efforts the to do that I think that this is like letting a foot in the
door a you know crack in the door to say oh we consider that I I just don't think that's a good policy position it's not a policy position that I don't think most of us would support so I cannot support that motion I think that our HFA and our Housing
Finance committees are already looking at every single alternative and if the federal government comes to them and goes hey what do you think about what land in Leon County is possible for this they're going to say well the national forest is the most obvious choice so I
just don't think the federal government owns a bunch of land downtown um and so that they're not going to use for a courthouse so that's my thought on it so um now we can yall carry on um commissioner comman okay commissioner madx thank you
Mr chair um I understand what you're saying but I think you you missing the premise in which I'm speaking to do this um I think commissioner makes a good point the lands will be identified by the federal government so it's almost like if somebody came to you and said
I'm going to give you half million dollars uh I'll identify where it's coming from out of my money but I'm going to give you a half million dollars and you don't have a mechanism to evaluate the half million do they're trying to give you because well I don't want to I don't agree with the with the
pile of money that you may go get the half million dollar out of so I'm not even going to create something to see if I want to look into it I think it's a little bit I think I think I think we're I think we're thinking a little bit too far ahead right here so I think what I'm
what I'm attempting to do here is is have a group designated being the HFA being the affordable housing committee who does this work that will be able to take a look at whatever Federal lands they are
considering and then be able to chew on that and make recommendations back to this board without commitment to say thank you m thank you mam pass immediate pass commitment to say that's something that we're going to do
um it's not it's not a thing of you know if or let's say well we're going to push for it no it's just if they're going to find lands within the State of Florida Leon County if they're willing to to to give for affordable housing what are we
going to say we're just not going to consider those lands we're not going to evaluate those lands I think I think having a group designated to say to dig into this and say okay what are you considering or to look at what they're considering and to to bring it back and look at it before we even get a get a
get a hold to it because you're right it may be something that we're never going to consider but I still don't think it's something that we shouldn't have another group of people look at and and say whether or not we should be considering it I just think it's it's it's a little bit short minded for us not to at least
have someone that is designated to to look at this as a first level of Defense to see if it's even worth the commission's time to come back and look at it as a whole so um that's the intent of the motion to say if if the federal government identifies land in Leon
County that the first line of defense that will that will take a look at it will be jalani marks and and the folks in our HFA sorry our affordable housing committee and our HFA to see is this something that's even worth our commission's time is this something that
we would recommend as a affordable housing committee that our commission look at because we that committee will take to into consideration do is it in the National Forest is it something that we want to do in the National Forest is it outside how far is it from the the
urban Services area well what what part of affordable is it how affordable will it be if it's outside of the urban Services area and all the other housing cost that comes with it you know is that really affordable for someone who who may work in town and these are all things that we talk about every day when
we have those those meetings so I think it's the right group if if the federal government is going to go down this this uh this this road uh to evaluate it first and and give recommendation back to the county and that is the intent thank you Mr chair on the point of that commissioner madx again I think if we're
acting based on this oped then this opet is is about federally massively owned federal land we're talking about national parks and National Forest that's what they are talking about they're not talking about Urban infill they're talking about
national forest and national parks and so if you take this posture you're saying you're down for that and my only point is I'm say well that would be my opinion is that taking this posture right now in response to this this article is saying you're down for that
that's not of what I'm saying it's not a it's not saying we're down for that it's saying that instead of when it comes down commissioner partner coming back and saying that these lands have been identified in Leon County by the federal
government and I want our County Administrator and staff to look at it we've already designated for commissioner Proctor that he will not do that that instead that that that that that proposal will go to the HFA as well as the affordable housing committee as a
first line of defense and they will look at it and will matriculate up that way if they come back and say that they have Federal lands available it's not it's no indication that I support any of it do I want to build in the National Forest absolutely not but if they're going to
say that we have land commissioner pner has shown that he's going to come back every single time and say that they got land they're giving it to us what we going to do well commissioner P this is the mechanism for it to be evaluated that we can have a group look at it and then you can get the information you
need to come back to us and make a flea without using our staff's time that's no indication that I'm that I support anything that's just me trying to look at it at this picture as a whole at the as the district one commissioner is going to fight fight like hell for this to the day he's not on this commission
anymore and he's going to ask the staff every single time to evaluate it well let's let our citizens evaluate it and then let it matriculate up and give him the stuff that he needs so then we may they may evaluate and say to commissioner pror commissioner PR it's not worth our time because it's this this another and in the cost is this
that and the other it's not really affordable and then he'll get the information he needs without staff using the time that he's got they got to use that could be going on to other things it's just a first line defense it's not consent don't characterize my my motion as saying that I'm giving consent that I
am on board with this it's just a way of evaluating the proposals if you don't agree with it it's totally fine but don't mischaracterize my intent that's all I'm asking thank you all right commission or you want to go M commissioner
command commissioner Cummings you want to go okay after commissioner command thank you Mr chair um for a point of clarification how does the the current motion on the floor defer from the stance that we've taken already um if I may address the question to the county of mrict I feel like it's kind of very
similar uh I know before we had discussed uh a surplus of federal land outside of the national for so I'm just looking for a little clarification thank you Mr chairman uh commissioner yeah and let me be real clear uh on I wasn't expressing an opinion initially what I was saying was
if the board chose to uh give us the direction to form a task force just simply that you have two in place right now that would be good and you could do that or do a different task force but the second part of what I said was that you might want to have a discussion just
like this one so that that task force knew what the parameters of their charge would be and again and the board could decide that so you're not reading in the news newspaper tomorrow that there's a task force out running and identifying lands in the National Force if that's not what the board wants and so the a
conversation like this one is good if you decided to have a to have a task force do this then a policy discussion like this is probably warranted and we don't have an opinion on it whatever the direction of the board is it is and we would charge them to do that but we would need that clarification given that
the board's previous Direction has been limited to Surplus lands so that's all I was suggesting thank you Mr chair May sure um commissioner Maddox what are is your motion using prefacing using the current existing advisory boards or creating a new task force no just
current currently and then in in your motion are we um designating specifically like clearly that this is not for National Force land no it's not what I'm saying is sorry go ahead Mr commissioner madx any federal lands
that's identified for the by the federal government government as lands that they were are willing to allow for local governments to use for affordable housing that our HFA and our affordable housing
committee operate as a task force to evaluate that and make recommendation back to our commission now if the commission wants to give direction to them that the commission will not entertain Federal Park national park lands then so be give them that
direction but don't limit them from being able to evaluate the whatever may come down for the from federal government as in lands for affordable housing so where I'm at um commissioner Maddox I will support the motion if in the motion it is very
clearly defined that we are that this does not pertain to any national forest land that that's where I am on it because I want it to be very very clear that um this does not entail we will not entertain um the development of the National Force in any way shape or form
that's just kind of where I am on the on the motion uh thank you Mr chair yes sir we don't resp respon can commissioner Cummings would like to chime in here I think bless it okay yeah in in response to that what
I'd be willing to do is say is give direction from this board that it won't approve any national park lands okay okay but I still want that committee to
have the ability to look at any lands and make recommendation that comes from the national government so if we if we don't want to we don't have to but but give them the ability to look at anything that comes from the national government in the way affordable hous Mr chair sure commissioner if that if that
how if that is how we would approach it I wouldn't be able to support it and and the reason for that is I've learned how the process goes you know if if federal land and National Force becomes available they bring it to the board it's citizen Advisory Board the citizen Advisory Board it gets the legs to it and next thing we know what
kind of grows and grows and grows it becomes a bigger bigger ordeal and so I'd rather just um end the conversation Right Here Right Now versus allow it to get legs so thank you Mr chair commissioner yes commissioner uh Mr chair I I think the motion on the flo
floor is all in the posture of us being informed Commissioners we're here representing the citizens of of Leon County um looking at those individuals who are homeless who need affordable
housing right now all we have is this oped from The Wall Street Journal so I want to be more informed so I think the the two standing committees that were identified by the County Administrator that's part of commissioner mad's motion
are clearly capable of looking at anything that comes from the federal government that might just might and it might not that just might Identify some federal lands here in leyon county and then we as a board as a commission if we
want to emphatically say no uh we don't agree with uh your designation of any land in leyon county for affordable housing we can do it at that time but right now everything is hypothetical nothing has been identified yet so I
just think we we uh need to be more informed be well informed and I believe those standing committees can serve um as an informance for us but right now I don't want to just close the door without walking through it a
little so I support the motion on the floor all right um commissioner Miner and then commissioner Proctor thank you Mr chairman would support commissioner mx's motion if it had the exception for the national forest um that's the that's
the only reason way I would support it and uh I appreciate what he's trying to do but I'm going to I can't support the motion on the floor thank you Mr chairman all right commissioner par you want to close us out U Mr chairman I'm not sure I can but Mr chairman um Commissioners what I like about the language is uh clearly uh that it states
um they're working these agency our agencies are working to take inventory of underused use federal properties they didn't call them National they didn't call them some of the words you've used but they said Federal properties transfer or lease them to States or
localities to address housing needs and support the infrastructure required to make development viable they're not just giving the land but they bringing them money and they said the word support that means money y'all know support like child support money to
support the infrastructure this is a a a low to no cost potentially to us to support the national goal uh when somebody tells you that they're going to support the infrastructure required to make the development viable and tells us
that interior will reduce the red tape behind land transfers or leases to public authorities housing authorities nonprofits and local governments so we may not be the force that have to step
forward anyway um T has a Housing Authority uh could be a source and with the infrastructure of support of infrastructure uh promise in these developments um they really wouldn't
need us but they don't need us much anyway for um we're local government our names been called the Housing Authority or nonprofit so there could be any uh
anybody that registers up as a nonprofit get access to a bunch of land and create a gated community with something that was purposed to be for affordable uh for many many years uh I have seen land I don't know commissioner
command what makes sacred something called National Forest um Golden Eagle was a forest Summerbrook was a forest I remember when oxbottom was a forest uh the east side out there I remember all of that being a forest U
going out to uh Buck Lake Road was going out in the country that was a forest that we can't cut down the forest each one of us live some place that was a forest so I I misunderstand what makes I'm a federal
citizen of the United States I'm a citizen of the state of Florida I'm a citizen of Leon County I'm all of them all three of them things that dirt is mine State dirt is mine and County dirt
is mine is all of ours because it belongs to We the People and this government that don't pay no taxes we got uh um Mr long if we got 52% the majority of our property taxes is
not even taxable uh we could flip this increase our tax base you all may not have driven down to Crawfordville and in particular driving to the east side of Crawfordville to see all the homes built uh you may have
not driven to Midway recently to see all of the people who have moved from Tallahassee as firsttime home buyers and all of that affordable housing to go to Gatson County we have lost lost population and
we have lost Eternal tax advantages for the failure of having property that uh could sustain new communities uh this offer for us to get ready this announcement this blowing of the
bugle um is absolutely uh what each of us Commissioners do information that we receive things that are happening opportunities of which we can Advantage our community this county is what each
of us um some part of our duty as Commissioners we try to do to empower to make an impact and in particular for affordable and making room in this count this particular County shouldn't have to go down to uh uh Crawfordville and wulla
to get an affordable opportunity you drive past the national forest past it and now the federal government saying we will give you the land land and we will give you the infrastructure to make real opportunities for affordable I'm not trying to get the
Northside property but I I I just want the southside's national forest to be made available St Joe owns the rest God knows that uh God knows that uh Southwood was a forest
Southwood ain't nothing holy about that so what's so holy about National I can't do this show no um I will support the motion and I hope that we um will evolve in that uh
new wine possibly may have to go into new wine skin possibly thank you very much all right we've got a motion one one other thing Mr chair um one one final comment
about National Land National Forest um County Administrator would tell you that um shoot 15 18 20 years ago we actually federal government was swapping out
land for the uh North Florida Fairground and Congressman Boyd made possible and set Arrangements that we would move the fairground into the National Forest
boy did that um he didn't think the land was holy uh he was trying to make help to facilitate the fairground uh becoming available to the community so um I say you
colleagues that we've had a precedent whereby we were on the cusp of owning Federal property if you will was about to be given to us for $3.99 and here we have property that we
likely can re retain for free .99 and um if we could look Beyond uh Our Moment on this stage of life and note that we had an opportunity years ago to purchase Capital Circle for very
cheap price our commissioners say no it ain't going to never Capital Circle we don't never go out we never reached that far we bought a two-lane road and many years later we've paid illions of dollars to fulfill and to have the
ownership we could have got an easement we didn't pay for it at that time I submit to you that 60 75 years from now uh we would have looked very astute uh we would looked very um U wisdomatic
to have set in in place even if we only inventory this property Mr chairman uh in our own Holdings as a county now what's unique and different Commissioners about um president Trump's
ask E6 property exterior exterior to the boundaries of United States we're seeking uh ownership of property that's interior within the boundaries of Le
that that's not a hard see the future will reward our thinking if we act to secure for the future it may not be any cuse that we make but that's why people plant trees
for their grandchildren to uh Harvest those and become wealthy thank you mrman all right Commissioners we got a motion by commissioner Maddox in a second from Comm Cummings all those in favor signify by saying I I all those opposed no okay
so we have uh four nay and three Ys uh the motion does not pass um do you need me to articulate the okay all right Commissioners um commissioner Proctor back to fin um issue tonight thank you U Commissioners
you all have been very tender and kind and patient thank you uh today we met with the Jake G of homeowners uh um Board of U leadership board and um um assistant administrator uh in the fall was there
and we had um commissioner Williams Cox and uh Curtis Richardson were in attendance and the issue about um water as it relates to J gther golf uh Club um
the housing on Creek Road uh the flooding on North re Road and the water coming from the East side along Orange Avenue into that community and the dredging of Lake
Henrietta uh owned by the county uh was put forth and I want to um to um ask uh our staff um and to make the motion that our staff be permitted
to work with the city's efforts to um make identification of those issues which are uh continuing to cause uh flooding uh in the community of J
Gaither and that our staff um also be encouraged to make recommendations with respect to alleviating uh the flooding and I'm not an engineer uh but Mr long what was
presented today was that it's it it it seems to be the failure of Lake Henrietta to receive the waters passing through the back of the golf course coming down the Silver Lake passing
Under the Bridge Under the North Ridge Road and coming into Lake Henrietta and he Henrietta thus uh that water moving south into mson slooh but it's been said that Lake
Henrietta uh is a is um is a kidney that's not functioning and I'd like very much if um this board would support my ask uh of our staff working with the city to see uh what adjustments can
occur that we can facilitate the waterers flow into mson slooh so move you got that we do and we'd be happy to receive that direction I think it's consistent with what we're doing currently on Lake Henrietta but I think commissioner
Proctor is right that we could further support the city's efforts to deal with their swes and their ditches so that the water gets there but it's consistent with what the work that we're doing in Henrietta and um yeah all right so we have a motion in a second commissioner o'keef okay any other discussion
territorially Mr chairman what um Commission Richardson and commissioner Williams Cox um both noted heads to is that our responsibility is at the west side of
Ridge Ro and the city's uh jurisdiction is the East Side Silver Lake uh J gther sclf course Creek Road all of that so NE fall unless I missed something our
Focus um I deferred in the fall if I may commissioner go ahead uh yes commissioner your your on point the City commissioners both pointed to the limits of where the city jurisdiction was and where the County's jurisdiction was um
where it goes into Lake andata and further south okay so I'm merely asking that the scope of our uh uh inquiry uh as well as relief to make that water
flow is the lake Henry and the west side of um Ridge Ro I think staff's clear okay good good good all right thank you all right commissioner Miner thank you Mr chairman um do we have to vote on that oh I'm
sorry my bad we have a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I I I'll oppose passes unanimously sorry about that commissioner Miner TR thank you Mr chairman um the 25th chain of parks Art Festival is coming up on April
26th and 27th and I'd like to make a motion for a proclamation to recognize the festival's 25-year Milestone Nextel move all right we got a motion of second all those in favor signify by saying I I I pass it unanimously also I'd like to move for a proclamation recognizing the Holocaust Education Resource Council
herk on its 20th anniversary so move seconded uh by commissioner command all those in favor signify by saying I I pass it unanimously thank you and then finally um to my County Commission colleagues uh the Florida Association of couny legislative day is tomorrow uh and so
registration starts at at fa um at 7:00 a.m. at the Challenger Center uh with the legislative briefing starting at 8:00 so if you'd like to come I know we'd love to have you uh commissioner vice vice chair caban was was uh um going to be there there but I know he has a scheduling conflict and so uh I
was supposed to be there for him and I can't so uh we'll miss you too but if anybody else can make it uh it's it's a good day there's a lot of great County Commissioners from around the state coming to Tallahassee uh to meet talk about legislative priorities at the state level for fact that help all of us
here back at home and then we'll go ahead and move on to the capital and talk to legislator legislators advocating for those policies so that's all I got thank you Mr chairman thank you commissioner Miner for your brevity we appreciate that commissioner o'keef thank you Mr chair um and commissioner Miner make sure you let me tag along to
the chain of parks presentation uh to that Proclamation um so that that uh my wife can spend some money as well when we're there um I have a question I think probably for the uh County attorney Mr I'll have you direct it I believe it was last year the year before we created an
ordinance uh relating to soliciting on private property that said if there was a certain sign uh with specific requirements referencing a county statute if somebody was soliciting without written permission they could be trespassed from the uh private property
and I was curious if we have had any Act activity on that have any businesses inquired about the proper signage do we know if it's been um enforced or that um Madam County attorney I could defer to administrative
staff they they might be aware of that I have not heard anything I can say anecdotally I've seen the signs I was going to say I keep my eye out I haven't seen one yet I haven't seen one those proper yet but I have seen quite a few um we'd probably have to bring that back to you yeah so they may not have that information um do we want staff to
anecdotally can you chime in or in terms of enforcement or utility of those yes so when a business reaches out we defer them to the oev website uh which has the information about how they can put a sign up what it needs to look like and so as businesses reach out we just tell
them what they need um but anecdotally it's a few that have reached out we could look into exactly how many have utilized that though perfect if uh I don't need to make a motion or anything if you could send me that info um after the meeting that'd be fine awesome not tonight following our meeting um the uh
the second thing I have is I would like to uh request a proclamation recognizing March as developmental disabilities awareness month I would present this to the Florida disability Florida developmental disabilities council at their office at an event later this
month perfect I'll second all right we have motion a second all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes uh six nothing with commissioner Proctor out of Chambers thank you um and I uh move uh to request an agenda item for next
meeting to consider a $3,000 sponsorship towards wfsu kids career day that is on May 17th uh it's an event from wfsu public media that highlights careers for kids and launches people into that
interest um for our policy um I'm trying to get out 60 days ahead of time so we could have that as an agenda item to consider a $3,000 sponsorship to wfsu all right we have a we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes 60
commissioner Proctor out of Chambers uh and the last thing is um uh I want to thank commissioner Miner for coming out for our crosswalks to Courtyard event with KCCI we painted nice pretty colors around the uh crosswalks and I want to
thank KCCI for making sure that the art looked good we were not going to let it in District 5 unless it was sharp and it came out great um so thank you for everyone who put that together that's all I have thank you commissioner o'keef commissioner Cummings thank you Mr chair I want to thank uh commissioner
Maddox for uh the proclamation for Coach Hamilton today and as I indicated when he was was there it's some Community sentiment about renaming the Florida State basketball court court after him
and of course that's not nothing we can do that's something that has to be done by FSU but I would certainly like the commission uh to support that particular effort in the guise of maybe
a letter of support to um to the president of the University so I I move that uh we authorize the chair to prepare a letter of support to rename the Florida State basketball court the
Leonard Leonard Hamilton court at the tuckle L uh Donald tuckle Civic Center thank all right we got a motion and second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I passes Mr Proctor
unanimously all right yes um commissioner Cummings uh yes um Mr chair um of course this is women's history month and there's been a lot of activities and banquets and luncheons
recognizing just remarkable women here that do a lot of great things in the community present uh and and past and I'm certainly appreciative of all the the women in our community that continue to
uplift uh the the community and supported the proclamation that we gave today for uh women history month but even though we have a lot of women that continue to make strides and
significant contributions locally and nationally oh we do have women that are struggling um with mental health issues with with homelessness drug
addiction trafficking sex trafficking and I think we all remember a couple of weeks ago when it was a big uh sting over in Jefferson County where they arrested over 10 individuals that were perpetrators of
this human human trafficking um locally I know we know that we have women that are suffering you all you have to do is is walk down Pensacola Street or go
out Mayan East and you can see homeless people but specifically I guess because it's women History Month I me I'm mentioning women but you can see the number of women at all ages young old uh
that are homeless and one of the speakers on a non-agenda item tonight uh it was ironic that he had Matt put up a picture of a apparently a homeless female that was crossing crossing the
street um down on Crawfordville Road or somewhere in that area uh who was who was homeless in um last month there was a forum on human trafficking and what they
what they did if they had an individual who was a victim of human trafficking who came to the Forum and she told her story about horrific her experience was but as part of that Forum
they had some professional individuals one profession at at from um from the college uh TSC uh was there and also a psychology
um Professor who also works with Survive and Thrive with human trafficking and she was there one of the things that they shared is that drug traffickers human traffickers sex traffickers they
pray on individuals with certain characteristics at the top homelessness they pray on um homeless individuals they pray on those that might be hungry lack money lack
food uh and of course if you're homeless you got low self-esteem uh and so women that are homeless with those characteristics are just vulnerable now I know we we are concerned about our overall homeless
population but I'm trying to uh just put a focus on women uh at this particular point because homeless women are really more vulnerable to being victims of sex
crimes um being victims of um human trafficing crimes than just your general population of of men so what what I what I would like to do
Commissioners I'd like to probably get your opinion but I'd like to do uh a mo I like to uh move that we look at whether or not it could make a difference Mr County
Administrator if we had some specific specific um individuals specifically um our host deputies that are specifically designated to look at
our women in our homeless population now Commissioners you all remember back in 2022 we approved funding for two host deputies and their job was to specifically look at the homeless the
homeless population the sheriff gave us a report in that report I think after 6 months they identified close to 200 individuals but close to a 100 of those were women I
believe the report indicated 81 81 or 91 women that were homeless uh on the street and I don't know I I just wonder if we had a specific
individual a host Deputy sherff that dealt specifically with the women that are homeless with our goal being to get all of the women and girls we
know that we have uh children that are homeless as well among them girls they're vulnerable too okay if the ultimate goal was to get all of the homeless women off off the street would that make a
remarkable difference we also got some information from the sheriff department on the number of homeless individuals that are arrested or that have been arrested over the last one or two months and that's close
to 200 or over 200 and I know we've talked before about what it cost to maintain a person in jail in uh incarcerated over one night over two
nights over five nights and a lot of these individuals Comm commissioner Proctor are women out of the number of women and their recidivist as well but what struck me in looking at the
report a lot of them are arrested for something like petty theft and petty theft is stealing something that's valued less than $750 which means to me that that's just
somebody trying to survive from day you know from day to day petty theft not Grand Theft petty theft theft some of them are are are just charged with uh stealing
food sealing a bottle of water so what what I would like to do this women History Month Commissioners is have staff bring back an agenda item to look
at the variables that will be involved with the host Sheriff to deal specifically with our homeless women who many of them have mental issues too and we've discussed that mental issues many
of them have substance of abuse issues but I venture to say I I believe if if there was a specific host Sheriff designated just for the women I I I just believe it would make a
difference in the population and if we have a ultimate goal of 100% removal of women from the street I think that's a lofty goal and I think it's achievable as well so I would like Mr County Administrator if that's
possible Mr chair that motion I second yes Mr chairman I and I was just going to add we if this is the motion we'd be happy to analyze that and bring it back I would just offer the board may wish to expand it further because there are good programs uh in the community whether
it's Refuge House shelter or hope or others that do good things and we may again bring those programs back as well for the board because there may be a an existing program that's doing good work and and may be effective in addition us bringing back whatever recommendations we might have for the host deputies oh
thank you Mr County and I recognize survive and thrive in many of those organizations that house our women that house house our children and they are really working and doing a great job with the whole sharers that the two that are designated on the street now but I
just believe doing this women History Month that that we Commissioners all of us have mothers and most of you have wives we have daughters okay we have granddaughters goddaughters and I just
believe that it's time for us to give some special attention to our women that find themselves victims of homelessness with all of the other vices including you know mental health drug abuse what
have you all right we've got a motion in a second uh commissioner Proctor you'd like to chime in well commissioner I support this good motion um uh I want um I mean often I I feel many of the things
that uh commissioner cumin stated but sometimes um not being a woman I don't want to mess up the language of uh what the state uh the language that you is
delicate um trafficking sexual abuse um the vulnerability of uh not having uh adequate safeguards uh for
girls but sometimes it's it's it's just uh almost Politically Incorrect to give a woman a compliment anymore without a compliment being skewed wrong so you just don't even talk
about women what they need and all of that cuz it almost ain't worth the word woman I don't know if the Trump Administration has eliminated it among the 200 words that they don't want to talk about but um it's excellent point
support it wholeheartedly um the sheriff um to the credit of uh this board uh thought to reduce the recidivism particular on court of
Pensacola and um running the risk of of a looking like a social work agency versus a law enforcement agency our board hit the breaks and sort of um
agreed that the criminal enforcement for people who were who were some of them mentally ill uh some of them just completely disoriented some of them knowwhere to go
so lock people for Laing because of their economic conditions so commissioner cing is if you don't pull this this load ain't ain't none of us up here can do it but you uh four of
us up here don't have wives um you ain't gotten one and three of those guys don't have one so this is the stuff that uh we lean on you for your sensitivities you're seeing now the
is the first or second report of the commission on women and girls they did a clear delineation of the sociological traumas I mean just categories of women but they went soft
in the data that they first presented they just backed away from those kinds of reports the chart and tell us the um intricate details of women in this
community I don't know why if they do not Chronicle the hurts the pains the sufferings the places the spaces with women and how hard it is to graduate up to the Alice population to get there
here and um I Heard Rachel tell the group today uh it's hard to graduate up and when you get to Alice anything can pull you back
down so my whole heart uh supports what you're asking for it's well worth a sit down with the sheriff who we all gave great commendations for his this and his that and I think that the sheriff that
we have will be empathetic and possibly would entertain we might have to pay for it but the position you're talking about but I don't think that all the women and I've long thought this you know being the chair of the and
touring the jail from the posture of chairing the Public Safety Council and our task is to reduce the jail population and I I I just don't believe that the women that I uh see I don't
think I'm looking at criminals but they in jail with criminals as criminals and there is something that mist triggered fallen short um misc something have happened
that they're not free and called criminals and I don't think it's uh their men's rear are their Criminal Mind intent is a factor at all so I support that because those are not all criminals
is something that fallen short in life and they've landed there um so I'm I'm with you thank you commissioner proor commissioner O'Keefe thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner Cummings um I absolutely support this especially if we're talking
about um offering to the sheriff being willing to fund another host Deputy to uh execute this special purpose um and um I look forward to hearing back on from the sheriff and the current host deputies how this would look and what they think would be effective and I
think that it's uh worthwhile use of um our resources thank you thank you commissioner o'keef we've got a motion and a second um all those in favor signify by saying I I poose passes unanimously back to you commissioner
Cummings um Mr Mr chair that really all I have I just um just want to thank again the the members of this commission uh for the diligence and professionalism and comaraderie that we have on the
board and can't say enough about the County Administrator our County attorney and the Quality quality of work that they bring to this board bring to the county as well as their marvelous staff that does all the work dayto day so just
thank thank you Mr chair thank you commissioner Cummings commissioner Maddox Mr chair I start with the hard stuff first um there's a request from the value adjustment board where I'm chair and commissioner caban is a member uh that the commission wave the uh term
limit uh the committee term limit um policy uh so that we may be able to keep one of our members who has turned out and been a very faithful good member of the board letter was sent to you Mr chair to uh a letter was sent to you Mr
chair on behalf of the board from our our uh value adjustment board attorney uh Madam attorney is this something that needs to come back as a u as a agenda item or is this something we could take up in a moment Madam
attorney uh so I believe uh there's already an agenda item in April to consider an applicant uh a new applicant for uh appointment to that value adjustment board I'm sure if it's the board's Direction this issue could be added to that agenda item for April yes
please if uh Mr chair with with the board's discretion I ask that be added to consideration as I understand it that the person who appli may be on another committee which would eliminate them as a potential member for that for the for the vum adjustment board and in the case
that that does happen and I think the board wants to ask the committee uh the committee wants to ask the board to consider uh extending those uh or or waving the time limit or the term limit for the member who is effectively
rolling off because of term limits all right is that a motion um do I need a motion to add that Madam chair any the will of the board or just can second all right so move okay uh we've got a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I commiss Proctor go ahead um
mrman thank you commissioner madx uh and County attorney there's a precedent for what is asked but it's not to wave the entirety of the different boards 40 boards uh we have president for the code enforcement board where if
you go back you'll see where we have extended the time and the exception the exception being uh the the knowledge thing the special um the specialty um um information
knowledge that that person serving brought to the board uh which was rare and um um non duplicable and because of the U extraordinary um um command of subject
matter uh our staff actually sought the board to extend that members presence so we do have a president Madam County attorney and uh in part uh the exception has been based on um specialty uh of
knowledge all right so we've got a okay commissioner o'keef which member are of the board are we talking about I'm sorry which member yes um um it's it's it's it's giving my mind right now yeah it'll be come back as an item uh he
is the I know he's the county appointee on the board give me the members on the board I tell you Gregory Cowan cow okay thank you all right we have a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I passes unanimously that'll be added to the item coming back
all right the rest of pretty easy I request a proclamation from Dr Beverly uh Beverly barber retired Professor fam mu artistic director of orchesis contemporary dance for 37 years choreographer fam you theater dance for 35 years choreographer for The Marching
100 in the 1960s and one of the founders of the har arts and cultural heritage festival I'd like to give her a proclamation okay we got a motion the second all those in favor signif saying I I passes unanimously um motion
celebrating Terence Barbara in nine years of working class Wednesdays Proclamation all right we got Motion in a second for working class wednesday is my LT classmate Terence Barber commissioner O'Keefe um I uh appreciate what Mr
Barbara does for working class wednesday um but I'm I'm going to oppose this one um uh respectfully thank you all right we've got a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying I I opposed O'Keefe is opposed and back to
you passes 61 all right Proclamation celebrating a life and Legacy of Ruth Chase uh there is my motion chair all right we got a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes unanimously Mr chair great meeting thank
you thank you commissioner madx Mr Vice chair thank you Mr chair it's been a great meeting Commissioners um pull up my notes uh not if uh Commissioners if if you all read the news I believe it was sometime last
week but there were four students from FSU who uh saved a man on the golf course who was um having a heart attack and um kept him Alive by administering uh CPR um the name of the four gentlemen
were Tai Schmidt Charlie France Tommy provenzano and Brandon Moore so I would like to request a proclamation um for for their efforts I got a motion a second and all those in favor signify by saying I I passes
unanimously thank you um next you know commissioner Miner you you when we I can't remember where it was or if you were talking to uh Miss Woodall or um Mr vain but during that um dialogue you said something that I thought was very
pivotal and it was um you know in public service it's it's hard and difficult um advocating and fighting for folks who can't come to meetings they can't pay you they're just um you know they're U
an atrisk part of our community and um with that I had been prepared to share some data that was gathered by the Children's Services Council in regards to the Fort Braden Family Resource Center and this is particularly in the
323 one Z zip code and commissioner Proctor this is a we share this ZIP code it's not just for you know for breed in the ryal community this is the entire zip code but 65 in the through their survey
65% of families in our 32310 Community have children under the 18 40% of families are single family households 27% of children in 32310 live below the poverty
line 67% of community survey respondents cded Transportation challenges 67% of every respondent um in that 32310 zip code who responded to the
survey SED Transportation challenges um well I think that's prominent is because over the last year and a half in my district um there's been two
weather events one being the April 2024 flooding event and one being the May 10th tornadoes where there was significant damage um to folks who live in mobile homes and manufactured homes
one in particular um Ally and I saw with our own eyes during the April weather event seeing um folks having to be evacuated by a boat um from the sheriff department in partnership with the fire department through the mobile home park
on West Highway 90 because the water level was I mean above their their front door um second was being the May 10th tornadoes which tragically resulted in um one of our constituents in District 2
um in the middle of the night um passing ultimately because a tree fell on her home um Additionally you know dozens and dozens of other um homes and mobile homes that were damaged and tying this all together you know I uh had some
conversation with the County Administrator on Saturday in regards to the weather vent that was incoming and um I want to preface this conversation by thanking the County Administrator because I know that um in times of emergency weather events it's all hands- on deck and um it takes around the clock
work and around the clock communication and um I greatly appreciate the experience that the County Administrator has in his team and I'm very aware in acknowledging that that experience outweighs any of our experience when it
comes to Natural weather events um however I was elected to represent the needs of our constituents in District 2 and um some of those needs that I have been hearing in feedback from our office and also what we've seen just being in touch with the community is that um when
it comes to our mobile homes and atrisk Community I think that we need to look at um additional measures to educate our folks who live in mobile homes and manufactured homes to um for storm preparation Readiness um Mr County
Administrator I know that we've had some conversations about this um you know just recently early this spring in some meetings that we've had but um to point out where I think there should there could be a point of confusion um I think it was the National Weather
Service posted at 4:15 p.m. on on one of their social media posts that our mobile homes should like prepare that their mobile homes were not safe and one of the points addition to that it said you know prepare in advance that was coming
straight from their their Facebook post that that our staff re-shared um going back to the data points that I shared our staff sent um a m text out I think it was around 6:30 p.m. which I was greatly appreciative of but
factoring the data that we have 67% of our community survey respondents side the transportation challenges so when you look at um the means of some of our folks on the west side of our community and south side of our community I think
that um there are some significant challenges that when we issue an emergency response um prohibits them from being able to just get up and leave and so um I I want to point that out and um Mr County Administrator I don't know
where we are kind of in the process as far as working on um those I know we talked about this when our meeting with DM it's like what those practices are going to look like um when do you think that we'll be able to see some of that come back to the board or if or new uh practices
implemented yeah no thank you uh commissioner yeah we could we'd be happy to bring something back I didn't know the Squall uh this particular severe event wouldn't um necessarily prompt a a formal after action for us but we don't
we we can still bring back and I hear you loud and clear on um if that's the direction of the board um and even if it's not we're always working on this kind of stuff but to bring back as you said you know specific recommendation to increase education and
preparedness Focus on people in mobile homes in the community so we'd be happy with that direction to bring that back to the board yes sir yes sir so an idea I had just you know I think there's a couple ways we could engage with this I think um utilizing our community centers
for uh Community workshops uh to engage for storm preparedness as we head into hurricane season where we use you know Fort Bren Community Center Woodville Community Center we have CMR there we have you know a community Workshop as folks can come in there um
but I think there's definitely a a vulner vulnerability and we've seen a small glimpse of it in 2024 with two weather events and um this most recent storm I mean we saw we dodged a bullet I mean there was 37 deaths I think last
time I saw across the southeast I woke up Saturday morning seeing several tornadoes just west of us so um uh Mr Ken Minister I know that we talked about when we had our meeting with demm that there was going to be some um some areas
of improvement for communications particularly in our rural communities is that something that needs board direction or is that something that staff plans to bring back to us already yeah I remember that commissioner I wanted to just get Matt to come on up for clarification opportunity our opportunities as
identified from following that meeting are a few fold so let me talk about those first off let me start kind of talking about what we do throughout the year and I won't be I won't belabor the point the point is is that disaster resilience and preparedness is a yearr round activity it's not just several
days before a severe weather storm event no matter if it's hurricane a squal line tornado grisk or whatever it is a preparedness effort we make throughout the year so that is the neighborhood trainings that was just touched on we conduct neighborhood trainings uh with neighborhood associations throughout the
county we conduct also trainings at community centers they are at Woodville for Braden they're part of the senior dat training to make sure that we engage with vulnerable populations so we've done dozens of these since 2017 when we had the opportunity to align Emergency Management and community and media
relations that's an ongoing activity that we do on a regular basis in addition to Distributing the disaster Survival Guide in which is also all of the details about what a tornado risk means for a mobile home such as seeking sturdy shelters and buildings with friends and family the need to prepare
for a disaster before it is imminent is critical to the success and Public Safety of our community we know that very well but let me also underscore one thing that we also know very well is that we're going to take absolutely every lesson from every weather event that we've had and in addition to that
is even the most recent weekend weather that is to say that what we've heard and I'm sure what all of you have heard is that people still need more direct education and resources about tornado safety so what does that mean and we touched on that earlier just a month or two ago that means street team in
manufactured home areas that means going around door too engaging with folks which we would do in County Emergency Management and community and media relations to be able to give to those folks leave behinds of information educate them address their concerns and considerations head-on so that's part of
that um that we had talked about over the past few months and what we would be launching in advance of hurricane season that street team is to bring again that education to the person also it is to promote and drill down deeper and a finer point on tornado risk safety and consideration for when we do these
trainings in the communities we do think that our folks know about hurricane risk but they also need to understand tornado risk and I want to also put 2025 in comparison and in context for everyone here on the board we've had 17 severe weather days since January 1 2025 that's
to say that we've had those days that could involve inclement weather tornado risk to some degree that's why it's important for this to be a year- round preparedness action also one thing I want to share too which is one thing that we would be doing in County Emergency Management and community and media relations Is mailing a disaster
Survival Guide to every home that's not something we've done before that's something in consideration of this upcoming year that would give directly to people manufactured home built home or otherwise all the direct information about how they can be prepared for any emergency so as you might recall we
distribute that in county and City facilities and other things like that but we've decided that there's an opportunity to up that game and make sure that everyone has the opportunity to be as prepared as possible so there are a few more things under the hood but again I don't want to belabor that right now I just want to touch on some of the high points that are those are some of
the intended measures what we would intend to do if it's the will of the administrator on the board is we would bundle that into the we're not stopping and waiting for it but we'd bundle it into the May update that you have upcoming for the implementation of the after action reports that you've received over the past year we would provide in there the play-by-play of the
updates we're doing Communications and engagement to Citizens so anyway happy to answer any questions that was just the highlights yeah and so a lot we're currently doing a lot that's going on we know that the board you couldn't just because you you can't see everything so a lot that's already happening from Matt said a lot more that's going to happen
based on all of our experience up to and including this most recent one and may you said in terms of coming back and we'll bring it all back to the board and obviously receive any other direction the board might have thank you so those are upcoming new practices coming coming this
may wait until May so those are things that we're going to be implementing and providing an update as part of the implementation action plan that you'll see in May that's all the implementations of the after action recommendations you've seen before from the bicentennial flooding to Helen so on and so forth May 10
tornadoes obviously um you'll get an update on those activities so we'll be doing them in the months ahead and you'll receive further information in May okay awesome I'm very happy to hear that thank you um Mr Ken Minister one recommendation um that I've Just Seen uh kind of firsthand
uh the city of tallahi uh does this very very well through their utility uh service um the texting program that they have um was been very beneficial to where you know when um one of the last hurricanes we had I was getting daily text messages and Max mass text messages
about this is how much power's been out you know this is what to expect and I think um some of the feedback I heard from particularly from Saturday from um a couple of our constituents who live in Mobile Homes was that they had reached out to our office earlier on Saturday
and said hey there's potential tornadoes like what do we do and at that point we hadn't add information to say hey it's unsafe we're recommending go stay with a friend and by the time we issued the alert know it was close to 7:00 and they
had a hard time getting Transportation issues so I think one thing that just from feedback that we've heard from the community is that hey if it's looking like this is the possibility danger issuing proactive text messages so while folks during the day can start making
arrangements for the for the storm sure um and then Mr chair uh if I can just check in a couple things for that one so we do maintain a couple items that we're going to really drill in hard at folks sign up for now these are both the text alerts that we have through an everbridge system maintained by the
state of Florida again available to us so we have a text based system that folks can sign up for so let me be clear about what the utilities has that maybe we don't necessarily is you sign up for electrical they got your phone number um ours is twofold one if you give us that
information we can provide you all of the alerts and text and information that you need immediately from the National Weather Service right there so we're going to draw again a finer point on that point we have a lot of people subscribed already so nearly 28,000 or so sub subcribe to those alerts but
there's opportunity for more folks to subscribe to that um then we're going to continue to drive that point home for folks for text alerts in the upcoming cycle in addition to that though one thing I want to touch on is the wireless emergency alert too it's a very powerful tool and in the State of Florida for the
past weather event for the wireless emergency alerts we were the first in the state to issue the wireless emergency alert that we did and one of two counties to issue that for the past storm over the weekend so underscore that cor thank you um Mr K Min I appreciate these efforts it looks like
that uh we are implementing some some uh higher density communication practices into uh hurricane season so I appreciate it if uh if I hear anything else I'll be sure to relay it um Mr chair if I I make my next Point sure um next point is I
just kind of want to issue a little bit of a um something for us to keep on our radar you know uh floor Department of Transportation um you know kind of publicly backed out of the blueprint project in Midtown um some I think that
was like a little over a week ago two weeks ago and um that was a blueprint project from my understanding that was in partnership with the state um another project that is going to weigh heavily on the States involvement coming up is the airport Gateway um the airport Gateway project um from my understanding
takes is going to take some participation from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and um just for my understanding and exchanging emails and uh with staff and and looking through some of our previous material um there's a possibility that
the road for Segment C may take a um a cabinet vote by the Florida Cabinet um uh involving the the governor the agriculture commissioner the Attorney General U and the CFO um from my understanding the Florida Internal
investment um trust fund I believe is the is the correct uh acronyms um fiit TF but is the the is acting as the Board of Trustees for the florid Department of Environmental Protection um if I'm saying that correctly which means that
the road the the land that is currently managed by Florida state is may have to go through a cabinet vote um or take some State participation and so um typically um how I would in a in a real
estate transaction that kind of um due diligence is done step one but um where we are now is you know we're kind of we've spent a lot of money on that so I just kind of want to um say it's something that I think we should pay
attention to as it will take participation from the state um so that's all I have thank you Mr chair thank you Mr Vice chair I just have a few Proclamation requests uh the first one is uh recognizing Public Works week if I could ask for a motion all right I've got a
motion in a second Public Works week Proclamation all right I've got a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I thank you passes unanimously uh the second is a proclamation recognizing first responder Wellness week so move
second so moved and a second from an enthusiastic commissioner O'Keefe um all those in favor signify by saying I I thank you passes unanimously I was going to ask for a motion for the four FSU students but my vice chair beat me to it I scratched out that's okay man you got
it um so my next one is a proclamation honoring the mlay soccer team for winning a state championship got a motion in a second all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes unanimously next a motion proclaiming May 25th as family abduction
awareness day got a motion second from commissioner o'keef all those in favor signify by saying I I I passes unanimously and lastly a proclamation recognizing March as National athletic training month all right motion second uh all
those in favor signify by saying I I passes unanimously thank you all so much thank you for a great healthy meeting and we will see you back here soon as we can we are adjourned [Music]