Good morning everyone. We're ready to get started. I understand that today we have Pastor Jesse Bryan from the first Baptist Church of Elachva here. Hi, I'd like to welcome Pastor Bryan to give us our invocation. If we could have everyone please stand and remain standing for the pletch. Thank you. Please pray with me. God be thank you. We thank you for today and we thank you for the opportunity. Thank you. Please pray with me. God be thank you. We thank you for today and we thank you for the opportunity that we have just to know you God. And God, I pray right now that as this group meets together, Lord, we pray for our community. God, we would pray for our community that we would love one another, Lord, that we would support one another, that we would honor one another as individuals who are created in your image. God, we would honor one another as individuals who are created in your image. God, we would pray right now for those serving in these roles. Lord, those who will be here making decisions today. God, we pray for clarity. We pray for wisdom. And God, we pray for unity in the decisions that will be made. God, I pray for families in this community. God, we pray that you will continue to strengthen families. Lord, that families will care for each community. God, we pray that you will continue to strengthen families. Lord, that families will care for each other, Lord, that they will love each other. And God, we pray that this time today, this meaning, God will honor you. God, we will honor you with what is said. We will honor you with what is done. And God, I pray that the decisions that are made will honor you and protect and take care of this community. We ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God in this as well with liberty and justice for all. and the public. Thank you, Pastor Brian, and we'll now call the meeting to order. I'm looking for approval of the regular and consent agenda unless there are any changes. Move approval of the agenda and consent agenda. Second. Okay. We have a motion to second. Do we have any public comment to the agenda? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, we'll move right along to Mr. Sexton with our announcements. Good morning, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, to start off with, it is my pleasure. The manager asked me to introduce to you our new facilities director. We're very happy to welcome Travis Parker. We're getting him from the city of Newberry and I can say on a personal note that Jessica here often I have had many occasions to work with him and he's a good one. Travis? Thank you. Good morning. I just wanted to stand up here for a moment and tell you that I'm looking forward to getting started. I've started gathering some information and working with the team and looking forward to it. Welcome and I hope you're excited about all the wonderful projects that we've got going on. We look forward to your your leadership and expertise and help to keep those going well. So thank you. Thank you, Vitamins. That's what I've heard. Looking forward to it, though. All right. Well, thank you for joining us. And I'm sorry for those folks over at Newberry, but you know, it's good. And we will be giving him a docee dough seminar. OK. All right. You got to learn to dance if you're going to work for us. Madam Chair, we also want to let folks know that there is a Gainesville, Latchwa County employment law seminar coming up. And that's for all businesses who have an interest in becoming, you know, more learned about this topic. Topics include recent developments in labor and employment law, social media policy and best practices for employers, and many other topics that's put on by Jackie Chung in our Equal Opportunity Office and the City of Gainesville's Equal Opportunity Office. That is coming up on June 26th, 2024. It is a Zoom meeting, and you can go to counties, the county's social media pages, or our website to get that Zoom link. As a question for that Mark, if someone is not able to attend that meeting in person, is it gonna be recorded for someone to be able to watch it another time? That is an excellent question that I don't know the answer to. But if it is available, we'll make a point to push that out. All right, thank you. You're welcome. Madam Chair, every year around this time of year, particularly as we have some rain in the forecast, and this is the time of year where mosquitoes become a serious health concern. And the Department of Health asks us to put mosquito awareness information out. We went into our archive and we found an award-winning mosquito PSA that we did several years ago. It is a very serious and somber look at mosquito control. They're back in the out of the kitchen! Let's bring that a bit much. Fight the fight! Use repellent with deep voidep mosquito hours, dust and dawn. You can't know how many normal things they've got. They're probably not reaching. We have protective clothing, drained standing water. For more information, go 35233-479-30. Oh my goodness. It's impactful. We're learning that humor is a good tool to use on social media and That was actually that went in national award about 15 years ago. Well good. You're recycling that we'll see that okay And that's from the disturbed mind of Alan Yoder And then finally We have a great occasion as you all know, a while ago recently, to commemorate the soil collection display down in Arlabe, and there was a great event that was held on a Saturday, and we wanted to share that event with you and the public. We seek to heal historical wounds. We seek atonement, recompense through our reckoning, forgiveness, through our efforts. We grapple with deeds, we struggle with words, inadequate language, with each utterance of your name, victims of sanction, violence, we acknowledge your humanity. Today is a great day. We are here for the unveiling of the Soul Collection exhibit. Here in the Latchewa County Administration building in the lobby of the building on the west end. The Soul Collection is a collection of Soul from Lenten sites, sites where blacks were lynched back in the late 1800s, early 1900s. It's not just a soil. Each jar represents a person. Each jar represents a family of people who lost the person. Each jar represents the friends who lost a dear friend who provided care and comfort for them. Each jar represents neighbors. Each jar represents church goers and each jar represents a community. In 2018 the Allotry County Board of County Commissioners began this discussion on the process to find ways to bring awareness regarding social justice and to take measures to help atone their atrocities experienced by many blacks. Truth and reconciliation became a theme to recall our history of racial injustice in order to help make men's here in a Latua County. It humbles me to think about the legacy of this project that we've brought to a Latua County. In 25 years and 50 years and 100 years they're going to be looking back and it will be the bicentennial of those lynchings as it's you know as we're looking at something that happened 100 years ago. And the fact that we've taken the effort to collect this information while we can still collect it and while we've written down these names we've put stitches into these quilts, we've put soil into these jars, so that people in history will continue to learn from these events and hopefully we'll never repeat the history that caused these horrific things to happen. Where's the subject matter is very somber and very thought provoking, we are also using art as a way to display the very power of what it is we're trying to do here. The music, the dance, the beautiful quilts that have been put together by the different communities, as well as the jars that have been displayed here in such a very, very elegant way. I think it shows the commitment of the community to making sure that the message is solid and can relate to everybody. This is a perfect example of South. The Commission initiated something back in 2018 with Richard Chesson and Commissioner Hutchison, but the community has really taken over this entire project and that's what makes it so special is to have the community not only taking over the process but also participating to inform us of our history. This exhibit is really part of a much bigger project that's all about sort of connecting with our public, connecting with visitors to the county to help them understand not just the horrible history we have of lynching in this county but also our work and our efforts to create truth and reconciliation and to begin honoring the history that we have and learning from that so that we aren't repeating it in the future. It has been the impetus it has given others permission to talk about the things that happened in their families. There are very many families who can tell you about lynching are about some other way that their ancestors were harmed. And for a long time, like they said in the program, people didn't talk about it. My dad was among those that was all amongst the lynxed. And I, when I talk about it, the community feels some kind of closeness to that. And I think it helps that black and white are talking about it. Because we're, we're realizing that the empathy that comes with white knowledge helps Black folk to bear what they've been through. You know, I tell people often, this is not a shame or blame anybody about what happened in the 1800s up until 1930 or the 1920s. This is about telling the story of what happened to African Americans and telling that story. That is a part of American history about this country. And so there's nothing about shaming, blaming anyone. It's about knowing the true history so that we can move forward and grow stronger as a one. It's about knowing the true history so that we can move forward and grow stronger as a community. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. Thanks to the work of the team that did that amazing video. It was an amazing event and that was a really great commemoration of it. I'm chair. Yes, please. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Smart, I was just going to have Mr. Smart. I know back in 2018, one of the things that ELJ asked communities to do was their own truth and reconciliation at which point at some point, not the culmination of it because I don't think it really ever ends, but at some point a county or community would be able to request the memorial up of a gumbry because there are duplicates there and the idea of the original idea that I remember back in 2018 was as communities go through that you know they would request that are we at a point where we can do that and if so what's the timing of that because I think it's something that is a milestone and a continuation of a process. Madam Chair, Carl Smart, Deputy County Manager. And to speak to that question, that's a great question, Commissioner. We have had the discussion with EJI, the Equal Justice Initiative about the duplicate slab that is to be allocated each county that completes the community remembrance project activities. We have pretty much completed all the activities except that we are still working with subcomittees and different communities. We've had communities that have completed the store collection, the historical marker, the essay contest, and gone beyond that in the neighborhood forums and the quilts that you see. The quilts were not a part of the original program, but that has been added here in this community and it looks wonderful. We've had that discussion with them. They have that request on record, but they're not doing any, It looks wonderful. We've had the discussion with them. They have that request on record, but they're not issuing any slab at this time. What I've heard is that their focus right now is on the executions that are happening, particularly in Alabama, but not limited to Alabama in other states, too. As you know, E.J. EJI represents persons who are on deaf role. A lot of times that were maybe underrepresented during their trials and maybe even without any representation. And so that's kind of been their focus right now. But they have assured us that as soon as they are able to, we would be one of the first to get this lab because we were one of the first to complete all the activities that were required as a part of the community remembrance. Okay. Yep. I think these things naturally gain attention and they kind of wane and sometimes I think whenever we can put some more effort into getting that I think it's It would be good to do that. Yeah, I understand also there's a discussion of another trip to Montgomery for some folks as well as that true Absolutely, there's been an additional Statue that has been open at the EJI Montgomery. And so, Commissioner Chestnut and I were just talking this morning about getting the group together to plan for that another visit to EJI. And maybe we can take more people, more citizens, more volunteers, more staff, and of course, commissioners with us to take a look at that statute. Yeah and I think that you know that that partnership has been absolutely amazing. I do appreciate the fact of the work that they're doing right now and how and why that would take precedence but I their partnership has been truly amazingly. Folks that I've met from that organization have been really great. So, yeah. I think our hard work and partnership aren't by accident, but I think it's really great that we could work with them. Absolutely. Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Teddy. Oh, yes. My quick question maybe is, Mr. Schmarrer perhaps. I so appreciate all the hard work. It's been such an amazing journey to be on and like coming on the commission and having this work already started and learning so much from the process and now that we have this beautiful exhibit and we have that amazing map and the website is going to be launched soon right that has the trail that it's not exactly. It's online now. It still needs some more modification, improvement. Yeah fine tuning, but it's on there. And what do we do we have a sense of kind of what some of those next steps locally are in terms of you know we've sort I feel like we've hit a lot of those milestones to your point. Do we have an action plan from here moving forward, or is that something that some of the committees are in discussions about now? It's in discussion and in progress, as far as our next steps. But clearly, we want to bring in other communities up the speed, as far as completing some of their activities. For example, Archer was the last community to come on board. And so we have a soil collection. We're scheduling for September for Archer. And then we'll look at doing the Historic Marker, making sure they are included in the essay contests, and doing the same thing with other communities. We were talking this morning, Commissioner Chessna, there's still four communities that need historical markers. And we've begun some discussion with the university about maybe a grant to help cover the cost of those historical markers. And the fact that we added the quilts and doing the quilts, I think is important. And also looking at the local essay contest, City of Alachua on Saturday had an event recognizing Juneteenth, but they also gave out awards to students for essay, essay contest that was done locally in the Alachua area. And three students receive scholarships, receive awards, financial awards, and so we were proud to do that. So we may be doing more things locally, and those were funds that were accumulated locally. EJI did not sponsor that program and did it here locally. So doing more of those kinds of things, more things that enhance and encourage folks to learn more about Black history. We'll be talking tomorrow when we meet, we'll be talking about a series of classes that will focus on local Black history. Black history here in our Latua County and we think that might be a good program for to work toward in the future. So there's several things that are on the drawing board and we'll keep your prize as we put those things together. Awesome. Well we had a consent item today that was a grant that's with the Community Foundation working with the chamber around college preparedness and college support and technical support for young people who are trying to reach towards college. And I know we're talking a lot about history with this Truth and Reconciliation thing, but I think it dovetails into the work that EGI does around justice reform and into the work that we're doing around youth empowerment and trying to find those productive ways. So when I spoke with them about that, I just encouraged them to think about all the things that we're doing, gun violence prevention around truth and reconciliation around telling the stories that are about the really amazing work that's being done and about the positive, like trying to highlight the positive around all of these amazing people in our community and what they're achieving, especially our young people, so that we're not just telling the stories of, you know, the mug shots and the shootings and that we're not just talking about the negative things, but that we're really lifting up the positive things and providing good role models and opportunities and highlighting those things. And so I know it's not exactly related to this, but in the spirit of ETI, we're trying to work on that carceral system and the challenges that we often face as a result of systemic racism for generations. I just want to tie those two together and highlight that one small thing that we're doing and hope that we can keep connecting these dots and looping the work that we're doing here on the history of our work with what we're doing here in the present and hopefully in the future with our work to provide support resources and change the culture. So thank you. Thank you. Yeah, Commissioner Wheeler. Just very quickly, this project is really expanded in something really quite beautiful, I think. And the idea that we are continuing to expand, you know, continues the excitement for me for sure as we build from what we've already done. And I'm wondering if you guys feel like that this would be the kind of workshop that we could offer at FACC, as a model for what we've done here, NACO even. I mean, this would be a presentation, I think, that the country should know we're doing, but also Florida should see how we've tackled these issues here. So as we're going to FACC tomorrow, I think, you know, this is the sort of thing that we could prepare a beautiful presentation with all the things that we've done in the last few years to share, you know, share what we've done because we've been very creative, I think, and I think would be inspiring for other candidates to see what we've done. Absolutely. Madam Manager? And Madam Chair, I was just going to say, we do have that coming in 2025 for our innovation meeting. And it may be that we want to take them and show off some of these things that we have done like this display and have a session to talk about it then, because then they can actually see some of them, at least as far as fat goes. I think that's perfect. And we can watch for when NACO does a call for presentations and programming because they'll have one for legislative conference as well as for annual for next year. I can see this being one of their little info booklets that they hand out. Yeah, and this is why I think it's important that we by that day, if possible, have that slab from ELJ. And the other communities involved, so we can say everybody, as you know, if that would give us time to make that goal too. Excellent. Well, great. Thank you, and I'm super excited to hear about the, did you have something in particular? No, I just wanted to add that in terms of dealing with E.J.I. and in terms of how we have been creative here locally, I think that we lead the whole process in terms of being creative with the quilts, having ceremonies, having a memorial service, all of those things. I think we have went way beyond the call of duty and did a whole lot more to show our commitment to this process and to show other communities what they can also do also. And I think I talked with someone not recently was that the surrounding areas of a lot of county, you know they also had lynchings too and those communities should get involved and get and do the same thing let their history be told about what happened in their communities also so so I think that we're doing real well. It's just that now as Deputy County Manager, smart talked about was that the funding and all of that stuff for the other four historical markers is the key now. Once we get those markers, we're pretty much completed the whole process in terms of meeting their criteria and information they saw sent to us. The number of published lynching from when what we knew in 2018 versus now has dramatically increased hasn't it? Yeah it's 50 I think it's up to 50. Yeah I remember that number being under 30 when it first started right and I think that's another output of what each of these community conversations have resulted in is the actual history being learned. And there's been a lot of, Madam Chair, a lot of research continuing on, you know, as we do this process in the spirit of Dr. Patricia Hill, you know, and we have Karen Kirkman and other historians in the area that actually found discovered additional persons who were mentioned. So that's how the numbers have increased. Just a quick question. The cost of those historic markers, they used to be 350 I think. What's the hold up on the cost for those? Is that not something we can budget for? That's a possibility. We'll need to check with EJI. We're getting getting in process through EJI I think yeah, there are state markers that are around and I think that might be the price for the state market But we'll have to yeah, we'll have to check with EJI and see what that cost is we'll get back with you And let me just one other thing we we certainly appreciate we couldn't have done it without the support of this board and I think we appreciate, we couldn't have done it without the support of this board. And the fact that you passed that resolution in truth and reconciliation and directed staff to take certain steps to implement and focus on truth and reconciliation. So we appreciate that. And the fact that we have that exhibit here in the County Administration Bill, and that's a statement. That's a very powerful statement. So thank you so much. Thank you. All right, well, it's almost noon o'clock. So this is the time when we can take public comment. We have two general public comments, noon at 5.30, or at the end of the meeting. I expect that that's what will happen today. Members of the public can only speak during one of the two designated general comment periods. And commenters have three minutes for agenda items and three minutes for non agenda items. And if you decide to address an agenda item, then you cannot comment again when that item comes up. We'll also be taking any phone calls. So if you will take phone calls after we take comments here in the auditorium. So let's get started. Miss Lee, I see you're very excited to be first today. Madam Chair, before I start my comments, may I say one brief thing about ACCRP as Treasury of that organization I'm always thinking about money and for those none EJI funded items we have raised money to do the things that we are doing just like Deputy County Commissioner Smart indicated and I did not want to miss an opportunity for the public to know that we would appreciate your adodations and we would also appreciate the county being one of our donors to fund some of these activities. So with that said, I am now ready for my public comments. Okay, go ahead, please. Oh, I was really excited to get before you guys again. So excited that I appeared here yesterday. I was really excited to get before you guys again. So excited that I appeared here yesterday. Got up the elevator, came and said, why is the boardroom dark? I realized it was Monday and not Tuesday. That's because I spent 10 or 12 hours Sunday researching and starting to write the components for the application I put together. So Sunday felt like Monday and Monday felt like Tuesday. In any case, what I want to talk to you about, and by the way, I'm potentially, I forgot to announce that. And I live in Gaysville, a little, a lot to my county. I am concerned because Friday afternoon, I heard that in addition to the city's approval and provision of a letter of support, the county wants it a letter of support from a property owner. So I was really surprised and surprised and confused by that because I did not get in a direction as to just what the county wanted, the property owner to say or provide or whatever the case may be. Nor was I told whether or not the county would be reaching out to a property owner whatever the case may be. And I just wanted to share that with regards to property owners, they don't care about what we or the county do in In a particular buyer, for that matter, all they care about is whether or not we're gonna make an offer and when is the possible closed day. Also, if we go to a potential property owner to get whatever it is the county might want from them, that would put us in a very weakened bargaining position because the property owner would say, oh yeah, there's property, so I don't have to budget them up on them. And the other thing is, at first we were just considering one property, but now there's a possibility of other properties that would be suitable for our project and thus who will we go to all three of them or whatever the case will be. So what I'm here today is to ask you to not require something from the property owner in order for you to give us a let of support. And just go ahead and approve the signature inside of that net of support. Thank you. There's more to the story. Thank you Miss Lee and we'll address that at the end of public comment but there's uh yeah. So do we have any additional public comment? I'm not going to start please. Please go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. My name is Tamara Robbins. It's good to know that if we want to preface our public comments with some other announcement that we will give in time to do that off the clock. Today I'd like to spend three minutes speaking to a couple of things specifically one thing on today's agenda. It's nine, I guess it would be, I don't know which one. It's the regulatory traffic control devices place modified or removed by the county engineer. It's a list of those devices, says except the list of regulatory traffic devices. My comment is specifically to the fact that it says the list shall be included, include a copy of the list in the minutes of the Board of County Commissioners minutes. So as you may recall, I brought something and placed it into the agenda. Cop copies for everyone to the clerk to everyone on this day. On February 27th, an expected per your rules of procedure that it shall be placed in the minutes, included in the minutes of the meeting, minutes of that date. They were not included. There was no reference to me submitting that information to the, into the record. And apparently you guys are still trying to figure out what that all means. Well, in the meantime, you're still using it as a condition on legislative action that you're taking and yet you seem to not understand what that really means. So if somebody up here, including staff, who maybe could at least look at us while we're speaking. Has an explanation as to how those items are going to be included in the minutes. I would expect that the minutes of the February 27th meeting would be amended to reflect that I brought information forward submitted it and it resulted in a direction to the county attorney's office who submitted a reply. I mean I don't know what more I have to do to get into the official record, seriously. I mean, I just, I don't understand. And I hope someday that I do understand the kind of contemptuous situation that happens from there to here when some people request information. So I believe that's the one item on the agenda that I wanted to speak to. So three minutes for things off of the agenda. I sent you all an email with, I guess my time will restart for the second three minutes at some point. Can you me start our time? Thank you. Thank you. I sent you all an email. First I sent the paragraph 38.03 pledge of revenues to the county attorney asking if she could tell me if it applied to the pledging of $30 million of TDT revenue to build the sports center and a private development celebration point. I was the county attorney responded and said, she doesn't work for me, she works for you, she's not in her purview to give me as a citizen of an opinion, okay, point taken. So then I sent it to you all, because you do work for me and ask you the question. Now, I didn't expect any of you to personally, perhaps be able to give me that opinion, but I would have at least expected that you would have responded to me. Commissioner, nobody did on that. At least a response, I mean, come on now. And has it used to be, Commissioner Cornell would do this frequently, he would respond with forwarding it to the appropriate person for that information and say, staff please see. Okay, that didn't happen either. So I'm asking you today to put a motion on the floor to direct your county attorney to give an opinion on whether 3803 county code applies to the pledging of the TDT monies for the building of that public building that is now operated by a private corporation. And if you don't want to do it to your attorney, do it to the attorney general because they give opinions no charge. Okay. Something else. In the city of Alachua, I'm going to put a map on the overhead and I'm going to hopefully get the northbound right so when the Overheads ready do you all remember the big parcel of land out in the city of Alachua the mill sink Watershed swallow it. Okay, the Spiological Society sold their portion of the sink. Okay That is the proposed development that the City of Elatso was looking to put on that previously on the top of the County acquisition list for protection. Now they're planning to put what does it say 523 family single family lots on that land which was designated and I'm going to put a different map up. Those those two parking parcels are exactly the parcels that they're looking to put that development on that the conservation committee had identified as significant needed protection. It's in the wallet. It directly goes to Horn's B Springs to run off. It's all there. The County Commission approved putting it on the placement. You had a matching grant with a water district for a million and a half. So you had three million dollars plus wild spaces money and half so you had $3 million plus wild spaces money and a lack of a conservation trust and since you let the previous speaker go a little bit preface I'm going to ask you to just let me finish my statement Madam chair please. Please go ahead although she did not exceed her three minutes. Okay well she took it before it started. Anyways the County Commission designated that so I'm asking this board to exercise your voter given authority of having stronger ordinances for water protection. Would you protect our water please? Thank you. That's amazing how you have to hurry so much. It's just not right. Water is important. Thank you, Mr. Evans. All right. We have additional public comment. All right. Let's see who's on the phone lights. important thank you mr. Evans all right we have additional public comment All right, let's see who's on the phone lights Madam chair we have no colors all right. We have no colors Excellent all right Do we have any response to public comment? I do want to talk about Miss Lee's letter I also was surprised that there was some understanding from staff after they went back and looked at the previous meeting that we wanted some sort of assurance from the property owner's involvement in this project before we issued the letter. And I did not remember that, but that was what staff felt like when they went back and looked at the looked at the tape so Property for sale the property is for sale as I understand it Yes, she does have multiple properties. I'm all for issuing a lift. Yeah, no, I'm OK with it between a letter two, as long as staff knows. I'm not familiar with the federal Department of Health and Human Services Community Economic Development Planning and Community Economic Development Project Grant. I don't know what that grant is. That federal grant and if staff is okay with what that is and we have a private nonprofit that they're aware of seeking federal monies, I'm good with that. I don't know where it would be, it may or may or may or may not be in that specific parcel that Miss Lee has talked to us about, but if we can get a federal grant for this purpose I'm for that. Yeah, I don't think it's partial specific. Okay. I think originally it might have been partial specific, but I don't think it is partial specific. I guess my only question was with regards to the property that Ms. Robbins brought up. If it was on our acquisition list and we had received a grant board, I'm wondering what does anyone know what happened, why we didn't proceed with that purchase? Was there a willing landowner situation? I don't believe we had a willing seller at the time, but we can have Andy confirm the information in send you an email. Okay. I don't believe we had a willing seller at the time, but we can have Andy confirm the information and send you an email. Okay. Yeah. Well, I just wanted to bring that up. It is a willing landowner program. So if we don't have somebody willing to sell us the property, we cannot buy the property. So if we had somebody willing to sell, and we have well, it's basis money, you see how many go through. So I'm not sure what happened on that. It may have been some other reason, but we'll find out what it was. Hey, thank you. Mr. Wheeler, too. Yes. Thank you. I was going to bring this one up myself because I've been watching this property for a while, too, with the four sales sign up. There are concerns. I've walked the property with the spelunkers. And I think from what I understand, there was another developer where another real estate person who got involved in that and saw the value of not having the county own it. I mean, because it's so close and proximity to the town there, you know it probably became very political at that point because the the property to a developer is valuable I am concerned about the developer that's putting that proposal through I think we need to watch this one and get involved if we can just to make sure waters, I mean, we did it when they were trying to put a Walmart over there. So we need to be watching this one very closely. And because I'm with Ms. Robbins on this one, it's an extremely sensitive area and it's unfortunate for the city of El Atuawe that's trying to grow out there that they have this pocket right in the middle of their development, but they've got plenty of land around there that's high and dry that they can develop without tackling this one that is going to impact the spring's area up there. You know one at one time guys we were trying to make this the spring's area up there. What is a historic site you know an international historic site. Now they're looking at it as a national historic site. And the springs have to be protected in North Street able to get that designation. They've already been degraded enough to the point we can't be an international world heritage site is what I'm trying to say. We were trying to get that through, but it's too late now because of the degradation of the springs, but we can make it a national heritage site if we continue to protect it. And this is probably a place we need to get in there. I agree. Is our environmental protection department aware of this proposal? I think so, yes. I think Andy knows about it and has been informed. And I won't be speaking for you anymore, Andy. All right. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Sorry, I ran across the street. Andy Christmas Program Manager, Lane Conservation. The property in question was nominated to the Elatua County Forever Program. It was in a time period when the program was between funding cycles. So we were restarting the 2016 ballot initiative restarting the program. So we were working with the previous landowner on acquisition. But in the time here. I ask you real quick, I'm going to talk really slow. Because I've done what you've done, run across and try to talk. And it's really hard, but I remember 2016. OK. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So we were restarting the program, and we're not in an active acquisition phase at that time in the interim while that was going on. The property changed hands. The new landowner was not willing to work with us through the structure of the program. So that's the reason that we weren't the county was unable to move forward with acquisition. I can provide more detail in an email if that would be something that you would like but the program is currently on the active acquisition or the property is currently on the active acquisition list. And there were a few structure approaches to how we looked at moving forward, which was like partial development of allowing partial retention, which would have meant development of part of the property that wasn't designated as the most sensitive conservation footprint, and then acquisition of that more sensitive conservation footprint, and it was, there were multiple parcels involved. So, but it's a willing landowner program in its core that's, you know, the foundation of how we work, and so without a willing landowner and not able to move forward. Madam Chair. And our charter, our charter that was amended does give us Nexus into that's in a strategic ecosystem, isn't it? So there are some things that the county can do with regards to as this application gets submitted through the City of Elatua. That's correct, Madam Chair, yes. There are already going to be set aside as associated with that designation. And that should be part of how the property moves forward, although now if it's fully annexed, I guess, that I'm less able to answer that question. Yeah, I think the charter and the correct answer for wrong madam attorney, the charter continues even with annexed properties into the city. And I too, like Commissioner Wheeler, know this area, know this property and remember the Walmart issue. And so I don't want to repeat of that. Hopefully everybody's aware of the natural protections that are on top of that overlay on top of that property. Right so Madam Chair there are the two areas. One is the girth management area which is our regulatory control of properties that are annexed after a certain date and are a part of the map that shows that it continues to be an Arley and use authority at that time. The other piece, of course, is the SirTax, which is your purchasing program. So one's on the regulatory side, the other's on the proprietary side. The proprietary side we've taken the willing-seller approach, and then on the regulatory side, we are continuing to litigate that one, believe it or not. It's two and a half years into it. So. Okay. Thank you. And, Madam Chair. Oh, Commissioner, one more. Let me, oh, I'm so sorry. Were you finished, Commissioner, for the, uh, I just also wanted to address the fact that we asked off to bring back information. This is not related to this, but about the agenda is about content being included in our minutes. And I believe that's coming back at our next regular meeting. Madam Manager, okay. So that question that Mr. Robbins has had repeatedly regarding how things are going to be included in our minutes and how people will have access to that information will be talked about our next meeting. I just wanted to make that clear. Thank you. All right, Commissioner Wheeler. The word that I got from the commission when this property came to to Alachua is that the board was presented with the plan and someone had mentioned to them that the county had wanted to buy it. And it was questioned and the developer denied that the county had wanted to buy it, and it was questioned and the developer denied that the county was ever interested in this land. So they're not getting the complete information that they need in a large way, that we were so intensely involved. So I don't know how we can get that word to the board over there, that it was on our acquisition list and that they were not being honestly informed. Thank you. Thank you. And the only additional piece of information I can provide there is that we did apply for a springs protection grant for that property as well in that process which was approved. But again, we're not able to utilize it because we weren't able to move forward with the landowner. Thank you for running across the region. Thank you for providing us with great information. Madam Chair on the Missley Chairletter as long as our staff will review the grant application I'm happy to make a motion to approve this chair letter. It says in the first sentence that the Lachra kind of commissioners support the grant application. So I just need our staff to look at it. So to clarify, you want us to look at the completed grant application that's being submitted before we add our letter of support. I mean, if we're going to support the grant application, I want our staff to review the grant application. And then, yes, as long as it's in line with what we're looking to do, which is to get federal funding to address these types of issues, I'm all in favor of this letter. Does anybody have gender to that? No, I mean, I think that in the past our practice in general for nonprofits that have asked for letters of support is that they send us their summary, not their full application, and like a kind of a review of what their actual programmatic component is if they wanted to send their executive summary or whatever would you be okay with that. As long as the staff has signed off on the application that we're now supporting as part of the chair letter I'm good with that. Is that clear enough for staff? I think with the clarification from Commissioner Prisya, yes. That way we're not reviewing 300 pages. Their entire application. Yeah, okay. All right. So, do we need a motion for that? Michelle, do you need a motion for that? So I would move that we provide a letter of support to the grant application that's been reviewed by staff for the T Foundation Assistance Network or the summary of the grant application that's been reviewed by staff for the T Foundation Assistance Network or the summary of the grant application. All right, we have motion. Second, we have a public comment to the motion. Seeing none, no in favor of the motion, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, Ms. Leake, I got your letter. Okay. Moving on, it is time for... I would move approval of the proclamation. Second. All right. Any comments to the approval of proclamations? Seeing none, all in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. And the opposed? Okay. Our proclamation is declaring June 2024 as immigrant heritage month in the Lat, okay. Our proclamation is declaring June 2024 as immigrant heritage month in the Electric County, Florida and will be read by Commissioner Prisya. All right, thank you all so much. I'm excited to be able to read this one, especially given that we have our newest, one of our newest staff members here to accept it. If I may also call up some folks from Jenny who are your acceptance partners. Sure, absolutely. They can all come up and folks from Jenny who are here. Sure. Absolutely. They can all come up and actually be a part of it. They can receive it and then be a part of the photographs if you guys would like to come up. Yeah. Come on up. Speak here. Go ahead. If you want to introduce them. Madam Chair, I'm here to introduce Veronica Robledo, who is the Director of Human Rights Coalition, Brittany Coleman, Robin Lurie, and Ethan Maya, then I doubt from rural women's health project and I'll be accepting this prop gamation today. Excellent. I'm so glad you all could be here. Okay. Declaring June 2024 as immigrant heritage month in Alasra County. Whereas we are home to the people whose ancestors have been here for thousands of years and home to people from every place on earth. Some people came freely, some came chained by force, some came when famine struck or to flee persecution, and some came to chase dreams that were only possible here in America. We all come from somewhere, but we are all Americans. And whereas during the month of June, we honor the contributions and celebrate the remarkable courage of our nation's immigrants, whose hopes and dreams have helped found this country and continue to push us forward today. And whereas immigrants keep our economy strong, help drive the success of our nation, and they ensure our safety as first responders and military service members. They maintain the health of our communities as doctors and nurses. They are there for our family members and children as educators and care workers. They feed and fuel our population as more than half of the nation's farm workers. They are one of five, one in five of our business owners and they are leaders in technology, philanthropy and media. All told, they contribute hundreds of billions of dollars in taxes each year and celebrate millions and millions of jobs. Their ingenuity, grit and perseverance of immigrants are driving forces in every aspect of American life. Whereas June 2024 has been designated as immigrant heritage month by President Joseph Arbide and Jr. Therefore, through the authority vested in me by the Board of County Commissioners of Elatria County, I do hereby proclaim June 2024 as Immigrant Heritage Month in Elatria County, Florida. And it is signed and sealed and delivered to all by all the appropriate people. We're just really excited for this moment. I think it's been a lot of work that Jenny's put in. And all of you have put into creating an action plan for our county. We're excited to have Grasya on our team that's helping to lead us in some of those initial phases in translation and access. And I'm excited to hear all that you all share with us about things we can continue to do to build this kind of support for immigrants in our Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Okay. All right. Thank you so much for that. And we actually do have an action item later on today about immigrant and language services coordinator position. So I'm glad that you guys are all going to stick around for that. So awesome. All right. Our next item is the Board and Committee item. So we've got a couple of folks we need to put on our equity advisory board. Good morning, Madam Chair. Good afternoon now. We would like to appoint two new positions to the equity advisory board. We have two vacancies, one for a voting position with a term ending in November, 2026 and an additional alternate with a term ending in November, 2027. And you have the ranking sheets in front of you. Thank you. Do we have anyone here that went in the applicants? And would they like to speak? Oh, please, come forward. And I recognize this person, this person is Nancy Dean, who taught me English in high school. It's good to see you. It's good to see you too. I write, and that's the way I get my ideas together. So thank you for considering my application to serve on the Equity Advisory Council of Elatua County. My name is Nancy Dean, a bit about myself. First and foremost, I am an educator. I have taught overseas, spent 34 years teaching English, Esau and reading at P.K. Young High School, consulted all over the country and adolescent literacy, tutored writing and Es-solid Santa Fe College and written and implemented educational grants in my capacity as Associate Director of National Literacy Project. Currently, I volunteer with the Elatua County Library to teach a conversation class for non-native speakers and a U. a US citizenship class. Deeply embedded in all of my educational experience is a firm commitment to racial and gender equality, social justice, diversity, and inclusion. At PK Young, I had at that time the intellectual freedom to include multicultural literature, black history, to deeply discuss controversial books and issues, and to involve students in activities that were meaningful to them. I have been a vocal critic of the suggested changes to P.K. Young High School admissions, and am grateful beyond words for the support of the Elatira County Commission and the Gainesville City Commission as we try to protect the diversity and family feeling of P.K. Young. My work at the library, in fact all of my work, is grounded in a firm commitment to inclusion, equity, justice, and respect. I work well with others and enjoy collaboration. I'm a good listener and an energetic and hard worker. I'm not afraid to speak my mind, but I have learned to be tactful and respectful as needed. I have never been on a government committee before, but this is one I would like to serve on. I love Gainesville and hope it can continue to be a beacon in an increasingly stormy world. And thank you for the consideration. Thank you, Ms. Dean. I appreciate that. I was so happy to see your name on that list and y'all can see why PK is so awesome, right? All right. If she was your teacher too. Oh look at that. She taught two people up here, Ms. Dean. Wonderful. That's a great endorsement. Right? OK. So are you going to handle this, though? Yes, I can. So we will appoint one applicant to a term in the year in 2026. You want to do that first and then go to the all today? So our applicants are Tara Richardson, Sari Bloomberg, Nancy Dean, Gerald Cheesebrook, Amanda Gosmuth, Michael Rubber, Monica Washington, and Frank White, Commissioner Cornel. If I can have her look. Would you like her top two so we can... I don't know, that's why I asked you, do you want to do a separate or a different one? Let's do it on two go. Madam Chair, one of those I understand is the alternate. So if you appoint the alternate, you're going to need to appoint two alternatives as opposed to one to a partial term and one to a full alternate term. Yes, that's correct, but we didn't prepare the other alternate ranking. We would bring that back before, bring that back to the commission. If that's possible, unless it's possible to do a post here. Right now we have an alternate. If we put that alternate in, then we need to pick a new alternate. As well as that, so you'll need two alternatives as opposed to one. Gotcha. The board would like to have two alternates. Yes. On the agenda today is to select one person to fill the partial term and one person to fill the alternate term. If you select the current alternate, then you will need to fill two alternate terms out of the list of people you have before you. What's going on? So we did three votes. No, we just do one. We'll do one for one. One in the terms. Okay, there's just one more. All right, so you're one for you. No, just do one. We'll do one for you. Do you want to get one at a time? Yeah, just one for you. All right. So your one for Commissioner Cornell. Nancy Dean. Commissioner Casano. Dean. Commissioner Wheeler. Miss Dean. Commissioner Prisya. Dean. And chair Afro. Dean. I would move Nancy Dean for the term ending November 2026. Second. Okay. Motion a second. All the favors of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any post? All right. Congratulations. So can I ask for a point of clarity Madam Chair? Mm-hmm. Tara Richardson. Remains an alternate. Remains an alternate and we are picking a second alternate great okay perfect thank you Okay, so to select our second alternate Commissioner Willer Michael Rayburn Commissioner Chess Knight Rayburn Commissioner Prasya Bloomberg Siri mission appraisee oomberg ciri cornel chisapura and chair effort college i'm going to go with rayburn move rayburn as an alternate for the term ending of ember 2027. Second. Okay. You have a motion of second. This is your EMIR2. All in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Okay. I will say we had some really great folks that applied for this and I want to thank them for their enthusiasm for serving. We do have many, many boards in Elatua County and to bring that idea of equity to all of our boards is a great idea. So if you have something that you're interested in, please think about perhaps applying for housing board or environmental board and bringing your passion for equity into those boards as well. Madam Chair, these board meetings are open too. Yes, and they are absolutely open. So if you applied for this and you weren't appointed, feel free to get involved and attend the meetings where public are given a chance to speak at some point during the meeting. So, all right. Well, thank you all for being willing to serve. Our next item is our Environmental Protection Advisory Committee Annual Work Plan. Summer Waters Environmental Protection Department. I'm the staff liaison. I've been the liaison for a year now, and it's been a pretty exciting year, honestly, at EPAC. We have a brand new chair who I'm going to introduce and he'll give you the work plan update. This is Jay Rosenbeck. He's on his third year with EPAC. He's a familiar face in the conservation community. He's involved with the legal women voters. He's worked hard on the right to clean water and in part of that he's sort of 17 years at Shans. So really excited to have him as chair. Take it away, Jay. Wonderful. Madam Chair, commissioners, it's a great honor to represent the Environmental Protection Advisory Committee, give you an idea of what we accomplished, and what we plan. Also, pay tribute to the people who have, thank you. Also, pay tribute to the people who have served and are oncoming members. Just a word about my name, my mother really wanted to call me Jay. The nurse said, oh, you can't name anyone Jay because it sounds too much like an initial. So my mother, Godlover, being Methodist in Midwestern said, oh, okay, I'll name him John. And just because I'm afraid that nurse may still live, I continue to put John on formal documents, but Jay is my preferred name. I just want to pay tribute in this next slide to the members of the E-PAC that made the contributions which I will summarize briefly and rely upon you to have read in our full summary in your handout. We thank those members, of course. And just so that you will know that we know, we understand our mission. We understand the importance of environmental protection and of our committees dealing seriously and thoughtfully with issues that strengthen our environment or that threaten our environment. As just one indicator of our commitment to this project, I will tell you that on our December meeting, first Tuesday of each month, which came hard on the heels of Thanksgiving, we were told by one of our members now moving on to other activities, David Moritz, that our New Year's resolution should be show up on January 2nd for the E-PAC meeting because we have important stuff and we all did. More important is that we took our last year's work plan very seriously and I want to summarize just a bit of that right now. Under the area of land use and conservation, we spent hours, and I know you spent days dealing with the Lee property, the special area study followed now by the special area plan. We made recommendations around preserving as much of that as we possibly could. We also made a recommendation forward to you that that golf course be not only the best golf course environmentally in Florida, but the best golf course environmentally in the United States. And we understand that the relationship between county and city governments and the university is a complex one. We understand that primarily we'll have perhaps a moral ethical influence, but I would ask us to exercise every ounce of that moral ethical and where it might exist administrative influence. We looked at the Warehouse R-121 highway proposal. That's especially dear to me because I live north of there. That of course is a city project, but anything that happens anywhere happens to all of us everywhere. Under the heading of waste management, we had a really, really serious, thoughtful set of conversations about waste and waste converting to fuel. And we know the county counties policies on that. We look long at policy 1.2.5 regarding plastics as a fuel source. And we of course can support the commission's reluctance to do anything that would convert these kinds of materials to fuel. But we do ask that all of us, including, of course, you on the Diasp, pay careful attention to emerging technologies in the hopes that perhaps while we won't be saved by technology, we will be helped. And there might be road way to deal with some of these issues down the road. Under the heading of water resources and quality which we spent a good deal of time on, we advise you all to cooperate where you could with the Florida Springs Council on the legislative issues, because you know perhaps better than I, that our state legislature continues to budget the very minimum, number of millions of dollars in support of our springs. We made suggestions thanks to a presentation by staff on the Water Resources Program regarding water conservation and irrigation code updates. And we encourage that you responded your support for a clean and healthy water state constitutional amendment. That one will be back to you because we had insufficient signatures the first time. The rest of our accomplishments are in the handout. And now I'd like to turn to our goals. In a fit of rational exuberance, we put into our work plan 19 accomplishments across these five categories, new or slightly newly word. And I'm going to just make a summary of a few of them. We're especially proud as a committee of our contributions in outreach and equity. We had a trainee from the university and entered from the university, Krista Kilberg. And Krista Kilberg responded to our request for a question there. Let's find out what the citizens of Elatua County value, what they worry about, what is their greatest concern? And you can see on the graph that land use and conservation turns out to be of greatest concern, although if you collapse our water programs, then you see that water collectively is a bigger concern. But the single concern that this group of residents identified as important was land use and conservation. So we have begun to create a community conversation We have begun to create a community conversation on this issue, and there will be more of an update about that as we are planning advances. Under the heading of health and safety, I would refer you in relation to our first item. To a book, some of you may have seen it, it's called Total Garbage. This is Edward Hume's book. His previous book was called Garbology and one major awards. This new book is every bit as good and I hope equally rewarded. He reminds us that as citizens, depending on where we live, that we consume the equivalent of one credit card of plastic each week or depending on where we live each year. I can't imagine even the smallest bite of credit card and I suspect you can't either end. That's the condition that we have with microplastics. So the E-PAC has included in its work plan as a major focus with your approval, the study of microplastics and the danger that they represent to our community and how we might prevent those dangers from effectively health of our community. And of course land use and conservation not only is important in our education, but in our study and advising to this committee. We are strongly supporting the very best environmental measures around the inevitable development that a Lachua County faces. And we are strong supporters and will contribute wherever we can to the Lachua County forever as proposed agricultural protection strategy. I've read what this commission has said about that program. We echo it and if our things we can do to support you we certainly will do that. The Springs of course are part of the quality of life that has brought us all here. We are strongly committed to study and recommendation around our springs. We feature post springs on this slide and you guys know as well as I, that it sometimes runs much more green than blue. We're very interested in the GRU groundwater recharge facility. We understand that that facilities water will in part irrigate the proposed UF golf course. So we're very interested in that kind of an interaction among projects and planned development. And I want to reassure you that this committee has not responded to every sparkling new environmental topic. Good Lord, you'd have no time to sleep or concentrate on anything else if you did. Rather what we were trying to focus on was the very real influences on our environment and our quality of life, of climate change, and population growth, both of which are proceeding apace. I don't know if you know Susan Solomon or not. She's a PhD environmental scientist. She's just written a book called Solvable, great title. And the first line in the preface is, I have hope for this planet. Well, I wish she'd said for the life forms on it, the planet's gonna survive, but I take her point. And that hope for her is a hope that is not some kind of fuzzy emotion, but is rather a discipline, the result of hard work. And it's in that regard that our committee wants to thank you for your support of a climate action plan and my willingness to volunteer, my committee, to make any contributions to its development or enforcement or in action that we possibly can. And we realize that population growth, how we manage it and preserve what's valuable, is going to require a view guys and has required of you guys tremendous political will and hard work. We're willing to support you in all of that. Because like you, my committee recognizes that if this county becomes grass, cement, and asphalt, we will lose what many came here for, and what many of us stay here for. And that's the quality of life where environment and culture and development are somehow balanced however tenuously. And finally, I just want to say thank you for your support and I can go wrong to you that we will return that support with thoughtful attention to environmental issues. Thank you very much. Wow, thank you. What a wonderful, wonderful update. We do have a couple of comments or questions. Come, Mr. Prisya. I, first thank you, Mr. Rosenbeck, for your service, for your commitment to sustainability and to our environmental protection. I really appreciate the presentation. I was excited to hear you to our environmental protection. I really appreciate the presentation. I was excited to hear you mention our climate action plan. I think that's going to be a key piece of the work that we're doing over the next several years is really thinking about your priorities, the priorities of the committee around land use planning and around water protections and other things as we talk about climate action. Those are going to be central to that conversation. And I know that this board already has had several conversations about land use planning and about the ways in which we need to come up with new and creative ways to balance the opportunities for private land owners to get value from their property and the importance of protecting the natural resources that allow us to survive on this planet. So I'm excited to hear your all's input as we move their property and the importance of protecting the natural resources that allow us to survive on this planet. So, I'm excited to hear your all's input as we move through that process, especially as we start looking at our comprehensive plan again with an equity lens right now. And then again, when we do our overall kind of, you know, review of it in 2026. So, I just want to say a big thank you and I'm excited to see this work come to fruition and I really really appreciate y'all's time and energy. Thank you. And I'll just add that we added equity to one of our subheads for that very reason. Uh, in our view, planning without that as a centerpiece is bound to fail. Fabulous. Commissioner Cornell. Thank you Madam Chair. Jay, what a great presentation. Thank you for your energy and for your leadership on this very hard working. I mean this committee is a group of folks that have been, since I've been on the commission, always leaning in on the things that seem to be important to this community and obviously important to this board. The first thing I would say is I think we as a board need to extend the sunset date, which is next year. So that's on my list, Madam Manager, to extend it another decade or whatever that timeframe is that's recommended because I do think, you know, our logo, we're nature and culture meat. This is a committee that needs to continue the good work that it's doing. On water projects, I would say that FACC has created a water committee five years ago. I was able to serve as a chair of it, I think four years ago, three years ago. And one of the things that FACC, Florida Florida Association of Counties is focused on is creating a funding structure that mirrors both in the way the state thinks about water projects, but also in how it's funding for water projects mirrors FTOT transportation. And with the empty peos and with the long range planning and thinking about water, I would love for EPEC to kind of add that as one of their goals to look at how they could help us help the state in that regard. Secondly, thirdly, on the microplastics, NACO has a whole sub-geist sit on the environmental energy and land use sub-community for NACO. And this has been on our list. And that book, Total Garbage, is one that I will add to my reading list. What was the other book that you mentioned? The... What's it called? A Solvable... By Solomon. By Solomon, S-O-L-O-M-I. Okay, solvable. Okay, and so my last comment then is a book recommendation that I'm going to actually give E-PAC, which is regarding trees. We've had some discussion about liveoaks and how liveoaks are truly a keystone species and how they're special in North Central Florida and in all of Florida for so many things from flood control to biodiversity to shade. And I know that this board is hopefully going to be having a discussion about our trees and what we currently regulate. Right, we do not allow for the cutting down of any live oaks greater than 60 inches. I would ask that EPAC take a look at that as part of their goals as two. And I would ask this board that we think about having a discussion about that at our policy meeting in August, maybe or maybe not. My son is a microbiologist. He got his master's degree from the University of Florida, and he read this book. It's called The Nature of Oaks. And it really goes through 12 months of what oak trees do for our community and for our environment. And so they're only a $15 book. So I got a copy for each of my colleagues. I'm just going to ask that. It's an excellent. I'm out. I said, they take only, it's only a $15 book. So I got a copy for each of my colleagues on just an extra lunch. I'm out, I said they take a look at it, we have a break coming up. And what I also put in the front cover of that book is I asked Chat GBT to summarize the book, it gave me two pages. So you have that as well. I'm learning about Chat GBT. There's actually something on FAC about chat GBT. But this is a book that if we could kind of spread around the community the importance of flybooks, I think you would really add a lot to the discussion and I so, so appreciate each of the members of E-PAC and the work that they do. So thank you for your presentation. Thank you, Commissioner Cornel, and we will take study of trees and how we might contribute to their preservation of the Lachor County seriously as a committee. Thank you very much. And thank you. Just one more thing. As I've said way too often up here, EPAC was how it got my start basically in county government. And I was honored to serve on that committee and it was so exciting. You didn't know that? Okay, so it was the first board I served on and it's so gratifying to see that some of the same people are still serving on that very hard working group. So I do see you've lost scut, you lost scut, crossed me to the county and then now he's retired, maybe he'll come back. But you don't currently have a, a forester on the, on the board now. No, excuse me, no, we do not have a forester. You have some very esteemed scientists though and some very enthusiastic and smart folks. So thank you for chairing. I chaired myself that I was the end. It's quite the job, and I'm very glad that you're continuing the community conversations because I think that's such a great way to share knowledge and information and get feedback from the community. So thank you for doing that. Thank you, Commissioner Arnold. Yes, we lost some momentum with COVID. It took us a while to pick it up, but we are proceeding a pace now. Thank you, Commissioner President. Yeah, I just, I noticed the graph, and I was excited to see the community engagement, the work you're doing to try to get feedback from our residents and our community with regards to the issues that are important to them. I saw that that was done by Christa Kilburg your intern and I thought that was really cool to have an intern that's working with the advisory committee. I wonder if you could just talk briefly about how that worked and sort of the relationship between the intern and the committee. Yes, I can. Thank you, Commissioner Prisya. The intern was, is in the sustainability program. And in the sustainability program at the University of Florida, you need a capstone project. And the capstone project can be created without a community liaison. But I think the professor in the class prefers that an intern served with some committee. And so we were able to get Krista. Krista showed up on time, stayed late, thought creatively. We gave her a charge. She did that very competently. She recognized the limitations and speaking of equity. One of the limitations was that most of our folks were middle-class, white, farmers, market shoppers. And we recognize that while that's an important part of our community, those folks are not the only important parts of our community, and we intend to expand the reach of that because there's no need to assume that different folks believe the same kinds of threats or the same kinds of items should be preserved. So we will expand that project. And I think she was successful. I suspect she got an A. Thank you. And she also has applied for the board. So that actually brings us to our next agenda item, which is- And that's a tribute to the liaison. I've never seen a liaison work with an intern as carefully and thoughtfully as she did. Thank you. Thank you. Now those are good words. Thank you so much. So I don't think we have any other action item. We've given some direction to the EPEC committee. And thank you. We accept your annual report with gratitude. So thank you. And so we'll move on to our ePAC appointments. And we would ask, is there anyone here that is an applicant for the ePAC and would like to speak? Please come forward to the microphone and introduce yourself. You can see what kind of board you've applied to. Yeah. Very important. Yes. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in presently. My name is Dr. Hayshan Grasshopper-Elonco, PhD. I have a doctorate in undergrad in chemistry, doctorate in biochemistry from University of Florida, citizen of Lachia County since 1998, been watching environment and the springs and the coppers, sight and all the things that have been happening for a long time. And I thought that I could share some of my time on this committee and it would go pretty, my knowledge base would help, I think. So especially in the area of microplastics, I work in regenerative medicine with stem cell exosomes, and those are tiny little particles that enter ourselves to regenerate ourselves. And realize that the microplastics also fall into the same area of size. and that's why they enter ourselves too and that's where we're consuming them. We don't even see that they're around there. And we have the equipment at both at university and at the Siddhmar and Biotech Incubation Center to analyze this. So this is something that's very important to the health of not only illiterate county citizens, but globally. So that's one little bit of information that I've realized that hasn't been published yet that I think would be good to add to our thought processes here. Anything else I should touch on? OK. That's great. Great introduction. Thank you. Thank you. Is it Dr. Grasshopper? Yes. Dr. Grasshopper. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Grasshopper. Any other applicants that would like to introduce themselves? Okay. All right. Well, yeah. So we have, we have five, basically five appointments. No, six appointments. There are all six names. Can we just give six names? Is there a... How would you like us to do that? We've done this in the past by each listing our top six candidates. Is that the way you want to do it or you can do your top three for the first part and then one and one the next three full terms that didn't do the other ones yeah that works for me okay so we'll do the three full terms ending June 30th 2027 if I can have your vote, commission of crazy. OK, so you want all of them? Yeah. Three. All three. Oh, just three. Yes. For 2027. Correct. OK. Bettina Moser, Dr. Grasshopper, and Nisha Anderson. OK. For the three in 2027. Okay, Commissioner Chestnut. Yes, Moser, Grasshopper, and Kilbert. Commissioner Wheeler. Moser, Grasshopper, Anderson, Cornell. Moser, Grasshopper Anderson Cornell Moser Grasshopper Anderson And chair after Moser Grasshopper Anderson. Okay, I would I would move Moser Dr. Grasshopper and Anderson for a full term and the June 30th 2027 for a full term and the June 30th, 2027. Second. All right. Motion to second. All in favor of the motion signified by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Well, let's move on. Shall we try to do in the next three then? Three. No. Is that work for you? Yeah. So we have five candidates left? Yes. Five left. Your next top three. Commissioner Cornell. I would say Jacobi, Kilburn and Stone. Commissioner Willard. Vanja, Jacobi and Kilberg. Commissioner Chasnett. Stone, Jacobi and Clark. Commissioner Prasya. Kilberg, Jacobi and Vanja. And Chair Affert. Vanja, Kilberg, and Jacobi. Okay, 5-4-3. Yeah. Alright, so I would move Jacoby, who had got five votes for the term ending June 30th, 2026. I would move Kilburn who got four votes for the term ending June 30th, 2025. And I would move Vanya for the term ending June 2026 who got three votes. Sounds good. I think we need to specify the alternate. Maybe. Yeah, what kind of a gelat. Oh, and then a stone. Is that stone? No, no. The third, so you have three more ones, a partial term. I'm sorry, Vanya as the alternate. Thank you. You're three more ones a partial term. I'm sorry vanya as the alternate. Thank you. With the partial. All right so we have motion a second. Is that all clear? Yeah so Jacobi for 26 Kilburn for 25 and vanya as the alternate. And I do want to say I was very pleased to see there were a number of young folks that applied for this besides Kilburg. And I actually requested that that we start asking more of our young folks to serve on these boards so that we can get that perspective as we deal with things like climate disruption. I think it's super important. So I'm glad to see that that actually happened. So all right. So we have a motion in a second. All in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Thank you. Thank you all for serving and being willing to serve. And again, those of you that weren't chosen, you were all, again, some very great people applied for this. And I really appreciate your enthusiasm and please attend the meetings. Please look at other boards that you might want to serve on. Madam Chair, don't these applications stay on file to for a certain amount of time? Thank you. They stay on file for approximately a year. So when there are other openings, we can reach out to them and let them know that there are other openings on that same committee. Thank you. All right. So we're moving on to our action items. Our first action item is consideration of an interlocal agreement for co-enforcement for the City of Hawthorne. Good afternoon, Madam Chair. Missy Daniels, County Manager's Office, Assistant County Manager. So this item you have seen and you discussed in the City of Hawthorne, the Interlocal to do Code Enforcement for Hawthorne. The actual agreement in your backup is the same one you've seen with one minor amendment. If you remember, we talked about the $70 fee at that meeting. It's still going to be $70 for the site visit as adopted in our fee code, but they just added a line that says from time to time we'll look at the number of cases they have and the cost to make sure that they can still forward going forward. This is only the first step. Hawthorne once we got that interlocal the first step. Hawthorne, once we got that interlocal on the staff level, they went ahead and signed it at their meeting, which I wasn't exactly expecting, but now you can sign the interlocal. They also still have to adopt our code, whatever pieces they want enforced, so that will be forthcoming. They have a list. I will be talking to the city manager after this meeting once you make your decision and we'll move forward on that. And then we also have to amend our code to include them in our jurisdiction. Just an easy amendment but we'll wait for them to adopt the code. So this says you do want to enter into the interlocal with them and then move forward to do the last two tasks It need to happen before we have jurisdiction over their code cases and we're already receiving calls So we will keep this moving move approval of the interlocal agreement with the city of author The motion is second to approve the interlocal agreement with the city of author and the county Do we have any public comment to this motion? All right, seeing none, all in favor of the motion, signify by saying I, I, I, any opposed? All right, that carries four zero with Commissioner Cornell out of the room. I, okay, all right, five zero. Thank you. That was easy. All right. Our second item is the immigrant and language services coordinator presentation. I'm very excitedre Halchian, your equity and community outreach manager. I have the great pleasure of introducing you to Gracia Fernandez, our immigrant and language access coordinator, and she'll be presenting her plan and a policy for your recommendation. Thank you. Good afternoon. Madam Chair, Madam County, I'm here today to share the culmination of our first phase in the work I'll be implementing into county practice over the next year and a half. This language access policy seeks to recognize and address linguistic barriers and foster an environment where all Alachua County residents regardless of their English proficiency can access vital resources and engage meaningfully with their community. Today I intend on walking you through some of the history and regulations behind this project, as well as my proposed roll-up, our proposed roll-up plan and our recommendation to the board. Title 6 of the Civil Rights Office of 1964 prohibits the discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, and in 2000 it was ruled that this also applied to language. In other words, it's the federal right of people who have limited English proficiency to access meaningfully programs and services in a language they can understand. A little bit about me and my background and my work experience. I'm a first-generation immigrant. I moved to Gainesville in 2022. There are 2017, excuse me, at the age of 22 after obtaining my bachelor's degree in communications. And I have been the child translator for all my non-English speaking relatives throughout my life. Let's talk a little bit about Ginny. Ginny's a local organization composed of multicultural advocates and allies who seek to drive language access by advocating for inclusive policies and practices such as this very position. And they've served as a model and standard for immigrant integration, inclusion, and empowerment in Gainesville. Immigrants in Alachua County come from various countries worldwide with significant populations hailing from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, Africa, and Europe. Some countries have note that are notable are Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, China, India, Haiti, and Brazil among others. From serving as chairs family physicians to founding beloved culinary establishments that we go to and have become staples of our community, to impartage knowledge and wisdom as teachers and professors, foreign-born residents of Alachua County have demonstrated multifaceted contributions across various spheres, thereby elevating the county's stature and fostering a more inclusive and vibrant community. These are the top languages spoken in Elatua County. These are insights from May 2024 and they were collected from various organizations. You can see their origins right below the side there. These are language line solutions, the Rural Women's Health Project, our mobile outreach clinic, as well as the Swani River Health Education Center. This policy and procedure served to meet legal obligations under Title VI, an executive order 13166. And reflects our commitment to promoting inclusivity, diversity and cultural competence within our organizations. Executive order 13166 ensures that consistent with Title 6 persons with LEP and LEP stands for Limited English proficiency, have meaningful access to federally conducted and federally funded programs and activities. Departments within the county will have the flexibility to choose between utilizing some of the and federally funded programs and activities. Departments within the county will have the flexibility to choose between utilizing several certified professional vendors or leveraging in-house interpreters, depending on the specific needs of each situation. This approach allows for tailored solutions that can effectively address language needs across various departments and service areas. can effectively address language needs across various departments and service areas. To determine the language's highest demand, a Latchua County will draw for multiple sources of data, such as the primary language is spoken by students in a Latchua County public schools, as well as language requests received through the Combined Communication Center and feedback from partner organizations. This not only enhances access to cultural activities and promotes cultural inclusivity, it increases cultural competence within the county's operations. To ensure seamless communication in real time, the county will offer live simultaneous over-the-phone interpretation to allow for immediate access to qualified interpreters who can accurately convey spoken messages between parties. By prioritizing the designation of qualified interpreters, the county aims to uphold the integrity of interpretation services and enhance the quality of LEP individuals. Access to vital documents in one's preferred language is essential for LEP individuals. Access to vital documents in one's preferred language is essential for LEP individuals to fully understand and participate and access critical services. To address this need, the county will prioritize the translation of vital documents based on their relevance and access to potential consequences for LEP individuals. Vital documents such as legal forms and emergency management information and educational materials will receive special attention to ensure accurate clarity and translation. Lastly, by promoting, translating, by promptly translating emergency notices, we seek to eliminate language barriers that could impede understanding and response among diverse populations. These translations will be provided in languages commonly spoken within the community as I identified through the graphic that we have discussed. This proactive approach ensures that vital information reaches all residents. Regardless of their language proficiency, promotingivity and enhanced single-trol resilience. This plan has been broken down into four phases for implementation. During the assessment phases, during the preparation phase, there was an assessment phase where we reviewed language access policies and identified existing gaps, where we stand, where we would like to go. We also conducted individual meetings and a needs assessment among departments to introduce the work and understand what gaps they've already identified and could be addressed immediately. We learned that most departments have some system place, whether it's making use of bilingual employees when available using Google Translate or our over-the-phone interpretation line, departments seek to satisfy the need where they can. Next with the information collected we drafted a comprehensive language access procedure outlining goals and strategies as well as timelines. We met with several relevant internal and external stakeholders to better understand what some of the goals of the language access plan are, as well as continuous feedback sessions throughout the drafting process. Lastly, we identified a suitable platform for the language access site, which will be hosted on the public county site, and I'll show you a screenshot of what that'll look like in just a moment. With a submission request portal that will be powered through Monday.com. This is a glimpse at an early version of our language access site. Our goal is to create a site that's easy to use for both internal and external stakeholders. This will be an online language hub where residents and departments alike can request document translation, interpretation, reader language access policy and procedure or share feedback regarding an experience with language access measures. The goal of the website submission process is to create a smooth workflow for staff and residents to easily request documents into language of their choosing. We will begin a pilot program with two departments, emergency management and EPD by their request. And we will be translating it to Spanish only. And once we have established a satisfactory process, we'll be expanding to the other four most commonly spoken languages. This does not mean that you cannot receive a document in the language of your choosing. It just has to be by request, as we'll be starting with Spanish and then expanding. So as I mentioned, we had conversations with critical departments such as court services, emergency management on language access to vulnerable populations. We also discussed with code management and public works about vital notices being more than one language. We met with emergency management several times and that actually led to me being designated into an emergency management activation so I will be in the combined communication or in the EOC when we activate. Additionally, thanks to Dave Pieten, shout out to Dave Peton, and Jen Grice, we created a Lachua ESP. So now you can text 888-777, Lachua ESP, and you are now subscribed to Spanish text and Spanish alerts. Oh, nice. Overall, I'm hearing there's a need, and there are tools, but we just need more solutions. Phase two starts today with the approval of the language access policy. Next we will begin the translation of vital documents so that will be based on community needs, legal requirements, and we will be using this time to establish a workflow for quality assurance process. Next we will be expanding the usage of over the phone interpretation lines. We have an existing over the phone interpretation lines. I am seeking to adopt a second state contract very similar to the one we already have to reduce whole times and to increase service levels. One of the feedback that I got is that it does take a while for folks to answer. So we're just providing more options for folks to be able to pick their best option. And our second provider will have a guarantee that if the call is not picked up within 60 seconds then the call is free. So that mostly guarantees me that there will be quick response in fast turnaround. Lastly, we will be launching out the language access site with a submission request portal. This is to promote awareness among county residents and employees through various communication channels as well as training sessions for staff on how to use the site effectively, how to interact effectively with a person who is LEP, as well as how to use all the other existing resources that we have. Yes, ma'am. No, no ma'am. I'm good. Okay. In training, it's the role of staff to ensure that residents know that they have the right to language access and interpretation services in their own language, and that staff is proactive in providing it. We will be partnering with organizational development and training and harness their wealth of resources and expertise to elevate the effectiveness of language access training initiatives. We will be implementing advanced methodologies such as interactive learning techniques and real world case studies to optimize engagement and learning outcomes. We will host workshops that will provide staff with comprehensive guides on language access measures, as federal guidelines guidelines and offer opportunities for skill enhancement and knowledge acquisition in key areas. There are diverse topics to be covered including communication skills, conflict resolution and time management. These tailored workshops will address specific needs identified through staff feedback and organizational goals. We'll also investigate best practices in inclusion initiatives in leveraging resources by welcoming America and similar organizations across states. It's essential that our language access plan remains a dynamic and responsive to the evolving needs of our diverse population. One key strategy in achieving this is through the adaptation of our plan based on feedback sessions with stakeholders, staff, and community members and a thorough revision of identified needs. Feedback sessions should be held regularly, at least biennually with staff and feedback submitted through the language access site will be compiled, evaluated and addressed, as needed. Lastly, we'll meet regularly with community organizations to gather feedback on language services and procedure implementation. And so I come to you today with only one recommendation, and that is to approve this language access policy. And that is to approve this language access policy. Right, Commissioner Prousia. Yes, thank you for all this work and all the pre-work. Like doing the planning and getting the feedback and the input upfront so that you could come to us with a robust policy. I did have a question when I read the policy. I didn't see in the policy anything about the part you're talking about sort of that regular feedback loop. And in terms of departments themselves doing that piece of it, like under like regularly kind of looking at their stakeholders needs or their clients needs. Is that something that's built into sort of the bigger picture overall program rather than the individual policy perspective? There should be a section that specifies ongoing review and feedback and the idea is that at least until we get more comfortable and established with the process that we would lead meetings and just kind of lead listening sessions with staff, with community members, with stakeholders and see how our language plan is doing, how it's being implemented, if it's being not well received, but rather if it's being effective. And if the answer to any of those are no, then how can we make it better? And how can we make it more reflective and better of fitting to our community's needs? But yes, it should be in there. If not, I will revise it and I'll make sure to clarify it a bit better. Well, I really, really appreciate all the work. And I'm happy to make the motion with that addition that we add that sort of feedback loop into the policy. But it looks great. Thank you for your work. Is that your motion? Yeah, there's no other comments. Yeah, I would move staff's recommendation on the policy with the addition of the feedback process for updating the policies as needed. OK. All right, we motion a second. We still have some more comments. Commissioner Wheeler? Yes, ma'am. How are you? How are you? I'm doing well. I've been able to find a place to work yet. With your roller group, roller blight. Oh, well, I'm happy to come up later for public comment, but yes, support your local roller derby. So, I just feel like a little roller revels. We have a game July 6th. I'm still looking. Open to all ages. So, she's multifaceted. That's my alter ego. Right, absolutely. Now, when you're talking about departments, you did mention court services, APD, what other departments, who are we talking about when you're talking about departments? All of your public-facing departments. So if you come in contact with the public, then you most likely have some sort of documentation that the public needs to access in order. For example, public works has road signs, parks has park signs. I met with all the public- facing departments, had at least one meeting with their leadership to introduce the work we've been doing and to kind of select in terms of community need, what is most critical and just kind of start there. And EPD has been included in there specifically from a request of one of the staff that said it's summer you know there's no school that was the perfect time can we please be considered and I, we've added them in there. Would it be, would you cover it all places like the library or the tax office, superintendent, the supervisor of elections or the property appriser? Do we? Yes and no. I had a conversation with Sheriff Gainey, just similar to introduce the work. Yes. And I have tried to kind of get my name out there, the position and the work out there, but I do have to be respectful of the jurisdictional lines where my work can be appreciated, but I can't necessarily date what's coming. So I do, I want to work with a library further and with a property appraiser, tax, but that will have to come once we have a language access policy in place and I can say, hey, this is the work we're doing. Would you like to back us up? We can collaborate, we have a budget, we can make things happen. That's why I just didn't know that your reach would be that far. You know, that we would be all those folks that fall under our umbrella that would have access to your services or expertise. They can. They absolutely can. Anybody can reach out to me if they have any questions or concerns. We also have, there is a counterpart of my position at the city as well. If you are within city jurisdictional lines, you are welcome to reach out to me at any time, even if I can't help or don't know the answer. I can definitely direct you towards someone who could. So yes, absolutely. OK, thank you. Well, the Library Literacy Program is one that I'm a little familiar with because they also work with folks who are limited in their English. and they do have tutors that come in through there too. So I appreciate because they are all under our umbrella that we would have those services offered to them as well through what you're doing. We also met with, I attended a journey meeting with Jenny Host and some folks from Santa Fe's eSOL program are also there. And so we're having conversations there as well and seeing how we can collaborate and do work together. Because even if we are separate organizations, we serve the same public. And the more cohesion, the better it is for our residents. Right. And the more work you're doing in the community makes your position important. Right, that's what I'm trying to say too, is that we need your face out there. We need our work out there through you, so that we can make sure that we're doing what we need to do for the community. Thank you, thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you, Commissioner Cornell. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you. Commissioner Cordo. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Hernandez, thank you for the presentation. How many languages do you speak? I speak English, French, Spanish, and I can read and write Portuguese just because it's just like Spanish. Okay, so my cousin speaks five. He was a general over for NATO and it really opens up your world. I need to learn Spanish. It's all my list of things to do. What percentage of our population would you say is bilingual? bilingual. That's going to be a really big number. I don't think we have that number specifically and I'm happy to look into it further to give you a better figure but it's I mean our immigrant population is 11% that's about 30,000 people in a Lachua County. That's not including their kids who may have been born here but were raised speaking to languages or people that weren't even counted as part of this count. So I'll have to look into that for you. What percentage would you say are limited English proficient? So I have a map here actually. If I could please have the overhead. You'll stick it right down there. Yes. So this is a map that our GIS person already just created earlier this week actually. And according to the CDC, it goes up to 7.9%. This is by region and it is in black and white. I apologize. I should have printed it by color But it's a total of about 10 12% of people. It's it's a large group of people and these This is data that the CDC provided so there's also data of folks who were Uncounted or were undercounted by programs like the census I mean this this shows the story as to how, why and how this is so important. Okay, what is our county's policy or program for if we have county employees that wanna learn Spanish? How do we encourage that? I know some of our leadership is doing that, which I highly encourage and think that it's awesome. How does somebody that works in public works or works in the parks department if they say, hey, you know, I'm interacting with a number of citizens. This would be a good thing for me to learn. How could they then do the county, Lauren, how to speak Spanish? I am newer to the county, so forgive me if I say incorrect information. But if we offer any sort of say professional development and we can say, you know, folks are interested in learning more than one language in that, that was a conversation that we were having as well as the possibility of bringing on more people who spoke more than one language. Or teaching those I want to speak how to learn a new language. I mean I think I'm going to talk to our manager now. I think Madam Manager that the best way to bring this about throughout our organization is to offer to our employees, hey you want to learn how to speak Spanish? Let the county help you. Because once you embed that into the culture of the people that are already serving, they will identify the needs that they're serving those individuals. And I'd sign up for that program as a commissioner. I mean, it's been on my list. I want to learn how to speak Spanish. But I think that we have thousands of people that are serving our citizens. And if that's something that you think is important, speak to whoever it is you speak to, and I would support that. I think that would be wonderful. I do want to set the right expectations, though. Learning a language is really difficult. And learning a language while you're also trying to do your full-time job is even more difficult. I am all for this, and I think everyone should try to learn at least one other language, even if it's the base of it where you can have a basic conversation. But it's hard. It's really hard. You know why I think it's important? As you struggle to learn a language, you are able to empathize with those who don't speak a language, you're able to empathize with those who don't speak a language. And the way you started your presentation today with speaking a different language, gave a point of thought. That moment, right? Oh, so that's what it's like. You don't know what in the heck is that person saying. Yeah, so, you know, I'm just throwing out an idea. The manager has heard my point. I think I support the motion. And I encourage the more employees that have a desire to learn a second language, whoever it is you report to. Make your voice heard. Say that. This is a great time. We're talking about it right now. And let's see if we can teach a number of folks that speak Spanish or another language. So thank you. And I guess I just have to say I think that's a great idea. I think from an idea of projecting empathy and helping our citizens be heard, I would be a little bit concerned about the fact that we often are. And you and I talked about this a little bit portraying very important information. We wouldn't ever want that to be translated wrongly. But that, but you know, on the other hand, just, almost like you see in Esponule, this has been an awesome presentation. You see an representation wonderful. We approve. Approve. We approve. Approve. Approve. Approve. Approve. Approve. Approve. I'll put it up. I'll put it up. But sorry, Commissioner, I mean, Madame attorney, I see that you've got your light on. And Madame Manager. Madame Chair, we're looking for a little bit of clarification on the motion. You were asked to, I don't know if you can put it back up, but adopt that policy that was on the board. And then there was a suggestion of adding something in about the feedback loop. Being able to get information is that part of the plan are you hoping to add that to the policy? I guess my understanding and looking at the policies that talks about department should assess all of their you know documents. I guess it doesn't really have like a frequency of that it doesn't talk about involving stakeholders and understanding those needs and she talked about kind of having that as a feedback loop so I guess it doesn't really have like a frequency of that. It doesn't talk about involving stakeholders and understanding those needs. And she talked about kind of having that as a feedback loop. So I guess I was going to leave that to staff to think about how their goal for having resident and stakeholder feedback for this interpretation services is part of the actual policy so that it's not something that gets lost if perhaps Grasya wins the lottery and decides that she's going to move to Europe or anything that that that process of this being a community engaged and a community led in a lot of ways like process and decisions and decisions that are being made or being made in that way as a part of the policy as well as sort of just general procedure. Does that make sense? Sure. That would mean that they need to come back with or need to amend this language to include what you've. If I may Madam Chair. So this is the policy statement and then what Commissioner Prisya is referring to is the employee procedure. That's the rest of the document. So Madam Chair, this board doesn't adopt the procedure. That's a county manager level procedure. I think the question is do you want that to be part of the board adopted policy or are you giving feedback direction to the county manager for the county manager procedure? And I see the the manager has relied on so maybe she can speak to that? No, it wasn't to that. I'll mention your other class. Okay. Okay. Okay, we'll give you a second and then, then manager, did you want to make your comment while we're? No, I was just going to comment that we'll take a look at what options there are to offer classes or courses in other language. It may be an online option. I can tell you Santa Faye doesn't offer much for non-degree seeking students. I've already been down that route. A lot of you know I take Spanish classes, but I go to Valencia College to do that because. I bet some of the Southern counties a fact can give us some. Yeah, and we can also talk to Santa Fe about doing some kind of corporate offering as well, which was my next comment. And then there's also the Esau stuff because if you were teaching someone how to speak English that doesn't speak English, you'd learn a lot of Spanish. Or at least that was a little bit of my tiny experience with that. But Commissioner Wheeler? Yeah, I taught Esau kids too for a long time and we really did try to encourage them to speak English and to go home and teach their parents so that a young and like you wouldn't spend their whole time interpreting and not allowing the development of those. So my response, yes, if I'm traveling someplace I'd like to be able to speak Spanish, but at the same time, when we're trying to integrate people into the community, we really want them to speak English too. And so I want to make sure that we're clear when we're talking about this, we want to be able to communicate and learn for our own benefit. But for the benefit of the people coming into the community, we really need to encourage things. Well, at the same time, though, we can't, for instance, put them at risk by not providing her a cane. No, of course. No, no, no. What we're doing is fine. What we're doing, but when we're talking now about extending with language, our high school kids are getting language. Most of them are taking some kind of, at least they used to have to do that. I don't know anymore, but I would imagine that a lot of those kids are learning another language as well. But I would just say, we just have to kind of be careful in our enthusiasm for communication and make sure that we are not also saying we really want you to learn to speak English here too. I don't think we're not saying that for sure, but I wanted to say just a few words. I want to really thank the Jenny folks here for the work that they've done. They've really done a good job of being a watchdog really to the county and have made me aware of multiple, you know, issues that the county is working through in terms of accessibility of our own websites. We've lost a lot of translation services apparently when we made things more accessible to folks that are might have problems with vision or hearing, right? So by making things more accessible to them, we made them less accessible to folks that have a language problem, and that's actually a higher percentage of the population. So it's a real balance that we have to do at the county, but on the other hand, I appreciated Jenny pointing that out and doing the work. They actually do call many of our departments on a regular basis and perform some of those checks and, you know, request language services and other languages to see how our departments react. And so that is good and it is good because it shows where we have places that we need to improve in our system. So I appreciate them doing that and keeping us on our toes. I did have a quick another question for legal. As we do work on translating our most important documents into other languages, can you talk to me about a risk management there and translation services and the subtleties of, there's many subtleties and translation sometimes, I know how that worked from a legal point of view. So Madam Chair, we're actually dealing with something a little bit like that now where in the middle of translating the charter amendment ordinance and they are asking some questions about language and we're trying to explain to them what what we want it to mean and I think trying to explain to them what we want it to mean. And I think that what our experience has been is that there isn't a perfect translation of anything. And then if we can get close enough that people can understand what's going on with the documents that is that is going to have to be acceptable. Okay. In those cases because they't originally drafted in those languages. But it's not going to get in the way of us providing those documents in any way that you're aware of. So what we've been doing so far is that with certain documents, we've sent them out for professional legal or professional interpretations. Certain documents have been interpreted in-house. And I think that has to do with the legal significance of the importance of those documents and also how much time we have. During emergency sometimes we just don't have the time to send it out because by the time it comes back the information is not well-recurrent. So I said, volunteered, but during this next hurricane season, I would be willing to read any emergency management type communications with the public in Spanish because I can't do that. I can't translate them, but I can read them. But that type of thing we should be able to get that level of information translated pretty accurately, pretty quickly, I assume. I mean, I'm talking to multiple folks here, not just to you, but do you see any issues with something at that level? Can you explain the question again? So we're going into Hercane season. And so we have people up there that sign, for instance, our Hercane instructions. But we need to provide those in at least the number one other language spoken or counting which is Spanish. So I volunteered to read our emergency management information in Spanish as well as English when we do that work during a hurricane, right? We provide information to the citizenry. Do you see any issues with doing that kind of thing? Presumably you're just reading it, you're not translating it. Right, somebody would have to translate it, Right. Because I would not want that responsibility. Madam Chair, Grass, Grassy, I will be in the U.S.E. Right. I understand that. But yeah, yeah. But I do think that that's important though, that we start doing that. But you just said that there would be a time lag and that we might not be able to. So I was confused. I was talking about the translation itself, not necessarily who reads it. Right. Okay. What I would tell you is that we've had certain employees translate and we have had multiple employees translate the same document and gotten back different. Well, and you will always. And that's the right to be expected. I suppose there's a, I don't, yeah, this is not my area of expertise. to be expected, I suppose, is a, I don't, yeah. This is not my area of expertise. But I guess that was the next question I had for you is like, who would be, did your office also have translation services to like verify the legal aspects of translations? We send it out. We send out the most important documents for a professional translation and they come back and they ask for clarification on certain things. We give them that clarification and then we rely on their services. Those were my questions. I'm chair. I also have, so I other than being the child translator for my whole life, I have volunteered for different organizations, both in El Salvador and here as a translator and interpreter so spoken and written. So I have a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge and language if there's any need for verification or if there's just any need for translation actively at any point. I'm beginning to suspect Runder paying you. So thank you. You said it. All right. Do we have any further comments from the day I said? I guess what might. Well, maybe what I can clarify is that I'm hoping that our policy makes reference to the fact that our procedures should include a regular review of the language access in partnership with our community stakeholders and these language access working groups that they've created. So I would like the policy to reflect that so that that doesn't get dropped out of procedure over time. I think we have the commitment right now, that engagement and it's working really, really well. But I've seen over time, you know, depending on who ends up in different positions, that engagement piece waxes and wanes, and it's really the decision of procedures. And as we try to memorialize more of our community engagement in our documents and our comprehensive plan and our codes in these sorts of policies, it's like now is the time to put it in there and say that's what we'd like. So that's all I'm looking for is I don't want to write it on the fly, but as long as I think staff understand what we're trying to get to, and that's that idea that we would have a sentence that says we're going to regularly review our language access policy, steps and procedures with these language access groups and community stakeholders. That's my goal. So Madam Chair, we would like you to see the language as you're adopting. I've asked for them to work on that on the fly. Maybe when we're taking public comment and they may have some language for you. OK. All right, that works. I have a quick question to. Sure, very briefly. In terms of in all, Elatua County government services, that's a big commitment. If we're going to be addressing in all of their government services, programs and activities, we can do that in all of them. But we can create a plan and a roll out to achieve that. Okay, that's what I'm here for. Okay, okay, all right. Life's just a big order. A lot of county services. Yeah. That was just to say in a Latchwick County service, maybe not all Latchwick County government services just yet. But no, if we can do this, I'm all for it, believe me. I'm a big advocate. This is something that I've worked with folks before we were Ginny. We're legally required to. My goal is, our primary responsibility is the health safety and welfare of allotria county citizens, along with managing the budget. And so if we have 10% or more of our population that is language challenged, then that's 10% of our population that is at risk. Every time we have a public emergency or is that risk of breaking a law or regulation because they don't understand it? Well this is what I was trying to understand which departments and who the jacks office is superintendent of elections ignore are those all the those are separate. So by Alachua County government services we're referring to under the jurisdiction of the board of county commission. Okay okay thank you and I'm very excited that we're doing this and I want to thank you. We're referring to under the jurisdiction of the Board of County Commission. Okay. Okay. Thank you. And I'm very excited that we're doing this and I want to thank you. Me too. Yes. I bet you're going to be good. All right. And we welcome what you. All right. So I know they're working on the fly on the language. Let's see if we have any public comment to the motion while we're waiting on this. Before I got started, I was hoping to present this to the members of the DAIS. You feel free. Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for having us. Just to start off with a little bit of background on the Gainesville. Can you introduce yourself, Rob? Yes, of course. My name is Ethan Maydeni-Dell. I'm the coordinator for the Gainesville immigrant neighbor inclusion initiative. And just to give a little background on this initiative, it was created a few years ago with over 60 community members of varying backgrounds, professions, nationalities, all with the common desire to make our community and gains on Elatrio County safer and more inclusive of our immigrant neighbors. I wanted to come here today in support of Grasias position and the language access policy that she just put forward. And for anyone who may not be aware of why this position is necessary and why this language access plan is critical besides being a legal obligation for language access to be provided. The immigrant community makes up 11% of the total population within Elatua County, 25% of the total population growth each and every year. They contribute about 16% of the total GDP of our county and pay over $55 million each and every year in state and local taxes. And yet, Gnacias position is the first step towards acknowledging this community, though it is much appreciated. However, for this position to work, there must be a commitment on the part of the County Commission, County Manager, and each and every public facing department to come out and support language access and good assia. From our own surveys through the Genie Initiative of the Immigrant Community, we have learned very much for one 30% of the Immigrant Community survey learned very much. For one, 30% of the immigrant community surveyed did not feel that they were included in our community. A quarter of respondents felt that we as a community needed to do more to address concerns over safety, racism, and xenophobia, and nearly half of respondents marked language as their greatest obstacle towards feeling safe in Latvia County. Language access is the first step towards equitably serving our immigrant neighbors. It's important, however, to note that this does not mean Spanish, that it actually means Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Haitian Creole, Arabic. In that pamphlet, you'll see a breakdown of the most common language I've spoken. Besides the information that Gurasia also provided. Again, the immigrant and language access coordinator is a critical and necessary Position but it needs your support Ensuring that all departments are working with her Especially those that are life-saving such as emergency management victim services and crisis center. Thank you Thank you. You then I appreciate it First I want to thank you. My name is Robin Louis with the rural women's health project. I'd like to thank you for the beautiful proclamation that was presented today. It also seems that it's appropriate as we started today's meeting talking about truth and reconciliation. And I think that this were perhaps making a bridge here. So I wanted to make that point of recognition. I wanted to address some of the issues in the discussion that you've had here. One is though I'm very supportive of all of us learning other languages than English, but I want to make sure we don't get sidetracked from really what this is about. And this is really about us talking about our legal responsibility to meeting the needs of all of our neighbors. And so within that, just a couple of points, one is really we were talking about which departments. Let's talk emergency management as a critical aspect. You've brought up the issue of hurricanes and I know that I've worked with the county manager in the past during the COVID crisis and of course with Maricopa and communications. We have to make it not acceptable that when we're putting out alerts about certain life issues, right? Health, rabies outbreaks, hurricanes, there is no reason that that information cannot be equitably provided in the key languages of our community. And that cannot only be the responsibility of of one woman or one person, right? Secondly, I think it's important to say that there has to be an enforcement component to what you're all discussing and I mean that with respect. Ginny has spent over two years, actually, it's about three and a half years working towards language access. It's one of the basic elements, right, for the inclusion and safety of immigrants with our community. In saying that, I think we just have to really make sure that there is an enforcement perspective. That's why Ginny, as the organization and the Alliance of People, may cause when they're trying to seek services, and we are not getting the most positive response calling county agencies. You need to know that. that has to be understood. One person is not enough. So while as Jenny, we celebrate that the blueprint was understood and heard and that we have this amazing position, we cannot dump all on one human being to take care of the work that is really the responsibility of the commission and of the county manager. And so I think that we would like to make sure that one of the points of emphasis is to say, putting on her to take care of having to talk to the huge agency that this is or the government agency is really to key in on what are the needed services that are most important. And then lastly to talk a little bit about the issue of translation, certified people should be those that are making your translation. So if you're doing it within house, myself, I am bilingual, but I am not the person to translate for you. So we need to recognize that some of us just have a little bit better skills and really consider the idea of certification as a way to make sure that those that are assisting within the agency, the offices is competent. Thank you so much, really. Thank you, thank you so much, Ms. Louis. Good afternoon, everyone. Veronica O'Bleto with the Human Rights Coalition in Bellacio County. I also am coming forward to support this policy and Grasius position. I understand her position currently is limited to two years. I have high hopes that we'll see the importance of this position and can find a way to continue to support that at the county level. In my work with Ginny, the Gainesville immigrant neighbor inclusion initiative, I led the safety workgroup. So we had different workgroups focusing on different areas of need. And when we talk about safety, this is really the crux of it, right? So sharing cultural information, cultural events, I think that's important as well, hearing about the reconciliation project. I started to wonder, you know, do any of our neighbors that don't speak English know about this, right? So that's clearly also important. But when we're talking about limited resources and priorities, I think safety has to be the prioritization. So aside from emergency management, I would look at victim services because we know that immigrant victims, especially who may have temporary or lack of status, experience fear in accessing services, right? Fear that they may be separated from their family. And in speaking with some of our amazing bilingual victim advocates that work in victim services, we've learned recently that while they've put a lot of energy into translating documents and brochures, they've kind of hit some bureaucratic roadblocks in getting those actually produced and printed and approved. And so they've been having to work with, say Spanish-speaking victims and going through a brochure that's completely in English. So that is an example of something that we should, that would be like number one priority. And also just emphasizing again, that Spanish of course is the top language spoken other than English, but we can't forget languages other than Spanish as well, and English, right? And so the idea I think with this language access plan is that anyone in our community, that is part of our community, reaching out to the county for any reason should be able to communicate with them, right? community, that is part of our community, reaching out to the county for any reason, should be able to communicate with them, right? And of course, many of the immigrant neighbors that I work with prioritize learning English, but this is something that is a process and in the meantime, their legal right is to be able to access the information. So I think that that is really important. I looked on the Victim Services page. So I think that that is really important. I looked on the Victim Services page. The translate button is there now again, but on a phone at least, when I want to go pick a language, I couldn't get to Spanish for some reason. So anyways, definitely looking at the accessibility and how user-friendly all of it is. Thank you so much. Thank you Veronica. Do I have any further citizen comment on this? Madam Chair, can I ask Veronica or Ethan a question on the data they just gave us? Sure. Maybe Ethan. So I'm on this sheet. I'm trying to really get a sense of obviously Spanish is the number one to this sheet here. But I'm not really understanding the percentages on that first column, because they don't add up to 100%. So what is the second most spoken language that's not English and Spanish? So it depends on how you want to quantify that. If you want to do just by the American Community Survey, then I believe it's Portuguese or Mandarin. But what we try to do with that chart is really show a wide variety of different sources because the census data is notorious for undercounting communities color and especially the immigrant population. So that's why we try to have those other sources of information. Yes, so this has Spanish 26% Vietnamese 13% Chinese 6% Germans 5.9% and then there's no percentage of some Portuguese. Yes, but the Portuguese in the other... I'm looking at this first column, which is limited English proficiency households, percentage of total. So I'm just trying to understand, it sounds like we're making some good efforts on Spanish. What would be the language that we're not making, that we don not making, that we don't have someone that can speak? Is it Portuguese, a Mandarin? Portuguese and Mandarin Vietnamese. And Vietnamese. Okay. And Grafio, what I... Well, it's Haitian Creole. The Haitian Creole community's also growing community in the Latin America. They're not even on this. Oh, Haitian Creole, 2%. Yeah, okay. But again, 2% in the electoral county reported reported in the American community survey but then if you look at 901 calls equal access clinic calls that kind of the other sources you'll see that they're more represented there well that was my kind of my next question under the combined communication center calls it looks like 90% of Spanish. And then the next highest one is 4.7 Chinese and then there's not another one that's over 1%. So is that is that because they're just not reported? Just not reported. Yeah. I would say or are not aware of this resource to even reach out in the first place. But yeah. Don't even know to call 911. Maybe. So this data is. Yeah, maybe. I don't know. The data is just really hard to come by. That's why we try to do a variety of different sources. But even that is not going to be perfect. And really only gives you a snapshot of the immigrant community. OK. Thank you. I lived in an English-speaking country for seven months and it was difficult for me to figure out how to, you know, who to call in an emergency. And I spoke English, you know, and to think about someone coming into this country and we take, you know, we take for granted certain things that we hear all the time as to, you know, what a process or thing might be. But we only hear those things in English. It's an interesting thing to consider. Madam Chair. Yes, just a question. You can answer this. Do we in the university, do we have contacts through the university students who may be here from some of these locales that would be able to help with interpreters? Do we know who they are? I mean, do we have access in some of these, these locales that would be able to help with interpreters. Do we know who they are? I mean, do we have access to some of these kids? That's something I'm looking into. The week prior to starting this position, I attended a College of Education International Festival. And I jotted down a lot of different names and contact information from folks from different student associations, including the Chinese Student Association, the Vietnamese Student Association. And I intend on reaching out to them and relying on them as resources. I actually received a request from one of our victim advocates, I believe, who's working with someone whose parent speaks a dialect of Chinese. But he does not, but he does not, their child does not speak, so they are unable to communicate with their parent. And so we're trying to find him solutions on how we can continue helping them and how can we can help them establish, their community and possibly learn their language a little better through student associations and through the different organizations that we have in town. Got you. All right. Thank you. Do you know what happened to the ID program? The community ID program? It's still going. Is it still going? It was not. The human rights coalition, if you would like to. I had thought at one time that we were under the gun about that one here. So a law passed that prohibited the county from providing funds to the community ID program. And so we've, you know, had to do some grant writing and fundraising, but our program continues. We have met with our partners at the county. We just recently met with the Sheriff's Office. And so it continues to be a tool that's used by our partners. Okay, great, thank you. And actually we have an ID drive tomorrow evening between six and eight PM at Westminster Presbyterian. If anyone hasn't gotten their ID, we do encourage all to come out and get the community ID, even if it's not something you need for basic services, but in a show of solidarity for an inclusive community. Lost in backup materials. What do we... Sure. And also to clarify about the county's role as far as the ID program. We have a contract with the county, the human rights coalition, but the county is not supporting with funds, the community ID work. So the county we do still have a current contract where we are getting some funds to support our outreach efforts, our immigrant hotline, our navigation navigation services and our advocacy, but not the community ID program. Much of the IDs and what do you have to do to bring what you have to have doctorate? They're $10 and we require proof of age, address and identification and I can forward the specifics because it gets kind of tricky. According to Florida law, especially proof of age, but on our website, hrcallatua.com, you can access our ID orientation, which goes through all of those requirements. All right, thank you, everybody. You're doing it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. All right, thank you. Madam Chair, I have amended language to add to the policy. I'm just going to go ahead and read it from the top. It is the policy of a Lachua County to provide timely, meaningful access for individuals who have limited English proficiency in all Lachua County government services, programs and activities. All language assistance services are free to all LEP individuals who request language assistance services in the provision of county program services and provisions. I'll make that less redundant. Staff will regularly review and evaluate this policy with meaningful engagement on language services and procedures with relevant internal and external stakeholders. Okay. Madam Chair, I thought we were going to qualify that this was for a Lachua County BocC government services programs and activities because the Latchwell County government services is every government services federal, state, and local in a Latchwell County. All Latchwell County, my concern CCC government. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I have a concern about the board adopting a policy that we're going to take on everything but our own. Well, I was too. Those. All right. So I guess I will amend my motion with this new language and the change from all law to government services to say all law to government B O C C government. So it's always expand on that at the later point in time. But I think right now we need to make sure that we can handle what we have. And to that point, I did want Mr. Sexton to come up. And I mean, if you guys want to vote on the motion first, but I didn't want to leave the impression that we have been doing nothing in this area. And so I want to mark to kind of give an update because I know Jackie's done a lot in this area as well. And we've been doing a lot you know during emergencies etc. For many years so Mark also wanted to provide an update to you all so we can do that after the motion if you'd like We've motion a second we've taken public comment and is there any further comment from board? Seeing none all in favor of the motion that's signified by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Thank you for your incredible hard work on this. Thank you. And welcome aboard. Thank you. And I never meant we never meant to imply that the county's not doing anything, but we could always do better. Madam Chair, Mark, section of communications, I'm so happy to be working with Grosia on this. We have been brainstorming how to do particularly emergency communications, how to improve on those systems. I do want to acknowledge though that Jackie Chung has been very involved in translations. Every page on our website has Google translation attached and that translates into not just the top five but 130 different languages. Right now you can call the county and if you need translation service, every department knows that you can call a number and request any language that's available out there to assist residents talking to county staff members and have instant translation. We also in states of emergency when we are giving you emergency updates at meetings we have live Spanish captioning available if you're watching the meeting. have live Spanish captioning available if you're watching the meeting. We also have American Sign Language interpreters. We have close captioning, of course. So Jackie has done a wonderful job over the years. What is exciting right now in working with Grasya is to have a person whose sole mission in the morning is to be focused on these things. AI, it looks like is going to be playing a bigger and bigger role in this. The challenge for emergency communications, of course, is in the past AI has been deemed insufficient for translating things of the importance of an emergency document. So we've had to work with live professional translators. So when we're putting out a release on an emergency, the question is, can we wait for the translation? And frequently, during a hurricane, the answer is no. So we end up putting out English. And then as soon as the translators who are very busy during a state of emergency provide us with the Spanish language we've put that out. What we look forward to is instantaneous translations when we put out a release or a social media post, you know, my fantasy is very soon. We will be able to say click here to have it immediately translated. And we hope that AI will start becoming more reliable and more effective in that. But anyway I just wanted to add that we're very excited to work with Gerasia, very excited to explore what the state of the art is in doing these things effectively. And thanks. Thank you, Mark. Commissioner Cornell? I was just going to say that there is a whole AI module at that. I think I know that, yeah. Yeah, and it's addressing this. And I really appreciate the work that our group is doing too. And whatever we can learn from other counties that are implementing these new procedures, let's take the best and implement it back here. I just have, and I've noticed a lot more of bilingual releases. And I know both at Mark's group and across the street. So I think we're doing a good job. I have two things that I want to say. One is I do want to make sure we're taking good care of the folks in victim services folks that are That don't speak English well or at higher risk of things like trafficking and We I know when I was on that board that you know We had posters that we went around and put up and you know restrooms along the interstate and other places that gave resources to folks that may be being trafficked. And those things absolutely need to be available in other languages or folks that are at risk for that. So I hope that we can get whatever is blocking that from happening. I hope that we can get that taken care of fairly quickly. So and Yeah, I I I hear you that we've we've got all of these things, but I really appreciate the fact that we've also got the public Double checking us and making sure that things are working and that Employees do stay up to date on what services that a lot of county is offering and, you know, keeping folks accountable. So, appreciate that a lot. Commissioner Persia. I just wanted to, you know, I heard, I guess in the public comment, I heard some comments about challenges with attitude it sounded like, or like sort of like approach from our team to the public that are asking for these services. I mean that's what I heard Robyn say and and sorry and Veronica says that it's not necessarily that we don't have these services but sometimes it's also just the attitude and the fact that like I guess I just to Madam Manager, I hope that our staff here loud and clear today that this is important to us and that we expect that people treat everyone with respect and everyone with the same level of courtesy that they deserve regardless of what they're asking for when it comes to the services and as long as they're being kind and respectful and they deserve that kindness and respect back and patience. Yeah, and so I just hope that that comes across today if it hasn't in the past that this board really does value that and that this is an important part of the services that we provide. I just want everyone in our team to hear that because I think we have a really amazing staff and we have a really amazing group of people but I understand that this can be challenging when you feel like you don't have the skill set to help someone. It can be come across as if you don't care and so I just want them to know that we hope they'll be patient and caring and thoughtful as they approach people that are asking for support with limited English proficiency. All right, thank you. I think we are ready to move on to our next item, which is our presentation and a presentation on our gun violence prevention activities. Thank you Madam Chair, Carl Smart, Deputy County Manager, and just wanted to give you a brief update on the activities that's been going on with gun violence. And see if there's any questions you have in your backup a listing of those items and so you've already got a copy of that. Additionally, just want to mention that Brittany Coleman, who is the gun violence intervention and prevention manager for the City of Gainesville is in the audience and so she can also help answer any questions you might have to along with our own Cassandra Moore from Victim Services. She's here from Community Support Services. Let me just quickly just kind of go through the update. You already know that of course, the MOU was signed by all three agencies, the county, the city of Gainesville and Santa Fe College. And so that MOU is complete. And I have seen a request for a copy of it. So I'll make sure that each of you have a copy of that MOU. And of course, you know that we developed that partnership with the Black-on-Black Crime Task Force to look at violence that is happening in minority communities and how we can more effectively deal with that. You also have heard before that we formed a public safety task force that public safety task force made up a representative of law enforcement primarily and those involved in law enforcement, including the State Attorney's Office, Public Defenders Office, and the probation office. And making sure that we include law enforcement from surrounding communities, the City of Alachua, the City of High Springs, the Santa Fe College, University of Florida, those law enforcement agencies, so that they can communicate and share information that in some cases a very sensitive information that we may not, they may not want shared with the public so much, but it's important for the law enforcement agencies to have that information, particularly dealing with suspects, dealing with hot spots in the community and where a crime occurred, violent crime occurs. You may have heard too, and you got this, you got a brief presentation at the joint meeting recently with the city of the town of Micanope and Missy Daniels, and so I'll try not to repeat too much and keep it brief but we did working together with the city of Gainesville and Santa Fe College We meet regularly and we put together this alliance and the alliance is Pulling together representative of stakeholders throughout the community. Stakeholders for as government agencies, but stakeholders also are nonprofit organizations, community organizations. We had our first meeting recently, June 5th, and that meeting was held at the Blunt Center in Santa Fe College, but also it was an online Zoom. And so we had a number of people online, as well as those persons who were in person. There was a lot of good information shared, a lot of strategies talked about, and how can we be more effective in dealing with this gun violence. A couple of things that came out pretty immediately was one, it involved more youth. And the young people bring them in and more of them. And so we are working certainly to do that. And also looking at doing more training. And so as far as training, we have reached out to GVG, Cura violence global. And Cura violence global, you heard from them. You heard from Representative recently where you had Pastor Gerard Duncan and you had Jochem Noah to come in and talk about that. We've been in discussion with them about maybe coming in and doing some overall training. Not necessarily adopting the model, but coming in and training different organizations, different folks who are involved. There's a number of grassroots organizations as you know already involved, already doing some of this work in their community, in their neighborhoods. So how do we get to some common language, get to some common strategies, how do we share information more, CVG may be involved in that. I do want to make it clear, I have a conversation this morning with city manager Curry, Cynthia Curry, the city is not looking necessarily at using CureValus Global as a part of this strategy. They're taking a little bit different track as far as contracting with the Bishop Stokes and the community organization there in the town of Micanope and maybe incorporating some interruptors as a part of their strategy and so they are looking at doing that and we support that. I mean that's all part of that overall effort if you will. Additionally they have, as you heard before, moved the BOL program from the Gainesville Police Department, moved that into the office with Miss Coleman and Brandy Stone. And so they'll be also having interrupters and working toward gun violence prevention. We have no agreement with Cure Violence Global yet. We just still do it. We've done the research. We're doing research and looking at where they involve in the other communities and whether they've been successful in those other communities or not. And so we're still making sure that we cover the bases there with our research and all. And then at your last joint meeting with the children's trust is where the children's trust made a commitment to provide $250,000 toward this effort. And so we've been in talks with the City of Gainesville as as it relates to that $250,000. We know that there's at least a couple of options of approaching this money's these funds. You can split it up and City take half and county takes half and we each do our thing with that. But City Manager Curry and I and with the managers okay have agreed to try and work together with the program to use those fund, that $250,000. Right now, we put together a little task force, if you will, to plan a special event for young people, for youth. It will be like a youth summit, bring it in speakers that would be of interest to the young people, maybe even entertainment. It could be a one day, two day or three day event. But bringing in, doing a special event for young people and trying to get as much as we can to be a part of that kind of a summit. And so we both agreed to work on that. We've acknowledged that we probably won't be able to get it done by the end of the fiscal year as children's trust has asked us to do. So we'll probably be going back to the trust to ask for some maybe those funds might be rolled over into the next fiscal year to allow us to complete the planning and implementation of that summit. But City and County working together, along with Santa Fe College, but City and County working together to get that done and spending whatever portion of all of that 250,000 in order to make sure we get the message to the young people of this community. And then next we have met with the Cheryl Kaupman who is the director of the state's Pearl and Probation Office, specifically to talk about the 700 plus persons that are on probation here in the county that have a history of violence. And in a lot of cases, in most cases, violence that include firearms, include guns. And so how do we target those 700 plus and help make sure that we reach them and try to help reduce his recidivism for them recommitting those acts of violence in our community. And those discussions are ongoing and with us and also with that public safety task force out of black and black crime task force. So I'm optimistic, hopeful, that we will make some good strides in dealing with the seven. We know who they are, and we know how to reach out and communicate with them. So the question is whether we can be effective in getting them to change their ways. Additionally, just wanted to mention, you may have heard at the Mikanope joint meeting, we've got safety locks. The Sheriff Department has provided 75 as an initial supply of gun safety locks and all a part of the gun safety portion of this gun violence prevention. So getting those out, allowing for the veterans and the victims crisis line, hotline to get those out to. You approved here, I think it was during last meeting, you approved a small grant program, a small grant initiative so that organizations that are just starting or need some capacity building funds to get going on their particular efforts. And we're looking at that as a possibility to be used for some of our grassroots organizations out there that want to get involved in these programs. Allocating some monies. And the question was, where were those funds come from? It would come from, we would suggest it come from the 150,000 that the county has already committed to gun violence. So a portion of the 150,000 could be used for small grants to organizations out there like Paso Gerard and some of the others that are already doing that kind of work. Next one I wanted to mention that the staff of the Victim Services and the Great Crisis Center, they're looking at doing a fun day. They've already planned a fun day to spend the day at the park. The first one probably being at Cone Park, their own University Avenue, and have a fun day of events and involve the fire rescue and fire trucks and speakers and food for them, hot dogs and burgers and whatever and some entertainment and just having a fun day and then includes some information about preventing prevention of gun violence. Continue to do that. Also Dr. Ali Martinez is planning with her group in the crisis center, planning a crisis intervention and de-escalation series of training for first responders and other individuals in partnership with Fire Rescue. So we're excited about that training that will be coming up, coming out of our community support services department. So that's kind of a good overview. And if I could have the overhead just for a moment. The Sheriff's Department has looked at his stats for this year and just wanted to report some of the crime stats for this year and just wanted. I'm sure he'll blow that up for us so we can see it better. Thank you. You may have to do it at the top. Can we blow that up a bit? Please get in there. Okay. There we go. And these are from the Sheriff Department. You see the felony battery is what someone got harmed. Someone hurt, hit or even shot, whatever. That number is pretty substantial. 291, chills robbery, sexual batteries, fire shots fired, 44. Forty-four. Other shootings that have occurred. sexual batteries, fire shots fired, 44. Other shootings that have occurred fortunately, our homicides are not too high. He's showing three right now in the county. But there's a lot of property crimes. We find that a lot of instances, guns are being stolen, particularly from cars, from vehicles, unlock vehicles where guns are being stolen, particularly from cars, from vehicles, unlock vehicles where guns are being stolen and then being used improperly. So that's just kind of an overview. The sheriff has indicated he'd be glad to maybe in the future here. When we come back with the next update, he'll come and he'll talk about some of the efforts that they're doing in addition to, in conjunction with what we're doing to help prevent gun violence. With that, Madam Chair, it kind of completes the presentation. Be glad to attempt to answer any questions you might have. I had a real quick question about the last statistic there. The weapons recovered seized evidence. That does not include any guns that were collected during that recent gun buyback that they have. That's correct. Yeah. Okay. Commissioner Cornell. Thank you, Mr. Smart, for that update. There's no action you're asking for. Yeah, I'm really happy with developing a small grant initiative for qualified non-governmental emerging small businesses to conduct primary secondary and tertiary. And I think these on the ground meetings in neighborhoods with those folks that people know, I think, are really effective and I think are really effective and I think is a good approach. And I'm really happy to see the collaboration between you and county government and the city and Brittany and city government. And as a member of the Children's Trust, I would suspect that that money will be carried over and we will probably do the same amount in the following year hopefully so we can really start putting some resources to this. With regards to the cure violence global so there's no agreement and I guess the city is not utilizing them is that correct? That's correct. Okay so I really like the presentation but I think what's most important is utilizing the local individuals that are interested in this issue and hopefully Joe Cam and some of the other folks that were at that meeting are interested in this issue and when they have, when we have the ability to kind of tie into them, we can locally use them. I think they're interested in that. So thank you for the update. I don't have anything else. All right. Mr. Prisya. Yeah. So I don't know how to say this and sound, I'm not telling like I'm being negative because I am really excited about all the progress. But I'm going to keep saying it. I keep saying it and I really mean it. We called this a public health crisis. When you have a public health crisis, you develop a strategic plan for finding a cure to that crisis. And that takes a strategic plan. It takes an actual plan with activities outlined that you're gonna do and that those activities each have evaluation metrics that are gonna be measured so you can see progress towards the goals and that there's coordination and collaboration. So I'm very excited to sit in the county and the Children's Trust are working together and that law enforcement are working together. And I'm really excited that we're seeing the groups come together to have those conversations but thus far I'm still struggling to really have a sense of we kind of understand the volume of the problem. We know the 700 we know how many shots are being fired you know we have data we have lots of data actually I know that law enforcement has a lot more data than this that they present to our PSAC on a regular basis. We need to take that data and then we need to turn it into an action plan and for each of those things on the ground we need those activities that we're going to do and the way in which we're going to measure success and progress towards those goals and we need everybody that's doing those projects and those things to be on board with measuring those metrics and giving us the data to so that we can begin to measure progress and see where there's gaps. And for me, that's when I brought, asked here by the Netherlands Global to come for, you know, when they came, when I was here, like talking to them and saying, come to our meeting and they showed up, that meeting, I was like, they're in town, they should come and they came came. It's because they, I don't care if it's them, I don't care who it is. It could be this, it could be Pastor Stokes. It would be whoever it is, but somebody needs to put together an overall framework for the way in which we're going to approach things like interruption and community engagement on the ground. Because having those events are awesome, we have no idea what kind of impact they're having. We're spending money, I mean, we're talking about $250,000 for an event, that's a lot of money. And we have no idea what the impact of that event is gonna be, right? And we don't even know if that's the best thing to reach the young people. And like, I think we need an assessment, we need a group effort at putting together a set of strategies that are both about interruption, that are about community engagement, that are about law enforcement, some of which may not be able to be shared publicly. But we need that strategic plan to guide us, and we need evaluation metrics to understand our progress towards goals. And right now, we're just getting a lot of individual actions. We're having this event. We're doing this thing. We're having this thing. This group is going to do some interruption. This group is going to do some interruption. This group is doing some community engagement. This group is doing an event in a play. And I don't see how it all ties together towards us moving to cure the public health crisis we have that is gun violence in our community. And so that's what I keep saying. And I feel like- Well, I think we're starting to kind of bring everybody together to get to the where- I hear you loud and clear, but I think it takes a lot of different groups working together to come up to where you want to be. And we all want to be there yesterday. And I think for the first time I think we're spending money we have $500,000 on the table right now and we need to spend it yet because we haven't started we're still bringing I don't feel like we've spent it we haven't spent any of the C-Tech money we haven't spent any of our own money to your point we want to spend it, but until we can collaboratively and collectively come up with a good way to spend it, we were, I mean that's what I'm hearing. That's not what I'm hearing. What I'm hearing, what I'm hearing is where people are brainstorming ideas for what might be able to be done, and then we're implementing those ideas, but we're not actually taking the time to come up with an overall assessment of where are the real issues, where are they on the ground, what are the most impactful ways that we can spend that money to get the biggest bang for our buck, and how are we resourcing the groups that are going to do that, and how are we holding them accountable with expectations and with reporting and evaluation metrics that are going to show if what we've asked what they've said they're going to do is what they're doing and then if what they're doing is working. Right now we're just saying, oh let's do some mini grants to organizations. Let's have some fun back to school events and have fun activities for youth to do. Let's do this, let's do that. But we're not putting together that bigger picture framework. Do you know what I'm saying? These are the things that are that we know interruption is important, for example, right? But we don't necessarily have a framework for how interruption is going to be done training for interrupters so that they have the support that they need, a set of metrics and evaluation for those interrupters to report back on how things are going and if it's working on the ground, we don't have that. We just have like, let's fund this, let's fund that. And I guess my, it's not that it's a lot of, I mean, it's a lot of money, but it's not a lot of money in the scheme of things, right? But it's just the idea that I think we tend to with this issue over the years, like what I can see is that we tend to put money into it, and then the problem gets less, and then the money goes ahead of disappears, and then it comes back and disappears. But there's never been an overall strategic plan. It's been very much just to like, let's try this. Let's try that. Let's try this. Let's try that. And I think that my goal, my ideal scenario is that we as a group had that plan, that everybody understood. And everyone knew whose role was what, whose overseeing it, whose providing the support and the coordination, the oversight, whose providing the evaluation, whose doing what, whose on first, and how do we they coordinate and collaborate with each other through this alliance, through the Black-on-Black task force, through the public. Like we now have five different groups, who we have this alliance, we have the task force, we have the public safety, we have Black-on-Black. Like I don't even understand how all those groups work and who's on first when it comes to those groups. Like I just feel like we're creating more layers without a framework for how those layers are going to work together, if that makes sense. So that's my concern. If I can jump in real quick, just to maybe add just a little bit more before you address this. And I had some similar thoughts, but my thoughts in my small amount of spare time right now, I'm taking a grant writing class. And I kept thinking about writing grants to get more money because we look at $500,000 or $50,000. In the big picture, that's not a whole lot of money to address the gravity and the extent of this problem. And so in my mind, how can we turn $500,000 into $2.5 million? That's grants. But when we write grants, we have to have all of those things. So those are the questions that I was having. What do we have to put on paper that can turn that amount of money into the structure that's required to show another agency that you know we've got this we've got a plan we've got this under control and we're ready to use those dollars to solve big problems. Yeah yeah Madam Chair I think the points that you're making, you're all making, Commissioner Prisya and all the making is very, very valid points. We are looking for that strategic plan and the steering group, if you will, is a group that was formed by the MOU, with the City of Gainesville, the county and the Santa Fe College and we're meeting regularly here And we realize we need more voices. We need the more voices from the community to be involved in putting together that strategic plan. And that's why the alliance was formed. And we've organized that into a body now that I think that the goal is that strategic plan. The question is do we need a outsides source to come in and help do that assessment and help prepare that or can an alliance do that and that's what we're working on now. So our goal is to come up with that strategic plan and to bring that back. In the meantime, you know, we've got these activities and programs going on, we're not waiting. We're not waiting on that to come together. We're already doing some things on the ground. And then with the strategic plan, pull all of that together. Also, maybe Brittany, as a manager, is the person who gets up every morning thinking about this to talk about it from the city of Gainesville standpoint as it relates to the strategic plan. Madam Chair, commissioners, Brittany Coleman, city of Gainesville, Gun Violence Intervention, program manager. Yeah, I just wanted to echo Mr. Smart and thank you so much for your comments. A part of the goal of the alliance is to bring together the stakeholders that we've all been talking about, put together a framework for how we as a collaborative want to attack this problem. And of course, with the expertise of Santa Fe to help us with that assessment piece, looking at the data, how we can analyze what has happened, what do we have so far, what are our gaps? One of the things that we were able to do for the first meeting was a SWAT analysis with all of the folks that were there to engage the community around what are our gaps, what are the opportunities, what are the areas of growth, what are the things that we're doing well? And I think a part of what came out of that, of course, Mr. Smart mentioned like having more youth, folks with lived experience, but also the community wanting us to support the efforts that are already on the ground. And I think that's where you hear the idea about the grant program and supporting, you know, some of our community-based efforts from a city standpoint, of course, that looks like bold in the Willie May Stokes Center, providing some of that interruption while we create this larger plan as a community, which we do have a framework for and metrics for. And it's a very small group, and so it is limited, of course, in its scope. But that is some of the things that we're working on as well. I think that the community also has echoed some of the same feedback that you've given about, you know, putting things together collectively so we have a sense of how we move forward and so that is definitely some of the work that we're looking to do and we have our next meeting scheduled for the 10th. And like Mr. Smart mentioned, we did have about 40 people, both in person and online at 10 that meeting. I think maybe a little less and so we're hoping to have more folks that are engaged. We did breakout group. So folks have given us feedback that we're looking to implement in a lot of the same ways that you've suggested. Can you, do you mind, you said you have a framework for your interruption for training and evaluation? Did you say that? So we're working with the Willie May Stokes Center to put that together. Also, as you know, that historically has come from the Gainesville Police Department. So we are, while they are not overseeing the interruption work anymore that does fall under impact, GMV and our framework. They have been able to provide information about what that looked like under their purview, some of the training that the interrupters went through, some of the data that they collected. So we are using that as we recruit for folks that can help us in those efforts. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, I just, I hope that as we recruit for folks that can help us in those efforts? Yes, me. Well, I just, I hope that as the city and the county start to work together and collaboratively on this, that's one of the focuses of the conversation is that as we're all beginning to deploy this money and energy really around this issue that we land on a common set of metrics, a common set of goals and strategies and support for those small organizations and larger organizations that are planning to do this work on the ground so that there is a level set, if you will, of understanding of cultural competency and community engagement expectations around the work that they do. That's my biggest goal and my biggest ask because I think that if we know that they have got that support in that training and we know that they're all collecting the same data then when the if a program's working we can expand it really quickly right we can scale it up really fast potentially and if it's not working then we can expand it really quickly, right? We can scale it up really fast potentially. And if it's not working, then we can go back to the drawing board and figure out, well, was it the lack of training? Was it the lack of resources? Is it the approach that isn't evident? Maybe they're using an approach that isn't very evidence-based in terms of how they're going about things. But we'd be able to pinpoint the issues, because we could see ones that are being successful in meeting those goals of metrics and the ones that aren't. And right now, that's my concern is that we're starting to fund things without those metrics and evaluation, things set for the community to understand impact. Thank you. Yeah. Madam Chair, we'll be coming back with a review of how things are going and the results of our evaluation as we go and share going and with the results of our evaluation that we go and share an information with the board. Make sure you stay informed. We still have a few more comments, I think, Mr. Cornell. I was just re-intering with Mr. Prisya said and Ms. Coleman, thank you for being here. What I have noticed in the last year and I share your frustration, Mr. Commissioner, but what I have noticed in the last year and I share your frustration, Commissioner, but what I have noticed in the last year is this joint effort, this collaborative effort and I just want to continue to support that as you guys develop that strategic plan with metrics and as Commissioner Prisya said at the best when we figure out what's really working, having it communicated in the way so that we know how to scale it up. And when I say working, I think of working in a neighborhood so we can scale it up by the neighborhood and scale it up in the community and the county and the city, Sheriff's Department, GPD, Santa Fe, all of the hands on deck really working together is what is all I was trying to say is new and it's great and I want to continue to encourage it. And so that's all, thank you, Mountcher. Yeah, I think, you know, I think probably what got me is when Y'all said that the city gave us all the different strategy and they're using like Bishop Stokes and we're gonna do this. And I think that is what probably, you know, because I don't want Bishop Stokes to only work with the city against. Oh, you can't. Oh, right. You can't make this count. Oh, right. And I think that the city against what could greatly benefit by the, you know, from the care of violence global, I feel like, you know from the care phones global I feel like you know this should be one big strategy and I think that's where Commissioner Prisbee and I are both like wait a minute different strategies no no no you know so anyway that was that's that's what I think caught my mind I had one other questions Commissioner Chesa do you have anything that you what I want. We say it all all the time. You've got to give this program a chance. Oh, yeah, yeah. We can't criticize it and keep criticizing it. It brings that division. So we want to encourage it to make sure it happens. But you've got to get the community involved. I mean, there's no other way. You've got to get the community involved. I mean, there's no other way. You gotta get the community involved. You gotta get the youth involved and parents. I mean, that's a given. And having those type of workshops, you know, and what I would envision is letting someone know if you find a gun and what your consequences are when you find that gun and what your consequences are, when you find that gun and you use that gun, what your future looks like. Right? I mean, maybe it's a fear tactic, but it's not a fear tactic. It's for real. That's what will happen. And so in being real with the students or the kids or whoever, finding these guns in a vacant cars, a cars unlocked and stuff like that, you just got to give it a chance first. It's just getting started and just listening that day in the workshop we had. It seems like people are interested, but you just got to bring everybody together. It takes a while to get people together when they're used to operating on their own and so to now have to work as a group or a collaborative group To get things done. It just takes time. That's all I'm seeing. You've got to give it a chance That's all. Thank you for that perspective and you know, it's funny, because I always say, well, Golly, we got to stop talking about stuff and do stuff. And here, y'all are doing stuff. And we're like, no, stop and write us a report. So I appreciate the fact that you're moving forward and doing things I really do. So thank you. All right. And actually, I am really excited to hear All right. And actually that I am really excited to hear about a giant event for the youth and a youth summit. I think that could be super impactful, especially if we can get thousands of kids out. Can you imagine thousands of kids in a concert and having that captive audience to give this to? certain having that captive audience to give this to. And that could be really good. But when you have those captive audiences, you got to educate those folks at the same time. You just can't be all entertainment. It has to be education at the same time. And knowing what the consequences are, having a illegal gun. I mean it's consequences and that's the way it works So you just got to be real with people and tell them the truth. Hey look if you continue to do this This is where you had it you had it to prison I'm sorry. No, you're right. That's that's that was actually the whole message of the Bishop's Stokes out of the box thing. That exact thing, which was, I thought, very powerful. Commissioner Prisnese, I think I should put this. I think one thing I would like to also point out that I think is important, it's not something. But I hope that it'll come forward as a strategy and one that I'm not sure how we fund right at this moment. But I had a conversation with the Chamber and the Community Foundation about it, and I think it's really important. And that is right now, the only people who are getting attention to notoriety are the people who are wielding the guns. Their mug shots are getting on TV, they're getting the conversations, they're getting the airtime today, they're getting the airtime on news, they're getting the air time on social media. And I think that we need to take a little bit of the wind out of their sales by flipping the narrative and trying to highlight those youth that are doing really amazing things in our community. Because 90% of the youth are doing awesome. It's only a small percentage of the youth that are making these bad decisions. They're just really bad decisions that are impacting a lot of people and terrifying people. And but I think if we can begin to celebrate those youth that are getting scholarships, that are getting great jobs, that are getting into college, that are on signing day, if we could get the youth to tell us how to tell those stories in ways that are going to be compelling and exciting for them, and they can get highlighted on social media and on the news and on the radio and in those ways that we can sort of create a narrative around people who are positive role models rather than people who are negative role models. I know we're never going to beat trap music and all the, you know, the mass media that's out there around guns and gangs and violence, but I think if we can at least locally create an opportunity for people to see alternatives and to see opportunity and to see their peers doing amazing things, maybe that will be a helpful motivator. And again, that's me throwing out a strategy without having a lot of evidence to prove that it would work, but I think that that's something I hope we can think about. And I don't know if the chamber is a part of our alliance yet, but I hope that they'll come on board if they aren't. We need to bring the chamber on. And I think your point is we'll take an also looking at the faith community and all of our churches around and churches got WAPID, got young people's programs and identifying those. And we keep finding more and more organizations in the community that are doing that kind of working with kids who are doing well, the mentor programs like Mirror Image and others, the 100 Black men, the NAACP, Youth Council, dealing with more of those organizations that are working to encourage those young folks who are doing well. But we need to highlight them more. And so we'll be looking for those opportunities too. So thank you for that comment. All right. I just wanted to add to that. I absolutely agree. And we do have a meeting this week with the chamber and just talking a little bit about our gun violence work overall. So I'll be able to update Mr. Smart and others on that on our next meeting. And absolutely, highlighting voices is really important and not just of the youth but of the agencies that are out here doing the work. And you know, Mr. Smart mentioned Mayor Image and was in Porter's and they have a beautiful community garden and there are some local artists that have been doing a lot of really great work. And you've seen, you know, murals going up and our one nation one project and different things like that that we have been able to highlight and I think really unique ways. And I'll also say really quickly just as a point of clarity too for Mr. Smart with the gun locks. A part of what we've been doing is partnering with other community organizations and that's been really really great but also the VA medical centers the one who donated those gun locks for the city and for the county so we've been able to help distribute some of those tools as far as education goes and we've created a harm reduction pamphlet for youth as well that we're hopeful to get out. That was created completely by community and we've been able to support those efforts to get it produced and into the community. So I completely agree highlighting those efforts is really important. Thank you and just to end this on one more note that we've mentioned the gun lock several times since the public is probably listening to this meeting. Could we tell the public how they might get a gun lock? Sure. So like I said, the VA donated a shipment of gun locks. We've donated some to different community agencies. So you might see some at different tabling events if you were to visit the League of Women Voters or Moms Demand Action. They typically have some. We also, if you go to community support services, they should have some available. Our main office at the Catalyst Building on Depot Avenue, Catacornor from Depot Park. We have some available as well that folks can have access to. So if you need a gun lock, they are available. So they are. And it's also a really great tool, not just for the community-based violence that we've been talking about, but the VA and the crisis center and others use it as a suicide, the center and others use it as a suicide prevention tool as well. Folks who take care of elderly parents or children or folks with disabilities that need to lock cabinets and different things like that. So they have multiple functions and folks can get them free of charge from the county and the city. Thank you. Thank you so much, Commissioner Prisya. I mean, I think that highlight underscores that point of that strategic plan too, is that the number one gun violence is actually self-perpetuated gun violence, right? And accidental gun violence, not necessarily the gun violence, we often talk about when we're talking about interruption too. So that plan hopefully would encompass all of that. And we would be talking about the ways in which the crisis center is doing stuff around, you know, suicide prevention and what we're doing on that front, what we're doing on domestic violence on front. And so I think that's also a piece of it, sort of like there's one piece which is a very prevalent in like, in our face piece which is this violence that's happening in the streets with young people and guns. But there's a lot of other pieces to this conversation that I hope as we pull these groups together and start brainstorming and putting that strategic plan together, we'll have that sort of stepwise approach. Thanks. Thanks. OK. All right. Well, I think we're ready to move on to our next section here are public hearings. Our first item is a public hearing and notice of intent to use the uniform method to impose non-advalorem assessments for a special assessment district for Quail Street and Melrose. And I hope all to actually keep this. I mean, Madam Chair, I don't know if the, I mean, this is, they vote, this is the people who are living on the street that are going to be assessed have all been surveyed and asked and we had, I mean, I looked at the background and I looked at like 80% of the residents voted in favor of this assessment. So I would move staff's recommendation to move forward the special assessment district. OK. We have motion a second to move forward with the special assessment district. Maybe you can just show the public exactly. It is what it is we're talking about. We don't maybe have to do the whole presentation. OK. Yes, Madam Chair. We also have David Bonazzoli with us today. He's the community spark plug that got this started. I Remember so he I don't know if you would like to have him speak to you about it But basically it's the quail streets a small street just outside or on the edge of Melrose You can see the property owners there all but one responded to the questionnaire but one responded to the questionnaire. There's a picture of quail streets, currently got millings on it. Another picture of quail street. And so as you as you mentioned, this is the resolution of the intent to use the uniform method of collection of non-abelorum assessment for readily improvements. This is the first, this has been advertised for four consecutive weeks. You authorize that back in May. And so we're here with this recommendation for you. All right. Thank you. Well, we'll take public comment now and come on forward and you can celebrate with us getting this done. I'm David Bonazzoli. And as he said, I'm leading the effort to set up the special assessment district on Quail Street in Melrose. With me is Roscoe Lineridgerich who is also in a butter. Time won't allow me to describe how awful it is to live on this road. The noise of the trucks driving over the ruts, the filth both inside and outside of our homes, the ever-present health hazards of breathing Wainrock dust. Instead I'd like to tell you that there are eight of butters. One property has three owners and is going to a messy divorce. I was unable to speak with any of them. However, every other butter enthusiastically supports this project. The kind of requires that 60% must have answered the petition. We have 88%. The county also requires that 75% of those who answer must say yes. We have 100%. I want to point out that this improvement is to a county road and part of the Melville's historic district. Currently the road is a blight on the entire area. The improvements will be paid for by the abuters. In fact, the county will actually save money because the road will no longer need to be graded. I urge you to approve this item. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mosley. I appreciate that. All right. Any other public comment to the motion? Any further commission comments? Well, we will take a vote. All in favor of the motion, sign by saying aye aye any opposed all right we thank you for staying for the for the entire meeting and for this item and we appreciate it. Okay thank you. Taken caring for your neighbors. Yes all right we'll move on to our next public caring and that is a preliminary development plan for 75th Street Self Storage Facility. So Madam Chair, this last item is a closet you just bought them. I have a statement to read into the record. Madam Chair, anyone wishing to testify a percent evidence during this hearing will be sworn in prior to speaking through the chair. All speakers may ask questions, see clarification, and respond to comments of presentations staff, other speakers. Anyone presenting written materials to the commissioners for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's official record of proceedings. Flotel law requires that the county commission's decision and the quasi-judicial action be supported by competence of substantial evidence presented during the hearing. Competence of substantial evidence means that the board's decision is based on enough credible evidence that a reasonable person could agree. Persons presenting opinions or factual testimony may rely on any factual information in the record to support their testimony. Opinion testimony may be given by people qualified to give such an opinion. And Madam Chair, my understanding is that we have not had any party requests. That's correct. But we will call for anyone who wants to be considered a party who has not put in a request yet. And I believe the clerk will call for anyone who wishes to be a party and will do the quasadish will survey. Yes. Are there any our exparte communications and if so please disclose them at this time. No. No. No. Okay. Anyone wishing to speak if you could raise your right hand Be some we swear or affirm that the testimony you're about to give is the truth the whole truth and at the mother truth Thank you Any parties All right, okay, good afternoon madam chair Leslie McClendon senior planner with the Lachua County Growth Management This is a 75th Street self-st Storage Center, it's a preliminary development plan. So it's approximately 110,000 square foot storage facility. It's actually a little bit less than that. So you're seeing it today because it is over 50,000 square feet, which is a threshold for commercial uses. It's located at 6 years six northwest 75th Street on just over two acres. It's commercial future land use and the business highway zoning district. It's an aerial of the site here. Excuse me, the location map. So it's these rear two parcels, the Western most. This is the tower plaza, it's an existing development. You'll see in the aerial in just a moment, which is this is Newberry Road and 75th Street. So it's just in this location here. So the majority of the surrounding land use you have some office and commercial and office residential to the west. It's going to aerial of the site. This is that Tower Plaza shopping center. So this is the old and polytano's restaurant. So that's for Western End, so it's these two parcels. You can see here these are some of the larger trees that are on this site that I'll discuss in just a moment. And these are some existing commercial uses. And again there's a vet office to the north and a hotel and some existing commercial uses to the south. And to the west, it's like an office professional, I'm say AP zoning district, so kind of a residence and I think they might use it as an office as well. So some of the existing conditions here, you can see the view from Tower Road, looking north like some of those existing businesses, existing entrants that they will use. And this is further into the site. This is the Old and Palatano site. And to see kind of some of the existing sites, it's largely developed with pavement and the building there. And then these are some of those offsite trees to the west. And this site did have two trees where over the 60 inches. And then another large 54 inch tree. So then these are, I think this is that far, I'll show you in just a moment on the development plan. This is a 60 inch tree that's going near the proper Southern property line. And this is again that 90-inch tree. So this is the tree canopy preservation plan. So this is a preliminary development plan. So the main intent is to look at resources on the side, the general layout for the site before we get into the details of final. So we did take a lot of, paid a lot of attention with the existing trees on this site because there are some existing encroachments within it. What you see here is all the existing site conditions. So there's an existing basin, it's a very shallow basin that's within this area with an existing flume that runs into it. You can kind of see here the line of the existing pavement for the existing parking areas. Miss Leclyn, did I have a quick question? As you move southward on that map towards where the trees are, isn't there a significant slope there? There is. Actually, if you're looking here, I kind of slope goes up this way, and I think there's some slope this way. And I'll also meant to call out, because this is kind of where the storm water's going. So they are, this is the 94-inch tree, I believe, 90-inch tree. This is the 54-inch tree here, and this is the 60-inch tree here. You can see the canopy outline here. So most of the canopy itself doesn't extend that part over the existing pavement. And then these circles are just what we use as the protective area of those circles. So this is two times the diameter of this 90-inch tree. That's one times the diameter. And then these are the protected circles circles the protected areas for those other trees So you're saying that outer circle is what it's two times the diameter of the tree I say that right the drip line of the tree. Excuse me. No, that's the diameter Yes, so this is it's circles. It's two times, so it's 94 feet this way and 94 feet that way. That's an area that they have to protect with, correct. Well, no new and correct, correct. That's, we can go up to that area for protection. Two times the diameter of the tree, of the inches of the tree. In feet. So what we looked at a lot with this was just no new like further encroachments with this site So just some of the other things with the actual preliminary development plan We have that that building envelope here and again, it's gonna be a maximum of 110,000 square feet and three stories There's a 40 foot buffer along the western side at the site because there is, it's the, it's kind of an office residential use, so we are doing the 40-foot high density buffer, because it's technically right now considered a residence. These are just like interior loading bays for the site, like to pull in, and I did want to point out two. So there's the existing basin here and The original concept the original plans we had reviewed had some additional basins within this area But in order to say the trees and do additional protections They are doing an underground like a vaulted system in this location here for stormwater as well as within the buffer So that will be underground vault And those areas for stormwater as well as within the buffer. So that will be underground vault in those areas for stormwater and they will be connected to this existing basin here. We are also just making having them, there's that existing flume in this location so they'll have to tie into the existing stormwater system with that existing flume area not having any new encroachments. There is also an existing utility easement in this location so they'll run water through this area here. So can you quickly just I'm sorry but I'm just trying to get this understanding while we're on this side and we've got the drawing. It's just it's helpful. Within that inner there's two circles you have there. Yeah there can be no impacts typically. There's already some encroachment but if there. Yeah, there can be no impacts typically. There's already some encroachment, but if there wasn't any, there would be no impacts in that circle. Except to the, I'll let the forest to speak to that for how we review that for impacts within the circles in general. I'm sorry. Can you repeat the? I'm trying to understand what would typically, if there wasn't already encroachments in this in these tree dripline circles, what would be the allowed impacts in these different circumferences? That can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. So if it wasn't impacted, we typically start with the two times diameter protection for 60 inches in diameter, or trees that are greater than 60 inches in diameter. And then it can potentially be reduced if the condition of the tree is not doing as well. As trees get older, they can go through entrenchment where their roots are maybe they don't extend as far out as a healthy tree would. So those might, that might be like one scenario. That's a great thing. And while we're on that, I guess, my question about slope was, as I would expect, that there would be a significant amount of earthwork being done on this site in order to not just create the footprint of where the building is, but to create a parking lot that is going to be able to interact with that building. And so whether you talk about entrenchment of the route or anything else, I am wondering if that, you know, how that's going to impact the tree to, or trees, I guess, to do that to prepare that site. And so, I'm not sure the applicant may be able to speak in more detail with it, but it's my understanding there will be some fill on this site because this here is the higher point in this area. So there will be some fill. There's a retaining wall in this location here. So there will be, my understanding won't be any like additional cutting into this system here. And we are having the match, the existing pavement, matching it with what's proposed, but it'll be filling on top. Okay, so there'll be a different, there'll be a change in slope for how someone will access that site. It'll be a... Right, yeah. That's my understanding applicant can speak to that. I spent a lot of time in it. I think they spent a lot of time in it. I think they spent a lot of time in it. I think they spent a lot of time in So yes, you know it well. There's a lot of us having. Let's see, so that's primarily for the trees. And again, we will review all of this in more detail with the final. They are also improving the pedestrian connectivity. So they are providing a crosswalk here and some pedestrian connectivity within the site. And then in the hopes like in the future if these parcels redevelop or want to improve then we can have like a sidewalk within here too that goes out to Tower Road. Oh nice. Okay. Okay. Commissioner Prisya, do you have any more questions? No, not on this. Not on this. I don't know if that's okay. Just your name. So that's the F-line Supplementary Development Plan to be consistent with the Lachoy County Comprehensive Code and the Unified Land Development Code. The staff recommends approval of the preliminary development plan for 75th Street Storage and Resolution DR-2424. That concludes my presentation and the applicant as a presentation as well. Okay, thank you. Hey, good afternoon. Michelle Block was 1784. We are the developer and applicant for this project. This is Alejandro. He is our civil engineer, so he can actually help answer your question in more detail for the grading on the site. This presentation is really just a little bit about who 1784 is, the product that we build and any of the site conditions, I'm just going to skip over, so I'm slowly handle that. So again, Alejandro, Michelle Block was 1784, and then Jesse Ray, with number consulting, our land use consultant is also in the audience. So 1784 is a national self-storage developer on our we've been around since 2013. We are based in Scottsdale, Arizona however we do have several projects here in the state of Florida and several others through permitting construction and actively open and operating throughout the East Coast. We are committed to making class A storage facilities that definitely hold more of an office, commercial office fill to them than they do wear housing fuel with glazing and different materials that we provide. Again, this is our subject site at 606 North West 75th Street located on the west end of the Tower Plaza commercial complex. So these are some proposed elevations of our facility that is approximately 109,000, 377 square feet. So just under that 110 square footage, three-story building, climate controlled, again, providing more of a contemporary office aesthetic, trying to break up some of the larger walls with spandial glazing and vision glazing as well. We have two different loading areas which can be seen on our site plan. One of them is more of a commercial storefront glass sliding door. The other one is fully interior designed. That is our main loading to provide our customers with a climate controlled option. So that like today when it's raining you can go inside the provide our customers with climate controlled options so that like today when it's raining, you can go inside the facility and be protected to access your unit load or unload anything you may need. These are a few images from some of our existing facilities, the offices, some of the finished work, the lighting design that we do. As well as in a couple of these images on the offices, some of the finished work, the lighting design that we do. As well as in a couple of these images on the top, you can see some of our security system, our facility is secured, keypad entrances at all the entryways, as well as cameras inside and out, no blind corners. And we provide full visibility of that to our customers and our tenants in the office. This is again other facility photos that we have open and operating and this is the interior loading base for providing that climate protected space to our customers. These are just more detailed elevations to the renders showing the north side and the western side of our facility are heavily landscaped and terraced as Alejandro can speak to on those ends. So we do have those ones with our split face block material, Stockholm. We have some brick veneer on them, but we did limit the spandial glazing on those sides. Then the site plan, which I can let, I'll stick here so Alejandro can talk about the grading on this site. Yeah, so to answer your grading question, there is a significant, you got to go up to go to the restaurant. So we're matching those existing grades as close as possible, minimizing cut into the roots and keeping up pretty much the same. Now for the building finish floor is a little bit more detailed but So the existing the highest elevations like 130 around the building. It's like north west corner and We're The finish floor of the building is going to be 125 124 1 1 2 and a half so it's going to be Five foot cut, but there's no trees in that area. But that's sort of the make the grades, you know, match. Lowering the grade of that area. So we don't have to go that far out. That's what I was curious about. That makes sense. Okay. So yeah, and then I'll just want to, I guess, emphasize for the trees. That bigger outer radius is that 90 foot radius. And based on my understanding of the code, you can't have any encroachments unless it's existing encroachment. So there is an existing asphalt drive-out that goes up to our site, and there's also an axis that's used for that. And we're keeping all our improvements north of the existing access road. Has the, has the, uh, far marshal approved the hammerhead turnaround? Uh, I'm not sure. I haven't given us any comments. So just curious because I've seen the fire turn around be an issue in other projects that I've been involved in. So I was curious. I believe we're under the 150 foot dead end requirement. Okay. To require a turnaround, but I'll confirm with. I see staff ready to jump in on that question. And we do have someone from prior rescue that does review these plans. And so they've been involved with the review process. Okay. I assumed so if we'd gotten to this point, but I'm always sort of surprised at what gets to prove sometimes what done. So I don't always understand it. I'll be honest there. Okay, go ahead. I'm sorry. So I'll add to the grading as well in order to help work with some of the grades that are existing is in the southeast corner of the facility is where our main office is and again to help with some of the cut and fill issues. Our sidewalk does have a full ramp around to it so that we do not have to bring our finished floor all the way down to our lowest grade so we are kind of doing some exterior sidewalk work in order to mitigate our finish floor at more of a midpoint on the site as it goes from a high point on the north end to a low point on the south east corner. I'm real surprised that y'all chose this particular location. It's pretty challenging one for what you're doing. Like the challenge. Yeah. And then just a couple of other items about our access. Again, I mentioned that from a customer standpoint, the facility tenants and customers is secure at all times. We do have a manager that's there seven days a week on typical office hours, like eight to six, right to five when that is defined But then if you are an actual tenant then those access hours are extended to 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. It is not a 24 hour facility Again, I mentioned that the facility is monitored 24-7. So even when the manager is not there We do have a third party management company on alert for that. And then this graph here is just a data from one of our other facilities that shows kind of the vehicle trips per day that we have gathered where we see kind of a little bit of higher tick in our customer access between 9 and 11 to 12, so kind of that mid-morning. And then again, after typical end of the day between like 5 and 7, a little bit of an increase. But even at that, that's still only about four to four and a half trips so we are a significantly low traffic generator. Happy to answer any questions and. Mr. Quinnell, do you have anything to say? Thank you, Madam Chair. I think there's a question for staff. So the canopy requirement is how much? 20%. Yes. 20%. So why did we do the underground storage for the storm water instead of just eliminating the 54 inch tree. Those three trees on the Creek Old Bay. So those three trees along the south or the center of those big radiuses are we can't remove or we can't remove those trees because they're either 16 inches or greater so we can't put any ponds there originally we actually had our vault right in that asphalt drive aisle but it's too close to the tree so we just moved it to a different area. So thank you for doing that by the way that's great. So Josh that 54 in tree and that on the left and he couldn't they have theoretically taken that tree out and made a storm water upon there or no. It is within the two times diameter protection zone so ideally it would be best to not. Oh the 54 inch one was in the middle. 54 inch is right here. This is the 90 inch. Yeah. Yeah no I think it's great that you kept the 54. We just had one where they took out a 59 inch. So glad to see that we're actually keeping one below the code, which is super. Right. And these are relatively close together, so they're all interconnected. And so their roots are connected? Yes. Yeah. So it makes sense to just leave those there and go around it. Yeah. So thank you all. You're not from here, but thank you for taking care of that and doubling the size of the canopy. I think it's gonna make a nice development leaving those trees there. So I don't have anything else other than move staff's recommendation. Thank you. Great. We have a motion of second. Commissioner Wheeler. I just wanna say thank you very much for the aesthetics. We see so much stuff coming up in Gainesville that's just really ugly. So, you know, that you're paying attention to that, I appreciate. Thank you. I hope it looks as pretty as what you've shown us. Sometimes we see pretty stuff and it doesn't end up that way. So, hopefully you're true to your design. All right, thank you. Alrighty then. All right, we have a second. We have any public comment to the motion. Seeing none. All in favor of the motion signify by saying aye. Aye. Any post. All right. Are you all planning to live here? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Well. All right. Okay, okay Okay, well You'd like it here Okay, all right well this this completes the action names on our agenda that completes the action on our agenda. It's now time for closing comments, any closing public comment? Any one for the public that would like to make public comment? All right. Seeing none, county attorney comment. Madam Chair, I don't have anything for you today. All right. I'm a manager. I do not either. My goodness, my goodness. Well let's see I will start with you Commissioner Wheeler tonight. Very quickly if you all have a chance to go to Cusco Willan, you'll get the new cover out there over that's exciting. It's going to inspire a lot of activity there out there. And another thing about mosquitoes that we are asking folks to be concerned about. I'm also a little concerned about water temperature and people who are getting in the water right now, particularly in our lakes areas, where it's hot. And we've got parasites and amoebas. And I've just had spoken to someone who taken temperature off the dock at Walberg and the temperature right on the edge of it was 91 degrees and so I don't know if we have somebody from the health department who can help us put together something about getting into water that's not you know that we're not monitoring carefully enough. I like it, sir. It's scary. Absolutely. And I just wanted to congratulate Commissioner Chestnut on being elected. And we have something for you too, kind of as a little picture. You bet? Yep. Yeah. It's a big day, yeah. Yeah. Congratulations, Trent. I've been in the picture. You bet? Yep. Yeah. It's a big day. Yeah. Congratulations, Charlie. I found them. I found them. I had been looking for those pictures for quite a while, and I did locate them. So they're yours now. All right, thank you. It's pictures of a minister at an event that we had with Maria. And I thought it was a sweet sweet picture. His legacy is now yours. Yes. And I'm jealous. That's it. That's it. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Commissioner Miller. Mr. Prinsia. Yeah. My only comment is about the My only comment is about the comments we got an email about conditions that jail was regards to water and sewer. And it's not the first complaint that I've had about that. In fact, I think in my four years here, I've heard that multiple, multiple times. So we clearly have an issue with the sewer system for the showers, the drainage system. I don't know what it is, but I got the email back and I just want to make sure it was a... There's no issue now. We fix the issue now. But I'm interested in understanding if there's what can be done to fix the issue more long-term. And also with regards to the water drinking water fountains, if we can have some kind of monitoring done of those fountains or some filtration systems, just put on those fountains. Whichever one is the better option, if it's less expensive or less time consuming, but I want to make sure that the water quality and the fountains and the access to drinking water is also addressed. Because we've had multiple things about stuff in the water, like particles in the water, things like that. And I think it's sometimes it's hard to replicate things when you're just there on site for one visit, you know, to from facilities, but then it happens again. So I'm just trying to figure out what we can do to make sure we're dressing those two issues, water and drainage in the showers and the bathrooms. If we could get a response from facilities about that, it would be great. If I could just say something about that, just to jump in on the water fountains, especially older ones, they lose water pressure sometimes. And so you get often a buildup of bioslime in the water fountains, and it's not considered dangerous, but it's a common occurrence, sorry, talking environmental engineering talk, but it's often something that can be fixed with an increase in pressure, which is often just cleaning out all of the deposits of calcium carbonate from the hardness in our water building up in the water fountain. So it's a maintenance issue many times. But I've also heard that while it may not have a backup in the shower that the smell of sewage in the showers is a common occurrence, smelling it, even if you don't see it. Yeah, and the comment that I got from, I mean, the email we got back, the facilities was basically like trying to find that email. But I mean, it said something to the long lines of sewage, which is common. I was like, OK, common. That's not a common thing. Like, it shouldn't be a common thing anyway. And I think maybe they didn't mean it in the way that it was written. But it came across in a way. I was like, that's not a, shouldn't be a common issue that we have sewage smell or actual sewage anywhere, anywhere near that, or backup of gray water or anything. Yeah, it makes me think that there is like like in the basement of the Wilson building that there was probably a misdesign in terms of traps and things like that. Anyway. All right. Commissioner that was you. Okay. Commissioner Chesa. What do you got? Thank you Madam Chair. I um. Mr. Chess, what do you got? Thank you, Madam Chair. I, Mark County helped me did something for June 10th, and put it on the. Yes, thank you. Thing, and I was very disappointed with the comments. And it tells me that we're doing truth and reconciliation, but there's people who are still thinking like folks thought in the 1800s, and it's very, very disappointing. I thought we have arrived at some point, but we haven't. So there's still a lot of work needs to be done, before we can really have really true reconciliation because people are still feeling that way and that was kind of disappointing to me. You could have said anything else, but to make comments that those individual, that individual may really, really rub me the wrong way in terms of the way it came off. And it just tells me that that line of thinking and that line of feeling or hatred is still there. And so it was just disappointing. And I think that also those individuals are cowards. They don't give their real name. They don't have a real, I guess, email address. They're using some fake email address. And it's just sad that folks are still feeling that way this day in time and all my great-grandmother would say is prayed for. So that's all I can do. It's prayed for. So anyway those are my comments I was just very disappointed. You know you would think that people would understand and have some idea of history. And apparently this individual did not know history at all. It doesn't understand it. It doesn't want to learn it. And as some folks say, it's just ignorance. But anyway. Maybe they're not even from here. Yeah, who knows? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, who knows? But yeah, who knows? But it's just the fact that they responded that way that kind of disturbs me to let me know that people are still feeling that way. Of course. Yeah. Thank you. This is when it's really hard, the fact that we can't moderate and take down comments like that. That makes it painful. But I think it also reiterates to our citizenry how important the work that we're doing is. And by you making that comment, we did have some citizens. I mean, they lit it into him. I didn't know that. So at least I can say that much. They're really lit into him. Yeah, right. But anyway, it was just the fact that I got me those kind of comments. But our citizens were on it. They lit in to him. And I think he probably felt very small afterwards. And they told him to move somewhere else too. Well, thank you for doing that. Well, thank you for doing that. Yeah, thank you for your message. And that was my favorite part of that. Seeing the comments from our community lighting in there. You know, on on him, yes. Yeah, hopefully someone will say, and you've got four and a half more years of commission of chestnut giving you the messages too. That's a crucial heilers point. That's the time. Yeah, on a post. So congratulations. Yeah, I don't have anything Madame Chair other than I was going to talk about the nature of Oaks of Oaks. I passed it out. There might be an up. I know we're going to have a kind of a comprehensive discussion regarding and around climate change. There might be an opportunity, though, in the August meeting for us to have some discussion specifically about the size of Oaks and whether or not we want to do something on that. So you'll have some time over July to read that. And then we'll see if that's if staff is ready for us. And maybe we can have that conversation. And it's a beautiful book. Thank you. Yeah. What I liked about that book was, well, my son said I had to read it, but what I liked about it was he says he started in the month of October because that's when he just started to write the book, but he really talks about how this tree is different than many trees and how important it is to our community. And the back of it, it's got the type of live oaks that grow in the southeast and specifically in North Central Florida. And so it not only helped educate me, but it made me think about these Keystone species that we have in our community and how we have to protect them. And you got out there, right? I haven't got to that site. I did. So I was out there with Jess with Christine and with Jeff Hayes. And we walked the site. And we talked about different things. And I would encourage everyone that has time to do that. Do we need to set up a staff to do that, or can we get permission to go on the property, or how do we do? Oh, I just. I believe you have permission to go on. Well, we'll let the attorney speak to that. Man sure we'll have to look at that. It's not what's anticipated. When the applicant files their application, they give us a certain amount of permission to go on for purposes of evaluating the site for the plan. But what I heard the other time I can see is that they're going to try to save as many trees as possible. So I want to really get an eye of what they were from preliminary to final. So I want to really get an eye of what they were from preliminary, the final. So I think absolutely we should take a look at that because when the final comes I'm going to compare it to the preliminary. And so the staff stood right there and they said over the next two months we're going to try to save as many trees as possible. So I think they are asking us to go look at that. So you have a good idea of what final looks like. We will look at the scope of what of the authority that they've given us to go on the property, but certainly you can go on with staff. And I would say there's also to the immediate north of there, two trees that are built in the center of the noble apartment complex. Go take a look at those two, because that was done five, six years ago. And it's just a good exercise for us before we have our next conversation. Thank you, M. Chair. All right. And I want to say, you know, when I sold my property on the UC University Avenue, I was told I could have gotten a lot more money for it. But I had oak trees, the one in my front yard. I couldn't, my arms didn't even go halfway around it. It was so huge and it's right on the corner. And in the backyard I had multiple ones, this big or this big. It was an oak hammock. And I sold my property to someone that wasn't going to cut down the trees because it was an over-naked land on the Ascii's Diabinue. It could have been developed and I did not want that to happen. Yeah, so when you measure a tree I learned this just as a cool tape measure. It's the you measure this circumference and divide by pi 3.14. That's generally she does a 4.5 feet which is her nose. Pretty close to my nose too. Is it about right where my arms are. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, so I've started driving around measuring trees. I got one of those special tape measures. And I've looked at a 30, a 40, a 50, a 60. And it's worth doing it before we have the conversation. Yeah. I value oak trees and I value the whole life, you know, there's a whole set of species that are just centered around oak trees. That book will tell you all of that. Yes, and so I look forward to your book. It's a beautiful book, so thank you, thank you, thank you for that. I only had one small thing. And that is a question about buffers and the development that's going in off of 75th. That sort of, let's see, it's sort of behind all the things. I had it written down and I can't remember the name of it right now. Is it one of the Terra many things? No, I don't think it is. It's green leaf, I think, and what's the name of that place? Anyway, I have a resident whose property backs up to that and they said we were supposed to have a buffer and they have cut everything down. So I didn't know what we were doing in terms of watching supposed buffers or were there was there a plan for them to replant or were they trying to maintain the natural buffer that was there I could not remember. Madam Chair, Tara Vista was approved with the buffer that the board applied as a condition. Right that's what I thought. I think perhaps there's a misunderstanding on what a buffer can contain. It doesn't always contain natural vegetation. Oftentimes they clear the property and then plant back a buffer and add a fence at the end. We can look at the details of that, but I do recall from the preliminary hearing and the citizens that were here, some of their lots that backed up to that property. Also you could see on the survey that maybe they're like backyard fences and things were on the teravista side. So I'm wondering if perhaps also it's a perception of where the project begins and ends. I don't know. All I know is she's in her backyard and she has a picture and there is nothing between her and the, you know, there's nothing there and it may be that they're planting something. I just couldn't. That would come later. I just couldn't remember what we had specified because I remember talking about that buffer a lot. Would you like us to send an email and show you on the plans what we approved? Yeah, she's doing all this on Facebook and she hasn't written me into my county email, even though I've asked her to do that. So when she does that, then I'll have something to give back to her. But I just wanted to ask that question. Wow, we were sitting there. Okay. We're all sitting there. Okay, thank you. I'm going to fact, I'm not going until tomorrow morning. Will you be there Friday morning for the election? I will not be there Friday morning. I have a funeral. Okay. Will you be there for the election? No, maybe. Okay. So are you going to be there for the election? Yeah. You want to give us an update on that? No quick, I guess. Well, the second vice president is Commissioner Meeks and Palm Beach Commissioner Meeks is living. Yeah, I'm a Maria. Commissioner Meeks is leaving County. That's who I'm supporting. But every vote's going to matter. So they're there Friday morning is when the vote is. Yeah, I'm sorry I can't, but I have a funeral I have to be at. Okay. All right. Well, everyone drives safely to a fact if you're attending. And we'll adjourn the meeting. Thank you.