A day with a light Agenda turned out to be very eventful!
The morning began on a positive note with a Presentation in Remembrance of Paul Waldron, ”Beloved District 3 County Commissioner.
While a video honoring Commissioner Waldron’s life played on the monitors, all Commissioner’s gathered for the presentation. There were several former and current county employees in the audience.
Commissioner Whitehurst introduced former District 2 Commissioner Jeb Smith, who read a touching tribute to Commissioner Waldron. The Waldron family was present to accept the proclamation.
Watch the video here: Paul Waldron Day Celebration
Public Safety Update
Director Jason Caban represented SJSO for the reminded the public that amongst the Holiday shopping there is a rise in scams and frauds. He urged the public to be aware of potential fraud if someone is asking you for personal or banking information or asking you to pay for something with gift cards. He also noted there will be an increase in patrols in heavily trafficked areas.
Acting Chief McGhee from the Fire Rescue shared that the current fire fighter recruitment class is entering it’s final week of training and will be graduating on December 15.
Clerk of the Court Brandon Patty continued with the fraud and scam theme and reminded residents that they can sign up for free fraud alerts related to their property. The link to sign up for these alerts is here: Fraud Alerts – Clerk of the Court
The Public Infrastructure team provided a brief update on the 24 on-going Infrastructure Projects.
Watch here: Infrastructure Projects
Video of 2209 Construction: 2209 Construction
Legislative Affairs updates included that the Governor submitted his budget recommendations for 2024 – 2025. Senator Hutson had mentioned at the Joint Meeting with the School Board a bill he was proposing to help with school construction. That bill is SB 7002 and is in play now. It removes some of the requirements on school construction thus lowering costs. Watch here: Legislative Affairs Update
Consent Agenda was passed with no comment from the Commissioners or the pubilc, a rare thing.
Agenda Items
Agenda Item 1 – Approval of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between St. Johns County and Twin Creeks Development Associates, LLC and Award of IFB No: 23-94 CR 210 Widening from Trinity Way to Beachwalk Boulevard
This is a resolution to a long standing concern about the widening of CR 210. The developer was responsible for widening to a 4 lane road. Since that first commitment, the county determined CR 210 needs to be a 6 lane road to accommodate the traffic flow.
This MOU brings the project to a point that construction can begin. Watch the presentation here: Twin Creeks MOU video
There were 3 motions – 1) approving a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between St. Johns County and Twin Creeks Development Associates LLC and Twin Creeks Ventures, LLC regarding a good faith dispute about the widening of CR 210. 2) a motion to award the bid for the widening to Watson Civil Construction and 3) to transfer the $2,100,000 from the Transportation Trust Fund to pay for the project. Approved 5-0
Agenda Item 2 – Request for a Major Modification to the Twin Creeks PUD to add a new access connection point along CR 210 West for the Light Industrial parcel located to the south.
This was approved with little discussion, 5-0.
Agenda Item 3- Request for a Major Modification to the Race Track Road PUD to revise commercial and office square footage to accommodate construction of a Personal Property Mini-Warehouse (Self-Storage) facility, which is an allowable use within the PUD.
This item requested a waiver for the distance from residential to the personal storage warehouse and changed the sq. footage allowance to allow a bigger warehouse. A personal storage warehouse could already be built on the site with no approval required.
The location selected for the building allows the developer to retain all existing trees in the development. They will also plant additional trees for screening of the back of the building.
Benefits presented were lower traffic counts than if another doctor’s office or restaurant were to be built there (both currently allowable uses.)
Concerns were raised about traffic. The traffic engineer walked through the traffic counts to demonstrate it would be lower traffic than other uses in the development.
Disclaimer: I spoke and noted that there is another self storage warehouse directly across the street from Durbin Creek Elementary. Having watched the traffic at that location for the months since this project was announced, I had noted there is rarely any traffic at the self-storage building which supports the premise of low traffic counts.
This was approved 4-1 with Joseph being the “no” vote.
You can watch the presentation here: Race Track Road PUD
Agenda items 4, 5, and 6 were approve with little comment.
Agenda Item 4 – Bennett Road Easement – Non -zoning variance requested to allow access for 1 additional home on Bennett Road. Approved 5-0
Agenda Item 5 – Big Pine Drive – Request for use of an existing non-paved roadway to access a non-residential development. Approved 4-1 (Joseph)
Agenda Item 6 – Villages of St. Augustine – request to add Class III Geriatric Acute Care Psychiatric Specialty Hospital for seniors 55 and older as an allowed use within the PUD. Approved 5-0
Agenda Item 7 – Appointments to the Recreation Advisory Board – Marithza Ross was reappointed to the Recreation Advisory Board 5-0
Agenda Item 8 – Appointments to the Planning and Zoning Agency – Dr. Richard Hilsenbeck was reappointed 5-0. Meagan Perkins was reappointed 4-1 (Joseph)
Commissioner’s Reports
Commissioner Joseph took the opportunity to congratulate her husband, Dr. Ron Joseph. He and his sister were elected to the US Hall of Fame for Figure Skating earlier in the week. A short video was played showing their 1964 performance. Commissioner Joseph noted that they are still the only US Jewish Olympic medalists.
Commissioner Alaimo has been meeting with residents of Shore Drive and listening the their concerns about the proposed trail. He also sent congratulations to the St. Augustine High School football team as they head to the State Championship game this weekend.
Commissioner Whitehurst spent a few moments acknowledging the passing of Sgt. Major Ray Quinn and shared some lessons learned from Sgt. Major Quinn, who had also served as Commissioner in St. Johns County. Sgt. Major Quinn had been a source of wisdom for Commissioner Whitehurst when he was elected.
Commissioner Dean‘s comments were of a more somber nature. By now you may have seen some of the media coverage of his comments.
Note that this blogger tries to maintain an objective note and provide information that you can use to form your own opinions. In that vein, I will share what Commissioner Dean stated and provide a link to the video so you can watch for yourself.
Commissioner Dean made it clear that this was an uncomfortable position. He said he “does not enjoy doing it” but felt compelled to act on what had occurred at the last Commissioner’s Meeting (November 21.) He made reference to Commissioner Joseph giving a “several minute campaign speech” which he interrupted on a Point of Order. Commissioner Dean believes this speech may have violated Florida Election Law. Specifically, he mentioned Florida Statute 104.31.
You can read Statute 104.31 here: Florida Statute 104.31
Commissioner Dean presented a 2 part motion. First to censure Commissioner Joseph for her comments and second to ask the Chairwoman to seek outside counsel who could come back to the commission with a recommendation about what should be done, if anything.
After hearing Public Comment, the Commissioner’s voted 4-1 (Joseph being the no vote) to censure Commissioner Joseph and to hire outside counsel to determine if there has been a violation of Florida Election law.
Please watch Commissioner Dean’s Comments and discussion at this link.
County Attorney’s Report – Mr. Migut discussed the Election Canvassing Board. By law, the Canvassing Board is composed of a County Court Judge, the Supervisor of Elections, the Chair of the County Commissioners and one alternate. A Commissioner cannot serve as alternate if there is a conflict of interest.
Because 3 Commissioners (Alaimo, Whitehurst, Dean) have indicated they will run for re-election in 2024, they are disqualified from serving on the Canvassing Board.
Commissioner Joseph indicated her intent to endorse a candidate for President and for the Primary and General elections in St. Johns County. That disqualifies her from serving on the Canvassing Board.
Commissioner Whitehurst was selected to serve as the representative to the Canvassing Board for the Presidential Preference election.
The Circuit Judge will select an alternate for the Primary and General elections.
Attorney Migut also brought up that there are Rules and Policies that prohibit campaigning in county buildings. These Rules and Policies are located in a number of different places. Mr. Migut asked for Board consensus to bring all the different rules into a central document for ease of reference.
The Chair of the Board of County Commissioner’s serves on the Canvassing Board. There are 2 elections in 2024 that will need an alternate member of the Board of Commissioners to serve on the Canvassing Board; the Presidential Preference and the combined Primary/General Election. Because of conflicts of interest, none of the other 4 Commissioners can serve. Commissioner Joseph is endorsing candidates in both elections and the other 3 Commissioners are up for election. Commissioner Whitehurst was selected to serve on the Canvassing Board for the Presidential Preference election. The Circuit Judge will need to appoint an alternate for the combined Primary/General election. By consensus, Attorney Migut will bring together all the various rules around campaigning in public buildings into one central document for ease of access.
County Attorney’s discussion on Canvassing Board
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Beth Tate 