Category: Politics

What happened on Monday, December 19?

Monday, December 19, the St. Johns County Legislative delegation made up of Senator Travis Hutson, House Speaker Paul Renner, Representatives Cyndi Stevenson and Bobby Payne convened the annual legislative delegation at the County Administrative offices in St. Johns County. The full video and transcript are available at this link:

https://stjohnscountyfl.new.swagit.com/videos/191486

The morning started out with a packed auditorium. 52 speakers were registered to speak and many had supporters in attendance with them. The crowd dwindled as the morning went on. Once a particular topic had been covered, attendees left. Interesting to observe the lack of interest in the other topics being discussed.

I’ve tried to include all the topics covered but not each individual speaker as some were repeat topics.

Board of County Commissioners Chair, Christian Whitehurst, began the line-up, as host to the delegation. He emphasized the county legislative priorities around transportation, recreation, and coastal resiliency and expressed appreciation for the record funding back to St. Johns County in the 2022 session.

School Superintendent Tim Forson raised concerns about teacher pay. He noted that the increase in starting salaries was a positive move forward but there needs to be funding and improvement in veteran teacher salaries. He also asked to consider modifying the retirement and rehiring stipulations. Currently there is a required gap in service before teachers can come back into the system. Removing that required gap could address the shortage. Other speakers throughout the day raised this concern.

St. Augustine Mayor, Nancy Sikes-Kline raised the cities concerns and need for funding transportation, resiliency, and affordable housing. She emphasized support for home rule and asked that they resist tying the hands of local government around short-term rentals. This would be a recurring them during the day.

County Clerk of the Court, Brandon Patty talked the need for a “needs based budget” pointing out that the St. Johns County Clerk of the Court office is one of the least funded per capita in the state. Also raised was a concern that the focus at the state level on scrutinizing investments in ESG focused companies should trickle down to the local governments.

Joe Pickins, the President of the St. Johns River State College noted that over the last two years, Florida College system institutions have received over $201 million in capital funding, while St. Johns River State College received $0 dollars.  Over that same 2 year period, other colleges in the state have received $53 million in recurring funding while St. Johns River State College has received $0 dollars. They are now asking for $12.5 million in recurring funding for the school.

Nicole Crosby spoke and asked for the repeal of Senate Bill 1078, a bill that passed in the 2022 legislature and changed the qualifications for members of the Soil and Water District Board members.

Matt Cine from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s office asked for consideration of modifying the Florida State statute around golf cart licensing and requested that rules for driving a golf cart mirror that for driver’s licenses, moving the age to drive a golf cart to 16. They noted that the biggest complaint they get from golf cart communities are related to 14 and 15 year olds driving the the golf carts and the second is speeding golf carts. Combine the two and you have a very dangerous situation. Representative Payne asked if there were similar concerns around electric bikes and Mr. Cline noted that is a rising concern and they anticipate coming back with a request around electric bike rules in the next session.

Patty Greenough, representing EPIC and the St. Johns County Behavioral Health Consortium asked for continued funding for the Residential Treatment beds in SJC and to continue support for the many mental health needs in St. Johns County.

Carlton de Vooght from Flagler Health talked about the success they have had with mental health treatment for youth. They are now seeing 90% of youth seeing treatment being seen within 30 days which is a significant improvement. They would like to see this program expanded into other parts of the state.

Representatives from Ponte Vedra Beach (PVB) talked about traffic issues in PVB and the need for continued beach renourishment. There was emphasis that beach renourishment is not just for the residents of the beach. Our SJC beaches bring in tourism dollars that benefit the entire county.

Speaker Renner commented that in the special session they had just appropriated $150 Million for beach renourishment and some of that would be coming to St. Johns County. He also noted that St. Johns County is in much better shape than some other counties because our county commissioners have been very proactive around protecting our beaches.

Michael Scine, representing the St. Johns County Chamber of Commerce noted concern for affordable housing in the county and the Chamber’s support for full funding of the Sadowski Fund. The Chamber asks for continued support for Visit Florida and to bring back the Qualified Target Industry tax refund program to bring more business back to Florida.

Richard Goldman of the St. Johns County Visitors and Convention Bureau, asked that they oppose any expansion of the Tourist Development Tax uses. Expansion of the uses would dilute the ability to market and bring tourism dollars to the county.

I spoke on behalf of the St. Johns County Civic Round Table, sharing our support for conservation and preservation of land and natural resources, concerns for sea level rise and resiliency. We asked that they stop pre-emption of local government controls, particularly around short term rentals and expressed our support of the Sadowski fund and asked that they stop using the funds for other purposes.

There were several speakers from charitable organizations in St. Johns County requesting additional support. A recurring theme was behavioral health concerns and affordable housing.

Representatives from Mosquito Control, at the County and State level, spoke about concerns of an upcoming audit of Special Districts that could negatively impact the Mosquito Control District. I plan to look into this further and provide more information at a later date.

Christina Parrish-Stone and Donna Guzzo spoke about the benefits of our cultural organizations and the need for continued funding of our cultural programs.

Lisa Rinaman and Jane West covered the need for protecting our springs and rivers and protecting against se level rise in the state.

Michelle Dillon, representing the St. Johns Education Association brought forward again the need for salary increases for teachers and providing school districts with the flexibility to raise salaries locally based on local market needs. She reiterated the need to change the “gap” time for teachers who had left the system and wish to return to the classroom.

Thomas Jackson addressed the need for funding to preserve the Beach House, a home where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spent time. The desire is to move the house to another property and make it part of a park to preserve the history. Senator Hutson expressed interest in learning more about this project.

Ed Slavin, representing St. Augustine Green, requested the delegation to provide a “delegation letter” requesting a study from the National Park Service to review a potential National Seashore Park in St. Johns County.

Carol Anderson of the North Beach Community Alliance asked for help with the local Short Term Rental problem in Vilano beach. She provided graphics to demonstrate that of the 603 residential properties in Vilano Beach, 162 are short term rentals. She echoed earlier requests that local governments be allowed to control the Short Term Rental situation.

Carol was followed by another resident asking for help around the Short Term Rental problem in St. Johns County and asking for local jurisdiction to be able to make decisions about Short Term rentals.

Vincent Mazzella of the Florida Citizen’s Alliance was the first of several speakers to talk about their concerns with our St. Johns County schools and how parental rights should have more influence in the school system.   

Lanelle Phillmon of the League of Women’s Voters spoke about the need for local government to make decisions around election integrity. She also emphasized the need for reproductive choice, infrastructure needs, and the ability to bring teachers back to the classroom earlier.

Nell Toensmann of the St. Augustine Democratic Club emphasized concerns about regulating reproductive health and recommended they look to solutions such as have been implemented in Colorado to reduce abortions by funding birth control initiatives. Again support was asked to fully fund the Sadowski fund and to increase financial support for teachers.

John Pilecki spoke on behalf of the Sierra Club emphasizing needs for addressing climate change, land preservation, and restoring our rivers and waterways.

Several speakers spoke on their concerns about obscene or pornographic materials in the school system and how the state statutes need to be modified to address “loop holes” that allow these materials to remain in the schools.

Matt Metz – Office of the public defender for the 7^th District talked about the low salaries for public defenders and that they cannot afford to live here with their current salaries.

A citizen requested that the state legislature pass a law requiring the motto, “In God We Trust” be displayed in public schools and universities.

Another resident felt compelled to speak after hearing the negative commentary about our school system. She pointed out that people move here because of our great schools – then they are attacking and wanting to change the system. She pointed out we are all stakeholders in our school system and that we have had a very successful school system. She noted it was disturbing to see outside groups trying to influence and take over our local schools. She commented about the unfair and untrue statements that are posted on social media and expressed her full support for our school system and it’s administrators.

Another resident expressed her concern about the long term use of substitute teachers and the need to provide better funding for teachers salaries.

Senator Hutson noted the education comments and that the teacher pay issue resonates very much. He commented that while they have paid a lot of attention to funding new schools, they need to pay more attention to teacher pay.  

Representative Payne expressed appreciation for residents coming out to speak and invited all to Tallahassee.

Speaker Renner appreciated the opportunity to listen and noted that lack of comment did not mean that the speakers were not heard.

Representative Stevenson thanked all for their comments and noted specifically the importance of the mental health issues.