Category: St. Johns County

Posted in BOCC, St. Johns County

Recap of the April 15, 2025 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting

Posted on by Beth Tate

The meeting began and ended with important discussions that highlight the on-going discord with the current Board of County Commissioners. Residents have expressed their desire to see some of these disagreements put aside so the Commissioners can get on with the business of the County. Read on for more information.

Mental Health Awareness Month

Commissioner Sarah Arnold presented the Proclamation for Mental Health Awareness Month. Accepting the proclamation were representatives from families and organizations working with Mental Health issues in the community.

Watch the Proclamation presentation here: Mental Health Awareness Month

Learn more about two of the organizations at these links: Patients not Prisoners and SMA Healthcare

As someone who has seen first hand what mental health struggles can do to a family, I’m grateful for organizations like these and the Proclamation for Mental Health Awareness.

Public Safety Telecommunicators Week

The second proclamation of the day was for National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week. Appropriately presented by Commissioner Murphy, who began his law enforcement career in this field, this proclamation recognizes the work done by the dedicated folks who answer the call to 911, handling over 414,000 incoming and outgoing calls in St. Johns County last year.

You can watch the presentation here: Public Safety Telecommunicators Week

There were no additions or deletions to the Consent Agenda and it was approved.

Regular Agenda

Regular Agenda Item 1 – Request for Reimbursement of Attorney’s Fees.

Commissioner Joseph is requesting reimbursement of her attorney fees incurred when she filed suit against the Florida State’s Attorney and the County Commissioners. See the slides for more details on the events.

Screenshot

Following her attorney’s presentation, Commissioner Joseph asked if she was ever going to be put in jail. The attorney responded that at one point there were law enforcement vehicles outside her home in early morning hours and that caused her to worry that there would be a predawn raid. The attorney contacted the State’s Attorney’s office to discuss arranging a surrender for her arrest so that her husband would not be left without care. The State’s Attorney would not have the discussion.

Commissioner Taylor made a motion to move funds from the General Reserve fund and approve the amount of $139,005 in attorney’s fees for Commissioner Joseph. Commissioner Joseph seconded the motion.

After public comment, there were questions from the other Commissioners. Some of the questions and answers are paraphrased here:

Q – Has Commissioner Joseph paid this bill?

Answer – No, she still owes the attorney so the request is for the county taxpayers to pay the attorney’s fees for Commissioner Joseph

Q – What gave Commissioner Joseph the impression that there was going to be a pre-dawn raid?

Answer – There were law enforcement cards idling outside her house in the pre-dawn hours an that gave her concern. There was never any verification about why the law enforcement cars were outside of her home and never an arrest. She did believe they were there at the direction of the State’s Attorney’s Office.

Q – Why is Commissioner Joseph pursuing the County to reimburse her rather than the State’s Attorney’s Office which was pursuing the prosecution after the County Commissioners were dismissed from the lawsuit.

Answer – She is seeking reimbursement because these were fees incurred as part of her public duty.

Commissioner Murphy noted during discussions that the taxpayer is getting the bill both ways – to defend the Commissioners and to reimburse Commissioner Joseph for her fees.

Commissioner Murphy questioned the amount being requested and referred to an amount of $110,242 that had been deemed to be a “reasonable fee” and said he would support an amended motion for that amount. He would not support the total requested without an itemized bill for that amount.

Commissioner Arnold also asked about itemized bills and questioned the request being a reimbursement when the bill has not yet been paid. She would like for the topic to come back with more information in the request.

Commisioner Taylor amended her motion to $110,000, it was seconded by Commissioner Murphy and passed 3-2 with Arnold and Whitehurst being the No votes.

You can watch the presentation here: Agenda Item 1 – Reimbursement of Legal Fees

Agenda item 2 – The Shell at St. Augustine -a project to benefit local arts, culture and heritage organizations, provide a pathway to sustainability for the participating non-profits, increase tourism dollars for St. Johns County and enrich quality of life for local residents.

The organization has funding to build the building and are looking for a location to build. Consensus from the Board was for staff to work with the organization to help finding a location for this facility.

Organizations in the Alliance
Rendering of proposed facility
Desired Location

Watch the presentation here: The Shell

Agenda item 3 – Dog and Bog withdrawal of request. The applicants have determined they cannot develop the project and have located a local partner, Habitat for Humanity of St. Johns County, who are in discussions to purchase the project. Habitat for Humanity CEO Malinda Everson confirmed that Habitat is in the due diligence phase of moving forward with the purchase.

(Disclosure: I currently serve as the Treasurer on the Habitat for Humanity Board and did vote affirmatively to move forward with this purchase, dependent upon the outcome of the due diligence.)

Agenda Item 5 – change order to Phase 1 Design-Build Agreement for Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for Design-Build services for Silverleaf Fire Station #22 and Sheriff’s Operations Center. This was an item to process a change order to include Early Works in the project at a cost of $2,288,800. Approved unanimously

project scope

Agenda Item 6 – Amendment for Early Works packages for Central Community and Community Sportsplex Parks. Approved unanimously

Agenda Items 7– Appointment to the Housing Finance Authority. Robin Pfalzgraf was appointed unanimously.

Agenda Item 8 – County Attorney Agreement for Legal Services.

After discussion on the agreement and minor modifications, it was approved 3-2 (Taylor and Joseph being no votes.)

Once approved, Commissioner Joseph expressed her concern about signing the contract without confirmation that there would be no criminal repercussions. Attorney Kommando indicated there was no reason he knows of that she could not sign the agreement but if she were uncomfortable, she could delegate to someone else. She stated that is what she would do.

The agreement can be found here: County Attorney’s Legal Agreement

You can watch the video here: Discussion on County Attorney Agreement

Commissioner’s reports

Commissioner Whitehurst – Congratulations to the Gators on recent athletic wins. Very impressed with his tour of Saint Augustine Youth Services (SAYS) and recommended all commissioners should take that tour. Learn more about SAYS here: SAYS Website

Commissioner Whitehurst also shared a recap of his recent visits to Tallahassee and all the legislators he met with while in Tallahassee pursuing actions and funding on behalf of St. Johns County.

And concluded with Happy Easter to all those who celebrate

Commissioner Arnold – Also shared an update on the visits to Tallahassee. Taking off her Commissioner hat for a moment, she spoke about bills moving through the House and Senate right now that could potentially result in loss of funding to special programs in St. Johns County included IP, AP, AICE, CTE and Dual Enrollment programs. She encouraged all parents to do their own research, come to their own conclusions and reach out to the legislators if they are so inclined.

Commission Taylor – Shared an update on her visits to Tallahassee. She asked for clarification about the bill related to funding for the IGP and I-95 interchange. Senator Leek had pointed out that this item was number 6 on the priority list and she wanted clarification to Senator Leek that it is one the County’s Top priorities. She talked about a letter requesting the funding and wanted to include in the letter that the county is requesting $10 Million dollars in federal funding.

See previous post about the requested appropriations for IGP and I-95 improvements here: Florida Legislative Appropriations Process Blog

Commissioner Murphy – Shared he was wearing his Autism Awareness hat he got while attending a recent Re-Certification class with Old Town Trolley Tours.

He asked for consensus to direct staff to review some standing committees that have been inactive for some time. This will come back to the Board as an Agenda item.

He also talked about the trips to Tallahassee and the importance of the Commissioners going to Tallahassee and developing relationships that will allow them to bring home more money from Tallahassee. In order to meet the goal of a tax rollback, the county must have money from Tallahassee.

Commissioner Joseph raised a point that when they were in Tallahassee, Commissioners Arnold and Whitehurst were meeting with the legislators separately from Commissioners Joseph, Murphy, and Taylor. This devolved into a bit of a debate between Commissioners Joseph and Whitehurst that is worth watching at the link below.

Commissioner Joseph asked about updating the letter to Senator Leek about funding for the IGP-I-95 exchange. County Administrator Andrews explained that there are very careful discussions with Congressman Rutherford’s office about what that number might be and they do not want to submit a number that has not been agreed to by his office. (Again reference the process outlined in the link to a previous blog post above.)

Commissioner Joseph also sent Happy Anniversary wishes to her husband on their 35th Anniversary on April 16.

Watch the Reports here for more context and detail: Commissioner’s Reports

County Administrator’s Report

Administrator Andrews expressed appreciation to the Board for Rich Kommando’s contract and expressed that this is the most impressive legal team they have had at the county during her tenure. She also had the Director of Growth Management Mike Roberson provide an update on the Comprehensive Plan timeline.

Administrator Andrews provided an update on the situation with Indianhead Biomass. A letter was issued to the business with code violations. The county is working with them to address the violations. She shared that the company does provide a valuable service to the county as they are the only vendor who addresses our biomass collection. They are still awaiting results of a study to determine if the odor violates current standards but are also talking with the company to bring down the odors.

County Attorney’s Report

Attorney Kommando pointed out to the Board that there are more than Appropriations of concern in Tallahassee this session including bills concerning condo associations and local preemptions. Deputy Attorney Kealey West thanked the Board for the decision about Attorney Kommando, commenting that he has been here for a year, guiding through a tumultuous time and they office looks forward to his continued leadership.

If you are finding value in these updates, please subscribe to my blog so you get notifications when I publish an update. Feel free to share with others who may find value in the content.

Posted in Florida Legislature, St. Johns County, Transportation

St. Johns County State Senate Appropriations Requests

Posted on by Beth Tate

As the 2nd week of the 2025 Florida Legislative Session ends, let’s take a look at the Appropriations Requests that have been submitted by Senator Thomas (Tom) Leek.

This list follows my March 9 blog post identifying the Appropriations submitted by our State Representatives.

This is a manual review so forgive me if I miss anything!

The Senate process is a bit different from the House of Representatives Process. From the Florida Senate website:

“The appropriations bill is one of the most important bills considered by the Legislature. This bill is the state’s budget and it specifies the amount of money available to various state agencies during the next year.  The appropriations bill follows the same course as other general bills, but because it is difficult to get both houses to agree on all items in the bill, a conference committee is usually appointed to resolve the differences.”

On the Senate side, there is a 7 page form to be completed. You can view the blank form here: Funding Initiative Request Form

Let’s walk through an example with a 30 Million dollar request for St. Johns County State Road 16, Phase II.

This Request reads as follows:

“FDOT is scheduled to spend $30 million to resurface State Road 16 from International Golf Parkway to I-95 over the next year. This newly resurfaced road will then undergo milling and paving a second time during the construction phase of the SR 16 Capacity Improvements project. St. Johns County sees an opportunity to enhance government efficiency, eliminate duplicative costs, and to better utilize state resources by re-appropriating this $30 million toward the SR 16 Capacity Improvements project. This appropriations request will widen SR 16 to 4 lanes from International Golf Parkway to I-95.”

This looks like a St. Johns County version of DOGE – currently there is $30 million slated to resurface State Road 16 from IGP to I-95 in the coming year. Much needed work! However, the State Road 16 Capacity Improvements will require the road to be milled and paved again! (duplicative work!)

This request from Senator Leek is to re-appropriate the $30 million to the Capacity Improvements project that will widen SR 16 to 4 lanes from International Golf Parkway to I-95.

The type of funding for this project is “Fixed Capital Outlay.”

The Total Project cost for Fiscal Year 2025-2026 (including matching funds) is 51,708,000. Matching funds come from Federal, State, Local and “Other.”

The project has previously received state funding of $7,500,000 in 2024-2025 (Appropriation 2069A)

Future funding will likely be requested in the amount of 10,000,000 per year!

It is noted that St. Johns County has identified additional developer contributions and a federal competitive grant as future matching funds to state funding beyond FY 26 – this could reduce future financial contributions by the state.

This project is currently in the Construction Phase, is noted as “shove ready” and construction slated to starte 7/1/2025 with completion by 1/30/2027.

The purpose of the 30,000,000 is notes as “Design, permitting, right of qay acquisition, construction, post-design services and CEI for the four-lane widening of State Road 16 from International Golf Parkway to I-95, with option to include bike lanes, sidewalks, or multi-use paths where appropriate.”

The form requires answers to questions such as purpose and goal of the project, activities and services provided to met the intended purpose, what services provided to citizens, who is the target population, and the expected beneift or outcome of the project

You can read through the full request here: St. Johns County State Road 16 Phase II

This request will be reviewed by the Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development.  You can check their calendar and find the contact information for the committee members here: Transportation, Tourism, Economic Development Committee

You can share your thoughts on any of the Appropriations requests with Senator Leek and members of the Appropriations Committee.

Senator Leek’s contact information can be found here: Senator Leek State Senate Page

There is a link on the page to send him an email directly from there.

Here is a list of the Appropriations Requests from Senator Leek that appear to be directly impactful to St. Johns County. There is a much longer list of requests he has made (link below) but remember his district covers more than just St. Johns County.

If I could locate a corresponding request from one of our Representatives, I’ve noted that as well. If the column for Corresponding House Request is blank, I did not see a corresponding request.

NumberRequestAmountCorresponding House Request
2524Equine-Assisted Regional Rehabilitation Center for Children and Veterans1,700,000Sapp2223
2530St. Augustine Teen Center Boys & Girls Club400,000Greco2092  
2531Historic St. Johns County Police Athletic League Diamond of Dreams1,000,000Sapp2184  
2533The Florida Museum of Black History Phase 1 – St. Johns County2,000,000  
2535District 23 Medical Examiner’s Office6,000,000Sapp2172
2539I-95 Interchange Improvements at International Golf Parkway3,500,000Kendall1499
2542St. Johns County Career and Job Readiness Program245,000  
2543St. Augustine Airport Student Maintenance Training Program250,000Kendall1722
2544BRAVE (Be Resilient and Voice Emotions) Program3,000,000  
2546St. Augustine Land Purchase, Continued Design and Construction of Resilient Structure Anastasia Blvd.2,500,000Greco2110  
2547St. Augustine Volusia Woods Extension – West Augustine Septic-to-Sewer Project1,000,000Greco2886
2549St. Augustine Beach Stormwater System Resiliency1,910,000Greco2095
2550The Arc of the St. Johns, Inc. Transportation Facility Project750,000Greco2125  
2551First Coast Technical College – Firefighter & EMT Program Enhancement/Expansion760,285Kendall2285
2553Hastings Museum and Community Civic Center400,000  
2554St. Johns County State Road 16 Phase II30,000,000  
2555The Institute for Classical Education at Flagler College1,500,000Greco2890  
2556St. Johns County Historic Markland House Restoration2,000,000Greco2094
2557St. Johns County Road 2209 Central Segment – Phase 38,000,000  
2840St. Johns County EPIC Sober Living Transitional Housing Expansion Project2,500,000Greco2083
2841St. Johns County EPIC Recovery Center Women’s Substance Abuse Residential Treatment Beds750,000Greco2098
2870St. Johns County Council on Aging Shelter & Shade Project572,000Greco2080
3013St. Augustine Youth Services Intensive In-Home Therapeutic Programs450,000Greco2100
3177Home Again St. Johns, Inc. Homeless Veterans Support & Housing250,000  
3184Anastasia Island Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Improvements500,000  
 TOTAL72,587,285  

All Appropriations Requests for the 2025 session can be found at this link: 2025 Session Appropriations Requests

You can filter by Leek to pull up just ones Senator Leek has submitted. You can click the request name and link through to the full request.

If you are finding value in these updates, please subscribe to my blog so you get notifications when I publish an update. Feel free to share with others who may find value in the content.

Posted in BOCC, Comprehensive Plan, St. Johns County

What’s Ahead at the March 18 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting?

Posted on by Beth Tate

While many County Residents are on Spring Break next week, our County Commissioners have some meaty topics on the agenda!

Consent Agenda Items

Did you know there is a Northeast Florida Coordinated Mobility Plan? Consent Agenda Item 3 is Approval of the Northeast Florida Coordinated Mobility Plan. Essentially, this provides funding through Federal Transit Administration grants to cover the Sunshine Bus Program.

Read more about it here: Northeast Florida Coordinated Mobility Plan Item

Regular Agenda Items

Item 1 on the Regular Agenda is Board Discussion of Land Development Code Article IV (Tree Ordinance.) There has been a lot of social media chatter about this one. Important to note, this is NOT a reading of a new Ordinance. That requires public notice and two formal hearings. Instead, this is a presentation to seek Board Guidance on updates to the code. There should not be any vote on an ordinance at this point.

At the March 4, 2025 BOCC Meeting, Commissioner Whitehurst made a motion to move the meeting to March 25 (one week later) because so many people would be away on Spring Break vacation March 18. Commissioners Joseph and Taylor felt very strongly that the discussion could not be moved to allow more people to attend.

Here’s the discussion item: Agenda Item 1

Reading the social media posts, one might think Tuesday is the day to vote on the ordinance, but it is not. Again, Ordinance changes have to be published and then go through 2 readings before being voted on. It will be interesting to see why there is such a push to have this discussion on March 18.

“Objective: Facilitate BCC discussion on the previously proposed 14 Tree Goals. Background: On October 17, 2023 BCC directed staff to bring a discussion item on current St. Johns County tree protection regulations in the Land Development Code (LDC) and to revisit the 14 Tree Goals in the context of the Comprehensive Plan amendment process. On December 17, 2024 BCC directed staff to again present the 14 Tree Goals for further discussion. Since December 17, 2024 staff has met with Chair Joseph twice to discuss the goals. Table 1 is a summary of the original 14 Goals with notation of considerations of changes from these 2 discussions.”

The requested outcome of the discussion on the 18th is:

 “Staff is seeking Board direction on either of the following: 1. Provide staff with direction to bring further analysis on one or more goals for further discussion at a future date TBD. 2. No further action.”

Here’s a link to the October 2023 discussion item, that may be important to review prior to reading the proposed changes: Analysis of Proposed 14 Points to Save Trees

Those who proposed the 14 points have been vocal that this will mostly impact developers as they develop new communities. Any of us who live in St. Johns County appreciate the beauty of the trees in our county and are in favor of preserving as many trees as we can! And those of us who are homeowners enjoy having trees in our landscaping for the beauty and shade provided. As homeowners, we also know the cost of maintaining trees, especially in new developments where trees are often planted too close to the foundation or lot lines and have to be managed in later years as root systems develop, not always in ways that are good!

There are some elements to the Land Development Code changes that would impact all homeowners, including new homebuyers. While it is easy to say, the developers will pay for this, as anyone who has built a home knows, these costs just get passed on to home buyers.

One proposed change that could have unintended consequences for homeowners is under Goal 5, More strongly discourage non-permitted tree removal. This is proposed to take place with increased fines for non-permitted tree removal.

Increase Fine (Goal 5)

  • Current: LDC 4.01.05.E.3 provides a tiered approach to fines based on the size of the tree, with fines ranging from $200 to $1,000 per tree removed. If unable to assess the number and size of Protected trees removed due to the site being completely cleared and graded, such violation shall be subject to a fine of $30,000 per acre.
  • Proposed: Trees removed illegally should be subject to a fine 10X the current fine to discourage such violations.
  • Background: Ordinance 2020-23 amended the LDC to add Sec. 4.01.05.E.3 fines for Protected tree removal without a permit.
  • Cost: The current fine ranges from $200 to $1,000 per tree or $30,000 per acre. Therefore, the proposed fines would range from $2,000 to $10,000 per tree or $300,000 per acre.

While this may be intended to stop developers and builders from removing too many trees, the unintended consequence is that as a homeowner, you are subject to tohese same fines if you remove a protected tree without a permit.

If you are a homeowner, or plan to be a homeowner in St. Johns County, it is worth your time to read through the proposal and make your thoughts known to our County Commissioners.

Agenda Item 2 is a discussion on Residential Entitlements Data. What is that? We often hear that there in the neighborhood of 60,000 homes that are entitled to be built but have not been built, therefore no new homes need to be approved until the Infrastructure catches up. The Northeast Florida Builders Association (NEFBA) has long said that the number is not correct. This discussion item is to explore the differences in what NEFBA believes is remaining to be built and what the County database shows is remaining to be built.

There was an article about this in the Jacksonville Business Journal March 10. I think this link is behind a paywall, Builders Want Accurate Lot Count so I’ll summarize.

The article by Stuart Korfhage, who has long covered St. Johns County, begins with this statement, “When it comes to planning for growth in St. Johns County, there are two main camps: those who want a major slowdown and those who want a practical path forward.”

The divide between those two camps is evident on our Commission and in our communities as the county continues to evolve and grow.

The difference in numbers is large – NEFBA says the number is really around 25,000. As an example from the article, Sawgrass is showing a remaining 5,700 residential units to be built that are highly unlikely to be built.

At the March 4 Commission Meeting, Commissioner Murphy asked Growth Management to come back to the Board with more data on the actual count that they can use for future planning.

NEFBA Analysis of Residential Entitlements

Agenda Item 3 is the 2050 Comprehensive Plan Update: Data and Analysis. An update was provided on February 18 and the Commissioners had questions. This is a response to those questions. Information is here: Comp Plan Discussion

Agenda Item 4 – World Golf Village Hall of Fame Discussion. Another follow up item from a previous meeting, materials are here, but very high level. World Golf Hall of Fame

Agenda Item 5 – Hearing to vacate a portion of an unopened 16’ wide alley right-of-way in Hastings Villa, in Hastings.

Agenda Item 6 – Rivertown Forest Phase 1 – this is the platting of 152 single family lots on 65.261 acres.

Check out the details here: Rivertown Plat

Agenda Item 7 – Silverleaf Market Loop Road – final plat approval for Silverleaf Market Loop road – no residential lots.

Details here: Silverleaf Market

Agenda Item 8 – County Attorney Advisory Review Committee Recruitment Update – status update on selection of the County Attorney. Recommended candidates for the final section by the Board and details about the special meeting scheduled for March 25.

The Jax Daily Record reports on the 3 finalists here: County Attorney Recommendations

The finalists are, Rich Kommando (current interim attorney), Brad Bulthius (former assistant county attorney) and Michael Rodriguez (attorney in Boca Raton.)

Agenda Item 9 – Appointments to the Affordabe Housing Advisory Committee (AHAC) – Due to resignation and end of term for 2 members, 3 candidates are under consideration. CVs and recommendations here: AHAC Appointments

If you are finding value in these updates, please subscribe to my blog so you get notifications when I publish an update. Feel free to share with others who may find value in the content.

Posted in Florida Legislature, St. Johns County

St. Johns County State Legislative Appropriations Requests

Posted on by Beth Tate

EDITED: I HAD INADVERTENTLY PICKED UP THE WRONG LINE ITEM FOR KENALL REQUESTS 2285 AND 2136. THE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN ADJUSTED BELOW.

The 2025  Florida Legislative Session opened on Tuesday, March 4. In my last update I outlined the process that is generally used as County’s request Legislative Funding. I used the very important request for funding to address the traffic issues at I-95 and International Golf Parkway as an example of the process.

This week I’ll provide an update on that specific request and some of the questions asked, as well as sharing a list of all Appropriations requests I could locate for St. Johns County from our Florida Representatives.

A later post this week will include Appropriations Requests from Senator Tom Leek.

Update on the I-95 Interchange Improvements at International Golf Parkway

The Improvements for the I-95 Interchange at International Golf Parkway are certainly much needed. In my last post I had noted some differences between what the County had submitted and what was in the Appropriations request. I have found a few answers that I will share here.

  • Representative Kendall had continued to work with FDOT representatives after the initial reviews and a lower cost estimate for the county was submitted, thus explaining the reduction from 6,000,000 to 3,500,000 and an increase for the Federal Funding from 32,000,000 to 34,000,000.
  • It appears there may have been a gap in communication of the numbers back to the county and that has now been addressed.
  • In the Attestation Form submitted by the County on March 5, some caveats were added that addresses some differences.
    • The Lobbyist name was changed to Joe Mobley
    • A statement was added, “If state and federal funds are appropriated, the County is prepared to provide $2 million as a local match.”
    • Study was changed from Yes to No – FDOT has directed $500,000 to PD&E, which will start this spring or early summer.

As of Friday, March 7, there was no indication that Congressman Rutherford had submitted a request for the needed Federal funds. Important to note that as a federally funded Interstate, that is a key element in getting this project approved. A question to be asked is, how does this fit into the I-95 widening project? (planned for 2026 – 2027.) And another question, will the state approve funding for this project if there are no federal funds available? We will continue to follow along!

 Here is a list of the Appropriations requests I was able to identify as being specific to St. Johns County. Representatives Sapp and Greco have districts that cover multiple counties. I tried to identify as closely as possible which of their requests would impact only St. Johns County.

From Representative Kim Kendall

NumberRequestAmountAttestation Received
2285First Coast Technical College – Firefighter & EMT Program Enhancement Expansion760,285Yes  
2136St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office Re-Entry/Co-Responder Program300,000Yes
1857Switzerland Vocational & Community Center70,000Yes  
1847First Coast Technical College – Industrial Agriculture Program Enhancements650,000Yes
1722St. Augustine Airport Student Maintenance Training Program250,000Yes
1499I-95 Interchange Improvements at International Golf Parkway3,500,000Yes, with caveats
Total 5,530,285 

From Representative Sam Greco

2890The Institue for Classical Education at Flagler College1,500,000Yes
2889World War II Themed Education and Exhibit Building500,000 
2886St. Augustine Volusia Woods Extension – West Augustine Septic-to-Sewer Project1,100,000Yes  
2125The Arc of the St. Johns – Transportation Facility750,000Yes
2110St. August land Purchase engineering, Design and Construction of Resilient Structure on Anastasia Blvd2,500,000Yes  
2100St. Augustine Youth Services – intensive In-Home Therapeutic Programs450,000Yes
2098EPIC Behavioral Healthcare – St. Johns EPIC Recovery Center Women’s Substance Abuse Residential750,000Yes
2095St. Augustine Beach Stormwater System Resiliency1,910,000Yes
2094Historic Markland House Restoration2,000,000Yes
2092St. Augustine Teen Center Boys & Girls Club400,000Yes
2083EPIC Community Services – Sober Living Transitional Housing Project Expansion2,500,000Yes
2082St. Johns County Intracoastal Flood Management8,000,000Yes
2081K9s for Warriors – Veterans Suicide Prevention Program1,500,000Yes
2080St. Johns County Council on Aging Shelter & Shade Project572,000Yes
Total 24,432,000 

From Representative Judson Sapp

2223HorsePlay Therapy Center – Equine – Assisted Regional Rehabilitation Center1,700,000Yes
2184St. Johns County Police Athletic League (PAL) Diamond of Dreams1,000,000Yes
2177St. Johns River State College – Renovation of Classroom Building and Workforce Training Center Addition18,773,926Yes
2172District 23 Regional Medical Examiner’s Office6,000,000Yes
Total 27,473,926 
    

To do your own research and read the details of each request, here is a link to Search Appropriations: 2025 Appropriations Requests

Learn more about each Representative, including how to contact and share your opinions on any of these requests, at the links below. At each link you will find an email form as well as phone number for the Representatives. You will also find a link to all of their Sponsored Bills. More to come on some of those bills as the Session progresses.

Representative Greco: Link for Representative Sam Greco

Representative Kendall: Link to Representative Kim Kendall

Representative Sapp: Link for Representative Judson Sapp

If you are finding value in these updates, please subscribe to my blog so you get notifications when I publish an update. Feel free to share with others who may find value in the content.

Posted in BOCC, St. Johns County

Florida Legislative Appropriations for St. Johns County

Posted on by Beth Tate

The Regular Session of the 2025 Florida Legislative Session opens March 4 so it’s time to start paying attention to bills important to St. Johns County!

Yes, there have been special sessions to address specific topics (i.e., Immigration) but the full regular session doesn’t open until March.

While there will be many bills to follow through the Legislative Session, one of the important items for St. Johns County residents is, what funding will we receive this year for local projects?

At the conclusion of session each year, we like to hear how much money our Legislative Delegation was able to secure for local projects. For example, in June of 2024, the County announced that for the 2025 fiscal year we had received $26.4 Million in state funding for 5 local projects. But, have you ever wondered how that happens?

I thought I’d share the process using a real life example of a project important to any of us who utilize the World Commerce Center corridor. Let’s follow it through!

Background

For St. Johns County, preparation for the session usually begins in December. That’s when the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meet to review and vote on the Legislative Priorities for the upcoming session.

These priorities come in from a variety of sources but ultimately are consolidated and presented to the Commissioner’s for a vote. The usual process in St. Johns County has County staff preparing a list of priorities and presenting to the Commissioners for their review and approval. That list is created from recommendations not just from county departments but from representatives of the community on various committees.

The Board of County Commissioners votes on the Priorities and the next step is to present to our Legislative Delegation when they meet in the County. Timing of the Delegation meeting varies. If Session is beginning in January (during election years) the Delegation meets in December. In 2025 Session begins in March so the Delegation meeting was scheduled for January.

This year the process for approving the County’s priorities worked a little differently. In an unusual move, at the first Board of County Commissioner’s meeting after the general election, newly appointed BOCC Chair Krista Joseph invited Representative Kim Kendall’s delegate, Tatum Wang, to read a letter from Representative Kendall with a recommendation for one of our Transportation Priorities.

Proposed Solution

During her campaign, Representative Kendall had promised a solution to the growing traffic issues at the I-95 and International Golf Parkway exchange. She worked hard to find a solution and her proposal was presented at the November 19 meeting by Ms. Wang along with a request to include this solution in the County’s Legislative Priorities for 2025 as part of the Top 5 Transportation Priorities

There was some discussion about how this may impact the existing top 5 Transportation Priorities for the County. In particular, Commissioner Whitehurst was concerned that we not do anything to impact currently approved and funded projects in the Top 5 by bumping with a project that is not yet funded. Ms. Wang countered that the project was already there, and just needed a change request. After some discussion about the confusion, the County Administrator confirmed that the project is NOT in the Top 5 priorities.

 After the confusing discussion about whether it was already in the priorities or not, consensus was reached have staff bring back more information in the Legislative Priorities discussion in December.

You can watch that discussion here: Initial Presentation

Legislative Priorities

Moving forward to the December Legislative Priorities discussion December 17, our County Director of Transportation, Dick D’Souza, presented the Transportation Priorities. He was joined by an FDOT representative who provided some context about the funding of projects. While there are funded projects that impacted International Golf Parkway, the interchange at I-95 was not on the list of funded projects.  He also clarified that normally Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) funding is not used for Interstate projects as there is other funding available for those type of projects. That created the opportunity for Representative Kendall to appear in person to present her proposal on the changes to the I-95 and International Golf Parkway interchange.

This was another unusual move on this project. We don’t normally see our Representatives involved in the Prioritization of items they will then be requesting on our behalf.

Representative Kendall’s proposal involves a change order to a $4 Million project to address the light at Buc-ee’s and replace it with a $40 Million dollar project to re-do the interchange. Her proposal involved obtaining Federal funding to support the project.

She had discussed this with Representative John Rutherford who advised this is typically an 80/20 split which translates into a Federal request for $32 Million and a State request for $8 Million. (Remember those numbers.)

Representative Kendall was asking the Commission for a “heavy lift” with a letter of support for this project and to shift the existing county transportation priorities to make this happen.

During commissioner’s discussion after presentation of the transportation priority list, it was made clear that the item must be on the top 5 priority list to be considered for the appropriations. Eventually it was added as item 6, that could be considered item 5.

The proposed change includes adding a new entry ramp from the east, for traffic headed south (a change from having to turn left onto the southbound ramp) and creating an extended exit ramp from the north, so traffic would cross IGP and turn onto World Commerce Parkway to access Buc-ee’s and Costco.

Proposal from Representative Kendall – author added highlights of new traffic pattern.

You can watch the presentation here: Priority Presentation

Legislative Delegation

On January 10, the Legislative Delegation for St. Johns County convened, and Chair Joseph formally presented the County priority list. Commissioner Taylor took the opportunity to address the specific request for the funding for I-95 and International Golf Parkway.

That started the ball rolling for Representative Kendall to file a request for the Appropriations of funding for the project.

Appropriations Process

There is a defined process for submitting an Appropriations request. All the steps can be found here: Florida House Appropriations Process

There are rules defined about how to submit, what can be submitted, and guidance on how to complete the forms. All appropriation requests for this session were to be submitted by 5:00 February 14 so we can now see all the submissions. You can search the list here: List of Submitted Appropriations Projects

These steps even include an Attestation by the Representative (under penalty of perjury) that all the information submitted is correct! A very thorough process!

But let’s keep following our I-95/IGP interchange project through the pipeline!

The County Government Affairs department works with our Legislative Delegation to prepare the request for appropriations.

Our County staff presented a request for $6 Million for a Fixed Capital Outlay.

The total cost of the project was noted as $40 Million with $6 Million coming from the State and $32 Million coming from Federal funds (an 80/15 split) and local funds of $2 Million. The $2 Million was noted that it was not guaranteed but that if state and federal funding were received, the county would provide $2 Million as a local match. (Remember Representative Kendall had talked about an 80/20 split of $32 Million Federal funding and $8 Million State funding.)

The County noted that the Construction/Renovation/Land/Planning Engineering costs for the project are $8 Million.

The request also noted that a study had not yet been done but that FDOT has directed funds to a study anticipated to start in the spring of 2025.

When we look at the Appropriations request submitted, we see there were some changes from what was submitted by the County.

The request for a Fixed Capital Outlay is now $3.5 Million, not $6 Million.

The Total Cost of the Project is the same, $40 Million but the request on file indicates that the split of funds is $34 Million from Federal funding and $3.5 Million from State funding (an 85/8.8 split) and an additional $500,000 from the State (not included in this appropriation.) The $2 Million from the County is indicated as Guaranteed in writing. The statement that the County would provide $2 Million in a local match if the Federal and State funding was received was not in the filed request.

The question of a study to confirm the need for the project is answered as “yes” with the caveat that funding for the study has been secured.

In the submitted request, the Construction/Renovation/Land/Planning Engineering costs for the project are $3.5 Million.

Reconciling the Differences

This table summarizes the financial changes to the submission

Line ItemCounty RequestSubmitted Request
Fixed Capital Outlay6,000,0003,500,000
Total Operations & Fixed Capital Outlay6,000,0003,500,000
Amount Requested from the State6,000,0003,500,000
Federal32,000,00034,000,000
State0500,000
Local2,000,0002,000,000
Total40,000,00040,000,000
Construction/Renovation/Land/Planning Engineering8,000,0003,500,000

Other changes in what was submitted:

  • Name of the lobbyist representing the County in this request was submitted as Joe Mobley but is presented in the request as Martin Florentino.
  • $2 Million from the County is noted as guaranteed in writing, not that it is contingent upon receipt of Federal and State funding.
  • Rather than confirming the study has not been completed, the submission checks the “yes” box for the study having been complete but in the explanation states that the study will be included in the future.

A check of the Federal Appropriations website indicates Congressman Rutherford has not yet submitted a request for this funding.

While it is ultimately the responsibility of the submitter to attest to the accuracy of what was submitted, there are several open questions about this funding request.

  • Why were the amounts changed?
  • Who provided the changed numbers?
  • Was anyone at the County involved in the changes prior to the submission?
  • Can the Construction/Renovation/Land/Planning Engineering be done for the reduced amount of 3.5 million rather than the 8 million requested?
  • Where is the additional $500,00 in state funding derived?
  • Has Congressman Rutherford been consulted and agreed to the new number for Federal Funding?
  • When will Congressman Rutherford be submitting a request for the Federal Funds?
  • What happens if the State funds are approved but the Federal Funds are not approved?
  • Is it accurate to say that the need for the funds has been documented by a 3rd party study, if the study hasn’t been concluded (or even started?)
  • Would the funds be in jeopardy if the study has not been completed?

We’ll keep following this important funding request through the process and keep you updated as we learn more!

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