St. Johns County – Page 5

Plan for the December 3 St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Beth Tate

Tuesday will be the first meeting following the new format announced by Commissioner Joseph.

The new format is:

Call to Order by Chair
Roll Call by the Clerk of the Court
Invocation
Pledge of Allegiance
Deletions to Consent Agenda
Approval of Consent Agenda
Additions/Deletions to Regular Agenda
Approval of Regular Agenda
Public Comment

The stated goal is to get to the business of the county more quickly. Legislative updates and Public Safety updates will now be available via Press Releases and Social Media posts. That means you will need to follow the St. Johns County social media pages and check them regularly in order to get these updates going forward. Or, you can request to get the Press Releases sent to you or check the St. Johns County website for their Press Releases.

Here is the link for Press Releases: St. Johns County News

Another change is the movement of Public Comment from a time certain 11:30 and limited to 30 minutes to the beginning of the meeting. Commissioner Joseph stated at the November meeting that public comment would not be limited. This could be lengthy as sometimes there have been 25 or more people lined up to speak for public comment. If limited to 3 minutes per person, Public Comment could go over an hour before getting to the business of the county.

First on the Regular Agenda is “American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Appropriation.” St. Johns county has received ARPA funding and it must be committed/allocated by 12/31/2024. This is a request to reallocate the final funds that will not be expended by the deadline. Materials are here: Agenda item 1

Item 2 on the Agenda is the “2025-2028 St. Johns County Funding and Advocacy Roadmap.”

This is the list to prioritize funding requests from state and federal resources. Included in the list are:

Widening of the 16/16A corridor
Black History Museum
Flood Mitigation Project
Florida Preparedness and Response Center
District 23 Medical Examiner’s Office
Guana Flood Control

Check out the full presentation here to reach the full list: Funding and Advocacy Roadmap

Agenda Item 3 is the 2025 Roadway and Transportation List of Priority Projects.

The full list can be found in the presentation materials here: Agenda Item 3

The Roadway Projects are here:

Agenda item 4 is a Change Order to an existing Master Contract with England Thims & Miller, Inc., for the Design of Intersection & Widening Improvements for State Road
(SR) 16 at International Golf Parkway (IGP) to San Giacomo Road.

More details on the Change Order can be read here: Agenda Item 4

Agenda Item 5 is Silverleaf DRI Road Impact Fee Agreement Modification. Impact fee modifications are often misunderstood and anything related to Silverleaf seems to be a lightning rod for public comment.

Details about this modification are here: Agenda Item 5

Agenda item 6 – This is an item related to the Tourism Development Council and awarding a contract for Destination Marketing Management Services.

For background, at the November 18 meeting of the Tourist Development Council, the TDC voted unanimously to forego presentations, as elected by the evaluation
committee, and to proceed with award based upon the evaluation scores from the submitted Proposals. The TDC is an advisory council of the BOCC and their vote is provided as a recommendation for BOCC consideration. In the RFP, there was an option conduct Presentations as a second stage of evaluation, as determined by the Evaluation Committee. The majority of the Evaluation Committee agreed that conducting presentations as a second stage of evaluation was appropriate to
make the final decision. The Presentations and Evaluation Meeting has been scheduled for December 6, 2024.

The Board has two options: 1. Vote to forego presentations and proceed with award based upon the scored Proposals as recommended by the TDC; or 2. Vote to continue with the presentations and then proceed with award based upon the total scores in accordance with the RFP.

Details and the scorecards are in this link: Agenda Item 6

Watch the video of the Tourism Development Council meeting here: 11/18 TDC Meeting

Agenda Item 7 is as Small Scale Comprehensive Plan Amendment for Colee Cove Hamlet. This is to change the Future Land use of approximately 45 acres from Rural Silviculture to Res A for the purpose of building 11 residential units.

Details are at this link: Agenda Item 7

Agenda Item 8 is the Summer Haven Managed Retreat Grant Agreement.

“During the 2023 Legislative session, the County sought and was awarded funding for the Summer Haven Managed Retreat Project (the “Project”). The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) has grant funds appropriated in the amount of $5,000,000 under Legislative Line-Item Grant (FY23/24) Project L2313 – St. Johns County Summer Haven Managed Retreat. The $5,000,000 is recognized and appropriated in the FY25 Land Management budget. The grant agreement requires a one-to-one match and staff is pursuing opportunities to fund the match through grant funding. For this item, staff is requesting approval to execute and submit the grant
agreement to FDEP while the County continues to pursue match funding. If grant funding is not available, staff will bring back an item for Board consideration to appropriate local funding as properties become available for purchase and/or through the Fiscal Year 2026 budget process.”

Details are here: Agenda Item 8

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St. Johns County Veteran’s Council

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Beth Tate

What’s going on between the Veteran’s Council and the new BOCC Chair?

Since the November 19 Board of County Commissioner’s Meeting there has been news coverage and a press release about changes the new Chair of the Board of County Commissioner’s, Krista Joseph, has made to the agenda. Included in this coverage has been discussion about how the leading of the Pledge of Allegiance has been and will be conducted at the Board meetings.

Read the coverage in the St. Augustine Record here: Veteran’s Council Upset

Chair Joseph has countered that narrative with a press release from the county stating that the Veteran’s Council will continue to be involved in leading the pledge, and that she has expanded the number of veterans who will be involved to include residents and county employees.

Read the Press Release here: Chair Joseph Press Release

What’s going on here?

I reached out to William Dudley, (LTC, USAF Retired) Chair of the St. Johns County Veteran’s Council for more information.

Col. Dudley shared that the Veteran’s Council has a long standing tradition of partnering with the BOCC to lead the Pledge. The Veteran’s Council represents 28 different veterans organizations and 23,000 veterans. They already include residents and county employees in the roster of individuals leading the Pledge. There is no extension of the participation to residents and county employees – this is already in place.

The Press Release from the County seems to indicate that the disagreement has been resolved. Col. Dudley has a different perception.

Col. Dudley has been reaching out to individuals and heads of organizations asking for a show of support for the Veteran’s Council by emailing or calling the County Commissioners with a request to remove Commissioner Joseph from the Chairmanship.

He is also asking for support from County residents to express their disapproval of this action by Commissioner Joseph and to express their concern about her qualifications to lead the Commission.

That’s a pretty strong indication that the disagreement between Chair Joseph and the Veteran’s Council is on-going.

Learn more about the work of the Veteran’s Council in St. Johns County at this link: Veteran’s Council Website

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Summary of the November 19 St. Johns County BOCC Meeting

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Beth Tate

The Reorganizational meeting began with the swearing in of returning Commissioner Christian Whitehurst and was followed by the swearing in of new Commissioners Clay Murphy and Ann Taylor.

Following the swearing in ceremony was the election of the new Chair and Vice Chair. Commissioner Taylor nominated Commissioner Joseph to be Chair. She was elected with a 3-2 vote, Whitehurst and Arnold voting no.

Commissioner Joseph then nominated Commissioner Murphy for Vice-Chair and that passed with a 3-2 vote, Whitehurst and Arnold voting no.

After a short recess the regular meeting was convened with Commissioner Joseph now serving as Chair.

Public Safety Update

In what now appears to be our last Public Safety Update, the Sheriff’s department reminded the public of warnings about many scams that are proliferating during the Holiday season. They provided some general guidelines about how to protect yourself against scams, the most basic being, don’t trust strangers offering to separate you from your money.

Request from Representative Kim Kendall

Tatum Wang from Representative Kim Kendall’s office read a letter from Representative Kendall asking the Board to submit a change order to revise planned road improvements for the World Golf Village area.

Commissioner Whitehurst, who has been our county representative on the North Florida TPO indicated support for the concept and shared that he has raised this topic with the TPO in the past. He wanted to make sure that if we move forward with this change order that it not bump one of our current 5 top priority projects that are already funded and under construction.

Ms. Wang countered that this is already in the top 5 and is just a change order. Commissioner Joseph sought confirmation and County Administrator Andrews stated that this is NOT currently in the top 5.

After more discussion staff was asked to review and come back to the board with the impacts of the project at a December meeting for the Board to make a more informed decision.

You can watch the presentation of the letter and the discussion here: Road Improvements Discussion

Consent Agenda

Item 4 was pulled from the Consent Agenda by the County Attorney – not yet ready for presentation.

Commissioner Murphy asked to move Consent Agenda Item 5 to the Regular agenda. he wanted to have an explanation of the item presented so his constituents who were concerned about this item could gain a better understanding of Impact Credit Fees.

Commissioner Joseph wanted to “lay on the table” numbers 5, 6, and 13 for future meetings.

During public comment on the Consent Agenda items, Attorney Ellen Avery-Smith, who represents the developers for items 5 and 6, pointed out that under current procedures, it is improper to delay these items to a future meeting. She noted that the money has already been paid to St. Johns County and asked the County to not violat the law by approving this motion.

Some residents were defensive about the removal of the items from the Consent Agenda. What they seemed to have missed was that the motion was NOT to move the items to the Regular Agenda for discussion but for a postponement of the items to a later meeting. Had the motion been to bring them on to the Regular Agenda, there would have been no objection. Instead, they were motioned to move to a later meeting, without a date indicated.

Commissioner Joseph modified her motion to delay Items 5 and 14 to a future date and to put Item 6 on the Dec. 3 agenda and that passed 5-0.

Will there be a lawsuit filed by the developers for the indefinite delay?

Regular Agenda

Agenda Item 1 – The first item, the Accessibility Needs for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.

This was a presentation only with no vote. There will be future work to assess how to bring this much needed system to St. Johns County.

“Presentation by Calvin Britt of SeaMe Systems. Currently, there are no emergency alert notification systems on beaches in Florida that provide immediate and on-demand information to the deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) community at public beaches during an emergency evacuation. Discuss information about the accessibility tools in public spaces such as beaches, public parks, etc. that may assist the deaf and hard-of-hearing community in the event of an emergency. Highlight a system similar to the Beach Emergency Evacuation Lights System (BEELS) at public beaches. BEELS is an emergency alert notification system that incorporates programmed audio loudspeakers and LED lights that provide real-time alerts on beaches for the general public and the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. The system alerts the public of shark sightings, lightning, rip currents, etc.”

Watch the presentation here: Agenda Item 1

Agenda Items 2 & 3 were for the St. Augustine Marketplace. This is a Small Scale Comp Plan Amendment and a Rezoning request. The requested change is from Res-B to Mixed Use. This is for 5 acres of land located southwest of the I-95 and SR 207 intersection.

Links to the materials for items 2 & 3 are here: Agenda Item 2 – CPA and Agenda Item 3 – Rezoning

This item was approved 5-0

Commissioner’s Comments

Commissioner Comments were early on the agenda because it was not yet 11:30.

Commissioner Whitehurst extended congratulations to Commissioner Taylor and to Commissioner Murphy for being elected Vice-Chair and Commissioner Joseph as Chair.

Commissioner Arnold also extended congratulations. She raised the idea of forming an advisory board of farmers because of the potential development requests for agricultural land that may be coming forward in the future. All Commissioners agreed there was value in this idea and opened the floor for public comment.

During public comment concerns were raised about the potential make-up of such a board and there was a call for a balance, with more than just farmer’s on the board. Consensus was gained to move the idea forward. I think that means staff will provide recommendations but it wasn’t clear.

Commissioner Taylor congratulated Commissioner Joseph for her Chair appointment and Commissioner Murphy as Vice-Chair. She raised the idea of having evening meetings of the commission. There was consensus to explore the idea. She also asked to get moving on hiring a permanent County Attorney.

Commissioner Murphy congratulated all the new Commissioners sworn in Tuesday morning and extended thanks to Roy Alaimo for his stewardship of District 3 during his tenure on the commission.

Commissioner Joseph thanked Mr. Kommando for his work and said she would like to move forward with the hiring of a new attorney. There was consensus to begin that process.

She also reset the beginning of the agenda for meetings going forward. It will now be:

Invocation
Pledge of Allegiance
Consent Agenda Additions/Deletions
Regular Agenda Approval
Public Comment with no limit on how long public comment will proceed – no longer capped at 30 minutes. No public comment at the end of the agenda

The Minutes of the Meetings will now be more detailed with comments on who spoke and what they spoke about.

She thanked the citizens for their trust in her to do the job.

Public Comment

You can watch Public Comment here: Public Comment

Post Script

Since last week’s meeting, new Chair Joseph is busy realigning the Commission meetings and some of her changes are sparking criticism.

Action News Jax reported that all proclamations are currently on pause, the St. Johns Veterans Council will no longer lead the pledge, and Rich Kommando will be replaced as County Attorney.

While it is no surprise that the interim County Attorney would be replaced, it is puzzling about the change for leading the Pledge of Allegiance. Commissioner Joseph stated she was extending this to employees of the county who are veterans.

In the First Coast News coverage it was disclosed they are removing Public Safety Updates and Infrastructure updates. The Infrastructure updates have been some of the most popular updates over the past several months as residents have had more transparency into what projects are in the works. Let’s hope that does not come to pass!

Check the First Coast News coverage here: First Coast News Coverage

The St. Augustine Record reports that the elimination of the Veteran’s Council leading the pledge is not sitting well with the Veteran’s Council. It also raises a question. Commissioner Joseph says that the Pledge will be lead by County Employees who are veterans and gold star families. But it is also noted that county resident (and former candidate for Commissioner) Chuck Labanowski will be leading the Pledge on December 17th.

You can read the St. Augustine Record coverage here: St. Augustine Record

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BOCC, St. Johns County

Back to the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioner’s Meetings!

Posted on November 17, 2024 by Beth Tate

What’s happening at the November 19 meeting?

During the past campaign season it was very difficult to report on the Commissioner’s Meetings. So many candidates were taking up Public Comment time using their 3 minutes to campaign.

Now the campaigns are over and the transition to the new Board happens next week. Perhaps that is why this is one of the shortest Agendas I recall seeing in the 2 years I’ve been reporting on the meetings.

There are technically 2 meetings next Tuesday. The first is the Special Reorganizational Meeting where the newly elected Commissioners will be sworn in.

Returning Commissioner Christian Whitehurst will be sworn in by Judge Lauren Blocker.

Newly elected Commissioners Clay Murphy and Ann Taylor will be sworn in by Judge Charles Tinlin.

Following the swearing in will be a review of the nominating procedures for the Chair and Vice-Chair. And then the nominations begin.

Historically, the Vice Chair from the previous year is nominated to be Chair. That year as Vice-Chair is a bit of a training ground for them. However, former Commissioner Roy Alaimo was the Vice Chair and he is being replaced by newly elected Commissioner Clay Murphy.

Who will be the new Chair? The three returning Commissioners are Joseph, Arnold, and Whitehurst. Joseph has not been Chair or Vice-Chair in her 2 years on the Commission. Will she be nominated for one of those roles this year? Will a freshmen Commissioner be nominated for one of the roles?

Watch on Tuesday to find out.

Following the reorganizing meeting, the Regular Meeting will be called to order. And this is where we have the very short agenda.

Consent Agenda

After the Public Safety update and the Constitutional Officer’s update, the Consent Agenda will be voted on. There are 29 items on the Consent Agenda. Rumor has it that some of the new Commissioner’s want to do away with the Consent Agenda. Does that mean these 29 items would all have to be heard and voted on individually?

Regular Agenda

There are only 3 items on the Regular Agenda and 2 of those will be heard together.

Agenda Item 1 – The first item is Accessibility Needs for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community.

Read the presentation here: Agenda item 1

Agenda Items 2 & 3 are for the St. Augustine Marketplace. There is a Small Scale Comp Plan Amendment and a Rezoning request. The requested change is from Res-B to Mixed Use. This is for 5 acres of land located southwest of the I-95 and SR 207 intersection.

Links to the materials for items 2 & 3 are here: Agenda Item 2 – CPA and Agenda Item 3 – Rezoning

There is still time certain Public Comment at 11:30 or the conclusion of the meeting, whichever comes first. With such a short agenda, there may only be one Public Comment session.

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BOCC, St. Johns County

Grand Oaks – Finally Resolved?

Posted on September 14, 2024 by Beth Tate

St. Johns County can celebrate a big victory this week! There is finally a conclusion in sight for the Grand Oaks legal battle.

This is an issue that has been lurking out there for YEARS! But most recently, we can look back at the February 21, 2023 County Commissioner’s Meeting as a reminder for why it is important to have forward thinking County Commissioner’s on the dais.

Here’s a link to my summary of the February 21, 2023 Commissioner’s Meeting, where Grand Oaks first came to the attention of those residents not directly impacted by the problems. February 21, 2023 Meeting Summary.

Scroll down to Agenda Item 2 in the summary and you’ll see where Southeast Development Partners were requesting to revise the mitigation and Proportionate Fair Share Agreements from July of 2018 when the Grand Oaks PUD was approved. The agreement included a requirement to construct the 4-lane widening of SR 16 from San Giacomo to the eastern (main) entrance to the Grand Oaks development, approximately 3.1 miles.

Now, 5 years later, the developer was unhappy with the cost to construct that widening and wanted some relief from the county. They had completed the construction of the FIRST 442 of the 99 approved homes and were ready to move forward with the platting of the remainder of the homes. That couldn’t happen until they had completed the required road widening.

Up until 2023, the only people paying attendtion to what this developer was doing were the Grand Oaks residents, who were living in a partially built development and dealing with the traffic problems on SR 16. And, of course, the residents who had to commute on SR 16. The rest of the county was unaware of what was happening in that development.

Learn more about Grand Oaks at this link: Grand Oaks Description/Location

But, in February of 2023, those of us who pay attention to what our County Commissioners are doing became VERY aware as the developer tried to avoid paying for the widening of the road and push it back on the county.

Our County Commissioners didn’t allow it. They voted to find the Developer in default and denied the platting for the remaining homes. In addition, they voted to transfer the $5 Million that had been held in escrow to the Florida Department of Transportation to fund the design work for the widening of SR 16.

A month after that decision, the developer filed suit against the county in Circuit Court. The County countersued and thus began the legal battle that played out in the courts since that time.

As reported in the Jacksonville Business Journal on September 14, a Federal Judge has ruled in the County’s favor. JAX Biz Journal ariticle (behind a paywall.)

County Commission Chair Sarah Arnold was quoted in the article as saying, “Friday’s Federal Court ruling reaffirmed what our Board has believed from the start: in St. Johns County, promises made to our residents are promises that must be kept,” County Commission Chair Sarah Arnold said in a statement. “This developer’s attempt to change the terms years later was a betrayal of trust, and we stood firm for our community.

“Let this serve as a clear message to developer or any one-else coming before our Board: When you commit to something for the people of St. Johns County, we expect you to honor it. We will always hold you accountable if you break your word, because our residents deserve nothing less.”

This is an important win for the County. This sends a clear message to the development community that they will be held to their commitments.

And it should be a message to our residents that our County Commissioners will hold developers accountable.

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