001Thank you for being here. We also have Vice Mayor Theo Washington. Thank you, sir, for being here. Councilwoman I'm sorry Councilwoman Wanda Randolph. Thank you for being here. And Councilman Terrace Mark, thank you, sir. We appreciate if I missed any elected officials in the audience. I apologize. you can go ahead and stand up and throw something at me. All right. Wonderful. Yes. Thomas Mack. Taurus. Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that's what I said. You said I said Taurus. Yes. Yeah. Thank you though, member. Thank you. It Hey, if anybody can mess up a name, if you've ever watched many of these meetings, I barely get through one where I don't. So, I appreciate the correction. I happen to have gotten this one right. I'm kind of proud of that. Again, sir, really glad to have
002all of you here. I am going to I'm going to turn it over to the superintendent to start with some comments. Dr. Vasquez. thank you, Madam Chair. We are here this afternoon as a followup to the work session that was held June 17th where we began conversations around the master plan for the town of Eatenville. At the end of the work session, the board asked that representatives from OCPS and the town of Eatenville get together to see how we might be able to move forward. And so at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mayor Angie Gardner, who will begin the presentation. Thank you. And as the mayor's coming forward, I also want to acknowledge and recognize they'll be part of our presentation. The president and CEO of Dr. Phillips Charities, Ken Robinson.
003Ken, we're very pleased to have you as well as the chairman of the board of Dr. Phillips charity. Terry Prather, a longtime figure in this community who's been outstanding in everything he's done. I can say that about both men. With that, mayor, you're recognized. Oh, I will hang on. I have this thing that's supposed to work. it rarely does. Maybe somebody in the back. Yes. Trying to say Mayor Gardner and I share something. Not very often. Yes. Yes. Chair Jacobs, board members, Superintendent Vasquez, council members, as well as those in attendance, thank you for your consideration of this matter. as you stated that we were here before and we did review the master plan and when I set before you, it was in support of OCPS transferring the land through a lease purchase or even
004land trust. That was and would be the big win for the town. However, that would not yield the best results for the town. And here's why my thought process changed. Number one, if it was a lease option and if that option was aligned with the deal that's currently on the table, the town of Eatenville, when you think about the expertise, the staffing involved, the funding involved way past the agreement, it would be a challenge for the town. When you think about the land trust option, which I've always harped, land trust, land trust, land trust. That way, it put the land between OCPS and between the town somewhere in the middle. But that still required a land trust board. It still required staffing. It still required expertise and it still required funding. And in all honesty,
005even though I do, regardless of what anyone may think, I do have I do believe in my town, but I know right now that would be difficult for us to handle. And then we think about the option of this land being bidded out once more. It's been bidded out before and it did not work. the town has even had an had the ability to come up with a plan and nothing happened with that and I think that was around 2015. So all avenues I thought about but then when the opportunity that now is before you when that opportunity came and Dr. Phillips charities stepped up and said hey we can step in we can fund your master plan. And I know there's some some conversation about it's not our master plan, but it but it
006has to be your master plan because our citizens were a part of that. And that was 18 months and it was open to stakeholders, residents, anyone that wished to provide and be a part of the planning for the future of the town, not just the Hungerford land. And I think that's important and their work cannot be in vain because if that is the case, that's what's what has always been happening. residents have stated what they wanted and nothing came about that work. So for me, the option it was clear. It's it's hard to stand by yourself on a topic, but when it's right, it's right. I have no other, like I said, the big win would be that the town gets the land, but that would not be the best thing to happen right now.
007So, I still am for and based on all the information now, and I understand that there are some people that are wholeheartedly against it. But if we truly want what's best for our town, if we truly want to move forward, if we want retail, if we want jobs, if we want an early learning center, if we want those things that we have stated that we have wanted, this is a pretty great opportunity that we should not pass by this moment. So, I want to thank you and I also want to apologize again to the council. I did it on the special meeting because there is no disrespect intended but as mayor is the administrative portion of this was theou thatou is done behind closed doors is done through conversations and that's on anyou for the
008town and then it's presented to the council so I know it looked funny but it really wasn't but I apologize for any disrespect that there appeared to be but I als also want to apologize for any distractions caused and I and I apologize to you o the board members if there was any distractions you know maybe didn't it didn't have to be so dramatic but that was exciting news and we needed to get it out and that excitement has not gone away and I feel very good about this and my vote that I'm asking you for is a yes on this thank Thank you, mayor. Oh, yes. Be down. It doesn't have to go very high for me, but Oh, that's good. Better. Much better. Thank you so much. Well, I'm Terry Prather. I have
009the honor of being chairperson for Dr. Phillips Charities. And I'm Ken Robinson. I get to serve as president and CEO of Dr. Dr. Phillips Charities saying be on behalf of Dr. Phillips, we want to thank all of y'all for your attention on this matter. Chair Jacobs, thank you. All of the board members and Superintendent Basquez, thank you for your efforts involved in this. And Mayor Gardner speaking really I listen to her and that's a true servant to the community. I mean, she really believes in the community and I can assure you she put Terry and I through the ringer in these discussions and worked very hard to make sure the town was properly represented in this. I think all of you know that Dr. Phillips Charities is a nonprofit. We're a grantmaking organization and all
010of our money comes from the Phillips family. Dr. Phillips, his wife Dela, and Howard Phillips. over the years the earnings from the real estate and investments is what we use to give back to the community and 99% of that money stays in Orange County. It stays for health care, education, for the arts, for children and youth services. Probably the first big grant Dr. Phillips did after selling his business to Minute Made in the 1950s was he got with Advent Health. He listened to his employees and they said, "You know, the African-American community doesn't have health care. We have to go to the basement of the two hospitals. We need we need quality health care." So, he donated $250,000 to Advent Health, which was Florida Sanitarium back then, to build a hospital. Not just that though,
011he went a step further. He donated the land for the hospital. And then he and his son traveled to Atlanta and recruited two doc doctors. They're pictured up there, Dr. Booker and Dr. Cox who are very very well known and provided great service to the community for a long long time. we started with when the Phillips family passed on they wanted this all of this money to go towards the community and we've received $80 million back in at that point. We've taken and gifted away over $260 million into Central Florida since then. And so it's we've run it like a business but for the benefit of the community so that we can give away more every year not just all of it at one time. some questions have come up about where else does the
012money go. 99% stays local 1% goes towards that two other areas Dr. Phillips very much cared about which was private property rights and the free enterprise system. And on the private property rights we work with people like Pacific Legal Foundation. And on the free enterprise system, we work with people like James Madison, Capital Research, and also the Heritage Foundation. A question came up, did we fund project 2025? I assure you, our grants are very directed. Not a penny went to that project. It went towards certain areas of the free enterprise system. We're very proud of that. We fancy ourselves kind of community builders. And so you see one of the most recent projects we did was bringing two communities together. Pine Hills and College Park through the packing district, 202 acres, beautiful park, YMCA, Publix
013now where a food desert once existed and so many different things. And just thinking about overview of why we're here, Dr. Phillips Charities is committed to working with the residents to preserve Eatenville's history while investing in its future. We're not doing this for profit. Not one penny will be going to profit to the foundation. But we have a shared vision. Our role is to walk alongside the community, not make decisions for the community. Polish Institute was hired and conducted a community-driven study in the town, laying out the groundwork for future planning by gathering resident input, setting priorities, and producing a community action plan to help guide decision-making action. Building on that foundation, the master plan work that Baker Bios has facilitated and you'll hear more about that. We support we supported that work and we
014were involved in some of those meetings, but we think that work strengthens our professional expertise and is rooted in collaboration. The result will honor Eatenville's legacy while creating new opportunities for generations to come. Our purpose today is to share openly, listen carefully, and move forward together toward approval of the first step, the first step in this journey, the approval of theou. Why Edenville? Edenville is a treasure in our community. We all know that being the first and oldest incorporated black town established in 1887. Looking back in the late 1800s, early 1900s, some historians say there were over a thousand black towns and communities. Here we are today and some historians say there's only about a dozen still operating. So, we have a lot to be proud of and we should celebrate that pride. So, as
015we go forward, you know, Edenville, we have to remember it's not just a local treasure, it's a national treasure, and it's up to us to protect that and work with the town. We see this as a unique opportunity where mission and vision aligned. The town of Eatenville's mission and vision and Dr. Phillips Charity's mission and vision. preserve legacy, engage residents, support the community's goals and growth, and create a sustainable resident centered future. You know, as you think about the Dr. fill his charities and King gave you a history. One of the things that happened a couple years ago at our board retreat in the strategic planning process. We talked about the value of researchbased development and placebased community development is one of the things that we studied and so it's something that we want to
016invest in. We believe in the purpose-built community's mantra that prosperity starts with place and we want to invest in that. We believe in a resident centered approach to community revitalization. But the bottom line is this. What Dr. Phillips Charities has done for over 100 years is why we do this. This is what we were built for. This is what the Phillips family wanted. And we think about their family motto. It was simply helping others help themselves. You got the vision to go. I'll let you. Okay. Are you sure? Yes. All right. Preserving legacy center history and cultural identity by prioritizing the historic district and ensuring residents have access to affordable housing, education, and retail. guided by community input, as Terry put, that is one of the most important things for us is we want to
017listen to the stakeholders in the community. It doesn't do any good for Dr. Phillips to build what we want. We want to build what the community wants and to ensure we bring partners with us. And that's one of the unique abilities we have with our relationships on on a national level and a local level with other nonprofits. We're a trusted source for them. And we want to see local reinvestment operate without a profit motive. We promise and commit that every penny that is inside of this project will stay within the project. supporting shared goals, expand access to health care, education, economic opportunities, and arts and culture to promote stability and well-being. This is what we heard or what Paul has heard and what Baker Barios heard from the community. And it's interesting. We presented it
018to our board and the board heard the exact same thing and has the same priorities within that. So, we're on to the master plan and we'll invite Tim Baker to come up and discuss the master plan since they've invested so much time and effort into it. Thank you. Thanks, Jerry. Thanks, Ken. Mr. Baker, welcome. Thank you. first and foremost, I do want to say on a personal note, this journey for Baker Barios and our team has lasted 18 months. And I will tell you, it's been an amazing journey, meeting some amazing people, hearing some amazing stories, and trying to understand some amazing dreams. so we're going to walk you through really what the 18-month journey looked like, and some of the results of that community engagement. but to start with, we want to talk a
019little bit about you know and really from the residents perspective when we first started having the conversation in the community is what is a community master plan? And the important word there is community. this isn't my master plan. It's not Terry's master plan. It's not the mayor's master plan. This is a master plan made up of components and conversation from the residents. we merely were the facilitator for this conversation. and it's been extremely gratifying to work with a community with such passion and commitment to a vision for their community and it was a real joy. So, it started with community, but essentially a master plan, a community master plan is really trying to describe a 25-year vision that can become the guiding star or the northstar for development and revitalization of an amazing historic community
020over that 25-y year period. So, it's not meant to be just a flash in a moment in time. It's meant to navigate and be the rudder for decision making for the community as development occurs over the coming years. the community is also so the master plan is one thing and when for you those that have been involved in master planning you start to think architectural pretty quickly and infrastructure and housing and where where retail buildings might go. This particular effort included a very important component and it had an equal weight to it and that was the community action plan. We spent as much time talking about roads and schools and new town halls and hotels as we did talking about how do we restore investment and opportunity for the residents of Eatenville. And so we'll
021talk a little bit about that in a moment, but developing a community action plan in parallel with the community master plan. It's kind of 1 plus 1 equals three. And that was the driving force behind our efforts with our partner Polus in this exercise. A master plan covers land use, it covers infrastructure, it covers where you put parks, it talks about transportation and connectivity. It talks about economic vitality. We got into all of those conversations within within the community. but it also talks about policym and policym beyond just sort of sticks and bricks but how the town is going to grow. What investments are needed for that growth. How we would go about seeking those investments and then the services and opportunities we can provide to the residents at a very grassroots level and in
022a very accessible level to allow those in that community to take advantage and change their outcomes for themselves and their families. And that's work that we're very very proud of. So you can imagine our very first workshop getting a group of folks together that have never really gone through this process. and when we told them in our first meeting that we don't have anything to present to you. We want to ask a lot of questions and we want you to tell us. and so really the early stages of our engagement was about sort of breaking down the barriers of of conversation, allowing folks to feel empowered to have a conversation, an honest conversation. Some of the subjects that we got into were difficult and some were absolutely glorious. some folks agreed and some folks disagreed.
023and so we set a platform that allowed a very transparent conversation to occur where people could be honest, authentic and transparent so that we could extract the information and incorporate that into the master plan. So it included you know a little bit of vulnerability. It included everybody being open and honest. It included challenging folks to ask as many questions as they could. It included making sure that there was trust and that there was respect. and in the end I think by and large you know there was a unanimous sort of hug at the end of our process about how we work so hard together and look at all these shared goals that we now appreciate. and that was really quite delightful to see especially for the town of Eatenville and the residents within the Eatenville
024community. So Eatenville you know the journey was about five formal workshops and workshop one and this lasted over an 18-month period. Workshop one was really an introductions of ourselves talking about process and sort of breaking down the barriers to allow the residents to feel free to communicate. workshop two was really about blue sky. close your eyes and imagine the perfect town of Eatenville for yourselves. And so that really led to an amazing conversation about many different things. and there really wasn't anything off limits during this conversation. As we took that information and moved into workshop three, things started to to gravitate into certain buckets. so we started to we set up sort of strategic stations where the residents could come sit down, get the markers out, brainstorm and we had everybody rotating around these workstations
025around the various topics throughout workshop three. In essence, the pen was put into the the community's hand and we were there to help them draw it. As we moved into workshop four, we took the results of workshop three and really started to try and put pen to paper so that we could graphically communicate the ideas and thoughts that came out of workshop 3. And so we presented those back in the same format as as workshop 3. Again, going around to station after station to look and talk about pros and cons of the ideas that were coming from within the community. And then workshop five which by the way concluded about two weeks ago was a presentation of the final draft. And I want to say draft because this is a living document subject to change
026subject to new ideas. but it was a result of 18 months of of collaboration with the residents. I will tell you in our first workshop we had about 15 folks and it was a pretty sort of uncomfortable feel. on the last workshop we had close to 80 and and some of the sort of the ones that we were worried about you know we were getting hugs from on the way out the door and I think the community should be very very proud of the work that they came up with and we're very proud to be a part of their team. I mentioned the master planning effort, but I do want to restate what Terry and Ken talked about and the Polus Institute came in and spent another 7 months right before we launched the master
027planning phase to really talk about social issues and bringing in opportunities that are missing within the community. So that those conversations percolated a conversation around health and wellness youth education career and employments art and culture and land development issues. and that was a very important document for us to kind of pick up and take on into the workshops. So what we gleaned out of that and what we talked about in our five workshops was this idea that somewhere within the master plan, we would develop a hub and I think we mentioned this in our last workshop a little bit and this hub inside this hub because what we found in in in communities like Eatenville is very hard to navigate opportunities because they're so fragmented throughout the community. But inside this hub, we would build
028cradleto career education opportunities. We would build health and wellness opportunities. We'd build jobs and economic vitality programs within this facility. And we would provide basic services and needs inside this facility. So we knew that was going to be somewhere within the master plan. And that was part of the conversation as we moved through the various workshops. on the architectural side, the conversation really started to form into six buckets of conversations. So there was a lot of conversation around how do we take Kennedy, our main street and make this a vibrant live work corridor that's prosperous, that respects the scale of the town and the history and the culture of the town. that provides opportunity for residents to be the the tenants within that main street but essentially how do we bring the community to celebrate
029life and create this active corridor. So that was a big component of our studies. at the very top of the conversation was everything we do has to get filtered through this u this lens of history culture and how do we make sure that anything new that's development embraces that history, honors that history, celebrates that history and incorporates that into the master plan. So, we had a group focused groups around history and culture at each one of our workshops. We've discovered that transportation is a very challenging u service for the town of Eatenville. So, we had a lot of conversations about bikeability, walkability, creating a connector within the community that is a that allows you to get from all the major assets in the neighborhoods within the town without having to get in your car or
030walk a long distance. And then we also talked about regional connectivity. How if I live in the town of Eatenville, I can get to the one of the major hospital systems. How can I get out to UCF? How can I get to the theme parks? How can I get to the employment centers in a logical way without having to do 15 different stops and it making taking two hours to get there? So, we spent a lot of time had meetings with links on how to simplify transportation for the town of Eatenville and how that might work. a lot of work around parks and wreck and open space and the variety of spaces within the town. how we could incorporate connectivity between those parks so they weren't isolated to to the benefit of the entire town.
031and then of course while we're here we spent a good amount of time on Hungerford because of the scale of that piece of property and understanding a lot of the components within the town of Eatenville that the residents wanted. you'll see in the master plan that was the logical place to put larger, newer things within that development that benefited the residents of the community that were requested by the residents of the community. And then finally, there's five neighborhoods within which was a delight to see because there's a great history around all five, but there's five established residential neighborhoods within the town of Eatenville. Each one of those neighborhoods has an identity and a brand. So we had a lot of conversation of how we can enhance that branding, how we can start to strengthen safety
032and security and lighting and walkability, how we can put tot lots and parks inside those residential neighborhoods to start giving definition and define u u those neighborhoods and create these quality livable neighborhoods within the town of Eatenville. when you take all five of those concepts and overlay them into the master plan, this is really the results. so it includes a very strong Main Street program that extends under I4 to the west. There's a gateway feature that would be programmed to make that link under I4 to the west side of Kennedy, which would also include a lot of future development on this plan. You'll see the five parks that have been incorporated into the town. You'll see the five residential neighborhoods within the town. And so this is a composite of all of that. I want
033to walk you through quickly and happy to do question and answer of you know what the residents came up with for the Hungerford property. And so first and foremost and this was unanimous across all the residents is they wanted a large community park where they could hold festivals, art shows, farmers markets, bring the community together for celebrations, have music events, performing events. really the front porch of the community to come in as a community to celebrate life, but they also wanted it to be, you know, scaled for small events, medium events, and large events. So that anytime you go into the park, you know, there is some kind of activity going on. So you'll see that really is the featured gateway element, that brings you into the Hungerford property. bordering that park are two really
034important elements. One is the community hub which is on the east side in pink up there. and that represents the sort of the headquarters for the four pillars that we talked about cradle to career education, health and wellness, jobs and economic vitality, basic services and needs. And then there's a courtyard and further to the east you'll see in that green building is an early learning center for our very young youngest residents. on the opposite side of the park is really a administrative and cultural hub. So, it includes a new town hall and I think we would all agree that the city or the town of Eatenville is worthy of something that they can be proud of and call a town hall, but that's not the traditional town hall. Inside that town hall is a cafe
035welcoming the community in large community spaces with this idea that we're going to bridge the divide between the politics that happen, the administration that happens in the community to where they can come in together and and talk about issues, be comfortable coming in into that building. Behind that is a cultural center linked up to a destination hotel and a conference center to program and invite people from outside the community in to enjoy the rich history and culture of Eatenville. As you extend to the south, there's a linear park. and that linear park takes you all the way to the lake. And there was a lot of conversation about let's not just put commercial buildings on that lake which is the highest and best use. Let's save that lake for the residents of Eatenville. and so
036you'll see there's a very strong and large public park at the end of that that sort of linear way or the main street through the Hungerford property. It ends in a community garden which was asked for by the community. It has an events pavilion in there and it has food and beverage activating that lake front experience. also within the main street, if we go back to the middle, there was this desire to have a grocery. so Eatenville is a food desert. so we've put on the west side of that main street in red, there's a full service grocery store for the town of Eatenville. And then on the east side is additional retail to help activate that main street. And then the blue building behind that is an incubator a corporate incubator to help companies
037within and startups within the community sort of grow and thrive. So that's a really big important piece to our cradle to career education program which we'll talk about in a minute. But this is where you start. If you have a new idea, a new business, you can come into this incubator and get that get that company off the ground. The green is where we really are focused on cradleto career education. And I'll be perfectly honest. I don't think we have consensus, nor we do we know what we're asking for when we say that. You all are the are the professionals in that world. But the idea is that when I'm born in Eatenville, I can go through that green zone and I can graduate high school and I can even go on to higher education
038and get my doctorate degree and then pop over into the incubator and start a company or work for a company would be the concept. So the green zone is all education. and then that really rounds out the master plan. We did as gateway features on fronting Kennedy looking at doing two and threetory buildings that would be sort of town center sort of scale where we'd have residents above and then live, work or retail in the ground floor to start activating that main street. And then the yellow band in there is new workforce housing to support the town of Eatenville with their lack of housing stock. So that is a quick overview and we'll stick around. I'm sure you're going to have some questions. Thank you so much, Tim. Appreciate it. As you can hear, architects
039get excited about all those colors. Ken and I don't know what they mean, but Ken's going to give you a few highlights about theou that you're going to review. Well, thank you. And it brings us to this point. I will tell you that we did the exact same thing within the packing district. The same kind of concept and you listen to people. It informs what you're going to do, but it has to evolve. Also, as Tim says, it's living, working, breathing, and realities of where storm water sits and other things start to drive what where placemaking can happen and when it will happen. And it's a significant project. I mean, just the infrastructure, the storm water and the early things we're talking about in housing can get up close to hund00 million. So, this is
040a project larger than Dr. Phillips. We're just stewards. That's how we look at it. We're stewards of the Phillips family legacy and we'd be stewards of this property until the point in time it moves to the town or to other places. so here are some of the highlights of theou with full consideration from the town of Eatenville and from Orange County Public Schools and with the idea that you can't do everything at once. We wanted to really focus on what's attainable quickly so that the town can start to see the results of their work. And so, we said we would write a check for $1 million upfront. We'll still need to negotiate the actual purchase price. that there will be some milestones that if we achieve those milestones, the purchase the balance of the purchase
041price would be forgiven. the year two of the milestone would be the infrastructure and pavilion to host community festivals which is very important within the community. so to inform you of what we did we just finished a public private partnership with the city of Orlando where we donated 100 acres of our 200 acres of property and helped design and control put into place the things that were important in the community. One of the things we heard from the community and talking to them was this pavilion concept, this shared u kind of open space. And so we designed this and we paid for this out of Dr. Phillips pocket. And this is what a pavilion really starts to look like. It's not a little 10 by10 kind of a thing. This is a an expansive pro
042project. We listen to farmers markets about what they need. We listened to the YMCA about programming, Orlando Phil Harmonic about what it would look like, the Boys and Girls Club in the community as I mentioned, and the green space in front of it really is the front porch to the town of Eatenville just like it is to the park within the packing district. that's what you're looking at there is an evening event we host for the community for Christmas time pops for the kids bring in families from Pine Hills and College Park and it's really very very enjoyable evening but you can see what the space really should look like. the next phase that's really important is our early learning center. If you think about one of the greatest barriers for young women entering the
043workforce is child care. I mean, we read about it. It there's some tremendous studies on it. So, if we can create an early learning center right in the town of Eatenville for the children there with a priority to those children and to the priority also to the faculty at Hungerford Elementary School, then those children have a place to go that's safe and education takes place. The first 5,000 days 2,000 2,000, thank you. 2,000 days of a child's life are the most important educational times for them. so that when they hit your schools, they're ready to go. They have a leg up on everybody else walking into that school. And we think that's critically important for the moms that want to work and for the kids to have this opportunity. And then year four, a community
044hub, a health care center. We think that's also important that health should be right in somebody's community. And we're not talking a lower health center. We want quality health care within there. and we've had some wonderful conversations on that topic. There's other things that really need to start being informed. The town center and history museum land set aside was very important. So, we'll make certain land is set aside and the correct spots for it. Affordable and attainable housing, four to six acres. There's a lot the community needs to do and engagement with the community to inform us how much affordable attainable housing, workforce housing, single family housing, what it starts to look like and how do we make certain that those single family homes are deed restricted so they stay in there. You don't have
045outside investors coming in who are just renting. We want home ownership for the community. We think that's the greatest builder of wealth for a community and for individuals. And then community engagement. This is this is important listening sessions with residents. So Terry, why don't you talk a little bit more about that? Yeah, this is an ongoing effort. It's something that we have to do and you as we talk about really flipping to the next slide and next steps, one of the first things once we get past the approval of theou is really one of the things we want to do is have a work session similar to this with the conversations with the town council and the Baker Bario's team and the Dr. the Philips charities team because one of the things we've heard over
046the past week is that some of the town council members felt like they were not in as engaged in the master planning process as they'd like to. So, it's important that they understand all the inputs and outputs in a longer form presentation. So, that's one of the first things we have to do. Dr. Phillips Charities will develop a resident engagement plan to ensure that all residents have an opportunity to be involved, engaged, and informed. We will not and we cannot do this alone. Dr. Phillips charity will commission an economic impact study to measure the impact of some of these things so the town is well informed on the pluses and minuses of everything that we do because ultimately whatever happens in the town has to have a positive economic benefit to the town. So bottom
047line is there's lots of work to do. This is just the first step and as we move forward we'll be locked hand in hand with the town council and the residents of Eatenville. So with that any questions? Thank you. I do want to check with the board. We have members of the town council and while it's not a public meeting we do generally recognize our elected officials. I think it would be helpful to hear from them. Would you like to hear from them before you've asked questions or or after? Okay. All right. Thank you. Wonderful presentation. Thank you. All right. I think we have let's start with vice vice mayor. Vice. Yes. Vice May. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, board. I'm just sitting here just taking all this in for the first time. I
048think that they put the cart before the horse talking to this board besides talking to the town board of this matter. And like I'm sitting I'm in the I'm in the blind cuz everything I'm saying is brand new. And I'm thinking that if this group was good intent that they would have set a meeting up with the town council before they came to this board here to uke and I don't even know anything about a master plan been passed by the town council. Another thing that's bothering me that in the presentation back door we did something in behind closed doors. That's Not good government. And I only heard town council at the ending of this speech of this presentation. Not at the beginning. We talked to town council. Everything is about the mayor. The city
049is not ran on the mayor. The city has developed a five liquor fissures and we didn't have input on any of this and that's what got me up road we haven't like I said a master plan a sit down with police whoever break borrows and what the citizens want we need to confirm that with the town the town council is the final say so like he just said at the end there we have to get with a meeting after you pass thisou That's after the fact. We need to know before all this came aboard. So, I'm not happy with this process. Not at all. And I don't support this process. And that's how I feel about this process because I think it should have came to this town council to get our way in on
050this, not come to you guys first, then come to us after you pass something that we might not agree with. All right. Thank you, sir. Yeah. That's all I have at this moment. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. council member Mark Shulie Mac. Okay, I got Taurus right and now I know that. I know it's Mac. I'm so sorry, sir. Thank you for being here. Good afternoon on board chair board and everybody in their respective places. I'm Councilman Mack. town of Eatenville, the Historic Town of Eatenville. this is something I've been trying to wrap my head around for quite some time since finding the news out with theou in terms of the process of how it went. I'm still somewhat lost also because I had no idea, no recollection of what was coming down
051the pipeline. And to know me is to know that anytime that we're putting ourselves in a position to do something outside the council is disturbing. And if I sit here with a member of my board and especially the mayor and she she does something to I guess it was almost like a slap in the face in a sense and not just to me but to the citizens. it doesn't bother me as much as it does the citizens. I have an opportunity to speak to some of the citizens and it's a lot of people that are not happy with the situation. And listen, my problem is not with Dr. Phillips. charity at all. Now, I'm willing to actually work with Dr. Philly Charity in terms of doing anything that is going to benefit the community of
052Eatenville because I want us to benefit no matter what. But I think it was the process and of how it went and you know the way that it was brought to this conclusion where we at now. and like Vice Mayor Washington said, a lot of this master plan I wasn't aware of and I think it's more important that this council get an understanding before even coming to this board here for you guys to you know make a decision on. And I just feel like mayor somewhat dropped the ball. I don't know what was the thinking of her coming up with this concept to think that it was okay for her to do what she did. And my first time learning about it is when I actually looked at the news. Now you tell me how
053disturbing that is being a elected official in the state of Florida in the oldest black municipality and finding out this away by looking on television and seeing what was taking place and me getting tons of phone calls from my resident who I serve. That's who I work for and to put myself in a position to really not have any answers for. And I and I found it very disgraceful disturbing and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole ordeal of why we're here in this position. And I can recall us having the idea of I can remember speaking to this board here in terms of having something that was a little bit more suitable than what's been presented to us in terms of lease agreement with the town. having that opportunity to, you
054know, know what we want in our own community. And like I said said said best, my problem is not with Dr. Phyllis charity. My problem is with the mayor at this particular time because I felt like she went behind our back and did something that is unprecedented if you ask me personally and I'm not happy at this time. I'm not I'm not happy at all. And I hope that this board could make a decision because it's not a yes for me in terms of everything that's been displayed this afternoon. And a lot of my community u members feel the same way and that's who I work for and that's who I'm speaking for. I'm speaking for the voiceless that are not here today to speak their voice. So that's my take on that. All right.
055Thank you, Council. Thank you, Mac. Councilwoman, Good afternoon, the chair and also to the board members of Orange County school board. My name is Wanda Randolph, seat 5, Town of Edenville, Councilwoman. I agree with the information and the statements from our two council members. However, I'm going to sum this up to say that because we didn't know, this is the reason that we're here because we did not know about this. And I think that this could have been much better handled if we would have known about this from the beginning. I don't have a problem. I don't think any of us with the Orange County School Board at this point dealing with this neither have a problem with the Dr. Phillips Foundation. The issue was that we were not aware and we could have eliminated
056in all the honesty to avoid this ongoing dialogue that we're having if we would have been at the table first. The only thing should have happened to handle this properly and with respect and that is that Eatenville should have been at the table to talk about this with Dr. Phillips and also that you as the school board should have made us aware that this was going on. My constituents asked several questions which I don't have the answer. There are questions to me were there any other entities involved as far as offering the same opportunity that has been presented to Dr. Fer's foundation. I had to tell them gracefully I don't have that information and I don't know. The next question is that is it fair for one entity to be involved since this is public
057public land owned by the government. I said I don't have that answer. I would like to get those answers so I can convey this information to my constituents and the people of Eatenville. Therefore, I am able and capable in my right mind to know what's right and what's wrong. I'm willing to collaborate and also work with Dr. Phillips charities and the foundation if it comes to that. But my issue for the future and for the next meeting is that I will be asking for this board to consider all the facts on the behalf of Edenville and our concerns that this matter be tabled until we sit down to the table respectfully and talk about what Dr. Phillips want. What is it that the school board wants? And what is it that the council wants? The
058council of Eatenville. This is going to be for the betterment of the citizens and our residents who reside in the town of Eatenville. Thank you very much. Thank you, council member. All right. I'm we have a couple of choices. I obviously if Dr. Phillips wants to speak to the issues, we're welcome to hear from you or other otherwise I'll open it up to the board. I do want to clarify something I think is extremely important. What we're talking about and what's on our agenda this afternoon is not a contract. It's a memorandum of agreement. It's the beginning of a process. It's not the end of the process. It's not the middle of the process. It's the beginning. What's happened up to this point is a series of community meetings which you heard about. I believe
059I'm not sure who but I believe some of you may have attended those meetings. The meetings were about what does the community feel like they want their community to become. I completely understand council members concerns and I understand your feeling that obviously you were elected and ultimately you have a say on behalf of your citizens. So I do appreciate that. But I also cannot ignore the history that we've had, not the long history, not the precious history, but the very difficult history over the last 10 years. and the challenges that the town more and Orange County public schools have had finding a way to move forward working with the private sector. And what I appreciate about Dr. Phillips charities is that they have shown time and time again that they are not about themselves. They
060are about the greater community, the greater good. And they stepped up to the plate, not with anything in mind for themselves, but because they understand just how important this is and how precious it is to preserve the history and equally important that we create a path for the future that enriches everyone who lives in Eatenville. And that's why they're here. And that's why this board has this on the agenda for this afternoon to make a decision as to whether or not to enter in to the first step in the process of us working together. There is still an opportunity throughout this process to engage the town council to continue to engage the public. One of the things that to me is extremely important in addition to the museum that the council has begged us to
061support and we did and we wrongfully in my opinion were passed over. I think frankly I think it was political and it was shameful. Museum is important. An opportunity for our families to have a place for their children to go at an early age is critically important. We all know what that does for the benefit of the long-term success of any individual. But it's also important that and I know I'm talking to the choir here with the council members. It's so important for you to have a strong tax base that will support your goals and ambitions for your town. And that's an important increment as as well that I know that in fact I reached out over the weekend to make sure that was on their radar screen. I brought it up at the meeting
062that we had in June. I went went back and watched it was the first question because you have to have a lot of things but one thing you must have is the financial resources to support and grow your community and that is going to be important part of moving forward. So while some things are clearly offered there's room for a lot more discussion and for more opportunities that may not be on the table today. And I think I will say for myself if I didn't believe that we were entering into an agreement to move forward to make sure that we're all comfortable that we're doing the best that we can do collectively. I wouldn't be supporting a contract. I would not support a contract. We're not there. I think if you ask Ken, if you
063ask Terry, if you ask Tim, if you ask any of them, are you ready to enter into a contract? They're not. We're not. And we wouldn't be here today even considering this without having the town council at the table for those discussions. Let me open it up to my fellow board members. Member Ferrant, then member Douglas and member Vanos. Member Vanos, is this in your district? Okay. Member Ferrant. Okay. Just wanted to make sure in case you wanted to go first. I know this is your area. first of all, I want to say thank you all for coming out. this is for me, I think this is a very exciting moment. I think we are, I'm seeing that we're moving, we're moving the ball. We're pushing forward. we're not staying stagnant and just, letting years
064go by and nothing is happening with the Hungerford property. there's a lot of history here and just getting on the board there was a lot of things to learn about Hungerford and the property and how we acquired it and all that stuff. So with all of that, we're pushing all of that to the side and just looking at what we have today. first of all, what we just saw was extremely wellthought out. Extremely well thought out. So, I want to just hand it to your entire team. Whoever chose everybody to come in and we got Baker Berios and Polaris is that what Polus Polaris Polus close enough. so, just those teams just seeing the what happened there. so a couple questions I guess I would have and what I it's hard to understand because so
065I hear from the town council the ones that are here and I appreciate your you know your thoughts and your consideration, your concerns. the part I guess I'm not understanding is if you've I'm assuming you guys have all been a part of these meetings with Baker Barios. There was the five work sessions over 18 months, seven months with Polus. and you've been involved in those or have you not been involved in those at all? so if and I don't know if maybe the mayor would like to come up and just share. Yeah, there were Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. thank you. So the master plan sessions were open to the public. It was open to not only the residents but any stakeholder and those meetings have been going on for a while.
066In addition, updates to those meetings were also placed in our stakeholders meetings. And then in addition to that, there were comments that sometimes depending on how the meeting went. I would mention it in the public re when I we do our public meetings in the comments and I believe that Councilwoman Randolph attended a couple. So it was always open for 18 months and it was nothing but input. I mean that was the driving force was the input from the residents and those in attendance. Okay. And so knowing that whether you went to them or you didn't, I think you know if something like this is happening in your town, it's not a huge town. I would think that you would be aware of it and would attend or be interested in what is happening. I'm
067absolutely like looking at everything. I mean, I took rigorous notes of everything that you did, the whole master plan, the idea. It's not like some entity came in and said, "This is what we're going to do with your town. Whether you like it or not, it was residents came together all talking about their wishes, their thoughts. from what we are seeing and what we are hearing, that is what happened in the town. which is incredible. Like kudos to you guys for doing that. Sometimes we want to rush through things. We want to get it done quickly and just move on and let it let's be done. but sometimes it does take a little planning and sitting down and saying, "Okay, how can we make this amazing?" Who wouldn't want to move into Eatenville when your
068town looks like this beautiful new, you know, you've got all the different all the master plan ideas, the education part of it, the community part, the parks, beautiful, very well thought out. so if if the meetings had been done, and the council had it was open to the public, people were allowed to go to it. I think from what I'm hearing is it's just there's frustration that the land isn't being turned over immediately to Eatenville and it's going through Dr. Phillips while this plan is being brought through and then at the end if I'm understanding this correctly what happens to the land once everything is developed different pieces will have different things happen to them. So when the park is developed and the pavilion that's very clearly something that should belong to the community and
069go back to the community and be gifted to the town of Eatenville just like we did the park with the city of Orlando. infrastructure, the same thing would go to the town of Eatenville. then there's different pieces. when there's home ownership, obviously the homeowner will want to own that. When there's multifamily, then somebody appropriate developer will come in and we'll make sure that we vet those in that they fit within the town's values and they would typically own that site. there's retail pieces and commercial pieces. Our goal is to listen to the town further and create place. The very first and most important thing is to create place and then to attract the people to come to follow that after you create the place. Right? And to make the economics work, we have to have
070some private public partnerships so that there's tax base generated. There's retail going on. Without that, everything can't go back to the town and just be no additional revenue or no tax base. So as we go from master planning to development planning, there's a whole lot of questions that have to be answered and there's a whole body of work that has to occur between Dr. Phillips charities, a development team, the town council, and the members of the community. So again, this first step of allows us to begin that body of work, which is going to take time and money. Okay. it reminds me a lot of Shark Tank, if you will. I have five kids. we watch the show. And so, when when you look at Shark Tank, somebody comes in, they have a great product,
071but they don't have the finances to make the product happen and really expand to the best of the ability. And so, they have some a shark on the show comes and if I'm sure you've all seen it, they help partner with them to make that expand. the shark always has a piece of it, but in the end, the person who comes with their amazing product ends up way better off than before they got on the show. and so that's kind of how I see it. and if I want to bring it down to more of a, you know, non-political stance, the town of Eatenhillville has an incredible product. You've worked with Baker Berios and Polus to come up with an incredible design and plan, but you need somebody to partner with you to make it
072happen. That's where Dr. Phillips Charities comes in. And so when I look at it in that sense, I think this is an incredible partnership. As far as egos feeling like they've been bruised, I think we do need to think of what is the best plan of action for the town of Eatenville. And in the same way that Shark Tank, if you've seen anybody on that show who you know gets a little I don't even know what the word would be, but they start to question things or ask too many questions. You know, all of a sudden the shark could say, "You know what? Maybe this isn't the best idea." And they move on and then you're back at square one. And so I think we need to look and see what is the best for
073the town of Eatenville to move forward, to expand, to have growth, and to thrive. That is what what I think this partnership could do. So board member Ferrant, I appreciate all of that except the shark analogy. I know. I know. I know that's probably not but but we get the gist of it. I would say that there's a twist to it. You're exactly correct. That's what's happening. There's the twist in this in that we're a hundred-year-old nonprofit organization. We don't have a profit motive like the Sharks do in in that show. Our goal is to improve the town of Eatenville at the direction and guidance of the of the community of Eatenville. That's exactly Yes. Thank you for pointing that out because that's exactly it. It's like the nonprofit Shark Tank, if you will. I
074appreciate you. Yeah, we're dolphins. I love it. But really, it is extremely well thought out. And I want to hand it to the the members, the the people in the citizens of Eatenville who came to the meetings who voiced their thoughts and opinions and ideas because that is what has made this plan so incredible. So, thank you. All right. Leave it to the former president of SeaWorld to fix your analogy from Shark Tank to dolphins. That's right. Free in the ocean. That's right. And nice. Okay. Member Douglas and then member Vanos. Okay. Now, okay. really my concern is here is a preservation of culture in the town of Edenville. tradition and culture of Eatonville. So, my question will be will you prioritize pri prioritize the people of Eatenville for jobs and housing? The answer is
075yes. And part of that comes out of the community engagement plan and working with residents and the leadership of the town. So, that will always be a priority. So when I go to the town of Eatenville, I don't feel like I'm entering any other kind of town, but I can feel that traditional and culture of the African-American, right? It's important to us and we've talked a lot about this in our meetings that as we put together a development team that we identify key principles and guard rails. And one of those is about protecting the culture. But also one thing that we have to be very intentional about is preventing displacement of residents. Enville right now operates and most public information says it's about 30% owner occupied housing. Right? So that's 70% of the homes that
076are occupied by people that don't own them, which becomes very vulnerable. In most thriving communities, the number is about 60 to 75%. So we have a big gap. So we have to work with the mayor and her team to figure that out and come up with strategies to do that to protect the residents from being displaced. Exactly. And that's the reason why I asked that question about housing and jobs to prior prioritize the people of Ethanville first. None of this will be easy. Okay? I can assure you because again when you look at what we're trying to do, the best thing is we're not in it to make profit. So we hope everything that happens, the money will go back into the community to protect the community, not for our benefit. Okay. Thank you. Okay.
077All right. Thank you, Member Douglas. Member Banos. Thank you, Madam Chair. and thank you. Thank you all for being here. I really appreciate the mayor's comments and particularly about how her thinking has changed around the land trust and why that has changed, the reasons for that. and I appreciate that. Dr. Phillips, amazing. Thank you for being here. I really appreciate this no profit mo you know motive that you're operating off of and I think communicating that is really important. So thank you for that. and this not displacing anyone in Eatenville is important as well. Baker Barios appreciate I have been to at least two maybe three of the workshops in Eatenville and so I've seen how engaged the residents have have had the opportunity to be the stickers, the notes, the time the these were
078not short meetings. but developing pillars based on what the residents told you has been really impressive for me to see. So, thank you. And I appreciate again you noting here that everything is still subject to change, that nothing is set in stone. and the town council, I really appreciate. We have some strong Libra power here today and energy. But so thank you. Happy birthday and thank you all for being here and thank you for sharing your concerns. And I'm I really under as as an elected person on a board, I understand where you're coming from. it does not feel good to feel excluded from something that's important. It does not feel good to not be consulted with respect to thisou and you're representing constituents and it doesn't feel good when they have questions and you
079can't answer them. and so I I really I understand where you're coming from and I understand your concerns. I do want to ask a couple of questions though. you know, one of the concerns that I've heard is if if we're if you know, this idea is to move forward. What happens if Dr. Phillips, you know, deviates from the plan? Like who is there a way that the town the town council can or can can hold Dr. Phillips accountable for doing what you know what you say you're going to do? Have you thought through that? Yes, we've talked through that a lot. I think the first step is once we go into get past theou is going into an agreement between Dr. Phillips charities and the school board is that we build in some guardrails in
080that document. That's one fa that's one place we put some guardrails. The next place is through working with the town council as we go through work sessions and the residents put together some structure that can sort of be involved all along the way. We have no desire to disconnect from the community and just move at our own speed. You know, one of the comments that I heard in one of the meetings probably over a year ago and I think it was from the chief administrative officer, he said, "We will only move at the speed of trust. That's the only and if it's slow, it's slow, but we won't move past that." So, it's important to us that we do that through this process. There's still a comp plan that needs to be addressed. There's permitting
081that has to be addressed. So the town will certainly have opportunities and guard rails of their own built in. Thank you for that. Is there w would you be open to if the town council wanted to create some kind of advisory committee that could you know work with you to to advise as you go through these steps? would you be open to that? In our presentation we addressed an advisory committee. So yes, we're open to that. And we've seen this happen in other communities. When we talk about place-based community development, we've looked at work around the country. And one of the things that's important is that there is this advisory group of citizens that feel empowered to be a part of the discussions, not an outsider. So, we think that's important. Okay, great. That's really
082good to hear. I'm not going to ask all of my questions this time, but I'm just going to go through a couple of them. so I actually I think a good place to start would be with the theou that we're talking about right now. And I know it's been said by a few people that the memorandum of understanding theou is sort of the first step. and you've kind of you I know you've kind of run through what what the future steps would be, but one of the comments that I've heard is there's not a lot of details in theou, you know. and so I was just wondering if you could I know you generally describe this, but if you could kind of explain maybe the difference between anou and a contract. Well, the attorneys are
083going to get to do that and they'll certainly be represented very well by Orange County Public Schools and we'll have Lounel represent us. it's it's important that we address the purchase price that we address other things within it in Dr. that are outlined basically within theou and that's the starting point of the agreement. there will be more things that will come up. There's a lot that we need to learn about the land itself. We've studied a lot of the history of the land, but there's so much we have to find out about simple things like a DOT pond that's sitting there and your land that crosses over onto the DOT pond and rights within that. so there's a lot of details that have to get built into it. Time frames to go forward, time frames
084for due diligence, and then final closing time frames. You know, there'll probably be pages and pages of definitions that we all have to agree on. One in particular is when we talk about inou about a price, a million dollars upfront and setting a price. However, as we make investments into the town that we get credit for that, we have to define how we do that. How do we monitor who measure? Who's going to be the doing the accounting? How do we submit reports and who who we report to? So there's a whole lot of work that has to be done just on the legal side and the accounting side. So it sounds like the contract is really where we get into the nitty-gritty. We have the details and that's really the piece that the town
085council that's really what they would be contributing to and involved with. That's correct. And the in and theou really is just a starting point. It's just to give us some guidelines. Do we do we have the structure of a concept of a deal to move forward with? Well, and in particular theou in this case is really do you have the land? Right. Like correct. Yes. And so the way that I'm I'm looking at it, and correct me if I'm wrong, theou is sort of a way to reach an agreement with the school board to be able to to have the land to then be able to make a plan for it. Correct. Okay. Thank you. And just one last question for this round and that is are you working with other community partners? Yes. And
086it wouldn't be fair to them to disclose who they are right now but we had the we really feel that we have the credibility and the ability to bring a number of community partners in and I mentioned earlier both local and national partners and this is a national story. This is an important national story and we really believe that as we get closer and closer to this, the more people will want to come in and be part of it and invest into the community. And it isn't just about the Hungerford property. We want people coming in and investing on Main Street in every part of Eatenville. Creating place and attention is what will help drive that. And the driver cannot be investing strictly for profit and extracting wealth from the community. The driver of anybody
087that we partner with will have to be about community impact first and then if you need to make a profit that's we understand businesses need to make a profit but if that's priority one they won't be partners of ours right well I think it is pretty clear from going to the workshop workshops looking at the master plan listening to what you are saying here that the residents of Eatenville will be the real beneficiaries of everything that happens on this land and as we go forward we welcome welcome welcome questions. We think the most valuable thing for our communities is engagement and residents that know they have the power to question anybody because that'll make us better and make the community stronger. Yeah. And that vehicle for questioning which I appreciate very much that's sort of
088that advisory committee we were talking about. That's correct. Correct. Great. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Member Salamanca, you're recognized. I echo a lot of what board members up here said. Thank you all so much for being here. This is a meaty topic that also since being on this board, we've we've had many iterations and versions of the conversation and potential solutions. And so you know, as an elected member, I also hear your frustrations on perhaps the process was not as open and transparent as what you would have expected it to be. but as someone who sits on this board and Orange County had a public meeting where we talked about this entire plan and and it was open to everyone. I do think that the invitation to all these community meetings were very much
089open and out in your own communities as well. And you had hundreds of residents attend these workshops to be represented as well. And so I think there was absolutely a conversation to be had on what is the best way that the council and the town and the mayor can work together through this. this is the beginning of a process as we said. I think from the historical context of everything we've seen while being on this board, you know, we as an elected member, I get tons of emails all the time from folks in Eatenville, from national leaders, from folks that have a vision and a thought of what Eatenville should be, of the meaning of Ianville, not just to Orlando, but to the state, but to the country. I mean we get hundreds of emails
090anytime we talk about this topic and on top of that we have seen multiple versions of what does it look like to hand over the land to work with this partner to work with that partner before this and I I got to say this is probably the most thoughtful and comprehensive approach of anything that has come before this board while I've been on it in terms of it is clear this is community input driven. that you're being thoughtful about it's what they envision of them rather than you imposing a vision or a agenda. I think we've had a lot of folks that email us saying, "We want to do this or build that." And there is, I want to say 90% of the time a for-profit motive of what they want to build. And from
091the context of and the questions asked of, you know, who else has offered to do a good job or make something out of this land in a way that we as Orange County elected officials can work with? I have I don't have anything in our inboxes or I don't think Orange County has had anything as close to the high degree of caliber and thoughtfulness as to what the Dr. Phillips team is doing. And so I welcome to meet with any councilman or or woman from the city if you have better partners, nonprofit partners with a better vision. I think all of us are open to hearing that, but we get hundreds of emails and suggestions, majority of them for profit, majority of them with their own agenda, rather than a bottoms up approach of your
092residents. it is if if there was a sense that these workshops were exclusive, that they weren't publicly available, that they were not brought up in a public setting multiple times, I of course would have a much larger, harder time, saying this is a good place to start a conversation with anou, but I just don't I don't believe that because we've been in this conversation and I've seen so many of these different offers and potential setups and all of them always have a very specific agenda and few of them have that resident input that I would like to see. And what I worry the most or one of the reasons I do love this and want to get things going is because every time that this board chooses inaction, not doing something, getting in the way
093of something great happening, we also get hundreds of emails saying, "You refuse to give over this land or work with this land or do what is best for the town." And so our inaction as elected board members also impacts us. And I'm not hearing any alternatives. And I've been on this board for so long now that I'm like where what what are the other plans? What else? What is on the table that is an equal partner as to what Dr. Phillips has brought here today? And I haven't seen it. And I feel that the cost of inaction of this board saying, "Hey, we're not going to do anything because maybe transparency wasn't perfect or 100% to the way that every single member wants it to be. We're all elected up here. We rarely agree on
094what is transparent enough or the correct form of communication." And this is that's part of being an elected board. none of like we're not on the same page about many things and how we want to be communicated with at all times and it just it happens sometimes. Obviously, this is not something I would want to come back to in the future where those who are elected and representative say I had no say. That's absolutely not something I would want in the future. But I truly don't believe that's the kind of organization that we would be doing this with. and I based on all the 18 months plus of thoughtful work you've done I am confident that you will go out of your way there's so much ahead that is even harder and more difficult than
095just this is the beginning of an uphill battle of so many things aligning transportation funds public private partnerships I mean you all have to have an all-star team to make any of this happen and have all the domin has fallen the right order of operations for this to come through. I'm not going to get in the way of that. because in action of something and moving forward with this is also a choice that I would have to make as an elected official. And I get told all the time that we've been sitting on this for decades, if not more, and doing nothing about it. And so, I don't I don't want to be part of that. And I'm excited to say this is this looks like a great opportunity to move forward. So, thank you.
096All right. Thank you, members. let me I should have called on Chief Administrative Officer Demetrius. would you do you have anything that you would want to offer, sir? Thank you, board. And we've heard from many of the speakers and I appreciate the time. just for clarity, the process for getting to this point has been through the council for the scope of the actual master plan that was approved by council and brought us to this point. Now, I know there has been some concerns with the process up until this point. One of the things I want to make sure this board knows is that the mayor has expressed over and over that this is not a done process and wanted to make sure even the board members understood this is where we were with that. I've
097had the chance in the last several years to see where we were to get us to a point where we can at least talk and find a path forward with this board with potential supporters of this. And I think we're at one of the best junctures we have at this point. and we'll continue to support the mayor and the council where we can to find those roads that intersect to to make this a viable plan that benefits the residents of the community of Edenville. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you, sir. All right. if there Dr. Vasquez, if you have anything else regarding the work session, let me know. Otherwise, I think we'll adjourn for a brief break before our four o'clock meeting. Good. All right. Thank you. All right. Board members public. we have a
098open public meeting at begins at 4 and our regular board meeting begins at 5 and it'll be during our regular board meeting that the board will consider action on theou. And I want do want to apologize I use the word memorandum of agreement. it's a subtle, well, significant difference. It's a memorandum of understanding and as I said, it's a starting point for a lot more hard work and a lot more engagement. Thank you all. Heat. Heat.