03.28.24 // Jacksonville Branch NAACP & Omega Psi Phi Fraternity // “For Culture, for Community”

We have to understand in these days and times that our health care that our very lives are at stake in terms of whether we go to the polls or whether we stay at home it’s important for us to understand that as we look at the rise in gun

Violence that gun reform is a political issue it’s a bid issue we have to understand that Health Care Women’s Health Care and all of our health care is at stake in this upcoming election and so for those and Myriad other reasons I am very pleased that Omega sci-fi and the NAACP are working

Together in Jacksonville to make sure that everyone gets out to vote I have to think as I think about Jacksonville of Lloyd Pearson who was a great motivator a goat a great registar of voters in that City and so in his memory I challenge you to take the heart what

Each of the panelists will say this evening and then commit yourselves to go out and work to ensure that every citizen of Jacksonville Duvall County gets out and votes Our Lives depend on it have a wonderful evening thank you Mr Russell um I don’t see him but I still want to acknowledge my

President of the Jacksonville Branch NAACP president Isaiah rumlin secondly I’d like to acknowledge the basist of the local chapter president of theta bassist Jason a har greetings greetings I won’t be before you long I just want to take a quick second to acknowledge a few of the men of omegas Side Fire Fraternity

Incorporated that are here with us this evening from Charlotte North Carolina we have our co-chair brother Perry CLE of our International social action committee we also have my good brother and friend Mitchell Kevin Woodall who serves as our district keeper of records and seal and I also want to recognize my rightand

Man uh who many if not all of you probably know uh Octavius holiday who serves as our local vice president or vice bostes uh on behalf of the man of Omega scii Fraternity Incorporated we sincerely appreciate each of you taking this matter seriously voter registration is a serious matter we thank you for

Taking the time out this afternoon and coming out and sharing with us and and I also personally thank each of you on the panel for taking the time to come out this evening thank [Applause] you okay um Bishop mckisic was not able to be here this evening to lead us in

Prayer but I’m going to ask um Elder El Elder Dolores bman to lead us in the invocation this evening on behalf of Bishop Rudolph mckisic Jr and our executive pastor Pastor Kim I want to um welcome you all as we pray let us bow father God we thank you today

We thank you for life health and strength God we thank you for the event that is taking place right now God because you you know what’s going on in our country you know what we need God so Lord I’m asking right now that the information that is going to be

Presented tonight let it resonate with the listeners let it penetrate their hearts God I ask that you bless every panelist everyone that’s sitting out in the audience today and Lord I just ask right now that you open our eyes and open our hearts to the issues that’s

Going on and let us not just be stand Byers and people just looking and waiting on on somebody else to do it because we are that somebody else God help us to get on in line and get on board with what you’re doing in this

Hour and what we need to have in order to move forward Lord this prayer I pray in Jesus name amen thank you Elder in the spirit of partnership I’m going to um ask for my co-host to come and take the podium at this point in time to help with the

Program ring he’s Omega brother his name is Lee Brown welcome him as he [Applause] comes thank you brother Morton can you guys hear me or do I have to lean into the mic good evening everybody before we dive into tonight’s discussion I want address a few housekeeping uh matters we

Are live streaming on Facebook so if you all would not mind please go to the bethl church and share it on your social media Outlets secondly to ensure an uninterrupted flow of the important messages we’re here to share we kindly request that if you anticipating needing

To move in and out during the event that you kindly consider sitting on the on the outskirts of the room if time allows we’ll gladly address a few few questions from the audience there are volunteers from the NAACP local branch in the room that have cards

On them if you have a question please grab a card fill a question out and then we will try to get to it if we do not get to it please drop the card off outside in the lobby we have volunteers there as well and we will make sure we

Get all those questions answered thank you for your cooperation and let’s make tonight’s event as impactful and seamless as possible to start us off we have our supervisor of elections for Duval County he assumed office on July 1st 20123 his current term expires on June 30th 2027 introducing to some and presenting

To others Jerry Holland our supervisor of election Mr supervisor the floor is yours well thank you so much for the invitation to be here uh um as Tracy knows she used to be my Deputy supervisor of elections a few years ago I really have a passion for elections

And part of the passion is seeing people involved seeing students get registered to vote seeing people go to the polls and expanding our election opportunities as much as possible early voting and vote by mail opportunities so today I hope to have the opportunity to share more with you what we’re doing in the

Office to answer your questions how we’re keeping election secure how we’re making sure that your vote counts and how you know that it will count so all those things are so important and I’m blessed to have a wonderful staff and as well as just a permanent staff about 35

But when it comes to elections we hire about 1300 to 1400 to make it possible and seeing the community come together to help us do that is a wonderful blessing so thank you for the opportunity to be today and I hope to share more with you thank you supervisor

Holland the next person I’d like to introduce is Monae holder Monae is the senior director of advocacy and programs at Florida Rising Monae has led the organization in the fight for voting rights on the local state and National levels and develop strategies to build black political power in the state she

Is going to give us some information and proactive steps for voting Miss holder the floor is yours thank you so much [Applause] ladies and and gentlemen as we close out women’s History Month it’s an honor to introduce two remarkable leaders who have tirelessly served our community leader elect Senator Tracy Davis and

Florida State Representative Angie Nixon leader elect Senator Tracy Davis is a force to be reckoned with serving on key committees such as Transportation which she is the vice chair Appropriations Health policy and more her dedication to improving Transportation infrastructure education and Health Service Services has been unwavering even during the

Challenging times faced in Tallahassee this session representative Angie Nixon is another Trailblazer with committee assignments introducing infrastructure strategies transportations and models and Regulatory reform and economic development despite the hurdles encountered she has remained steadfast in her commitment to advocating for our community’s needs we extend our deepest gratitude to

These extraordinary women for their selfless service and unwavering dedication to representing Us in Tallahassee it takes immense courage and sacrifice to stand up and run for office and we applaud them for answering the call to serve tonight we have the privilege of hearing from both leader elect Senator Tracy Davis and

Representative Angie Nixon as they provide us with a legislative debrief together they will tag team their messaging sharing insights and updates on the challenges and Triumph of this legislative session let’s give a round of applause to these Local Heroes who continue to inspire Inspire us with their leadership resilience and unwavering commitment to

Making a difference in our [Applause] community okay supervisor Holland we’re going to move back to you and allow you time to do your presentation and then we’ll go back through the roster um in the same order all right well thank you very much uh let me start off with a couple things

One is the priorities of our office uh one of our priorities is to try to get as many people to vote prior to election day you know I tell people all the time if you wait till election day you don’t know what may come up you know it may be

Bad weather car may break down someone may be sick in the family so encourage you know your friends and relatives and everything vote prior to election day uh we’re we’ve expanded early voting uh when I came into office in July there was 19 early voting sites we now have 24

And so we want you know to have more of an opportunity that you have early voting sites to go to and then what we’ve got to do is you know I look back at 2020 there was over 120,000 people signed up for vote by mail ballot today

As I look at the numbers only 55,000 have signed up for vote by mail Ballance and I will tell you the confidence that I have in vote by mail ballots is at the highest because I will tell you we are we can track the ballot the entire

Process we can let you know that your ballot has been counted if for any reason your signature doesn’t match we notify you because you give us your email or your telephone number so you can come in to rectify it so it’s a very secure way especially when people are

Homebound or maybe not have the opportunity or maybe traveling and not get to an early voting site so those are things that are very important to me to make sure that you really try to get there before election day um the other thing also is as I mentioned earlier is

About the security of Elections you hear so much especially on the internet and on media you know are you machine secure well first of all I’ve got to thank our city council and I know councilman Rockman Johnson is is in the audience I want to thank him uh because they

Appropriated over $2.6 million to purchase all new voting equipment so we have the latest technology in our office and you hear things oh it’s connected to the internet no your tabulators are not connected to the internet you know our voter registra our where you check in

The evids are but that’s so that we have the security of knowing when you go vote that or anyone goes to vote that we already know at the other locations that you voted so it Keys people from any even from error of going in the second

Time of attempting to vote it keeps that date alive having the latest equipment having a city council that supports us having latest equipment uh We’ve also on early voting uh they’ve just there in fact it just was introduced uh we did not have ballot on demand which is a

Printing system to give you an option whether you wanted to vote the express Vote or vote by you know with a mark scan ballot we will have the ballot on demand printers in August and November you know and it’s not far off you know 145 days you will have the August

Election and I also want to encourage people a lot of people you know we have great turnouts when it comes to presidential election we usually have 75 to 80% turnout but in that primary you know it drops off to low 20% and these two ladies will let you know that is a

Very important election sometimes they are challenged in the primary you know so that’s where a lot of times you will make a decision on who’s going to run against someone in the general election Schoolboard races will be in August judicial races the County Court Circuit Court will be in August August so just

In 145 days on August 20th will be our next election please turn out for that as well as obviously our presidential that I usually don’t have to encourage people to turn out everybody comes out for the presidential but as even mentioned and as James even mentioned what’s so important is our local and

State elections you know there’s so much and these ladies will tell you how much Tallahassee impacts you the councilman will tell you how much they impact you you know on a local level and obviously on our Schoolboard level how much it impacts our local so important take

Advantage of every election uh we also we’ve been very blessed in many ways to have a lot of democratic support when it comes to pole workers you know and I want to continue that but you know I’m also out there recruiting to have as many of both parties in our precincts

See my side is to make sure we’re very transparent you know because it can never be something where your supervisor of elections or election officials don’t tell you what’s going on it can’t be something done in a back room everything we do is open to the public everything

We do we want both parties there we want them engaged whether it be at the precinct or early voting we want everyone there so everyone can see what’s going on and so I encourage you as we do testing of our equipment and the logic and accuracy tests you know

Come see that Prospect as we do canvasing you know come watch us one thing we do also constantly is we give tours of our election center it’s out there at Imon it’s where we store the equipment where we train our pole workers where our call center is a lot

Of times we’ve had just to give you an idea we’ve had over 80 countries come and visit duball County to see how we do elections you know and that’s remarkable when you consider if you see the map where they all come from all over the world so we’re very proud of what we’ve

Got there in duall county and really invite people to come see it because it is your election office uh as these ladies will tell you we’re open they have both been in our office many times they know we’ll sit down with any constituent any voter any question that

You ever have I share one story because I think it’s important you know I’ll never get my first Primary in fact Senator was on staff at that time my very first primary uh I had a uh after the election was over I had the wife of

A candidate called me and she said Jerry I mean she said I think there was fraud in this election and I said oh wow my first election I’ll never have another election and I I knew from the race her husband had lost by almost 30% and she

Was convinced she said I I have proof that he won and you know I’m going to sit down with anyone and I said yes you’ve got proof oh yes I’ve got proof and I and I saidwell can you show me the pro I she said I’ll tell you what the

Proof is right now I said well what’s the proof she says everyone I talk to says they voted for my husband I wanted to do that I wanted to kind of chuckle but I knew she was serious you know and I said I tell you

What why don’t you come in and sit down and at that point before we got on the evids that checked you in we had paper registers and so we pulled the registers for the precincts her husband was running in and when she came in I said I

Want you to give me 10 names to voted for your husband and she said you can tell me how they voted I said no but just bear with me this was a primary I knew it was a low turnout she gave me 10 names and we looked them up and of the

10 names only two had voted we did another 10 another 10 and about that about 20% of what she told me a 40 actually voted about eight people and she said you know what she said would have gone to my grave believing that he had won that election but you took the

Time and you showed me that no those people didn’t tell me the truth I said ma’am if they had voted for your husband he might have won I said but but as you can see turnout matters and as you see the other side is it’s important to sit

Down no election official should ever turn away from any question or answering anything in our office and that’s what we always try to do if you’re concerned about the elections if you’re concerned about race if you’re concerned about your vote sit down with us we will spend

The time no matter you know if we think you know wow this going to be a tough one but obviously if you go through the process with people they appreciate it they understand it and they really appreciate the empathy we have and I will tell you as a candidate I’ve been

Fortunate I am now the longest continuously serving elected official in Duval County of either party I don’t know if that just means I’m old or lucky or both but I have served now 25 years I’ve running nine elections won eight of them three of them was unopposed which is these ladies

Know is the best election you can have is when you’re unopposed you know that’s aen right uh but all that being said is you know I really I I know what a candidate when they come in the office you know candidates always say and the senator remembers this is they’d always

Say youall treat us so special I treat everyone who comes in that door special because there’s a big sign as you come in my foyer and the two most important things is our voters and our candidates without those we don’t exist we don’t have a purpose that’s our purpose and my

Staff knows we’re fortunate that we have voters and fortunate we have people like these two that volunteer to run for office and and put themselves out so that’s what our office is there it’s your office please take the time come see us come visit us come tour we’d love to have you thank

[Applause] you thank you supervisor Holland Miss holder primary August primary that’s actually on August 20th 2024 and there’s two deadlines that surround that date first there’s the deadline to register to vote which is July 22nd 2024 and that’s important because if you’re not register to vote can’t vot what people do now up

To that deadline is definitely check their registra stat their voter registration information so you moved you think your signature may have changed now is the opportunity to do that up until the deadline because you have 29 days before an election to register in order for you to cast your

Ballot in that upcoming election similarly if you want to vote by mail so this if you’re going to be out of town um you may be a senior that’s at a different place from your home a student there is a deadline to request a vote by

Mail ballot which is August 8th if you want to vote in August primary election and then it’s the big day it’s the general election which will be on November 5th 2024 this year and those deadlines to register to vote is October 7th and if you want to request a

Vote by mail ballot is October 24th 2024 now as it relates to vote by mail there have been a lot of changes to elections in these past couple of years one of which is around vote by mail um previously you could request a vote by mail ballot and know that you would

Receive one in the ma for the next you know couple of Elections but now the new Florida law requires that you request a vote by mail ballot after every election cycle so if you did it before you need to do it again because they don’t have

You signed up as receiving one you know often times we think we’re getting something in the mail we procrastinate we don’t request it say we don’t need to make a plan and get out to the polls because we got a ballot coming and an election day and you don’t have a plan

So I think that’s important to mention here um and as you share our information and fol listening on a live stream to know request the vote by mail ballot again if that’s how you want to vote as it relates to vote by mail even if you request one and you decide hey I

Actually want to go into prein location I’ve done that before you can still do that you can take your ballot with you turn it in and vote a regular ballot if for some reason you don’t have your vote by mail ballot and you still want to and

They can verify that your vote by mail has not been casted you can vote on Election Day and to be clear election vot increasing locations can differ so we always always always encourage folks to go to your supervisor of elections website to find out number one where

Your early voting locations are near you you can go to anyone and to also find out where your Precinct day location is it could have been one place a couple of Elections ago and has changed so just always always check that information I also want to reiterate

That you need to have a valid Florida ID or driver’s license um there are and supervisor Holland can keep me Keep Me honest about 19 or 20 different forms of of of identification that you can use but one thing 12 excuse me that’s what said keep me honest

Right but um if you are if one thing that I like to mention always is for people who may be unhoused or you may have lost your voter ID or your driver’s license or your Florida ID there are resources in the St there’s organization called vote Riders and their telephone

Number is actually 1866 id2 vote and they assist you with the process and even help cover your fees if you need to get a replacement or just a brand new um Florida driver’s license or ID sure 1866 ID to vote and the actual numbers are 1866 432 8683

One thing I also want to mention um a lot of folks um are sometimes weary or cautious as it relates to vote by mail all counties in Florida offer a ballot tracking tool on their website so once you complete your vote by mail ballot

Make sure you sign it and turn it in you actually have the opportunity to track your your ballot to make sure that is received and you can always reach out to your supervisor of elections office if you have any questions or you there’s discrep with your

Ballot there has been a lot of questions and I’ll say some controversy as it relates to returning citizens being eligible to vote so we know back in 2018 we had Amendment four on the ballot um and about 1.5 million people had their right to vote restored that had previous F

Convictions and then the legislature no shade um pass some legislation the following re in that fines and fees be paid in order for you to actually cash your ballot and we’ve seen instances in which some people thought they could vote and they could not um were unclear

Registered and then some people even got rearrested for allegedly uh falsifying their voting record um so we just encourage people that if you have had a past felony conviction and you’re unsure the supervisor of elections office actually has different steps that you can take to verify that your fines were

Fe and fees were paid through the but there’s also an a partner organization of ours the Florida rights restoration Coalition who can help you walk you through that process of verifying your voter status of your returning Citizen and they have also helped many people settle their fines

And fees so they can actually be eligible to vote uh a number that they give for you to call is 1877 my vote Z so that’s 1877 698 683 one other thing I’ll touch on um before I hand it over is and we talked about what what’s on the ballot this year a

Little bit so we know you have like top of the ticket president of the United States you have US senators have US state reps State Senators for District Five State reps districts 12 through 17 Clerk of Courts and County courts you have a few Schoolboard districts so and Water Conservation Circuit Court judges

County Court judges and then you also have constitutional amendments which is extremely important um the legislature actually referred four constitutional amendments to the 2024 ballot and there are two initiatives that maybe many of you had signed petitions for that were citizen Le initiatives to be on the

Ballot for 2024 and that effort um took a lot of work close to 900,000 signatures are required for a citizen initiative to get on the ballot um one that FL arising worked on was the the right for woman to choose or have the choice to have an abortion um another

One that you may see is one around um recreational marijuana um how that process works is even when you get the close to one million signatures for it to qualify the Supreme Court in Florida then has to review that language to deem it constitutional before you’ll see it on

The ballot they have a deadline of April 1 so as I was sitting here I was checking my phone because those decisions can come down at any minute launched an advisory that said we will know on April 1st whether marijuana and the right to have an abortion will be on

The ballot in 20224 so those are some other things that you need to look for um when you’re casting your ballot so that’s why we encourage people to vote up and down the ballot um lastly I’ll say do your research right whether it’s candidates whether it’s Constitutional Amendments or any other initiatives it’s

Up to you to figure out what they stand what people stand for what the initiative does not just for you and your community you valot because not voting is is an automatic no vote one thing in Florida Rising that we offer for folks is not only to um help engage

With voter registration efforts year round help Advocate on a local state and federal level but also um we have a pack in which we endorse candidates for office um and run what we call an independent expenditure program so we want field phones doors mail and supportive candidates that our

Endorsement committee decides what be best champions for communities like ours black and brown communi so you have opportunities to volunteer with us if we endorse the candidate that you like to help get them elected and we do that work independent of those candidates and independent of any political party we’re

Simply about the issues and what’s best for our community so if you want to know more information about Florida Rising you can go to our website at FL rising.org and also find out some key dates and activities that are going on not just Inon across the state thank [Applause] you leader elect Senator

Davis hello hello how’s everybody doing you’ve gotten a ton of information I am Senator Tracy Davis um I have a ton of stuff across the Des but I want to say hello to Divine n and I want everyone that’s a part of the Divine n to stand up and be recognize Divine [Applause]

N thank you thank you thank you wanted to see the audience we do have a woman here with us that’s a part of uh women’s month history uh March is women’s month and so I do want to recognize our very own elected property appraiser Miss Joyce

Morgan so you all have um thank you to supervisor um Jerry Holland who has has been that accountable transparent supervisor that we really really want and need in this County and so thank you for being that for us tonight um thank you to Monae holder for all of

That information and I just want to say while you were uh talking the message came in and and Mona thought about elected office but I’m going to put her on the spot and so the message was wow she needs to be in elected office so I

Just wanted you to to know that um my counterpart my my ride or die my uh partner when it gets uh hard representative Angie Nixon it is so great to be in Tallahassee and have someone that is willing to stand up take the shots while the partner is able to

Navigate a different way we both have our lanes in Tallahassee and we’re both able to get what we need accomplished for the county of Jacksonville there was a lot going on in Tallahassee I don’t know how much uh you all want to hear about the bills we’re not going to run

Run down them um there were 700 1,700 bills filed um and that is probably a very low number before the session started 1700 bills that were filed by individuals there is 120 representatives in the Florida house and there are there are 40 state senators so um the the conversations

That we usually have in Tallahassee sometimes and if you ever watch us on Florida channel in the Senate it’s very calm so will sign some he will not and July 1 if the bill pass both Chambers and he did not sign it it still becomes a law so

There are some things you probably have seen like the encampment and and now people cannot sleep on public property um it’s given U it gives the county you know the the time um to make sure wherever they find this encampment because now people can’t sleep on public property they have to create these

Encampments and they have to provide security and they have to provide water and things like that but that bill is has been signed into law by the governor but that’s what we call unfunded mandate because it’s something that we um did not vote for but it’s something that now

The county have been imposed on the counties and it does come with a $10 million uh price tide with it but that’s not enough for 67 counties to do what this bill is asking them to do or really mandating them to do and so it’s an unfunded mandate for us there are other

Things um that were that was put in play or the governor has ability to sign um something with HIV preventions um it allows pharmacists now to prescribe and dispense of medication I’m just going to run through a few things that I have uh chott it down um we do have a build that

Is on the governor’s desk it’s going to make um whistleblowers it’s going to kind of uncover them and it’ll make it harder to file ethics complaints also on elected officials I I I charted I jotted this one down because I personally have been someone who has had ethics

Complaints filed on them and so when you have to go before the ethics board to defend yourself you’ll find people on both sides of this argument yes you’re to official you should be subject to um being of a higher held at a higher regard and we are but when you have an

Ethics complaint filed on you and you have to take time to defend that and at the end of the day you’re in front of four judges and they say okay well just you know we dismiss this I mean that’s time effort and it’s a part of your

Brand who you are and it affects you so it it has nothing to do with frivolous complaints it’s just the fact that now it’s just harder and you actually have to have evidence and you cannot do it do that in an anonymous manner so again

People will fall on both sides of that I don’t know if you want to jump in here at any point any point um representative Nixon we still have the book Banning going on we still we did things like a Halo we call it the Halo Bill where now

The governor has something on his desk where um it says that people have to stand you all remember George Floyd and the videoing that people were doing well now there’s a bill on the governor’s desk that says we have to stand 25 feet away from any type of incident like that

Where the First Responders are handling that and so this is where we get into the house versus Senate type things because the Senate sometimes uh will vote a different way than the house and a lot of times it’s we see things different or the bill that’s in front of

Us is different or we really just not speaking to our house counterparts like we really should be there’s also a bill in front of the governor and this is probably the last one and I I’ll try to make it more more a good thing because everything is not horrible um and I’ll

Share some successes and then I’ll pass it over to uh representative Nixon we do have a bill that um is on the governor’s desk that will limit the citizens review board that has been a really hot a big topic here here in Duval County where we’ve tried to have those boards we’ve

Never been successful but now there are counties with the citizens review boards and so now we have a bill that limits um those boards in the police oversight as well as the sheriff being able to appoint the members of that board so their power and their Authority is

Really being um restricted so I can go on and on about the negative but I’ll share some positives I’ll share some things that when you are for me it’s relationships and it’s about navigating the system so last session I was able to bring back we were was able to bring

Back $78 million and I know you’ve seen the UF campus is coming 75 million of the 78 was the UF campus coming to [Applause] Jacksonville they did get more another 75 million um this session and so it feels like and and the city is giving some so it feels like they’ve gotten to

The point to bring that campus here the other campuses are thrilled to have UF moving in so it’s not something where people do not want UF to be here we all we all do and it’s for graduate programming it’s just not um singular for undergrad and graduate this this

Programming will only be for graduate programming the other success we had is for years when I first got to the Florida house I was a part of um the doer and I don’t know if many of you have ever heard about the doer school and the okobi school schools those

Schools actually closed in 2011 and those were state ran schools and the the challenge the issues with those schools are the boys were um subject to a lot of tragic events that happened to them while they were at the school and so the boys were sent to the school for reasons

For truancy smoking in the back running away you know mild things that could have been solved a different way but again they were and don’t want to go into so many grotesque um details but it was they experienced Horrors and so when they come to talk to us there’s never a

Dry eye in the room as these men tell their stories and we’re talking about men that are now in their 70s and 80s I tell you that story because in 2017 the legislature officially apologized to them and this year um after many years I think it was about 16

Of them asking for some type of relief from the state of Florida we put a pot of money for the doour men of $20 million so can apply for a $50,000 gesture um nothing can ever take away what they experienced but to finally have someone like the State of Florida

Acknowledge the pain and the hurt and the tragedy that happened there um it was it was overwhelming for them absolutely overwhelming the last thing I I I’ll tell you um and this is a personal win for me we were able to secure the their medical marijuana

Licenses and do not let anyone tell you that black people are a part of the medical marijuana industry we are not for the last two sessions we have people in our law that are called Pig furt and the black farmers they are in statute so when you’re talking medical marijuana it says those

Those people that are in our law are um warranted one medical marijuana Treatment Center license one about seven years ago there was a opening um for these folks to apply there were 12 applicants that are applied as pford black farmers and one person was allotted the license that gentleman passed away Department of

Health said oh sorry you can’t get the license and went to number two once they awarded number two the other applicants filed litigation that that they have been in that litigation for seven years last session we were able to open up a cure period to allow those people

90 days to cure the application and if they cure the application they will be awarded a medical marijuana Treatment Center license from that we were we we had three people that were granted licenses remember when I first started telling the story it was only one in our

Statue we gain three this session we were able to secure in the department Department of Health Bill three more licenses I get emotional about it because it’s been a personal personal Journey one of the applicants is 101 years old her granddaughter lives in Jacksonville and that’s how I became a

Part of this journey the other gentleman is 92 years old so the way the application was these people would never be able to show that they have been working consecutively for 5 years in the State of Florida upon submitting the application it just would not happen due

To age so those two licenses are in the Department of Health beld along with the gentleman who passed away we could not keep opening the door we could not keep going back and trying to get these licenses without including Moten Hopkins so the department of Health Bill includes three more licenses for this

Group called The Pigford black Farmers so for a total of six licenses we were told from the beginning you would only be able to get one I tell you that story because it is a system of navigation it is a system of having relationships but it is a system of

Saying to yourself I am doing the right thing and you are not going to tell me this is not what we’re going to do I had to tell the partner that was working with me we are going for all of these licenses or nobody will get anything so we we we

Fight um every day to bring stuff back to Jacksonville but it is a different type of fight when you are in the minority party I am one of 12 with 40 senators and rep representative Nixon is one of what 30 38 she was like I don’t

Know we’re in it’s about 38 of the 120 that are dims um in the house so on a good day she says so what I I I tell you that story to to to to show you we can get things done as Democrats but we have to navigate a system very carefully and

Sometimes we and we both have our lanes sometimes it’s not that sometimes you have to go to the extreme to get things done Tallahasse is not an easy place to be but I do have a partner with me and that makes it so much better to make

Sure that when we having a bad day in the house I can have a good day in the Senate and vice versa so so um lot of things that are still sitting in front of me but I won’t take any more time because I’m gonna let rep Nixon um tell

The story of the Florida [Applause] house thank you leader elect Davis representative Nixon you got it so hi everyone I’m R Angie Nixon uh house dis 13 that encompasses Northwest Jacksonville Westside Riverside Avendale uh I am also the executive director of a Statewide Progressive organization and Alignment group called Florida for all

Florida Rising is one of our core partners and they sit on our board and you know leader elect is very politically correct I am a community organizer I agitate uh to uh like a a washer uh you know you put some dirty in that and so washers agitate to make things clean and

That’s how I am and that’s how I show up um I am unapologetically black uh and I show up unapologetically black and for my people uh when I go into the Florida the house each and every day because if I did not uh you know it would be very

Bad um so let me tell you I’m just going to be real with you all um um the budget that came out was $ 117 billion budget and let’s be clear uh this past legislative session was a missed opportunity for uh Floridians to get the things that they deserve U the

Reason it was a missed opportunity is because let’s be frank I know we’re in mixed company but I am going to keep it real um we have a republican Le legislature that cares more about their corporate donors and cares more about um political ambition than actually addressing the needs and concerns of

Floridians the fact that we fail to address the affordability crisis as it relates to uh passing bills to help lower property insurance is a problem yet we gave them A3 billion doll bail out a few years ago and we asked them numerous times we tried to file

Amendments to force them to uh ensure that consumers going to some relief and they didn’t do it but the guy that ran the bill came into the Florida house uh a thousandaire and he’s now leaving a a millionaire because he works for the insurance industry so that’s what we’re

Up against right and also like I was saying we just passed $1 117 billion doll budget and the black communities the black caucus which represents a lot of the majority minority commun ities particularly black within the state got less than 3% of the budget I’mma repeat that a$7

Billion doll budget and we only took home less than 3% so I’m sorry Angie is not going to go up there to be nice Angie is going to go up there to demand what we deserve and so you know um and sometimes when you demand what you deserve and when you

Don’t show up and play the game in which they want you to show up and play it how they want to play it they try to punish you um however as represent I’m sorry as leader elect stated um you know we’re still able to navigate and and to get

Things done um I know that also this this s this session there were some extreme bills that came out right um very extreme uh child labor so that’s what they see our kids doing at a young age becoming youth workers and why are they becoming youth workers because last year they passed SB

1718 which was a bill in which they uh wanted to stop undocumented immigrants from coming here and what did that cause that caused the uh construction industry to slow down that caused uh the agricultural industry to slow down that caused the hospital industry to slow down and now you have all these jobs

That they can’t F and so they want to put our children to work there was another bill that we had to make less bad by organizing and you know pushing back which was going to allow 16 to 17 year olds to work on roofs and Scaffolding without uh breaks again and

Without like water right like 16 to 17 year olds to work on a roof and scaff I have a 16year old who can’t even wash the dishes correctly all the time so what do I look like allowing my 16y old to have permission to work on a roof and

Scaffolding and so I’m happy to say that through organizing filing amendments having hard conversations on the floor and behind the scenes uh because they they ain’t gonna tell you but they do have to sometimes talk to me behind the scenes um we were able to get that

Carved out um kids those kids are are still allowed to work um at residential construction sites but not uh commercial construction sites and they’re no longer allowed to get on roofs and things like that and so I’m happy to say that we were able to again make that bill less

Bad um there was uh also you know I I would like to say as we all know last year um we lost three individuals due to a white domestic terrorist coming into my district and shooting and killing them at the Dollar General right and so the conversations

In which uh Senator Davis um and some others were able to have uh behind the scenes uh the pressure that I was able to put on the governor by calling him out letting them know that he’s hurting people and the fact that the stop woke and the anti- Dei programs is just a

Racist dog whistle for anti- right um and wanting to stop black people from progressing um we were able to secure um $20 million to harden uh HBCU across the state and ew was getting what five five five million of that and so super excited um about that

Yes and so like you know I want to talk about what we’re up against is the majority party again as I stated they’re super politically ambitious we had we they changed changed the law last year to allow the governor to run for president and continue to be governor

And so we saw early on during the legislative session he used that as as his pull pit basically so he was passing really agrees bills like their main priority bills were to to stop Pride flags from being hung on um County buildings their main priorities were to

To uh put up Confederate monuments again if we decided to take them down their main priorities were to stop children from being able to use pronouns in school and and and teachers their main priorities were not to address the over 7,000 educator shortage that we have across the state their main priorities

Were not to address again the rising cost of property insurance the rising cost of rent proper insurance has gone up 102% in a year we have seniors that are on fixed incomes that can’t afford that they’re losing their homes and yet we have a legislature that again is so concerned about the next

Place they’re going in office than caring about the people and so I consider myself an advocate and I’m going up there and I’m raising the question like what are we here for for why are you doing this and we are filing amendments to again try to make these

Bills less bad and this is why it’s like I’m organized I’mma agitate um we are here and that is great but we have to go outside of these four walls and we have to get back to what we used to do back in the day back when we were all

Organized when when your organizations were organizing and doing things like Ella Baker and and and what Martin Luther King did and what Malcolm X did like they knocked on doors they made phone calls they went into lowincome communities and they had the uncomfortable conversations we can’t continue to do

The status quo or we’re going to continue to get the same things we’ve been getting and I’ll be real there have been times where some of my colleagues that look just like me did not speak of because they thought they were going get money in the budget and guess what they

Ain’t get no money in the budget and so we have to she’s not talking about me we have to let our communities know that we are there fighting for them we have to educate them about the fact that if we the the true enemy in all of this

Is these corporations that if we would have closed corporate tax loopholes in the State of Florida a bill in which an amendment in which I ran last year um a bill in which representative anav eskamani ran uh last year and so if we close those corporate tax loopholes we

Could have a at a minimum $250 million but they don’t do that they’re not doing it why because the the corporations are paying for the politicians they’re bought and paid for and so that’s why it’s important for us to go to Tallahassee and to make our voices heard

Right not just during that one day at the Capitol but starting during committee weeks starting throughout legislative session starting at delegation meetings and also like starting immediately after even before they get in office they shouldn’t come tell us what we I we should not be telling y’all what y’all need y’all

Should demanding a Black Agenda let’s be real there should be a Black Agenda coming out of Tallahassee this is the amount of money that we need this is the type of infrastructure that we need within our communities right this is like this is what we need to do better

To build and uplift our communities like to end generation like Generations after generation like the the wealth Gap is getting bigger right the fact that we’re passing bills uh that take a woman’s bodily autonomy is a problem whether or not you believe in abortion guess what if abortion is becomes totally

Illegal in our state which is really what they want there would be obstetrician gynecologists that leave that is going to negatively impact black people black women die in child birth three times more than white women three times more than white women we have to organize we have to be

Involved or we are going to continually see the attacks on black people the the anti- Dei attacks what are they calling it now like what and then y’all just saw recently how they like attacking the mayor in Baltimore and what they’re saying college educated brother they don’t care and what it’s

All about at the end of the day is power and control we have a group of people predominantly rich white men who are afraid of losing power and control and who are afraid that we’re going to do to them the same thing they’ve done to us

But we’re not because when we lead we lead with love we lead with Humanity we lead with dignity we lead with respect and that’s why it’s important for us to come together and that’s why it’s important for us to knock on doors and make phone calls and when Monae is

Asking for volunteers and things like that like we show up and we show out and we are speaking truth to power 247 so that’s all I got thank you representative Nixon man I don’t know where to go after that um do we have time for Q&A is brother Morton back there

After that spirited dis discussion we don’t have any questions oh okay I didn’t know we were taking questions from alas first let me tell you with the elections office and and that is one of our priorities is to be in every high school public and if we can even private uh

During the 10 years I was supervisor between 2005 and 15 we registered 68,000 young people during that period of time uh Senator Davis was very instrumental as part of her Education team of getting out there in every school and doing that and we did it also by encouraging the

Schools we we created awards for the ones who read registered the most um I will say some things have changed a little bit with the Motor Voter and people being able to register sometimes both online as well as when they get their driver’s license but I find still

So important to get out there into the schools because I’ll find even seniors who will not have registered you know but our role is definitely although the way the state law reads is it puts the requirement on each of the public institutions to have some period of time

Within the year to encourage a voter registration drive we feel like we’re the best instrument to come in well we come in sometimes with our own staff we come in also if we need more we bring pole workers we have had other groups come in we’ve had the

NAACP uh the different parties come in with us as we did voter drives not to encourage anyone in any particular party but just to be there and being able to to assist the question you know how do I do this what do I have to do what what

Are the requirements and also what’s so good and this has been passed now for almost 20 years is that people on the ages 16 and 17 can pre-register which makes it awesome because after they pre-register if their address doesn’t change they’ll get that voter card just

As soon as they turn 18 you know and and get into the process so again we step forward as one of the the biggest groups really advocating and Desiring to get back in that uh we’ve already done photo registration drivve since they came back in last year uh we got in as many

Schools as we could prior to this election cycle starting but we will do big time again as we get into next school year uh but we encourage anyone who wants to help us in the process to reach out to us thank you supervisor Holland I have

Did you want to say something I think it’s also important um to not just register uh our children but also like to educate them about the importance of it and I mean I’m looking at all these beautiful black and black men and women here that you know I think that’s in

Some of the pillars um and so it would be great if uh we could continue to do that and you all can potentially work with uh Mr Holland to to push forth with that initiative thank you supervisor Holland I have another question for you what is being done to assure the voters of

Jacksonville and Duval County that on Election Day say the number of voting sites will not be decreased and voter confusion is kept to a minimum right one of the I I will tell you first of all a challenge I had there was a lawsuit two days before I came into office and it

Was under the equal protection clause and one of the problems was we have 14 city council districts and there was an unequal number of precincts we’ve had we had some districts had as many as 19 and 18 precincts and we had some as few as nine and 10 prec SS on our equal

Protection everyone didn’t have an equal access to voting now in a perfect world we’ just take every city council district and go to 19 precincts but unfortunately finding a polling location and someone willing to uh allow us to be there for that 14 hours the hour before

We open and the hour after we open is very difficult so to settle the lawsuit we had to come up with a happy median which was we would also be no more than that median by one or no less than one so 11 is the median so now there’s not a city council

District with more than 12 or less than 10 so everyone has an equal access we will continue to look at because as we get those council districts who have 10 to get to 11 then our 12s can go to 13 so that we again have an equal number

But it did end up reducing our polling locations from 186 to 160 and so part of the things we did is two things expand that early voting increase that the number of sites my goal is to have an early voting site within four miles of everybody in Duval

County and we hope to before I leave to be to that point even if it means as many as 30 early voting sites uh the polling locations because you know and it was mentioned earlier go to our website if you’re ever concerned now you will get a sample ballot every voter

Should have got a voter information card in November if you lost that or want one you just reach out to us at 255 vote we’ll send you a new one but everyone should have got where your new polling location is but the other side is when you get your sample ballot your sample

Ballot will always show where your voting Precinct is on election day as well as where all the early voting sites are now if any of your polling locations are now no longer a polling location during this election cycle through 2024 we will also have a pole worker position

There so just in case you didn’t see you know look at your sample ballot or didn’t look up where you’re going and by habit you went to where you always went but it’s no longer a polling location I will have workers there to direct you to

Where the new polling location is so I want to continue expanding that and often you know and I work with the council members very closely on that is to see where they can find locations uh that’s a difficult thing and also if you have a location and it’s not you know

Sometimes I had some input in this last election they said you know you were over here at this location and it has bigger par it has more parking and some bigger rooms we’re in a smaller location with less parking can we go back to that so absolutely we said if they’re still

Available we’ll make those adjustments so we always want to get you the best potential site and if you ever feel like hey my church or my community you know uh clubhouse whatever wants to be a polling location reach out to us we do compensate for the use of it it’s not a

Lot but from a standpoint to take care of the expenses you know we do that but also it’s it’s a way to really have your community reach out and come to your location you know that’s why so many of our churches you know because of many

Issues that were on the ballot a lot of churches said they didn’t want to be pulling locations some more you know but we still have a lot of churches that are polling locations but we’ll get people also saying I don’t want to go in a

Church to vote you know so it’s hard to please everybody but we try very hard so give us your input but that’s our status now polling locations and what we’re doing but we will continue to fight to get you more locations go ahead thank you one thing I

Wanted to add um about the question and confusion around polling sight so there’s a program called election protection and voter protection we use the terms interchangeably that’s nonpartisan volunteers are trained organizations aner them FL the rising being one of them on just how to help people navigate and locate their precin

Locations if they’re having an issue once they leave the prein locations often times people go home they decide not to vote during the time crunch it’s their lunch break they’re frustrated so we may see a voter that looks maybe a little disgruntled and say hey is there

Anything we can help you with or they may come to us because we’re normally wearing a t shirt that says voter protector we’re giving them either a device or how to use their device to find everying we have handouts on types of identification they may need how to contact the supervisor of elections

Office and if we’re hearing like serious problems we help escalate it so they may not feel comfortable calling the S soe we’ll call for them we’re documenting these instances and seeing which prents may have um continuous problems so we’re able to address that in a conversation

With the S soes later we also have attorneys who are on site either at the preent locations or via phone who are also documenting and seeing if legal action or if they need to intervene if there’s a reason why a vote is not being cast or if there’s a problem attic

Precinct that’s not being resolved we’ve had instances where machine may have been down not necessarily in County um but it does but but and and and you know things happen and it’s you know you have a time period where we expect it to be resolved when it’s not what are the next

Steps so we don’t leave that in the hands of Voters that can be very frustrating we have this program and we’re always looking for volunteers to be trained to be stationed at these locations I’m there sometimes 6 o’clock in the morning before PR open all the way late until the evening on Election

Day and during early voting times as well so that’s another opportunity to get engaged and for people to get some nonpartisan information on how to vote and I’ll just add this and Jerry I’ll do this for you Jerry so looking out in this audience when you’re talking about

Um precincts the other side of this is organizing to be able to handle a Precinct so I’m looking at and that was that had a little bit to do with why I asked Divine n to stand up in the beginning you all I’m looking at these groups around the organizations um our

Fraternity here that’s put this on you all can be trained to actually handle a Precinct yourselves and it could be um dollars and cents that it’s given back to your organization or it’s dollars and cents that you can donate to somewhere else so so think about that you can be

On both sides of this and we always need Jerry uh Jerry supervisor always need people to go in other areas where they don’t necessarily live to make sure that we’re balanced when it comes to political parties so just just think about that as a a fundraiser and another way to get

Involved um rep representative Nixon started on it but I just want to say this and I’m gonna finish divine nine we have to do more than what we’re doing thank you next question as transplants I read a I read a um statistic a few weeks ago that said 17 people were moving to

Jacksonville every day so having said that question is as transplants move to the city what are the first things that they can do to become integrated in solutions that positively impact legislation so basically they’re asking how can they get involved they can join Monae and my organizations Florida for all or Florida

Rising so Florida for all. vote you should take out your phones right now go to Florida for all die vote sign up we’re actually having a deeper discussion next week in regards to um legislative session we’re also going to have Andrew pantazi who’s going to talk about the new redistricting ruling that

Just came out uh on yesterday um we actually had a black messenger training that would have been great great for you all to be on tonight um but you’re here and so we do those weekly to give you all like the talking points and to be able to combat the

Disinformation because there’s a lot of that out of there out there and it’s not just misinformation there’s actual disinformation that’s being spread to get us to uh confused get us confused and to get us to think that certain things aren’t like working and all kinds of stuff so um we actively have ongoing

Meetings uh for black people um to educate them on that and then we also have uh a program called the path to power in which we could uh come into your organization um and schedule workshops that lead you to understand about uh the different ideologies um and how uh we are actually

Oppressed right now even if we’re making over six figures um because again uh as I stated earlier a black woman is still in this day and age three times more likely to die giving child birth right um the wealth Gap is still really bad um

And and huge as it relates to uh black people um and so we talk about that we get into that and we uh get folks active and engaged and we also like help train people to get elected so like I was um fun fact I was the first organizer here

For then Florida New Majority which morphed into new Florida majority which merged into Florida Rising which is the organization that mon now uh works for and so I was able to learn about organizing and learn how to run campaigns and able to take out an incumbent that thanked God for slavery

And so yeah um we’re here so ditto to what Angie said about Florida for all and those opportunities for training um if you go to Florida rising.org um we have monthly people’s assemblies at our office on Davis Street some of our members or folks who have attended our people’s assembly are here

Today so I appreciate y’all um we do have opportunities to take folks of Tallahassee during legislative session for our advocacy days um our dues paying members is $25 a month I mean excuse me a year to be a dues paying member you go all cost paid to Tallahasse we go during

Committee weeks as rep Mixon was talking about before the action really gets going we also train and mobilize folks down to city council we have been plaintiffs on winning um litigation we were one of the plaintiffs who won we District in here in the city of Jacksonville and an additional District district

14 he’s gone councilman robman Johnson is now gone but um those are opportunities that you have to engage with us we train we mobilize we activate um we travel and we do all the things so Florida rising.org if you want to get involved and you can come to our

Meetings without being a member but eventually you will be so right uh a couple things as we mentioned about pole workers and adopting a pring one is uh if you noticed in the table coming in there should have been calendars you see this uh voter guides to show all your elected officials and

Also a pamphlet being a pole worker and uh really reaching out to me if you want to adopt a Precinct uh on our website at Duvall elections. goov is my cell phone number many of you have it it’s 904 318 6877 I give out my cell phone number

You can call me anytime text me anytime these ladies have it they do and so you know but go to my website it’s there on the front page you can always reach out to me on any of those questions on how to get involved to be a a pole

Worker number again is 904 318 6877 you’re welcome and let’s not forget the n ACP I think they’re they have been a they’re they’ve been a partner here tonight so you can always join that group I’m sure James Morton before we leave we’ll give numbers and the email

Address to that but do not forget about joining the NAACP both um ladies R Nixon and mon Holder have described what what happens with NAACP as well as far as training and education and so it helps you um get your foot in the door to be able to help candidates um help messages

Help just help the the black community as a whole with getting the word out we have to get back to what we used to do to be successful um and that’s knocking on doors and making the phone calls we got to do the work so again don’t forget the [Applause]

NAACP all right here’s a sticky one would any of you like to comment on the recent decision regarding Congressional redistricting and I guess the fact that we don’t have a federal representative in Jackson I mean I will I let a peaceful protest on the house floor to

Raise awareness about it um so yeah I mean it’s a huge slap in the face right and so we I’m still happy that we have the opportunity uh to potentially win the state case and y’all are Plaines on it right mon yeah we were Plaines on it

And try to is um move forward with an appeal then we’re still in the the legal process around this and so it’s going to be kicked up to the Supreme Court and um it if they do what’s right we will get our seat back but again you know those

Seats are appointed by the governor and this is again why everything is so important like he’s the governor gets the opportunity to appoint judges across the state as well as you know the Supreme Court for and so that’s why it’s super important for us to to go out and

Vote um and to get involved and hold them accountable year round and so um happy that organizations like Florida Rising are leaning in to that um but again it’s really important for us to like continue to tell people like how things are connected and the fact that

Everything we do is related to who’s in office whether we have clean air to breathe clean water to drink I.E Flint Michigan Jackson Mississippi right um whether we have an educator shortage as I stated we have an over 7,000 educator shortage here in the State of Florida

And yet we’re more concerned uh with rainbow flags on County buildings and so like that is going to negatively impact us but um yeah there there’s still hope in as it relates to that that court case uh on the state level um we will probably not challenge it uh on the

Federal level anymore uh because we don’t want to set a negative precedent we don’t have um the right court right now on a federal level as far as the US Supreme Court so we’re just looking at what transpires in the fair districting uh in the in the state courts right

Now excuse me I got a question from the audience sure uh to the panel is probably the legislators um got this question from a Reigns High School teacher is it possible that you can offer professional development training or funding for professional development training for teachers so that teachers

Can promote and educate students on the importance of voting I guess the panel’s looking at me since I since I’m a former special education teacher um we do put pots of money there so um people look at us and say legislators why are you not giving us a raise we have 67

Count six and seven school districts in the state and so we give our job is to complete a balance budget so we put Millions it’s been millions of dollars um probably billions to do our base student allocation to put give money for professional development it’s V it’s a

Various um group of pots of money that we give so we as legislators do not give raises we give the 67 school districts the money to give raises what we’re not doing is giving enough money for raises you understand what I’m saying so the governor said we he wanted everyone at

475 and we’ve gotten there but your veteran teachers are still left out of that because as we raised the that primary initial um pay to 475 we’re not allow allotting or giving enough money to give the veteran teachers the raise they need but we are giving to answer

The question we are giving money to professional development it’s just what the school districts do with it and so I want to speak to that um because we shouldn’t want the school district to just be the only ones that do it right um you know we have currently the legisl

Uh well the governor issuing directives the anti-di directives to uh the director of the Board of Ed the commissioner of the Board of Education and so we we don’t want to teach their curriculum because their curriculum is wrong it’s inaccurate and it’s going to leave our children behind so it would be

Great if um organizations uh uh we have so one of our partners is Faith in Florida um they have a uh curriculum as a relate and then also Florida rising and Florida bra like we have curriculums to to teach our children and I know like we would

Love for um you all to get paid to do it and to to do the right thing but they don’t want our kids to learn like let’s be real but they’re passing bills in which we’re teaching our kindergarten students about communism and the effects of Communism but you know they’re

Calling people like me a communist because I’m pushing back right that sounds like McCarthyism to me and you know that happened right and so it’s going to be incumbent upon us to uh go outside the four W Four Walls of school and like teach our children um in the

Communities Shameless pluck there is a new bookstore coming to town on the North side called Cafe resistance and we would love for you all to come and to teach our children there um it is 5007 suel Drive um and we would love for you all again to come to to help educate our

Children so that we can actually take back uh our state supervisor Holland Edward Waters University recently received an early its early vote early voting location back for the 2024 election what should we as a community be doing in our community to make sure that location remains a viable location after this

Election the most important thing is go vote there and use it you know because the pressure becomes when and even you know council members look at you know well why are you at this location nobody votes there you know and it makes it hard to justify if there’s another area

Town that you know has a higher number or maybe they say more people early vote in that particular part of town so I I’m committed to having it there throughout my you four years that I’ll be supervisor of elections but for future Generations it’s about participation in these early voting sites it’s about

Going there using them and that way we can say hey we definitely want to keep that look how many people come and vote there because it back to that goal again trying to get people to vote before election day takes the pressure off of the polls on Election Day so biggest

Encouragement is please go use that facility thank you thank you any other questions that’s my favorite pole worker that’s your that’s my pole worker good evening thank you guys for coming out oh okay oh is that better okay um my question is my passion is that as I know

That there’s very few of us in the legisl ative process in Tallahassee and around the country and my question to you is what would you recommend and suggest that we could do to get our young kids more interested and involved in the political process because from what I see there’s

Very few of our young kids that even know what the process is okay and if they don’t know what the process is they’re not going to get involved and the other part of that is could we in fact create a program we have a program uh called the lamplighters

Program in Omega and it’s a mentoring program for our young black kids could we create a program similar to that and for lack of a better word I’ll call it the young legislators and get our young kids in the community to be a part of that program give them incentives to be a

Part of that program and teach them the importance of being involved in the legislative process because they need to be there because other people are creating and developing what their lives are going to be and we don’t even have a say in it and you guys know better than

We know cuz you sit there and and and uh experience it every day how can we get our young kids interested and more involved in becoming a part of the political process and a candidate to be a part of this legislative agenda to make a difference for

Us I’ll start it off um it sounds like to me you’re you’re halfway there I don’t know what you do with your lamp lighters and what that curriculum is but I will I will talk to you about what was done in the elections office when I was there and you’re

Talking about bringing young people in you we have to go get them that’s number one number two I can’t talk to a high schooler like another high schooler can talk to a high schooler that’s number two but when you go get them um and bring them in they they they do begin to

Develop a sense of wanting to know that energy of learning from their peers and then it’s not so much I’m here and I’m embarrassed to be here they they want to do things we just got to go get them the issue is a lot of times at you know what

What am I 30 um I don’t Just Go With It Just Go With It 30 30 years old I can’t talk to you know 18 year old so keep that in mind so I tell this story to say when I was with the elections office we did something called team teen teen

Election awareness movement and they were our voices and we went to get them we sent a letter to the high school we didn’t ask for an age we didn’t ask for um a grade point average we said we just want a student that’s interested in what this is elections history understanding

Voting and we literally ended up with the cream of the crop from almost every school in Duval County one of our students was a young lady who scored the highest on the SAT we didn’t ask for that but that’s what this that’s the person that the school gave us to

Represent they helped us with commercials they helped us with messaging to younger people they created their own messages they participated in things and they begin to relate they were able to relate to each other to go back because they were our ambassadors go back to their schools and tell what

We were doing so they helped us educate other high schoolers as to the importance of voting as to what they were doing as to the curriculum we were trying to put them to and make put them through and make it interesting for them as well so they were our ambassadors

They shared and that’s how we were able to um probably deal with what 20 maybe 20 15 20 students um and and they were again they were great but the cream of the CR so I would say um we can start something like that however like you already have the children there and

So um our organizations can come in and like work to again establish workshops ongoing workshops or cohorts to plug your students in like that’s the easiest way to go we have to start meeting people where they are because you can you can have events and throw this all

Day like they not coming if you don’t if they don’t know you like you got to go to them right and let them know that you’re interested um and I think that’ll be the easiest way right and then we also have in our workshops we teach your

Children how to organize so like they will learn about politics and all the things and path to power but they also learn how to go get their peers right um and so we are willing to do that uh we can develop curriculum that way we’ve done it for the NAACP at their

Convention with their youth Council um we do it all across the state and we have an organization that is on our board that is our one of our core Partners called The Dream Defenders these the Dream Defenders uh were founded because they were uh bth cookman students and fam you students that were

Upset that uh Jo no George Zimmerman did not get arrested after killing Trayvon Martin so they started at BCU they met up at bco BCU and they marched all the way to stf for and sat outside the the sheriff’s office until they arrested George Zimmerman like they want to start

A chapter here and they’re trying to figure it out and so like it would be possibly a great partnership to have the Lamplighter um and the different organizations that uh have youth groups to potentially funnel into them and they they would be great at leading a workshop to just you know instill that

Little nugget and agitate the kids to to want to to form a chapter and so we’re willing and to to do that for you all I think one thing I’ll add too um is I think those are longer term opportunities for them to really get trained but if you just want a taste

Of what like the legislative process or political process is there’s also the page of messenger programs up in Tallahassee that I think y’all know a senator and a State Rep who can help get your children into that program um I know like I’m the leg chair for the

Jacksonville chapter of Jack and Jill when we take our teens up to Tallahasse they get an excused absence for going to Jack and Jill day at the capital so you can either come with Florida rising and our advocacy day bring your children there’s no limit to the amount that can

Come and they can spend those days in Tallahasse learn the process meet legislators sit in the gallery watch how votes are happening and be excused from school and I believe there is a internship or a similar to the page mess program for City coun because I knew a

Few students who were part of that as well so talk to some of the local elected leaders to figure out how you can plug your kids into those programs I I know even the time I served oning a city council is and I know council members still do this today is

If you ever want to bring a class in and they’ll do a mock city council meeting for them and let them propose legislation and you know have one being the chair or the president of the council it’s amazing you know how influential that is is to students when

They sit up there on that dis or when they view the capital when you go through are impressive and I think that sets that spark in a young person to say you know one day as an adult I want to sit up here one day I want to sit in in

The rep seat or the senator seat you know I want to sit I want to be council president one day it’s setting those Sparks that I think really helps a lot and engaging young people in those activities I think is a perfect way thank you at this time I want to

Bring a friend to the stage um most of you already know who he is he I don’t think he needs an introduction but he currently serves as the vice Bess of the thety chapter of Omega Sci-Fi fraternity Incorporated ladies and gentlemen Mr Octavius [Applause] holiday good evening everyone I will not

Labor the hour um would like to say again thank you to the panelists for accepting the invitation to be here um I for one have been educated on so many things I thought I I knew everything but you all have been exceptional this evening so thank you um also I do want

To acknowledge my boss list again Jason Hardwick uh we do have brother Randy Johnson perhaps still in the audience who is our Omega SciFi Statewide vrim as we call it Board Registration mobilization chair um also want to honor the U the pastors of this house also both the Megan men as well as

The the son I guess U Bishop senior and B Bishop junor um I do want to also make sure that we mentioned even though this started out as a as a joint project for the U NAACP and theega scii we have some very fine folks right here um Beth uh

Political action Ministry y’all can wave to everybody acknowledge those good folks so just want to let you all know this is just a beginning we were um given a mandate by our grand bossess um to engage the community more I I do believe my spirit was pricked when you all

Mentioned I think um Senator Davis was mentioning that the D9 need to do more we need to do more together so we encourage um uh that to happen and the last one of the last comments about our youth groups getting together I don’t think that has happened yet the D9 each

One of us have mandates to help the community and we can have all of our youth groups at some Summit at some point we have the best and the brightest in Jacksonville under our toig and our leadership that would be an awesome opportunity as well so with that thank

You all for coming out um I believe brother Brown has a few last statements where is he over here but again thank you very much appreciate your attendance and hope you learn something honestly we’re preaching to the choir with you all we are doing this to spark an interest

Spark some kind of a um give you some knowledge that you can take out to others and share with others so again thank you very much thank you brother holiday ladies and gentlemen as our empowering event draws to a close I wish to extend my sincerest

Gratitude to each and every one of you for your invaluable contributions firstly I would like to express heartfelt thanks to the bethl family and Bishop Rudolph mckisic Jr for graciously opening the doors of their facilities to host this transformative Gathering your generosity and support have provided us with a remarkable platform to unite

Inspire and affect positive change within our community I also would like to extend a special thank you to the dedicated staff and amazing members who work tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure the success of this event your commitment hard work and enthusiasm Have Been instrumental in making tonight’s event a resounding

Success additionally I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the political action Ministry for their un favoring dedication and tireless efforts in organizing and coordinating this event your passion for advocacy and social change is truly inspiring and has been and it has been an honor to work alongside such dedicated

Individuals in closing I am filled with gratitude for the opportunity to come together as a community and reaffirm our shared commitment to Unity empowerment and progress Let Us carry the spirit of tonight’s event forward as we continue to work to together toward building a brighter future for all thank you once

Again to everyone who has played a part in making this event possible your contributions have made a lasting effect and I look forward to continuing this journey a positive change together I want to thank the panelists for spending your time with us the last hour and a half um this was certainly invaluable

Yes give him a hand I hope this is the first of many of these forums and with that everyone have a good night and drive safe and before you all leave there is a table that’s out front because some of us have to run again so if you at Jacksonville resident

Please stop by that table out there and complete that form for Senator Tracy Davis thank you I

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