Gainesville City Commission hears crime update, sticks with budget decisions, and moves forward with plans for Lot 10 and a Cultural Arts Center

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the August 21 meeting, the Gainesville City Commission discussed changing their previous budget decisions but decided against the changes, heard a quarterly crime update, and moved forward with Lot 10 and a Cultural Arts Center.

GPD update

During the morning session, Commissioners heard the quarterly presentation from Gainesville Police Department; Chief Nelson Moya highlighted a reduction in homicides from 8 to 3, a 50% decrease in robberies, and a 17% decrease in aggravated assault. There was an overall decrease of 16% in the crimes reported to NIBRS. The number of shots fired decreased from 80 to 37 over the first six months of 2025, compared to 2024, and the number of persons shot decreased from 29 to 9. The number of stolen firearms increased from 53 to 74 over the same time period.

Speaking about the department’s workload, Moya said there are 328 open property crimes, and 241 of those have no active leads; 37 cases of internet crimes against children were assigned in the past quarter, and four were closed; 245 fraud cases were assigned in the past quarter, and 16 were closed. 

Lieutenant Lisa Scott highlighted GPD’s efforts in cleaning up homeless encampments, including the Dignity Village area near GRACE Marketplace, an area east of Burlington on NW 13th Street, Furniture Kingdom, the 700 block of NE 18th Terrace, downtown, the Rosa Parks Transfer Station, the Sun Center, the Civic Media Center, the Thomas Center, and Roper Park.

Captain Summer Hallett said traffic homicide investigations are down from last year, with no traffic deaths in the most recent quarter and only one bike/pedestrian fatal crash so far in 2025.  

Click here to see the full presentation.

Budget review

The Commission then had an opportunity to review the decisions they made on August 14 about their budget. Commissioner Casey Willits said he wanted to give Equity and Inclusion Director Zeriah Folston (who said at this meeting that he was the Equal Opportunity Director) an opportunity to defend the Compliance Manager position that was on the list of eight Charter Office positions cut by the Commission. 

Folston said he really only has “one Compliance Investigator right now; it’s not a function that you could really operate at the level that I believe the citizens are expecting, as well as the Commission, with just one person, for obvious reasons.” He said he would “definitely love” to have that position back. 

Willits said he was also concerned about cuts to Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, especially given his goal of persuading the Commission to purchase land for a new park in his district. 

City Manager Curry: “They’re going to come up and say that they need those vacancies, and I would not argue with them. It’s just — at what point do we come to grips with the financial position of the City?”

City Manager Cynthia Curry responded, “The only thing that I can say to you at this point is,… at some point, a hard look has to be taken at the operational side of the budget… Those are priorities and strategic planning discussions that, quite frankly, have to take place here at this level and not individually with each department, because they’re going to come up and say that they need those vacancies, and I would not argue with them. It’s just — at what point do we come to grips with the financial position of the City?”

Willits said he would prefer to keep the Compliance Manager position and take the funds from reserves. Curry said, “If we’re going to start reconsidering, at this point, I think we reconsider all 19 [of the positions that were frozen on August 14].”

Commissioner Ed Book said he was in favor of unfreezing the five police officer positions they had frozen on August 14, with the funds coming from reserves.

Curry said that although eliminating the eight Charter Office positions alleviated some of the losses from GRU bringing services in-house instead of paying the City, “we did not fully reduce the budget, based on the revenue that we lost. And so, until we start to actually reduce our expenditures,… you’re going to see the problem continue to escalate,” with the funds pulled from reserves to cover the gap. She reminded Commissioners that all of the eliminated positions are currently vacant, including the Compliance Manager position. 

Commissioner Cynthia Chestnut said, “In any organization, the Compliance Officer is critical… And so I am concerned if we lose the job at that level, we put ourselves in a position for even more issues to arise. So I would be in favor of bringing back the Compliance Officer positions out of the budget stabilization fund.”

Curry said the reserves, also referred to as the budget stabilization fund, are “the only fallback that the City has to address [repair issues in City buildings] and other emergencies as they come up, which is why I was making the recommendation for us to lean on the budget stabilization fund as little as possible right now.”

Ward: “I’ve said it many times: I’m a New Deal kind of guy. I’d like to hire everybody, but that’s not the situation that we are in. That is not the race we are asked to run right now. There will be a time when that is our race, but that is not the race we’ve been asked to run in this particular budget cycle.”

Mayor Harvey Ward supported leaving the money in the budget stabilization fund as contingency “because I have learned, and we’ve all learned, that the financial stuff does come at us. And none of these cuts are good. I’ve said it many times: I’m a New Deal kind of guy. I’d like to hire everybody, but that’s not the situation that we are in. That is not the race we are asked to run right now. There will be a time when that is our race, but that is not the race we’ve been asked to run in this particular budget cycle… I’m not voting for anything different than we did last week.”

First motion

Chestnut said, “I don’t want this done to a Charter Officer now, so I would like to move that we bring back the Compliance Officer in the Equity and Inclusion Department, because I believe that if you’re going to have an Equity Office, a critical position is Compliance. So I move that we bring back the Compliance Officer to the Equity and Inclusion Department, to be funded out of the budget stabilization fund.” Willits seconded the motion.

The motion failed 3-4, with Book, Chestnut, and Willits voting in favor of the motion. 

Second motion

Book made a motion to unfreeze the five police officer positions, using money from the budget stabilization fund, but there was no second.

Lot 10

The Commission also discussed the future of Lot 10 because AMJ, a developer that purchased the lot from the City in 2021, has indicated that they are unable to get financing for the original development agreement despite six amendments (mainly extensions) over the years. The original agreement specified a mixed-use development with a minimum of seven stories and a minimum of 104 residential condominium units, a minimum of one floor of office space, and a full-service grocery store.

Ward emphasized that the property has not paid taxes for a “very long time” and said he believes there is a need for a “proof of concept for interesting places to live downtown… I think that until we see that proof of concept, there won’t be any building downtown. We need a developer to take the risk on building this, and experience tells us that the City is very clearly going to need to be a part of some of this,” He said the choice for the City was to “move forward and ask staff to work with AMJ” or “walk away and say this is not going to work out for us and go back to the drawing board… I want to get people living downtown.”

Anthony Lyons from AMJ said they plan to build about 126 units that will be studios, one-bedrooms, and two-bedrooms. He said they pay $26,000 a year in taxes on the property and will pay taxes on all units above the 70 units they plan to make affordable. 

Motion

Commissioner Bryan Eastman made a motion to direct staff to draft a ground lease, purchase agreements, and any other necessary documents related to Lot 10 development and to bring those back to the City Commission to complete the transfer of Lot 10 to AMJ. Chief Operating Officer Andrew Persons clarified that Eastman’s intent was for the City to continue negotiating with AMJ to agree on a project that would be financially feasible for the developer. Chestnut seconded the motion, and the motion passed unanimously. 

Cultural Arts Center

During the evening session, the Commission heard the same information they heard in March about the feasibility of establishing a Cultural Arts Center in East Gainesville; at the March meeting, the consultant reported that they were unable to find a suitable building for a Cultural Arts Center, so City staff said they would “pivot” to a programming-first approach at multiple locations instead of housing everything in a single building. 

Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker thanked staff for being willing to bring the issue back to the Commission; she added that she didn’t want anyone to think she was insensitive to the City’s budget challenges, but “there is a list of heavy-hitting people in this city and in other parts of this state who want to see this happen.” She said she was committing “the entire balance of my Commission travel fund to create a travel opportunity, a field trip of sorts, next month, down to Miami to see a Cultural Arts Center.” She asked her fellow Commissioners to sign up to go on the trip but later said she “heard you can’t go with me… You would have to go on your own.”

She continued, “I want you to hear that Commissioner Duncan-Walker is not saying, ‘I want you to give me $80 million for this facility,’ that’s not what I’m saying, but I am saying I want us to be very deliberate in continuing this conversation.” She said Gainesville is featured in a documentary “as one of the cities that a philanthropist wants to pilot this work in. So there is a real interest, and there are real dollars that are poised to help support us.” She said she plans to go to Miami on September 14 to view the documentary, and “some staff” would be traveling with her.

Ward said, “There are no great cities that do not have great arts, period.”

During public comment, several people spoke in support of a Cultural Arts Center and suggested various spaces. 

Eastman said there have been “nothing but budget cuts” since the newer members of the Commission were sworn in, “and it’s worth remembering that there’s times to dream and to think and to prioritize where we go with things… I’d say that Gainesville… has the best arts scene in all of Florida… There is something that just makes us an incredible arts community.” He pointed out that despite the City’s budget challenges, they had not cut grants to three professional arts organizations — Dance Alive National Ballet, the Gainesville Orchestra, and the Hippodrome Theatre. He encouraged Commissioners to think outside the box and “be very serious about not putting more strains on the staff that have already gone through a whole lot in recent years.”

Commissioner James Ingle said, “While I want to take care of the arts, I want to make sure we’re also taking care of artists. It’s a very hard way to earn a living, you know, and in a place where there’s plenty of economic struggle.”

Ward said that not every institution in the community is in difficult financial circumstances, and “if we all join hands as institutions, we can do very powerful things… If we only look to the City of Gainesville to make something a success, we are likely to be disappointed, because we only have so many resources… If we join hands with all the institutions and everybody steps up,… the sky is the limit… We must find ways to bring all our partners into the space together.”

Motion

Duncan-Walker made a four-part motion:

1. The City Commission agrees to continue discussions about the development of a Cultural Arts Center;
2. Direct staff to convene a working group, comprising internal and external stakeholders, to develop a plan, including review of partnerships, site options (with a preference in the East Gainesville area), and funding mechanisms for operating and capital costs;
3. The working group will provide periodic updates to the General Policy Committee;
4. Schedule a joint meeting with the Alachua County School Board, the Board of Alachua County Commissioners, and representatives of other potential partners to discuss options for collaboration and potential use of the Duval Early Learning Center as a site for the Cultural Arts Center.

Chestnut seconded the motion. 

Duncan-Walker said “one of our colleagues over at the County” said the City should “take a look at a site that’s actually right across the street from Eighth and Waldo,” and Chestnut said, “Someone’s going to call you about that.” 

The motion passed unanimously, with Willits absent.