Leon County Commission Meeting Briefs: March 18, 2025

Below are the meeting briefs from the Leon County Commission meeting held on March 18, 2025.

The Board approved Consent Items 1-19.

The consent items included five status reports: Fiscal Year 2024 Code Enforcement, Nuisance Abatement, and Code Compliance Programs Annual Report, Tallahassee-Leon County Board of Adjustment and Appeals 2024 Annual Report, 2024 Supervised Pretrial Release Program Report, February 2025 Quarterly Economic Dashboard Report, and the Fiscal Year 2024 Annual Domi Entrepreneurial Community Impact Report.

General Business

Item 20: The Board voted to establish the Fiscal Year 2026 maximum discretionary funding levels for outside agencies including the Community Human Services Partnership. The Board established the Community Human Services Partnership funding level for FY 2026 at $1,445,000. The Board established the non-departmental maximum discretionary funding level for FY 2026 at $74,500 for special events funding.

Item 21: The Board voted to support the funding request from The Henry Hill Foundation, Inc., of $15,000 for the annual Emancipation Day Celebration.  The Board previously provided $6,000 for this event in 2024, and during the February 2025 meeting, directed staff to prepare an agenda item to consider continued funding for the upcoming May 17, 2025 event.

The Henry Hill Foundation’s Emancipation Day Celebration has been a long-standing tradition in Leon County for over 100 years.  Held annually at Henry Hill Park, located at 1835 Centerville Road in Tallahassee, the free event provides attendees with food, live entertainment, and educational programming highlighting the historical significance of emancipation.  The celebration commemorates May 20, 1865, when Union General Edward McCook publicly read the Emancipation Proclamation from the steps of Tallahassee-Leon County’s Knott House.  Historically, the Henry Hill family independently funded this celebration, but recent increases in attendance, rising operational costs, and the passing of key family members have created financial constraints, prompting the Foundation to seek County assistance.

Item 22: The Board voted to realign $1 million in federal Emergency Rental Assistance funding previously approved by the Board for the Tallahassee Housing Authority’s Columbia Gardens at South City affordable housing project (formerly the Orange Avenue Apartments).  This realignment will ensure that the Emergency Rental Assistance funds will be utilized by the federal expenditure deadline.

Item 23: The Board voted to conduct the first of two public hearings for the Federal Fiscal Year 2024 Small Cities Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) opportunity and receive citizen input on community needs that could be funded through the grant opportunity prior to drafting an application. The CDBG is a federal program that provides funding for housing and community development activities.

The County’s CDBG Citizens Advisory Task Force (CATF), which is established and appointed by the Board, met on March 5, 2025, and recommended that the County seek CDBG funding for improvements to the Fort Braden Community Center.

Local governments are required to hold at least one public hearing before drafting a grant application to provide an opportunity for citizens input on community needs that could be addressed with CDBG funding.