Ask the Mayor

Support for First Coast Connect is provided in part by Baptist Health and North Florida TPO. What is the real return on investment for your tax dollars? Welcome to First Coast Connect. I'm Ann Schindler. Today, we ask how the city is calculating budget costs and benefits and take your calls and questions in our monthly Ask the Mayor segment. Later in the program, we meet a man whose job was patrolling a bridge that has become a magnet for suicides. He's credited with preventing more than 200 deaths. But first, we're joined as we are each month by Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan to answer our questions and yours about city business. Good morning, mayor. Good morning. Sort of flew in at the last possible site. Sort of reminded me of my days on the anchor desk. That's right. I used to sort of slide in right at the top of the newscast. I guess an accident or something on the Matthews Bridge this morning. But we made it. Racing to set. Is my hair okay? Am I, is my jacket on straight? Your IFBs in. You're good to go. Ready to roll. Just like the good old days. Just like the good old days. I'm glad to have you here. And I want to start because budget, it is budget season. You kicked off your budget late July. We haven't spoken since then. So let's talk a little bit about it. Sure. Return on investment is really the big theme of this budget. You mentioned it about 13 times in a 25-minute speech. You bet. And you gave some examples. One, for instance, improved literacy scores. You said that... You know, the third grader reading on grade level today is part of tomorrow's workforce, tomorrow's tax base, tomorrow's small business community, and tomorrow's public safety outcome. You called this the ROI of Hope made real. So let's talk about return on investment. Yeah. How are you calculating return on investment for tax dollars in this budget? So. What we did, Ann, is we took metrics that we've been using for years, that cities have been using for years to apply for things like federal grants. If you're going to get a FEMA mitigation grant, for instance, you have to show a return on that. You have to show a cost versus benefit. And so we just took those same numbers and we applied them to the city budget. And we used the most conservative ROI that we could come up with. We could have gone a lot further than we did and feel like we could have pushed those numbers a little bit. But we said, let's stay very conservative with it. So people are just understanding what we're trying to get to here. We want people to understand.

that when you're talking about core services, it is not as simple as saying police, fire, and trash. Because any upstream core service, which are things like our libraries, our health programs. our parks, our affordable housing initiatives, all those things have real returns back to the community, the arts. All those things really bring back return on investment in ways like you just pointed out literacy, but there are so many ways in which you have to calculate that in order to receive money when you're going after a grant. We said, let's show people our work here and show why. These are truly core investments if we want to have a world-class city and quality of life that our citizens have come to really want and appreciate. And so I think that was really our... our intention with the ROI numbers, not to say that they're exact numbers, but to say this is an idea for you. And in a very conservative way, we can say to you that we're bringing back $3 for every dollar that we spend investing into your quality of life. Let's just take a little listen to your budget address, and then we can talk about it some more. In our analysis of the economic value generated by city services, each tax dollar provides nearly $3 in return. With that in mind, every spending decision we make, everyone is geared to make Jacksonville more affordable. So the return of one every tax dollar generating three, this is when you break it down as you did, as your chief of analytics did, basically you come up with a taxpayer per taxpayer paying about $2,800, that generating about $8,700 in measurable economic value, and then you calculate that as about a $6,000 return on investment. I think there have been some questions raised, including from our colleagues over at Action News, about how we're calculating these dollars and concerned that an accountant that they spoke to that we shouldn't be treating economic value and return on investment as the same thing. This Sheila Weinberg, who Action News spoke to, the founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting, is saying... Economic value is, you know, a benefit that's created by government services. Return on investment is a financial metric that is basically comparing the benefit to the amount invested and that, you know, one is kind of a percentage, one is a raw dollar figure, and that this analysis conflates those two things. Well, I would say that, consider the source of that if you take a look at this particular...

person that they decided to use for these analytics. You know, this is, this is a right-leaning organization that I think has, I'm not going to say that they're not honest brokers. They may be. But at the end of the day, I think what you're hearing is from people who are more likely to believe that you can simply say this is black and this is white and this is how, this is what we should do as a government, very little. I think what I was trying to show, and I think we did very effectively, and this is what we do with all of our transparency dashboards, is we're trying to show that government is a system. And when one part of that system breaks down, you pay for it in another part of the system. So you're paying or you're paying. And at the end of the day, what we want to provide for Jacksonville citizens... is affordability and a good quality of life. And I think that what we've tried to show with these numbers is exactly how we're achieving that. And I think it's incredibly important for our citizens to understand why are we spending these dollars and what do those dollars return to you? However you want to define that, people need to understand that we're not spending money just to spend money. We are trying to create a better affordability for our citizens. and a better quality of life. And I think people appreciate getting that information. And I don't want to get too deep in the weeds. I know that you did offer your chief of analytics to come on and discuss this more in depth if we wanted. When we talk about the value of something, I think the other concern raised is, does this analysis take into account all of the years that have already been invested in a project? For instance, if we're talking about a library and the value and a single year's budget allocation versus all of the assets that a library has, all of the staff that it's acquired over the years, the construction of the building, the acquisition of the site. that a single tax year's budget wouldn't obviate all of that, wouldn't get rid of all of that built up asset if, for instance, the City Council chose not to fund a certain library branch in a year? Well, certainly that's true, but I think what we're trying to show, Anne, is what are you getting in return for all of that investment? And I think that that... And as I have said to the city council, I think what they are most likely to cut are the things that I think bring some of the greatest return to our citizens. And so I want to show people, what are you losing for that? You know, what happens? And I have said to them, you know, we talk about affordability. but we got to put our money where our mouth is in terms of actually making that happen. And I think that when we're showing these numbers to people, whether it's, you know, everything through past investment or what we're investing now, I think it is showing not only the intention, but the real return on what people are getting. So I think it's important to share that with our citizens. So, you know, as I said, I didn't think that we were going to have to explain.

you know, to the treat government like a business crowd that that return on investment was important. I think businesses get this. You know, I think they understand why we have our lien processes in place. We talk about what that brings us back in return as far as hours saved and ultimately hours saved is money saved. So, you know, you can act like it's, it's some ethereal thing out there, but it really isn't. People need to understand that everything's connected. It's not just, I know there are folks that say, you know, let's just return everything back to our citizens. Well, you know what? In a city budget. there are systems that we all pay for, whether it's police or fire or infrastructure or whatever it is. And I think most people say, I get a benefit from the library. I get a benefit from those wonderful world-class parks. I get a benefit from some of these amenities that we've created as a city. And I think we're simply trying to put as close as we can a number. connected to that. Some were rather stark, even within the kind of what is defined as core services, one stuck out to me is the value of a human life. This is a statistical, you know, assigned value that's created by the Department of Health and Human Services. That's exactly right. 13.13.1 million per life. And you're calculating not. the overall drop in homicides at this city saw, but the drop in homicides beyond what the rest of the nations saw in sort of this post-pandemic decline in homicides. So those deaths beyond what the average was that this city saw and then calculating that based on the value of a human life. That's right. And let's remember this, too, as we're looking at all this, these are our ways to try to be as transparent with our citizens as possible. When you look at this budget, it is still more than half goes to first responders. much more of the rest of what's left goes to infrastructure. And what we're arguing about around the edges are some of these programs that we feel are incredibly important in terms of quality of life and return to our citizens. So it is still a very heavily meat and potatoes budget in terms of what... commonly are considered core services. But our argument is for why we continue to want to invest in affordable housing, for instance, in health care. There is a huge return on that telehealth program, $2 million invested in $9 million return to our citizens for that. So I'm going to continue to try to share with people why I think. If you're trying to create jobs in a community, if you're trying to bring companies to a community, which we are trying to do, I think this has been a very pro-business administration. We are arguing against many other cities in this country, and companies are choosing not just on low taxes, which we have.

They are choosing on quality of life for the people they're going to be bringing in here and creating jobs for. And so we have to create and continue to create a world-class city. And that's what we're attempting to do. We're talking to Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan. We're taking your calls and questions as well. You can reach us on air at 904-549-37. Or you can email at first coast connect at wjCT.org. A question from Scott via email on the public safety issue saying, why did we have to pay $750? $50,000 for the study to locate the new jail. This seems excessive. I don't think it's excessive at all. I think it's a multi-billion dollar investment. And I think that we want to make sure that we have the best site that we can possibly have for that. And that has to be a site that is a very large site compared to what we have right now, because this is going to be more of a horizontal campus as opposed to a vertical one, which is going to have a lot of components to it. What is a study like that looking at that would... explain why the cost is so high. Well, I think we're looking at every possible iteration of where this might go. And that includes, you know, every neighborhood, every, you know, taking a look at at. what's surrounding, you know, that site. But it's got to be a very large site, Anne. And it's got to be something that's amenable, obviously, to the sheriff for what he thinks that he's going to need for law enforcement and also to our citizens. So I think it makes sense to turn over every stone to make sure we're getting the best site for something that we're probably going to be using for the next, you know, 40 or 50 years. Another email from Doug saying, thank you so much for doing roadwork here in Ocean Way. It is sorely needed. Please continue to do so. Thank you for the great job that you do. Thank you. Jim emailing regarding return on investment, if you don't fund that the library in this budget, if you don't fund that library in this budget and the library shuts down, you lose all of that accumulated value. That's right. I mean, and look. these are arguments we can continue to have based on philosophy. But at the end of the day, it's hard to argue that there really are, there are numbers that have to be brought to bear for these. There is a value, as you said, to a life. There is a value to these services, and we need to find a way to quantify that for our citizens. Question from M.G. Saying really disappointed in the mayor's stadium priority and anything the Jaguar owner demands, most people are more concerned with infrastructure and neighborhoods. Return on investment isn't empty, maybe. Well, I don't agree with that, obviously. I think that not only is that new stadium going to bring incredible economic development to our city, it's also going to allow us to bring in concerts and other things for our citizens that they're going to really enjoy. But beyond that, that was attached with $300 million community benefits agreement, which we are starting to see in this year's budget in terms of...

of spending out east and in other in all every every single council district so i think there's a great deal attached to that and i and i frankly um i take exception to the to the to the commentary about anything I think we've had a great partnership with the Jaguars. I think we were able to extract in those negotiations the largest community benefit in the history of the NFL. So I don't, I think, I think in all ways, that was a win for our city. And if you look at some of these stadium agreements now that are going on around the country, I think we compare very, very favorably. So unless we decided we didn't want the Jaguars here anymore, which I don't think the majority of citizens would say they would feel that way. This wasn't, this. was going to be something that had to be done. And I think we came up with the very best agreement that we could come up with. I want to ask you a little about bond ratings. I mean, just kind of in the financial vein, because we just got some new ratings on Jacksonville's 2026 special revenue bonds by Fitch. This was a double A rating. And I just want you to kind of explain. I know that that's something that your administration has. touted as, you know, great news. Explain to us why that matters to an ordinary person, what your... city bond ratings well because if you care about your tax dollars you care about the rate at which you're able to borrow and and this will allow us to have much better borrowing rates um it'll allow us for much better use of taxpayer dollars you know we'll spend less and uh and i think that the people are and it also i think signals to to companies and others who want to invest here that that we are we're a good place to do business we're a reliable place we're a stable government um and and and we're doing a good job financially um you know i i i i I am really gratified that every, every unbiased source that's not political or, um, um, um, or not trying to make some sort of partisan point, has really made a point of saying that this administration has done a great job in terms of return for its citizens on tax dollars. And this is just another way. That double A rating helps save us money and helps attract business to our city. We've got a call from Tom. Good morning, Tom. Go ahead. Ah, good morning to you all, too. I just want to ask this, if we've just spent 750 million, I mean, yeah, 750,000 to find a new site for the new jail, can we at least invest some money in a study to find out how much it would cost to renovate the old jail? That way we could have a realistic comparison of cost and benefit between the two.

Thanks, Tom. So $750,000 he's referencing for this study. Is there any effort to, or any consideration of trying to renovate and rehab that downtown jail as it exists? There isn't, and for a variety of reasons. This new campus that we will be building is going to include sort of an all-in-one campus. It will not only have the jail, but it will have the juvenile facility. It will have. a medical facility. There will be a large and, as I said, more horizontal campus where everything will be there together. And I think that will be helpful. But also, this piece of property for years, we've been talking about... how valuable it is to the future of our city. You know, we could have a convention center there. We could have any number of things there. Right across from our riverfront seems that not a very, you know, logical place to have your jail facility. And I think that, look, I understand that it's a lot looking at trying to move this, but it's going to happen and needs to happen. And I think we have passed the point where any sort of... determination of keeping that current facility there for so many reasons. I don't think we're going to spend any money on that front. So we got an email earlier this morning from Sean with questions about flock cameras. That's been in the news a lot lately. Concerns about the surveillance that they're conducting, perhaps warrantless surveillance in some cases. There's been concerns that perhaps they've been used to track. protesters or, you know, people who have been objecting to one or another policy. So his questions, there's several. I just kind of run through him. Can we get clarification around flock cameras in the area? Did citizens improve these in the first place? Who's funding them if it's local dollars? Do we have a right to access? How's the placement determined or authorized? What kind of oversight and what is done with the data? Well, it's my understanding that JSO uses the technology to track a vehicle once it's on their radar but does not track the entire vehicle's history. There's not any ongoing tracking as far as these things are concerned according to JSO. But I understand people's privacy concerns. And I don't think that I think that JSO has been able to argue that they have been able to. to use these cameras to solve crimes and to provide relief to families. And I think that what they will also need to do is make people feel comfortable about how they're using those cameras. And that I will say, I think that the sheriff has been pretty transparent in most ways about how he's used whatever he has. has used in terms of technology and other things. So, but there are questions that deserve straight answers for sure. Um, any technology that's this powerful has to come with transparency and how it's being used. And that's what we are told. Um, but, but I will say that, you know,

I appreciate the fact that in law enforcement, you want to use every tool in the shed to try to solve crimes. But that has to come with a balance of transparency and how they're being used. Beyond that, I really don't know much more about how flock cameras are used beyond what we're told by JSO. And they are the ones that are that are. providing these and funding these. And so as we're in budget season, and we mentioned that the public safety budget is half or more of our city budget, what opportunities are there for people to ask questions like this of the sheriff and the budget request that he's made of the city? Well, the sheriff, you know, has held a lot of town hall meetings himself. You know, we're in a currently in a new round of town hall meetings. We have another one on Thursday night over at Landon High School, by the way. But I know the sheriff has had a number of those. town hall meetings too. And I think that's an opportunity for people to ask those questions. And I do think they're important questions. People deserve to understand that their privacy is being protected. And I would encourage people to ask those. And also of the city council, as this budget is considered? Certainly. I mean, you can contact your city council person. I would say again that I think these are questions that are best left to. for explanation at least, to the sheriff's office because they're the ones that are using these and they need to explain to the public exactly how they're protecting people's privacy. And like I said, what we've heard so far is that they're very limited in their scope. But I understand the questions and the concerns. I'm curious what you're hearing from local law enforcement on the property tax cut issue. We know that there has recently been a concerted push by first responders around the state, including the Sheriff's Association, the Firefighters Association, big statewide groups. fraternal order of police saying this is bad for law enforcement. It's bad for first responders. They're raising concerns about delayed 911 calls, you know, hiring being slowed down. So, but I haven't heard from our local law enforcement that that issue being raised, pushback on the proposed property tax amendment. Are you hearing that? Absolutely. In fact, in fact, police and fire have already come out and said that they are opposed. to this amendment. And I'm sure you're going to hear more from them. Remember, they came out very, very strong last year against the eighth of a mill decrease. Can you imagine eliminating $250,000 in property taxes, a $300 million hole in the budget and expecting that it's not going to affect public safety? So they are very concerned about this. I think you'll hear a lot from them and statewide. You've heard some folks from the Sheriff's Association already come out and make some comments about this. And I think it's really important. because I think there's a lot of trust for those organizations. And I think people will understand that despite, you know, what you're hearing, and I'm sincerely hopeful that the rewrite of this language will be a lot more frank with people in terms of what's at stake. But you're just not going to blow a $300 million hole in a budget and not affect...

public safety. It affects everything. It affects everything. And people need to understand what the consequences are. All right. We've got a call from Ms. Green. Good morning. Go ahead, please. Yes, good morning to you both. I just want to say, Mayor Deegan, I do, I am a fan. I do think you're doing a good job. But the question that I would ask you today is, do you really want your, you know, you're leaving March to be the mayor that was fiscally irresponsible enough to play a pivotal role in a billion dollar jail being built in the city of Jacksonville? Well, look, it sounds like this is a topic for a lot of people right now, and this is something we've been talking about for years. We have to have a justice facility in Jacksonville that is workable. That facility that we currently have is simply... It's in horrible shape. It doesn't fulfill the needs that we need as a growing city. I mean, it is kind of unsafe. It is unsafe. And nobody wants to go and spend a billion dollars on a jail. This is what we have been looking at is sort of a build lease situation. But we'll look at all that as we go forward. But look. It is important that we have a justice facility that is workable for our city and our citizens. So I appreciate your kind comments and also your concerns. But I think this is something that both myself, the sheriff, the city council, and hopefully most of our citizens understand that we have got to have a usable safe. criminal justice facility in this city and hopefully once this is built this will last us for many decades I want to ask you a little about the race for mayor. Jacksonville's first election is just 224 days away. Okay. How are you preparing? I'm doing the job, Ann. I've said that to you from day one. I just am doing the job. And I am continuing to do everything that I've done since day one in this office. I have leaned into affordability. I have tried to be a voice for those whose voices are rarely heard. And I have done the very best I can to be present, which is why in every single quarter since I've been here, we've been in the communities having town hall meetings all over the city and we'll continue to do that. So I will continue to do the job. I guess is really, when you say how am I preparing, I'm not sure how else to prepare besides to do the job because I don't have time to do much else besides the job. It's a lot of work.

And I'm hoping that as we get into election season, that we can keep between ourselves and the administration and the... and the city council that we can keep in mind our number one job is to make sure that our citizens are our job one and that we are love for jacksonville is at the top of the list so um i'll just i'll talk about all that and all the things that i think we've accomplished as an administration and hopefully we'll get another four years to do more in terms of the job you did just uh hire back, hire chief of staff. Darnell Smith, he is, was worked for you kind of as an executive on loan when he was at Florida Blue. He's since retired from that job. And so now he's back as your chief of staff. So thrilled. Tell us a little bit about, what is the most important quality of a chief of staff for you? Well, Darnell has such an incredible. executive presence. I mean, he really is an amazing executive, but what makes him so special is his love and care for people. He's able to combine this incredible ability as an executive and relationship building with a true love for our city and our people. And trust me, when I tell you that Darnell had plenty of opportunities if he wanted to get back into the workforce to actually make a whole lot more money than he would in city government. But this has been a love for him. He loved being here before. And he and I have kept this conversation going ever since he left. And I said, you know, the moment that you are ready to return, this is why I held that job open. I really, you know, I think both of us sort of had an eye to this once he was finished at Florida Blue. And I think he loves the city tremendously and has a great talent for... getting the very best out of people. And you need that. You know, we have a bunch of talented people up there in this administration. And to have somebody that can get the very most out of them and out of our opportunity as an administration is just so exciting to me. And I'm thrilled to have them back. We just have a short time left. Amazingly, we're getting more calls and questions about the jail. We'll have to kind of put a pin in that until next time. But I do just want to ask you. I mean, you mentioned that you've got these. town halls that are scheduled throughout the next couple of months. That's right. You had your first one last week. What did you hear anything that surprised you, anything that caught you off guard? You know, we had our first one at Rebalt, and I don't, I wouldn't say anything caught me off guard. I think we have to say Rebo now, isn't it? Isn't that the new push? Is that what we're saying? Yeah. Okay, I can do that. All right. But I will say that what we hear all the time when we go into District 7, 8, 9, or 10. is that we need more. This is kind of core city. This city doesn't do enough for us. We're tired of asking for hours. And we've created a new dashboard, which I presented to them, called Promises Kept, because one of our major pushes when I got into office was to make sure that we started to make good on all those broken promises of consolidation. So as I've mentioned to you in the past, we've moved all the capital improvement projects.

In that plan, the whole $576 million or whatever is in capital improvement plan, we've moved things in 7, 8, 9, and 10, all those projects up to the top of the line. So where we used to spend about $2 million a year in those districts, now we're spending $10 million a year in those districts. The Brentwood Library is just one example of that, the $7 million that's going into that. So what we've been able to do on a very micro level, and I hope people will visit that. It's on the website. is gone in and said, here's what we've done to try to make good on those broken promises. And people can go and look and see. And so it's not to say to those people, we don't need to do more because we do. But it is to say we are making progress and we want to show you our work. Well, Jacksonville Mayor, Donna Deegan, it's always nice to talk to you. Thanks so much for flying in here today. Nice and. Yes. Making it under the wire. Thanks for being here. You bet. All right. Up next, a highway patrolman credited with preventing more than 200 suicides during his time patrolling the Golden Gate Bridge. We had a chance to sit down with him yesterday ahead of his keynote address in St. John's County tomorrow. And just a word of caution, we will be discussing suicide.

Welcome back. A highway patrolman credited with preventing more than 200 suicides during his time working the Golden Gate Bridge is now an advocate for suicide prevention. He's in town this week, speaking at the upcoming Zero Suicide Summit in St. John's County. Here to tell us about it is retired California Highway Patrolman Sergeant Kevin Briggs. Sergeant Briggs, thanks so much for joining us. Absolutely. Hi, Ann. Pleasure to be here with you. We're grateful that you were able to be here. So you spent 23 years patrolling the Golden Gate in San Francisco. And in that time, you helped talk down more than 200 people. It's an astonishing statistic. It speaks, I think, both to the magnet that that bridge was for a time. and your own ability to connect with people in crisis. Can you tell us a little bit about your first call? That must have been very scary and intense. It was, actually. It was a woman, I believe, in her mid-20s. And mind you, I had no training. in negotiations whatsoever. I didn't know how to approach what to say, what not to say. So I was really, really scared on this. You know, that it's terrible. Put somebody out there with no training. It's a disservice to those folks who were talking to. It's a disservice to us. But I spoke with her and she had had drug issues. She was homeless. She was given up. She had a lot of emotional pain. So what I tried to do was. think well what if it was me over that rail so i took that mindset of it and we spoke for some time and i think really she had a lot of pity on me for seeing that my eyes and oh my god this can't be happening in front of me here nobody even talked about this on the golden gay bridge when you went to work down there so we spoke for some time and she did come back over the rail thankfully You say you had no training, and we'll talk a little bit more about the summit, but you are going to be talking to people who also maybe don't have training and yet encouraging them to take action if they know somebody is at risk. And we should say that there is a helpline for people, 9-88. that people can call or text if they are feeling suicidal or know someone who might be at risk. But you're going to be advising people who might be, like you, uncertain what to say or wary of getting involved. What advice do you give people who might be in that situation as you were at one time? i would say go into this with empathy not about you not try to fix things but really to listen to someone because that's what i have seen is these people feel nobody has really listened to them and what has been going on their life guys especially as we try to fix things a lot so we hear things we want to fix it but to really sit back listen

and then validate what they're going through. Wow, that must be really tough to be going through everything that you're going through. And if it does look like this person may be suicidal, getting them some help, not leaving them alone. You know, if we have weapons in the house, we want to do something about that. We want to make sure they're in a good environment. We're not stockpiling pills. But to sit down and have that conversation with that person, not in the coffee shop, somewhere where they are comfortable. and make it all about them, even though maybe we have been through a lot of things ourselves, not to compare that with what they're going through. One of your rescues or interventions was with a gentleman named Kevin Berthea. He was just 22 when he was considering jumping off of the Golden Gate Bridge. And there's this stunning image of him standing sort of with his forehead against the bridge while you're leaning over and talking to him. He's now gone on to be an advocate alongside with you, you know, helping educate people about suicide and suicide prevention. Can you tell us a little bit about that intervention you had with him and then your relationship sense? Sure. Sure. That, you know, we never know what we're coming into when we go into something like this. When I approach someone, I raise my right hand and I say, hi, I'm Kevin. Is it all right if I come up and speak with you? I want to get their permission to come up and speak with them. And he wanted nothing to do with me. Nothing at all. He was mad. He kept screaming at me. If you come one step closer, I'm jumping. So it took at least 10 minutes or so before he allowed me to come up and speak with him. And he had a lot of things going on in his life. He had been adopted and... he uh later on in life he had a girlfriend and they had a baby and his child was in the hospital it was prematurely born so he was kicking himself time and time and time again thinking he wasn't good enough when his baby was able to come home he had this tremendous bill over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars he had just lost both of his jobs and and you know he was just in dire straits and just thought everything would be better without him this world would be better without him well it was my job to find out to give him and try to get him to think about reason purpose and hope so i really focused on his child i found out her birthday was the next month kev don't you want to be there for her birthday next month i said you can come back here any time you want But I know if we can get them back over this rail and get him some help, many, many times people won't attempt again if get them the right help. So we talked for 92 minutes on this. And then he decided on his own to come back over. And that's what I want. I don't want to grab people. I want them to want to live. And then I will help them come back over. And I think for longevity, that really sets a good tone for this. You managed to save 200 people in this circumstance. And on your website, pivotal points, you say in a video that you only lost two, which is tragic, but also shows, I think, how preventable it can be when there is someone there to intervene, that it can be a moment that is transformative for somebody and lead them away from this very dark decision.

You do talk about one of the losses. His name was Jason Garber. And I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about that instance because you weren't able to save Jason. Right. He had went over the pedestrian rail. And what's on the other side there is like an eye beam. And he was sitting on this eye beam. And we were there for about an hour talking with him. And he was brilliant. Mr. Garber was absolutely brilliant. well versed in religion and politics and the whole gamut of things but he was suffering and he had a lot of things going on that he felt weren't be addressed by his doctors and he didn't like the medication so as we were speaking with him he was very emotional he kept getting texts and calls because he had put out an email to friends and family what he planned on doing when he got to the bridge he's from the east coast he flew all the way out here so his phone was buzzing and ringing he never answered it but he would look at it he would smile and other times he would start to tear up and mind you it's very cold down on that bridge most of the time it can be foggy a lot and the wind is blown and we got all the cars going by so it's a very difficult place to do a type of negotiation that we're trying to do here but as i was speaking with him he asked me if we knew the story of pandora's box and i had one of the golden gate bridge workers with me at the time also zeus created pandora sent her down to earth with a box and said under no circumstances ever open that box well pandora did open this box and out flew all sorts of evils and George Soros and things against mankind the only good thing in that box was hope well jason says when i open the box hope is the greatest evil and at that point He leaned to his right and gone, and he fell 220 feet down to the water. So just absolutely heartbreaking. That must have been very difficult for you as well. And I know that you say that afterwards his family was concerned for you, gratified that you had tried to help their son, but worried about how you were taking it. Yes, and that, I'm a pretty emotional individual. They had their family rabbi call me to check on me. This is the day after this happened. I was just stunned. This poor kid and just going through so much, you know, that's why we as a society need to do better. We really, really do. And that's why I'm so thankful to be speaking on August 12th. Just my little part into this, you know, it takes a whole village to do these things, but we have to start somewhere, and there's a lot of great organizations doing phenomenal work these days. So let's talk a little bit about the summit this Wednesday that you're going to be speaking at. It's the LSF Health System Zero Suicide Summit in St. John's. And I understand that targeting St. John's is no accident because there have been some suicide rates rising in St. John's County, even as the state.

and the country have seen some declines. And so what is your, first of all, what is zero suicide? What is the goal there? What is the foundation about? Sure. what i have learned about zero suicide is its aspirational but an essential goal is the movement launched by the u s national strategy for suicide prevention in two thousand and twelve with the intention of enhancing suicide care in health care systems across the country This summit is partially for people who are, I guess, for lack of a better word, in the business, people who are perhaps health care providers. I know that it's free for people who are first responders and members of the military. But it is also open to people who are, you know, work in civic or religious organizations or people who are just wanting to be able to be helpful if they find themselves in this circumstance. What what? kind of people do you think are best served by this event? You know, anyone that's been suffering or may have been affected by a suicide, we're losing over 48,000 people a year to suicide in this country alone, more than homicides, more than traffic accidents. So, you know, there's so many people, one and four of us are not doing well mentally. So that should say it right there. You know, not everyone is suicidal, but there's a lot of suffering going on. And it starts with me with PTSD from things that happened when I was a child. And, you know, all the way up. So this is open to everyone. So we all can kind of learn and see what can we do for ourselves and what can we do for one another to help prevent this. Well, as we said, if you're listening and you or someone you know is considering suicide, you can call the suicide and crisis lifeline at 988. There's also non-emergency resources through St. Augustine Youth Services, Coaches Program, the LSF Health Systems, Mental Health Substance Use Programs. But this event is Wednesday, August 12th. It's from 8 to 4 at the Embassy Suites Ocean Front in St. Augustine. Sergeant Kevin Briggs, thanks for all that you've done. Thanks for coming to town this week. And thanks for doing this interview. Absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me. Hope to see you there. All right. And we'll be right back.

Welcome back. The world's best-selling murder mystery of all time gets new life on stage with a production of the Agatha Christie Classic, and then there were none at Amelia Community Theater. Here to tell us about it, we are joined by Melissa Coon. She's the actor playing Vera Claythorne and is a... interesting dark past with a governess who perhaps hasn't taken great care of her kids. Melissa, thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. We're also joined by Anthony Pierce, the actor playing William Henry Bloor, a bit of a selfish and careless private investigator. Anthony, thanks for being here. You're welcome to you. We're also joined by Carlos Semidey, who is our pal here at WJCT, but also the actor playing Dr. Edward Armstrong, a physician with a little bit of a checkered past. Good morning, Carlos. Good morning. Turn your head and cough. I'm just kidding. Not that kind of a doctor, from my understanding, but a surgeon. And I think it's fair to say you're all basically bad people in this play. Is that fair? I would argue my character. She's very compassionate, but she has a dark past like we all do. Yeah. Compassionate is an interesting one. So let's just, for people who aren't familiar, this is a play, a book that's about 80 years old, has incredible staying power. And as we were talking about before we got started here, it continues to be produced, made into movies, people still read it. And it is... As with all Agatha Christie novels, kind of everybody's a suspect, right? In this case, though, Anthony, you are also a victim, all of you. Tell us a little bit about the plot, what you can. Well, we all end up on this island in England after some lunatic that sort of made us think that we're supposed to be going to this island for a specific reason. and come to find out that he sort of put a little jinx on us. And very interesting plot. You know, I end up... being involved with these characters right here and just enjoying it right now. Yeah. Melissa, we mentioned your dark past. I mean, I think like a lot of other characters, because you have these histories that we don't necessarily feel terrible as an audience when people are showing up dead. I think, you know, everybody has their very human nature about them and it's, you know, are you going to resonate with that? Like, you know, we make mistakes, but when does it go too far? Mm-hmm. What got you involved in this? Tell us a little bit about your own acting background, Alyssa. Oh, my gosh. I don't really have one, honestly. My husband, who was in Len Mia Soprano, he was on First Coast Connect back in January or February. He did it in high school, and then we got married, and he kind of opened me up to theater. And...

Because of him, I was like, yo, we need something to do where we're not just plugged into our computers and our video games all the time. So that happened with community theater. Carlos, I'm curious, you as well. I mean, you've now been performing at theaters and stages all over the first coast, up into Georgia. What draws you to... these kind of performances. What do you love so much about community theater? I love community theater because you see the local persons, the local group of people who come together to make something, to create something. You know, we like to say support local, well, this is a group of local residents and neighbors and even visitors like me from Jacksonville to Fernandina. who come together to work and get something done. And they have a collective creative vision and mission. And in the Millie Community Theater is an incredible example of folks who collaborate. And then up until, you know, the last minute, we're fine-tuning this wonderful production, this story from Agatha Christie. So it's like a barn raising. Everybody pitches in. I was going to ask you about that, Anthony. I mean, what is it like this process? How do you begin when you've got essentially these 10 cast members that are thrown together, forming relationships? Are they people you've worked with before? How does it all come together in the days? and weeks before production. Well, I haven't worked with these two before. I actually walked into the tax layer office because I used to be a college football coach. And I was actually working in Savannah and got home one day and found out that they were looking for some background extras for a movie in Savannah. And I put in and that's how I got started. But, you know, in terms of this production. You just put in for it. I had done some productions in St. Mary's, and I saw that this was going on. I'm up in Kingsland, Georgia, and walked down and wanted to have an audition and actually got chosen, which I was glad to do. So you never really know who you're going to end up working with. And we have a great cast, and I'm looking forward to the production. Carlos, if people, we mentioned that it's at the Amelia Community Theater. Tell us when people can go see it and where they can get some more information. Well, starting this Friday is our opening night with a themed opening night party, which is great because, you know, you'll come in and you'll be received and you can have refreshments and concessions and something to eat that's all related to the show. Oh, fine. And then one in your party will eventually. be lost. Like, where's Jenny? She went to the bathroom. No, just kidding. And this runs through August 29th. We've got a link on our website for Amelia Community Theater and this production. But it is great to have you all here. We appreciate it. And break a leg. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you for listening. You've been listening to First Coast Connect on WJCT News. We'll see you tomorrow.

Support for First Coast Connect is provided by Baptist Health and the North Florida TPO.