The Gainesville City Commission will consider several significant items at Thursday’s regular meeting, including the timeline for a permanent city manager search, a contract for red-light cameras, funding Heartwood Soundstage, a $5.7 million renovation of NE 8th Avenue and a 27-acre annexation.

The meeting begins at 10 a.m. for the morning section, 1 p.m. for the afternoon section and 5:30 p.m. for the evening section. The full agenda can be found here.

City manager search

Andrew Persons currently serves as city manager following the retirement of Cynthia Curry in October 2025. The City Commission selected Persons, chief operating officer at the time, to fill the vacancy until a national search could start.

The agenda item lacks a recommended action, with the commissioners set to discuss a timeline. But any action could come from that discussion. In past talks, commissioners have discussed timing the search so as not to interfere with a busy budget season that lasts from April through September.

According to a previous city presentation, a search could take 16 weeks and cost between $22,000 and $99,000, depending on the firm hired to run it.

Another key issue the City Commission has weighed is the stability of the city. With pending Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) litigation and a state DOGE report. Both of those issues have found little resolution recently as the Florida Legislature voted to preempt the GRU Authority, pending governor approval, and the state considers property tax reform set up by the DOGE reports.

Red-light cameras contract

The city of Gainesville has been progressing toward red-light and school-zone cameras for over a year. Now, the red-light camera contract with RedSpeed Florida, LLC., is ready for the commission’s final vote.

The contract would establish two cameras that ticket vehicle owners when running through a red light. The program will start at two intersections: NW 23rd Avenue and NW 6th Street, NW 39th Avenue and Waldo Road.

RedSpeed estimates eight to 11 weeks of preparation before launching, and the contract stipulates a 60-day public education campaign about the cameras to comply with state law. RedSpeed will keep the revenue from the tickets up to a maximum of $29,900 monthly for operating the program.

State law mandates tickets of $158 and requires the city to distribute the funds as listed below:

• $70 to the Department of Revenue for deposit into the Florida General Revenue Fund
• $10 to the Florida Department of Revenue to be deposited into the Department of Health Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund
• $3 to the Florida Department of Revenue to be sent to the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury
• Trust Fund
• $75 kept by the city as the enforcing municipality’s statutory share

According to a 2025 city presentation, the Gainesville Police Department issued 388 citations in 2023 for red-light violations and violations of traffic control signals. In 2024, the number jumped to 450 citations.

For RedSpeed to earn its maximum revenue, the cameras would need to issue 399 tickets monthly for running those two red lights.

Heartwood Soundstage funding

In early March, leaders of Heartwood Soundstage asked the city of Gainesville for $55,000 to stabilize operations and continue attracting shows and events to the downtown area.

Chelsea Carnes, director of Heartwood, said the venue recently converted into a nonprofit and needs a push toward solvency after reducing a $250,000 deficit to the $55,000 requested of the city.

Commissioners directed the city manager to bring back ways Gainesville could provide the funding.

In Thursday’s backup documents, three options are presented: a loan (either forgivable or payable), an advance grant with required documentation for expended funds that follows the city’s right-to-audit requirements, or a reimbursable grant with required documentation that follows the city’s right-to-audit requirements.

The money would come from the city’s excess fund balance. Florida requires cities to hold a certain amount of cash on hand, but Gainesville has saved over $9 million more than needed and is now looking at ways to expend it.

In the fall, the City Commission voted to use $1.3 million in those reserves to fill a budget gap. Commissioners said at the time that the city has growing infrastructure needs and buildings needing renovated that would quickly use up those reserves.

Renovating NE 8th Avenue

The city of Gainesville wants to redesign NE 8th Avenue from NE 9th Street east to Loften High School and turn the roadway in “complete streets.”

The project is split between the half-mile segment west of Waldo Road and the one-mile segment east of Waldo Road. Both segments have options that include a standard road resurfacing with multiple add-ons (like bike lanes, raised crosswalks and multiuse paths) that would require millions more in funding.

On Thursday, city staff recommend moving forward with design and permitting for only the eastern segment that runs through the Duval neighborhood. That segment will all the add-ons could cost $5.7 million.

The western segment could cost $1.7 million for resurfacing with a new multi-use path or $2.4 million to remove the center median, add bike lanes and the new multi-use path.

The city currently has $500,000 set aside for the project from the local gas tax.

27-acre annexation

After annexing no properties in 2025, the city of Gainesville is set to consider a 27-acre annexation off Archer Road. The properties (near 4922 SW 56th Terrace) already have a low-density residential land use with a single-family zoning.

Dogwood Acquisition LLC. out of Haile Village bought the majority of the parcels in 2008. GSNM LLC. owns two parcels totaling 1.71 acres included in the annexation.

The parcels are located on the south side of Archer Road and just about across from the entrance to Kanapaha Botanical Gardens.