e e e e e e e e e e e e good morning ladies and gentlemen our County Commissioner meeting is now called to order of 9:30 if you all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance invocation Heavenly Father we thank you for your grace and your mercy and for your love we thank you for each and everyone that is here today dear Lord and we thank you for this board we thank you dear Lord for all that you've done in protection of our community Lord we ask that you bless this meeting that we use good wisdom that you've granted to us and Lord let us do the best that we can for our community for our state and for our country bless each and everyone in our savior's name amen United States of America the stands na indivisible liberty and justice for all at this time we would note um in terms of our attendance today that Mrs Thompson is is absent and so everyone else is present um and also um commissioner um dhy may have to to leave around 10:30 or so for funeral and I believe you indicated Mr dods or or Mr Carter who where's the other and Mr Carter um so we're going to um today we were having a public hearing um on our ordinance um that is here today and during this time we will be receiving uh public comments um during this and any questions and comments also from our our board um Mr corn do you want to say anything as we um go into our public Hearing in the ordinance I I really don't have anything to say we just need to go ahead and open up for public comment okay at this time we um have public comments uh from Miss Carol Mosley Carol Mosley 10121 Southwest 104th Avenue in Graham good morning Commissioners I was surprised to see the fire assessment resolution on the agenda I thought it was decided at the last meeting to take a pause and gather more inut input from the public perhaps even a public Workshop instead here we are trying to push this through so that it can be submitted to the tax collector by September 15th to be imple implemented with the 2025 tax rule there are many details to consider I'll be addressing the details from this pamphlet that we got here um we don't want the devil hiding in the details so careful consideration is due according to the study we need 4,853 25 to fully fund the fire department excluding EMS soon we'll have another one in Brooker that will require additional funding by law government according to this government and agricultural land can't be included in the special assessment what total percent of our land mass is designated as agricultural is that A1 and a to since raner owns more than 25% of our land mass all of that is exempt will you exempt churches and nonprofits as an option if so the loss cannot be made up by the public but must be covered by other County funds such as the general fund also by law EMS must be funded elsewhere you have to discuss with each other publicly what assessment methodology you will use per parcel per square foot per structure or dwelling will it be a flat rate for everyone or sliding scale according to property assessments and then rates for different types of property commercial residential vacant you have to decide if you will seek 100% of the cost from the public or some portion of the total cost the cost of service assessment puts 100% at $39 for residential if everyone pays the same no matter the size or value and failure to pay results in a lean and possible loss of property so some mechanism needs to be in place so that the poorest of the poor don't don't end up homeless I suggest you post this study to the County website and that you hold a widely publicized public workshop on the matter and also that you not try to push this through by midep sufficient time for public discussion among you needs to take place before proposals are put on the table and before resolutions are enacted um I think I saw something in the resolution about how you're going to assess government property but this says government is excluded so I'm not sure if what I saw was correct or not maybe that will be addressed thank you thank you and uh let's see we had a Mr Paul steel Paul still 14167 Southwest 101st Avenue start I also would suggest that you uh postpone this process it's uh I uh the agenda for this meeting didn't come out until Friday of uh last week I don't know whether this ordinance was ever posted uh but obviously people uh won't know that it was on the agenda for this morning and you see a fairly empty room here uh I think it's uh something so important that you don't want to proceed down the line only to have a significant legal challenge because you didn't meet the notice requirements I think you're trying to move way too fast on this the the concept of uh special assessments are I think it's a good one because it uh allows you to assess people who are using services but are below uh the level that they have to pay very much property tax and I'm one of the people that don't pay almost no property tax I've got 115 Acres it's Agriculture and I pay a couple hundred dollars a year uh and live in an old mobile home a 1978 mobile home uh so I think we need to have a mechanism but the $200 is is way too burdensome for people who do not have the money to pay that I think a a $50 assessment would be possibly something that you want to look at and I hope I can come back during uh public comments and talk about the budget process and how uh it's time to look at some other mechanisms for both reducing cost and also raising funds but on this one I would urge you to not proceed and try to get this through the the process for this year and uh do a really thorough study of what's important thank you thank you um Miss Kate Ellison Kate Ellison 971 Southeast 32nd way Melrose Florida and Bradford County um I didn't know that this was the workshop I thought we were having a workshop and that a lot of people would be here and have something to say I support the fire assessment I think it's essential and the county needs money I I get that and we want it to be fair uh I don't think that it as far as I know the plan is to um assess residents equally I think that's very wrong and it should be according to square feet uh people uh who don't have hardly any discretionary income are not going to be able to pay this fee and they're going to get in trouble and it's going to cause an uproar and people like me who have a larger house should be paying for a potential really big fire I you know I just think that it's that you need to assess it in a way that addresses the wide wide variation in the size and expense of houses that we have in our County um I I think that it can be done in the time allotted so that we can get it going for next year um but but it needs to be it needs to be fair to all the citizens and uh if businesses are paying by the square foot I think residents should pay by the square font square foot as well thank you thank you were there any other pop public comments I know a few people came in just now that we miss any um bu's card okay um and I guess for uh for me of some of the concerns um when we think about the fire assessment and its CA is based on the uh assessment that's um imposed by what it would cause for anything um that would be included with what it takes to um have a fire program and um the cost that would be associated with that would be it's in our uh resolution that is presented it lists a through I think P the physical construction of a facility for improvement um the cost associated with any construction the cost that it would encourage for the acquisition of any property for purchase the cost for labor materials machine machinery and all of those things Etc the cost for fuel the parts the maintenance repairs and utilities the cost for computer services processing communication um the cost for land interest um the lease um all of those rights associated with the the cost for Indemnity assurity bonds and so forth the cost for salaries volunteer pay Workers Compensation Insurance employment benefits cost for uniform Etc the cost for construction plan spec um spec uh specifications surveys estimates and costs the cost for engineering uh Financial legal and Professional Services the cost for compliance with contracts of agreement um that may be entered into with uh for fire services and all cost associated with uh structure and the implementation collections uh enforcement and Etc um and then all of the cost and expenses necessary for any incidental incident channs uh associated with it um any reasonal amount of contingencies uh anticipated for delinquency uh and and so forth so the question I uh would have is where um and what areas would be considered municipalities uh that would be a part of the service of units and I guess I would need Mr Carter or our attorney to kind of answer some of those questions for me it might everybody everybody else may be clear on those things but I'm not and what are the areas of the county that would be considered um the city of star Campton Brooker ly um is the city opt out of it and do we have consent uh of the effective municipalities that would be uh affected um by our flaa statutes um 125.0 one Q uh and um whether or not the board is using its Authority um under the home rule for inclusive of those areas and then have we identified the geographic areas to be designated for the initial assessment to improve the preliminary rate solution and if so what are those areas and what does that include um then what would be the amount of the fire assessment imposed and how will it be determined um because the initial proceedings uh for imposing the assessment should be um adopted in the initial assessment resolution by the board that us containing a brief and general description of the fire Services um and the facilities and whatever programs that are provided and then determining the fire rescue assessment cost to be assessed describing the method of appropriating the fire assessment cost and calculating the fire assessment for specific properties so so my question um that I need to be answered as a board member is is that done or what are those properties and then for our Clerk's area um do you have a comfortable um status in terms of being able to do what the resolution would say so the question I have maybe for our chief Carter and then for our legal I need those answers so that I'm comfortable moving forward with yes everybody else may be comfortable I I'm not at this time can anybody answer any of those for me okay not exactly sure what the question was specifically um but I can tell you that as far as uh participation from other municipalities um I was at the lah City commission meeting last night where they read in and voted 5 in favor of um the first reading of the ordinance they they voted it in last night um Hampton I believe is also yeah Hampton's on board okay so Hampton L and Hampton Brook not Brook is not no Brooker okay and then the city of Stark is also they're here but they've also indicated they will not be participating in the assessment as well no Stark so so at the moment we have consent from Hampton and ly uh that is corre correct yes ma'am okay and so with you know with the assessment that was presented with the the budget that was presented that did include Staffing for Brooker so if Brooker is not participating I would imagine that we would pull the Staffing from Brooker so um that will reduce the the overall budget um as well so okay so that that first question was you know what area so you're you defined that for me as um the um Lord in Hampton at this time but that answers that and and um a part of the geographical areas and boundaries and all unincorporated areas as well so and then um on what would be the amount of Def fire assessment opposed based on the change in the geographical areas well if Brooker is not going to participate that will have to be reassessed well they have not had a meeting right right as far as as far as they know right now they're not but said they have not had gotta and and I think that's just a discussion that needs to happen with the town of Brooker and we've been working on setting that meeting up um to try and meet with them you know I think that if they understand that part of that assessment Miss Miss Mosley concerning your public uh comment that does the the assessment that's been proposed does include Staffing for Brooker it's not going to be in addition to um and so with that I think that you know Brooker may be interested in having you know participating in the assessment if they know that's going to get them Staffing as well so okay um Mr Bradley I know and you're our legal expert uh today um when we look at the defined boundaries now that it's reduced from the other two municipalities that are choosing not to have that mutual agreement um how um legally um do we move uh forward with with the ordinance um if we don't have that clearly defined in the initial well it it sounds like at least for um Brooker that that's an open question um Stark I can only respond to what I'm hearing but um it sounds like Stark probably is going to um not participate is Stark included in the boundaries right now they they're not okay so what we're talking about then is um uh whether Brooker included or not that's a very minor um change one way or the other um today's a first reading that if what you're voting on is whether to have a hearing on first reading uh where we would you would ask me to read by title only read that and then there would be time between the first hearing and the second hearing so nothing's being decided today um what you're deciding is whether to keep this question open uh as you continue to collect information and learn more about these things so um that that would not there's nothing that I've heard that would preclude uh the board from moving forward if they so choose on a first reading of this ordinance today okay thank you and you know it may be clear to my fellow Commissioners all of these questions um but me as a lay person concerning this assessment process I needed to have some answers to those questions so that I would be feel comfortable I know in spirit that we must do something um I'll have some kind of assessment fire fire um fire rescue that's that's a given we have to we can't continue funding under the same conditions that we have but what that number ends up being is important um and then do we have a number for the cost at this time uh so the last numbers Amanda do you happen to have those uh with you the number that was presented with uh Miss Mosley spoke with the packet that was presented before is no longer valid because that was with the city of Stark included so city of Stark is out so that takes out their uh parcel data and as well as their um commercial and residential properties she we don't we don't have it in front of us Chief okay so you won't be able to answer that but so those will be important um for me for me that's important for me to know moving forward um but I agree that we have to have some type of an assessment but the number is important so that we be Equitable and that we have a method and a process in which we are assessing each person or property that's going to Bear the burden of the cost and that isn't clear to me so Madam chair it's I think it's important to understand that you're not setting an amount for the assessment today I understand that piece but to have some idea notion going forward what that might be right and and we do have some notion because we presented it at the last meeting um it's not going the the final amount will not differ greatly from what you've already seen so if you recall the the the previous numbers we presented at 100% funding it was approximately $320 at 80% funding it was approximately $250 um those numbers aren't going to will not change significantly so you do have some idea of yes and I do recall th those from the previous one but we made some changes in terms of who's going in and who's coming out so then that number could change significantly no ma'am will not well and I think it's also important to to consider that I I don't think it's the climate of the board or the citizens based off of what I've uh heard and and seen uh that it want it needs to be funded at 100% right and I don't know that that was um I don't know that that's what the board wants to do either so again if it's uh $300 was if let's just say use round numbers $300 was 100% of funding for um for when Stark was included if Stark's excluded um and you weren't planning on doing the 100% for them anyway then you know the the total 100% number is I don't want to say irrelevant but if we're not going to fund it at 100% anyway you know if you're set on a number instead of a percentage of funding then that is not going to change it's it's just going to let you know how much you're going to be collecting to offset the Madame chair yes um Amanda just found the the latest numbers the uh at 100% this this excludes the city of Stark but does include uh the town of Brooker so at 100% it would be $334 at 75% it would be $251 50% would be $167 and 25% would be $84 thank you okay and that was my point I think that people are you know and the board may also be looking at funding a number and not necessarily funding a percentage of the department and so um that's where I'm not sure that the actual overall bottom line number is truly that right and so as as you can see from what we just uh pointed out it did not it did not vary significantly okay two or three or four dollars okay and and for me I just needed to know what those boundaries and what municipalities were participating and where where the geographical location was and you helped me to clarify that a little bit uh and to the question about the notification uh Amanda did placed that in the bord county Telegraph um based on the um statute's requirement for the notification time frame um so it was met in that regard and I know a lot of people don't get that kind of telegraph but she did do the proper notification um in the newspaper um for that um are there any questions from the board goad yes um as far as um like businesses or people that have different structures on their property who is it who tells us who what will be assessed is it the um property appraiser okay and that's that's one one concern I have is that has that been looked at I mean is it fair to everyone what's being put on there I mean have we have we talked to him about it um has he played a role in any of this is he here so commissioner Andrews we we hired the consultant Stant and they that's where they got all of their data from is the property appraiser so they've been working in close concert with them from the very beginning of this process that you asked us to do we know what they I mean do we know what they found I mean is it fair what we're doing is it fair for everyone well I mean that that's a that's a policy question for the board to decide um the special assessments is a way of collecting um Revenue where you you pay for the benefit in other words if you have property that um is is uh could catch on fire or be possibly subject to EMT you know uh Services then uh then you can receive uh then you will receive an assessment all right um as opposed to ADV valorum or property taxes like you get every year with your trim notice where it's based on the value of the property so someone who has a higher value and their property under adval pays more than someone whose property is worth less whereas in an assessment it's not based on the value of your property special assessment it's based on the benefit one receives and whether someone lives in a house that is uh 2,000 square feet or 2 200 square F feet they both are receiving the benefit of having somebody come to their house if it catches on fire right and so that's that those are just I'm not saying one is right one is wrong I'm saying those are just two different ways of of collecting Revenue by government right and this is a different way of collecting Revenue by government it's a very common way of collecting Revenue particularly in the areas of fire uh to um and so that you know that that's how it's done that's the philosophy behind it um and there were those there will be those those who argue that's the fairest way to do it because you pay for what you use right um whether no matter what your you know what uh the value of your house is or some would argue it's not a good way to do it and you should just raise their property taxes well that's not always available yes because uh you know that's as a way of collecting Revenue because you maybe you know millage um is is is there's caps on millage and these things so and you know is that fair also I mean these These are philosophical questions but that's just giving you an overview of things thank you okay and then it says the appropriation methodology is based upon a methodology determined by The Bard to provide a fair and reasonable uh appropri uh for the fire assessment cost among the properties um that would be impacted so um my uh position is that we have to come to a consensus on the methodology and what the init what that initial cost would be for properties but for today uhuh but for today we're basically my my clarification is to say that we would move forward with an assessment but not the minute details of those costs well U Madam chair understand that this is all in your hand all in the collective hands of the board in other words let's say you move forward today and say I move to um uh move forward with the first reading uh of this ordinance uh by title only um and that passes and then I would read it all your options are still in front of you you could um say it's too soon we're not going to do it this year you could say we're going to go ahead and move forward at 100% to use the terminology that was used earlier about percentages of of the budget right you could say we're going to move forward at 50% or 25% or whatever it is all your options are still on the table uh if if you did if you did the motion that I described today okay that clarifies it for me any other question by the board I'll just have some comments if I may um somebody brought up in the last meeting somebody in the public brought up about the um volunteer fire department and you know what happened to the volunteers well we all know that you know based on certifications and different things like that you know we ended up going to a paid fire department uh but when we had a volunteer fire department and listen I'm not taking anything away from any of the firefighters that are in here but when we had a volunteer fire apartment I wasn't a volunteer uh never had a volunteer show up to my house but this is the way I imagined things went if there was a call that went out somebody had to go to the station and get a truck and then the respondents the other volunteers would show up to that fire and at that point typically because of the elapse time that had gone by there wasn't a whole lot left so they were only there really that not I want to say only they were there to protect you know if anyone was in the home but also to protect property adjacent to where the fire was so when we had the volunteer fire department and the county funded fire it was at a very small amount I think it was right around a half million dollars does that sound right Chief so as we go forward when we talk about an assessment you I see this more of you know starting out with a number and then working with that number within that budget rather than saying here's our budget and this is what we need to fund and so what does that look like does it look like Cuts in in Personnel does it look like uh closures of departments I mean you know again where's that where's that balance in between um and I think that the responsibility of the board uh to the citizens is trying to find out what that balance is um rather than coming up with a number and saying this is what it's going to be and this is to provide for all of the things that you read off um you know are all the are all of those things the things that need to happen so again when we talk about Brooker for instance uh you know having a an appropriation for a station out there you know it's as I've said to our legislators before you know when we get money from our legislation it seems like it's always money that costs us money rather than money that helps us generate revenue and when I say that building a new fire station obviously comes with Personnel equipment maintenance until that building falls in we own and we have to pay for that building so again what what does this look like and how do we provide a service to the citizens um that certainly is more responsive than when we had volunteers but at the same time it's not we we we just can't afford it there's a lot of things that we can afford you know in our County uh I think we were very fortunate when we had the arpa funds when we had the chiller unit go out on the courthouse that ran us right around a million dollar and we were able to pay for that if not we're dipping heavily into our reserves and we're trying to figure out how to pay for it so um again I'm not against the ordinance and moving forward and having that discussion I guess really where I'm looking is more about you know what's affordable what does the department need to provide the basics to be able to provide protection for the citizens of the county any other comments just so that you you're clear and for the um the resident the audience um we understand that we have to have an assessment uh determining that number is another further discussion um and some of the questions that we well that I'm raising today I was I had I did I had hoped that we'd have like a town hall so we can ask a million questions and not necessarily in just a a quick hearing um so it's not that um in my opinion trying to just bulldo of something through but I I understand there are timelines in which we have to meet if it's going to be considered for the 2526 phys good year is that am I correct on that so that is why the timing and the dates and um having this is important um but making a final decision about it is still rest in the hands of this board um so I'm hoping that we can have more Community discussions um hearing more from you um on what you feel and suggestions and thoughts about it um before we make a final decision on it so does that make sense well I mean and just like she said we we all know we need an assessment um it's it's how and what we need and in my opinion um it has to be fair we have to take a a very deep look in who's being charged what's being charged and how it's done um if we still have the option of not going forward with this this year then um I understand what we're doing but um I have to know that we still have time to look over this and and dig in deeper before we do anything and I'm hearing your saying um our um Mr brightley that we do have time even if we pass this um resolution today yes ma'am Madam chair um I think a couple things um you were right on point when you said that um there are certain legal requirements that that you're required to comply with if you were to do it for the next fiscal year right right um and this is one of those and so um what you're basically voting on today is to keep keep the conversation going for lack of a better way to put it um and uh if you so if you want to keep the conversation going welcome to have whatever hearings you want to have any discussions you want to have there is no final decision made if you were to to to adopt a motion to approve this on first reading and to ask uh me to read it by title only that would be the motion uh then um then that that would be the effect of it okay all right any everybody CLE I just I have another comment so looking at this at 25% at $84 a year that's roughly you know $7 a month that's really when we were pushing for the franchise fee I think that's a kind of the number it was going to land on that we thought that that was going to be the best option at the time so it was and that would that would have generated if I remember yes right around $600,000 right at $7 a month okay so it you know again moving forward uh because even at $84 um there's adjacent counties to us that I don't think even pay that much or when they first implemented their fire tax right quite about that amount so um and and still able to provide adequate Fire Protection in in some cases even larger areas so and and bear in mind that franchise fee would only have been levied on fpnl customers not prop not all Property Owners correct but had had it gone through with Clay I think that's that was about a number that we landed on where it ended up being it was going to be roughly around you know I think 78 yes per customer that was fpl's number yes okay all right thank you and and we as a board can make that decision about those numbers I'm then I'm com able with that but I do want us to have more discussion excuse me more discussion with our citizen on their their concerns okay um with that I will ask uh is there anything further go ahead no no no I was just going to say if you want to move forward I I articulated the motion so you could just ask for a motion all right okay we'll ask for a motion and you can articulate further on it I I stated on the it would be to approve the ordinance on first reading and uh direct me to read the ordinance out by title only and then if if a majority of you vote for that then I'll read it by title only we'll be and we'll be done with this part of the meeting but everything Still Remains open just like I described okay so the next action on your part Madam pman will for motion I'll for motion yeah I'll make a motion to approve the the ordinance to have further discussion and look at the different rates at the different structures at 100% 75% 50% 25% okay motion by commissioner Dy is there a second second by commissioner ready um all the favor any questions discussion all in favor by the sign I I at Le four that's before Oh and note that and I will read the ordinance Now by title only an ordinance of Bradford County Florida relating to the provision and funding of Fire Rescue Services and Facilities authorizing the imposition and collection of non-ad special assessments against Real Property specially benefiting specially benefited by the provision of such services and Facilities established by the county hereunder providing certain definitions establishing the procedures for imposing collecting and administering fire rescue assessments providing that fire rescue assessments constitute a lean on assess property equal in rank and dignity with the lean of All State County District or Municipal Taxes and assessments and Superior indignity to all the prior leans mortgages titles claims providing for severability and providing an effective date thank you right okay all right um at this time are there um any further public comments Madame chair if I could please ask that we allow Chief Carter to come up and make his presentation so he can he can leave thank you CH Carter okay we'll let Chief conter come they have to leave for funeral thank you ma'am I I appreciate you allow me to do that this morning um let me get my presentation pulled up there we go all right so I'm gonna ask if Chief Rogers will actually come up and uh he's been working closely with Lieutenant weeks who is unfortunately sick this morning otherwise he'd be delivering this update so uh we will uh go go through this and then I'll have some morning so like Chief Carter said Lieutenant weeks is unable to be here and uh so I'm going to give this program update on behalf of him so if you'll go to the next slide oh there we are so uh we were going to have Miss Smith come and also give a testimonial she was one of our first identified patients through a uh referral through our our line Personnel she's also unable to be here today so we'll go to a financial update next slide please um this just kind of gives you an outline of so far what we've spent money on um and the reporting process every month we have to report to lsf who manages this project manages these funs funds so all the the funds that are spent have to be approved by them monthly and U anytime you guys need or want to see line by line those expenditures just let us know we can get you that but this is a kind of a breakdown of marketing equipment training where these These funds have went so far okay next slide so our five month plan excuse me may we really focused on building the program trying to get um our program needs identified and identify some strategies uh June we started to get materials out such as um a Naran kit this is what this is here so there's two doses of Narin in there some some literature uh July as we move through this this coming month we're going to um strive to implement Naran cabinets I'll speak about that in a in a few slides in August we're going to try to partner with a t excuse me T 911 service to the citizens of the of the county what that does is that essentially will uh Bridge a gap if Lieutenant weeks is out on a house call and that patient needs something specific Telly 911 um is a no cost to our department or the county um that provides let's just say the patient needs something specific these Physicians can work with that patient call whatever they need in and prevent a trip to the ER and then September we're going to then re-evaluate the past six months see what is working what is not working and uh make adjustments accordingly next slide please so some of our statistics so far we've been able to give out 36 um doses or Naran boxes you may hear Naran nooon you us interchangeably but we work with What's called the HERO program through the Florida Department of Health to get this Naran for free and so far we've distributed 36 of these boxes to different people who are opold users within the program right now Lieutenant weeks is following actively on a daily basis seven different patients that are open users so daily or every other day he's following up with these people make sure they don't have any relapses any needs specifically to opioid and their problems that they're uh facing outside of that we've had 28 different unique mobile Integrated Health visits this is a apart and separate from those seven patients kind of talk about what those 28 visits look like and a lot of these referrals are coming from our people so the the line Personnel who are out there responding to calls every day they may notice that this person may benefit from this program and send in a referral to Lieutenant weeks next slide please so the unique mobile Integrated Health visits these are those those patients not enrolled into the program but can benefit from some assistance from Lieutenant weeks and this program um four different examples that he had listed here was uh planning from for the storm season the hurricane season's coming up medication reconciliation um medical equipment and wound care those are some of the things that he's been able to do so far and prevent admission into the hospital or a an ambulance transport um the the medication reconciliation is um kind of one that stuck out to me this patient who was able to um be seen by Lieutenant weeks was continually taken opioid medication after the physician had cancelled and discontinued that medication so we were able to get that out of their regimen that they were taking every day next slide please so opioid abatement measures specifically like I said we have these free nxone or Nan kits that we have made there's literature education in there as well as fentel test strips um we've been able to give quite a few of these out um with whether it be at the community hubs or patient encounters um we have found this to be a pretty useful tool so far in coordination with the Hanley Foundation U which was something that the Florida or the local Health Department actually uh brought to our attention we're going to be strategically placing Narcan cabinets all through the county so we're in the process of identifying you know strategic places in which we think that um this may be beneficial to the public and have a slide also of what that will look like and then public education whether it be uh festivals again the community hubs we strive to be at every one of those Hampton ly um to provide any information that we can regarding our program next slide P please and so this is what a Naran cabinet looks like like I said the the local health Department tipped us off to the Hanley Foundation I was hope hopeful to have one of these to show you today and um hopeful to get those up and installed by next week next slide please and then this is the Naran or nooon kits that I spoke about kind of gives just a a more in depth dive into what is in these kits that's it okay you guys have any questions specif Chief Carter and for you um I know that you mentioned that you have the seven patients so would U out of these seven this one wound care when you were saying that you were having to try to reduce those call so is is the wound care for the for the person that's on op the wound care is separate from that so those are that that that patient would fall on that unique visit but the seven patients listed there are all op users okay and then um have you made a connection I don't see um with the Sheriff Department for those patients that are in the jail have you made a connection to to you know to treat those person actually met with Colonel Smith and um major M McKinley from the jail staff and uh working to kind of form some type of program for these patients when they're incarcerated and then when they're um and discharged from the jail um cayi has a pretty robust program uh their their Community Paramedic program partners with their jail in Klay County and so we're we're looking to try to do something similar with our people here in our jail whether it be when you get released from jail we give you an Aran kit or what whatever that looks like but those conversations are being had already and two last questions are the KN can kits at all of the hubs the three hubs that we have yes ma'am and then and we have personnel there too we we we send Lieutenant weeks to all those all right and then how much of your budget have you spent so far uh so roughly we're about 50,000 but that's not including salary dollars of Lieutenant weeks that comes out that one those all my questions anybody else yes with starting this up have you found that it has been able to help with the calls the the rescue units going out and can you kind of elaborate a little bit on that I think that was the purpose of it correct absolutely right so that's that's one of our focuses um patient number one for example um was calling EMS about twice a day we were sending units twice a day to this person who was in distress and we were able to once we enrolled him into the program um drastically cut down on his utilization of EMS in fact Lieutenant weeks one one night at about 3:00 in the morning instead of that person calling for an ambulance he was able to call Lieutenant weeks Lieutenant weeks went out to went out to his house and that mitigated an actual response so since that particular patient was enrolled into the program he has only had to call EMS one time since being enrolled so there is a reduction in Services being used from an emergent response okay thank you just quick comment um and this relates to a conversation I had with a a family member of someone that was um having opioid addiction um and asking that person because a lot of times you know these programs are put together by you know people in government that are trying to figure out how to do something that they don't have the same life experiences that some of these folks do so is there an effort to also uh counsel and assist the families that are dealing with that because you know there's a large percentage of our repeat offenders and you know you you can only be helped if you want to be helped but I think there's a lot of families that struggle with how do they uh cope with it how do they move forward and recognizing signs that you know that are whether it's you know danger to themselves or danger you know to the Family itself so um again that's just a comment real quick I just want to leave with that because um you know as you're going through the program just you know keep those caregivers and and families in mind yeah no doubt uh that patient number one I spoke about his uh his mother he he had been a user since he was 17 and he's now late 30s and um you know she's kind of was at her wits end but when she heard about this program she just lit up I was there at their house and um she has been almost in contact with us as much as he has I'm just very thankful for the program so okay thank you m Madam chair if I may I think this is an appropriate time to clear up some misinformation that has been put out in the community I keep hearing um regarding the funding that it's a grant grant funding which is blatantly false no okay this is not grant funding this is this is settlement fund funds from a class action lawsuit uh against big Pharma for opioid abatement absolutely so to clear up any any misunderstanding for the for the record uh this is not grant money this is settlement money thank you yeah okay and also it's important to remember as well we were told initially that the money uh for this budget year could not be rolled over to next year so we were in a Mad Dash to get this money spent to help these patients um so we have gone through quite a bit of that of that budget already um this year and so that was again in an effort to get that uh done by the end of uh the state fiscal year so by the end of June um which fortunately we've learned that that money does roll over and we are rolling money over um into into next fiscal year also um I wish Miss Cheryl could have been here this morning she uh she you may recognized her picture earlier she's the one on the billboard um that has become a bit controversial uh but she uh she's one of our first patients and she's a huge advocate for the program and um you know she is a patient like you were just talking about that we've reduced the call to her significantly um and I know she wouldn't mind me saying that this morning uh she was planning on saying that when she was here to speak but uh that just goes to show you that that this program is making an impact on these people and uh it's it's making a difference out there in the community and we're looking forward to you know strengthening those Partnerships with the Sheriff's Office and and other health department and other agencies as well so uh I wanted to give you a quick uh update I I feel like it's it's something that I've um County manager and I have talked about uh giving you a monthly update as far as what the fire rescue service is doing and we're talking about the fire assessment and the need for fire fire department and EMS um I think it's important that you all and the citizens know what all our fire department and EMS does so um just to give you a brief overview uh next slide please we had 648 fire responses and 590 EMS responses and this is just for the month of June this is just the last uh 30 days um and you'll see that a lot of these numbers overlap right the fire uh numbers also overlap with the EMS data because they run out with with the EMS Crews as well we do that for multiple reasons but a lot of the times our dispatch information may not be correct the the the information that the caller gives to our dispatchers sometimes is is not correct so um you know a lot of times we send more than what is needed and that's just a fact of that's the nature of our business and um you know it's much easier to have uh and much better for for patients to have more help there um and be able to cancel that help once the first unit arrives on scene if they're not needed um but we initially we do send uh for most most calls we send a fire and uh EMS response and uh you know unless it's something like a you know stubtoe or or abdominal pain or something that's not a life saving critical uh situation that's when we'll just send an EMS unit only but um and you'll see the fire responses are actually more than the EMS responses and uh that is due to the fact that as all of you I believe have witnessed there are days that we don't have ambulances to send a calls and so those firet trucks are the ones that are responding out to those calls and stabilizing those patients they're all paramedics they're all you know ALS certified on those on those fire trucks uh they have the same equipment that every ambulance has except for the ability to transport somebody to the hospital um so when they get there they're able to provide that service so while they're waiting on an ambulance to get there they're doing life- saving measures they're they're you know um able to stabilize a patients before somebody gets there uh with a transport and those other transports uh may be coming from Clay County or Union County or or uh you know other Mutual Aid so we go to the next slide please so for our EMS data we had 477 actual n11 uh EMS calls we had 113 113 in facility transfers out of the Stark hospital here we innovated six patients over the last month which is where we put a breathing tube down their throat and take over their Airway which getting more than one a week uh and we had two cardiac arrests which means their heart uh stopped beating so we had uh two two Cardiac Arrest last months as well next slide please over the month of June we had three structure fires we had five vehicle fires we had 15 Brush fires and we evaluated 36 patients from motor vehicle crashes and that is my June report for you I'm happy to answer any other questions you may have or yes Chief con if if you would for the board or maybe the others don't want but any of the reports that you have like with the OPI batement updates if you can provide a copy of those reports for for the board yes ma'am okay and with appreciate that all right any questions no just a comment I just want to thank you for for doing this um when we talk about the assessment we talk about it's very easy for people to say um you got too many you don't need that many firefighters when you look at these numbers these numbers are very real I've stood in front of their board and looked and hoped that no one called because they were down to their last unit we've had people um whose family member they thought was dead they started CPR and than God was able to bring them back but there was no rescue to send um that's that's a real hard thing for us to to to live with when it's our family on the floor fighting for their life and um the job you do is is amazing and um we have to have fire and rescue for Public Safety and it's just something that um is amazing to me that they get done everything they do if you've never seen them at one of these these fires it's just what they breathe in when they're trying to rest is unbelievable they do an awesome job and um and a huge shop so I just want to say thank you well thank you and it's it's certainly not me it is the the men and women out there boots on the ground but um I appreciate those comments thank you any other um commissioner R could could you also please um put put this in the other presentation on the website either on the county new website or on your website sure on our new website that will be a monthly they'll be able people will be able to go on there um and it'll have a runin monthly uh total okay and uh so they'll be able to see exactly real time data um you know how many calls we've run kind of the breakdown of what that looks like as well okay right all right and just I um and I appreciate all um that our rescue does as well but I do have one question you know if there's a call is there um coordination between the I don't know the municipalities and whomever is going to disperse out the emergency person or vehicle or whatever um so maybe you have a if there's such a thing a quote minor uh situation but you might end up with everybody at that site is there any way um I don't is there some type of coordination so that you there's not an over Overkill Resource Management that's what you're looking for yes ma'am and uh and and we do we uh we coordinate we have a a great relationship with the city of Stark and and Stark fire rescue uh we have mutual Aid agreement with or automatic Aid agreement with them uh we respond with them frequently if they get there and they see hey you know we let's say we get dispatched to vehicle crash inside the city um you know or a structure fire inside the city right so they send their truck we send our trucks um and they get there and say hey we you know we only need one truck or we don't need any trucks you know they can handle it themselves and so they will cancel us and we have two daily supervisors one for the EMS division and one for the fire division um that also manage resources throughout the day so they that is their job is they they you know allocate different resources to different calls if it's something that uh and and our crews are very good about if an engine crew gets there and they see it's only a lift assist they'll handle that call they'll send the medic unit keep them back back in service okay cuz what that's what people misunderstand also about the fire department is it's not just fires it's not just vehicle crashes they're training to the same level as everybody on that ambulance except for the fact they just can't transport thank you because sometimes I worry when if there's doesn't seem to be really major but there have everybody and I said well if there's a call on the other other end of the county they're going to be in trouble y yeah no we we definitely do our best at managing managing resources but thank you for all that you all do sure absolutely I would love to answer any questions um the chair allows it uh but allow it but we're going to scale SC go ahead and have so uh every day we have 16 Personnel on and that's throughout the county so we have a station in lah a station in thessa the station in speedville and then we have the station here in Stark and one in Samson City and so Samson City Stark um lahi and thessa all have EMS units that's our four EMS units throughout the day um those are 24-hour transport units and then we have a fire apparatus at Samson City lahi and thessa now that currently the fire apparatus in thessa goes down to the speedville station during the day so during day hours at 11:00 they report down to the speedville station uh because there's no living quarters down there currently uh once those living quarters are finished the fire crew will move down there permanently but the EMS crew will stay in Thea and our goal with that is to spread resources out you know throughout the county um our EMS Personnel currently are not all dual certified so we on our ambulances we do have paramedics um who are just single CT paramedics they do not have their fire standards um we're working towards everyone you know getting their fire standards however that's a lengthy process we were you know uh EMS only since 1983 or 1987 um so they were grandfathered in and we are again working towards uh working towards that but so so there may be days on an ambulance where you have someone who is dual certified you may have somebody who's a firefighter paramedic or firefighter EMT who's working on an ambulance as well so um at minimum we have six firefighters and one fire supervisor every single day um so seven firefighters guaranteed every single day um and then again you may have more uh depending on who the level of certification on the ambulances if that makes any sense okay thank you any other question from the board thank you Chief Carter okay and then we're going to go back and Mr uh Dr steel had in the public comments um we'll come back to you and let the record show that um commissioner dhy um had to leave and so we have the three board members uh Paul still 14167 Southwest 101st Avenue uh I wanted to expand uh on my card because I got a an email about 20 minutes ago with some information about removing uh plants that are blocking the flow out of Lake Samson uh I learned of a different technique that's available uh from Fish and Wildlife Commission I contracted contacted the contractor who does that work and he felt he could do the work for somewhere between 10 and $15,000 I would urge you to urge the uh manager to see if that funds could not be uh found within the uh Bradford County budget so that work could be done immediately or as soon as you can get a contract to remove the risk of flooding around Lake Samson and Crosby what I wanted to speak with you initially about is the budget process and I'd urge you to really take a hard look at the budget to see uh where you can uh develop some efficiencies and there's uh several points uh come out uh that I I see as potential areas uh one is solid waste management uh we have an awful lot of uh rural collection centers uh and they're open for long periods of time uh and I very seldom I've never been had to wait more than one person or two persons to dump my garbage and I very seldom often when I go buy them there's nobody there so one way of reducing costs in the solid waste area would be to eliminate some of the The Collection centers and uh reduce the hours uh one of the you know you you're covering that cost now with the solid waste assessment but if you can reduce that cost you potentially could reduce the solid waste assess assment and it wouldn't be so burdensome then to have an additional uh fire assessment also just simply looking at other efficiencies like it's interesting uh that the the you send out a big fir TR with an ambulance why not send out a small vehicle that has all the equipment on it that leaves the firet truck that is expensive to keep up and uh sitting at the station that a small vehicle goes to support support uh the uh EMS people and in general these are the kinds of things I think you should be looking at is how we can reduce some of our costs and maybe you go in like you did several years ago and you ask everybody to reduce their costs 10% and uh from the standpoint of Bradford s and Water Conservation District I'd be glad to try to work to reduce that uh budget by 10% if everybody is asked to do the same thing thank you thank you all right uh now we're at our approval for our consent agenda ask for motion um for approval I make a motion motion by commissioner reic second second by commissioner Andrews any further discussion questions all in favor by the sign I I 3 okay thank you okay um item five our state of Florida Division Emergency Management 2023 Statewide Mutual Aid agreement well good morning commissioner is always good to see you so this is uh an update of something that happens periodically uh I know it's the 2023 and you're probably wondering about that but that's when the process was started um it's now come down to the point it's it's time for the counties to get involved so Statewide Mutual Aid agreement raford county has has previously been in it um as the Emergency Management director I want to encourage you to uh let remain in that what it does is uh it's kind of twofold first and foremost it allows us to get help when we need it it provides that process uh when we are in a disaster and we need to bring in mutual Aid it's the venue through which we do that with the uh other counties and municipalities around the state the second thing is this is what makes us eligible for reimbursement if we send anyone on your end any board departments who may deploy to other counties after declared disaster to assist in uh response and Recovery efforts it is the mechanism that makes that reimbursement um eligible so uh should you decide to do that um it would be a uhou that we are a participating party on and then once you make that decision I would bring you back a resolution uh get that turned into the state and uh continue to be a part of that okay and I um I would certainly like for you to move forward with that is I I believe we had it on as an action item so what we we would look for would be a motion and a vote by the board to um well we're just giving consensus to move forward it and then we' bring it for um up for vote because it's on here today for we will take action on it yes so I I actually have the agreement to to sign and then i' bring you back a resolution okay so we'll ask for a motion for um approval I make say what that motion a motion by commissioner Andrews is there second by commissioner reic further question all in favor to sign I I I I 3 thank you very much and we're going to skip on down to um item seven um okay oh good morning morning I think yeah it will be on the screen but I haven't okay of you Mr Taylor thank you for being here I'm an attorney with the kriser group and I work with fact and so the reason that I'm here is to talk to you about kind of the pros and cons of performance evaluations my understanding kind of with talking with Denise fogal gang from fact and then also with your county manager is that there there's kind of a concern right now about how to proceed regarding employee evaluations and the best way way to make sure that's happening and to be fair there are there probably about I would say 8 10 years ago there were a great number of even Fortune 500 companies that were moving away from performance evaluations there's still a fair number of organizations that don't use kind of what are called annual performance evaluations like once a year to try and establish how people receive increases how people are evaluated in their in their job performance on a regular basis and there are a lot of reasons why that happens and on the on the information here on the sheet and also on the screen you'll see both kind of we'll go through some of these things but what I wanted to emphasize ultimately is there is a lot of discretion in how an employer deals with these issues and how they evaluate their performance how they communicate their expectations but what really is most important and I do this with all my training at the very top I kind of have emphasized the other CDC and that's something I just made up because we were hearing the CDC during during Co it all the time and so I came up with my own terms for this because I think it's pretty important regardless of whether you use an evaluation system or not and that's making sure that we're using communication documentation and consistency if nothing else we need to make sure those things are happening because we have to be able to make sure that we are expressing to the employees what it is they're supposed to be doing and how they're supposed to be doing it and when they're supposed to be doing it we have to make sure that we're documenting when the things are happening well and when there's not and then also because the consistency is important we have to make sure that we have that information going forward so it's not it's certainly not something where the county is by law required to conduct performance evaluations in terms of the standard what we think of that annual process and what I'll do is I'll start with kind of some of the the cons related to that because the fact of the matter is there is a there's a real need for people that are going to be doing these evaluations to really understand what they're doing so there has to be training for supervisors and managers if you're going to have performance evaluations kind of formal in a formal evaluation process they need to understand kind of that it has to be done honestly it has to be done fairly has to be done consistently these are things that have to occur and where we see some of the pitfalls are typically where for example particularly in in a smaller employer or a smaller employee base you have people that are friends and it's not too difficult to say well I don't want to offend my friend and so I'm going to give them a better evaluation or you know I really don't want to make I I don't want to discourage someone so I'm going to give them a rating that's higher than what they should be getting the fact of the matter is these documents both in terms of when we're talking about an annual performance valuation on the one hand they do help in terms of people understanding what they should or shouldn't be doing but on the other hand if these documents are not accurate if they're not consistent if they're not properly completed we run into the risk of that these doc documents will be used against us because what what we deal with typically and and for I don't I gave you my name but I've been practicing employment litigation now for 20 plus years fact of the matter is a lot of it is related to perception and so when we have these documents and they're not properly completed they don't have the accurate information they may be kind of inflated for different reasons or they're just people are just kind of filling them out because I don't have time the documents will be used against us if there's a claim that the action taken whether it's a demotion whether somebody didn't get a particular position or whether it's a termination they'll be used against us because they'll say well you gave this person a five out of five how is it that they were then terminated four months later so they can if they're not done correctly have a real issue there the other thing is because and one of the reasons why people started to move away from them is much like you know those cones that we see on the sidewalk that we walk by every day we start to not see them anymore so it's real easy to kind of oh yeah that's that that particular area has been roped off forever and I don't even notice that the cones are there or the warnings are there kind of like that performance evaluations if they're just done wrote if they're done in a way that is really something that people aren't paying attention to there's a lot of blindness to them the supervisors don't really fill them out the proper way the employees don't see them as anything other than oh great now I got to go meet with my supervisor and talk about the things that I might be doing well or not so they tend to come sometimes on an annual basis have less meaning because is they're not really accomplishing the things that we'd like as I said before it's kind of number or item C there on the cons they can create those credibility issues if we're dealing with claims they may create the situation where people aren't aren't really understanding how the performance evaluation meshes with our decision later on to take a negative action against an employee and the other thing they tend to do is they create an expectation that there's going to be a wage increase just because I'm evaluated means that automatically I'm going to get a raise if we're not communicating very clearly about look this is solely a performance evaluation there's always this idea that the performance evaluation will be accompanied by a race now there are some I I don't want to just vilify them because there are some good things that come out of them but they have to be done correctly and when they're properly done they they do provide an effective measure of kind of how the employee is doing what their particular skills are the things they need to improve you know what items that are of kind of less signif ific or immediate concern the fact of of the matter is though is that a performance evaluation should never be a surprise so what should be happening regardless of whether you're using a formal performance process or not is that there is that regular communication and when that communication is happening there's also documentation and to be fair when they when they do when they are done well they kind of offer they they document the employees efforts to to do well but to be fair at the same time there are other ways that that can be done it doesn't have to be done once a year in a meeting where things may or may not be remembered at that time and then one of the other things that can kind of help when we think about as an organization the county trying to say here are the things we need to accomplish over the next year a performance evaluation with particular goals for each employee helps us kind of eat that elephant one bite at a time instead of a Monumental task we're able to kind of break it down and say okay here are the things that we need to do and Department by Department here are the things the employees need to do but again one of the key parts of that is making sure that it that it's done properly so it does require a fair amount of training it does require a fair amount of understanding as to what the document is going to do it requires kind of a process in and of itself and sometimes you know the speaking again to that con of it being a once a year process it can be ignored and it may not be as effective or meaningful to either the employee or the supervisor going forward so with that I'll stop I'm an attorney so I can talk for hours my kids will tell you that Mr Taylor thank you for your presentation and haven't come from um state government um work background we had a um performance evaluations annually but in between that you have um when you're at your your quarter you got feedback from their supervisor and then at the six month um a mid year evaluation so that you had feedback continually throughout the year and not just at the end of the 12 months where you're getting a fent and getting surprise so you can develop some uh specific um objectives so that you take all of the emotions out of it it's not because you're my friend I expect you to have all of your training your 12 trainings this year so whether we're friends or not did you meet that objective um you expected to complete your assignment by a certain time did you either did you didn't so it takes that um subjected out to see if that that person meet those requirements so it's a way in which it can be done that is specific you're uh following your position description you're following the specific objectives um of your duties uh and so that you can take that um emotional piece out of it and because it seems every every individual need to know what the job is and have a specific um evaluation process so that they get that feedback and not necessarily tied into a raise but giving that person ongoing feedback on their performance and all departments need to have performance objectives for that department what are the goals that each department is trying to reach and that your employees under you have some specific duties and responsibilities to meet that um Department goal so helping the people to understand that what everybody everybody's job is helps the department to meet that goal so it's important to have employee performance standards in place I completely agree and and it starts but it does start from the idea and you mentioned the job description I mean all of this kind of builds upon each other you when we Comm and communication is the one of the biggest Parts because sometimes performance is not you know poor performance is not always well this person just doesn't want to do their job sometimes it's an issue of the leader saying listen I'm not I've not communicated this well as to the things that are going to be done or at other times it's an issue of the jobs changed and we have to make sure that the communication is occurring how do we communicate with employees the the employee handbook is kind of the big way that we do that that it kind of allows people to be able at their at their convenience to be able to say okay this is what's expected of me just as an employee but you're right the next level is the job description as far as the job description saying for this position this particular position these are the things I expect to have happen in your role when it comes to the evaluation process there is I think there's value sometimes in there being an annual performance type of process but it there are times where it can create as much negative as positive if it's not being done correctly and that's why sometimes the better process may be to have the periodic sort of checkin sometimes it can be a one-on-one sometimes it can be uh you know meetings on a quarterly basis as you've described but where people have moved away from kind of an annual performance evaluation is because of sometimes the one other thing that they they sometimes deal with is what's called recency bias meaning the most recent thing is the thing that's brought up because that's what people remember so I think you're right I agree that there needs to be absent you know particular formal annual evalu evaluation process we do need to have some communication that about the expectations and how we're going about fulfilling the goals of each department and because over time those objectives may change the the direction of which department has had it so sometimes those um um um performance um objectives have to change because the situation changes so that would be important but um the the training um is important and the supervision is more important yeah any questions from the board just comment I I totally agree um I think that and and like you were talking about this this process not only teaches um the employee what is expected of them but it for poor leaders um like you were describing the ones who cannot be objective and do their job um whenever there's a problem because even if you're my friend I have an obligation to do my job and do it correctly that's what we you know the public always refers to the good old boy say with for my buddy if it's my buddy then they don't have to work they don't have to do the same job that everyone else does and that that leads into a lot of problems when you when you operate under that under or that situation and with with the performance evaluation there are some leaders who have never sat down in a room with their with their employee and had a talk um when you have a performance evaluation at least once a year you come into a room you sit down with them and you you talk about each one of these things you tell them you know you're doing a great job here maybe we could improve on this um but it gives them guidance and Direction it also helps with your relationship with them as you are talking to them one on-one um sometimes we have problem employees that leaders will not talk to and put the problem off with someone else to handle because they don't want to deal with it themselves that's a poor leader and they need to step up and do their job when you have this then whenever you are talking to those problem employees you're talking to them about what's going on and and it's you know we can delegate a lot of things but we can't delegate our responsibility we have to do our job and um I did come from a uh I mean state government where we did this for many many many years I never received a raise but that yearly uh performance evaluation was very important to me because it also had a section there for comments from my my supervisor and those comments meant as much as AR raised it to me because it told me either I was a valued employee or I was not and so I strongly uh recommend that we have this um and yes sometimes employees are good employees and some something happens and they start calling in and not coming but there again it gives us an opportunity to sit down with them and ask what's going on is there anything we can do I think it keeps us in touch with our employees and builds us the stronger Workforce because of the relationship that you have with them and then another piece too is that evaluation is not just a one-way streak but it's also getting feedback from that employee on how they think they're doing and then um there may be something that the supervisor forgot you know have done some extra thing I've covered for the department so it also allows the employee to give you know some uh assessment of how well they think they've done and so you allow that in the evaluation process as well but throughout the course of the year um that you're giving feedback to that person and that person is also uh keeping some documentation of these extra things that they may be doing as well so it's important to have a process in place um for them and I I would certainly it done done completely by the book it it can be an advantage but even the thing is even if you have a formal annual evaluation process if we're waiting until that 12 month period to raise those issues that's that's going to be a problem I agree and i' I've had a number of cases where I've defended including state agencies where I will get annual evaluations that put someone at five out of five for the past 10 years and they've been terminated you know the you know within three months after their performance evaluation those evaluations because they've not been completed correctly people haven't paid attention people haven't done the things they should then create this very big credibility issue for an employer to say well we've dealt with this all this time why wasn't any of these evaluations so there there are I think certainly there's an importance to making sure that feedback is getting through but the question becomes how what is the best way to ensure that that's occurring for some organizations it might be the annual evaluation but and it's not just an issue of of laziness or people being you know favoritism we have new supervisors all the time too and they've come up to this and and to be fair I get a lot of push back from supervisors about annual evaluations because it takes so much time as well I'm having to spend a whole day going through evaluations so I've got 16 other things so I'm not saying that they're they're not important they are and they can be used effectively but it really is a balancing act for any employer to decide what is the best best way for me to ensure that that communication is occurring because that's going to be the first part that's going to be most important that the documentation is there this is what for us to be able to then go back because at the end of the day if the employee is not performing well and we're talking to them about it Talk's great hopefully the employees listening but later on when I I've taken plenty of depositions where I go to depose the plaintiff and I've learned from the employer that they've talked to this employee about te dozen times about could be a tardiness or attendance or something else and I go to depose the plaintiff and they say never never heard anything about it because nothing was documented so it's important to make sure that in The Balancing Act of developing the appropriate way to do this you kind of look at what what the County's prepared to do in terms of effective training who needs to be trained how you do that and then which system is really going to get the most use and effectiveness of the supervisors and sometimes it's just a matter of making sure that they understand the importance of what they're doing as well so I concur yes commissioner R and I I agree with what you're saying um I I think the performance value are are becoming a thing of the pass because I I feel like our supervisors are with their employees every day they see them all the time they talk to them if there's a problem like you said they can just call them in one onone and say hey look you know you you've been late two times this week let's tighten it up but it also takes like you said it it has to be documented you know it has to be documented and um you know and and the other thing I have a real problem with with the performance valuations if you call in somebody for a performance valuation they just don't want to add a boy and then you send them out the door you s you tell them yeah you're doing a great job everything you're doing spot on I wish I had more employees like you that a boy and you send him out the door that's you know I I just that's not the way to do things but um just in my opinion but and I I've been listening to what you've been saying and there seems to be problems with that too because they're expecting if they're really performing they're expecting something after their evaluation so you know I I think that our um supervisor should again stay in con um constant uh contact with their employees you know whether it's good or bad and uh rather than just calling them in once a year because I can see from listening to what you're saying that could definitely come back to bite you you know so um well especially if we're kicking an issue down the road right because it's real easy to say I don't want to deal with it now but I'll wait till the evaluation like I said it shouldn't be a surprise because the number one the employee deserves the respect of someone coming saying this is not happening correctly right and it shouldn't be something that's done once a year so yes dealing with it when it's happening head on I appreciate I appreciate you coming in and thank you and I I do think that's important for our C our County because when we can set the performance standards um have clear position descriptions and if we can evaluate and document throughout the course of the year then you can give that written feedback you can even establish some performance Improvement plans to help that person if they're not meeting it to meet it before the end of the year and so I I think it's that that's important for our County one of the thing that I didn't mention before is you can depending upon how the positions work decide whether or not you're going to use them for all positions or you there may be more more parts of the county where it's more effective to use a more formal process than an informal process but that's also within your discretion the key is going to be making sure we've got the documentation and we're being consistent about the way we're doing absolutely we thank you so much okay so Madam chair I guess what we'll do is uh uh we'll put something together uh try and have it by the next meeting Maybe not maybe the the meeting after um trying to figure out what training is available how much it's going to cost the county to put our people through the training uh what the program evaluation itself looks like and then bring it before the board as an action item okay sound like a good thing okay all right thank you again um thank you very much all right and um moving forward we'll have the clerk's report I just want to say on the evaluations I found out many years ago when I was in a state type system of Clay County and it same thing you sit down we boss you don't see then I became a boss and I just thought to myself these are the most worthless things in the world world after I became sergeant had 18 people had to fill out weekly notes every week on 18 people and Scott Lancaster walked by my office one day and I had a stack of files everybody had an inch of paper in their file goes Denny how you like those evils I said oh I said it's rough it's rough keeping up with all this he said it's not for the employees it's it's for the supervisors for them to see how weak their supervisors were in different areas because they would see that one supervisor have all exceeds but they know there were problems on that shift or that area and they used it 90% he told me this out of his mouth it's 90% to evaluate all the s the supervisors and 10% for the employees wow I thought that I thought that was pretty neat yeah that's interesting but on another note you guys have asked me about millage a couple times and you have to a meal right now is $1.2 million like 1.15 and you know that that's going to cancel you've talked about backing the millage out whenever we whenever you do some type of assessment so it's going to take uh three and a half Mills just to get us back to zero almost where we're at now and then decide how many meals back out from the assessment so that's that's going to be a lot of work to sort that out and let give you guys a number where we can get back in a savings mode instead of a spending mode in the near near future that's it that's all I have okay thank you and that's important for our our board to know because we're looking at how we can um monitor um you know our spending and our budget to make sure we stay within that budget and to have some contingency funds available to take care of emergencies of those catastrophic things that might occur we thank you uh from our Sher couple of things uh my major uh I went to the National Sheriff's conference I left on Sunday Sunday afternoon meeting with some fellow sheriffs I was introduced some information that I was not aware of pertaining to our jail and inmates that we house under the Obama Affordable Health Care Act there's a section in there if you're a sentenced inmate can't use it so I've got to talking to another Sheriff from another state then he gave me a contact with a vendor I sent that information on Monday to Major Don McKinley at the jail some things appear to be too good to be true and I thought this was one of those I said I just kind of blew it off I said yeah there's the information I heard this but it piqued my curiosity we need to look into it initially both kind of thought the same in our conversation one of the vendors we knew that we we trust said oh no it's working you you need make we got a couple places in Florida so the health cred care is a couple of lawyers that went together and they form this they get something out of it for registering people and no calls to us they sent her a laptop as I speak this morning every inmate in our County inmate in our jail except for three at this moment now have healthc care coverage now that's a substantial savings to us in Bradford County not only do they have health insurance when they get out because of the thresholds they have health insurance that allows us to pay for local medication we're not having to go to an outside vendor shop local as we like to say that puts them more controls uh if they have the health insurance so we can build them through our rescue that now does that service for free there's a lot of options that opened up and I want to give kudos to Major McKinley CU I I kind of yeah look I was asked about it we talked to this vendor that I know and trust and uh he looked out for us and he sent it to us immediately day she's got the laptop and now they have health insurance coverage not only why they're in jail but when they get out because the law states you must charge their health insurance first under the Affordable Care Act so I thought that's substantial that could save us up a couple only takes one inmate to bankrupt us each year uh the clerk can tell you that you know we pay for catastrophic insurance when it goes above3 or $40,000 they cover it but most inmates or fall between that 15 and $25,000 so we're paying that out one cancer patient like to ruin us one year we went to the catastrophic insurance which cost us around $75,000 a year to purchase so I'm in all this morning as I sat with this morning in that meeting I I thought I'd bring that to the board uh that y'all needed to know and that's not my behalf cuz I kind of halfheartedly took that over some sweet tea on a Sunday afternoon but it did pick my interest and that that's a big thing now we talk about rescue and First Responders and those type things we're going to set out on a mission to do you a call analysis we did that years ago we need to know where the most calls for service that we respond to in this County I think that's only fair to you the board of County Commissioners we did it one time before I think commissioner R can attest to it that's reason the living quarters went to Thea and not to the the Keystone fire station at that time because the call analysis show where the majority of the calls go we'll get you that so we're going to work on that don't know how fast we can get it we're working with our it people to see how they can sort those calls where their Fire EMS calls those type things I think it's only fair and it's fair to show the public okay so we we I think you're you all are owed that the second is a dashboard what fire rescue is doing is we are working if you walk in our lobby right now uh I've got it on my phone major mckenley is watching this live she's a little bashful but she's watching us live and she's been so I'm making sure I give all the information shop local when they get out they got health insurance but a dashboard will look something and I've only got it on my phone if you walk into our lobby you'll see a big real time B incidents so it tells us you know today 41 this week 602 this month 4,52 this year we've had 2,188 calls last year 42585 how many traffic stops arrests this week 19 this month 105 this year 569 last year 13 it'll be a real life Dash that they can put on our County website but we're going to do one for the fire as well so we're working with the software company to kind of give you all those calls that anybody look up and see right now at the moment what's taking place in this County wonderful if we have the technology to do it the public should be have access to it so I've been working with the county manager uh fire chief we're trying to come up with something be a little red red and black like their stuff with their logo our separate we use the same software and we're just we had to buy another piece of equipment that blocks the public from getting when we put it live on the internet that keeps it from getting access to the sies fcic NC and we had a purchase some more equipment uh which we're doing uh in regards to it so that's kind of an update where we're at with the sheriff's office I thought the jail information could save us as uh your someone mentioned I find another way of budgeting I'm still amazed I'm I big smile on my face when I walked out the day and she's texted me the entire time to make sure I say certain things so I'm checking so I don't get in trouble when I go back but there are some of the things that we think you you're deserved to know where the most calls go to when your citizens approach you and say hey what about because I know Brooker wants a fire department but I've already heard a City Commissioner from Hampton say well what about us getting a fire department you get into all those battles we need to know where the calls are where we're sending our Public Safety responders First Responders and I just think you're owed that and then the the real time data if we have it let's show it so thank y'all and sheriff and thank you and major McKenzie for that good news that up uplift our the burden of a a lot of expenditures do you know program which is great we can buy local again for meds I mean it it gives us a lot of access do you know off the top about how much um we spend annual and help care for the inmates we spend somewhere near in the neighborhood and we don't have to pay for the federal inmates we house which is good matter of fact she's even introduced this program to them and they're looking it up to Port it to Washington oh I forgot she's also reapplied for the amount that we get for housing federal inmates we we've crossed that threshold that we can reapply to get an increase in that as well but right now we're currently spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $300 to $500,000 a year okay thank you that's to take care of the C inmates when they're in our custody very good that's a tremendous savings and our re-entry when they get out they've got health insurance so it's it's a big help thank you very much thank you okay um and our County Manager report Mr corate thank you madam chair um first I think I would like to ask Mr Dodge to come up and talk about the U the road management tech reviews uh we told you the last meeting that we would reach out to some references and uh give you some more information before we move forward with with Contracting with them good morning good morning um at the last meeting Road management Technologies presented before the board on their their system for us tracking our road data um and y'all had asked if I would go out and talk to some references and I did get a hold of some of the references who emailed me back and you'll see them before you um so just wanted to follow back up on that with you madam Madam cheer yeah it's me yeah hey I was talking to Jimmy Williams last night at dinner I ran into him from Lake Butler and he said that the Florida uh University of Florida State materials Testing Lab has that equipment and go out to counties around here he said that they've offered it to him he claims he's got a number I can call I've got the same number um they actually test the state infrastructure and when they have time okay okay and it's it's basically more of a friction test that they do but they do some data um roadway stuff he didn't know a lot about it I was just want to check make sure it wasn't say one of my best friends does that and um Mr D and when I was when we were at the FC then I was also trying to check to see if dot had a particular um methodology that they used or um technique or instruments or whatever and so um the person gave me her card and um she's going to get back with us about what they use and if to see if that's something that the county could use as well and I'll get that information to you as well and one of the things I like about this and and one of the references actually um spoke on it if we would have had this in place when the bypass was being built we would have had the data ourself to show the state how deteriorated uh Southwest County Road 18 and 227 was after and then had the information from before all the truck traffic so we could have potentially used that to get the funding to redo that road and it's also um I checked with the county attorney it is also able to be purch or paid for out of our gas pack if you choose to go that route thank you um any questions about the the road um technology program that was 50,000 annually yes ma'am so Madame chair would you like for us to to put it on the next agenda as an action item um for me I I would still like to just explore if there's any other um um programs before we take action on it um if there's any other um I don't know well I think Jason you've reached out to a number of vendors right yes there is several vendors that do this similar thing um but the cost was not near as acceptable as this was okay um and this what we ended up at was not the original quote they gave us we negotiated with them multiple times to get it to this number it was quite a bit higher than that in the original foot okay um could you just hold off on the next one and put it on the next one after that um sure okay and then that way I can get you that information uh or the person that we saw at fact just to see if there's any others that we can consider before we make a decision on on this one to see if um what technology they may be using yes ma'am yeah and I I concur having some kind of apparatus that would would evaluate the conditions of the road is important for us but if there's any Avenues to get it without with a lesser cost you know we can explore that before we make the final decision on this one that's all I'm asking just yes ma'am and I completely understand I will just say that what you're talking about right now is a one-time overrun of our roads not a consistent every day where this would be tracking every day off of our Sheriff's Office vehicles of our Public Works Vehicles off of our fire rescue vehicles that are seeing every inch of our County you know weekly but I I'll go any direction y'all want to go okay so they put it on their vehicles as well yes yes ma'am County own Vehicles oh okay okay all right so if we can just um move it to the agenda um I guess would be the first one in uh August then yes ma'am okay all right thank you all right and and while you're up can you give us or you may not have had the time because you were at the meetings to um the update on the road progress um project that they're doing in our different parts of the community yes ma'am so we are actually um working toward putting placing the lime rock down because we had some unraveling with the Milling that we couldn't hold bond together so the chip seal was going to fail um so we've just about finished all of the roads in the north Northeast and are moving toward the southeast and should complete those probably in two weeks but we're going to go ahead and move the chip seal folks back in um hopefully after the Fourth of July weekend and get them up on that part getting started while we're continuing to work forward okay and then one other thing that bu you with um we've been getting a lot of calls about the roadside Mowing and so are you able to get any extra help with with that piece I had a gentleman literally stopped by yesterday my house came to the back garage it says um 17th Loop and Ludy it hasn't been modow and ages or whatever so is there any help extra help that you can get no ma'am I wouldn't consider anything extra help um and I'm not hiding any employees I promise you they're all out doing Lime Rock on roads right now no I I meant can we employ any temporary help to help them I guess want a mask not that you have people that are not doing you're doing everything that you can within the um limited employee numbers that you have is there any way that we can get help from anybody else I don't know through Department of Corrections inmates or whomever to help us to kind of catch up some before the storm we we are using inmate work Crews right now um unfortunately we're getting about 3 to five a day is the max on it Jason how many employees do you have out on the roadway I have 12 and that's to run three graders two mowing tractors and then whatever else we can do with them how many road miles of do you have to maintain 330 miles but when you put in consider mowing you take the Southwest County Road 231 you mow it eight passes by the time you mow both sides from right away to the edge of pavement so it's a lot more than 330 Mi yeah eight times more yes sir and and that is no criticism Mr D he he is the finest and his employees are doing the best um but we're just at a at a position now where everything is just overgrown no fault of theirs um but just seeking if there any alternative uh that we have that can help them out you know to kind of catch up on some of it is what I was asking you ever checked in the contract Mo I don't I don't know what it cost so I did um clerk the last time well it was probably 2019 when I did it um we needed tractors because we didn't have none that ran um and so couple of the Commissioners had asked me to check on contract Mowing and without litter in it just mowing was 880,000 per cycle through the county what's this ccle that's a my third that's one trip around the county was 80,000 okay how much 880,000 and that was back in 2019 so I would go ahead and say we could triple that for 2024 okay one comment and this is just do brag on the sheriff and the sheriff department um and it goes along with the roads uh unfortunately on Southeast 11th the reason the road kept coming unraveled as our road department was down there working as hard as they could work and at night and even before they even finish up four-wheelers and side by sides were coming in there and spending Donuts all the way down the road and um and I I'll tell you I have nothing against four-wheelers or side by sides or race bikes I've got all of them but you don't tear up the roads and we and from talking with the sheriff and the sheriff depart we don't even care if they ride on the road but don't tear up the road you can go into the woods and ride just as fast as you want and I do it all the time myself but I don't tear up the road and uh Sheriff I just thank you so much I mean I met the deputies down there I don't know how many times already we've already caught two of them and uh but but the thing is the word needs to get out that if we catch them spinning Donuts they're going to get a citation and it's going to cost them because our our road department and it was making me sick and I was getting calls constantly and Mr corn knows cuz I was calling him too about what 8 :00 at night and um but but we just need to really get the word out we don't care if they ride on the dirt road to get to the woods to tear up whatever they want but don't tear up our roads and uh because like I said it's costing the county it's costing us a lot of money and uh I don't know for sure but it might have cost having to put all this extra L rock on Southeast 11 because they had it packed they had it watered and the next morning it was tore all to pieces so I just just wanted to throw that out there and again Sheriff I thank you so much your deputies um are fantastic and um but I was also out there with them with some pretty mad parents that came by cuz we pulled their poor uh little sons and daughters is over but uh anyway I'll leave it at that but okay but thank you I do appreciate it you know I'm responsible for training them deputies right sorry sheriff Mr dos thank you for all that you do in the road department you you guys do a fantastic job with just a limited number of employees and so if there's any way or anything that we can do to help you I just want us to do it you know um to help out yes ma'am and that credit goes to my staff because they they have that never quit attitude and we'll do whatever needs to be done Sheriff can you work work on trying to help us get some more inmate help they came thank you Mr D yes ma'am thank you all well and I just want to say Jason thank you I know I call you a lot and um because I do have a lot of dirt roads and everything but um I do appreciate everything you do I hope you know that and yes Sheriff thank you for getting those squads out um are are they cutting the numbers back on the inmates or are we still getting full squads absolutely that and we are assigned 10 of them um but when they have call outs and things like that they don't well I wondered if there was something going on that may have prevented them from being able to fill the squads yes ma'am so Madame chair if I may the chief Deputy clerk was just pointing out that that there may be another option where we could hire seasonal workers and and pay for them out of the general fund okay it would just be a matter of of how much money you want to spend and I'm assuming if we did that we'd also have to purchase additional equipment or no no sir we we're fine on equipment we just need labor person labor yes so if we can just do that just for the summer you know just to help out just to catch up because it's not just my district I mean it's the whole County I mean if you drive through any road at any time the grass is 3 or 4 feet and it's not because they're not doing their job but by the time they get from one end and to the other it's it's back up the thing with that too was that it was drought for a long time and just grass has sprouted last week yeah it's come from nothing to Hay oh so if we could yeah take a look at seasonal workers and what it would cost us okay okay thank you so much thank you thank you jayon uh the next thing I have is several of you have inquired recently about the uh impact fees and where we are in that process so I wanted to go on the record today and say that we um we talk to the consultant at stantech and uh they confir confirmed that they'll begin uh working on the impact fee methodology once the fire assessment is completed okay thank you Mr con that's all I have Madam chair okay thank you um Mr Bradley thank you madam chair nothing to report okay thank you for being here with us um at this time commissioner comments M well it's been a very very vocal meeting so I really brought out everything that I had to discuss other than just thank you for all being here and um taking a true interest into our County and what's going on the changes that may need to be made and and working with us talking to us and letting us here what how you feel making suggestions that honestly may help us so um thank you'all for being here appreciate it okay commissioner ready yes I I thank everyone for being here thank you so much for your presentation Mr Taylor that was that was awesome thank you good information and uh also just uh remember the 4th of July I mean this why we live in this great nation and uh but but don't forget the men and women uh in the military that are out there that won't be able to uh sit back and eat the hamburgers and hot dogs and watch the fireworks because they're station somewhere and so that we can enjoy this this this Freedom that we have so uh any excuse me but anyway just think about our our men and women in uniform uh on the 4th of July and I hope everybody has a happy and safe fourth and looking forward to the next meeting okay again and I'd like to thank you all for being here too and my question I think Mr Wht has already added um answered that um but are we prepared for the storms uh was one of my um areas and then um also the sheriff and I know Mr con was you all were going to try to identify some cooling areas as the heat index increases that we have some safe places so people can just be able to cool down yes ma'am and we'll we'll do that we for the last two weeks he and I both have been at conferences and one thing or another so we hadn't had an opportunity to put our heads together with that but we will okay and the other Mr Do's addressed um and if we can get somebody to the Northeast 17th Loop in laud to just try to get their five foot ditches done um that would be very very very helpful um and then I wanted to thank the board and our County for allowing us to go to the fight conference and we're so grateful to have some Representatives here it was a very informative uh meeting and then I'd like to acknowledge um commissioner Andrews um received her plaque and graduation ceremony so she's now level two um County certified manager as well and we're so grateful for that um and there we have the 4th of July festivities coming up um on um Thursday you know there will be the parade and then the activities at the fairground let's go and support um those activities and I know sherff you had something coming up the mid July what was that there's another activity that's coming up that we got an email on call major McKinley okay that's okay um and I believe Mr heer is in charge of the the activities at the the 4th and the 5ifth I believe um and so let's support that and might say one more thing M absolutely so since they're here and I rarely get to to say publicly and to thank and tell them how much we appreciate what they do for us Denise Fogo saying with uh fact and fmit not only do they provide our our insurance and and other things for us but they provide uh training we just had a recent training um at the Charlie Johns and it was absolutely wonderful and we just we get so much value from that relationship with Denise and and her organization not to mention the priser group and uh what they do for us in terms of uh human resources and the policies surrounding that so thank you Denise we appreciate you we appreciate your organization and Mr Taylor same thing for the prisoner group we appreciate you okay all right um anything else from anybody for the good in order if nothing more this meeting is adjourned 11:34 thank you