e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e gentlemen our meeting is now called to order on this February this February July 18 2024 Board of County Commissioners let us rise for our invocation and Pledge of Allegiance Heavenly Father we come with hearts of Thanksgiving towards you thank you for your grace and your mercy we thank you for the opportunity to do your will and to do good towards our community and others help us de Lord to be good stewards and leaders in our community and to be examples of followers of your will Heavenly Father we thank you for each and every person who has come out tonight and for those who might be listening online bless them one in all now father I ask you for your guidance of guide our Behavior and our actions towards one another help us to display Civility and courtesy and respect towards one another now Lord help us to keep an open mind and be receptive and to try to understand the viewpoints of each other father I ask that you place your loving arms around America and particularly our leaders and elected officials those running for office protect us from all the Perils of Violence by those who choose evil gone violence and those who show hate rather than love help us dear Lord to always choose nonviolence and and to always choose love over hate help us dear Lord to always remember that we are all brothers and sisters and that we are created by you help us to unite and to be always mindful that we are one nation under God now father guide us in our decision making tonight that it be done in the best interest of our community and be pleasing in your sight in Jesus name we pray amen we pledge allegiance we're going to make a slight adjustment in our agenda and our Sheriff Gordon Smith is going to come for a special announcement and thereafter um we'll move into our regular agenda M Madam chair if I may before we start uh I'd like to pull items five and six from the agenda we've gotten some new information and we'll address it at a later meeting all right thank you consensus of the board thank you thank you for allowing me to present this um take time out of the agenda to to move it around but tonight I want to come before you and I'm excited about something that's been long overdue but there's a promotion within our agency uh we've had two uh promotions within our agency we've added a uh jail inspector over at the jail which for our accreditation process moving forward we've done that and Andy Johnson's in the house was able to promote him to Lieutenant and uh move him over there so that's a great promotion and for major McKinley and her team to have that on board so that's that's a big help but tonight something that's long overdue and I've put it off but there's a great young man over in Emergency Management by the name of Brad wit I was here at the Inception of the first ever Emergency Management director and I've seen several come and go over the years but there's been no one who has worked harder who loves serving the community in such a way that he does uh but we're proud of him he does so much more than just Emergency Management I want to I want to be clear with that him and his staff that he has do amazing jobs but he's also taken on our accreditation process the school Guardian program that has been mimicked throughout the State of Florida he's a recognized leader in that area as we're training for other other counties around us much larger uh he goes to much larger agencies to do that perform that he's our Honor Guard uh our drones when there's a drone called out and Escape or something along those lines our boat when a boat's activated to go out on the water he has a team he calls upon to do that he does so much but beyond that he's a great man he's a great family man a great father I'd say great son his daddy's here his daddy's been in profession for a long time working down in NASA with the fire fire Services down there but he's got an amazing family which allows him to do everything that he does and when you talk to him there's not a day when anything you're discussing he's serious somehow his family always comes into that conversation I'm not sure how that comes about but he's he never fails to recognize that and that speaks a lot about an individual uh in my book so it's my distinct pleasure tonight to get to promote him to the rank of Captain so we got him a little something now I'm a little different I I'm not much on plaques hanging on the wall and doing those type things but we did get you a little something I ordered if you notice been sitting in my office quite some time hoping youd never touch it kind of like the chair deal but you'll look on this it's a nice Marine sword for distinct at their rank of Captain but also it says 2024 Captain Bradley wit Emergency Management director that he can proudly display it beats a plaque in my book that's just me but congratulations he loves his uniform so along with that we got your Insignia and also your badge and all so congratulations thank sherff and I want to thank his family if you look around you look at his family that come here to support him that's how much family means to him and nothing gets done if you don't take care of the family first I want to thank youall personally for allowing him to be a part of our life family of Bradford County and allowing him to serve the community he loves beyond that I want to say thank you any words no Sheriff I just appreciate it very happy to be here thank you sir thank y'all for allowing me to do that thank you can I say something C W I would like to say thank you for all the hard work that you've done on three pipes um it's dear to my heart and um I cannot say how much I appreciate the efforts that you done in everything you do because like the sheriff said you go way AB uh upon or above everything that you expected but with three Pops I really really thank you for that thank you just to let you know on that uh Noah told me got word um day before yesterday that that's moved on to the next stage of review so it's under review as we speak thank you so much thank you all very much thank you so much God bless you all right and on to our regular business um this is our public hearing um on the ordinance on the fire assessment and um we will entertain um public comments it's open for public comments and um our attorney did you need to read it before we began okay okay all right at this time we have uh Sita Baker okay hello hello my name is Anita Baker I live at 10100 Southwest 95th way in Hampton um I want to say this is a hard topic to talk about I didn't plan a speech tonight um I do want to ask the audience if there's anyone here about the fire assessment if you'd raise your hand I would like for y'all to notice how many people if you'll just raise your hand because we want to know if you're interested in the fire um this is a topic that's been going on since I think 2018 um I did a little research and I think y'all have spent over $60,000 on assessment fees I'm not sure if our audience is aware of that um I'm a little confused and I know it's a hard job for you to sit back and try to spend other people's money because at the end of the day that's what you're doing um to me um I look at I come to these meetings a lot and I sit back and I'm not picking on you Chris but I am tonight I'm gonna tell you that I came to a meeting a few months ago and the two ladies didn't even understand about the tower light and you were so eager to pass that ruling about let's go ahead and approve it and the two ladies didn't even understand what they were approving and I watched this conversation and now it seemed like to me unless I'm wrong you're going to pay an extra $200 a month for the service fee for that I sat at another meeting and Danny you approved 5% salaries for the employees and I I believe everybody should get a raise but it was toyed about a 3% or a 5% and you took the top of the line and and I want everybody to get a raise but we're already broke it sounds like to me Bradford County is broke um y'all don't have the money for this fire assessment and you keep bringing it up every year over and over and I think um to ask the citizens to increase by $200 or $300 a month like you mentioned that was kind of the conversation that's asking a lot of money for people um we have retired elderly people on fix then comes here in Bradford County um I just don't think people are going to be able to afford that uh we used to have volunteer fire departments and I asked over here how many fire people you have on staff and if you're only housing five stations if you got six people on staff it doesn't take rocket science to plug a person at each of these places and get yourself some Volunteer Fire people like we used to have um I just think that we should be looking at other avenues um to make this work thank you than I just you know I could say more um but I don't think we're spending our resources um the way we should be spending them thank you okay next we had um Mr L Donley um I thought I saw him in the back Mr Donley if you would come up Sir um to the podium good afternoon my name is Lloyd Donley and I live in speedville the end of the county and I wants to say that we really need the fire station down there but we don't need these taxes that they going to put on us with that we the taxes on us down there is outrageous as it is we biggest people down that way live on a fixed income they cannot afford no more taxes than we already have so I'm asking especially the county commissions and everybody on this board to check in and be sure that this is what you want to do because what it's going to do is going to cause hardship on the families and I'm one of them so I'm asking y'all to please than this over before any action is taken than thank you thank you Mr Dominic next we have Mr Dr Paul steel B still 14167 Southwest 1 Avenue uh I have two suggestions one is that you delay trying to do the power assessment until next year so you have time to really understand what what all the moving parts are and how to make it work if you really want to do a fire assessment this year I would urge you to set the limit the top limit for a household a house at $50 uh I've talked to people uh people like like me who live in a 1978 uh mobile home by the time the fire people get to our my house it's it's gone uh people who live in a cracker house made of lighter P lighter Pine is going to be gone and the concept of having assessments is good but I believe it has to be based on I would hope it would be based on the benefit and so if you live in a $500,000 home then more than likely a quick arrival or arrival of the fire department is going to save significant parts of your home and I think that's the part that went wrong in the assessment process you didn't look at all the options that you have available to actually set the assessment uh as I said I don't if you want to do it this year set people's mind at ease so that they know that the most that they're going to have to pay is $50 for a home and not this potential 300 and whatever it is so that's the action that I'd urge you to take and sort of let people know that tonight so that you have uh a lot of people out there they don't won't show up here but they talk to me about it and it's it's causing a lot of Heartache on people's part thanks thank you um next um Mr Tatum Tom Tatum I'm here on the pole barn deal and uh we got pole barns everywhere most of them junk and I've dealt with two or three junk men lately about cleaning some of them out and tearing them down if you pack pass this tax anytime you get away from value of something you take our Sawmill 22,000 ft building I wouldn't tell you what it cost to build it if I know but then you go look at a a raggedy building about to fall down it's going to be taxed the same thing for square foot if that's the way y'all go some said you might have changed it and I hope you have anytime you start making the poor pay for the rich you're asking for trouble and uh my sawmill I on I could spend $10 million under that building I made it big enough in the addon you couldn't even see it but that the tax could be the same be no change and that old building out there would have the same square foot so it's actually a tax against the poor now where that Jacksonville man come from they try to run the poor out with then bring the rich in I hate to tell you this ain't Jacksonville you run the pour out and telling every little old see you ain't even going to get start where all the big uh commercial buildings is they tear down all these little buildings it kills the growth it kills a poor man and I'll tell you something Mr SP got 10 res people want a job on my desk right now I need to hire them cuz I'm running a little bit short-handed but things are so bad I could we work 50 people and I guarantee you I could hire another 50 by the end of this month and never advertise we're in a poor County and I'm not saying we don't and I ain't here in no position to fight the fire department because we need the fire department but the fairer we get it the more people are going to be satisfied with it on Industrial see we got some lands on Industrial some land Own Zone Agricultural and then before we retail Lumber actually Zone commercial so the only building we got commercial there two buildings over there uh where we retail Lumber and I talked to them man I work with some junk people we going to start cleaning them junk out of them building my daddy loved junk they built them buildings everywhere and the building don't need to be there it's a whole junk and I told Charles we can clean these junk out and either tear the buildings down or use them but we can't afford building with a fire attack like that for junk in it and uh so I've got dumpsters and and any of y'all can come in our sawmill building even the man from Jacksonville and you would say it's not fair to tax it the same way you would some old building out there on the yard it's same as it ain't fair to tax a $25,000 place next to a 500,000 I'm coming out pretty good on my house that's a big house I'm coming out real good so I'm not here complaining about houses but I I don't need starve Grandma a death uh for my house either I I believe in but fair is fair and um they got to be a fair way to do it on industrial electrical is the best way to do it cuz because if you spent 10 million on the building then that El the bill would go up and uh that day you would know it that minute now I don't know what to do on the house this stuff but you take Walmarts and all them start going exempt y out so all your commercials here and start so basically you're killing any commercial going to be in the county they going to tear down old commercial buildings already there and really we don't got a county that tears down the roping Club where other little counties has got bigger roping club we can't do everything wrong and i' hope we try to do this right Thank you Mr tum next we have Miss Kate Ellison Kate Ellison 971 Southeast 32nd way Melrose Florida speedville um uh I understand that we need to raise money for the fire for the firefighters to support them um we've tried to have volunteers and that hasn't worked and I I get it and I'm and I get it that I'm going to be paying more it's a it's an annual assessment not a monthly assessment um I read through the ordinance that you published and um I didn't understand it perfectly but I don't think that it had the method in there at all which is the thing that everybody's so concerned about and that we have the least amount of facts um available to us um but um I I think it really does need to be assessed on the basis of the value of the building um if you are going to assess commercial property on the basis of the square foot uh of the building then I it's not logical that you can't do that for um uh personal houses for personal property um but but even more than that hearing what people are saying the um the actual value of the house comparing a um an expensive large house to an older trailer you know it just it just makes sense that those who can afford to live in a in a much bigger house would pay more for saving it um and I know that uh there's a lot of feeling behind this issue um and I hope that uh if this is the workshop that we um that you'll choose to answer some of the questions that people are raising tonight and also that um keep to keep it fair to those of us who don't interrupt that people not speak from from the audience that it it just be people who are up here speaking U thank you thank you Miss Allison um and now we have Miss Bond strong my name is vinda strong post office box 530 ly 32058 I'm probably the eyeball up here um I believe in the the paying my fish year um I'm still salty about the garbage I pay double and I'm I'm still salty about that so um I think that my garbage fee should be gone um to be honest with you I don't produce enough garbage to pay it on the ly side and the county side so if you want to take off my garbage fee and put it toward the fire I'll go for that any day but um I I think that the fees should go to the fire department I'll say that any any day um because I don't produce enough garbage but if the garbage I mean if the fire department were to assess a fee to come when they come to your house and you have insurance I'm for that any day because I have homeowners insurance if they're gonna put out your if they're going to save your house and save your insurance uh save your home from burning down then why not charge your insurance company I mean that's what you carry insurance for anybody that has insurance they send a bill to your insurance company I'm all for it your insurance company should be glad that they saved your place that they saved everything so I say they should build your insurance company people that don't have it well you know that's what the $50 that somebody said you know but I think that we should be building insurance companies that's one number two I think that we should also be building companies like rineer that have all of this property that we don't tax anyway when we have these big fires and all of that property out there that all of our resources are sitting out there for days on in just because they have lobbies that are in Tallahassee that are protecting them I think that we should get some money from rer and other Timber companies that have all of our resources for days on in that we don't get anything from I think we should learn how to get some of our money back from those companies because a lot of our resources are with them for days on end when lightning strikes and and we have those wildfires and we have to protect our citizens from their fires I think we should get some of our money back from rainers from those Timber thank you Miss strong did I miss anyone's comments any comments card um I guess I'm going to do something a little unconventional and I'm going ask Chief Carter if he would come up um during our last meeting I raised a lot of questions s and uh I had the opportunity to meet with our manager and Mr Carter to get some of those questions answered and I think what a lot of you are asking asking a part of haven't read through the ordinance is what are what methodology is employed to determine what the fee might be or what um properties might be assessed and what is that whole process and so just to be able to answer some of those questions I think it would be good um if Mr Carter can share just a little bit Chief Carter of that process so that would answer some of those questions I was asking the last time what are the geographical areas in included because the city was out and then for a minute it seems like Brooker but those um areas everybody know except for the city so if you can just um just briefly um speak to to that I think it might answer some of the questions like that Mr Tatum was concerned what about this pole barns and things like that if you don't mind yeah absolutely and you know I think that this is obviously a very emotional conversation right emotions run High when we talk about about money and people's livelihoods and so uh you know I appreciate everybody coming here tonight to to voice opinions but um you know taking some time to just everybody take a breath and let's let's work on this collectively as a group and and try and find something that's uh that's acceptable to everybody but um we are fortunate enough to have stantech our uh consulting firm that that did this Pro uh the uh study uh on the line here tonight so to describe the exact methodology of how they get that assessment number um he is on here Mr Jeff Rackley um and we'll allow him to answer those questions if Madam Sher if you'll allow that yes okay try that again Jeff I'm not sure where these actually come out how about now can you place it near the center of the middle of the where the speaker area is to see if you can increase that volume I to the [Music] rescue that's one thing I am not as an IT person TR I talking now can you hear me now keep going hello hello keep talking please can you hear me oh yes right now are we getting there I think we're getting there hello um we again hello [Music] hello while they's trying to um to project his volume um Mr Jeff that correct his name yeah Rackley Mr Rackley um it is my understanding that you utilize the data from my property appraisal is that correct um to use that as a method of coming up with that fee based on the number of residential areas of those areas that were assessed um by the property appraisal's office yes that that is correct we use the Property Data from the Property Appraiser's office is one of the um data sources to calculate the fire assessments okay uh Jeff could so can you kind of explain um in a little bit more detail as far as how that number is uh is actually developed with you know our call volume budget and and the property appraiser data yes so so at a at a high level there's really three pieces of information that that we're looking at and and one is um the budget so we take the budget and determine what portion of that budget you could legally fund Through Fire assessments there's a portion of the budget that's associated with EMS services so we we take that part out we're just left with the fire portion of the budget we then look at the calls for service so all the calls to all the properties within the assessment area and we use those proportions of calls to split that budget amongst the property category so in this case residential non-residential and vacant land um we then take those dollar amounts and divide them amongst the categories based on the units within the category so in this case residential property we we get the number of residential dwelling units from the property appraisers tax roll that they're preparing the non-residential square footage and the number of vacant Parcels to calculate the rates for each of those categories to fully fund the the the fire budget that's been established after that it's really the the board's decision as to what percentage of that budget you would like to fund so anything up to 100% so anything from essentially zero up to 100% is really at the board's discretion to determine the actual rates you want to to implement based on the revenue you want or need to collect so that's kind of it at a very high level um what we go through to calculate the the fire assessments I think the concern from m t Mr Tatum he was W know about a barn that's most of what they have out there they're not worried about paying on the shop or anything or the office but they're more worried about barn right Jeff so can you speak to um how each class of property is assessed residential non-residential and vacant sure so so residential is based on the dwelling unit so so if you have a single family home that's one dwelling unit if you have a duplex that's two dwelling units if you have an apartment complex with 50 Apartments that's 50 units so everything's based on on the dwelling units for for these calculations generally you're not going to pay on Residential Properties for any kind of out buildings backyard sheds lean tws screen porches anything like that you're going to be paying on a dwelling unit basis um for non-residential we're we're looking at just purely the the square footage so it's a per square square foot charge for primary structures that are on the tax R so anything that's not a primary structure such as a pole barn um awnings things like that that you might see on a commercial property are are not going to be assessed either so we're only talking about about primary buildings that are on those non-residential properties and then for vacant we're just talking about Parcels so for vacant it does doesn't matter if it's one acre five acres 10 acres it's a flat per parcel charge and and I know one of the concerns that I've kind of heard is you know are there different ways to do this and the short answer is yes there's a number of different ways to do these assessment programs the methodology that that we've used here is a methodology that's been around for 30 plus years it's the most widely adopted fire assessment methodology in the state it's been through the courts it's been tested it's generally the most straightforward methodology the most easy to understand and maintain um but with that being said there are other approaches even within this particular methodology and I know one of the the concerns we kind of heard a little bit and I know the last time I was there was about Residential Properties and could you do it based on square footage or some other factor and and once again the short answer is yes there there are some issues um with using residential square footage um that that I won't you know go into a lot of detail on but it it does add a level of complexity um there and and relies heavily on the Property Appraiser's data in terms of very accurate square footage um so so there are some issues there it it does solve that potential issue somewhat where you're small smaller properties would pay less your larger square footage properties will pay more so that is one thing that is an option it's not very common around the state mostly for those reasons that that I've listed it's just an administrative burden the data is not not great sometimes with residential square footage and there's all those ancillary structures or extra features on Residential Properties like pool enclosures or patios or things like that that you have to worry about um so there are some things there to to keep in mind um one other thing I'll mention is that on agricultural properties and and I thing it's been alluded to but just so we're clear on on a exempt properties the only thing that would be assessed is a residential dwelling unit nothing else would be assessed on a properties and that's by Statute it's something that's required there's no way around it under the assessment program um outside of this methodology there's several other methodologies one that that I think has been mentioned in Prior meetings that does take into account the structure value of structures within the county um that's one component of the charge so that's not everything it's based on um there's also some other methodologies based on hazard classes and and probably a whole other group of methodologies that's based on something else um that that are kind of oneof things that that you may see around the state but this methodology is the most common methodology that's used okay Mr like one of the uh examples that I posed was if you have a residential your Primary Residential dwelling and you may have two dilapidated uh un unhabitable structures on that property like let's say two mobile homes and they're not livable they're no um garbage or electrical or or what have you now what is my understanding that you know the property appraiser has um devided those structures so they're not counting that as you would um the residential structure and would you be paying for three um assessments because the three um structures um or for the one so if if the data says that there's three residential Dr dwellings there you would pay for three residential dwellings under this methodology it doesn't take into account value um with with that being said there is a a process for Corrections or adjustments that that the county can enact and if the county decides that um a property owner shouldn't be assessed for those additional dwellings or that they're not additional dwellings then they can be removed and and you don't have to charge them the issue that that we have with those is there's really no way in the data to identify them there's nothing that says this is a dilapidated residential structure it just shows as a residential dwelling unit there is a value there but there are number of residential dwellings within the county that already have a fairly low um value as well so there's not a rule we can follow um there there's no source of data that we can TR those so so they they are included currently but there is a process whereby you could remove them if you desire to the the one caveat I would throw in there though is that those structures the way they sit you know if they are dilapidated they're sitting there they're being used for storage things like that may present a fairly significant fire hazard that that would require resources and therefore you could make the argument that that they should could be assessed but that's really you know a call for the county but currently they would all be included okay and one of the things that I understood from um Mr carneg is that uh in such case if you were assessed um for your property and you felt that it should not be then the fir Marshall could go out and do an assessment to determine this is what the property appraisal said and then that could possibly be U removed or contested um for an assessment so again that would have to be a process that that the board decides on but that was one idea that we had was that if somebody does have you know an old family home that they just can't bear to te tear down but it's totally unlivable they got Vines growing through it or whatnot um you know to have some sort of of way for for our fire marshal to go out take a look at that and deem that as you know a structure that's never going to be livable again it's not a residential dwelling um and should not be assessed as a dwelling unit okay Thompson yes sir can I speak excuse me so say you got a piece of egg property and uh the people Cuts hay on it and they got big hay Barns and they got barns to keep their tractors and all will those barns be uh eligible to be taxed what if if they're on act property then no they they would not be assessed even though they got hay in them I mean it wouldn't it they wouldn't be taxed correct correct from storage sheds and stuff like that only dwelling unit the only only dwelling that's correct the only thing that can be assessed on a properties is residential dwelling units yeah I was just fing to say what about just barns on you know he just he he discussed that earlier and that was it for a residential dwelling uh or for a residential property so you got a boat shed you got a it's only going to be dwelling units on your residence only dwelling only dwelling anything that's listed and you can go on the property appraiser data and look right now on the on the property appraisers website and look what's listed is what they call an extra feature if it's listed on your property as an extra feature that's not available for assessment I'm sorry other structures or extra features correct other other other structures would it depends on if again if it's in that res if it's in a dwell classified as a dwelling unit then yes sure but what I'm saying is if it's not classified as a dwelling unit then it would not be tapped no sir just m chair J you're joeling correct um think that one of the things that was very confusing to me is that in here um because we're talking about things that are exempt you know and the only thing that it shows in this ordinance is governmental proper property and um I think that it it caused a lot of questions for me because I had heard this at po Barns and uh and the hay Barns and the a property um so I I think we have a lot of work to do in this to make sure that people understand exactly what is exempt and what's not and in order for them to have a complete understanding of what what it what would happen well and I think the easiest way to look at that is what is included on for residential right because you know resident residential again is only going to be the dwelling unit so if it's not classified in your data on your property appraiser data as a dwelling unit it will not be assessed a barn doesn't matter the size of the barn doesn't matter if you got $200,000 well all those things will have to be set those exemptions will have to be set by the board that's going to have to be something that is a DEC decision of the board of what you all would like to exempt and and classifies as you know as an exempt property and that's what I'm saying I think that for them for all of us to include myself it would be much easier to understand if we had those things and um then we know what we're talking about but that happens at a later date right this is the first step in moving forward to to be able to AC accept those those uh or set those exemptions one of the um one go ahead commission ready no no no go ahead um one of the um things that in the in the beginning that you have to come up with an initial um approval or an assessment determining what that minimum might be or or not greater than whatever the maximum might be but this board would have to determine all of those exemptions and what the final fee will be so that would rest with the board not with anybody else but with this group so the that would happen prior to the prior to the final decision yes prior to the final decision so this board would make that determination i i a community needs to know that uh we're not without compassion I know and I've shared that with our manager um I had an aunt who had a limited income deciding whether you buy medicine whether you pay your bills or whether you buy grocery so we sitting up here may be able to pay that fee but there are people out in the community who can't so we have to look objectively yes but also we have to maintain our compassion and understanding for the needs in our community so those fees will be set by us and so we do have control with that um notwithstanding that there is a need for fire assessment but in determining that assessment we have to look out look at what we're trying to gain financially as an income and since we are at 10 mills at this moment um the community has made the assumption that we're going to pile another tax that's in their minds is what it is on top of that I'm saying to you that this board is going to consider the status of our millage and that impact of what income that we're are taking in and also if we're going to move forward with that can we reduce that millage that decision hasn't been made but those are all of the factors that we have to look at but it is my understanding and Mr carneg and Amanda can correct me there's a process if you're going to do it no matter when not next year the year after that you have to go through a process so that all of your municipalities if they're going to buy into to it they have to meet with their board pass their resolution and so forth and we have to do the same then you can move to the next step but it does not determine at this moment the amount of that fee but it says that we want to move forward does that make sense to everybody and it and it doesn't lock you in right now there's still a chance later down the line through the process to to still say no this is something we don't want to do Jeff uh do you mind just speaking to that um kind of timeline in the process of of what those next steps are and and when is the last uh you know opportunity for the board to say no this is something we're not interested in yeah yes absolutely so so where you're at now Ju Just so everyone's clear what you're looking at adopting now is is just the procedures for the assessment program if you do decide to move forward and implement this so if you don't actually implement the assessment what you're looking at adopting now will just sit there on the books if and when until you come back to that assessment at some point in the future so what you're doing now does not set the rates it doesn't decide who's going to be assessed it doesn't do any of that it just lays out this process you'll come back um in a few weeks uh let me see the date here I think it's um August 6th I think is a preliminary date and I don't know if that's a firm date but sometime around there to adopt an initial assessment resolution which would lay out some of those things that I think are being asked about in terms of what what are the rates going to be who's going to be assessed what are the exemptions those types of things it was would lay all that out preliminarily after that you would also send out mailed first class notices to all Property Owners as well as publish notice in the newspaper stating what those rates are going to be the mail notices would list each building on your property each type of assessment the number of units and the total assessment amount that each property owner would have to pay that will be mailed to those Property Owners with a whole host of of additional information on there including generally a phone number you might call for questions the date time location of a public hearing where you can come and voice your concerns and and give you really all those details that I think everyone's asking for then you would come back in early September preliminarily I think September 5th that's when you'd actually set your final rates with all of your final rules exemptions and everything so up until September 5th all of this stuff is still somewhat up in the air and up until that date or or the the statutory deadline September 15th you you still don't actually have to impose the assessment so so nothing is final until that final meeting in early September and that's when you'll know exactly what the assessments are and Andor if they're going to be implemented at all for this year so there's a number number of steps and a number of decision points and public Communications that are going to go out between now and that final decision and and I think it's important to note that those next steps cannot happen without this step tonight right so a lot of the questions that people are asking cannot even be answered until we move to that next step um commissioner Andrews then I'll get to you I may ask you a question um in one of the in one sentence that's very disturbing to me it said the board or its agent may join in one foreclosure action the collection of fire rescue assessments against any or all property assessed in accordance with the provision hereof my question is in you doing this for so many people is there some um situation where they have set up something for the people who can that can come before the board and um some way that we can help these people the last thing that anybody wants to do is take somebody's property and I know that if you don't pay your property taxes that a certificate is sold and that you have that I mean that could happen but never would we want this to to happen with this fire assessment so in your experience have you seen them set up something where some assistance or something could be done prior to that yeah there's a number of things there and you are correct if this goes on the tax bill it's collected just like Ador taxes and and all of everything's on the table there in terms of you know lean foreclosure you know all of those are are real options if it's not paid um so so that that is a good point to make um I I believe the property appraiser May set up payment plans it may be an option and I know that doesn't address your question exactly but that may be something to think about as well but to address your specific question I have seen um hardship programs generally it's something like a lowincome um hardship program or lowincome senior hardship program something along those lines um and and it's similar to the other exemptions the county um could come up with rules where if you're at x% the poverty guidelines for your area you qualify for for this exemption it would require generally um some type of affidavit paperwork filled out by the property owner to prove their income and that they're below that amount um generally what I've seen where those types of programs are implemented is that there's not that many people that generally qualify for them um just because if you're below the poverty guidelines lines you you generally aren't owning property um so it it does go to the property owner but for but for those cases where that does exist for whatever reason if you own the property and you meet whatever the requirements are that the county lays out there there could be a potential there to exempt um those folks and the challenge would be trying to figure out exactly what guidelines you want to use that's something we could could help with a little little bit um from some other other areas we've seen um but but it is an option that the county could consider as part of this moving forward when you adopt your implementing resolutions and I don't mean to put you on the spot but do could you tell us of the the counties that you have seen that set up these systems where that we could go and speak to them about it off the top of my head I don't I don't know any I would have to a little bit of research I mean it's not something that's very common because like I said most owners don't fall into that situation um but um so yeah I I just don't have any specific ones off the top of my head but generally the few that I've seen are at some portion or up to some percentage of federal poverty guidelines um and and some process to document that income to apply for an exemption on an annual basis generally is a way it's done well I would really appreciate it if you could kind of do a little research and send it back to me so I can take a look at that okay okay I I'll see if I can I can locate any thank you um and um Chief Carter and um everybody I I think it it's important to um to be sure that engaging all of the of the people who would be um um who would have something to do with the the building process you know our tax collector our property appraiser um our fire marer our County manager and chief um so that everybody is is at the same table and understanding the process um one of the things that it says that the initial assessment by the board um would contain a brief um description of you know the the program provided which you're you're doing but determining that fire assessment cost so it rests with the board to to determine what that initial assessment cost would be we said that um no one else does so it can be set at the very minimum um but there's a maximum where in which we could say it must not go above but the other determining thing that we have to determine is when we would want this to do it I don't think it's in the mind of anybody that we wanted to start this next year I I don't think so I don't know that um how can we number one we as a board we all don't know what and all is in this package and them citizens out there they're the one that put us in office absolutely and they don't know nothing about it so how can we adopt this here we're we're looking we're looking at all of the the the parts um to this process so what those steps are that we need to take in order to implement it later on so it is my understanding that we the reason it was on the agenda is that we needed to to say that we want to engage and we want to proceed with the process um am I correc in that assumption it's not that we would determine that's going to be the fee we would determine that later when our final resolution is determined but I want the citizens and the residents of Brett County and our surrounding areas to have the answers to those questions that they may raise or or they're concerned about we're not in the business of of possessing people's property because they can't pay but we wanted to do it fairly we want to be open we want people to you know be able to ask the questions and so this is helpful it's helpful to me um and I I hope that it'll be helpful to the citizens as well and and I don't I hope I'm not out of line by asking this but I mean if if it's at the will of the board to allow some of these citizens to ask questions now while we've got the consultant on the line absolutely so if you have a question that you wish to ask I'll just ask you to walk up here so that the it can be heard um online as well so if you have a question you want to ask now this is the time to go ahead and do it I I got a question um commissioner ready come on up you don't have to walk up here okay he he has a mic it's just for that the information to be projected Mr Thompson help me to understand that if if you're not speaking to the mic no one else hear hears it out there and we might miss it in our record hey Jeff um I I know last Friday we had about an hour and a half conversation and a lot of these questions you have answered tonight but the one thing that I wanted that I talked about last Friday and I wanted to make sure it's perfectly clear and we talked about this whether it's residential a whatever it is you only get tax on your residents what you're living that's that's what we talked about last Friday that way it doesn't matter if you got garages barns pole barns we were going to combine everything and make it where your only tax on your residence that you're living in and we also talked about cuz and I gave gave you plenty of parcel numbers which I have them here in front of me now but I won't go into all that but of places that people have old homesteads that were built like in 1900 but their sentimental value they're totally unlivable just like we talked about you talked about before but we also you also said when I was talking to you that uh and another thing my biggest concern with is with all these questions when you mail out them notices you said that at the bottom of the notice you that we would put a number for them to call and we talked about that because we don't want them going to the tax collector we do not want them going to the property appraiser because that's not fair for the tax collector or the property appraiser to have people coming there and ask them questions that's coming through this board so we I thought we was very very clear on that you said that at the bottom we would put the county manager's number on there all calls would come into the county manager manager and either Chris cookie or the county manager or somebody in the county department would go out look at these properties and make sure that nobody was living there and then we would take it off so it was strictly living if you're living there no doesn't matter about garages doesn't matter about pole barns only what you're living in that you would be taxed on and I just want to make sure we're very very clear on that before for for everybody that's in here tonight and also make it very clear that there will be a number on that notice for them to call to get information if they get a notice and it says hey you got five residential dwellings on your property and this is what you owe and they know they only living in one home we got to have somebody they can call that can get a they can get an answer and also that has to be transferred over to our tax collector so she'll know what to to take off is that am I clear yeah so two I think there's kind of two things there one is the the notice that goes out and and whatever is published in the newspaper you can put the information on there that that you want to put on there so if you want a phone number on there you can put a phone number on there um sometimes we recommended that maybe it's not a general business number that you're using all the time because May tie up that line when those notices start hitting um you may want a separate dedicated phone line with someone answering that but that's you know that's up to you uh you can put an email address on there you can put a website linked for more information I mean you you that's really up to the county as to what you want to include on that notice in terms of options for citizens to get additional information or clarifying questions um that's not something that has to be be on there so so that's something you have the option of doing and something I would definitely recommend in some form or fashion um the other the other piece of that was on what's going to be charged so maybe there's a bit of um clarification I can provide on that it it's not just where you're living so if you have five residential dwelling units and that's what the property appraiser says you have there currently you would be assessed for all five of those if you're living in one and renting out two and using the other two is storage those would all be assessed it's up to the county to determine if you want to put a process in place whereby the fire marshal or someone else can go out and make a determination that you shouldn't pay for those so so that's not something that's going to automatically happen but it's something you have the option of doing um and generally I would say you might want to limit that to stuff that's um I think what's been mentioned in a state of disrepair not livable you know things along those lines not something that's there that is livable that's you know has utilities that's just not currently being used or rented or Liv in um but that's you know up to the county to to make those decisions as far as anything else on those residential Parcels you know detached garage GES pool enclosures gazebos backyard sheds anything like that is not going to be charged there may be instances where you have a residential dwelling unit and let's say you also have a commercial business on that property like an automotive garage that's a place of business where you're you know tuning up cars doing oil changes Etc that the property appraiser is identified as a primary structure that's not residential that could assessed as well but that's going to be the exception and it's going to have to be something that's substantial that's a primary structure not your residential garage carports any type of you know residential ancillary structures like that okay commissioner Andrews um I think in one of your meetings and and this is something that just kind of really bothers me um when we do something and we put something um in motion I like to know that we've checked everything and done everything and when we hand it to the people that it's right um I think in one of your meetings you said it could take like three to uh three to foure cycle to make sure that everything has been completed correctly you I I guess you said that was normal uh well no I'm not sure that's exactly what I said but the the the gist of that is that so we're dealing with property data one that that first of all we're using it for a slightly different purpose I'm confident that what what what we will give you matches the way the property appraiser has coded all the properties I'm confident that that's accurate what I can't guarantee is that the property appraiser for their purposes has say something's a residential dwelling unit but when you send the fire marshal or whoever it is out there to look at it they may make a different determination um that you know we have to rely on the data there's I think 16,000 Parcels roughly that we're dealing with and and we've run a a a number of checks and balances and QA QC on on all of our information but if something's different than the way it's coded in the data that's not something we would be aware of so so those are the issues that that may take a year or two to work out the the first opportunity is when a property owner gets that mailed notice they can look at and say hey this isn't right this isn't what I have there call that number go through that process to get it changed before it makes it on the tax bill if they don't catch it then and it makes it on the tax bill when they get their tax bill there's also a correction process there that they can go through so it's it's really going to be giving the CI cens or or taxpayers that information and telling them here's who you can contact to to make these Corrections if they're necessary generally what we see is that first year there's a number of things that that are going to be looked at that will generate some corrections there and differences in the way that something should be treated for fire assessment purposes versus the way it's treated for abalum taxation purposes those are the exception to the rule and and hopefully in that first year and going through that notice process and when it hits a tax bill you've addressed most of those but I have seen a few of those that the property owner doesn't recognize it doesn't look at it isn't aware of it it shows up on their tax bill they just pay it and forget about it and maybe a year or two later when they get their next tax bill or the one after that it hits them and they look at it and they try to correct it at that point so that's some of the things that may take more time is if it's it's something that the property owner just doesn't notice thank you and and I think on that on that note it's important to clarify that that's not you know saying that the property of Appraiser's data is not correct um again this is being used this data is being used for something that um it was not intend intended to be used for originally um but for example if you have an old you know family Homestead that's that's uninhabitable um there's still has to be something in the property appraisers data as a as a structure there so they still classify that as a dwelling unit so that's the situation where you will have your primary structure that you're living in an older home that may not be inhabitable um that is on the property that's still classified as a dwelling unit so there you may see um again that that secondary dwelling unit on there seeing you getting two charges for that but having some sort of process in place that the board puts in place of uh the fire marshal going out there us looking at saying okay this is not something that is inhabitable currently or will ever be inhabitable again um therefore should not um so it seems that we would definitely have to have an um an assess exemption list um that would be incorporated into our initial um assessment process so again that's next step is is setting those exemptions and coming up with that process of what that looks like of going out to assess these properties um you know that that should be exempt but people aren't even going to know which properties those are the issues until they get a notice that says hey I'm being charged for five dwelling units I only have two residences on my property but there's no way to even know that until we get to that next step and that's where I think that a lot of I know there's a lot of hesitation and a lot of issues and and I think that some of those questions have to be answered at the next steps that it does not still lock you into saying I'm moving forward with an assessment but but a lot of those questions that need to be answered can't be answered until we get to that point any more questions oh commissioner Thompson go ahead what about tax exempt places like trailers and for like churches and and no I'm talking about residential like for trailers that's tax exempt under 25,000 gotcha what about them Jeff so value doesn't come into this at all if the property appraiser has said there's a residential dwelling unit there it it will be charged the fire assessment so they will have to pay too correct correct yeah that's that's right Jeff can you speak to like mobile home parks or campgrounds or things of that nature yeah so mobile home parks are generally similar to to any other residential property a mobile home is equal to a dwelling unit so they would pay based on the number of dwelling units that are there faes are a little bit different by Statute they have to be treated in the same manner as hotel motel type properties so hotel motel type properties are non-residential properties that are assessed per square foot so you have to assess RV Barks in the same manner so so what we do is use 500 square feet per space as a proxy to calculate the assessment on those RV SP bases so question was I don't know if you could hear that if an RV park were on agricultural property that is a exempt okay know of a situation where that's very common but but if that was the case if they're RV spaces they're not residential so they wouldn't be assessed a more common one I think you see is like um a state park perhaps that has a campground so they have RV spaces there but it's government property that's exempt so they wouldn't pay but but but you're correct it's it's just like the rules for all other a properties they're only paying for residential Welling units your question come so Jeff in your methodology when you ran your methodology were there were there call I know I'm sure EMS was excluded but for fire were there certain calls excluded out of your call volume I.E automobile accidents you know the the assessment is supposed to benefit the folks paying the taxes so was your call volume done own fires only medical to homes um was it per apparatus per uh dispatch to each dwelling can can you go into a little bit more detail of how you came up with the call volume and how you justify the fire side of that excluding some of those calls that had nothing to do with the residential dwelling so so we exclude calls to to kind of what what I call non-specific properties so calls to roadways medians um things like that would would not be included anyways so we're only talking about fire calls so EMS type calls are excluded and then we're only including calls to specific property so it has to be a call to residential non-residential or or vacant property so if it's something that doesn't go to one of those property types like the majority of your motor vehicle accidents one a lot of them are going to be EMS calls anyways so they're going to be out if there's not an EMS component to them they're probably going to be excluded anyways because they're to a roadway and not to a residential um property a commercial structure or or a vacant property yes ma'am some historical data yes ma'am and I did a I did an annual update not long ago that that detailed our last year I can we can certainly go back a little B further sure sure any other questions from the audience okay from the board any more board questions okay just for clarification uh this assessment and Jeff correct me if I'm wrong um this was to be put on this year's tax bill no no the the process was to not not on this no is no yeah that was my understanding that's my understanding yes that's my understanding yeah it's my understanding that's okay that's yeah yeah this that's my understanding from from the very start that's why it's got these certain dates it's got to be in by uh September so they can mail out the notices uh to put it on the tax rols for for next year yeah that's for this year tax bill that goes yeah that's been since day one so that once we get it all done and they mail out these notices the people come back we have the public hearing and then it goes back out when it's mailed out the final time it'll be mailed out with the regular property assess taxes that they normally mail out so that's what the rush is okay so I I guess I'm I'm not understanding that it was be for 2425 um but 26 [Music] 27 that's why there's a lot of work to be done yeah yeah but it but it's for next year but but also you got to remember these guys have started on this in 2017 the same company so they had all a lot of this data already done cuz remember and then we backed off and didn't pass it but um so this same compan has had that data since I believe it's Jeff is it 2017 or 2018 when you I believe the study was done in 2017 but but not implemented and I I think it made it to about this point in the process um maybe a little bit further but just just to clarify what you're doing tonight with this ordinance doesn't mean you have to do anything this year but going Beyond this point the board you know may want to take into consideration that you know mailing notices is and and going through that process you know is a costly process so if you're not intending to to adopt this this year then you probably don't want to go through that entire process um what you're doing T night is still good and you can adopt that procedural ordinance but then you would have to go through a very similar process not the whole study and everything but the the resolutions and the notice and everything next year around this time to adopt the assessment at at that point if that's what you you want it to do so so it' be the same process next year and it it seems like it's a rush but it's but it's not it's the same these guys have been working on this since January of this year I don't think it's a rush at all we presented the preliminary results to the board a few months ago and we're here now and we have you know roughly two months to get this in place which includes notifying property owners and all those normal steps so you're not um you know in terms of the process and what you'd see elsewhere you're you're kind of right on track of of where you would be with that being said you know the board can always decide we want to shelf this till next year and and look at it at that point that's completely up to the board um and we're here to to help you you know regardless of which option you Pi so just for clarification um the intent was for next fiscal year uh starting September or October of 204 to 25 um as opposed to the 26 correct okay and that's why it's important to know that in September we still have the ability if it's not corrected and everything is in place um to stop it which which we should like you said because if we spend even more money to mail out these notice and back out then we're going to look like a bunch of fools up here and we've got to find we've got to answer the questions redo these and find something like I said we don't want to take anybody's property we've got to find something that that the citizens can live with that we can live with and um because we're not trying to kill anybody and if it means that come September we're not there we're just not there Madam chair Miss oh I'm so sorry go ahead man I hate to say something but Danny just said we like a bunch of fools up here y'all had this for three or four years y'all got rid of the volunteer fire department nothing against the firemen we need them but you paying them we I understand more than you do Jacksonville fire department and you got a County Manager sitting up there you got attorney they can't sit here and do these numbers and figure out what we got to pay or nothing why you got to hire this contractor to do y'all's jobs it don't make no sense to me if y'all give me the numbers I could come up with it I promise you it don't take rocket sign is figure it out but anyway thank you um any other questions regarding the far assessment Jeff Jeff um so can you can you speak to the the process of you know why a consultant should be hired to do this process or or um you know the from a legal standpoint or I think it's just good you know like a lot of your your your things that someone there possibly could do I mean we bring a wealth of experience in doing this all of the state we can give you that context to tell you what other folks are doing you know the potential legal challenges you know I have seen assessments be challenged and you end up having to refund the entire amount of the assessments you collected potentially for several years if if you do something incorrectly procedurally or calculation wise so there there's a risk there um but but I mean if if the board's comfortable with that and you have someone internally that could do it you know it is possible you know there's also the the fact that we're you know an independent party I I don't have anything at stake there whether you adopt this or don't adopt it or go with a higher rate or a lower rate it it doesn't impact to me our our job is to give you the results and tell you here's what you can and can't do here's what we see around the state here's some background and knowledge and offer you our our expertise and and that's what you know we we've attempted to do here m still I just heard something that was very disturbing this apparently is based on data from 2017 we're 2024 well no what what they did was they took the old data and then they the last four years they added the new information to that it wasn't that they just used old data this was a data that the property appraiser provided to them and then the the other important thing that was just mentioned is the challenge potential challenge to this and I think uh you are opening yourself up to significant challenges because of the way this was done how the speed that you're trying to do this I think your best option tonight is to uh simply delay this for another year begin working out all the details so that remember this thing has to be ready by your next meeting in August uh that's it's just I don't think it's doable and I I would urge you not to go to the route where you're going to expend all this money to send out the notices and then you're going to have to hire a crew of people to answer the phone and it just doesn't make sense at this point you get get all of this done and give yourself several months to sort of inform the public have the uh have them respond to you so they're aware of what's going on it's just I think it's just too rushed at this point thanks um did I see Miss Phillips in the background if you hold on just a minute it's Miss Phillips here oh can you stand up a minute Cas so in order to properly notice the residents um for the assessment your office has to have all the final information by When September BR okay M and that would and then that will cover for 24 to 25 fourth September till next year okay so all right it is Rush you got something to say no no okay all right so are are um any other questions from the board okay thank you Jeff appreciate you uh being on here okay well um for our County manager and for Mr Mando um there's there's still um lots of questions and things that have to be cleared to work out all of the minute details of our exemptions and all and such I guess I was kind of thinking that we were looking one year forward as opposed to this next FAL year but making a move towards that direction but not in implementation for the next physical year um so uh at this at this point then we need to look um at [Music] um either we move forward now or or not and so at this time I would just ask Mr Commando if you would read that then we will look for a motion well before I read read it may help to determine the pleasure of the board if you're going to move to approve move to deny or move to to the table I I move to approve this this ordinance and then if we approve it tonight then that gives us another month that we still don't have to do it but I move to at least move forward see where it goes from there can that's my motion um motion by commissioner reic on the floor is there a second to the motion no second second my commissioner dor um question discussion Mr Thompson no I have question Madam chair I can read the title okay so an ordinance of Bradford County Florida relating to the provision of funding for of Fire Rescue Services and Facilities authorizing the imposition and collection of a non-ad room special assessments against Real Property specifically benefited by the provision of such services and Facilities established by the county here under providing certain definitions establishing the procedure for impos in collection and administering fire rescue assessments providing that fire rescue assessments constitute a lean on assess property equal in rank and dignity with the leans of All State County District or Municipal and taxes and assessments and Superior in dignity to all other prior leans mortgages titles and claims providing for severability and providing an effective date um we have a motion on the four by commissioner reic and second by commissioner Dory and further course no discussions on it all in favor by the sign I I no any oppose nay okay that's to Nay Nay for me um okay um it's 32 okay three2 to approve or 32 to approve to um to move forward okay all right um next on the agenda is just any other public Ann uh public uh comments I think we had a couple still um Marie Gaston I've never done this before so bear with me my name is Marie Gaskin I live at 10552 Northwest County Road Stark and I'm here because it's a very busy intersection and people speed through there like crazy I have had so many accidents at that inter section that have wound up in my yard I've it it's crazy I would like I don't know what you have to do to affect change in speeding laws or uh directional Road signage or whatever but could you please make that intersection a four-way stop I think it would and put speed bumps up that would actually deter people from speeding the ones on 225 don't do anything there was just an accident this past week that tore up my yard and that happens very frequently that I've had to have dirt hauled in to repair my yard I've had to buy I don't know how many mailboxes in the years that I've lived there have them replaced I just want to try to save lives because it's a very dangerous intersection and something needs to be done can you please make it a four-way stop or how do you go about doing that I don't know I'll start on it tonight if you'll tell me what to do do I have to get petitions or you know what do I need to do um Miss gasin if um after the meeting if you can get with Mr carneg and he can instruct you on the process thank you very much yes ma'am um now Mr Paul still uh Paul still 14167 Southwest under 1 Avenue Stark my comments tonight are coming from the Bradford so and water conservation District uh the reron Water Conservation District voted at its last meeting to uh uh offer the county $2,000 of its funding uh to support the removal of the aquatic plants that are blocking the flow of uh water out of Lake Samson into the Samson Canal uh if this is not done the uh Gates that control the level simply can't function properly uh so it's because that's so important that we're willing to give up $2,000 of our funding and we hope that the county can come up with $88,000 uh if the if the total cost is 10 I think that the total cost can be limited to 10 by working with the contractor and say this is what we want done uh I've had an email from the contractor which I forward to Amanda that indicated that he thought it would cost between eight and $10,000 to use this shredding equipment and the big saving with the shredding equipment is that it simply shreds up the plants and then they're left in place and they Decay very quickly uh the other methods that harvest the plants then you have to take those by barge to a place where they can be unloaded and that's very expensive uh so and uh Amanda's email indicated that it would this would hopefully be on next month's or yeah next meeting agenda uh I hope that it can be on the agenda for approval during the contract we're running out of time uh we need to get this done before we have a major rain event it's going to be too late if we uh wait much longer and uh remember flooding for Bradford County the flood that you have to remember is Irma and so how Irma imp acted Bradford County that's kind of what we should be planning for this year uh we may be lucky because these storms a few miles difference makes a big difference in how much flooding we get but uh I think we need to be prepared thank you m CH may just say something Mr steel just so you know I had a conversation with Jason and with Captain wit after the last meeting about this they've um they've looked for a a machine that does that and they did find one now whether or not it is something that we can can do our ourselves but they are looking into it and so hopefully we can get that taken care of yeah I think the the problem more than likely it's going to take too long to go through that process it it might be a good idea to have that equipment because there are other places where it could be used uh uh most of our laks have uh drainage canals at their end and more than likely they're also plugged up so Hampton could be benefit from a the county actually having a piece of equipment like that okay thank you thank you Dr SE moving forward to um approval for a consent agenda did I miss you I'm so sorry oh come on Bay strong P post office box 530 ly um a couple things um one I saw in the uh paper about uh Economic Development and it kind of struck me um that there was no mention of ly um how can we have the economic development in the county and nobody says anything about ly um I've come in here time and time again and said um we need to develop lahi and you guys had a entire um workshop and there was no mention of ly it was disappointing to me um number two um I went through the attachment that was attached to the agenda and Mr cor is probably not going to like me but there are several instances in the financials that Dana uh put in here where I would be impressed if Mr cornay had gone through and um there were instances where there are places to save money for the county and these savings are would would help in many many instances and I I just I found lots and lots of savings where we could save money and there's lots of savings um just from looking at what she she presented in this financial report uh if I see these savings I know that others in that are employed with the county should should be able to see these savings um within these other departments um and so um I would say to your department heads um you probably need to look at that financial report that she provides and try to save money from uh by looking at what she provides because I saw instances um the road department the fire department um the library um and some other departments there's lots of instances where you can save money thank you Mr all right thank you uh we're going to move on to approval for our consent agenda the motion for approval I make a motion to approve motion by commissioner reic the second to the motion second second by commission dority um any yes I have question on number c on the um the memorandum agreement with about the um competitive Florida partnership Grant and um maybe uh maybe this was talked about earlier about us turning this over to the um Northeast Florida Economic Development Group and paying this money for them to um to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for Bradford County one thing um we've talked about a strategic plan for the last four years I know and we've never been able to get even a conversation about that and now we're going to do one and we're going to pay this group to do it for us and up to the rate of $75 per hour for services rendered under the agreement additionally Bradford County will reimburse um North Florida if for reasonable expenses materials incurred in connection with providing these Services provides such expenses are approved in advance by Bradford County so I guess I would just like to have a little conversation about do we do we need this for um do we need to have them if we're going to apply for this Grant and I think that we should shouldn't that be something that that we did um go ahead no I was just going to say the uh the cpta is is the name of the grant um which we have already applied for by virtue of Your Action back on March the 6 the board approved it um the uh the memorandum of agreement that you see in your packet is Amber's already done the work for she she's the one that did the work on the Grant application on our behalf the the memorandum of agreement is for going forward let me stop you right there that that's one of my questions is we reached out to them to do some I mean to do the application we couldn't have done that no ma'am we couldn't we don't have we don't have the staff and we don't have an expert like Amber Shepard um on staff so with her expertise and her experience I think we got a very very good application um in the in the works and quite frankly I'd be shocked if we if we don't get it but you know how that goes and just for further clarification we have a strategic plan for braford County for our County my understanding is this is an expansion for the region uh and the workshop that was held the um at the conference center a few days ago included raford Union and our surrounding areas so um it's more of a regional um not only is it Regional it's also specific to Economic Development yeah and so a part of our strategic plan is economic development that's one piece which our plan includes ly Brooker and all of our municipalities within our own strategic plan her plan would expand including what we have for the county but also the surrounding regions so it's not the exclusion of what we have but we do have and we did a lot of work on uh our comprehens uh comprehensive plan our strategic planning um and this board had approved it with the exception of uh I think there was a few corrections to the measurement piece um but we do have a plan for bord County um and Loi is included in it but anyhow um that for of the discussion purposes it would not only include us but the the surrounding region any other discussion questions regarding the matter okay um we have a motion in a second on the floor um for the consent agenda including the item that we just discussed all in favor by the sign I I I and Nay n okay 41 um moving on to the contractor agreement with the roadway man we we're going to we're deleting um five and six are deferring it to our August agenda all right uh Mr clerk Mr Danny Thompson Dana's going to come up first and give her quarterly board side uh report does everyone have a um a single sheet think Miss Rachel passed it out this evening I plan to present a brief update on revenue and expenditures through the third quarter of the school year 2024 if you take a look at the single sheet uh that you have uh we will be reviewing the general fund the fire risk resue fund and the road department fund first we have the general fund we began fiscal year 24 with a fund balance of $17.3 million revenue for the first three quarters was 15.6 million expenditures total 16.7 million resulting in a use of the fund balance of 1.1 million for the first three quarters making the current fund balance 16.3 million as of June 30th 2024 if revenue and expenditures continue at the same rate you can expect the fund balance to be around 15.9 million at the end of this fiscal year do you have any questions about the general funds third quarter update any question from the bo all right okay um let's move on to fire rescue we began fiscal year 24 with a fund balance of 86,000 Revenue for the first three quarters including budgeted transfers from the general fund was just over $6 million expenditures totaled 5.6 million resulting in a savings to their F Department's fund balance of around $378,000 for the first three quarters making the fire resc use fund balance almost $1.2 million as of June 30th if revenue and expenditures continue at the same rate you can expect the fire resc use fund balance to be around $1.3 Million by the end of this fiscal year you have any questions just uh for clarification that's also inclusive inclusive of the um I guess 321,000 from the OPI abatement funds is that included in your total one that is separate separate okay so for the okay the community paramedicine program there should be around 97,000 at the end of this fiscal year and um 97,000 that includes the um DSC money that comes from um our DCF money that comes from the state was I thought it was around 170,000 that's not been used the lsf money is um not lsf the county funds just the county funds uh that was yeah about 128,000 okay and that includes that so part of that has been spent part of the County's money I don't I don't think any of the County's money has been spent so it should have that total there because none of that has been used Mr con am I correct on that our counties opat funds have not been used MH from the initial first year a lot it all put that have we not received all of the we haven't received all of okay okay so we haven't received the the last payment okay on that all right thank you thank you anything else have the questions now okay all right uh finally let's review the road department fund we began fiscal year 24 with a fund balance of 1.6 million revenue for the first three quarters including budgeted transfers from the general fund was 1.9 million expenditures total 2.3 million resulting in a use of their Department's fund balance of around 431,000 for the first three quarters making the road Department's fund balance 1.2 million as of 630 if revenue and expenditures continue at the same rate you can expect the road Department's fund balance to be almost $1.1 Million by the end of this fiscal year any questions any question from thank you I'll just read it from here this is regarding our millage which we're going to have to sit want to thank you guys for all coming by the office that was pretty prompt I mean it like within five working days I think we had all you guys are six working days we had everybody in there and I appreciate you giving us time like that because I really want to get you guys in there and have time to talk to you uh while we were there we we reviewed the millage R options and attentive budget summary for f 2425 as shared in those individual meetings it is not advisable that the board lower its existing millage rate of 10 mills unless it is willing to cut budget spending by the reduced Revenue in short if you cut your Revenue you need to cut your actual spending positions operational sites hours of operation equipment vehicles on the roads benefits Etc if you consider budget cuts do not cut from your reserves budget those if you budget that don't don't cut from your reserves budget as those cuts will not result in actual spending cuts for the first time in years the county is growing Reserve fund and that is a direct direct result of setting the millage rate at 10 mills to handle expenses in the event the county adopts additional Revenue sources such as a fire assessment the funds will not come online immediately in fiscal 2425 therefore it would be fair to consider lowering the MS rate next fiscal year 2526 once the funds are available from the new Revenue Source Additionally the board should keep its capital Improvement plan in mind while determining the milit rate for the year and in future years board last approved a CIP in 2020 the CIP should be reviewed updated and adopted by the board annually so as to plan and budget for capital projects okay now go back to Dana the board will need to set a proposed millit rate for fiscal year 2425 tonight in order to stay on schedule with the trim timetable the trim timetable calls for the clerk to present a tentative Budget on Tuesday August 6 does everyone have their Mill spreadsheet Bo you okay you have heard the recommendation from our clerk um what is good of the the order of the board and uh adopting a millage rate would you like me to read the the different options okay before you is a spreadsheet outlining your options and setting the fiscal year 2425 millage rate your current rate is 10.0 Ms if you keep the rate at 10.0 Ms for fiscal year 2425 you may expect to generate 14, 45,3 35 an increase of 1.1 $ million from fiscal year 2324 a decreased rate of 9.75 would generate 13,694 200 sorry 13,694 21 an increase of $783,000 180 from fiscal year 2324 the roll back rate is 9.51 78 which would generate 13 thou 13, 368,000 69 an increase of$ 47,4 48 from fiscal year 2324 a decreased rate of 9.5 would generate 13,343 68 an increase of $432,000 from fiscal year 2324 a decreased rate of 91104 would generate 12,792 1862 a decrease of $115,000 from F fiscal year 2324 a decreased rate of 9.0 would generate 12,640 a decrease of 270,000 from fiscal year 2324 as you discuss your options tonight please remember that whatever you set your proposed millage rate at tonight the property appraiser will use that rate on the trim notices that are scheduled to be mailed out to all taxpayers on August 15th on September 3rd the board will hold its first public hearing where you where you will adopt a tentative mill rate it is not recommended that you increase the proposed rate you set tonight an increase would have an impact to the term time table and it would require the property appraiser to mail out new trim notices before we conclude I ask that the board please set the proposed millage rate tonight thank you youve heard the um request and do I have a motion from the board to set our millage remembering what we set it for um you can if you set it low can't go back and change yet um but wherever we set it for need to be able to generate the dollars necessary to continue what we are currently doing at the rate in which we're currently bringing in Revenue I make a motion that we set it at 10 until we get other Revenue sources in place all right motion by commissioner ready consider second to the motion I agree I'll second I'll second by commissioner Andrews um any further discussion or questions all in favor of the sign I I and you oppose 5 thank you all right um Sheriff report count manager report thank you madam chair if you look in your packets at Agenda item 9A the first page behind the cover sheet is a list of funding requests from various Community organizations um we have a total of three new requests which you'll see down towards the bottom of the list staff's recommendation is to fund at the same levels as you did uh in the current physical year for the next fysical year and also add the additional ones that the mount requested the board if they had a chance to review these um recommendations for from the organization of funding um and if so do we have a motion to approve at the same level as previous year with the audition that have been added here yeah I'll make a motion that we fund everything according to last year's uh except for the original Florida tourist task force um it's lowered by a th000 so it will be funded at 2,000 and then um to picking up the Bradford uh tornado Pop Warner at 7500 and the uh two remaining agencies at the requested level motion by commissioner Ric is there a second to the motion second second my commissioner second any further questions or discussion all in favor by the sign I any oppos by all right thank you madam chair uh just briefly um you'd mentioned the economic development uh Workshop that we had on Friday um very very pleased with the turnout we had a number of uh the M municipalities were there of course you were there and uh had some great speakers and Amber Shepard is here in tonight and if Amber would like to say anything about it I think now would be the [Music] time thank you for uh giving me the opportunity to share about the nef EDC and the work that we have going on um at our workshop on Friday we had invited um all of the municipal managers and any uh leadership that was related to zoning permitting um and building departments as well as the highest elected representative on the respective boards in those communities so we had a really great turnout um and this was on the heels of our trip to Washington DC where we were able to secure uh meetings with a number of elected representatives including congresswoman Kat kak's office um Senator Rick Scott's office we were able to meet with them and then also we were able to meet with the um the Eda which is the economic development Administration and they shared with us about grant opportunities um and funds that are available continually so a lot of organizations do have an annual limit um but this organization does not and shared with us that they would be willing to provide resources when we submit applications for Grants um so that they can help us review and to make sure that our grants are as competitive as possible um those grants are technical assistance grants and often can be used for um water treatment and uh wastewater treatment so uh considering the needs that we have in Bradford County and the things that their grants can cover I think that's a really good opportunity for us to consider um looking into some grant writing opportunities with them we were also able to meet with uh the USDA the chief of staff at the USDA and um develop some relationships uh for here on a local level and one of those individuals was actually able to attend our meeting on Friday um these these relationships are really good in in guiding us forward um we need that guidance from the the officials at the federal level so that we can apply for those grants and receive the funds for the community to grow and develop our economy here um while we were in Washington DC we were also able to take a meeting with the global Business Center which is an incubator for um the investment arm for Industries coming out of South Korea looking to localize and expand into the United States the global Business Center is in McAn Virginia and um due to relationships that I have had developed with them previously and providing some Consulting Services I knew that they are an incubator Hub that allows these businesses to to rest and grow and accelerate in their facilities for 4 years but then at the end of that four years they pushed the baby bird out of the nest and so I had suggested to Mr corn that while we were up in Washington DC let's get a meeting with them and let them know that when they are ready to fly out of the nest we are here ready to receive them and when we had that meeting with them they were very pleased uh the the reception was very warm while we were there we were able to talk to an organization that produces and manufactur ures um flash drives and solid state drives they let us know that they are looking at expansion in the next two years or so and had told us that they were actually already considering Florida so our timing was perfect um to introduce Bradford County and our region to them as a matter of fact while I was sitting here this evening I got another email from one of the businesses there um that is a combat vehicle mro organization that is also involved in Aerospace and um they work work to turn land Vehicles into amphibious vehicles now I am not technically Savvy in all of those things but that sounds like a really great opportunity for our area and I'm looking forward to being able to have some meetings with them next week so on the heels of coming back from Washington DC uh we launched this um collaborative Workshop to identify key objectives that we feel in the community as a whole um need to be addressed to further our Economic Development practices and now we begin that hard work of synthesizing that information um and then putting together that strategic plan for the boards in the municipalities to review and approve um and that's going to guide our activities um there there was a a really good turnout at the the workshop and I received a lot of positive feedback from individuals who are not NE necessarily regularly in the community but the one comment that I kept hearing was that there was a momentum in the room and that it was attractive to them because it was they could feel the excitement they recognized that Bradford is growing and this region is growing and that there is an amazing opportunity for us here and everybody that was at that meeting all seemed to be pulling in the same direction everybody had very similar ideas and understanding of what needed to be done um and really when we got to the collaborative Workshop part of the session that actually went very quickly because a lot of the things that were mentioned from table to table were the same and were similar so that's a really good um really good for us because I think it really helps us to focus on the areas where we need um to really be focusing also I want to share that um this week we have launched our first digital marketing Outreach campaign we um we've already reached out to 126 different organizations um and see Suite level Executives at those organizations um creating introductions and trying to create conversations um business development in economic development is sales sales sales right and um if you're involved in sales you know you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you can get to that Prince so I'm used to hearing no a lot that doesn't discourage me um so it's very exciting to me to be getting our information out there and already uh be soliciting organizations and inviting them to come down here um hopefully in the very near future we'll have some um some fruit from these efforts in Washington DC as a matter of fact I'm hoping to set up two Zoom meetings virtually next week and then we also have um some interesting activities going on uh here in the community we have um the potential of wholesale Bakery coming in I've uh uh named the project Hot Cross Buns so um more uh coming soon on that there is a lot of activity going on and I'm looking forward to when these things get closer to fruition so that we can share them publicly and everybody can um see all of the goodness that's coming in the area I I I share regularly with our team that it's just uh there is a lot going on and there's a lot of good things going on and I I joke around and I say you know just reach up and grab some of that goodness because there are a lot of organizations that are looking to move and expand and the time is right for our region thank you yes ma'am thank you Amber Patricia I don't did you want to say anything or okay very good that's all I have Madam chair thank you um all right Mr Commander thank you uh commissioner's comment Miss Andrews just like to thank everybody for coming out and um speaking asking questions making comments because um it does help us a great deal and like I said we we want to work on this and we want to make it A system that the people can use and um something that we can handle so thank you for your your interest thank you for being here and um we appreciate you that's it thank you commissioner Thompson yeah I'd just like echo on commissioner Andrews I thank y'all for coming I appreciate yall support I mean we'll get there somehow um commissioner Dorne yeah I'd like to thank everybody for being here it's always good when you can get you know some of the uh answers to questions that people have because sometimes you hear things out in the community and you know sometimes it's uh you know whether it's a monthly fee an annual fee you know whatever it is but you know we just anytime we can clarify that I think that helps I also want to mention on the heels of Economic Development I did meet with one of the representatives of Cox Communications or or you know Cox in general and um they are currently working on uh extended Broadband services in Bradford County and so uh she would like to actually set up a meeting to or a Time on our agenda to be able to discuss that and where they are right now as far as their process but it looks like probably starting next year there should be a for Broadband in Brad commissioner Ric yes same I just I thank everyone for being here tonight I hope we can get your questions answered uh as we move forward and come up with what's best for uh for Bradford County if we're going to continue to go and grow we need to we need to some good choices good decisions made by this board and by your all input so thank you okay again I Echo what the other Commissioners said and I appreciate everyone coming out and your your questions that you raised uh um helped to answer some for a lot of people who had same questions and I encourage our board and our County Manager um that we and and moving forward we go ahead and proceed we're getting the minute details about what type of exceptions that we would make and getting a list of those um exceptions and so that our again our citizens can have more questions and also if um if need to go ahead and do further workshops or um town hall to answer those questions that we do do so because it gives the community um a sense of well-being in terms of us being open and trying to figure out this process so there are still a lot of pieces um that have to be put into place and um more questions but thank you all anything else for the good of the order if not this meeting is adjourn