go all right is everybody ready second St go ahead and call the February 20th County Commission meeting to order we'll start with a moment of Silent reflection for our First Responders and members of the Armed Forces followed by an invocation by Pastor Bert Wilson of the Faith Baptist Church and then the Pledge of Allegiance by our vice chair Mr commissioner oh no I'm sorry I was reading Joseph fleser the pledgees byman to do I'm sorry already two minutes in and I've screwed up already all right with that will you please rise and join me for a moment of Silent reflection shall we pray our heavenly father we thank you that we can gather here today in a free country and I thank you God for this board of County Commissioners I pray that you will bless them and uh Lord give them wisdom as they guide our community and as they make word critical decisions I also pray for the Pres the presenters here that God they will present with wisdom and understanding and that Lord the the the communications in this building we will be done with with uh uh a tone of peace and Harmony God bless this proceeding today I thank you in Jesus name amen please join me in saluting our country the United States Al to flag of the United States of America to the rep indivisible all right all right Commissioners um I do have one addition to the agenda if it's meets your pleasure I would like to add um our continuing conversation about the attorney's job description under my matters I think we have um a description that we can move forward with but just need to get everybody's blessings that's all right so moved second a motion and a second all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you for that and we will start with proclamations and presentations our first presentation of proclamation is recognizing African-American Pioneer Miss Alma Miller this will be presented by commissioner Moss Miss Miller if you'd like to come on up thank you madam chair and any got to bring your entourage you always have an Entourage you know I have a crowd right I know okay just about everybody in this room I that's what I was think they look like me oh you all know her that's fair all right okay thank you all right uh Proclamation recognizing African-American Pioneer Mrs Alma Miller whereas Z River County celebrates African-American Pioneers who through their service in the business public and elected Arenas have paved the way for this and future generations and whereas Elma Miller was born and raised in New Jersey she moved to her husband Glenn's home state of Florida in 1999 the following year she came out of retirement to join the Indian River County Health Department and whereas Mrs M is a faithful supporter of her church she served as the district evangelis evangelism excuse me coordinator for the Church of God from 2003 to 2016 where she touched the lives of many congregants and whereas Mrs Miller Works throughout wabaso and the surrounding areas as a community human health and services Advocate she plays an instrumental role in bringing essential resources and infrastructure improvements to underserved areas and whereas Mrs Miller is a board member for the nonprofit organization Coalition for attainable homes where she dedicates her time to orchestrating affordable housing for Treasure Coast residents in need now therefore be a proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of inan River County Florida we commend Mrs Alma Miller and recognize her outstanding achievements she's a pillar of our community and has greatly enriched the lives of countless Vero Beach citizens adopted this 20th day of February 2024 by the board of County Commissioners in in River County Florida and signed by all five Commissioners and I would just like to say special thank you for your work uh with regard to the Coalition for attainable homes because I I know the importance of affordable housing having served on the um affordable housing advisory committee so thank thank you so much for that thank you and I want to thank you all I am honored and humbled uh for you all to even consider the work that I do because I do it because of the passion and it's always humbling to know that someone acknowledges what you do and I want to say I cannot do it by myself as you can see I do have this little army behind me and especially this Glenn Miller Glenn Miller allows me to go and do many of the things that I need to do in the community as an advocate and I want to say that uh when we came to Indian River County and I often say I'm from Jersey but I know more about Indian River County than I ever knew about Mammoth or Somerset County in New Jersey why because I got this position in the Florida Department of Health especially environmental health and it allowed me to see the things that needed to be done that I didn't even think about when I was in New Jersey so I thinkk Rodney and Maya and Glenn for allowing me to do it but I also thank Miranda and Julianne and Margaret and Molly and my little girl back there I call her my daughter Stacy that allows me to do many of the things that I have a passion for so once again I thank you for this honor and this uh acknowledgement recognition and I appreciate you all thank you it's our [Applause] pleasure sorry I missed you you thank you got Paparazzi I love it I love it congratulations of course fantastic thank you all right our next Proclamation is a presentation of proclamation recognizing African-American Pioneer Mr Craig Walker senior this will be presented by commissioner flesher to Mr Walker come on Kan yes uh thank you madam chair I have the uh distinct privilege and honor of presenting this Proclamation uh to a young man who uh exemplifies doing the right thing and and I mean it sincerely uh as you'll hear the the number of things that he does in the community he never asks for any consideration Financial or otherwise he just does it the oldfashioned way and and I just want to say thank you because it means a lot and you are a Pioneer and I hope it's a message to the next up the road that we'll do the same thing hopefully and if you ever had uh if you ever had his ribs you know him well too uh while I present the proclamation recognizing African-American Pioneer Craig Walker senior whereas in River County celebrates African-American Pioneers who through the service in the business public and elected Arenas have paved the way for this and future Generations whereas cooking is Mr Walker's first Passion and his second passion is helping others Mr Walker started a catering business named after his son CJ known as CJ's world famous barbecue and catering services whereas Mr Walker is constantly thinking about helping people in need and in no matter how big or small the situation is he is always there to lend a helping hand combining his passions for food and helping others he put together a holiday feast for Thanksgiving and Christmas and Mr Walker is also a barber and offers free haircuts to the community for back to school and whereas Mr Walker coached Little League football whereas he mentioned many many youths are letting him uh know that all things are possible possible as long as you are respectful study and work hard and he created a special bond with many of the coaches and the players and he's continued to stay in touch with all of them through the middle and high school and whereas Mr Walker Pays His blessings forward whether he is downtown shopping out to dinner eating working with the PTA at DOD Town Elementary organizing toy drives for the holidays or on the community streets in giord now therefore be proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of Indie River County Florida that we recognize Craig Walker and his numerous contributions to this community duly adopted on the 20th day of February 2024 and signed by all five County Commissioners thank you Craig yeah D what makes it happen uh just trus in God you know I I I died twice uh and I got another shot at it so my key is to just make people smile and I open up the catering business because there's no other smile like those when they're eating so I I uh I just I just decided I told my wife like uh if you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything so I I just I just begin to just reach out and help others in the community when I see them going as scen uh as far as kids just walking home from school getting a fight and I I see Elders they pass by and never stop and I begin to just jump out the car and mentor to him like it's a different way you got to do something different and uh I just stayed true to it over the years I didn't expected to get this big and this far cuz it it started out something that started in the confinements of my own home in my yard and it it just fished through the streets of gord and I took it and just move like I said I just sat still and let God use me to do what he wanted done and that's what I do thank thank you for what you do uh I recant a uh a little conversation when we mentioned that uh Craig does back to school haircuts uh free of charge and it was commented that uh hey Craig you don't like money and he says I love money but I love the smiles even more yeah I love that that was a beautiful statement you made yeah so thank you thank you thank you all [Applause] congratulations come I'm sure he couldn't do it with she's no stranger to the [Laughter] barbecue mam CH I just want to say thank you for your uh understanding uh now that we've had a reduced amount of meetings two meetings it's tough to get all of the proclamations that we want to get out uh in one meeting so but thank you for your understanding it's important to recognize those in our community that are doing amazing things so our pleasure for sure rounding out our proclamations for today as our next presentation of proclamation designating February 2024 as 211 awareness month this will be presented by commissioner Erman to Mr Adcock um to or I'm standing in for you're standing in I was going to say good welcome it's an honor for me to read this Proclamation thank you for 211 Proclamation designating February 20124 is 211 Awareness Month whereas 211 helpl line and Crisis Line continues to be the Beacon of Hope providing life-saving crisis support and guidance when people are overwhelmed and don't know where to turn and whereas during these challenging times that include pandemic impact and economic instability hurricanes 211s caring and highly trained staff had been on had been the Frontline responders 247 through it all and whereas people of all ages and walks of life are reaching out for their growing struggles with mental and emotional health addiction housing health and other concerns and 211 steps listens to each and every person to provide available resource options and to help them strategize and problem solve and whereas 211 also has specialized advoc advocacy and support programs for the community that include caregivers support help me grow in 21's lifesaving Sunshine daily phone calls which continue to brighten the lives of isolated seniors and caregivers and whereas 211 also responds to the 988 Lifeline number and support lines that include First Responders and my FL V for veterans with peer-to-peer support providing assistance to these specialized groups and their families now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of any River County Florida that February 2024 is designated as 211 Awareness Month in in River County and that the board reminds all citizens who are overwhelmed in crisis or just in need of a talk that 211 is available at any time to provide referrals for mental health counseling substance abuse Health Care employment food assistance daycare support groups volunteering free income tax preparation and so much more adopted this 20th day of February 2024 signed by all five County Commissioners thank you for for what you do I know this is kind of a yearly thing but it's welld deserved and we know that y'all get busier every year and uh we're glad to support and thanks again for what you do thank you so much thank you all Commissioners we we appreciate you designating February 20124 as 211 awareness month thank you so [Applause] much thank you thank you thank you all right Commissioners there are no minutes for approval um I know I know you're sad um so we'll move on to informational items um I did want to highlight a few things first children's week is February 26 through March 1st we are having several activities um Cindy did you want to highlight any anything of those activities because this is the first year that the county will be participating in children's week all right good morning I am so pleased to share this exciting news Indian County Board of County Commissioners will be participating in celebrate children week Florida this marks a significant milestone in our County as um this is the first time we're taking part in the Statewide celebration so beginning February 26th and continuing through March 1st we're going to be hosting a series of engaging activities around the community aimed at nurturing the well-being and success of our children youth and families um from in our hands where we have the youth participating in hand artwork that is going to Tallahassee to uh represent that our children are in our hands we'll also have a really beautiful presentation out in front of the chamber um from our local prek on Tuesday we have members um that will be going out into the community including some of our commissioners our County Administrator our Deputy County Administrator reading to our prek as part of storybook Village um that is happening across the state as well and then Wednesday will be our teen day where we're amplifying the voices of young adults through an online survey allowing them to share their insights and their hopes and dreams with all of us Thursday we have some engaging webinars that we're going to be participating in virtually with some of our steam partners and Advocates across the state but the highlight of the week really is our golden impact recognition this inaugural event will take place Friday at the IG center from 230 to 4 where we'll be able to recognize the um funded agencies from 2223 that met 100% of their outcome measures um we're also going to recognize some of our program of Excellence um in the county with our public libraries and our parks and recck and conservation programs that have really supported our youth so in summary this is just an invaluable opportunity to really showcase the commitment we have across the county for our youth and families so thank you so much fantastic thank you excited that we're participating in that this year so thank you guys for all the hard work um another item I wanted to highlight is our Employee Appreciation Day which will be held on March 1st um from 1100 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. we will have several food trucks across 27th Avenue um any employees who attend the lunch will be entered for a chance to win a gift basket um and then employees names will also be randomly drawn for gift cards and all employees will have one hour for lunch to be scheduled coordinated with their respective supervisor so come on out and enjoy Employee Appreciation have some fun with the food trucks and maybe win a prize so we appreciate all of our employees looking forward to that and lastly I think Mr zto has something exciting to announce as well yes good morning Madam chair Commissioners officers not on the agenda but I thought it was worth um taking a moment to celebrate an event we'll be hosting at the Jackie Robinson training complex this weekend um as you know the complex and our relationship with Major League Baseball is not just an economic driver for the county but they're part of a larger mission to bring um athletes from the inner cities who've lost um the connection to baseball through their RBI program Reviving baseball and inner cities um so they're doing wonderful things there in addition to you know filling hotels and restaurants but to that end that we also look forward to some really nice events that the count the residents and visitors to the county can enjoy so this weekend we're hosting the historically black colleges and universities baseball tournament and it's going to be um live baseball highly competitive baseball that the community can enjoy tickets are very reasonable um I have some donated through um Total golf carts that I can share with folks who may not be able to purchase them so thank you for for the sponsorship um but just um and I think wilford's not here he's mad at me because bethon cookman will not be joining us but I just want to share I just want to share with you we'll have Grambling North Carolina AT&T uh Prairie View A&M Alabama State uh Southern University and of course the Florida A&M Rattlers um these games will be nationally televised not streamed but nationally T televised on Major League Baseball Network and the first uh game starts at 12:00 on Friday the televised games are at 4 and 7 7:00 anyone can reach out to me for Access tickets or more information and um we'll celebrate this weekend with pride awesome thank you Mike thanks for for highlighting that that's really exciting all right Commissioners next is a consent agenda does anybody need to pull anything from consent anybody from the public wishing to pull anything from consent mam chair move approval I have a motion by commissioner flesher with a second by commissioner lure all in favor opposed motion carries all right and with that we will move on to constitutional officers and governmental agencies Mr Ryan L Butler the clerk of the circuit court and comp troller is here to talk about operation Greenlight good morning good morning thank you madam chair Commissioners uh for this opportunity this morning to talk about the 2024 operation Greenlight this is the third consecutive year that Clerk's offices around the state have taken part in operation Greenlight and the activity is designed to encourage people who have unpaid court costs fines and fees to come in make a payment and get on a payment plan one of the detrimental effects of not paying your court cost fines and fees is that your driver's license gets suspended and all it takes is making a small payment and getting on a payment plan to make a person eligible once again to get their license reinstated um this is the third year that we've done this here in idian River County uh there are no minimum payments required uh it's based on the ability to pay and over the previous two years we actually took in $94,000 in collections during operation Greenlight and over 90 people were eligible to have their license reinstated based on the operation Greenlight event the real advantage to coming in during operation Greenlight is that all the collection agency thieves have been waved so a person who owes money and who hasn't paid their court costs over a period of years can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars in waved collection cost by simply getting on the payment plan uh we're planning this year to do this operation uh for two weeks it's the first time we've done it for longer than than one week but beginning on March 8th running through the 22nd we'll be doing this at the courthouse Monday through Friday 8 to5 as well as at our Sebastian office uh this year we also have a plan on Saturday March 16th to do an event at the gford Aquatic Center from 9: to 1 and I I want to thank Mike zitto Beth pal uh David Smith at the gford Aquatic Center for working with us to make that classroom available we're very excited to be able to do it on a Saturday uh offsite from the courthouse for people who cannot make it down there during the week um and can come at at at really their own pace on a weekend and try to get their license reinstated if anyone needs additional information you can visit our website at indianer clerk.com or certainly give us a call at the courthouse but we're very excited about this event we hope to exceed the collections that we've had in the previous years and also exceed the number of people who who have their license eligibility reinstated uh because uh as we all know the ability to drive is important to the ability to work and if you're out there working you can make those payments you can pay off those coure costs and fines and it's a whole lot easier if you don't have to drive around with a suspended license um so we hope people will take part in that this year thank you thank you thank you all right Commissioners um our next item is a public hearing on charging criminal defendants additional fees and eliminating costs for Indigent defendants Miss PR are you taking this sure so as this is a public hearing I just want to go ahead if we could go through the motions of opening the public hearing do you want me to do it that way first or would you like me to present first as um judal present and then we'll open the public hearing if anybody wants to talk on it and then close it and thank you Susan PR Deputy County attorney for Indian nerber County so this is um about charging criminal defendants additional fees and eliminating cost for inent defendants this is coming to the board pursuant to Florida statute 9391 185 which allows the county to impose court cost of $65 when a person is found guilty of a felony misdemeanor or delinquent Act act this statute provides funds for to be provided to four different funds 25% for local Court funding 25% for legal aid and 25% for Law Library funding and 25% for Juvenile Justice centers and alternative programs so in the past what has happened is there have just been one single $65 fee collected um per defendant and what we're asking now is for there to be for defendants that are not in agent for there to be more than $165 if there are multiple charges per the arrest so for example I think Mr deal put down here if there's three different crimes that instead of the mere $65 that it would be $195 um in court costs and just a demonstrative eight here from 2022 to 2023 the $65 fee was assessed on $1,530 cases resulting in $99,450 in court costs um in the the 1,530 cases there were 6,174 total counts so if that had been assessed per count then we would have had $ 41,309 1,860 in cost now of course in a perfect world the court cost would be collected as we just saw with operation green light that doesn't always happen um so the court cost may not always be collected but it could be um in some of these cases and the proposed amendment to the county code would be for county code sections 30511 and 30512 they are attached here too for your reference um so what we're asking for at this point in time the recommendation from staff is that we go ahead and we amend the code sections to allow for the implementation of $65 per count for non Indigent um defendants and leave it at you know just the waved fee for the indigent defendants and obviously that cost in the indigency is taken into account by the court system and they have their own system set up to determine who is Indigent and who is not all right Commissioners are there any questions from Miss PTO how do we know if they're Indigent so the I know the court system has their own um forms and everything that they go in and fill out um I recall from a while back doing some of the courtroom work um a parent for example in some cases or a defendant they would go and they would be advised to go to I believe it was the clerk's office to go fill out an indigency form and they would have to provide whatever documentation is necessary there and so they make that determination whether or not someone is Indigent this is in line with State Statute yes sir it is all right at this time I'll open the public hearing anybody from the public wishing to speak on this item please come to the podium and state your name and address for the record seeing none we'll close the public hearing Commissioners question M chair yes sir so moved all right I have a motion by commissioner flusher with a second by commissioner irman all in favor opposed motion carries thank you thank you Commissioners there's no reason why the good people of of the county who do not commit crimes should have to Pony up to ensure that the services are rended at the courthouse agreed all right um the next item is County administrators matters our 2023 goal setting final reports welcome good morning uh Madam chair members of the commission P this presentation up so we just want to present uh the 2023 2024 goal setting report uh just to kind of remind everybody and also share with the public how we got here uh in addition to our Consultants working with our staff doing just basic research on the community understanding the community also there was a number of personal interviews you know but with individually with the board with Administration and Senior staff and then those results were distilled down to create a uh questions that would send out to all of our employees and we sent out an employee electronic survey uh this is kind of the process that we did started October were the 101s and then we did the 101s with the administrative leadership and then the electronic survey was open for two weeks and what will ultimately happen is this going to lead to our strategic plan this is really the foundation uh I have Mission values and then goals highlighted because part of the process was to establish some interim goals and priorities until we can complete a full-blown strategic plan uh this is just a representation of the department participation you can see was pretty much much across the board uh these numbers don't reflect 100% and combined they do but you can see some departments participated at a larger measure some are larger some are smaller like all of HRS participated but they represent 1.73% of the U and OMB as well of our employee population so then on December 8th we had a go Workshop a goal setting workshop with our Consultants uh with both the board senior Administration and we even had the county attorney's office you know participating with us as well and so just kind of findings one of the first things that you do in envir in strategic planning one of the initial steps is you scan your environment you know what's the internal external factors out there that we need to be aware of and you we identify your strengths your weaknesses your opportunities and your threats or some people call it swackers or challenges I'm not going to review all these you have them in the report but this is just really where they we went through and identified what the strengths were for the county I think everybody knows we're very you know fiscally we're very fiscally strong we've got a great sense of community uh there's a lot of institutional knowledge dedicated staff the board's acknowledgement for the need for change I mean that that was a significant finding you know on behalf of the Consultants because many times I think they shared they can go in and they can have a very a bifurcated counsil or commission where some say we don't need it some say that we do so we thought that was uh and one of the other strength is the the commitment to the environment and our natural resources uh some of the weaknesses we talked about these at the the workshop uh we can sometimes be a little siloed we're very rule bound that's something that we need to look at uh some of our policies are Antiquated and then I will say the the weakness regarding affordable housing is kind of it's double- Edge one is within our community and then the other was from a recruitment standpoint for our employees if we hire employees or I make them an offer and they can't afford to live here we've had some that just can't move here either they're able to move to Palm Bay or somewhere else but if they can't do that they they have we have had people decline the offer after taking the job or after accepting it some of the opportunities we've already started the Partnerships uh with our municipalities thank you commissioner irman for leading that effort work and we worked with Tom lahan with East Central Florida r planning Council we've met with the city of Sebastian city of Vero Beach we' met with city of felir and M Shore says if something come up they'll meet with them and I'll be reaching out the Cherry so we can meet with Orchid you know if they would like to meet as well uh Oslo I95 interchange has to be one of the hugest opportunities you know for the county as we speak from an economic development standpoint uh and I think everybody knows that we want to we're going through the ear process the urban service boundary we want to do things that make a sense of you know that keep or maintain our sense of place retain what makes us unique the character the feel the you know 167,000 but you know even I'm finding myself right out in the public hey you're our County administrator or or my daughter likes saying and I keep telling will you stop saying that it's kind of funny she's my dad's a County Administrator eight is great so but also looking at uh I think we've enhanced our citizen engagement that we've been working on that and then looking at how we we've got the economic development plan we're going to be bringing forward for the RFP so that's an opportunity some of the threats we've mentioned we with the economic development plans the idea is to address the issue of having under under undiversified Workforce our economy looking at our work force attainable housing we already know we've had conversations about water supply we've had conversations about septic to sewer those are some looming issues that are faced in the county infrastructure we know unfunded mandates we see what dval county got attacked from a cyber security standpoint so everything we've done we've had meetings you know with Dan we understand where we are from a security posture and then obviously the ability to manage our growth you know it could be a threat and then the other component is the Recruitment and Retention so we asked you know from based on all the survey results these are some recurring themes and I'm going to just go really without going through all these go into the ones where we that the Consultants tested by through the survey and then give they rank ordered them based upon the the vote between number most of them are like 1 to four 1 to five and I I'll identify that uh and if there's any here that you'd like to touch upon we can do that uh so these are the four phrases that were tested and this is actually if you see to the left in The Orange Box the that's the that's the sheet that we made notes on from the workshop uh and the Red's what we said we were going to focus on in terms of building a mission statement you know customer service Serve and Protect Equitable Services balanced quality of life natural resources and sustainable growth for our residents those were the tested ones with among our employees and administration in our in the board and where they came out again there was can you go back so so there's four so so the highest one could get is a four so number you know this doesn't come as a surprise we're a county that's committed to Public Safety serving and protecting our citizen that ranks number one maintaining a balanced quality of life you know our natural resources and sustainable growth number two customer service number three and then Equitable Services uh number four you see the rankings there so the next we looked at values values are the moral compass for our organization they tell internally our employees and externally our customers these are the behaviors and the conducts by which you can expect us to act when we're serving the public when we're working with one another and that's one of the things that we're working to will be devising and developing and bringing them back to you as well because this is important you know employees need to know this is the expectation and for me you know when I speak to Suzanne when we do the new employee evaluation instrument these are going to be threshold questions it's a yes or no you either are you either accountable you're honest and you have integrity and if you don't then that's an issue for us you know that that that's kind of goes to the Jim Collins bus if you don't represent the values of the organization you maybe it's time for the bus to stop and then you get off so we tested they tested with through the the I say we because collectively we all took the survey the values and we looked at internal external customer service again our departments have to work together we we I'm not saying we have I've seen much more siloed organizations but we do have some silos so we got to break that down through collaboration communication and also providing service we have operating departments that provide services to our our uh residents and businesses in the field well what's behind them supporting them are our internal departments and they need to be able to give the operating Department the resources and the ability to do their job effectively so they have to provide a level of customer services to the operating departments so the operating departments can carry out the mission and fulfill try to realize our our vision uh Integrity transparency and respect that should go without saying in public service you know I had a conversation with the public works department recently uh last week maybe week before and and we like listen we are a customer service business and we need to have integrity we need transparency and we need to demonstrate respect when we're working with our residents as well getting our colleagues because you know public service we serve the public we are a customer service business and if we we I've shared if if you don't think that's the case then you we probably need to evaluate whether this is the right place for you not trying to be you know crude but it's just like we serve the public whether they pay a fee whether they pay a rate or whether they pay a tax we serve them uh honesty and trustworthiness and then as well uh our County being dedicated and collaborative in the workplace so then the ranking of the values again one through four you see where they're very close but honesty and trustworth is number one Integrity transparency respect number two internal and external customer service three dedication and collaboration in the workplace and I I probably I apologize if you recall we sent this out there was like 811 employees with an email and 483 responded to this so that's the 53 more than a 53% response rate which is pretty I mean I I was really impressed that that many employees did take the time to do it to take the survey I mean so I think that's really speaks when we see what they say the values of our organization should be that's more than half of our employees are they're there we just need to move the the other 47% that maybe they didn't appreciate the survey maybe they didn't want to but whatever the case might be but I thought that's I should have mentioned that earlier about 53% response rate so goals we ask for goals and priorities if you recall and this will help us for coming up for the in this upcoming fiscal year budget in from an interim basis until we can more fully develop our goals objectives strategies establish timelines and performance metrics and so there was nine that really kind of stood out the most and you this didn't surprise me the environment well these are the the nine I'll get to the actual voting of where they they fell out but environment quality of life infrastructure Public Safety again there's that word internal communication collaboration these are goals high quality customer service sustainable economic growth updating current policies and procedures and then encouraging affordable housing opportunities then when they were tested again not a surprise Public Safety number one infrastructure number two we've had these conversations with all of our cities and theyve they've been storm water septic to sewer the pable water roads doesn't surprise I don't think surprise anybody on the commission uh then number and I I put an aster by the ones that are really like internal ad Administration Ones high quality customer service would be the number one you see the as internal communication collaboration at 466 number two and then the third being updating our current policy and procedures and then encouraging affordable housing and opportunities that was related to getting both outside you the organization external but internal for our Recruitment and Retention issues so with that what staff is recommending that the Indian County Board of County Commissioners accept the final report and its findings as a guidance for the development of the approaching fiscal year budget and I'm open for any questions I want to thank you actually I want to thank you your leadership I want to thank the senior leadership team or you know Mike the all of our directors and then the 480 some employees that actually participated in the survey because if we don't get they're in the field they're in you know maybe in a cubicle and if they don't give us their opinion you know it it's just if we just did it by ourselves it doesn't have as much meaning but we ask them their opinion and we received a couple emails saying hey thank you appreciate that so with that I'll return to to and I do have one more slide at the end I'm sorry yeah next steps but I'll wait for the if there's any questions any have any questions on the report comments concerns yes I think it was uh well worth the fun that we spent it's clearly a defined road map on where this County should be going and I'll also add that uh Mr administrator I don't believe this has happened in over 20 years it's correct I don't think there is we we've not found one you're correct right so most organizations stay on top of this so I'm all in all right M chair um yes commissioner Ean I'm glad to see that u customer service ranks so high and you said it well we're in the customer service buiness business we're in the business providing a service whether you know just like anybody else would be out there it's just we do it in a different way because it's the tax dollars but um I I am glad to see that and I know I've stressed that since day one and I know you and I have had many talks about that I'm glad to see that I'm glad to see that that of course you know Public Safety rates high and and uh communication especially among employees and stuff reach very high so I I'm very pleased pleased with the with with what we've done here so far and very pleased with the process and what the results show and I appreciate your hard work on it well it's a team effort let's I mean I really with Mike and all the directors they all really pushed and they got an email out to the employees I emailed the employees we encourag them because we need their feedback as well and again I want to thank you all because you took a time out of your day to individually meet with our Consultants you know to provide them that guidance what would be successful so that's the beauty of this is you you pointed out um you know the input uh we're thankful that the the employees stepped up to the plate and and gave their their feelings their opinions anonymously uh so that they uh they can speak freely U and looking at other jurisdictions uh internally this board uh I I think if you're on the gamut of where we might need to go and why we need to may go now we have to go and uh I have to say that I am pleased too the customer service has come up that's probably the bulk of our uh between communication and customer service that's probably the bulk of our inquiries that we get uh on a daily basis because people have to be reminded that we work for the citizens commissioner Moss yes uh thank you I think it definitely was a very worthwhile exercise and I appreciate the fact that the invitation was extended to everyone to to participate that that made it even more meaningful um and beyond that um I think it really helpful to outline that that it's a it's a very straightforward exercise but also very helpful going forward to outline the strengths and the weaknesses and especially the weaknesses because then we know you know where where we need to take this uh for the future that you know that becomes our road map so I appreciate the specificity uh inclusivity and specificity thank you for both thank you um so I see you have your next step slides up so my question is how do you plan to integrate this into the budget process so the goals and priorities that you all established you know we would call them interim at this point but it would inform our budget process so as dep departments are coming forward they understand this these are the goals and the priorities of the commission coming into this fiscal year and then the other component is besides us bringing a strategic planning team together to to to take those key words and come up with a mission statement and our values is you know it's a question and I would I would say it's a resounding yes in my professional opinion that we continue toward developing a full strategic plan comprised of more in-depth goals with objectives strategy actual items that includes an implementation plan that has both a timeline is it a short-term goal is it a medium-term goal maybe it's just an instant one it's you know sometimes you get some of those but then there's metrics tied to it and then we can develop a scorecard of how well we're doing and implementing our strategic plan and recognizing you know I once had a member of commission tell me like tell tell his fellow Comm tell her fellow Commissioners like you know he's going to beat us over the head with this once we adopt it if we try to go but but the point is it's flexible and it's agile so if if conditions change as we do a checkup every now and then ideally you want to do three I think a five year strategic plan and just we validate it every year if we have to yeah no I do think that having a road map and something that that indicates to the public where our priorities are from funding perspective helps with transparency and it helps people understand why certain things are funded and others aren't I also find it ironic that like for children's services we require some of those agencies to have strategic plans or to have some type of process that they update those and yet we until now have not really had one for ourselves so I think it's wholly o um o timely and overdue and so with that Commissioners do you guys have any comments on the next steps or questions do we need a motion or Madam chair we talk we're talking about customer service and integrity and all of these things what about the employees that we have that have never had any training in that and now we're going to expect them to have the best customer service ever without training I suppose that would be the next step yeah so one of the if you recall in one of the one of the slides it did talk about uh not the slide but actually the uh let me see if I can find it here it talked about professionalism and training it's on one of the P the papers that we wrote so that's one of the things we've already investing in some of our leadership we've pushed out customer service training uh that includes a component of deescalation that all the employees are required I think by the end of this month wasn't that am that correct Mike by the end of this month to have viewed the video we also have the opportunity to bring in trainers whether it's I mean there's there's a number of different ones that are out there we could find somebody to come in and and get the employees go through it we we have talked with suzan you know we do the these Tuesdays 10 and two you know like uh once a month and like maybe kind of using that as a basis to bring in more to bring in trainers to try to to to cycle through and get through issues that we're facing so yes we like we have some directors uh there's two right now that are in the high performance leadership program and we've identified three more and we're looking at others and then we want to get it down to where we can get to the managers keep keep cascading downward so everybody understands from a high performance leadership standpoint of what should be expected to them and how they should be running their departments their divisions as well as providing Baseline training for our employees commissioner l i take it or my the way I would like it to work or my impression is that if this this is going to if this is going to help set priorities in the budgeting process and customer service is listed as one of those things that is very important then part of the budget needs to include ongoing customer service training development however you want to want to I agree call it and I would also add that you know going from the top down uh sometimes that can get stale but I'd also add that on the in our onboarding hiring practices there should be I can tell you I don't think that's happening right now and I think the onboarding process there need that needs to be chiseled in stone with them you you are correct and uh Suzanne and I have had several conversations about a couple things one uh they're in the process of developing an employee handbook extracting policies from that book you know that like I don't know if people you've seen it the administrative policy manual I don't know if employees actually know well Hey listen these are the expectations for me in during my employment so creating a handbook and then kind of tweaking or on boarding to where we can do more of a traditional hybrid doing a traditional in person myself welcome them talking about our values talking about our mission talking how they whether you're maintaining a swell or you're you know a plant operator you're you're a fire medic how you fit into the overall mission and introducing them to the organization and maybe the the what we do right now in terms of the online component as it relates to benefits and awareness of certain things that the counties offer that can still continue so so so we're going to try to look at a hybrid type and then even potentially bringing in um you know I've done it before and I've done other places where you have certain directors come in they talk about the their operations so they can see the big picture I'm sure we have so we are working on some of that I can tell you right now I a couple weeks ago month so I met with Suzanne and her staff and we looked at the table of contents for the employee handbook and and what needs to be included and then and obviously before we get that done it' be vetted between the directors and our County Attorney's Office to make sure we're staying on top of you know because there's some there's some policies there they're just outdated and they need to be updated there's one I'm probably going to be bringing to you and I think you're aware of it I I just believe at the end of the day managers and above should be at will employees as well as a couple others and right now we have where it just it's very cumbersome if you if the organization want to be agile and make changes commissioner lur I you probably um have much more experience in this but as you said onboarding if the onboarding process is done properly you can prevent a whole list of issues later on down the line so I would definitely agree that an overhaul to our onboarding process um is very should be just as important because that's that's how we're going to get this message to the people that are interacting with the public the most right and maybe maybe if you hire the hiring process and I know we get the weekly notice maybe you could bundle up a few of those weeks and have all of those brand new employees sit down and I'm sure we have internal people that can talk about customer service in fact we could highlight some of our High performing customer service employees I mean it's yeah basic because everybody has that customer even the guy driving the greater to the person answering the phone are all out there dealing with the public and some of those non-traditional roles that you think uh or don't think are customer service related that are are can cause some of the the most problems Mike you had I'm sorry you know you madam chair you pointed out just a couple of uh comments uh you mentioned the the guy just that's driving the greater okay that was one of the individuals and I realized we have I think we have eight graders so uh you know I'm not isolating to one individual identifying them but um one of the greater operators came to me and said thank you thank you for giving us the opportunity to bring information to talk about it what we go through and it was very rewarding to hear that from somebody who drives a grer with earphones and uh is out there doing a job and with not as much customer contacted somebody that's handing a handling a phone uh at a service desk and feeling that that was important that his input was accepted into the process so thank you for that the other thing is uh we mentioned onboarding you know uh often times I guess onboarding is is looked at as cumbersome uh a waste of of funding duplication of efforts because you have valuable veteran uh with an individual sharing and motivating and directing and guiding it it's all very important yes I know I mentioned a popular Hotel chain that I'm slightly familiar with and that's the way it's done you know you're you're taken out you put in the nest and then you're taken out of the nest until you're ready to fly and that's what we need to do here because we are losing a lot of valuable institutional knowledge there was a a big hiring process way back and then we've lost a few um and and it's time to ensure that everybody wants to be here here do the job and go in the positive direction of yes instead of we don't do that here I agree commissioner and I I'll say this and I know and some of the employees have heard me said it when I had the employee meet and greet at the fairgrounds it was I think it was well intended we had two sessions public service is an honorable honorable profession but it is a privilege it shouldn't be taken for granted we are here to serve the public it's not the other way around so I mean the ability during that that that onboarding process to meet with and reinforce our organizational core values our mission and how they come in play with that and how each of them has a part in helping us achieve that mission and hopefully realize our vision is critical so regardless how you know if it's once a month to your point if it's once a month it's something that we need to do and we're I'm committed to that because I I think it's important they need to hear from Administration and others that are in leadership that can take the time when they start welcome them to the organization and then turn around and tell them how important they are and what role they serve because at the end of the day every person yeah I know I know what I'm supposed to do but why people want to know their why you've got to inspire them to what you're here for this reason why because you're impacting this person's life even in a greater even in a grader they have a lot of customers they're just unspoken a lot of them until somebody until somebody doesn't grade their Road and then they realize how important they are so I mean so it is important and uh you know I'm sure the sheriff can attest uh at at Theo uh you went to go on your computer and you got stopped you have to answer the training values that have been disseminated otherwise you have no use of your computer and and I realize that a lot of uh employees do not have the opportunity because they don't have a particular workstation I.E the greater but has to go into the office eventually and there is a computer for the use I mean that's one good tool but I think uh a great combination is the the day-to-day activity also the the monthly or bimonthly uh visit from inside forces and external forces and sometimes somebody from the outside coming in does a whole lot more than we could ever do from the inside so just just a thought uh a combination of things I saw on the your last slide uh you had uh three objectives uh or things to do next step and it looked like the first box uh you and your team are going to be checking it all yeah yes and the second box it looks like you and your team are going to be checking that off what are we doing with the third box so the third box you know and we can have conversations do we continue with the existing team that helped facilitate this or do we go out we did budget we have mon funes funds already budgeted because we only used a portion of the funds to get where we are today and then the remainder of the funds to help us you know do facilitate I will tell you because I've heard people said well can you do it inh house and it's a challenge because you know I can tell you when I was at St Lucy County it was myself another staff member we were solely responsible for advancing the Strategic plan and so you had dedicated staff here we do not have dedicated staff so whether it be the Consultants that helped us get here or another set then that's what we would do to help us facilitate those workshops and drive it home in a more quick more a more quick quickly man quick a more quick manner so what what's the timeline on that did I would like to get it done before the end of this fiscal year it needs to be done I don't want to I want to get it done as soon as possible because it drives everything because funding what's that the funding is we have the funding there because we budgeted x amount we only spent a small portion of that we spent a sum of that already on to get to where we are this Foundation because it goes back to can you rewind some I'm sorry go all the way back it's like almost the beginning okay okay keep going keep going you'll see that big Arrow there so I am very impressed with the results of the the first wave I I think it's very thorough yeah and I mean if if the question is being asked do we want to move this forward more expeditiously my suggestion would be to stick with the same group that got us here cuz they already understand our process as predicted and I mean I don't I you know but you can't go anywhere else I me know what's going on they have they have some good stuff here now we would need somebody else to uh look at this and assess what was given in this package as was discussed when you brought this that's why I brought it in full transpar my recommendation would be if you're asking that we continue with with savak and and Levy Consulting with there was another couple other people team members behind the scenes that you were not aware of but so you you looking forward to to move this today to not today I will I've asked for a proposal from them in the event that that's the direction the board wants to go so we'll wait for their proposal yes and I would bring it back because it'll exceed the I'm sure the next one will exceed the 35,000 I will say commissioner fleser that I think that um your when we started this process you wanted to kind of take it slow and not commit to the full thing to see what the um to see what the deliverables were right and it sounds like the the deliverables that have been given have been impressive to everyone so I appreciate that because you know you don't know what you're getting with some of these things and it did give us the ability to reflect on what they did but I I would agree with you that I think that they did a good job and kind of dived into it real deep maybe at first we weren't totally all on board with all the workshops and the different interviews but I think it worked out well and we have a good understanding I also think deep down we hopefully the five of us had already recognized these symptoms prior to the study of being taken place I mean it doesn't take a lot to know that people don't return phone calls or emails right Commissioners if I may just really briefly on the issue of obviously bringing it back and over the threshold I believe this issue was kind of brought up when this first came about was a question on um having to do the RFP and having to deal with all that if they were hired on for a second term and if it goes over the amount and the threshold so I just kind of want to put a pin on that and make sure that we are okay before we do that this wouldn't be over the administrator's threshold okay the next phase probably would be so I would bring it back third will yeah well the second the second phase would be yes so and that was the concern that Mr de braal had pointed out in the beginning was you know it's one he had it's under his threshold for the first but when we're coming up on the second there may you know I just want to make sure that we are 100% in the green so if you would just allow me to put a pin on that certain item just to make it sure that we're in the clear and that's why I think I brought that up that we we were definitely exceeding it just was this was broken down at the fre components but uh that's why and that was a purpose of putting it on the agenda even though it was within my threshold spending threshold that there could likely if the board was pleased to move forward with them so all right Madam chair um let me say uh so that process will move forward but the training process is separate and apart from that and um to commissioner flesher's point we can benefit from outside expertise and we do need it uh however um just yesterday staff meeting I placed emphasis on scenario Based training and I think that's what we need because a lot of the complaints we get are capable of repetition yet evading a strategic or tactical response I'm sorry to go back to my law enforcement days but that's how you prepare for different scenarios and when the employee encounters that scenario they're prepared for it and their guard is it down they don't lose their cold they understand how to approach it so we will seek outside resources uh we have some tremendous in-house talent that we we can use because the training has to be specific to their departments under a larger umbrella of General customer service principles and attributes they should all embody agreed everybody that works here as an ambassador for the county um whether they recognize that or not but everything that they do reflects on the county and the organization um and that the way in which they do it as well so we are the county you are the county is my mantra in our Citizen Services half of the or chart which we've been we've been doing um a program for for years and um we we'll continue to improve that all right Commissioners um any more comments on this well I guess we need um a motion to accept the final report motion to accept this report as presented by ad second all right we have a motion on a second all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you again appreciate your leadership and your support I think there's you know we hear sunrises not high not high rises there's nice bright sunrise on the future for the county thank you fantastic all right Commissioners we are does anybody need a break are we going to push through pushing did you need anybody need a break or you could use one okay we'll take a five minute break we'll call the meeting back to order and our next item is opioid settlement proceeds to 19th Judicial Circuit drug court program is produ thank you good morning board um this morning I would like to bring to you the opid settlement proceeds for the 19 judicial circuit drug court program so on June 15 2021 this board approved a proposed memorandum of understanding with the state of Florida Attorney General's office that serves as the allocation agreement between the State of Florida and the local governments on the settlement of various opioid cases as part of theou money would go to a city slcounty fund a regional fund and a state fund in December 2022 Inver County received $139 6416 from the state of Florida for its portion for the city/county fund the large class action settlement was recently allotted by the board at its meeting on January 9th 2024 and that was from the manufacturers of various opioids and namely Purdue so just for clarification this is the smaller pot of money um so on April 4th 2023 the board had voted to have the county attorney's office work with commissioner laures Alison to focus on using the proceeds from opioid settlements for the alternative C Court programs mental health court and Drug Court coordinating with other sister agencies such as Hospital District also meetings between judge Cox men's and Judge Stone were held um the judges did recommend using those proceeds or for assessment treatment testing and wraparound services such as housing and transportation for participants in alternative Court programs on May 17 2023 the Indian River County Hospital District Board of TR trustees discussed this matter and voted unan unanimously in agreement with the recommendation to use the proceeds on assessment treatment testing and wraparound services for the alternative Court programs since then we have received fund from the Walmart Walgreens CVS class action settlement in the amount of 305 7518 in conversations with chief chief judge swab and Wendy parent from the 19th Judicial Circuit the need for the opioid assessment treatment testing and wraparound services do remain in great demand the drug court has exhausted the last year's funds at a successful rate and once again the 19 judicial circuit is seeking to have those funds appointed or given to them so we are requesting that at this point in time the funding for this year be giv to them not only that but after discussion um between staff we have also sought to have the funds be distributed to them on a reoccurring um basis um but that would be up to the board obviously and the board could then go ahead and ask that that be um at any time that be reheard to have those funds cease being distributed to the 19th and distributed elsewhere if needed um but that would make it in essence a smoother transaction for them to go ahead and have the funds transferred just directly to the court versus every year them having to come back up and ask for the funds again M yes I believe that uh this is a good thing but in addition to those those large amount of dollars that we talked about a few months ago this is is separate and distinct from that this is the second draw if you will so let's not get this confused with the one point whatever that's coming yeah that was my question what this is how many pots this is an addition and uh again we remind that uh the when this was first proposed and we did not know the actual dollar amount yet and there was still a sliding scale to happen uh it went to the Public Safety Council which and it was well vetted out and then it was vetted uh once again when questioned it was vetted here um I I that's all separate uh but during that time uh chief justice swab uh did indicate that um more more assistance could help the process far more with wraparound Services there was a a greater need uh as he said humbly that uh the the uh that the the other the applicants were all Justified but again not putting words into the Chief Justice we don't do that uh but uh he did say that uh he could use additional funding and that this was a great start so but we're not talking about any of that funding we're talking about this addition and what's the dollar amount to the addition 305 and is that reoccurring no from my understanding this one will be reoccurring but it's a smaller pot of money settlement is is is reoccurring is it reoccurring at 305 yearly or I know the others is reoccurring at an unknown specified amount correct less than half of it was kind of like half it got cut it's going to go from a million to 500 then it's going to correct so so there's that bigger pot of money that will be reoccurring this I am being told is reoccurring too it's a smaller it's a smaller pot but this is the one that goes directly to us and from my understanding it's going to be reoccurring for a certain period I'm not aware of the period that was the that was why in discussion myself Mr deal and Kristen um the discussion was it would the board then just like to until this little smaller pot dries up continue to dedicate it to the 19th if not then that's fine then we can just do this annually once it comes up and then just ask for it again so for clarification you don't have an exact timeline the uh the first settlement the general settlement was for 18 years correct and that there'll be a sliding scale on this one we don't know how long if it is reoccurring and how long it would be that's correct oh so basically we're dealing with more unknowns than less unknowns from the other on this smaller number yes I'm afraid so so today we have an excess of funds in that's about 300,000 yeah so it appears that the smaller fund is 35751 do8 and I think what you're going to find commissioner is that each time the settlement occurs it's with different businesses this being Walmart Walgreens and the like so with that Madam chair I move to approve all right we have a motion second and then I have a question and I know that there was uh comments from the public so if I could just clarify the motion so you're motioning to approve the amount for this year yes Comm okay thank you you say you like to say something chief judge if you have any questions I'm here good to see you Chief it's always great to hear from you chief black white commissioner um no I'm here in case you had any other questions um all I can tell you is that from the bottom of our hearts we thank you we would just be coming back and asking you from a different pot for the same type of funds uh the wraparound Services everything from the starting when they come into the initial is this an opioid addiction case and then getting them through uh as you might imagine some of the lower level type drugs are easily treated on a in a setting that's more of a counseling session but when we get into the opioids and Fentanyl and some of the other things a lot of these folks need that inpatient treatment that can run a minimum of 90 days and then those funds that we come and we ask for on an annual basis we don't know if we're going to need that for one person or we're going to turn out to need it for five people or 15 people so we can budget but sometimes that budget ends up we end up with a shortfall and that's why we've come back and asked for the uh the funds that you're looking to give I hope to us at this time but I'm here for any questions that you have about the process CH Chief Ed I did characterize your intent correctly you be the judge no that that is that no that is that is correct so everything from the initial taking in of the case when it comes into the system and you know remember we can esoterically talk about this thing in a lot of different directions for forever right do we want to put or spend the money on the front end before it ever gets to the court system or once it gets to the court system then what do we have to do when it gets to us and then how do we restore these people to being uh good citizens accountable to their families to the community to their jobs their employers Etc but the funds that you're looking to disperse at this point in time get us from the entry phase all the way to the exit phase it just will depend ultimately on how many people ultimately need those for that particular subset or those opioid addictions I just had a question uh so the funding obviously uh some of this funding will be going to drug court correct and and the wraparound services will it be inclusive of veterans court as well and uh be able to outreach because we do have a a larger challenge there as well sure and the veterans court and Wendy has the numbers I believe we have a lower level of involvement in the veterans court not for desire but there's a gatekeeping function through the state attorney's office to determine if those cases actually get to us but yes those things are the same opioid type addictions remember that would have to be a veteran with an opioid proper yes right yes um I think I gave you my uh talking points but in there we were able to ident that I believe there were probably a few veterans that we were able to identify at this time with opioid related um addiction um and then there was a higher level obviously um we have more participants in um felony drug Corp um and there was probably one or two from mental health court as well so we'd like to use that funding that um if it's approved to um you know Assist those individuals in each one of the programs and again this is one of those things where I believe that the the county attorney and I had spoken as well as the Martin County attorney these pots go to specific funds or specific things right so I can't take somebody who has a cocaine addiction or a crack addiction then use the opioid funds for that purpose so those funds are specifically earmarked for individuals with this specific type of an addiction disease all right any other questions for M chairman I think this is this is definitely a group that works on a Sho string budget they got a lot going on and I think uh I agree with commissioner pleaser there's there's some unknowns here but I think we can work through it because we got some good folks there to do this so I'm proud to support it anybody else from the public unfortunately we have to of course count on what we have today we can only count today of course uh good morning Commissioners uh Stephen Hume chairman of the veterans Council in River County um I was in here here two weeks ago three when was that last meeting on no trying to remember what couple weeks ago right and uh Council had brought up to that point in time it's 1.2 million and the state said it'll go down to 600,000 over four years and keep dropping uh successively over the next 18 years um we heard the five presentations that day from the different groups that came up council did bring up that there was $999,000 left in that initial pot which I was an understanding of there's multiple pots here that $99,000 uh we went and research at the council what we could do with that on a preventative measure as commissioner Adams and also uh commissioner man had brought up in that u in that setting uh so preventative uh the veterans council is able to take on case management referrals uh warm handoff and programs for Recovery Services mental health treatment financial assistance Transportation recovery to appointments and connect to people who need help uh when they need it um as well as we address uh the needs of Criminal Justice involved persons in the jail right now through the sheriff uh so we hit multiple layers on that uh funding uh my request here was to just bring that up to the commission and ask what is going to be done with that $999,000 that's left over in that initial pot and then also how this relates to as the judge just brought up the the veterans court um there needs to be some preventative action here before they get into that doorway um so we'd like to see that so if if I may um if it's if it since the board head made that distribution at a at a prior board meeting I andan it looks like there is a $999,000 left over um I'm happy to bring I have myself or Mr deal whoever bring the item back up so that can be discussed at that time if there is a money if there are monies that are left over that still need to be dealt out I I thought All the Monies were dealt out but if to my understanding they were dealt out the last time but if there is a fund or any monies left over um I'm happy to hear from the board on the direction that you all would like to take on that um but as far as from this pot this is a bring it back yeah I my recollection of the discussion was that there was what we were allocating that day still there was some monies that had come in after that or were unknown and it was about anticipated to be about $99,000 that we were going to have to allocate in the future and and my understanding from Mr de brw was that we had to either allocate it or have it encumbered by June or July so we're quickly approaching that and I know I mean I've gotten some questions from other organizations as to how and when and and what and who so if somebody could bring that back so everybody understands that would be super helpful and maybe I'm a visual person but maybe some kind of visual on what pots of money and where they're going because there's I can understand that visual as well bring it back because there may be some other organizations that are interested in okay um and then specific to this allocation this is the money that commissioner lore was originally involved in and it's recurring and the proposal and the motion is to just keep putting it in into the court system which is what you had worked on originally correct is that so and I just want to clarify the motion so it's just for the one time or are you proposing that it be on the annual reoccurring oh just one one time one time okay so we'll bring it back yearly deide or we got to figure out of course if it's going to be reoccurring because that's still a gray area Okay Okay occurring yes or no they're gonna add that to what you're bringing back on the 99 as to if this is recurring or not right and then we can maybe sew the whole thing up at the same time because we keep having competing opioid agenda items and it's it's confusing for me I I understand of course you know I'm highly conf it's confusing for a lot of people but but we would definitely like to be in those talks you know because well the veterans going through that HUD vouer situation they go to a homeless shelter and they come out with addiction problems because of that so we want to stop that before they end up in the judge's area and in the sheriff's area right we want to have that preventative you know finger on the PSE there so then just for a note then the next board meeting um that that could be up brought up at is the March 5th board meeting the deadline for that I believe is this Friday for us to put an agenda items well if it's not March 5th it can be the second meeting okay the next meeting in March sometime in March 19th would be ideal I'm Happ and that gives everybody time to or whoever's got to decide and present to divy it up and would that be kind of a presentation type meeting where we'd come and present or just that would be I and I don't know about everybody else but I would anticipate that that's more informational on what is left what is recurring what the parameters are and then how do we want to set up the process to allocate that because there was conversation about having some kind of future plan too and I don't know where that stands and um agree you and we just keep to see what's available we keep segmenting the conversations for each one but I think we need to have an overall opioid conversation and then we can segment it does that make sense yes it does thank you thank you all right so there is a motion by commissioner lore and the second was commissioner fleser correct or commissioner Airman okay the joke commission I keep commissioner irman all right um to allocate the dollar the one time dollars to the court and then we'll find out about recurring and handle that at another date that sounds great okay any further discussion anybody else from the public seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you you number one again youall have a difficult job right I mean you have a lot of competing interest in a lot of different places do we front end the money to try and avoid them ever getting to the system what do we do when they ultimately get to the system so I appreciate the work the time that staff puts in and what you all review as Commissioners and I'm happy to come back and share successes annually so we'll kind of figure out where we're at when uh when you all know where we're at so thank you thank you so much have a lovely day all right Commissioners moving on to my matters um that you were so kind to add if I can find my no I can't find my papers oh here they are all right so I took a stab based on y'all's input and feedback on the job description so I'll pass this down Suzanne sent out a job description if you look on page two I can find mine I wrote on you can see where under minimum qualifications education and experience um I kind of rewrote that um the County Attorney must be currently licensed to practice law in the State of Florida and be a member in good standing of the Florida bar they must possess a minimum of 10 years experience practicing law in the State of Florida of which a minimum of five years exclusively practicing local government law with a focus on drafting legal documents and complex transactional negotiations board certification in city county and local government law is preferred so there's a difference between being certified in something and just being a member of a certain section of the bar and so for this I thought it was important that they have that certification um Madam chair a reason why you took out I no I just figure I was just kind of trying to rewrite it we can put that back in I figured it would you know you kind of have to go to an accredited University to become a member of the bar so it was kind of included or inclusive but I can certain we can certainly put that back in I have no problem with that you're big on that accreditation do you rent an organization that what how about we add back in graduation from an accredited law school with a jurist doctorate degree from a Law School accredited by the American Bar Association okay okay and then um if you look down to the knowledge skill and ability section I tried to take the input from everybody um and included those different things that we talked about administrative law matters and proceedings state and federal statutes and common law code enforcement contract law Drafting and reviewing local ordinances ethics law constitutional law land use you can read all that I was thinking under employment law um because I I did not get the collective bargaining and workers comp um under employment law just put a colon including collective bargaining and workers comp and then also adding imminent domain as knowledgeable in the following local government law areas um and then I think that that covers what everybody was looking for um on the next page where it says starts with extensive and thorough knowledge if if you guys like the know the what like the kind of bullet points that were added we could probably teir down some of this but a lot of it is just what you would normally want a professional to have public speaking ability to analyze um ability to prepare and TR complex civil cases that kind of stuff lot a lot of this is Garden salad MH and and again anybody who's applying uh you know once you pass this this first step and education experience some of these are um interpretive right so I you know I I don't think it's you know this is designing exactly who we want exactly but this is exactly the type of of individual we want for us so I I think there's some discretion in in in the uh in the salad here okay the entree is and then the only other thing I wanted to draw your attention to on the first page under essential job duties if you go down one two three four five the sixth bullet says prepares proposed legislation contracts and resolutions and makes recommendations regarding Amendment revision and repeal of existing law and then if you drop down three more bullets it then says drafts that presents legislative bills to delegation for consideration to me that's a little um we have a legislative person and have had them for for several years now that really does that presenting to the delegation and the prepares proposed legislation in the prior bullet covers drafting so I was just going to suggest we just remove that bullet think youd wanted to be part of the process right and that's in there I mean it's not that I wouldn't want I just don't want them to necessarily feel like they have to go to the delegation meetings when we have somebody else that that does yeah right they need to be part of the process um okay so does that job description kind of cover everything you guys were looking for can we agree that this job description after it's word smithed and checked for grammatical errors on my part is something that we can utilize and get out on the street I believe that it'll it'll pull in the right candidates uh if that's okay I mean that that's the intent right uh you know my goal was to get to an end today and agreed upon job description that we could use so if everybody's comfortable with this I will work with um Kim and human resources and get it put into proper form and email it to everybody and then that will be the job description that we're using for this job Ser mam chair does it need a salary range that is a very good question I'm not sure I think most have salary okay so do you want the salary range to be I don't you don't normally put that in the job description you put that in your advertisement right and in your post you would and I understand we're still going through the salary assessment you you would and that's a great question because I know and going through the salary assessment that should be something that should be that was a concern of mine that I kind of brought forward was you know making sure that we stay competitive um when we're looking at that in the salary assessment because I pulled um just for reference the county that were're most similar to Martin County they have five attorneys and I pulled their um salary range obviously not the same as ours but it is still at a higher bracket so if we just want to be competitive to look at um maybe perhaps theirs and another couple other similarly situated counties for their County attorney current salaries might be um beneficial if we don't have our salary study back yet I'm not sure where exactly that's at um so that was just my only comment is just to remain competitive but that that's not the the salary study is not finalized so we don't know exactly where it's going to go yet that's that's correct and this comes more into play when or becomes a a higher level of importance when Martin County is looking for an attorney as well uh you know I I just wanted to put it in perspective but uh the Sal study uh the salour study is not completed and like my position I'm not sure that the county attorney's position position was evaluated because you typically just you know you hire based on the experience then you set you now there are some and I I know one of the ones that I shared with the bsgr they attached a proposal where they shared the range so that there's absent you know many job descriptions have the salary range in it yeah and also shair that salary would be negotiated with the attorney when we right decide to hire her him we are we talking job description here or are we talking salary range you don't normally put your salary range in your job description your job description goes in your policy and your manual when you have a position you advertise for the position you use your job description then you place the salary within it so I think it's two different things job description this goes in the administrative manual am I right sir yes well it's done two ways there's some places that just list the pay grade level or or they list what the the range is in a job description you could do that okay I guess you could do you could do the range yeah so just trying to get ahead of this if we're gonna I canack I can tell you that at a time when looking for if I'm going to if in past practice when looking for an employment you look at the job description to see if you qualify for the qualifications a b you're also going to look to see what the salary says there's usually a salary range that's posted with it and I can tell you if there's no salary posted I don't bother applying that's because are we talking a job description okay so what I'm talk what I'm talking about are multiple things one we have a job description it sounds like everybody's okay with that yes two we take the job description and we then have to create a job posting the job posting will have the salary range do you guys want to talk talk about a salary range today okay so what we can do we have we have an agreed upon job description we can take that job description I can work with HR we can put together a job posting with a placeholder for a salary range I can send that out to everybody what I can do is if you'd like look at you know Martin some of the other comparables to us um um and those around and and kind of give you a couple of different salary ranges including what we're currently at then we can have a discussion about that and finalize the posting is that at the next meeting that sounds great Madam chair um and so you'll provide that um I did have the opportunity to review the the Martin County uh salary range as well and thank you counselor uh could we also include that in in in the package so that yes we have I'll I'll do a little more of an appreciation of what's out there I'll do a little research and include a couple of different counties similar to us um their salary ranges as well as the amount of people that that attorney is supervising um and then I also think that we should you know maybe include some statement that you normally include that your salaries also you know we would evaluate how long they've been at other places it on experience um I do have one other question about the job description because one of the things you put in here was for um knowledge of imminent domain I will tell you that there are other board certifications for example for imminent domain did you want to put in there that if if that you would consider other board certification are totally this I just want to ask for clarification um but because I obviously we have the city and county attorney board Sears but if you're looking for something like that if you'd rather I mean not sure if you'd rather someone with an imminent domain over a city and county but whatever your prefer whatever the board's preferences are okay in but I would I would highly recommend that it be someone that has those certifications how about other board certifications will be considered I think that's fair does that work the um okay so I will be bringing back just so I'm clear on where we are I'll bring back a more robust job posting package this was just the job description with all those other things in it um that's kind of in a form ready to be sent out for everybody to agree upon on the 5th yes commissioner um would staff at that time also be bringing information on a recruiter for this position so we did have um I think the administrator sent out a proposal um from fgr or sgr you should have gotten that in your email um we can discuss that today if you guys would like I added this to the agenda so I don't know if you want to discuss that on the 5th um when it's kind of noticed or whatnot yes so no I prefer to wait okay but does anybody have any feedback back on anything that I've proposed or discussed here today or does it sound like we're on track no let's roll okay that's mine that's your let's roll all right got it duly noted okay so I think that gives me what I need for today we continue to March along I will make sure that this is actually an agenda item for next um next meeting and then we can discuss the proposal um as well as the job posting all right thank you guys so much for your feedback I really appreciate it with that we will move on to commissioner Moss's item requests from Vero Beach Film Festival to use commission Chambers yes uh thank you madam chair um just to recap uh and I'll invite uh the representatives from the F Beach Film Festival forward I'll begin the conversation and they can add to it uh for the last uh two years uh the chambers have been used to to show movies of check with staff there have been any problems um either of the years and The Bu Beach Film Festival has already agreed to uh pay staff uh let's see $2,544 49 for this staff time which is involved and that includes two Information Technology technicians and three uh facilities uh Personnel um beyond that um we I I also asked to get uh some idea of the uh numbers in terms of tourist tax because I know that's always uh a consideration of ours and uh they came back to me and it's it's in your package that over um 20% of the attendees and this is a total number of attendees uh 1,250 attendees um we're for out from outside the county so that gives us a 177% increase in spending at restaurants and hotels during that Festival weekend which will be in April this year that's April uh 12th through the 14th I should mention that in previous years uh it had been held in June um there hasn't been any um onslaught of of others uh looking to do this I think that was a concern expressed last year Well if if we allow one group then we'll have many groups there there there haven't been any other groups and also um I look at it too as cementing our relationship with the community and we've we've done a lot of that this year in different ways you know we've been reaching out to the community while we're revising the uh e for example we're about to again with the urban uh study you know Urban bound urban service boundary study excuse me um and even as far back as a couple years ago when we did the visioning study so we look to to reach out to people and I think this is another way of uh really of Comm of community outreach you know inviting people in uh to to experience being here and you know we have a lot of people who have moved here in the last few years who really they don't know surprisingly perhaps they don't know where we are I mean the physical location so this gives us an opportunity to to establish in a positive way a relationship uh with the community that they come here and enjoy it's not simply a matter of someone coming here with a a Code Enforcement issue or other uh kind of uh you know negative situation and as I was driving to work this morning I was thinking to myself even beyond that it's a way uh for us when we have people here to inform them about all kinds of of uh you know different events good things that we have going on I just saw this yesterday for example this is a um a great job by the parks and wreck uh commi commission or Department department and commission uh to provide information on programs and a guide for the coming months you know things like that could be um distributed or made available when we actually you know have people here so it's an opportunity for us uh not only to uh invite the community in um and to reach out to them but also to provide them you know with with information that uh you know that they might not otherwise receive so I I view it in a very positive light and I'm going to ask uh the representatives of the film festival to introduce themselves and add to the conversation all right I'm David de here I'm the executive director of the ver Beach Film Festival and this is I'm Susan Keller horn I am the co-founder of the film festival and thank you very much for having us here um one of the discussions we had last year I remember I think the thinking amongst some of the Commissioners was this was the only venue we were using and in fact we take over much of the town for the four days um we take over the library and the Women's Club the Heritage Center the executive Courthouse the theater Guild The Majestic Theater and the community church and we s uh we show any place between 70 and 100 films uh this year uh because of our reputation in the film festival uh Arena um we had over 450 films submitted but the the one thing I really wanted to make clear is one of the reasons we need a venue like this is because in other venues we have to outfit those venues and a venue could cost us as much as $10,000 just to use that venue for a few days and this is fully equipped it's got the latest in technology uh and audio visual the same way the reason we use the library is because they have the latest uh uh technology in audio visual so it's important and this is one of the venues that actually uh uh looks more like an actual uh a theater because you have a great screen here and you have comfortable seats and set up this way so it's really important for us to add this venue every year and I'm hoping you once again vote to give us the venue this year and I also want to say it's one of the most popular venues here we put our best films here because most of our attendees love coming to see a film here it's a great Loc but it's also a great o last year one of the things that we showed here was what we call Vero Visions that's local filmmakers that's people within the Treasure Coast but primarily majority of them are in virau beach and it's an opportunity as Laura had said for people who live here who've never seen the space to see what we're all about because we have an incredible space here it is absolutely beautiful it is a comfortable wonderful space to Showcase in our community and so I just want you to know that and also you you all talked about Community you know about C all the employees here being public servants your public and servants the people who work here are amazing to work with we have had such a great relationship with them when it comes to working within this venue because they are so amazing we are able to put off all our films without a hitch and that's huge so those are reasons why we would love to be here again I I I appreciate this um and you know my standing in the past um it's truly unchanged I feel like Bill Murray at Groundhog's Day we're here once again talking about something that uh I've reviewed every one of our meetings inclusive of the one which we denied the uh taxpayers Association from using this room uh for an event uh because we have a great screen because they wanted to pay for the time they we have great seats and I think in that discussion was this is the county seat that's why that seal is up there and this is where government happens Hallowed Ground we charge we charge the hospital District to hold their meetings here uh all other governmental meetings that happen here uh are arranged uh We've denied others and we've had several opportunities appeals by three different commission is that we need to have a policy yet we do not have a policy and in in hearing that I know that um in reviewing all of them and you said we we use this in a wide variety uh we use a lot of different venues uh and I'll bring up the IG Center again uh I'll state that they have stated the a equipment too and you don't have to you know it it's set up it's not set up theater like like this then there's a reason for that and I I I don't support it because of the seal that's on the wall and this is the people's room for governmental Endeavors and I think it should be maintained as such we don't have a policy for this we have to come and appeal it each and every time I like the organization I love the en environment of it but then again when we hear about uh that's not how uh um that's not how tourist tax is assessed by the way and it's not the way it's accounted for it's heads to beds and uh there there is a methodology to do that it's done by many others uh so the fact that people come from St Lucy or bravad or uh other points out further does not constitute uh a a surge in tourist taxs okay I just wanted to point that out I think I might be familiar with it um so uh with that in mind as a matter of fact it was one year where the organization had wanted tourist tax dollars um uh for funding when they were doing a virtual you it was doing Co you were doing virtual and I I didn't see how we can equate heads to beds that's why I brought that up so and I don't think we see it now um I uh again admired the organization but I I can't support this because we've already denied in the past others and this seems like uh it was presumed that we're going to do that we have the theater seats we have the screen there are other places and we have state of the art in uh once again in the IG Center uh there's not much work to be done there and uh I I again you can talk with our it folks it's a great envir M and it's ready for production at any time we hold a lot of events there that's the purpose of that I'm very honored that you're utilizing the uh uh Mary's room uh the Mary Schneider room is is perfect um it's but it's not theater like seating but it it works well for what you want to do you're using the theater you're using a few others I didn't hear uh Vero Beach Chambers is are they doing something um no we've they have a big screen and if the like seating and I haven't seen that space myself but also I rarely had seen this space prior to the film festival I'd been here maybe for a couple of little things that my children may have been when they were growing up but I know that this is a governmental space but it's also an opportunity to allow people who may not be thinking about the government or children who aren't think about government coming into the space and seeing what it is all about so it's although it is used as a governmental space and that is what it's primary purposes it is another one as far as the beds to heads we do have um statistics on that I don't believe we have them with us today um but we definitely do have statistics on that we also have a number of rooms currently being held for us for our filmmakers who will be coming from out of town um so as far as the heads to beds goes we do have statistics on that unfortunately we did not bring those with us also I want to address the IG Center which we personally love the way the film festival is programmed the reason we keep it downtown and close is so people can go from one venue to the other and what we found is the IG Center was too far away for people to actually hop over there to see films over there because we schedu them you know in 2hour increments all over town and it's difficult for us to put films that far away otherwise in a minute we love that uh the IG Center we think it's incredible in fact we have talked about doing individual events there uh and only there sort of mini Film Festival um but as far as the film festival we do yearly it's really tough to use the IG Center Madam chair I'd just like to respond to some of the other points uh with regard to the tourist tax uh those numbers they didn't come from the film Festival they uh came from the Indian River Chamber of Commerce in terms of the the tourist tax and that was uh through Ben man who uh is in charge of Tourism uh for the chamber um we do have a policy on this and that's why it does keep coming back it's uh administrative policy manual the section is Personnel the number is am 68.1 the effective date is November 13th uh 2007 the subject is use of conference and meeting rooms in ad in administration buildings A and B and it keeps coming back because it says right here in the policy uh that these you know any kind of individual event um must be approved by the board that would be be we uh on a case-by casee basis so that's that's why it it keeps coming back if we want to change this policy then you know we can consider that going forward but there there is a policy um and the third thing I would say is that you know well there's no no space is is more sacred than a church and at my church currently Trinity Church uh there's there was a series Musical music series cultural and that is the uh chamber music Society uh from Lincoln Center I attended the first concert and the second and third will be to come and uh and that's it's it it's not even as comfortable as this but it's a lovely venue and I think again um part of what they're doing with that is to encourage people to be in church um just the way I said earlier that we should encourage people to be here and engage with us um you know at other times not only when they have a problem you know and engage with with us and engage with uh with the building um in a more positive context so thank it's on record that we do not have a policy other than that that the the room is available that it's here and that we must decide that's not a policy it is it's State's policy well that's that's what it says it says administrative poliy us tomorrow here don't mean disag three times that we we we need a policy uh County Administrator I realized that you're here uh if if you're here eight months it was nine months ago the last time we did so it it didn't fall on your watch and I'm not making dis verions but we we we have and I think you reviewed the tapes as well I did as part of my due diligence I watched probably maybe about the four months of meetings live prior to coming uh and interviewing with you all but I so yes I did see this item come up yes but I can tell you staff uh through transition for whatever reason uh it did fall through the cracks it won't we'll get the policy updated bring it back before you but as of right now this is the only policy that exists that we have Madam chair for the for the general counsil assistant what type of exposure and liability do we have when we have essentially non-employees coming after hours I presume and to follow that up what about um I see the cost of the employees but there's no like the fairgrounds uh where we charge even if we had a policy of course that would have to that to be some formula for that but I'm a little concerned and last year was one of my first meetings and I was against this uh I do think this is a sacred area you talk about bringing people here uh when the screen's down they can't see the seal they may not know where they're at second thing is I live next door to the IG Center and I can come here in about 5 to seven minutes to work so I I don't I'm not excited about it's too far to drive it's not Sebastian it's literally six miles away so exposure and the liability so as far as exposure and liability um if we are Contracting for another person to use um anybody in the general public can come in here today and they could for all intents and purposes trip and fall and get hurt um we are covered under a certain Ascent of um Sovereign like sovereign immunity based on certain torts and things of that nature however if we're Contracting it out for someone else to use um we are still protected to a certain extent but we need to make sure that if we are Contracting out something for a use of our premises that that contract is at least you know nice Ironclad that it says that we are not in this waving our right to sovereign immunity and the sovereign immunity limits and all of that good stuff otherwise we could be facing something there there's a little potential there so that's where that sort of liability comes in that would that would probably be inclusive of our policy future policy um when someone rents the fair or they provided do they provide us with some type of liability insurance to my understanding they do yes they would have to provide that and that is another common customary thing as well too is whenever we do that for anybody coming in to rent any sort of facility from the county or doing any work in the county they're required to have liability insurance so on top of that so on top of the Ironclad hold harmless sovereign immunity limits they have to have their own liability insurance and we do and we do okay so you do you do have liability insurance okay wonderful you I think we've had this discussion I'm having D of we've had this discussion like three times I think already with this we've approved these these these folks the last two years they pay for the employees to be here they cover all the costs they had all the proper paperwork as far as I know um I don't I don't see what the harm is in reference to the like when we moved the the taxpayers asked for this we moved it at the IG Center that was a much better venue for this because we didn't know if we had enough seating or if it was going to be crowded up here and it it gave people more of a open feeling when we participated in that uh this past year so so that worked out but the arguments and the conversation were that were the same and um I I think I think it uh it's worked well the last two years there haven't been any issues I think I even asked I don't know if I asked you Mike or somebody else after the event last year when you all did and they said everything went fine it was no no no no problems at all and uh I I understand we've had this discussion three times and I to commissioner fler I I I I understand I I just think we we've allowed this the last two years I don't think there's any harm in in in doing it one more time for take it from there maybe allow the P maybe we'll have a policy by then maybe we can maybe we can uh maybe we can really look at it yeah yeah no we'll do the same thing next year so it'll be like the sixth amendment that I Who on stop would be in charge of putting a policy together myself and Michael will take responsibility with facilities is that something that can happen before March 5th sure yeah facilities was tasked with it last year just didn't arrive in Chambers um it was a simple Amendment depending on what the board's direction is to the existing policy which would essentially either exclude or include this as a venue for uh private events outside of the commission's business well I would I would prefer like I agree with the the point that you're making we we've asked for a policy and we just keep hodg podging it and I understand the point that you're making that we've allowed this for two years but for me I want a policy and if the only way to get a policy is to say we're not going to vote on this until the 5th when a policy can be presented that's that's where I'm at because I do agree that we've that that you guys have been caretakers of the of the room and it hasn't been a problem but I also think that we are making exceptions for people and not for other people and there's got to be consistency and and I'm not comfortable making a decision today without some discussion on the policy because I want it to be applied consistently and I'm thinking about the taxpayers conversation and and there needs to be a fee every other count every other facility you pay a fee on top of what you pay for the employ for the people that have to be here to run that and that's just common and it needs to be laid out whatever is or not is going to happen but I guess for me I would prefer that this get rolled into an agenda item on the 5th talking about a policy and then we can make a decision on this and it can adhere to the policy and everybody else can meet that policy moving forward whatever that policy may be but I'm not comfortable making a decision in favor or against when we've made decisions for other people in favor or against and we're treating everybody differently and we're going to get ourselves into trouble and I know you guys probably have a time frame that's why you're here today but you know I just I am not comfortable picking winners and losers in in this until I can align it with a policy if I may really quickly that's that was actually going to be something I wanted to chime in and upon um chairman so I'm very glad that you brought that up because as I'm looking at this in the current policy says caseby casee basis but that allows for a lot of subjectivity and we have to be very objective to make sure that all you know all parties are treated alike when we're doing this sort of determining who gets to rent and who does it nothing against I mean nothing against anybody here asking for it but as you said I think there needs to be something that at least if it's on a Case by case that we know what we're looking at objectively well and that was put in place for commissioners to be able to use this this was I think you were were you here in7 Commissioners to be able to use this to um to support a certain program or a workshop or something that they wanted to do related to their position as a commissioner that they were hosting a workshop I mean it's come up in years past where you had Commissioners that wanted to do an economic development Summit or a lagoon Summit years ago and use this and that's what that policy is for for it on a case-by casee basis for Commissioners to sponsor something not because you're not involved in this so it doesn't this that wasn't what that policy my understanding historically was meant to get at so I agree with Susan that if we continue down this path we're going to either allow or exclude somebody and end up in a liability situation for discrimination you you referred to 2007 Madam chair um yes uh I was here uh there was some other younger people there too at the time uh but again you have to realize that uh this was brand new 2007 is when we walked into this room from the old hospital and in addition the IG Center did not exist it was only in in a thought and the fairgrounds was not developed and interior wise and with technology as well the MU Center was not there uh and now it has all the technology too that's another option uh they have bigger screen than us uh at the state college but none of that happened so all things did not remain constant including the festival and other things that are happening in the community so I don't I can't can't slight 2007 I could say that as this thing progressed as we appealed we should have adjusted or done something to ensure the uh compliancy and the ability to apply or Not Apply and that's it but yes back in 2007 it was different times Well I sound like old mam chair when maybe it's me but I think we're missing the big picture because we've all worked hard hard to get these positions uh this is unlike any other place in the county what it represents if we're going to start not deluding it with with these folks but as Susan said what do we do when let's say a controversial group wants to come in and show a movie now we're putting ourselves in another position the policy should be simple it's for government business only period because we have our legislative affairs meetings here we have Enz we have all those other things but we start open up the chambers for a movie theater Bad Business can't disagree with that one I I just I I I feel that this this means so much more than a Gathering Spot it's not the Gathering Spot this is not it's not a not a playground it's not a viewing stand uh we we hold events here when we are part of the event or another governing board body is present um all the hearings have done here all of our um code enforcement boards uh the code enforcement board meets here uh we have we do have many structured events that are governmental I I just I just don't see it I you know I I would just say it's not more I agree this is a it's a wonderful place and it's um it's a good purpose but honestly it's not more sacred than a church and my church is not the only church but I know many of the churches in this community that make space available for cultural events Community Church will be hosting us this year as well thank you but um but that's fine if you want to leave this until the next meeting we'll just you know continue the continue the conversation so Madame chair members of the board I just want to May a couple here because I misread the policy and I've already confirmed with the school board that they could use our Chambers on the 18th of March I'll bring an agenda item to ratify that the school district because of the election cycle will not have their facility available and I thought it was not just I didn't read just constitutional so I apologize and I'll bring an agenda item but it is the school board it is a governmental yes governing body I just want to get it out there I'm like as I'm reading this policy that commissioner brought up and like appreciate it and we did the same thing for the city of burough Beach when their Chambers were getting updated that they held several meetings here as well all right so we will continue this conversation on March 5th and hopefully there will be a policy yes okay thank you thank you with that we will move on to Solid Waste disposal District the first item is approval of the solid waste disposal District minutes of December 12th does anybody want to make a motion on that or okay I'll second that motion in a second all in favor all in favor opposed motion carries Machu spoke since he's been back from India no this is his first this is this is his debut return two Chambers welcome back sir we're happy you made it back and we're happy you had such a successful trip too we won't go into right now but all right 15 B2 approval of amendment number one to work order number one to Geo synac for Phase 2 segment three cell 3 Engineering Services good Lord move approval good morning commissioner Zan Shuma managing director of solid waste disposal dist District it's uh good to be back sorry about missing last month uh and I can assure you that the staff's going to be working hard on that project and doing doing our part um I I wanted to both of these items are are very important I wanted to kind of at least talk a little bit about them uh they're they're both related uh you know we um we we basically have seen over the last uh few years uh a lot of construction a lot of growth occurring in our County and it has certainly impacted our capacity at the landfill when we we when we generally look at landfill cells typically you know we look at um 5 to seven years of capacity for a 10 Acre cell um so we we you know uh the last cell we we completed was in uh 200 uh 13 was a cell one in segment 3 we have eight cells at the time in segment three and so we we built one that one in uh 2013 and then cell two was completed in 2020 so you know we're anticipating another good six seven year run uh typically but with with the construction and whatnot that's occurring the growth that's that's occurring uh we're we're pretty much in the four to five year range for a cell to fill up and so with board Direction uh you know last year we we proceeded to get cell three ready uh we we uh basically had geoc syntech as our engineer do the design services for for the phase one which essentially is like building a pad for your house so we basically built the pad uh with geosyntec doing the design work the board awarded a contractor Ryan Incorporated to to do that building of the pad that project is complete we're ready to begin what we called phase two which is putting the liner on that pad we would add an additional layer of soil and then we can begin to place waste so we we uh had J and syntech basically work on the phase two part go ahead and prepare the construction uh documents for for the liner project we went out through uh uh the bid process through our purchasing department and so today is sort of a combined approach where we're recommending Award of of the bid to kamano uh and and along with that for geosyntec to administer the construction services so the item that that you mentioned today it is for for geosyntec um it's you know work order one was part of the initial design work getting the construction drawings ready helping with the procurement process and now we're we're ready to begin their Construction Services um so staff does recommend approval of the amendment number one to work order one to to proceed with Geo sync for for Construction Services um and I guess I'll stop there and then if you have any questions and then the next item is the award of contract are there any questions on the work order seeing none is there a motion yes I have a mo I have a motion from commissioner flesher the second by commissioner irman all in favor opposed motion carries and now the award of the bid right so I on on this project uh the overall budget that we had was was uh um 10.625 million uh 10, 625,000 for both engineering and Construction Services um the it broke down into 1,50,000 for engineering and then 9,575 th000 for construction I can I can say that with with the approval here for geosync uh the total engineering is below budget uh we're we're at about 32,000 33,000 below sort of the engineering budget for the project uh so I'm kind of happy uh to report that however with the competitive bid process both for what we uh approved already for Ryan Inc um that was about 5.8 million we did the competitive B bid process here um the the price for comanco is uh almost $6.9 million um and what what's resulted is the the total construction project right now is about 3.1 million uh over budget um we do have fund balance available to cover that and and obviously as I mentioned it's it's critical to the function of our community to make sure we have a an active cell ready to go to place waste in uh so I highly recommend approval of this contract to Kamco um and we're going to be doing our best to to kind of make sure we're ready for sell four ahead of time properly budget for for for these things um you know we did have an Engineers estimate GEOS sytech did prepare that um basically our our low bidder was about 14% higher and the second low bidder was 15% higher um the other two bids we had four bids the the third bidder was 42% higher than the engineers estimate and the other the fourth uh bidder was 46% higher uh this continues to be a covid impact it continues to be that material and labor prices have continued to increase in our community and um and so although we we had a good estimate in kind of coming to the County Administrator and the budget director in terms of what we were expecting to spend based on past cell constructions and other cell construction projects going on uh the competitive market is is showing that it's it's costing more uh to to build these uh uh cells um with that I'm happy to answer any questions you may have thank you are there any questions nope what is your pleasure Commissioners so move Madam chair and I will be happy to second that thank you all in favor I opposed motion carries thank you very much thank you um all right Commissioners that was the last thing on our agenda so I mean we could stretch it if you want to but commissioner lore is probably getting hungry it's almost very hungry so we best 11 we best adjourn all right y'all have a great day