our featured guests today are Indian River County Administrator John thean Jr and County chair Susan Adams who will present their updates on the state of Indian River County we'll take I would prefer to take your questions after but I'll leave it up to the speakers I'd also like to take a moment and introduce John tanet Jr we didn't all say his name this year I will say that that was that was last year we were phonetically trying to put it together um John's been with the county now since April of 2023 prior to joining Indian River County he served as the Innovation and performance division director at St Lucy County working out of the county administrator's office for 3 years he also previously served with the city of Coco Beach Florida for more than 18 years most notably as the city manager from February 2013 through March 2020 John is a member of the international City County management association and he is a credential manager through icma he also is a member of the Florida City County management association Andor Association of County managers John has been also a member of the American Planning Association since 1999 and is a certified planner through the instit American Institute of certified planners he was a member of the Florida brownsfield Association since 2003 through 2015 of which he served as a member on the board of directors for 5 years and is a former president of that Association he was recognized in 2024 with a public service Excellence award for the American Society of public administration Central Florida Chapter he was also recognized for several awards for the University of Central Florida in public administration John is a veteran of the United States Army he served in both the third ranger battalion and the 75th Ranger regiment is a graduate of Ranger school and is a life member of the US Army Ranger Association John is married to Deborah and they have two elementary school children son David and daughter Charlotte thank you John thank you for your service and it's all yours I always tell people to hold your applause you might be setting the expectations too high so I want to thank you Dory for that very warm welcome very much appreciate glad to be here today I want to thank all the members of IND member Chamber of Commerce for the opportunity to present the state of the county I would also like to thank our County Commission uh on behalf of St Administration we appreciate your leadership Direction and support and uh so I would like to take a moment I know we recognized uh Nancy and uh Mike I would also like to recognize Kathy Copeland our legislative affairs and communications director and she's running around out there somewhere She's Been instrumental in helping this event and many other successes this past year uh we would like to take the time to thank you I see representative Senator ra we certainly appreciate your uh leadership and the advocacy in Tallahassee on behalf of the community uh again appreciated and valued thank you so this year is you may have heard the County's been doing some strategic planning we recently adopted our core values Mission and we got goals but one of our core values is collaboration uh and that it's working together cooperatively United in our purpose to serve the community let me tell you developing a bu focused on meeting the needs of the community exemplifies the collaborative manner in which our fiscal year 2024 2025 budget was formulated and to that end we would like to recognize and thank each of our constitutional officers for their efforts and they're in helping us develop the budget so budget just want to talk real quick here well quick so this year's budget was uh developed with an emphasis on customer service investing in our employees training and development uh continuing to invest in the organization ensuring we maintain and enhance the delivery of core Services as well as investing or addressing infrastructural and capital needs employee retention uh Recruitment and compensation is vitally important to the county we have position vacancies that continue to challenge County operations implementing our employee compensation and classification study is a priority to ensure the county is competitive both in terms of compensation and benefits and not just locally but but within the Treasure Coast region and immediately outside the region Believe It or Not Martin County Palm Beach County they like to take some of our people past year we've been successful and taken some of theirs we like that but it does represent a not just an investment in our employees it represents an investment in our organization uh so in the proposed budget does you know fund the implementation of our compensation study this past year you may remember uh we implemented a reorganization creating the community services and natural resource departments and we added an assistant Community County administrator over infrastructure development services of what you met Nancy bun and then also we hired U we're very fortunate Amber rier rier uh our County Administration on budsman of which I'm am pleased again all these executive and Senior L positions have been filled and we are moving along it's so I would say that it's it's been helpful that they're on board the proposed budget uh calls for the creation of a building and facility services department and this department will include the functions of building and permiting Fire Prevention facilities management and capital projects the intent is to integrate integrate and promote greater collaboration in the building and fire prevention review and inspection process if you were to hear the horror stories of 21st Amendment uh distiller you would want to you would know why we want to integrate and collaborate between those functions uh so it also to better manage our plan review and inspection process the budget includes both a chief plans examiner and chief building inspector uh internally there's a need to better manage our facilities and assets so along with dedicated staff we'll to be managing our Capital County's capital projects uh something I believe that's important to this group and to the chamber uh we are creating an economic development specialist position uh the county will continue its relationship with the chamber because the chamber serves as our our formal Economic Development organization uh it just the county is actively soliciting a consulting firm to undertake an economic development strategic action plan in this new position uh in addition to performing traditional Economic Development functions in collaboration with the chamber will also be responsible to coordinate and implement the plan the county has undertaken several critical plans and studies evaluating our comprehensive plan uh analizing our Urban Services boundary uh assessing our impact fees evaluating Parks and Recreation master plan a storm water master plan a vulnerability assessment uh updating our Mane protection plan updating our beach preservation plan and adopting or or planning for an integrated utility Masters plan uh except for the integrated utilities master plan all these plans are well underway the kickoff of the utilities integrated master plan was just the other day but and they are expected be completed during the first and second quarters of this upcoming fiscal year it certainly has been a year of investing in and preparing for and planning for the future and I also should add that the board adopted the in River Glo management plan in September of this past year fire stations 15 16 17 and 18 are in various stages in planning uh fire station 11 little slower than we want but the renovations are underway and the station 7 is next in line and we're pleased to report the purchase of not the purchase but a contractor purchase on property for Station 15 in the north county and that will enhance our response times uh for ver Lake Estates and the surrounding areas as well as provide a better you know work environment for the men and women that serve Us in the fire rescue Department in addition to evaluating our development processes through this past year uh we've also uh 650 of our employees have participated in online customer service training and we're holding uh on-site iners customer service training for 200 of our public facing employees and working to add another day to get another 100 additional employees in that training uh We've also hosted on-site training uh for 80 for about 80 employees uh building highly effective teams for our supervisors managers and currently uh we have uh several members of our leaders senior leadership team have attended and graduated or currently enrolled in the National Association of counties and professional development Count's high performance Leadership Academy and we're we will be having another group begin in September so a lot of people want to talk about the budget and get right to it that's the that's you you got the driving course behind it the tax increase uh the rooll the tax roll increase is 10.3% countywide for the UN corporated area it's 10% the total proposed budget is $524.58 million we like to compare ourselves to where we were just prior to the Great Recession so since 2007 our budget has increased by $5 52.3 million or 11% to provide some context uh compar we we like to compare to the change in in the the change in the municipal cost index and the reason why I like to use the municipal cost index because that measures that's more indicative and measures the cost or the expenditures a local government will spend and and the increases obviously we're more Capital intensive we have much more chemicals and fuel petroleum things more than the average consumer so we use that use that but we still do have the CPI there at 51.1% but the increase in the municipal cost index is 59.1 18% so I'd say we're doing really well in terms of not increasing at the same level as that of inflation as when you look at that Public Safety continues to be at the Forefront of the County's allocation of resources 28% of the total budget is dedicated to law enforce ment and Emergency Services fire district this figure does not include funds budgeted for 9/11 Emergency Management and other Public Safety related funds increases are attributable to uh retirement expenses Insurance uh supply chain and production delay still you would be surprised how long it takes to order a lad truck or have one come in what used to take a year now takes two years so we have actually front loaded if you were to look at our fire bud you say man there's a decrease that's because we front loaded and we ordered several in advance last year so the capital expense has went went down this past year this current for this upcoming year we also see increasing annual Medicare costs for uh indent care and we are still experiencing the effects of inflation uh the county has budgeted to implement the compensation study as I mentioned but we will also be adding 37 full-time positions to address operational needs lastly the budget also includes approximately 1.8 million in debt service to support the voter approved General obligation debt for acquiring environmentally sensitive lands here's another comparison just between 20067 and 2425 since 2007 the county has grown by over 24% or by 32519 residents the number of full-time employees have increased by 46 with this new budget we will now have six employee per thousand residents compared to the in 200 side the the ratio of about 7.4 employees for every th000 residents the University of Florida their Bureau of their Bureau of Economic and Business research say that a couple times quick we like to say just beber uh their medium population projection for 2030 is 184,000 and it's 199,200 for 240 that's about the same amount of growth that happened between the pre 16 years from 2007 to 20223 they'll add about just under 32,000 residents so that's important to note next year marks Indian River County's 100th Centennial to not roll up our sleeves and put in the hard work to protect our future would be a travesty for current and future Ed River County residents families and businesses this is exactly why the county has been investing in various studies and plans I assure you they will not remain on a shelf they will be implemented uh and more importantly you know when you're making decisions about the future of our County they need to be informed decisions so this data and this information will help our commission and our community make informed decisions about how we grow and in terms of because what we want to do obviously clearly is to protect the Majestic the quaint and the and the livable nature of of of our community it's our quality of life everybody here whether you've been here been here a year and a half but we bought in in in uh June of 20 we found this community amazing and and we enjoyed it so we all want to protect it and I I think that's an overwhelming that's an overwhelming response and sentiment with all the public meetings that's one of the things that we've increased I think substantially over this past year on everything that we do we create opportunities for public engagement and that's one of the overwhelming sentiments related to the urban Services boundary discussion and related to the evaluation or comprehensive plan protect our quality of life keep us quaint we want we want to retain that small town field so challenges are important and I think it's important that equally that we understand and know those challenges that we face one of the challenges are unfunded mandates uh this pie chart depicts the mandates related to General funding expenses is staggering 73% of our general fund expenses are mandate related think about that 73% of your general fund expenses are mandate related while arguably well intentioned programs and initiatives developed at the state and federal level those unfunded present a mandate those unfunded represent a mandate that challenges our ability to fund Community needs thus the Strategic allocation of resources becomes even more critical for instance the 2030 mandate requiring every property on you know U on a septic system to connect to a central sewer or upgrade their septic system make no mistake the importance of the impact to our environment and the health of the Indi River Lagoon cannot be understated however to address the more than 25,000 septic systems in the county comes with a great cost it will impose a significant financial burden on our community without assistance for public infrastructure and for private costs whether it's connecting to the central sewer or more upgrading to a enhanced nutrient removal septic system and I can tell you having recently built a house current day prices is about $177,000 so for those that have an a traditional conventional system they'll be looking at an that's pre Stout expense if Central suit is not available it's one of the biggest challenges I think our count our County faces in the upcoming years another example school resource officers as a father of two School AG children I I would like to report that my son is now starting middle school that's where our our reaction too no just kidding he's great although I will say he he got an award presidential award and I don't want too political here but uh my son when he saw who signed the Pres the letter he was not too happy I was like and my daughter took great comfort in it so I don't know what's going to happen when they get older so let's get back to this this is the Safety and Security of our of our children in the schools uh it's critically important and necessary function and it was mandated by the state in the aftermath of the Parkland the Parkland disaster Massacre want to call it it's unfortunate however that mandate came with no funding so the school district in the county is the one that has to pick up the tax on that so I mean that would be an item that I would love to see CU I know that that the legislature does provide you know what the school district can assess in terms of a military it would be nice to see if there was a a special carbou military that's related to Safety and Security for our schools because it's coming at the cost of maybe implementing other programs and needs in our community so this next pie chart depicts on a more granular level the expenses Rel to the general fund overall 65% of our expenses are related to State agencies and our constitutional offices uh for every $100 of the general fund and expenses $21.30 is dedicated to supporting County operations and services that provideed to Residents and businesses I I really like to you to understand that because our board understands it very well $21.30 of every $100 of general fund expenses is dedicated or managed by the border County Commissioners so you can see the challenges when it comes to meeting the the demands of the community so this year I mentioned you know we've been going through strategic planning we have our mission our values our goals we have goal teams that are working on developing objectives and strategies and one of the things that we did is because if you don't allow your resources with your goals are you really are if you say this is important then you need to allocate resources to get that done so for the proposed budget the new any new budget request of more than $5,000 was required to demonstrate alignment with our strategic plan at the goal level moreover all new requests were prioritized whether they were imperative essential important or desired next year our evaluation uh will drill down to the level of strategic objectives once adopted I do have a a disclaimer at the bottom and there's two things I want to say you see infrastructure is the largest many times in INF we took the primary goal but infrastructure would affect quality of life and environment and the this does not the the in the amount uh of new money spent towards the environment $878,000 doesn't include the $24.8 million of bond proceeds that we'll have to acquire environmental lands general fund Mage comparison I think this is a maintaining milit trate it it's 35475 this marks the sixth consecutive year the County's been able to do that and according to the Florida Department of Revenue this represents the six lowest general fund milit rate of all 67 counties the sixth lowest general fund military of all 67 counties the taxable valuation increased from 26.5 billion to 29.3 billion of which new construction accounted for a proximately $665 million according to Florida Tax watch the average total property tax millage rate for Indian Mur County including all jurisdictions in the school district for fiscal year 23 ranked 54th at 14.77% Indian miver County ranked 51st at 21.7% so for the prop property tax levies for you know per 100 per $1,000 of personal income for fiscal year 2023 Indian River County rank 51st essentially $22.7 for every $1,000 of personal income so the question I get asked most is like you know milit rates this that you know uh and this is my last my last slide and all the proceeding information I believe is important and taxpayers need to understand how the county is managing their tax dollars and more specifically on what are we spending them the one question every taxpayer asks is what does this budget and mill rate mean to me uh the average assessed value of Homestead of properties in our County for as of June of 2024 is $356,400 when you apply the home study exemption of $50,000 we have a the assessed the taxable value of $36,250 per of our County the total increase for the average homeowner is $927 uh so if your house is for your taxable values double that double the $92 uh for those in the Incorporated areas other than Indian Shore SES the county increases roughly $81 and for Indian River sores it's just over 56 the county continues to be and continues to commit to be good stewards of your tax dollars and ensure they are spent appropriately and I like to use the word strategically I want to thank you and I'm going to turn the over the program to our chair Susan Adam for a year in review but before I do that I want to take one minute real quick not even a minute I want to acknowledge and thank all of our County employees at the end of the day they are the ones that make it happen you know whether keeping our squres clear repairing our roads uh fixing or replacing Bridges responding to a fire or medical emergency serving as an operator of one of our utility plants assisting our veterans or providing administrative support they make it happen and our County Administration senior leadership team would not be able to do what we're doing but for them so I would like to thank our County employees and with that I would like to invite up chairperson Adams for a year in review all right so thank you guys for having me I have to say the last time I did a state of the county it was Co so I got to do it via zoom and the administrator's conference room um and we were you know her the norm with zoom back then you only have your your suit jacket on down here and theow in your pajama so this is really a much different scenario for me but I appreciate you guys bearing with me um you know one of the things John talked about is this has been a year of planning and I tell everybody we if you could plan it we are trying to plan it we are planning everything from vanities to the community to I mean you name it Economic Development we're doing it and that's a great thing because the importance of that is these plans are going to serve as the basis for how we move forward these plans getting these plans right and having a plan is essential to the building blocks of what will come for Indian River County so I appreciate my fellow Commissioners um involvement in those plans and their commitment to making them happen it's been a it's been a long year we've had a lot going on um but we've gotten through it we've had some great discussions and I really do enjoy working um with this board you know sometimes we laugh we we might not agree on everything but as soon as that gabble drops we're back to joking around and having a good time and you cannot say that um in a lot of places so I'm very I feel very lucky um to work with them you know we've also talked a lot about our mission values and goals and what's and that's what's going to drive us moving forward and that's really kind of the theme of what we have been doing this year who is indianer County what do we want to be and I don't just mean from a governmental level I mean from a community level reaching out to the community and finding out getting the that information back helps us make those decisions so today I could talk about all the miles of roads that we've graded or the bridges that we've replaced all that fun stuff which by the way six Bridges we've replaced this year um but instead I wanted you know we wanted to kind of take the opportunity to showcase who we are as Indian River County what our culture is we talked a lot about culture and culture culture change what does that mean what does that look like and where we are going so we made a little video and hopefully I do whether you live work or simply visiting IND Denver County you will find our communities are safe welcoming and hospitable we have natural cultural educational and technological amenities that make our quality of life the true hidden treasure and this breathtakingly beautiful part of the Treasure Coast to protect that indon County government places a high priority on the rich history and Heritage of our unique 503 square mile County which was established almost 100 years ago as evidence by our decision to work with our Community Partners to preserve and protect many of our historic landmarks skilled and responsive emergency services are vital for any Community indon County excels in obtaining Talent with the heart for public service two new engines and a new ladder truck have been added to the fleet and the north county has a newly staffed rescue ambulance Forward Thinking planning has led to the identification of four new sites for emergency service facilities and consistent fiscal management is bringing ownership of these sites to fruition including sites west of I95 with over 50 major Capital Improvement projects in the 5-year plan cross departmental collaboration has resulted in additional valued amenities such as the future historic walking trail and public open space planned for the old Dodger Pines Golf Course adjacent to the Jackie Robinson training facility collaboration leverages resources to increase efficiency for our citizens illustrated by the addition of a 1 and A2 mile long segment of the Rails to Trails project east of the city of felsmere near the pedestrian bridge that spans I95 through the Sebastian buffer preserve and extending this popular Greenway to the city limits beaches and dunes line approximately 22 mies of our Eastern Coastline Dynamic and seasonally fluctuating vulnerable to weather events including hurricanes like Ian and Nicole erosion of beaches are collaboratively managed with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection through State and County adopted Beach preservation plans Indi county has eight managed sectors this year the sector 3 new restoration project was completed early and under budget placing 225,000 cubic yards of sand and 725,000 Native and salt tolerant Dune plants in this area which was no small feat given construction must occur outside of the federally protected Turtle nesting season Beach Park playgrounds Are Family favorite and four of our award-winning beaches Golden Sands treasure Shores round island Oceanside and Helen Hansen Park now have newly installed playground equipment stewardship of our natural resources and conservation lands will be a legacy for future Generations in Indi County the voter approved land acquisition Bond will expand the approximately 31% of County lands categorized as conservation the board of County Commission appointed elap or environmental land acquisition panel is currently evaluating nominated properties for acquisition evaluation of properties and recommendations on how to allocate the first 25 million of the bonds will be before the board of County Commissioners in the months to come smnp Global ratings assigned a municipal Bond rating of double A+ to the series 2024 bonds highlighting the ingrained fiduciary responsibility exercised by Indian River County on behalf of the taxpayer opportunities like these are possible through sound fiscal management and the County's Office of Management and budget received the distinguished budget presentation award for the 33rd time this year receiving special recognition for its strategic goals and strategies the Indian River Lagoon is the Environmental heart of the community and the adopted Indian River Lagoon plan includes projects designed to protect and improve the health of the Lagoon such as the continued focus on removal of derel vessels more aggressive pursuit of septic to sewer conversions and projects to reduce the nutrient loading captured in storm water discharged to the Lagoon this plan is truly a cross- departmental collaborative effort because of these focused efforts seagrasses are responding and it is believed we were trending towards recovery in our portion of the Lagoon the utilities department completed a third phase of the wabaso septic to sewer project removing 31 homes from septic and connecting them to County infastructure proactively seeking grant opportunities to offset cost to our residents the county collaborated with a national Estuary program to submit water quality grants resulting in the award of dollars for two future projects proposed to collectively remove approximately 143 homes from septic and three County Beach Parks have been converted from septic to sewer this year as well the Oslo water treatment plan also received renovation improvements and the blue Cyprus wastewater treatment facility was upgraded with scata and communication improvements and in March of this year Florida Department of Environmental Protection awarded the blue ciphers facility with the 2023 domestic Wastewater Plant operations Excellence award highlighting the service Excellence of our staff a collaboration highlight is a public private partnership with no Petro resulting in the groundbreaking of a $40 million renewable natural gas project the second of its kind in Florida in addition to the environmental benefits this project will create a new and recurring Revenue stream for the county this Innovative project collects landfill gas cleans it and converts it to a renewable natural gas pipeline that can fuel fleets while reducing the carbon [Music] footprint whether you call it affordable or Workforce housing increasing the inventory of homes affordable to the average working person is a challenge but our department of plan and development services has met that challenge headon and provided ship funding for 48 residents 20 of which went toward home purchases they also granted impact fee waivers for 23 affordable homes saving the owners over $200,000 collectively and through the leveraging of more than $300,000 in additional funding indin county has been able to facilitate the construction of an affordable housing Triplex for veterans develop an accessory dwelling unit and perform home repairs in Partnership with our local nonprofits economic development is a pillar for providing a sustainable future and the new Oslo interchange will open opportunities to diversify our local economy collaborating with the business Community our school district and our supported training programs we will capitalize on the over 95% High School graduation rate providing potential Workforce Talent funding for a County Economic Development specialist to bring expertise inhouse is included in the fiscal year 2425 budget this position will also be responsible for implementing the County's Economic Development strategy action plan once completed public engagement is reaching New Heights in indu County with staff proactively exercising every tool available to seek citizen input whether through public engagement workshops at multiple locations and differing times Community surveys or dedicated planning websites we are committed to seeking out and listening to the voices of our res joint County City workshops have proven productive in identifying shared issues and future concerns while providing a forum to seek collaborative resolutions successfully managing state and federal unfunded mandates along with the influx of residents entering Florida will require continued communication and cooperation between our municipalities and the county speaking of intergovernmental cooperation we are proud to be able to help our fellow government agencies and elected officials when we can this year Indian River County Public Works worked cooperatively with the city of felir and the felir water Control District to recover from 13 in of rain dropped during a late 2023 storm bringing roads and canals back to good working order stretched well into the first quarter of 2024 the utilities department also extended a helping hand when the city of Viro Beach wastewater treatment plant experienced A disruption in service by jumping into action and trans transporting the non-thickened Wastewater residuals to our facility for further processing we were able to demonstrate our values of integrity responsiveness and collaboration it's this type of teamwork on behalf of the citizens of Indi County that will drive efficiency Innovation and customer service satisfaction for All taxpayers County leadership departmental realignments changes in policies and procedures the kickoff of a strategic plan and the commission adopted strategic goals goals will drive future budget and policy decisions Citizen and stakeholder engagement along with employee input identified environment governance infrastructure Public Safety and quality of life as overarching goals the mission of County government in Indian county is service excellence and the staff formulated and board approved core values reflect who we are collectively and individually Integrity responsiveness collaboration we are IRC we value our employees and are investing in their success and their future through education reimbursement training and compensation alignments that will keep iner County competitive in the market our County staff is the front line in Service delivery and customer satisfaction and recruiting and retaining Talent is vital in achieving that success our people and our leadership are pivotal components for creating a positive Legacy in indu County while the past year has brought many changes changes in culture changes in Mission and changes in structure we remain committed to our quality of life and the unique character that sets Indian River apart from other areas on the Treasure Coast because in indianer County we respect and honor our Rich history enjoy and protect our vibrant sunrises and beautiful sunsets and are certain that with the dedication to our core values of integrity responsiveness and collaboration and our mission of service Excellence our future is looking very bright thank you thank you Susan thank you John for a great presentation I did ask John if he could ship that uh PowerPoint over to us and I'll ask Susan if we can get the video we'll put that up on our chamber website so feel free to invite people to go check it out or if you have some additional questions the answers are probably provided in there the chamber appreciates the great relationship that we have with Indian River County we have two division of the chamber Economic Development and Tourism that are funded through the county and we have a we have an opportunity to work with them and impress them every single day and they have an opportunity to show us how that relationship is important to them so we do enjoy working with all the county staff anyway with that done we're getting you out on time thank you for joining us today and thanks again to to both John and Susan for their participation again it brings this great great pleasure to be able to do this for you thank you to all of our event sponsors and we will be seeing you soon [Applause]