##VIDEO ID:9zx8iAGZ-0k## [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] come [Music] la a [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] if you wish to speak to any item on the agenda or during the public comment portion of the meeting please fill out a speaker card each person addressing the board shall have three minutes to complete his or her comments on each agenda item for which he or she has filled out a card the chair has the discretion to determine or alter the time limits on any agenda item the board of County Commissioners requests that speakers appearing under the public comment section of the agenda limit their comments or presentations to matters relating to County Business that are within the board's Control Authority and jurisdiction good morning and welcome to the December 17th Board of Commissioners meeting we have a quorum I'll call the meeting to order is Pastor Blain godet here for the invocation going once no okay uh we'll go ahead with the Pledge of Allegiance commissioner ainson to the flag of the United States of America and to the for stands one nation indivisible withy andice all Commissioners we have meeting minutes for November 19th organizational meeting uh is there a motion to approve move to approve okay we have a motion to approve by commissioner delini we have a second by commissioner Goodson clerk will call the RO yes yes present we're voting on the minutes sorry yes yes yes and we'll we'll show those approved before we get into the resolutions I'm looking for um some input from from the board here we have a presentation this morning for fire assessment that's item E2 I'd like to or I would suggest that we combine that with j3 discussion what's pleasure of the board on that that's fine with me any anyway I just think that'll be more efficient that we'll we'll do that ahead of j3 then we can have the discussion and we can take the cards all at the same time is that good commissioner Goodson sure that's commissioner Alman okay all right very good so let's go to the um we'll go to E1 and commissioner ainson you recognized thank you um could I have the family and co-workers of uh mayor yance come up to the podium I have a resolution on behalf of the Bard County Board of County Commissioners honoring and remembering mayor delare yance whereas the members of the County Commission and Community were greatly saddened to learn of the untimely death of Grant velaria mayor delare yance and whereas mayor yance was an exemplary Bard County resident and a consumate professional who worked tirelessly to improve the quality of life for his community and fellow citizens in numerous capacities whereas mayor yance was born in Powell Wyoming and grew up in the whistle Creek community where his parents were among the original homesteaders his parents instilled in their son a love for the land and the Pioneer Spirit of rural Wyoming and whereas in 1975 mayor yance moved to Melbourne to continue his career with Rockwell Collins where he met his bride Peggy hilar and who would become his beloved wife of 43 years whereas mayor yance moved to gra to valkaria in 2000 and was an advocate in preserving the rural nature of the area that led to the incorporation of the town of Grant velaria where he was elected its first mayor and in 2006 a role he proudly held until his passing and whereas mayor yance was devoted to his wife and family whom he cherished deeply and the community he loved he rests assured his legacy will live on in the lives he touched and the Community Vision he helped shape creating lasting bonds as we honor his memory today now therefore be it resolved that The Bard County Board of County Commissioners recognizes and honors the memory of Mayor D yance and recognizes his 18 years as mayor for the town of Grantville Cara done ordered and adopted and regular session the 17th day of December 2024 do I have a motion is that your motion commissioner ainson okay okay we have a motion by commissioner ainson we have a second by commissioner Goodson clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Alman yes commissioner chairman feltner yes congratulations you recognized ma'am thank you good morning Commissioners my name is Lizette koher I'm a member of the Town Valaria Town Council I'd like to thank you for recognizing and honoring our Mary aunts our Council and staff were just devastated at his loss he was not only the face of our town but he was the heart of our town he loved being our mayor and we loved having him as mayor he was not a politician he was our neighbor who was helping us keep keep our town the way we want it we will miss his steady leadership and his witty sense of humor um he he leaves this thriving small town that will'll never forget him in accordance with our town Charter we will be appointing a mayor and a council member um so thank you again for recognizing him and um Kim Atkinson welcome to District 3 we hope to see you soon but thank you very much this is his uh wife Peggy his son Dylan and his daughter Hillary so thank thank you all for being here uh thank you and commissioner ainson has a a memorial for you she's going to present you take a picture okay if the family would like to get over here I'll take a picture of you with the resolution okay do you want to get in the picture you're welcome ready thank you Jason [Applause] definitely okay move on to E3 resolution recognizing December 21st as National homeless persons Memorial Day commissioner ainson this is all sh your resolution thank you whereas homelessness has caused or hastened the deaths of inadequately housed lowincome persons in Bard County first of all do we have anybody who wants to come up to the podium I apologize thanks whereas homelessness has caused or hastened the deaths of inadequate housed low income persons in bout County and whereas the spirit of the holiday season is one of giving and provides an opportunity for affirmation and renewal regarding the commitment to end homelessness and whereas December 21st the first day of winter and the longest night of the year has been designated national homeless persons Memorial Day by the National Coalition for the homeless and whereas The Bard continuing of care has planned countywide memorial events recognizing those inadequately housed persons who have died in our County whereas in this season of generosity and sharing citizens of Bard County are encouraged to commit themselves to promote compassion and concern for fellow citizens especially those who are poor and homeless whereas in Remembering those who have died on our streets in our Emergency Shelters and in condemned or abandoned properties from ailments or conditions directly related to homelessness the cause of ending homelessness is kept urgent as it is the collective commitment to preventing such deaths in future now therefore be it resolved that The Bard County Board of County Commissioners recognizes December 2st as a national homeless persons Memorial Day done ordered and adopted in regular session the 17th day of December 2024 I'd like to make a motion to okay we have a motion by commissioner ainson is there a second second we have a second by commissioner Alman um clerk will call the RO commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman felner yes and you're recognizing thank you very much thank you um good morning chairman felner and Commissioners my name is Amber Caroll and I'm the executive director for The Bard Homeless Coalition we are the lead Agency for Bard County's Continuum of Care for homeless services and I'm representing about 190 organizations and members of this community joining me today I take a quick moment our the chairman of our board of directors Liz award our um secretary Ivon minus another board member Teresa Grimson who else do we have here oh we have uh Linda Graham who is also the chair of the COC advisory Council so she oversees that leadership group of 35 elected and appointed individuals on my staff that is here with me well as well as Leanne um Sarah and James and so we are here and and standing in um Unity for this today I want to thank you for your support in declaring December 21st homeless persons Memorial Day it's our hope to bring awareness for uh the need for more permanent housing with Supportive Services and really what we immediately need are emergency low barrier drop-in shelters uh those for our unsheltered residents with the enforcement of House Bill 1365 beginning on January 1st um providing a safe place to sleep has never been more critical in 2024 our point in time count which is our homeless census for Bard County revealed uh that it was our highest count in Bard since 2015 with 1,116 people the unsheltered population those who didn't have access to emergency shelter was 779 residents up uh 177% from the year before and if you're curious what that means in relation to homeless persons Memorial as of today we have 65 names of people in Bard County who passed away due to their uh causes but who were unsheltered which is about a 9% death rate for our unsheltered residents those who are chronically homeless meaning those who have a disabling condition and have been in unsheltered for a year or longer uh Rose 72% from last year nationally Bard county is being recognized for our homeless numbers and not in a positive way way in the most recent annual homeless assessment report which is called the ahar given to Congress our county is in the top five Nationwide for the largely Suburban coc's with the highest percentage of individuals experiencing chronic homeless patterns in Florida our County ranked sixth in the state for both unsheltered and chronic homeless persons and third in the state for homeless veterans this is a growing problem and one that as a community we need to come together to solve together we can make homelessness rare brief and non- reoccurring for Bard's residents through a regional coordinated approach which we have been working on um during this holiday season we will memorialize the lives of those who died on our streets and in our shelters from conditions directly related to their homelessness in many cases these services will be the only commemoration of their lives we'd like to invite you to attend one of the service that's that are going to be held on Friday December 19th so this Friday um you have a booklet Thursday sorry H sorry this Thursday December 19th um thank you little Whispering behind me um we have a booklet for you up there we will have a service in Melbourne and then we'll have two um in one in Coco and one in Titusville in the evening um finally our point in time count for 2025 which we do every January um we'll be on January 23rd and so there are many ways that you can be involved if you want to come out with one of us one of our experienced Outreach workers who can go out and and kind of see for yourself the state of homelessness in our County we invite you to participate all of that information is um included in the booklets that you have with you um thank you for your time if I know many of not many there are several of you who are new to this commission and I would love the opportunity to sit with you if you have more questions anything comes up especially related to House Bill 1365 and the other initiatives we have I would love the opportunity to meet with you thank you for your time and commissioner ainson has uh the memorial to present you with thanks Amber everybody in the picture you [Applause] ready okay moving on to the last resolution today uh commissioner Goodson asked me to read this on his behalf Mary Ellen we have a resolution today on behalf of the Bard County Board of County Commissioners recognizing Mary Ellen Donner for her outstanding service as Parks and Recreation director for Bard County Florida whereas Miss Mary Ellen Donner has been providing exceptional exceptional guidance and leadership to The Bard County Board of County Commissioners as the Parks and Recreation director since 2017 and whereas Miss donor graduated from Acadia University in Nova Scotia Canada with dual bachelor's degrees in education and Recreation and whereas Miss Donner was hired as a recreation supervisor in Coler County Florida and worked her way up to assistant director for Parks and Recreation and then became the Parks and Recreation director for the city's of Henderson Nevada North Las Vegas Nevada and Jacksonville Beach Florida before accepting the Parks and Recreation director position in her adopted home of Bard County and whereas Miss Donner's contributions have had a positive impact on Parks and Recreation throughout the county including Park expansion multi-purpose Field construction aquatic safety Campground management Trail maintenance and management transitioning golf course management infrastructure Investments boat ramp construction and multiple hurricane repairs sometimes more than once and whereas Miss Donner has earned the admiration and respect of her staff and colleagues at Bard County Board of County Commissioners for her professionalism dedication skillful leadership light-hearted sense of humor effervescent personality I think they put that in there screw me up by the way uh culinary prowess and hard work ethic and whereas Miss Donner's reputation for celebrating achievements is known throughout County offices as well as being the County's resident Chef as Mary Ellen has found that there is no reason too small not to celebrate now therefore be it resolved that The Bard County Board of County Commissioners do hereby extend to Mary Ellen Donner our sincere appreciation for her outstanding public service and wish her a wonderful retirement enjoying time with her husband Donald her dog veto her mother in Canada golfing multiple cruises and endless champagne toast done ordered and adopted in a regular session the 17th day of no uh December 2024 is there a motion yes I'd like to make the motion commission we have a motion by commissioner Goodson we have a second by commissioner Delany clerk will read the role commissioner Delany yes yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner Atkinson yes commissioner Alman I think chairman felner yes that passes 5- z uh Mary Ellen you recognized thank you um so you mentioned a whole lot of things I was going to mention but uh first of all obviously I'd like to thank my mom and dad um they instilled in me good ethics the uh knowing right and wrong and that hard work and dedication actually does pay off um and uh sounds like I've been around uh from Henderson to here to caller uh so in all the places that I have worked I have never ever had a better County Manager to work for city or county and Frank Abate uh he he he really does believe in doing the right thing and and that that's important to us directors um I'm sure County manager is a tough job he's got five bosses um and so uh I think he's balanced that wonderfully um I actually report directly to Jim lisenfeld and I can say without a doubt that he is the best boss I have ever ever worked for um he's got that patience thing down pat and there are many times where he needs that uh and he's always fair and he seeks to understand before he jumps in um John denninghoff Fountain of Youth and good advice but never make the mistake of going to a meeting at quter to 5: you will be late for dinner um and so also um there's no director in this room that isn't successful with the staff and uh in my case that I've had beside me um The Parks and Recreation staff in the county of Bard are caring passionate dedicated hardworking and again comes that word the best uh thank you to my incredible and immediate Building B staff people they're here today Diana the best admin ever Lee Bethany Steve Michael Butcher construction manager extraordinaire uh of course Michelle the best Finance person in the county but hands off hands off and thank you to Rich Jen S Tammy Andrea Jen B Rebecca and the managers in the fields Mike Knight Jeff Terry and Richard and from the county attorney's office I'd also like to thank mois Justin Karen although I have to say Carol and of course Abby and thank you to the other directors Deputy directors and assistant directors for all the support that they've provided of course I've got to say thank you to Donald um he chased me till I caught him or maybe it was the other way around um Donald's already has been behind behind me as he is today uh supporting cheerleading and giving good Sound Advice over the years I can't even count the number of groundbreakings special events grand openings that he has been by my side and helped me out Billy uh he's ever patient and I couldn't have done it without him I would like to thank the Commissioners who in the past eight years have supported me in the Parks and W Department it's it's great that the alphabetical order today works because F commissioner chair feltner uh Tom Goodson of course Brian ler Rich Richard Kirt Smith who happens to be here Jason steel J toay and definitely and not least Christine zanka the staff of the Commissioners I just named have been absolutely fabulous to work with um thank you to each and every one of them and thank you to Wayne ivy for all the support that he's shown me um of course um as as I said I I have worked in other places and I've I've learned and observed a thing or two um thing one just because they say it doesn't mean it's true just because they repeat it doesn't mean it's true and just because it they post it doesn't make it true thing two uh it's great that you want to listen but please don't just listen to the loudest voice the lobbyist Voice or the voice closest to you listen to the voices that won't talk for whatever reason or the voices that can't talk like scrip Jay's do the right thing often takes courage and um sometimes it doesn't make you popular so in closing I believe I left the Parks and Recreation Department in a better place uh that's another one of Frank's Frank's edicts I have thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful opportunity given to me by Bard County and so I will end where I was taught to begin thank you Mary Ellen Donner Bard County Parks and Recreation director goodon yes um I'm going to miss her because every year we have a openhouse Christmas party at District 2 and it's the ug she you WI a mug for the ugliest Christmas t-shirt she's done it twice so with her living leaving somebody else might win it but she said she's coming back and that's scary but thank you for everything you've done thank you any other questions uh we're all going to come down for picture okay thank you so much Mar congratul best of luck to the new Commissioners thank you [Applause] h okay commissioner SW oh sorry see me [Applause] thank okay Commissioners we're going to move into consent are there any items a commissioner would like to pull from the consent agenda we do have four cards so if no one wants to pull anything from consent we'll just go to the cards okay all right um now Sandra you've got three cards so we'll just do it all at once okay good morning Sandra Sullivan South Patrick Shores okay the first one um confirmation of Ian golden that parks and wreck uh Department director um I just want to say I have uh two concerns I would have preferred to to see somebody promoted from within the department that knows that department I also am concerned because under Senate Bill 102 the bill I call you will own nothing and be happy law there's a provision in there for um the transfer of accelerated of of conservation or non-conservation uh to uh from the state any state own which we have a lot under save the coast and other programs to be transferred to the county to be sold for a aable housing so having the affordable housing director put into the parks and wreck is is very much of a concern to me um and and what that means for our park so I I just want to put that on on the record um I also did a records request a couple months ago um and I was at an affordable housing meeting where a um Advisory Board where a grant got uh a approved for a project and then I did a record request because I heard it change it took two months to get a onepage records request it was obstructed and only half the records request was provided so that doesn't sit well with me okay so second one appointments and reappointments I just would like to say briefly as you do your appointments and reappointments to look at the people who have been on boards for in some cases close to 20 years and so the policy is eight years term limits respecting that I would ask that for any uh current appointments that are out there which are have many that have been there for 15 20 years that you do due diligence with each of your districts and advertising those positions uh Myra is an example that has uh two two two there um affordable housing um Advisory board has two people that are approaching 20 years and other boards as well the third issue um pertaining to the Renaissance Fair um while you know I appreciate the the the events that he is is hosting um the as Bond funded utility land it has to be leased uh for fair market value and I don't see in what you have here a charge for this additional event so I would just like to uh requests that you amend uh that agreement to ensure that there is a charge for that because specifically the vote that you took was rent Fair only with a fee for the rent Fair event only for that charge and so there should be an additional charge thank you sorry about that uh Peter mous Peter mohen Bard Renaissance Fair Coco Florida is where I live uh as you currently know we signed a contract with the county to do a a uh an event out at the Sno site uh it was for 3 months and then an additional 3 months or actually 6 months an additional 6 months if we wanted to do that and we paid for the 6 months which was and I think that's out there contractually it's been already published on the web by Sandra we paid $62,000 to do the 6 months we pay another $62,000 to do the next 6 months so we're paying $10,000 a year or more or $10,000 a month or more and part of the condition was we would be able to hold some other events there with board approval and that's what we're asking to do today is to do another event out there that has been dear to the community for many years and to bring it back while while you're there Peter are there any questions on this uh from the board any any questions I guess yes Frank can you tell us which which one is true him her Commissioners we negotiated for the renaissance fair and that contract was specific to the fair but included the six-month lease for 60,000 with one opportunity to renew for 60,000 uh when we were asked whether or not he could have additional fairs said that would not be consistent with the current contract you'd have to go back to the board and uh seek board approval and that's why he's here today whether or not there were additional costs to it that's really a factor for the board he is paying uh the 10,000 a little over 10,000 a month for each of the the months I think they're in three 20 month uh excuse me 32,00 installments they started in October so you're saying to me that he's paid for 12 months or if we approve it he's paid for 12 months he's paid for six at the end of the six he gets a six-month rual opportunity at the same price it was it was covering yes it was covering the the uh fair grounds for the purpose of the renaissance fair that was specified in the contract the first 6 months ends on March 31st and he can renew it for months beyond that and and as Frank said the price is the same 62,000 for the additional 6 months just like it was for the first 6 months that's set by the lease so that that being said the fair amount that we're charging for the first six months rolls over for another six months is a fair amount because we set the amount somebody did you that that's what we thought when when we brought it back to the board for approval yes okay thank you and I think what we're talking about a strawberry festival is going to go out there and I just for what it's worth uh Commissioners you know when that was in Wickham Park uh certainly a lot of traffic and and I I think that it outgrown Wickam Park so I think it's a good fit uh for for both what you're doing and for a strawberry festival and that's true we both outgrew Wickham Park not only because of the growth in population in Bard County but as business people we worked hard to build quality events and that's kind of what forced us out our own good work so what we're trying to do is bring this back we'd like to bring it back they've been there for seven years we'd like to bring them back into Bard okay any other questions on this okay uh thank you Peter we appreciate it all right uh on consent since we didn't pull any items off is there a motion for consent I'll make motion okay commissioner Alman makes a motion to approve the consent agenda and commissioner Goodson is the second clerk will call the role commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner adkinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that adopted 5 okay Commissioners we're going to go into public the first round of public comment and we have two cards uh sander Sullivan Sandra Sullivan South Patrick Shores so um the other day I was up at in Titusville for the Eds meeting and I was very surprised to see how dilapitated um the the county buildings were up there paint peeling I mean it just it it looked deplorable um you know I was at Goodson's Christmas party uh the other day that building looks like it hasn't been updated since 1960 um this building and coming in here there have been times when all three of the elevators have been broken you go behind the doors there's a piece of paper the toilets back up all the time you know they have a paper behind there it just you know we have carpet in this building that's decades old um it just seems like we should be a very prosperous County we are the space coast and yet here we are struggling with things like over a million dollars or sorry1 billion dollars in transportation deficit uh we have uh just failing infrastructure um there was pipes put in uh there was a Maine that broke in South Patrick Shores um they couldn't repair it they had to run a line through the school um yard um so we have all these issues and we have fiscal issues we can't pay our firefighters that's Public Safety and when I look at I start digging it's like why are we as a space Florida not really prosperous and monetarily as a county and I was really shocked to find out that there's a law called the military leasing act which says if it's federal land and you lease it to a private entity they're required to pay taxes but when you look up these entities whether it's space a which is own is a private company owned by the richest man in the world I think saying that he's a trillionaire now the first trillionaire and then you have Bezos they don't pay any property tax so I mean yes we get the economic stimulation and you know buying homes and people spending money here but as a taxing agency you are entitled by law to taxes on these people just because it's federal land I don't know where this narrative came it's federal land so you don't collect taxes but under federal law and even under the the state so I've been digging into some of the deals that have been done um and even some lands that uh involve space Florida which are not in the jurisdiction State jurisdiction of where of where space Florida is where one company got a tax break for $500 million over 40 years why I mean they're not even in space Florida area so we need to really look at this from a fiscal standpoint and being responsible to Bard County residents thank you okay thank you uh Lois mcmanis you recognize man good morning Commissioners my name is Lois mcmanis and I live in Grant Valaria sorry about that oh oh am I going no oh that is uh technical difficulties that's okay go ahead go ahead okay thank you I'll repeat myself I'm gonna get this hang on one there ready my name is Lois mcmanis and I live in Grant Valaria in front of you there should be a red packet with information on my presentation a new Landmark is rising in Grant Valaria to honor the brave men and women who have served the country on December 12th construction began on the Veterans Memorial Park a 4,900 squ foot space dedicated to recognizing veteran sacrifices our mayor D yance was a strong Advocate and instrumental in designing and developing the Veterans Memorial Park the project is headed up by myself and my fellow volunteers of Grant valary Community Association a 501c3 nonprofit organization with the guidance of Grant valar's Town Administrator Jason mahany and our town staff the Veterans Memorial Park is entirely funded by generous donations and sponsorships from the community contributions are tax deductible this project is 100% dependent on raising money through various events sales of veterans commemorative bricks Veterans Memorial Park t-shirts donations and sponsorships the park will be located on the west side of Grant valkaria Town Hall 1449 valkaria Road under a majestic Heritage oak tree named freedom and next to the beautiful Pond and Fountain as I mentioned construction began with installing a handicap ramp this past Thursday once the ramp is completed the grounds will will be prepared for concrete the first part of January weather permitting the Memorial Park promises a space for quiet reflection and appreciation and will include statutes Flags monuments benches and an educational area with picnic tables if re residents would like to sponsor for the park or make a donation purchase a commemorative brick or t-shirt please visit our official website www Veterans Memorial at Grant Valaria dog or email info. vets memorial yahoo.com thank you for your time and interest and if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them Commissioners any any questions no okay thank thank you very much appreciate it okay we will uh move on to item H1 and economic development avalor tax abatement program Karen good morning Commissioners item H1 is a public hearing on the economic development adval tax abatement program it is requested that the board of County Commissioners review and consider the attached ordinance the County's Economic Development adval tax abatement program sunset in November 2024 an anticipation of this program sunsetting on July 23rd 2024 the board adopted resolution calling for a referendum election on November 5th 2024 as a result 71% of the voters were in favor or for the authority to Grant Economic Development avalor tax exemptions this draft ordinance would provide the board the ability to continue to offer the economic development adorm tax exemptions to eligible businesses each application for the economic development adval tax abatement program would be evaluated on a case-by Case basis Mr Kurt Smith member of the AV referendum task force is here with us today to address this item as well as Edgar Campa palifox vice president of Business Development with EDC he is available with us today to answer any questions okay we do have two cards one's one's for Kurt but before we do that um are there are there questions Commissioners questions I was just um wondering about uh the extension of I guess our previous policy said something about 10 years and now it's 20 years and I was wondering um what why that change was made is that statutory is that due to the language on the referendum the um extension would be for 10 years it's for the abatements for regular businesses is 10 years it's up to 20 years for data centers okay thank you thank you any other questions before we go to the cards okay uh and remember we're I think we're largely accepting the results of the election uh on the on a referendum item uh sander Sullivan Sandra Sullivan so one of the things I've come here many times is about accountability and transparen parency so that's going to be my emphasis today um So based on the presentation that was done by uh former commissioner toaya 85% of these projects failed to deliver and there presentations made to get this past uh made uh return on dollars from $1 to $7 return but that was based on uh their applications not on actual performance so um in coming meetings uh here I had made a records request uh for some some previous projects and this was uh email in 2023 and I had done this but I said when it comes to EDC tax abatements are given for the creation of jobs but there's no performance tracking or accountability on whether the entity fulfills the creation of jobs or not promise the moon and whether you deliver or not Bard gives you a tax break wow you know we just talked about these issues we have in Bard County and so we need to be fiscally conservative people are going to make promises than that needs to be followed through on um consequently these um abatements were removed after identified it so what I would like to see a change to the ordinance is one the intent was for 10 years we weren't told you were going to do an exception for data centers let's keep it the 10 years tax abatement uh former commissioner Kurt Smith who was here uh emphasized that point when he was it's in newspaper articles when he was on this commission for 10 years so let's respect that this is a 10year only and I would ask that you add some language to the ordinance for accountability which means that every year you bring back the list the effective date they got it to ensure that it sunsets after 10 years and secondly that there is at in the first quarter of the County Commission meeting each year you bring back a review and staff reviews to ensure whether they're meeting their commitments to receive this tax benefit of of a tax abatement and that's all I would ask is transparency and accountability and if you'd be willing to make those changes I mean we have a room full of firefighters right now that we can't pay Public Safety so I think we we do we owe the people that due diligence thank you thank you Kurt Smith if you want well it's nice to be here see all your happy faces um nice to be back and see all the folks here um yeah this is very self-explanatory I don't know that I can add anything that you guys don't already know if you have any questions I can maybe answer those um it's a good program I think it's been the horse has been beaten to the fact that it's probably dead now um but it's no the the main complaint that I used to hear when I said up there was that it's a giveaway well it's not a giveaway people have to earn it and they don't get any money back um or any of the benefits until they produce and there's parameters that they have to meet to produce and there's countless companies that didn't produce and they didn't get a penny so and passed by 71% it's a good program it brings companies in here improves the community and I would urge you all to vote for it does anybody have any questions that I might answer any questions for Kurt Smith don't let everybody speak at once all right sir okay thank you thank you okay Commissioners discussion on the item any discussion on the item I think I think I I'll just say something um quickly here when the prior board voted to put the item ultimately on on the ballot um I noted that um you know each thing that comes before the board stands on its own so so each project that'll come here you're you're going to decide on that whether that's good for Bard or um it's not and this and the prior board had voted against items and had passed others so your vote today um doesn't mean that all items will be approved in the future I just want to make that distinction so with that uh is there a motion okay we have a motion by commissioner Alman is there a second second we have a second by commissioner delini clerk will call the RO commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner adkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that passes 5- Z thank you okay we'll go to item J1 and I see Peter making his way Peter you recognized morning Commissioners uh item J1 is a request from The Bard cultural Alliance to the uh tourist Development Council for renewal of their contract this year in the amount of uh 202,000 um the TDC approved that unanimously to uh come to the board for for your review I do believe the BCA is here if there's any questions uh about their proposal Commissioners questions questions for Peter okay we we do have a card for Miss esrock Mrs esrock um we'll let her speak and then if anyone has a question for BCA okay you recognize ma good morning I'm Katherine esrock executive director for Bard cultural Alliance and Fier res president I just am here to answer any questions and say thank you for hearing us today any questions for BCA Commissioners is there a motion so move I'm sorry I guess I should ask for a discussion okay commissioner Goodson uh made a motion commissioner Alman second clerk will call the role thank you ma'am yes Vice chair Goodson yes ma'am commissioner adkinson yes commissioner Alman yes chairman feltner yes thank you congratulations that's probably the easiest one you've had in a while yes yeah I hear you okay all right we will go to item J2 and Frank this is your item sir Commissioners item J2 deals with the 2025 uh legislative program we're requesting the board discuss and provide Direction concerning this program and identify priorities for the upcoming uh legislative delegation meeting in January the attached document uh includes items that were submitted by natural resources Public Works Utility Services uh the Meritt Island Redevelopment agency mosquito control and transit services uh once you have an opportunity to discuss and review it uh if you have priorities that would be good uh staff will be uh listening intently to what they may be and uh finally uh uh when we have that package ready to go you may want to designate a commissioner to present the uh these priorities to the legislative delegation at the meeting that's scheduled on January 29th of 2025 thank you sir questions commissioner Delaney I had a question um about the Port St John wastewater treatment facility item um just for clarification is this for the regional plant that is in discussion or are is this for the um uh the New Port St John plant that we also need to build depending on what happens um when we put this together we were initially looking at each of the facilities that's why you see multiple facilities there Port St John is one of I think three facilities um so we would need the funding for either but it's primarily since we know uh there would have to be significant other funding opportunities before we looked at it as a regional but we do need it on a localized level so we put it in there for that purpose okay and then um during this portion are we simply discussing what's on here or are we talking about things that we would also like to see on the uh yeah the agenda what we provided for you was a a document that the various departments put out there for board consideration so each of those items are up for discussion because if any if the board chooses to either say Hey you know certain items are things we ought to prioritize we'll be listening for that if there's items you want us to pull off the list if the board tells us to do that we'll be happy to do that as well because I had um a couple things that I would love to see on the list for us to talk to our delegation about this anything you want to add that the board uh gives us Direction on we'll be happy to add that as well I think we're happy to do that in the discussion part let me say something also here and I'll I'll this will be a question for Frank if you don't mind I ask this real quick I I think the I understand the delegation meeting is the 29th of January right that's right okay and certainly you know uh appropriation request we'd like to have probably to uh uh have that together um prior to that but uh certainly the board as late as I think it's January 14th as our as our next meeting we we could so if you slept on it over Christmas and you came back and there are other items you wanted to add here we could we could certainly amend that at that time before uh anybody goes to the delegation meting is that fair absolutely commissioner all right uh commissioner ainson is that a new light it is okay thank you um for the county manager um the South B water and wastewater treatment facility sorry thanks do we have we already put money aside for that I'll have to ask um our utilities director to come up to discuss that is for that particular one we have you know we've put money aside for different facilities where we're seeking land um the South the South one I think is to bring it up to um Advanced wastewater treatment standards right I couldn't hear the question I'm sorry I'm sorry I was just wondering have we already put money aside for the um the South Bard water wastewater treatment facility yes we do have money set aside for that we've uh been uh working on both plans and uh land uh for that purpose and so we're well into that process but it's got a long way to go as well okay that's it thanks other questions any other questions okay we have one card so let's go to the card sander Solomon good morning so when I look at the crisises we currently have right now we have a room full of Fire EMS people um I think two of the most important ones that we should be looking at as legislative priorities is one is to amend the tourism development tax uh section Florida statute 25.1 04 to the section on um 28.67 uh the count Bard county is what they call a con we're constrained County by our Charter cap on taxes and they recognize uh that for funding Public Safety for constrained counties but do not include as a definition one constrained by a charter cap so it's a simple modification that would give the County Immediate funding with this with this change to legislation to be able to legally fund your lifeguards um and Public Safety uh in addition uh so the the second one of of a very Paramount importance is one to do with impact fees because looking at fire assessment you know that's a year off that doesn't solve an immediate problem and so when you look at uh impact fees that have not been updated nearly 35 years you're you're handcuffed in what you can do to increase because the state has restricted your ability to do that and so with all the growth and the mandates like Senate Bill 102 it is fair and reasonable to for them to remove that constraint so that you can address that now just by uh by comparison uh what you're charging for fire and EMS EMS right now is $38 when you build a property and 54 I just want to point out in the study that was done in 9 1997 they recommended like a $350 fee for EMS to bring you into com uh alignment with counties around us and so when we look at the number one growth issue that's what's where the crisis is because by your own budget and this is missing from the EMS assessment your cost for impact for your cost for growth was 620,000 in 2022 and it's over 30 million now and so it comes down to how you pay for cost of growth is developers paying their fair share so I think these two things one a an amendment a legislative priority for amending the tourism uh tdt and also impact fees are very important to have funding sooner than a year out that doesn't solve the crisis we're in now thank you okay Commissioners in discussion discussion on the item commissioner DNE so a couple of things that I would really like to see us um talk about is making some kind of an an amendment or even the repeal of sp102 I think that this was a gross overreach by our state government and um if they're going to hand out mandates like that on the local governments I think that they need to um they need to be sending a lot more money to help us deal with all of that um and if they're not able or willing then they need to remove this mandate on us um from what I've seen of these projects over the past two years is it pushes Perpetual rentals no public input for these projects um and the thing that I'd really like to ask is how many people do these prop properties actually help there is a um a great example of this is a apartment complex that is going up um in District 2 and there's three apartments that are actually affordable housing and um out of 300 some may I ask you where that is sure it's in the city of Coco oh okay um they're also that is also taking over our Industrial and Commercial lands which we need those lands um for Industrial and Commercial uh um businesses and whatnot uh so that's one thing another thing that I'd like to see on this list is something that helps us with our transportation needs uh with both capacity and maintenance um and uh there's some other little pet you know things for my district that I'd love to see on there um like a a stoplight at Mims um a stoplight and Mims at the post office and uh we all know how much Satellite Boulevard is going to cost a pave so um you know and I don't I don't really see us being able to do that on our own um so that's just off the top of my head with a week to think of things um it's just kind of some things that I wanted to float out there for everybody I'll just say real quick commissioner Goodson and only gu to you uh that was sort of the idea with we could come back um because I'm going to do that too think of other things I'd ask you a question though have you have you met with uh representative traymont um on on some of the needs in north north end of the county it's on my list okay yeah it's on your Christmas list okay I I strongly encourage that because I certainly petition legislators having worked in the in the process um I'm I'm I'm always talking to them about items doesn't mean that they all make it in there but um it doesn't it doesn't hurt to to ask so I'd encourage you to to engage him directly commissioner Goodson yeah I have a question for the commissioner talk to me about industrial lands going residential what was the comment you made about that sure so with the live local act they allow Industrial and Commercial lands to be used for affordable housing okay okay I don't know if that's true but you say it is I believe but if you know anything about property value on Industrial land you know four or five times higher in Bard County than residential you know but why would anybody want to rezone their residential land to affordable housing you mean rezone their industrial or commercial yeah to affordable housing um there's lots of different reasons I mean we just had somebody in the in the community just at the last zoning meeting he wanted to change his commercial land to build n Town residentials but they were not affordable housing honey right I understand that but this is you know this where is this apartment building in Coco you refer to on 524 which one there's four there and it's not res it's not homeless friendly rental is that what you're saying it's not a but you know there's three affordable housing units in the 300 something okay all right now isn't there one that's a u one on Dixon that's affordable housing isn't that a u what do you call them when they are what is it called when you have low rent on your income low income low income okay that's good thank you something else but isn't that one on Dixon lower income oh of course but that's not the norm of what we're seeing well I wish you really help me in Coco you know is that your District okay I'd be curious but you're doing a good job you keep it up that way I won't have to 10 many minutes okay sir God damn uh okay any other comments on this before I I do have uh one thing I'm going to ask the board uh I'd like to request that commissioner Alman go and present this on our behalf at the delegation meeting I think he's been he graciously accepts that you've been up there many many times so yeah you know the constraints any objection to that none okay all right Commissioners um I think we're done with the discussion is there a motion to adopt this says it is so moved okay second all right we have a commission we have a a uh motion by commissioner Goodson we have a second by commissioner delini clerk will call the RO commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson yes commissioner adkinson yes commissioner Alman yes yes chairman feltner yes we'll show that adopted 5 Z okay uh Commissioners um we're going to start I think we agreed with the present ation uh the fire presentation and then we'll move into we'll move into questions and discussion on uh that item and uh the the request for a workshop okay do you mind if I just say a quick word I just want to thank the staff for putting this together and being willing to um present this for the public I really appreciate it we might consider a break after the presentation and before we get to the cards is that is that amenable okay all right very good okay thank you Commissioners at the December 3rd board meeting the board directed staff to present the fire assessment study that we provided to you to the board and to the public today you know previously at the September 17th budget hearing the board directed staff to prepare a report addressing the timeline and the actions needed should the board plan to consider an increase for the fire service non adval uh assessment that's what this report is about senior uh several senior staff members with specific uh um areas of knowledge and familiarity contributed in writing this and uh uh several areas of the report uh they're they're joining me today in this presentation and they're going to be covering the areas of the report that they and their staffs uh help prepare uh these include County Attorney Morris Richardson who'll be covering the background history and evolution of the uh fire assessment and the potential fire assessment increases Jill Hayes our budget director she's going to be covering Financial overview the fire assessment increases and general fund impact and Personnel costs related to any fire assessment increases the board may wish to consider uh Tom Klein the deputy fire chief will be covering cost the cost distribution model that's currently in place with shared expenses between uh fire in EMS and the comparable fire assessment rates that Exist Elsewhere Chief voler is going to cover utilization of funding inflation impacts and the timeline and process that's applicable for any potential fire assessment increase and finally I'll cover the uh fire assessment adjustments that have occurred uh how we deal with contracted municipalities and additional considerations that the board may want to uh think about with that I'm going to turn it over to Morris thank you Mr Abate all right um Bard County Fire rescues fire operations provides fire services to unincorporated Bard County and the municipalities of Grant balkaria Melbourne Village Palm Shores and West Melbourne fire operations can only be funded with revenues that are generated within this service area bcfr EMS operations provides emergency medical and transport service countywide including unincorporated and all municipalities EMS operations must be funded by countywide Revenue sources historically fire operations were funded by an adalum tax levied in the unincorporated County in participating municipalities known as the Fire Control mstu advalorium taxes are based on property values and determined by a millage rate we sometimes refer to advolum as above the line because of where they appear on the tax bill EMS operation were funded by ambulance billing and by a special assessment special assessments also called non- adalum assessments are charges to cover the cost of providing a service they are not based on property value special assessments are sometimes referred to as below the line again because of where they appear on the tax bill the EMS assessment because EMS services are countywide the EMS assessment applied countywide in the early 2000s a Florida court case held that EMS services cannot be funded by special assessments the court determined that those services do not provide a benefit to real property which is one of the requirements of an assessment this prompted the city of Palm Bay to challenge the County's EMS assessment although the ability to fund EMS Services by special assessments was in question funding fire Services by special assessment was clearly lawful so in 206 the board of County Commissioners adopted a fire service special assessment to fund the majority of fire operations unlike the EMS assessment which had been countywide fire Services special assessment only applies in unincorporated County and in those four municipalities where bcfr provides uh primary fire service the board retained a portion of the Fire Control mstu representing a millage that had been approved by voters in a 1999 referendum at the same time the board did away with the EMS assessment going forward EMS operations would be funded by continuing ambulance billing and by a new transfer from the general fund basically the revenue sources for fire operations and EMS operations largely flipped so that where fire operations previously had been funded above the line by adalum taxes and EMS had been funded by special assessment uh that was almost reversed with the exception of the Fire Control mstu and what you see on the screen now is an example of a tax bill to show what I mean of by above the line and below the line all the things above the dark line in the lower say third of the tax bill those are your adalum taxes those are calculated by applying a millage rate to the non-exempt taxable value of real property so up there currently we have County general fund which uh funds EMS through a transfer you've got the Fire Control mstu above the line also a millage rate then below the line you have the fire assessment the next slide Commissioners um deals with when the fire assessment was created in 2006 for fiscal year 2007 uh the board in 2008 uh voted to reduce that assessment by 15% and directed staff to reduce revenues that were needed for fire operations by drawing down on reserves over time um that happened over a number of years and then in 2018 we came before the board and requested a 6% increase and that's because those reserves had been reduced from 14 million down to 2 million and so we were running out on reserves so we asked for a uh 6% increase along with an annual inflation adjustment and the board granted that in 2018 then in uh two in 2021 uh the we came back to the board and presented a variety of options uh and a year plan for increasing the assessment uh to address salary as well as capital and INF infrastructure concerns that we had and the board at that time was looking at a 33% uh increase in the fire assessment and uh they approved a particular plan that would have required that 33% increase but decided at that point that the increase would be 29% because they allocated $8.4 million of arpa funding to Fire Rescue would be spread over the seven years uh that seven-year period so they were able to reduce for the seven-year plan that cost uh to a 29% increase now uh on the next slide uh I want to just talk and Morris had mentioned that uh we contract with various uh municipalities and that's the case uh there happen Melbourne Village Palm Shores Grant Valaria and West Melbourne specifically and as you'll see there by Far and Away and they contract with us for fire uh service protection we collect both mstu and fire assessment revenue from these jurisdictions by far um most Far and Away the most significant contributor is West Melbourne they pay approximately $5.8 million annually in fire assessment and fire mstu assessments when we ra when the board raised the uh assessment in 2021 uh West Melbourne uh raised some concerns and they they uh uh had a study commission to look at implementing their own fire depart Service as several other municipalities have uh we we we told them we didn't think that was coste effective for them over uh o over time and they uh and I think they came to that conclusion too especially when we told them that you know we thought that the fire assessment and and they pay the same rate that they pay uh all our unincorporated residents that pay for the service pay for so we try to keep it UniFi unified for all um so that was basically at that point uh they they moved away from considering um their own fire service uh that's important to note because uh they thought that the fire assessment uh from their perspective that they could provide a better service uh depending on what the cost was if in fact they they chose to do that and we lost that Revenue I just the board just would know that that would be uh you know we would still maintain those fire uh Services those fire depart uh fire stations because they serve both not only the city but they serve uh uh transport the ambulance service ALS as well as all the unincorporated needs in the surrounding areas so we really don't see us reducing the force by such so that would be an approximate if they left and we don't have any reason to believe that they would but if they did um that would be about a 12% increase and the only reason I'm telling you that is um as you consider what increases might be appropriate that may be one that you want to consider just so you have those resources of course the money can always be put in reserve or utilized elsewhere when you do that and so um with that I'm going to turn it over I believe next uh uh will be with uh um Jill will start the financial overview okay good morning Commissioners as Morris indicated fire rescue is comprised of two primary divisions or functions fire operations and Emergency Medical Services and so fire operations provides fire services to unincorporated Bard as well as the cities that Frank just discussed in the previous slide and these services are funded through the fire assessment which accounts for approximately 69% of their revenue and the Fire Control mstu which is approximately 28% of funding EMS represents ambulance transport services and those are provided countywide in unincorporated Bard and in all of the cities and so these services are funded through approximately 59% ambulance Billings and 37% General funds okay and I'll turn it over to Chief kleene distributions uh the allocation of shared expenses between fire operations and Emergency Medical Services is established to ensure that Personnel operations and capital expenses associated with these divisions are equitably funded by appropriate Revenue sources this cost distribution model was developed through the collaboration of the county manager Office bavar County fire rescue the bavar county budget office and The Bard County Clerk of Court's finance office and is based on the daily Staffing profile assigned to operate each Fire Rescue Unit and includes Baseline number of personnel assigned per unit including that of fire engines ambulances and rescue squads for any 24 op 24-hour operational period currently the cost distribution is 55.5% for fire related funded by the fire assessment and Fire Control mstu and 44.5% for EMS related funded by general fund and ambulance Billings Capital outlays solely related to EMS or fire functions including fire trucks ambulances and their equipment do not carry a shared cost distribution okay Commissioners this slide represents the fiscal impact if the fiscal if the fire assessment rate were increased uh for example if you look at the second line on the chart if the rates were to increase by 5% the average annual increase for a residential property would be just under $14 per year and would generate an additional 1.9 million in revenue for fire operations now uh Chief Klein just discussed the shared expenses and that methodology and so we also wanted to provide you with the amount of Revenue that would be required to fund the EMS portion of expenses and so since the majority of ambulance billing revenue is associated with Medicaid and Medicare claims those rates are limited by federal and state regulations and cannot be in increased so as your expenditure levels increase on the fire operations side additional General funds will be required to fund the EMS portion and so using that same example of the 5% increase on the fire assessment an additional 1.5 million would be needed from the general fund which would be about a 10% increase to the current funding level okay and so oh okay okay sir just quickly since we're on that point so what you're saying is as we increase the assessment there's the necessary increase the General Revenue fund there that's correct okay and so Personnel costs are also distributed based on that same 55 45% split that Chief Klein discussed and so this chart illustrates the fiscal impact of a 1% increase to all field job classes above the most recent offer proposed by the county so each additional 1% increase is approximately $580,000 annually and you can see the breakout there of the fire operations side versus the EMS general fund side and it's important to note that The Fringe benefit rate for these employees is approximately 48% uh that's primarily the Florida Retirement System contrib ution rate for the special risk class which is about 33% workers compensation rates are also higher uh for these field positions and so for every dollar in salary it's costing approximately a148 in total compensation and benefits and this is exclusive of the health insurance premiums paid by the county uh we didn't include that in the financial impact just because those don't change proportionately that's a flat rate for All County employees and I'll turn it over to Chief voler good morning everyone uh a portion of the current fire assessment funding provides for necessary equipment replacement and new purchases to address our immediate annual needs uh these Acquisitions include Replacements in new fire engines uh multi-use Vehicles pickup trucks uh PPE which would be our bunker gear pants coats helmets things like that uh our technology upgrades our mobile data terminals that work in in the trucks and Communications like radios uh as well as hazardous materials equipment as we are the only hazardous materials team throughout the entire County next slide uh this slide highlights the utilization of funding in our seven-year plan for infrastructure projects related to Fire and EMS facilities detailing completed budgeted and project initiatives from fiscal years 23 through fiscal years 29 projects completed in 23 24 fiscal years a total of 9.7 million was uh including but not limited to uh some State our station 88 and station 67 EMS stations down in the South part of the County Fiscal Year's 25 we have allocated almost $17 million in repairs and that's including station 86 in Barefoot Bay which the slab will actually be being poured on Thursday and station 23 in Titusville in fiscal years 26 through 29 the capital infrastructure projects a significant $ 43.5 million are earmarked and this will be including a new Westport St John Station 27 uh major renovation or total remodel to station 64 in the spcer Holland area of South Melbourne Beach uh it's important to note uh as we in the next slide we will talk about uh uh the increase in pricing that uh that station itself saw a 186% increase from the projected in 2021 it was $2.6 three million uh our projected budget for that station now is $7.5 million also uh in that proposal we do have a station 100 that will need to be built down in the South County area in that new sub sunara subdivision on the slide you see here uh it outlines the significant impacts of that inflation that I spoke of like station 86 uh our fire engines in 2017 were $545,000 today they're $900,000 approaching a million dollar which represents almost a 93% increase same as our ambulances at one time in about 2017 were $165,000 now they're approaching 300,000 which uh calculates to be about a 66% increase in the price to those vehicles in just a few years when we first started that 7-year plan in 2021 the anticipated CPI obviously like everyone would thought was between two and 3% so you can see how those uh great curves of the price increases really affected Us in in staying aggressive in in what we do in our purchases this slide uh focuses is on the impacts of inflation on the fire rescue apparatus and equipment and costs uh from 2020 to 2024 uh some of the things we talked about when I begin begin speaking the technology uh $3,600 to $4,800 for the radios uh scbas our self-contained breathing apparatuses that we are looking to purchase this year uh what initially thought we going to be $4,500 when we went into the 7-year plan are now coming in over $10,000 closer to $111,000 per pack uh as well as our bunker gear has Rose from $2,200 to $3500 and that $3,500 mind you is just a pant and a coat that doesn't include the helmet the hood the mask the boots or the gloves uh to fill out the whole ensemble for everyone you see here in a yellow shirt so at the direction of County leadership staff researched other agencies that utilize non- adalone fire assessments it was noted that the agencies May utilize both non-ad fire assessments and adval taxes or above the line taxes Additionally the methodologies utilized to develop the fire assessment fee structures varied from agency to agency currently bvar County's average residential property is assessed at $279524 25 in comparison the average rate obtained by multiple vetting methods yielded an average of fire the average fire assessment of $372 for fiscal year 2324 limitations of the study did not analyze any additional funding sources such as mstu or general funds the required timeline for the board to potentially increase the fire assessment is approximately 120 days and must be approved and certified prior to September 15th for the increase to be effective the subsequent fiscal year a general timeline is at the bottom of this slide uh in 2021 it took 104 days to accomplish the task beginning on January 7th with the issues invitation to bid on public notice and you'll see on March 9th was the board Direction and discussion not to exceed was uh was discussed on that day uh we mailed the notices about 10 days later and the final Board hearing was April 20th of 2021 so I have a a few uh other considerations that I want to leave the board with uh to end the presentation the first is that the non reoccurring arpa funding is are going to be exhausted in 2028 and so to replace that 8.4 million of about 1.2 million or so a year is going to require a 5% uh uh increase in the fire assessment and and that will just that's just keeping the bar flat that's you know so you need you need to consider that uh on top of in addition to uh anything else the board wishes to consider secondly um as you heard mentioned a couple of times the current capital and infrastructure seven-year plan needs to be updated uh when we first submitted the report we suggested that if the board moved forward on this that we would like 30-day period to uh be able to update it basically it's to recreate a new seven-year plan you know now four years into the current plan and then uh give the board options in terms of what you decide to do uh at at that point I've already asked Chief voler to undertake that update and I know that he and staff have already been working on that so we don't we're not going to need additional time because they've already in the process of doing that uh the final thing I wanted to mention is that uh the assessment and mstu relationship while the board Direction was focused on directing a fire assessment report on the timeline and the process that's associated with the potential increase substituting or supplementing uh a fire assessment increase with an increase in the fire s mstu is an is also an option that the board may wish to consider um and we can provide the board more information on that that option wasn't was beyond the scope of what the board had asked us to do here but we just wanted to make sure that you aware of you know that's a combin for the fire side of the house um it's combined from the fire assessment and the mstu you know who you put on notice how it affects a property is different in both of those so it's an option that the board will want to keep in mind I believe uh moving forward and with that that in that concludes the presentation okay Commissioners I think we'll move into questions and then we'll take a break and we'll take out the cards okay commissioner Alman for a question yeah so as you increase the assessment you need to increase the general fund wouldn't you have to do the same to the mstu and if not why it it's it's the what whatever the total amount of money that you add to the um fire fire operation side of the house that can be done either exclusively with the with the fire assessment or it can be done exclusively with depending on how much you want to do with the funding that you can do with the mstu or combination of both when you add those two numbers together when it comes to Personnel cost that's going to be 55% of the cost the other 45% as Jill was saying saying we really can't get it out of additional ambulance buildings very limited amount the rest would have to come from a general fund appropriation because that's how we take care of it uh for that 45% so I believe that should answer your question commissioner any follow up on that sir no okay questions all right we'll go ahead and take a f minute break and we'll come back and go the carts okay thank you every bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] e [Music] la [Music] la [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay we're about ready to go to the cards if everyone will take their seat and if you put in your a card it would help us out today if you'd maybe if you sat in the first couple of rows okay so all right thanks everyone Ryan Barrett District Chief you recognize sir thank you Ryan barck resident Port St John the employer employee relationship is a profoundly deeper than a mere exchange of money for services provided the relationship is intimate in many ways for the relationship to be a long-lasting and successful one the employer must treat their internal customer with the same respect as the external ones maso's hierarchy of needs is often studied and appli to the workforce as a baseline guide to ensure that the basic human needs of the employee are being met the successes and failures of this relationship can be hard to quantify but is it the opinion of our elected officials that the policy makers of yesterday successfully and adequately cared for their employees maswell said that the most basic human needs are physiological are the employees granted access to Affordable Healthcare to ensure they could remain healthy enough to be effective on the job the benefits for 2025 were slashed employee contributions increased a small amount while ad aox ma ad aox of maximums increase by thousands for a family single- income employees are forced to work hundreds and sometimes thousands of hours of overtime to split the rental of a house three or four ways safety our jobs are incredibly Dangerous by Nature we acknowledge this and we accept the inherent risks when we take the call but was it appropriate for the policy makers of the past to La CIP projects when the projects often involve the replacement of six stations some of your predecessors were okay with this concept love and belonging the constant appeti of employees leaves the remaining ones feeling empty angry confused is there something wrong with me why am I staying here when everyone around me is applying for employment elsewhere we commonly refer to the bonds we make in this job as the Brotherhood we hurt when one of our brothers is sick or injured and we're equally saddened when nearly a 100 of our employees when 100 of our brothers and sisters resign in less than 12 months esteem we're blessed with the opportunity to help and serve being owered to accomplish a common goal or Vision that results in helping a resident is unique and Incredibly fulfilling this alone builds our esteem and most employees will tell you that the calling is like no other however our steam has been hurt it's not uncommon for employees to perceive their value and Worth to an organization according to their compensation and benefits and how they align to the industry standard selfa actualization employees yearn to feel successful in their position are Bard are Bard's employees being given the tools needed to be successful do you feel do you feel that brain the brain drain of a 100 employees puts us in a position to be successful unfortunately our plight has been advertised on a very public stage it stings personally and professionally I look forward to the day when it stops the exposure has left scars in all parties involved will this new Comm will this new commission show more concern than previous Commissioners or will the state of apathy continue I sense that some of you read Steven CV's the power the speed of trust the pages of this book suggest that once a breach of trust occurs between employer and employee it's incredibly difficult to rebuild Commissioners despite the current state of our Workforce I remain optimistic that we're on the verge of accomplishing something great my team looks forward to working with you and our administrative team to get to a better place and restore trust Merry Christmas and God bless thank you sir Michael Branson [Music] good morning Mike Bramson I'm The Bard County firefighters Union president local 2969 I'd like to First congratulate the board uh for your winnings and your appointments to the uh chair uh it's been a challenging road to get to this place that we are in now I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak as a stor a stor of the Union I can absolutely appreciate the time and energy going towards fire rescue at this time from both the staff and the Commissioners uh you got a lot of meetings you got some workshops coming up and there's a lot of other things to be done moving into the beginning of 2025 we are very much aware that there needs to be communication and the do so in this particular manner takes meetings and sessions uh and we we understand that I would like to use the time to talk about another layer to the firefighters engagement as well as add another component to considerations during your meetings that is of morale not specifically morale is a good or a bad thing but morale is a metric morale is a metric these continued displays that you're going to continue to hear or you've heard in the past are made and are said out of love and compassion for Bard County and the bavard County Citizens residents and visitors and the cities within there was once a calling at one point people came to that calling to become public safety there was a need the need by the county that these men and women answered and that were heard but at one point Bard stopped providing Bard no longer provides their side of the deal and many are taking a calculated but no less difficult decision to separate others are waiting to see what the change will be but in the end engagement is important even if some of the comments are more Vivid than others it is the silence that indicates apathy and when your First Responders are forced to no longer engage out of the necessity of their own health then we will have actually reached an irreversible depressed Workforce good luck and keep in mind that what you are about to hear and what you will continue to hear is a component of morale and it truly is sincere thank you sir uh Kent Fay good morning Commissioners guus how you been Buddy oh there's so much to say for me I've been retired from Bard County fire rescue for nine years been nine years why am I here today I'm tired of see hearing and seeing my brothers and sisters literally suffering literally suffering at times um you know I know that all of you aren't part of the past commission uh I stay pretty a breast of what's going on um they were requesting a $40,000 increase and their their line for reasoning was that they wanted to keep up with other count other other counties I get it these people understand it even more I understand it so I ask you what what's what's the rationale other than money then I don't I don't get from the past commission I didn't get the full impact of why they didn't why they didn't want to give give money other than just I understand like Mr Delan as you were talking about the cap on taxes I get it and like you said we we can we can overcome that we can get past that but we have to ask for it correct so I ask you now with the underpaid and understaffing now i' something I found out today because I I asked started asking questions to a couple people including our president um I am still current Union member I'm a I'm a original founding member of the Union from back in 1980 I started I'm sorry in 1984 I started work for Bard County in 1980 as a lifeguard they were doing away with um full-time positions and so I requested a lateral transfer I went to fire school and I started to work for Bard County in 1985 and I worked until the end of 2015 uh since then I've had because of exposures I'm part of two class action lawsuits exposure what's called a f Aquis film form phone I stage four colon cancer in 2022 and I have zero thyroid which which caused an extreme weight gain which I didn't know about until I obviously when got checked so these are the risks of high risk high risk is a real thing not just not just to the the exposures of fires but also I was on a hazus materials team for several years um there's other things that that probably preempted that from back in the day when we were leather lunging at as as you would say um and as Mr IAT is very aware he knows me pretty well also um I've had I've had many jobs I've I I to support my family I I ran a besides working for fire department doing Charters and Commercial Fishing and overtime so I really wish you would consider and honestly put effort toward getting these guys what they deserve thank you John D did I say that right d yes that's good good morning it was a nice presentation but I think all I've heard was let's K keep kicking the can down the road I digress a few weeks ago I spoke about how Frank abat is systematically dismantled Bard County fire rescue today I'll provide more evidence and sta statistics we still have a condemned fire station and we have two fire stations that are designed to hold five Personnel but they're now holding six uh s to eight this past Friday three of our valued employees graduated from seminal County fire rescue new hire class 242 one of them was a legacy hire whose father dedicated 30 years to bavar County fire rescue retiring as a district Chief another was one of my own employees with a high probability of advancing far within our department during the graduation ceremony the seminal County fire chief proudly shared some details about his department they serve 40 485,000 citizens they employ 515 Personnel they operate 19 stations with a new one opening next year and they run 54,000 calls annually now let's put that into perspective for Bard County fire rescue we serve 644,000 citizens we have 480 employees we operate 32 fire stations though one is now condemned so we have 31 functional stations and today The Bard County fire rescue has run 93,000 calls for the past three negotiation Cycles span more than 10 years the county negotiators have asked the union to compare wages to seminal County fire rescue the union has presented wages wage proposals based on these comparisons but the County's negotiation teams has rejected them every time and who has been leading these negotiations none other than Frank obat fast forward to today I've been a lieutenant with bavar County fire rescue for 10 years and I earned $76,000 annually a lieutenant in seminal County fire rescue with the same years of services earns 120,000 Personnel are leaving Bard County fire rescue because of low wage low pay and poor work life balance Frank abatti has kicked this can so far down the road that the wage Gap and quality of life disparity have become nearly impossible to address a properly funded Department 10 to 12 years ago could have easily prevented the crisis we face today this year alone we have lost 108 firey uh rescue personnel every one of the members here today loves what they do they love helping this community it's time to let Chief vul te create a budget that fully funds his fire department and stop imposing budgets that are essentially dictated by a WN toe fire chief Frank abat thank you thank you [Applause] sir Christina Fleming good morning Commissioners my name is Christina fliming and I've been a firefighter here in Bard County since 1998 retired for one year now when I started we were operating with Twan engines in 1999 through the referendum we were able to move to three-man engines a crucial step that allowed us to better serve this community let me take you back to 2005 the county did a wonderful study called the Cody study and showed that every Department in Bard County including Parks wrecks everybody was underpaid then during 2017 during the housing crisis the commission came to us recognizing our dedication and commitment to this community you asked for our help in the spirit of service we agreed to freeze our pay for three years trusting that we were all in this together we were told if you do this for us we'll have your back we'll make sure you're taken care of the next time unfortunately the next time never came instead of seeing the promised support we've watched as critical CIP products were delayed we've seen stations left in disrepair trucks and rescues left undelivered while we continue to work in conditions that fall further behind we are still running calls and outdated equipment with a reduced Workforce and relying on the same commitment to service we had in 1998 in 2011 and 12 the charter cap voted in and further more excused why fire rescue was always neglected now as negotiations are at a standstill I ask you to consider the message we need to send to the men and women of this department that Bard county is where they should stay that this is their destination I know many of our firefighters are questioning whether their future lies here in a county they've Faithfully served if we're to retain the best we need to show them that there's a light at the end of the tunnel a path forward not just for the department but for the families who depend on us we need to demonstrate that Bard county is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of its First Responders just as much as it values the well-being of the residents we protect this is not just about a pay raise or benefit it's about showing that the work we've done and continue to do is valued that our future here in Bard county is secure and that we are truly a team working the same goal thank you for your time and for your considering our future I also have the updated list of our attrition levels we are now at 101 field firefighters fire Medics and single CT paramedics that have left as of about 15 minutes ago thank you thank you Josh Madson good morning Commissioners citizens firefighters you don't have to experience Management's failures we do every day we look at the citizens we try to provide service but failures from above us result in us having to fail our citizens what we used to be able to the care we could give to our citizens and provide the experience the knowledge it's gone i' would say there's about 20% of us that have 17 years or more that truly have a lot of knowledge and experience in this job everyone else is less than six years who's replacing them 18 and 19 year old kids zero experience zero life skills zero abilities and that's who's on a call with me two of my guys just resigned last week what were they waiting for they were waiting for this past October to see what the commission would do what negotiations would come I've seen it for 24 years I've been here for 24 years this February my wife has over 25 she comes home after running a serious call she's upset I'm like what's going on she says well I couldn't do everything I needed to do CU I don't have experienced partners and I said you know what you can only do what you can do cuz it's what the County wants was it truly what the citizens and the County Citizens want or is it what the county management wants Frank abat cares there's a an ass in that seat that's it they have a pulse he doesn't care what kind of liability they bring to you to your family one day you're going to be sitting behind it I know your health Frank I've worked with you on calls back when you did the fire teams thing we went through you said please look after me you're going to be relying on us and I can tell you the kids that are running these calls who am I going to get to replace my two experienced guys two 19-year-old kids next month so it's more of a liability for me I'm looking after them trying to look after the citizens I'm sick of it the blood's on Whose hands not on mine I've done everything I can is it on the commission before you all is it on County Manager it's not on me I do everything I can I hope Alazar law Morgan and Morgan Dan nulan I hope they pay attention here maybe that's what it takes whose name is going to be at the top of that list who's been negligent hasn't been us we're tired I'll work over a thousand hours overtime this year to be able to make a living I'll work over a th000 hours we already work 3,000 hours a year as our normal schedule normal employees work 2080 we don't get overtime till after 106 hours in two weeks because we're firefighters a lot of people don't know that so overtime doesn't count till we've already done 106 hours in two weeks all right take that in consideration our new guys make $15 an hour for the first five years they don't see a raise above $15 an hour I'm at 2498 and I've been here for 24 years Lieutenant fir medic $40 to $50,000 less than my counterpart everywhere else I know we have a challenge we have a 72m Long County but you guys can increase the fire assessment fee the mstu and buy a super majority vote you can do it with the general fund also that's what we're asking for thank you thank you sir Alejandro cillo I hope I said that right thank you sir all right I got to find my little speech here all right good morning uh I stand here before you today to share a deeply personal impressing concern affecting many families in fire rescue in Florida the income threshold for family for to qualify for State assistance is $57,000 for 24 for 2024 many firefighters fall under that $57,000 poverty line for families like mine where one parent stayed home to care for our children this threshold presents a significant challenge to meet our financial obligations I have faced two difficult choices working extensive overtime which keeps me away from my family or taking on a second job further reducing my time at home this Relentless work SCH schedule has taken a toll on my family life at one point um it took my daughter about uh 4 years to tell me that she loved me um I had about one to two days off a month at that point I tribute this to my constant absence due to work commitments we are not seeking luxury or extravagance our simple desire is to maintain a single job that allows us to support our families without sacrificing precious time with them we are unified in our commitment to provide the best service to our community often going above and beyond to ensure the well-being of others even to the point of uh picking residents over our own families however the current circumstances compel us to consider opportunities elsewhere in search of employers who recognize the value of our worth rather than offering empty promises a mass Exodus is coming stations will get browned out due to no employees available Mand them it is disheartening to acknowledge that certain detrimental influence driven by greed and power exists within our system as Commissioners your primary objective should transcend uh re-election Ambitions it should focus on enhancing the lives of residents and guiding our County towards its full potential the era of campaigning on tax cuts at the expense of essential Services should be reconsidered our County lags in crucial areas such as Public Safety infrastructure sanitation and education services that have been neglected in favor of minimal tax savings this approach is unfair to Residents and contributes to the County's decline I urge you to reflect on these concerns and consider actionable steps to address them thank you sir Sandra Sullivan Sandra Sullivan so the primary problem I have with this uh presentation is it looks at a solution that's a year down the road fire assessment is a year down the road it doesn't solve the problem now and so what's going to happen in a year's time with where you are with with the escalating issue that you have now um I was very disappointed not to see other issues being looked at uh the billing software you guys are writing off 14 million non-medicare a year that number has been going up very very high needs to be evaluated impact fees which seems to be the the fundamental problem you're looking at you just said it projected $ 43.5 million up from 620,000 in 2022 so not looking at how to resolve impact fees you guys should be doing an immediately an impact fees feasibility study for EMS and fire immediately it would take 6 weeks um on the uh lifeguard uh legislation for that to change it but I also want to point out this is a um uh an attorney general legal opinion uh on the emergency medical service assessment this is from 2012 it's in an email that I sent to you and so I contend that you could put an EMS fire assessment um what it says is a county that has adopted an ordinance authorizing the imposition of an assessment for Emergency Medical Services prior to January 2022 you had it certainly back in the 990s all of the special assessments for Emergency Medical Services levied by a county prior to the effective date of this section are ratified and validated in all respects if they would have been valid had the section been in effect at the time they were levied however this uh subsection shall not validate Assessments in counties with litigation challenging blah blah blah but so if you had uh prior to 20122 a fire sorry an EMS assessment is illegal there is also another way to do it it is also legal under a fire district so I would again this solution does not solve the problem now but in in terms of planning there are some things we can do now in terms of what you can do now you can negotiate you have a crisis right now pertaining to space Florida and space wants sewage capacity you have a right as a county to collect tax on our federal lands that are leased to private entities you negotiate to the table you solve this problem here and solve other problems it is not fair to the taxpayers of Bard County to to to take another assessment when you have an opportunity to take some money from some other sources and solve this problem now thank you thank you Scott Garder Garder good morning Commissioners my name is Scott Gardner I'm a 26e employee of Bard County fire fire rescue uh currently a district chief on merid island I had the opportunity last week to attend the uh Florida firefighters or Fire Chiefs Association safy and health conference in Orlando um we had a round table discussion and one of the counties there was Pasco County uh they just announced or actually in 2022 they announced that they're going to a 2472 hour Works work schedule um they start in April they haven't even started the new schedule yet prior to that announcement they were getting 15 to 20 applicants per hiring after they made that announcement they have an average of 250 applicants um prior they had zero fire medic hirings after their announcement they've had 76 fire medic hirings and over 40 of them were from other departments who don't transport Pasco County transports so that would be the equivalent of Melbourne pmay fire rescue that don't transport we'd be hiring those people uh overtime spent prior to uh their announcement in 2022 they had spent $5.5 million in overtime 2023 they had 20 $2.4 million in overtime so almost half their overtime budget got cut in half due to the amount of people they hired uh mandatory overtime was rampid prior to the announcement uh now they're looking at negligent numbers uh they have a lot of people to fill those overtime spots and you know the health and safety of their firefighters is Paramount to their County Commissioners so those have gone down uh these numbers are conservative it's $25,000 approximately to hire and train one firefighter nearly 100 firefighters have resigned this year that's $2.5 million that were spent just this year like I said I'm a 26y year employee um average 25 people leave per year over my career you spent $166.25 million in training firefighters that have left for other departments uh Chief volter talked about fire trucks and um a lot of capital expenditures these are my three kids they're 2 three years old at this time they're sitting on engine 40 in merid island that engine is still in service I saw that engine yesterday when I was on shift my kids are currently doing rideal alongs with departments they're looking to go to fire school but they're not doing them here they're looking at Indian River County they're looking at Palm Beach County I want my kids to work here how do I how do I convince them to work here if Mr Bate and County leadership doesn't watch out for their people help me convince them to come here make a return of investment on your people Capital infrastructure is great but we have to invest in our people too thank you thank you sir Mason boan [Music] Shar good morning and thank you for having me my name is Mason boan I'm a veteran and employee Bard County fire rescue for 16 years and a lieutenant for the last seven I'm also a small business owner and a citizen of Bard for the last 18 years uh I'm here to talk to you about the state of affairs with Bard Kenny fire rescue I live here in state because I want to serve the county where I live where my daughter Goes to School my wife works but over the last decade I witnessed a steady decline of my career the housing market boomed inflation went up drastically my business charged more accordingly but Bard employees were left behind when we were given another insulting offer of of 5% a year spr over the next three years I knew I had to consider a career change I've been clear since the beginning that I don't want to leave but it's the same story every contract negotiation this is insulting because the industry standard and the County's cost of living the industry standard on the lowest side is 40% with many getting an additional month and a half off commonly referred to as a Kelly day and on the high side is 100% some instances even more than that an additional three months off a year with the 2472 schedule that was just talked about this percentage reflects the amount of Bard counties behind are neighboring fire departments since this offer I've tested been offered another job in another department along with four other Bard County Employees the irony is my starting pay is is the same at recruit Academy day one as it is after here 16 years as a lieutenant with a degree this disparity is in pay is why Bard County fire rescue can't recruit and retain employees just at my station alone low pay has affected my crew in many ways I have an employee that has 11 years on the job and still makes just a dollar more than minimum wage his Le his lease agreement has run out he's looking for a new apartment to live he also has C custody of of his daughter the problem is he can't afford a two-bedroom apartment in Coco or rockage and mind you that's not in a fluent area it's very reasonable the rent is $2,100 a month or more so he's now looking into living arrangements for his daughter possibly with family and friends and this is a guy that has 11 years on the job this isn't a new starting pay issue this is a guy that's confident skilled in his trade he's also looking into changing careers I have another employee that owns a lawn care business and has a family of five he owned a truck which he used for both commuting back and forth to the station to pull his lawn trailer but yet again he found himself in a situation where financially something had to go so he sold his truck now he commutes back and forth to the station in his wife's car and when he needs to mow Lawns he rent a U-Haul truck for the day because it's cheaper than owning his own truck this is an employee at the highest pay rate of the firefighter paretic scale with a degree my other crew member's wife was a teacher for bar for 20 years for the same pay and low morale High turnover rate she's recently taken another job which pays her drastically more while I've been a lieutenant I've had 14 Partners this is just in 17 years that's getting a new employee having to train and teach them how to mitigate the problems we faced how to drive trucks emergency where the hospitals are or what I expect as their lieutenant and that process starts all over again roughly every six months and it wasn't because they didn't like this line of work they're all currently still firemen they just work for other agencies that compensate them much better for their time thank you for allow me more time there's a book that's often often referenced to regarding leadership in our fire department this book is called Extreme ownership in this book it frequently makes references to being accountable for your words decisions and actions as I look up here we pleaded many with the same faces contract after contract we've told you all about our p issues in the previous contracts we were told we would like to give you raises we just don't have the money then many in the same group do budget workshops for the coming year and very little has been done to increase the budget that allow for wage increases so where is the accountability for County management thank you thank you [Applause] sir fost Higgins good morning Commissioners my name is f Higgins um I grew up on MAR Allen and I still currently live in the county I worked as a firefighter paramedic for the county for four years and I have recently changed jobs um to be able to afford to live in the county after buying a home I quickly realized that I could not afford to live and and work for this County I worked close to 1500 hours of overtime a year and still was struggling to make ends meet for me and my family um not only is it the sense of pay but the morality since going to a new job is drastically different from the work life balance I'm currently on my Kelly day right now um the work life balance is amazing and the county Bard County does not support that and it's upsetting to see from working here seeing the ins and outs of this County and then just being I've got six months on at a different department and I am already making more and have a better work life balance I'm more in tune with my family when I come home I Was Defeated day in and day out coming from work I was on shift at stations more than I was at home seeing my own family and I think there needs to be a change before it becomes a critical failure because I still want to live in this County I love this County I did not want to leave working for this County um and I still want that for me and my family thank you for your time thank you sir [Applause] I think I saved the best name for last hair uh David Joseph vanir Breeden did I say it right yes sir all right I remembered from the workshop recognized all right uh good morning Commissioners Chief uh January 6 I got hired with uh 22 uh people I considered my brothers CU we went through EMT mire together thanks to the county sponsorship program there are 12 of us left uh five of them have left for Melbourne fire rescue a couple of them including other people hired last year just finished Palm Bay Fire rescues orientation a lot of them have left for cities because they pay better and they do not transport I'm going to try and skip a lot of the information I wrote down because other people said better than me um so skip a couple things February 20 second we entered arbitration with our contracts February 29th we had that budget Workshop meeting and there I just kind of noted that I'm brand new but hopefully the contract goes well and honestly the only reason I'm still here is because contract hasn't gone through yet I'm hoping something good comes from it but ultimately I've got to do what's best for my family September 30th our contract expires we went to impass uh we'll run calls especially I'm at uh you spend most of my time at 83 one of our busiest stations we run with both Palm Bay and Melbourne it used to be like almost brotherly bullying when they'd be like come join our department but lately it's just been pity when we run with the city engines and they're like you guys need to get out of there even if you don't come to our department just go somewhere else uh my friend Alejandro said that failure of competitive contract will result in a mass Exodus and that's true if nothing good comes from it I've talked to plenty people who' be like we've already been testing for other departments we've been getting our seat pads and applying to other departments uh but even so I've talked to many people who have left who said if this contract is good they'd love to come back everything about the county has been something that they've loved the culture the people they work with it's literally just a matter of whether or not they can afford to live here um not looking for anything exorbitant just competitive comparable so we can live in the county we love and serve in that's about all I got thank you thank you [Applause] sir now is there anyone else who wanted to speak that maybe we didn't have a card for today no okay Commissioners are there any follow-up questions based on on what you heard before we move into uh discussion on the the workshop uh in discussion in general anyone else okay very good all right uh commissioner delini um you want to introduce your item then we'll just we'll we'll discuss thank you and thank you everybody who came out here today to um let us know what's on your heart um last Commission meeting I proposed a workshop to talk about um basically the needs of our fire department and it's it's clear at least to me that it our people are what we need to focus on and while um you know capital is great and there's definitely a need for that if we don't have people to fill our fire stations um it doesn't matter how pretty our buildings are or um how many we have so with that being said I I um am proposing three dates January 29th January 30th and February 3rd at 1:00 to meet to talk about um uh the needs of our fire department are there questions for commissioner Delany on workshop on uh discussing fire needs uh it's it's in the book but January 29th January 30th I don't me to answer for you commissioner delini February 3rd uh all at 1 p.m is that right in VR any discussion on the dates any concern on the dates commissioner ainson um I would prefer January 30th um or the 29th any other input on dates question sir can you tell me commissioner what are you tell me how you going to run this thing tell me what you plan on doing um well I would like to get direction and talk about you know everybody's priorities for getting our fire department to where it needs to be I want to I want to know um like I like it says in the um packet the cost out of changing to 2472 work schedule the comprehensive needs fire stations trucks Personnel Staffing rescues and also what are what are the future needs going to be over the next 5 years that wouldn't be something you could I mean I guess to have this workshop and have 200 people in there and hear the same thing again everybody's not happy they want more money wouldn't that be something you'd want to talk to staff about first to get an understanding of how much more money can they raise if they increase the fire fund or the mstu I mean uh do you even know how much the how much does the firefighters want with all due respect I think that this has um I want an open Forum to not only talk about our firefighters they they need their public uh participation time but also the people of Bard County in general um it would be nice to have a dedicated time where we're all talking about this in the sunshine as one group oh you better plan on two or three days I'm good with that well I won't be here baby but um one thing I just wanted to to talk about just because it was brought up during public comment and um Jesus I said I I talked about this when I opened this uh topic is the 2472 schedule um our people are the most important uh piece of our fire department and um what I'm seeing from going to all of the negotiation meetings um over the past year is um our people are broken and um that's a failure in my opinion um and it's our duty to fix that and um this 2472 schedule is frankly in my opinion the only pathway forward because we have people right now who have letters um from other departments saying in a year you'll have a job here when we start the schedule and if we don't offer that same um type of work life balance for our own people we won't have a fire department to save because our people are some of the best trained firefighters in the state and probably the country and so they are going to be um sought after and uh I think that we need to make sure that we are putting up a uh contract for our people that shows we value them and that uh that we want them to stay here and frankly we have we have a space center you know and if a rocket God forbid um if an emergency happened with that we want the best trained people in the country here in Bard County we have a port one of the busiest ports in the world if a um if a catastrophe happened we want the best people in the country to be here in Bard County and the only way that we bring those people here is by being the gold standard by being the leaders in the State of Florida to get those people here and I'm of the belief after spending so much time with the field throughout um over the past year that not only would our people stay here but people would be flocking to Bard County because it's not just about um you know our exceptional training and uh our people that we already have but it's county is an amazing place people want to be here so um like somebody said before the only reason why they're not here is because they don't feel valued and they can't take care of their families so I just I really feel a huge sense of responsibility for this and I I think that this conversation needs to happen in the public and we need as much public participation as we can get okay commissioner Goodson for discussion on the item Yeah question um the commissioner mentioned that our firefighters are trained just so much better is not training for a firefighter in bouard County the same as it would be in Pasco County or is there a difference are we above the scale and I'm unaware of it because I think they do a wonderful job yes we are yeah we we are above the scale yeah I'm not I'm not familiar with hiring process but we do uh so you go through a minimum standards and then when you get to Bard County it's another 8we orientation with 10 shift ride along uh so our Training Division Vision I I appreciate commissioner Delaney saying that I start every every uh graduation for the new hires with how proud I am uh and many other fire departments in the state have actually modeled their new hirey after ours well that's well let me compliment you and the firefighters on that I did not realize that but at the same token now we value them we value the sheriff's department we be very uh we the people that work in the ditches that run the heavy equipment we value all of them absolutely okay thank you if I could just say one thing about that I I love our police I love our Sheriff um but frankly they just got 8 eight point whatever million dollars and our fire department has taken the hit every year for years and these are the people that save your life when when you when not you but we're when we're on the ground they come and they save our lives they come and run into the fires so I just yeah but believe me the sheriff is going to be watching this just like the other unions are and I understand that and I wish everything was perfect you know I think that if if we're going to do this let's bust the cap and raise the raise it and just see what somebody tell me what you want and let's just make the money that way what I would like to see is um are fire impact fees adjusted and so I'd like at some point I'd like to make a motion to do that to start the process on that and then um what I'd what I'd also like to see is you know for this is part of the reason why we want the workshop is to talk about how are we going to get there for our people okay what so back on the items so the the issue of a workshop I'm hearing uh January 30th um couple couple other things in there how how you know how long do you think that this should go um there's some other things and this leads me to say to the board that if we're going to do workshops and I think this board will do workshops um I intend to bring something back for discussion January 14th meeting uh to discuss some Basic Ground rules for workshops um I think I think there needs to be time certain and some other things there so with that said um do you think a 4-Hour Workshop would be adequate for this on January 30th I'm hearing January 30th only for drinking okay I'm okay with that okay so we'll have a Time certain to end at 5 o'cl minus the drinking M okay we'll leave that to individual Commissioners I'm not going to get into placing that okay uh any more discussion on on that item okay uh is there a motion for Workshop 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on January 30th I would like to make that motion okay sir okay we have a motion by commissioner Delany we have a second by commissioner Alman clerk will call the RO commissioner Delaney yes Vice chair Goodson commissioner adkinson yes commissioner Altman yes chairman f yes we'll show that approved 5 okay Commissioners we will go to item j4 commissioner delini this is also your item thank you everybody and appre appreciate your working with us today thank you so um we let's give it one minute okay let's just give it one minute for everybody y shall we cook off Commissioners I think that's how we should accept the room uh there's a lot lot to learn from that okay commissioner ding go ahead you recognized thank you so um and this is just for the for the public um we have a program called the speakup rarb program and um it's something that throughout my campaign I spoke about a lot because uh at least in my experience there are times when people feel unheard um they come up here and they say they're three minutes and there's not usually a response from you know an immediate response and so so uh basically this program was put into our Charter to give people a mechanism to bring forward their ideas and to have um a response from the staff and from the commission and uh one of the things that I feel that's that's lacking from this is more of a discussion around what the proposals are um and so I'd really love to have a workshop where people could come up and give us a presentation on their um on their uh proposals so that we can get a better understanding of what their idea is and um because sometimes people put in two three and four items um into speak up Bard and they only have the one three minute uh time to talk about all of those things and I just don't think that that's a fair um I don't believe that that's what the spirit of this program was and um so I am proposing a workshop uh February 18th or February 27th at 5:00 and the reason why I was hoping for a later time was because uh a lot of people they they work and so I want to make sure that we can allow people to participate questions for commissioner question Madam how many proposals were given last year do you know I believe it was 59 is that was that all 59 um yeah somewhere in that area okay and you're proposing that 59 60 people come up here and talk five minutes or longer is that what you're proposing well it depends on how many people participate the year prior there was one proposal you wouldn't like to take this to your district and you just handle it and report back back to the board well I mean I would do that if that was the board's desire but I think that it's important that um you know that we have this as a county conversation but the staff reviews them and and tells us what is not U cannot be due to statute is that not correct doesn't the staff review these things Frank I'm sorry the staff what does staff review these 59 or 60 things and then report back to us saying this is this can't be done because of an ordinance or you out of this you add of that well a lot of them if it's outside the jurisdiction if it's things that we've already tried many of them are items that have come to the board previously the board chose to not take any action and so we we prepare the each department gets things under their jurisdiction they prepare a first draft that comes to the county manager's office and the public information office we prepare drafts and we put it all together in a package that we bring back to the board for their consideration so that right now thank you Frank that chair that being said are we going to follow that procedure yes sir so that being said we might not even need a meeting if all 60 of them of of no value or the staff says you cannot do it so do you want to wait till you get these prior to having scheduling a meeting or you just want to go full blow and have a meeting I was hoping that we could have a meeting because I in my experience and it's just over the past year um with this program um what I saw was uh that you didn't believe stack no not that but I feel like there I I'm hoping to find more of a how can we work these things into these ideas into our County maybe it won't be exactly what the people are proposing but maybe there's a Yes somewhere in there okay so I think that if the people have a fair Shake of um submitting their proposal and and talking to the commission about it we can get a better idea of what they're proposing and that way we can direct the staff you know is there is there a Yes somewhere in this um proposal okay okay are there any other questions questions of the sponsor um okay uh we went through all the cards and we combine those with um the presentation let me say this about um what I think you're you're trying to do and maybe a way to get there um first of all um members of the public anyone can petition a commissioner to take up an item and possibly put on the agenda um considerate for um you know discussion I I have that in my office very routinely um there are people who come to me with a whole host of things and um I you know I try to own it right there uh no I don't think um that's going to work um I'm not willing to overturn that ordinance um oh I I agree with you I think this one fell through the cracks let's see if we can uh cure that and it goes on the agenda if if it's something that needs to be done and if not then it it doesn't make it there so and that's why I suggested to you earlier um about uh representative traymont in the North End of the county um to have a conversation with your your legislators for exactly the same reason um so quite candidly I think you could host this meeting yourself and and and bring back to the board some group of I I'll just say five items or something and say I you know I think these things are all worthy of legislative intent uh go through that process see if see if it uh meets you know various legal requirements and then for the board's consideration um you know and a in a final vote I I think you could do that with without a workshop um that's that's just my two cents on it any other discussion on that i' think I'd like to see the Pres proposal in writing so we could read it and think about it other than just hearing and voting i' I'd like to see what your ideas are and see it in writing so we can mle it over and consider I think he's got a good point in that um it could come back to the board right all the sear stuff would um possibly in January is that what we're talking about the current process is that actually January is the month in which the ideas would be submitted so it will be a significant amount of time after that because there's a 60-day period to U bring it back I think we have to bring it back with the the 0 or 120 days after uh we received the first of the items so would be probably in the March late March April time frame let me clarify something are these the items that were proposed in the last year basically at the end at the end of it'll be 23 it'll be for the proposals that are put in from January 1st to January 31st okay and then that's why when I talked to staff about this um uh I the nature of this was that way we had the proposals um in writing because that uh January 31st date would be the cut off and then um that would give us time to see the proposals in writing and then we'd have this Workshop in February um where we could hear more about their idea staff could hear more about their idea and then we could give staff Direction at that point and then they would bring us back the uh findings okay that point I I think commissioner Alman if I could clarify sir your your intention I I think you you'd like to to see those first before we have a discussion about scheduling a workshop is I just before I vote on a workshop I'd want to see something in writing ahead of time just to mul it over and and familiarize myself with the process because this is something I've never been a part of and it would be nice to have those proposals I don't think us having Workshop would increase or decrease the number of proposals that are coming up well the the sear the deadline for submitting uh the Sears right that's January 31st correct yes right so is that is that what you you'd rather make this um or have this discussion after if that makes sense that does would be help commissioner delini are you amenable to that yes okay um all right then I I think we'll commissioner Goodson thank you chair Frank could you tell me I don't you know I don't know and I'm not trying to bust anybody's chops but to have a workshop and get staff to do a certain amount of work to be ready for it do you have a number it cost us every time we say Workshop uh no off the top of my head commissioner I don't I guess it it depends on what staff is asked to prepare for a workshop could you get the board some sort of a number look low side medium of the road or middle of the road and high side I'd just be curious to know how much effort is put into a workshop that that we take staff away from their jobs like for example we're going to be preparing for Budget workshops and I'll use that as an example because we had three scheduled okay for next year and I'll work with staff and we'll come up with the number as to for each of those workshops what we anticipate the time would be spent that's the best I could do okay okay commissioner delini will revisit this okay yes thank you okay very good all right um we're going to move into board report and um and let me say we're going to have the executive session following following this and we're going to do that in the county manager's off or conference room is that right that's right okay uh the clerk has asked that I take about 15 minutes after we adjourn here to sign everything that they need So you you're going to have a 15 minute break uh in between okay so so everybody knows so let's go through board report and we'll see if we can get upstairs by 12 does that sound right okay all right okay Mr County Manager board report no report okay uh Mr County attorney no report sir okay commissioner Alman no report commissioner Atkinson commissioner Delaney I have have a report okay only imagine so um I on the December 3rd meeting we got a uh Challenge from a member of the public to do a ride along with our fire department and I was able to do that with Station 22 um last week and so I would just want to give them a shout out and say thank you so much for letting me um crash your home away from home and showing me um all of the amazing things that you all do and uh I also on December 12th went to the TPO meeting and I just wanted to give a a small update about that um we had talked about um the proposed legislation um and I was I was a little troubled by this and I hop that I could get um the others on the board to discuss this a little bit more because I don't remember there being um a conversation about the things that the board as a whole uh wants to bring forward to Tallahassee and so um that's that's something that I'm going to be talking with the TPO about and uh I would I also brought up that I would like to see more discussion on the projects that are going on because I've gone to a lot of the public Outreach uh meetings that are done and there's very few people that show up to to these meetings and uh because I've participated I have not really seen a huge um uh I've not really seen the public input translate into the actual project so that's um another thing that I'm going to be making sure to talk more about and then on Friday the 13th I went to the Neds meeting the north Bard Economic Development Zone um and an update from that is uh we sold or not we but they have accepted an offer um on one of the properties in the industrial park and that's going to be coming before the commission um at some point and so that's good news and Valiant Air Command um the expansion of their Event Center um there's a little bit of a hiccup with some of the funding and so uh you know I I we really need event space in North Bard to uh cater to some of the businesses and whatnot that are out there so I really hope that that uh you know continues to move forward commissioner Goodson and board report sir nothing all right um we'll I I think we're going to adjourn and we will meet upstairs at the county manager's office office at 12:00 okay thank you everybody we'll see you up there the opinions expressed by any member of the public during any period of public comment do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida Space Coast government television or the program sponsor and are solely those of the presenter the board of County commissioners of bravard County Florida Space Coast government television and the 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