[Music] he [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] what [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 well good evening and Welcome to our regular agenda on Tuesday April 9th 20024 we have a nice group here tonight and before we get started I would like to call up Sean Grant who will give us an invitation Sean thank you Commissioners on behalf of the uh bahis and Bard County I would like to say the invocation uh for Unity for the peoples of uh the planet and the Earth of given all that's going on oh my God oh my God unite the hearts of thy servants and reveal unto them thy great purpose may they follow thy Commandments and abide in thy laws help them oh God in their Endeavor and Grant them strength to serve thee Oh God leave them not to themselves but guide their steps but the light of thy knowledge and cheer their hearts by thy love verily Thou Art their Helper and their Lord amen amen okay if we could rise for the Pledge of Allegiance led by commissioner feltner I pledge allegiance of the United States of America the for stands Na indis liy and justice for all before we get started uh commissioner felter would like a moment of of uh comment this uh really for the benefit of the folks who support us um specifically the clerk SG TV so when we're using the microphones it's helpful if uh we make them closer to us we turn them on and off so that they don't have to do that for us um obviously for the clerk that helps with the minutes um for Space Coast government TV that's especially helpful and you know now uh closed caption and ADA compliance um is handled by uh automatically Now by YouTube and those sorts of things and so it would help everybody if we are a little bit better with the microphones that's it thanks thank you commissioner I'd like to recognize our property appraiser Dana blickley thank you for being here Dana and our tax collector Lisa Cullen Thank you Lisa for being here um we'll get started now and I'd like a motion for approval of the minutes please so Move Motion by commissioner Goodson second second by commissioner tobay any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I'll oppose nay motion carries Okay resolution Awards and presentations uh who is going to handle E1 I am sir okay commissioner pritchet I have Lieutenant kurle Albert Thal here come on up this is a joy to do this one sir um I thank you for all that you do in the community all that you've done for the veterans and I'm going to read this but we had a um Cemetery with veterans that kind of got forgotten and you guys picked it up and it it's just beautiful and I really thank you for that sir thank you thank you whereas Lieutenant Colonel Albert Thal is one of the original five founders of the friends of the cemetery dedicated dedicated to helping beautify maintain and honor our veterans in their final resting place in the Veterans Memorial cemetery on Day Street in Titusville Florida and whereas he has furthered honored veterans by serving as a coordinator for both the Titusville area wreaths Across America and the Memorial Day veteran ceremonies of The Bard County Veteran cem Cemetery and chairman of the Titus full flag and Memorial committee and we see it all of them all the time whereas sir you have generously dedicated your time and efforts to support law enforcement First Responders by planning the annual United States Patriot Day blue Mass ceremony in Titusville and by volunteering on the Titusville Police Department Community Watch we're going to be here a while because you have a lot of things you've done and whereas you're the former I know you're wonderful commander of the Tao composite Squadron and Deputy commander of the Florida Wing group 2 for Civil Air Patrol America's Premier Public Service Organization for carrying out Emergency Services and disaster relief missions and whereas you have been an active member of Holy Spirit Catholic Church Knights of Columbus nights on bikes American Legion Post one Titusville red white and boom committee 45th space Delta launch viewing site safety volunteer Cape Canaveral space and Missile Museum volunteer and trainer veteran of the United States Air Force and co-host of the Titusville annual astronaut memorial service sir therefore it is my honor that the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida does hereby recognize and commend Lieutenant Colonel Albert thot Thal Civil Air Patrol for all that you've done sir um Commissioners I make a motion today to approve this resolution second second oops there's a motion on the floor by commissioner Pritchett and seconded by commissioner feltner any discussion all in favor were signified by saying I I all oppose nay the motion carries congratulations sir do you have a few things you want to say or I am humbled and and honored to receive this um for doing something that I love to do uh taking care of the veterans is you know I've been there done that and and want to keep doing it it's awesome thank you thank [Applause] you [Applause] okay thank you very much sir uh our next resolution I mean award is commissioner felner think I see Susan Kowski here how are you have a resolution for Second Chance month I'll go ahead and read the resolution and then we'll make a motion and chair will recognize you to to make some remarks whereas every person is endowed with human dignity and value in Redemption and second chances are in American values and whereas nearly onethird of working age adults in the United States have experienced involvement with the criminal criminal justice system and whereas at any given time in Florida there are over 86,000 adults incarcerated in state prison and more than 146,000 adults are on felony supervision and whereas individuals with a criminal history face significant barriers such as the inability to find housing employment or education volunteer in their community and pay significant debt that arises because of their conviction and incarceration and whereas these barriers can contribute to relapse which increases victimization and decreases Public Safety and whereas the stigma and legal barriers associated with a criminal record result in lost human capital and lost economic output for the United States and whereas the designation of April as Second Chance month can contribute to increased public awareness about the challenges faced by those who have paid their debt and creates opportunities for individuals employers congregations and communities to extend Second Chances now therefore be it resolved that The Bard County Board of County Commissioners does hereby designate April as Second Chance month in Bard County done order and adopted in regular session this n9th day of April 2024 and with that Mr chair I'll make a motion thank you very much commissioner felner commissioner fter moved commissioner Pritchard seconded any discussion hearing no discussion all in favor signify by saying I I'll oppose nay motion carries you go ahead the young lady thank you uh good afternoon chair steel Vice chair pritet Commissioners my name is Susan Kowalski I'm the deputy director for operation New Hope the Space Coast office operation New Hope has been in existence for 25 years providing re-entry Services throughout Florida operation New Hope is a leader in the field of re-entry who has whose work has been praised by the last four White House administrations we are a national model operation New Hope was established in Jacksonville in 1999 is now and now has offices in Orlando St John's County the space coast and is opening an office in the Tampa Bay area in the coming months operation New Hope plans on opening offices throughout the State of Florida um North Florida as well as South Florida order to make a reentering network by providing extensive wraparound care and job training we provide second chances for the formerly incarcerated Operation new hopes ready for work and ready for release programs equip our clients with what they need to become a productive and responsible citizen of our community at operation New Hope We believe that we are all better than our worst mistakes our worst debt or Worse decisions we believe in people's ability to learn from their mistakes and transform their lives through commitment and hard work we value safe communities we value strong economies we value stable families and we value Second Chances thank you for recognizing April as Second Chance month and for your continued support of operation New Hope thank you thank you very [Applause] [Music] much gra water would you like I would love thank you so much thank you so much okay we have a uh quite an interesting crowd here this evening and I would like to just kind of put out a couple little things for everybody's uh to listen to quickly uh you're welcome to have a sign this evening but that sign please don't disrupt the people behind you please don't try to incite the crowd or anything of that nature we're going to have three minutes a piece on on on these conversations so we're not cutting anything back and before I get started on the consent agenda uh commissioner Goodson do you have anything you want to pull from the consent agenda yes uh F3 Okay C Service uh and chair I would like to hear the public speak about it before we get into discussion absolutely yes sir uh commissioner felner do you have anything you'd like to pull this evening I think that's the one okay commissioner pritchet good good commissioner TOA all right uh we also have some people that would like to uh talk on different subjects and one of them is a our consent agenda F1 and consent agenda F6 consent agenda f8 and consent agenda F12 and I believe that's all of them at this particular point in time but let's go to consent Agenda One sandre Sullivan please good evening Sandra suan South Patrick Shores so um I it's my understanding that this uh property uh the sewage goes to Port St John sewage treatment plant um my concern with that is I did a records request in February of 21 it was at 8 85% capacity the plant in February of 22 was at 86% capacity and in um March of 2023 96% capacity now once you're over 85% you're really not supposed to be adding development to a treatment plant until you plan to replace it so you have you have plans to replace it but we don't have a way to pay to replace it yet it's $170 million and I requested the state to help with that and the FEDS um used to be $50 million U to replace plants so I guess my objection is why are we doing still doing large development sites on a sewage treatment plant that you know is at capacity or near capacity um it just seems like when we're taxing the people to prevent you know to try clean up the Lagoon and then we're putting it at risk um that's not good business so until we have a plan in the works to replace that plant and that's probably a multi-year process I don't think we should be putting a lot of of added development on that sewage treatment plant you probably need to look at something of a more tum or something on that plant to protect the river thank you thank you very much Sandra uh your comments are noted okay [Applause] how quickly we get off this thing please tonight no applause let's not let's try to try to keep everything civil and understanding I appreciate Miss Sullivan's comments and I sorry that I chastised you I I didn't say no applause tonight so it's my fault so shame on me thank you uh all right F6 yes would if she' read um that's commissioner Goodson you went the floor for a second if you don't mind thank you yes sir in the uh Agenda Report it says city of Coco is providing sewer and water so undoubtedly they're providing the sewer and water so therefore the part the sewer plant that is at 85 is not affected with it Susan I mean Sandra do you hear that Sarah Sarah do you hear it yeah city of Coco thank you for your comments all right um let's go on Kristen where are you Kristen lording I didn't recognize you tonight without your costume nice to see you I dressed up because it's citizen engagement night on the speak at bravard item so on I am commenting on F6 right now under consent agenda and I'm commented on commenting on several of the items under consent because they did go through the meeting backup items and one of the the definition I want to read it will apply to all my items but first of all the definition of consent agenda according to the Assistant Attorney General is routine matters that are typically non-controversial and do not deviate from past board direction or policy and once again Kristen lorte Bard care citizens coalition uh is a Facebook group that I founded and on F6 I want to talk about the appointment to the local Health Council of East Central Florida in which former commissioner zanka was recommended for this appointment and she has graciously agreed according to the backup documents and so in looking at the background what I appreciated about it was that there is a summary explanation and background that talks about um the history of this particular item it does not assign a person as the recommender it just says housing and Human Services and for a high-profile former commissioner to be appointed to a current position a few questions that I have as a member of the public is was it listed are other people were they did they have the opportunity to apply for this appointment was it canvas to the public uh it's being put into a consent agenda which means that it's ending up being very low profile unless I had spoken to it I didn't feel that there was enough information to support the agenda item provided uh explaining why Miss zonka was chosen and whether or not other candidates had that option and I think for positions that are opened up to the community they should be opened up to the community I also note that she's being uh appointed as the county representative for the healthc care purchaser group I forgot we don't actually State these in the meeting so the requested action is it is requested that the board of County Commissioners approve the appointment of do of Dr Christine zanka as the county representative for the healthc care purchaser group and what I wondered because there's this other item that has ended up being related on the Lifeguard funding and that there's going to be lifeguard funding redirected to healthc care initiatives is there any connection there and I don't have the answer to that but I did wonder when I was looking through the item so I just have questions on the appointment and I have a interest making sure that these positions are opened up to the public or explained to the public why they're not and that could be included in the narrative detail for it that's my comment on that thank you thank you was that all your Co comments Kristen not on the consens I have others you only get three minutes on all of the things that are on your consent agenda that's not correct ma'am I'm telling you it is correct I've sent you an email to tell you that also and I didn't get an email from you on that well I'm sorry sorry that you didn't get one but you have three minutes to all regardless of how many things that you have on a consent agenda once you use your three minutes your three minutes is up that's not a part of the current policy you're you're I have checked with the county attorney prior to this meeting to make sure I was correct on this issue Morris do you have any comments so Mr chair I I the specific question that was asked related to the item I2 the Sears where people had multiple items within that item and uh Miss lordy I believe requested to speak individually to the separate items and the answer to that one was that it was three minutes U that wasn't applicable to the consent agenda here that that wasn't the question I understood was being asked iiz I apologize thank you very much please accept my apology allow to go through all of her items right now would you like to go through through all of them so that okay that'd be great let's let's go ahead and get that started then okay um so I did prepare so I'll go through my comments in order for the content agenda items the next one is under f8 uh where this time former commissioner Kurt Smith is being requested that the board appoint Kurt Smith as the replacement tourism Development Council representative to the environmentally endangered lands selection and management committee for a term of two years years until April 2026 and on this one there was much less detail than there was on the other one regarding Miss zanka and I felt that there should be more that is provided in this in this instance it was recommended by The Parks and Recreation Department and I would have liked to have more explanation on the background what Mr Smith's qualifications were for this particular item uh what was the selection process for it was the position made available to other members of the public and once again uh commissioner former commissioner Smith is an especially high-profile member of the public one to be appointed to the position and then next to be on the consent agenda so I didn't feel that there was enough information provided to support this and once again I didn't F that it should be on the consent agenda so those were my comments on f8 so you can restart the clock and I'll go on to the next one yes ma'am okay thank you next one is the state lobbying Services contract under F12 uh with Ronald book so he is being recommended for a $72,000 annual contract and $6,000 a month for one year and my comments on this are a little bit Nu Nuance because I there was one piece of this in particular that I commend the Commissioners on but first my objections my objections were that there was no disclosure on this at the 312 meeting that commissioner toaya has received $2,000 in funding for his campaign from this and it was interesting enough uh to the media that there is an article on Florida Today on April 2nd about this fromard County Commission backs extending the state lobbyist books contract for another year and it talks about the uh potential conflict of interest although commissioner toaya disagreed on it but that wasn't disclosed at the 312 meeting when this item was discussed I object to commissioner toaya being the one to bring It Forward the Florida Today article does give us some more backup on that it says that he saw the item on the county commission's March 12 agenda and then prior to the vote he reached out to Mr book to determine if Mr book still wanted to work as the lobbyist he also contacted members of Bard's delegation to the Florida legislature to determine what kind of relationship they had with book and after determining that book has a very good relationship with the local de delegation that's what he found out and that book is also also the father of Florida State minority leader Lauren book uh from Davey Democrat from Davy so I just felt there's quite a lot additional that was revealed in the Florida Today article um I would like to see would like to have seen commissioner toaya one not involving himself in it since he had personally benefited and then two to abstain from voting on it as an agenda item so um I felt those would have been um more helpful to me as a member of the public to let staff take care of it because he was one recommended for a raise he was recommended for a three-year contract commissioner toaya personally involved himself in the matter and now it is being uh provided presented as a consent agenda item and what I commend the commission on is that I do appreciate that you supported it as a one-ear versus a three-year Al be in a no-bid contract um but I did like that I've even contrasted that with what the city of Coco did in extending the city manager contract I appreciate that you allow the next board to uh make that final decision as of next year and then I would like to draw attention to the Florida Today quote that said U Mr banic who is uh Kim who is the supervisor of elections in a similar situation said that he did not vote on that relevantly similar item because I think all elected officials should avoid any appearance of impropriety so I appreciated that statement from uh candidate banic and supervisor of elections banic and so I for those reasons I do not support this item okay let me make just a couple of comments if I could please there is nothing illegal or unethical for any person on this particular board to be taking a campaign cont contribution for Mr book Mr book has been excellent as our lobbyist for many years bringing us millions and millions of dollars I would say he's probably the best lobbyist in Tallahassee in addition the reason why we did this in the first place was was commissioner feltner's idea because the lobbying contract was just about up and the lobbying contract would have to be extended for three years and Mr commissioner feltner and his wisdom and I believe that he was absolutely accurate said to the commission why don't we try to get commissioner book I mean commissioner lobbyist book to take a one-year extension so that when the new Commissioners come on they can make the decision on who they would like as a lobbyist so the thing that you're talking about with commissioner T is completely unacceptable as far as I'm concerned I understand your concerns but this happens all the time anybody else have any comments in regards to this okay thank you I I appreciate your comments and I concur about the one- year versus the three-year okay so um I have uh put in a card for the Lifeguard item but because that was pulled I won't speak on that now I will wait and I will speak on my last item item that I put in a card for this is under the bill folder so I went into the bill folder and expected this to kind of be not really very interesting but I found that I have a couple of items that I would like to speak to that were in the bill folder so um on some of the a few of the items that were included and requested for submission one of them had to do with copies that were made by the Commissioners and there was an a contrast between the Commissioners in terms of who went over contract on their copies so miss pritet uh commissioner pritet went over 2518 over contract including 1668 color copies commissioner toaya went 1509 over contract including 1112 color copies chairman Steele went 531 over contract including 375 color copies and zero contract overages for Commissioners Goodson and felner and both Miss pritchet and Mr toaya are current 2024 candidates now that doesn't mean that those copies were had anything to do with their candidacy and anybody is welcome at any time to send me anything after the meeting and which I would be happy to take in that information but I found that curious having to do with copies next we found in in uh commissioner pritchett's uh reimbursement she's billing $486 for one ream of classic linen paper and $192 for 500 envelopes which appear that they could they could complement each other I don't know what those are for you guys haven't been responding to my email so this isn't something that uh could have easily been addressed beforehand but I noted that and then under um commissioner toa's expenses he has been he's requesting reimbursement for $285 for the truthfinder.com membership fee plus 3.99 for data access for the unlimited persons report I object to that I don't understand why a commissioner needs to have access to the truthfinder which is a background service I went to the website on it and it says what is truthfinder used for under their questions and answers and it says to learn more about your neighbors to catch a ing spouse to research potential romantic Partners from dating apps um I I I like to think those aren't being done with public funds but I just don't understand why we if we are going to subscribe to a service like this why it can't be a government thing that goes through one government office and that is audited and explained to the public because are these people who are being uh researched do they know about it in advance what is the tracking on it and once again I welcome more information to come back to me on that so that I could feel more comfortable with this expense I also noted on the Florida today's subscriptions that uh commissioner toaya has the most extensive subscription to Florida today uh print subscriptions of $438 which include $12 in premium subscriptions plus the monthly Online subscription for $4.99 he does get a better deal than commissioner uh pritchet who is getting an online subscription for $9.99 and I just wonder with these digital with the subscriptions to Florida today just under commissioner tobias's add up that' be $588 a month and $76 a year just for one commissioner's office to have a a full scope subscription to the Florida today and I wonder about that and that's my comment may I ask a question Miss lordy did you call my office and ask them why we bought the 500 sheets of paper in the envelopes because I'm asking Adrian right now and she said she doesn't remember getting anything from you cuz I would have told you every year graduation we send congratulations to all the graduates I've done it for eight years and it's what we do thank you and um I think if you would asked that I would have told you because you're really painting a picture here that I don't know it's it's it's TR no don't speak back I don't want comments but it's really Troublesome um with Mr book um I know commissioner feltner you did that good play for you guys but if we would have just kept the same guy over the next three years we would have saved taxpayer dollars $36,000 cuz he up at 1,000 a month and and we've been through this before and you're going to have to do a lot of work but it'll never go back that low again he would have gone ahead and locked in for that amount so that's with that I mean you can paint so many pictures and this is what I hate about this type of season it just brings out the worst in people but um if you would have called my office I would have told you that there's no need to disparage me as the wor I'm talking yeah well then ask me to sit down first if you want to insult me while I'm talking I'm did you just you just called me disparaging sir yeah I'm I'm I'm I sit down excuse me Kristen please let's let's try to be civil here number one please sit her down second she respond to I'm going to sit down stop okay please just for a second the insults were coming from you not from commissioner pritchet your insinuation on commissioner toaya and commissioner pritchet is unacceptable you may have whatever opinion you want and you voiced it tonight thank you very much for that now please sit down you're welcome you're welcome all right please please stop all right now we are going to I believe the uh consent agenda 13 now commissioner Goodson you would like the people from the audience to speak first on in regards to that that is fine once again please no applause let's try to get through this sticky top subject tonight and we're going to try to get some resolution at least a little bit this evening on where this is going to go so with that Wayne carrian is it Carino Wayne sorry about that I mispronounced it did we pull yes hold on one second you still have for we can on okay you want to make a motion commissioner pret you want to let her go first before we on consent wait give me one second please we got one little thing to clean up uh Katie Delaney uh what we're trying to do is clean up the consent agenda and then we'll get down to the ones that are important you would like to send speak on on consent item number 14 is that correct I'm sorry Wayne I apologize let's let's go thank you hi hi thank you um my name is Katie Delaney and um I am not going to repeat the things that were mentioned I think that uh the concern is the look not necessarily that anybody's doing anything nefarious I think it's more so just what I would like is if we could have a little bit more transparency in this so that there are no unanswered questions so that the people know what they're looking at and why um certain purchases are made and um like I said I don't think things need to be repeated but I think that that is the um intent of of those questions thank you thank you very much all right now I want to make one comment pardon me commissioner PR please thank you five years ago this commission didn't used to put any of these things on bill folder and we made a unanimous vote that anything that a commissioner would spend money on we we just did it ourselves we put it out there so you guys can always see it on the consent agenda because we thought the transparency issue was was a adequate for you guys to always know what's going on if um there's ever Florida Today I think we all probably get that subscription for a yearly subscription so it's it's it's pretty good we put everything on there that we're going to spend as an individual commissioner on there so you guys can see it I wish every elected official would do the same I would love to see the other ones put their travel on and everything else as well I I think it's a good thing to do so I just wanted to make that comment thank you any additional comments before we call for a motion on the consent agenda I have a motion on acceptance of the commission on the consent agenda other than the items pulled the motion by commissioner pritet to toh accept the consent agenda other than the items pulled seconded by commissioner toaya any discussion hearing no discussion uh all in favor signify by saying I I all oppose nay motion carries Wayne thank you so much you're welcome good evening Commissioners it's a pleasure to speak to you this evening my name is Wayne Carino I'm the city manager um in Coco Beach and um I'm here to discuss the Lifeguard issue with everyone um we respectfully looked at um your Grant proposal and um quite frankly it was very well prepared it was very well done uh County manager bate we would like to thank you for the professionalism in the preparation of it and um we did a lot of homework and a lot of research on it and um one thing that rang in my mind um as I looked at it was um the wise man commissioner Steel's statement um at your budget Workshop where he said I will vote for this but I will make a prediction that none of the Cities will go along with this and we'll be back at square one so I'm kind of here to fall on the sword but uh the city of Coco Beach has elected to not parti not participate in the grant um agreement that has been presented and that's my statement thank you very much Wayne you're welcome yes question please Wayne Wayne commissioner pet first and then commissioner Goodson I thought I was going to get away but yeah quick quick question did you guys by any chance go back and revisit as far as your this year's commitment with the seasonal lifeguards because after we had that conversation I think you guys made the vote that not to pay anything for lifeguards did y'all change that again to go back no we didn't we we have no intention of paying that so you guys aren't going to pay anything towards lifeguards no I think we made that clear in our response okay that's that's interesting I can't hear what you have anything commissioner Goodson I have no questions that was the question I had zero is the answer okay thank you yeah yes commissioner F I'm sorry I'm I'm sorry I I'm sorry uh I don't want to I don't want to use your first name Mr Wayne Kino Mr Carino I I have a question here do you I looked at your budget do you know how much uh your city your mayor stood up here previously and said uh safety is a priority and I understand you didn't say that but I think the budget follows that and this is you know this is your job to create the budget so my question was the cost in fiscal year 24 uh of the golf the municipal golf course that uh that that Coco Beach maintains I have is 3,661 330 the revenue on top of uh to to coincide uh with that cost is $2,175 350 so in other words the city of Coco beaches uh has a deficit of $1,485 n80 uh does that sound uh to your recollection correct I I gave you I gave a hard time I'll answer that I'll answer that very respectfully by saying at this point I just made a statement that we're not going to participate in the grand agreement so this is irrelevant I mean you can check yes it is you can cherry pick anything you want out of our our uh budget you just said that you know you didn't appreciate this is not a discussion I just ask a question okay I I don't know the answer I'm not going to answer the question quite frankly okay that's fine you have the right not to answer it let let him ask the let me let me please that's that's all I was asking was if he was familiar with the numbers and the the the deficit of the golf course all right commissioner I am but I'm not going to answer the question that's fine hold on now let's let's just end this on a civil note did you have any more questions okay Wayne thank you so very much I'm sure there's going to be some more discussion tonight in regards to all this will you take the chair just for one second onto this one yeah I'm fine Miss sravan Sandra you here and then Mr Don Willis is going to be next Sandra Sullivan um so looking over how this is progressed over time so we in in May of last year 2023 uh We've we've we've substantially increased our lifeguard budget so uh between last year in May to now um it's uh 40 almost 45% of an increase in budget that's a pretty significant increase in one year um you know part of that was a request made um uh to give lifeguards to Indian Atlantic which there are a lot of drownings there so I quite understand that um and then but that the cities part of funding that City they agreed that they would pay for those costs in 2024 we're in 2024 now they agreed to pay half and they're not so that that that agreement didn't even pan out um but here's what I'm going to just say you know obviously the state has a definition when for your sand re nourishment project where you you get um additional funding for Beach renourishment for what they Define as tourism beaches which is Beaches that have over 100 parking spaces since this is your tourism product and I don't I'm not quite sure how you're tying in tdt dolls because at the budget Workshop you said you couldn't use that but you know that that I think needs to be explained but I think that our tourism beaches as using the definition that the state uses which is Parks over a 100 par parking spaces I think that the county should be funding 100% of those as essentially premium beaches with additional services and whatnot um and and moving in that direction so um I think that um you got to plan and not just do one beach at a time and add beaches and have creep on the budget I mean because obviously who's who's who's paying for this this 45% increase in in one year which is just not a fiscal way to do things but you also you know I am appreciative of the staff report and them looking at where the drownings were and prioritizing in that for example where I'm from in the Satellite Beach area we didn't have any drowning so we don't but you know look to the bigger picture of a you know since you're going in the tourism Direction and hopefully our state reps will bring some legislative change with tdt tax next year um and and working towards that that that can off set that expense um but I think we need to to look at the whole tourism picture of funding 100% the beaches such are your tourism product uh that have more than 100 parking spaces which is how it's defined for your beaches program and tying in thank you can I ask a question absolutely Mr Richardson is it possible to use the tdt funds to fund all the lifeguards yes it's possible to use use tdt funds for lifeguards that the amount would determine whether you could entirely fund lifeguards with it but you can use we had that conversation before that that might not be a bad idea worthy of an of a thought to find out how much we would be allowed to pursue on that so maybe we get some data on that it's not a legal issue it really comes down to available funds but you can expend tdt on on lifeguards generally please thank you Commissioners um I certainly understand being on the other side of the comment table um my name is Don Willis I'm From the City of Cape Canaveral city councilman a resident and a taxpayer um I believe that uh the decision on this item if it were to go forward would have detrimental effects on local community uh in the past Until Now cape canaval has had a wait and see attitude over these issues because we do not have a dog in the fight uh we have U Cherry down Park as part of Cape Canaveral but that is fully operated by the county um and because the county has proposed to carve Cape Canaveral out of the park system there um all of the Beachside cities uh we are the only one who have not been given a county park but having done that um what is in it for us um Cherry down Park May in the future become a city-owned park and we would welcome whatever the County Commission were to deem appropriate but at at this point in time we feel that we need to be in support and solidarity with the other Beach side communities I think uh this represents a future tax increase for City of Cape Canaveral if it were to go to uh over to us and it becomes another string in the Cherry down park proposal um we agree with the position of the other Beachside communities and Beach City residents do not use lifeguard Services any more than anyone else in the county um and we'd also believe that the TDC bed tax should be considered to offset at the share of lifeguard services so I appreciate your attention and a thank you I'm sorry we're going to have questions yes sir commissioner so do I understand you that you you would help pay cocoa beaches no we'll pay ours oh so we we'll pay ours we can put you in the pot then correct to help pay if if we were to have that Park that might be a consideration great I think that'd be wonderful you know since you you're standing with them okay now now we're the ones that are cutting up up here well I would go out there and kiss Coco Beach first no we have to we have to have something we'll give you a lifeguard if you'll have pay there you go without the without the strings though thank sir hold on a second um first of all thank you for the way you you came up it's it's very delightful and um I'm sure that you're a real asset to your city so I want to thank you for that do you guys have any paid parking on your beaches all no we do not okay that would be a question so thank you for that CU that's something I'm I'm looking at as well well it would be something we would have to consider in the future not for you necessarily but those that do have paid parking that's kind of what I'm kind of weigh in here a little bit too but thank you thank you you you're different thank you Don can I ask real quick so none of the beach access um points along like Ridge um does Ridgewood yeah no meters out there no meters okay thank you than thank you thank you so much Sher Cory Europe up Sher Cory vice mayor town of Melbourne Beach and um quite frankly we just don't have the money for the Lifeguard uh grant that you've proposed and we do have paid parking we have 95,000 as a prediction of Revenue in our uh 2024 budget right now our paid parking is over 90 or over 50% um lower than it was for this same time period last year so I don't see that that 95,000 is going to be a figure that we're going to be able to hit um so I'm glad I had that information for you um we also we've been working and looking into this uh from a town standpoint and there's there's no feasible way that we can pay for it all ourself so we've been looking at uh trying to put together something that maybe Bard County should look at doing and that is perhaps a ambassador program where you could put together some um people that would maybe Patrol the beach as a volunteer and help with keeping people safe so that some of the Lifeguard issues would be a little bit subsided so that perhaps we could have a part-time lifeguard station at the current uh price but right now that doesn't even look feasible for our town so we're still trying to figure out um how you can pay for it because we don't seem to be able to put the money together um we're only a one square mile town so this would uh ultimately become a tax burden to our residents and um I think that your uh tourist tax are whatever other Revenue sources that you can creatively come up with to pay for this would be greatly appreciated this does seem to be something that happens more when we have visitors um I don't believe any of our residents um are having difficulties with the safety on the beach other than perhaps uh when there was that shooting at sper Holland and we didn't have any coverage from Bard County maybe there could be some security added into that in the ambassador program so that you could make the beach safer and also help uh from a drowning standpoint thank you any questions I got a couple questions I believe was it commissioner toaya that was first or commissioner P thank you Mr chair and your budget was 95,000 is what we put in 2024 oh no no I'm I'm I I looked at your city budget and I looked at some line items on there because you said you didn't have any money and you may hear uh us say things you won't hear us say we don't have uh enough money you'll see we have uh better uses for that money so I'm I'm putting that back to you on there you have a line item for DEC decorative light poles do you know how much money your city uh spends for uh decorative light poles I don't know the number for the decorative light poles how about how about we do need to have the light poles security these were decorative light poles I think that anything that is not provided by fpnl is considered decorative this is a line item in your budget correct ma'am uh okay uh restoring dolphin carvings that's in your that's a line item in your current budget correct and that was paid for by our um parking and that uh dolphin the parking Revenue could the parking Revenue be used to pay for lifeguards that's where the money is coming from which is why I cited what our revenue from the Ocean Park parking is last year your parking Revenue in fiscal year 20 uh 24 was $22,000 that's not Ocean Park your everything absolutely correct and the cost share that we asked this this would be what 50% and you've given us a part-time of 63,9 the C would be $127,000 that's the cost share so in other words your parking draws more Revenue than the Lifeguard would cost your city you might have to cut out decorative that's incorrect we would have to cut out Rickman park playground upgrades would you prefer that the children don't have any new equipment I'd prefer I would prefer that you'd prioritize safety and not decorative and restoring dolphin carvings ma'am I mean Vice chair sir VI May mayor vice mayor I apologize sir the um the dolphin carving is a piece of art that's part of the history of our town and we did that as a preservation I I I appreciate that and I appreci I I appreciate your prioritizing that over the safety of the people on your beaches I think you're totally Incorrect and your statement and I would like to go on record is saying that I think that you're not paying for all of the lifeguards when you're bringing in all of this this money and all of these tourists you're disregarding the the health and the welfare of visitors not to mention the other people that have to go out and try to rescue these poor people that don't know how to navigate our beaches I have not seen any material I think I asked a question I think it was it was answered well miss Cory thank you so much now commissioner pritet thank you go ahead thank you ma'am thank you you're you're very nice by the way as as well this isn't a easy subject whenever time about money and lives I know I know um but I know that we all agree that people's lives are the utmost importance that whether they're guests here or people that live here we don't want anybody getting hurt so I just I just know we already have that platform and the the the majority of drownings of what I'm hearing from the cities is is from people that are visiting in your city I have a um want to give it to that true let me just do this path real quick for you yes we had we had a um so we have in January we had a a PhD that gave us a breakdown okay just that's correct data correct okay but so the the thing is though you guys live in tourism towns on the beach there it's kind of the personality it's been there probably since you were a little girl and and this is what you have to manage so um and so it it's everybody's responsibility it's the city's responsibility it's the County's responsibility because they're our guests so we have to figure out a way to start moving this needle a little bit because I think the cities do need to participate so my thought is if you're charging parking for people that visit your area as tourists then maybe you need to charge a little more to help cover some of these costs to help protect the tourists that are there so I I think you guys need to go back to the drawing board a little bit and come with the way to help move this needle and start moving it and again if you said you have no paid parking that I I probably would just leave you alone right now like the other gentlemen but you're making money on the tourist and you're a lot of your advam is from tourist you have a great Community by the way thank you but I think if you guys go back and start working on a way to start moving this needle I think it would be a better conversation than like the city's just saying we we're not doing anything anymore cuz it's just I you know that's just irresponsible but if you guys would work on that I I think we could get somewhere may I may I answer that briefly yes ma'am um we have our paid parking meters at $2 and the way that our income is coming in we would have to make that $6 an hour in order to just kind of break even if you will maybe you can do we've already got our um police and fire they're as I said in the beginning putting together an ambassador program wonderful for patrols we've already increased our signage and streamlined our signage that was recommended and we've already got um a lot of other things that are on the beach and uh I think we're doing our part and I implore you to do more of yours okay I'm sorry go ahead commissioner we're already paying almost all of it and we're going to continue here paying half so you guys have to start moving the needle a little if you started charging more for the parking your tourists then are paying for that and so and and we're agreeing I'm hearing it from everybody that the TDC money needs to do it well that's tourism money so as the tourism comes they can help pay for that service so if if you guys would come and say look we're going to double the parking every bit of it that comes in extra we're going to help cover these lifeguards then we're starting to move that needle some but this can't be a shutdown conversation we're not going to get anywhere because you guys all know as well as I do that you need tourism in your community CU you're a tourism community so that that's just not an option let get rid of your tour because I want you to thrive and and to do well it's a wonderful County wonderful community so that's just someone mentioned so if you guys would go back and start working on moving that needle some with a real conversation then we probably could get somewhere with with some kind of way to move forward into the future of how we're going to get to here I will take it back to the commission um but also please realize we don't have hotel we miss Cory we need to wrap this up I have one last question for got parking meters one last question for you at this point in time the city of Melbourne Beach is planning not to enter the program is that accurate I'm I'm not here to say that okay I am just here to to say that we don't have the money all right we've we heard you very well you've done a great job with that thank you so much thank you it well I'm not finished yet not put a what is your name Robert okay we'll take right after the uh the rest of them finish if that's okay we're certainly not going to miss you mayor how are you this mayor yeah that's the mayor I'm talking about I'm not talking about the old gray mayor that'd be me well good good even go Ahad May thank you very much for having me thank you again for dealing with all of us and our concerns um just to reiterate on the on the uh the Lifeguard and on the revenue that you guys also make we have uh 643,000 residents in Bard County and Coco beach is 11,350 less than 1.8% of all the residents in Bard County so I do not think it's fair for Bard County or for coco beach to pay for 50% of all the lifeguards when we only make up less than 1.8% we cannot uh we cannot handle a $700,000 lifeguard bill it just it's just not going to happen so um you know yes John likes to bring up that we uh um or commissioner John likes to bring up that we uh we make revenue from our parking absolutely we do and we make about $3.7 million so just so you know we spend 46% of our um of our revenue from well not parking but our on our budget for our safety uh which is 5.6 million um just on non-resident uh emergency along so we're doing our part you know just because we make money on parking doesn't mean we don't spend it on tourists doesn't mean we don't spend it on making sure that our parking lots are maintained um also Mr uh commissioner tobay I like to say that we spend uh uh on on uh public uh TV that we prefer vanities over um over safety which is you know I think that's just a a cheap jab um he we we even talked before that that we we did not um we we did not plan on doing the the caricatures that was from the previous city manager so um that being said we don't plan on uh paying into it because we feel it is the obligation of the county we pay County taxes and it would be double taxation for for lifeguards we already paid taxes everybody in the county pays and Coco beach actually has the highest uh taxes per capita out of anyone in the county uh with almost $3 billion do of taxable assets so um you know I just I just don't think that that's you know altruistic to make us pay for half of our lifeguards you did mention tdt could pay for lifeguards TDC actually pulls in uh over $3 million a month um from uh Coco Beach alone and you guys advertise from here to New York to for people to come and uh use coco beach beaches swimming near a lifeguard you guys advertise Coco Beach because you know that Cocoa Beach brings in that tdt money so if you're bringing in 3 million a month why don't you just spend half a month of of your income and use it for lifeguards for the year it just seems you know logical so thank you thank you Mary commissioner Tobi you have a question thank you mayor for being here I appreciate it continually being here uh a couple things I just want to you know uh you you mentioned you vote for the budget of course uh you did mention that your taxpayers are the highest taxed in the county yeah we also have the biggest debt just okay so okay as as the mayor you voted for the highest okay got it so how would you respond to at your last uh March 7th meeting uh you you you Ed the word we I'm not sure who the wi were speaking about whether that was you or the the council you didn't say I my question is is uh uh a commissioner skip Williams who sits on here said and I quote I believe we owe it to our constituency uh in our city to provide lifeguards at our city beaches yeah we had one out of four that thought that you you know that he didn't he was afraid that we're going to not have lifeguards but honestly I'm not afraid because it's honestly it's not our responsibility it's the County's responsibility to provide safety for life and that's whether it be on land or it be on this on the beach you know you want to talk about uh Mr chair my my my question was very simple yeah when you say we yeah you're speaking for you as an individual or the board in total that that that iess I can't speak for the board in total other than that other than that that vote was a 41 vote to not fund you guys yeah so thank you I just wanted and I wanted to be clear that there was a member of your commission who uh spoke uh contrary to what you're actually saying up here who prioritized Public Safety and thought it was incumbent upon the city to pay for half of the lifeguards so when you flippantly use the word we uh I think it's unfair uh for me to generalize uh the entire majority Council uh I I'd like to say that I really appreciate uh what Mr Williams said and and I think that was uh very important and I wanted to make sure you recognize that as well okay commissioner pret do you have comments I do sir thank you um you had said a moment ago that the city of coko beach brings in $3 million for tourism money what's that that you just said the the TDC has $3 million a month coming to them because of Coco Beach's tourism yeah you guys had a print out that said 24 month record break so how much does coco beach get from the tourism in your ad vorum and restaurants and all those taxes we don't get money from tourism from we don't you guys if they visit you no if they visit you and they're eating in your restaurant you're getting all those business taxes coming in it's it's giving you we get sales tax from the people eating in the restaurant yeah if you if you want to go run the numbers on that and see how much money your city gets from from some of those taxes that come to you you you do get a share of those so you guys can use a half a month and pay for lifeguards I think that would work well let's let's throw this out what if what if then we took your parking garages and we took that money and we pay for all the lifeguards then we have to pay for our safety our fire and safety and everything like I said we we 46% goes to non-residents which is 5.6 million it doesn't your parking garages are there for tourism to park in and you're making money off the tourism parking in your garages you know I was thinking too that's how much of a loss do you guys have on your this is the whole here's the thing is I'm in North Bard I've got this I'm in North Bard and we don't have to use any of this so I get it you guys need to keep people safe but that argument won't work with me because we're not using any of those funds so on this to participate you have how much money do you take out the parking garage fund because they're all tourism parking there and maybe apply to some of this are you guys willing to work on that need a little pay a little bit charge a little bit more money to start paying some of these fees are are you guys willing to do that it's your tourism completely paying for their us to until you guys decided to charge us $700,000 more that we don't have we're not going to play this game this isn't a game sir I'm trying to do I'm an accountant I'm trying to get some numbers here and for you to just say we're not going to be responsible for anybody that visits our city anymore is really irresponsible I'm sorry it just is you did so well ma'am and sir you did too but I think you just have to go back and you guys need to work on something something here to help move that needle Su just to shut it down it's it's it's not a good situation section of your code of ordinances 262- say you guys pay for lifeguards okay mayor thank you so much um thank you yeah well that's that's subject to change commissioner pret I I apologize but what I'm trying to get here is some conversation going from one side and answered from the other side and when you're talking over each other I'm not able to catch any of it so I'm sorry Serv Commissioners have to do this because we have to vote well I understand I I just what we do I you you're going to lecture me now on what we do up here we have to get information wow okay let's move right on Jeremy Hutcherson please Jeremy Hutcherson cooko Beach thank you all respectfully Commissioners also commissioner Coco Beach um I I look at this very simply as we're asking my residents to consider Revenue share rather than the cost share side of it it's it's really hard pillow to swallow to tell residents hey the brand of Coco Beach is very valuable we make a lot of tour and dollars off that but if you look at the revenue share versus the cost share I think it simply is as easy as that so thank you thank you very much Katie Delaney thank you my name is Katie Delaney and I'm coming at this from the citizens side um I wish that a conversation would have happened prior to that um budget hearing because personally looking from the outside in it's like a bomb was dropped on the cities out of nowhere and um I don't think that's fair I don't think that that uh is helpful when you're trying to work together and have a conversation about especially money which let's be honest that's one of the hardest things to have a conversation about um so just going forward I I I hope that this commission would change the way that they do that and rather than saying you know uh dropping the ball on on these cities I mean h have that convers have that conversation have that uh deliberation between the elected officials even if it's a if it's has to be a workshop or whatever it is um you guys do interlocal agreements all the time and we don't have this much combative uh nature going on uh so as a citizen again I just hope that we can do better thank you chair thank you chair commissioner Goodson Katie yes sir we gave directions to staff for Frank katti and our attorney to go out in May of 23 and talk to these people it wasn't dropped on them at the workshop they were well aware of this correct correct you're absolutely correct we had multiple meetings with each City in May of 23 in September of 23 the board uh gave us direction to go uh deal with the cities on that 5050 cost share basis and we met with each of the Beachside cities even the ones not receiving lifeguard Services currently well they seem blindsided so that just from somebody looking in this again I'm a citizen you guys are are paid to be here and paid to you know do what you do and just from the outside looking in it's it's shouldn't be the way we do business what has happened if we if they look blindsided what are we supposed to do the next time we go could you advise us I don't think that's my job huh well that's why you guys get paid the big bucks well you know we we did go them prior to the workshop okay thank you all right Kristen lordy Christian LTE Koko resident and I have an answer for commissioner Goodson so I've got a few ideas and I'm aware that there were discussions that happened in 2023 about the lifeguarding that this was not a matter that was res solved and I would like to say that now that we've rounded the bend into 2024 the conditions aren't right for this discussion to have happened these were brought up at the 229 budget workshop and these people were not notified so let's be clear about this these people were not notified that there was a non- aggenda walk-on item presented at the 229 Workshop this very item tonight on what you're presenting was presented as a consent agenda item this was not presented as a hey let's chat about it this was a consent agenda item and which you're moving forward there's no reference to the three Florida Today articles there's no reference to the TV there's been two TV um uh episodes or uh feature stories on this I mean no reference to the controversy just marching forward with this grant program and the funding is a done deal in our rearview mirror that is not the setting that you have a conversation in people at this meeting are being talked over not just myself earlier but people that I listened to on this agenda item were talked over after they were asked a question because you guys are so eager to um get your own answers and to control the conversation I want to commend commissioner chairman steel for something that he said in Florida today that would have that would present much more favorable conditions if it were to really happen in the Florida Today article uh by John Torres it says steel explained the item will come back around again when the county manager releases his final proposed budget in July and he's promised that there will be plenty of time for public input then we'll address it again in July very intensely steel said because I'm going to demand that everybody knows exactly when that conversation shows up and I'll tell you what's going to happen when it does we're going to have a lot of people in that County Commission meeting well that meeting appears to be happening right now tonight under a consent agenda item to do an up or down vote on the already marching forward of the grant program where these cities have been stripped some of them to 90% that you guys were doing a 90% contribution prior now you're stripping it down to 50% and acting it like that's normal I object to the conditions of this I object to there being no reference to the controversy in the agenda item I object to presenting this as a win in the agenda item so someone who's looking at it doesn't know um that the how much the increased cost in the M municipalities even though the dollars are all here it doesn't State the extent to which the budget is changing and that these cities might not be happy about that and then the funding discussion at 229 where my very speaker card was denied personally once I saw that you were doing a non-agenda item my speaker card was denied the county attorney was gracious enough to to give me a response to that which I disputed but nonetheless I was not able to speak on that now I'm able to speak now and I object to the process and I want to he I want something where we have an actual Workshop we we have actual two-way discussion and not just people asking questions and people being cut off that's my request thank you Kristen you're welcome Robert thank you guys esteem chair and the board of County Commissioners I um around the time that I started my business launch pad Solutions and not trying to lobby but I trade at mobar man over bird search and rescue system to put on the pack of cruise ships it drops a it's a heavy weather drone with an IP rating of 67 and it goes on the back of Cru ships and it drops off life rafts to people that fall overboard well Telemetry and Vall and some security measures aside if that could be something used for lifeguards where we use drones under 60 g511 no longer can we use but us-based drones for government agencies I did try to contact P Central purchasing services bcfr and the police department yet going through the proper channels as Central purchasing Services um now that would be something where it would save cost you have a lifeguard that's paid per hour if you were able to say have a drone for a year or a piece of uh equipment that could go and not only measure the security aspects of it but be there for a program an interlocal program for the high schools the colleges and such as fit who has an expo and they do some uh amazing stuff with their uavs and uas systems so I heard a lot of problems up here I'm trying to present some solutions because I heard a back and forth and I've never actually been at Mission meeting with this many elected officials going back and forth that the other elected officials so that's something where uh it's it's amazing to me that me coming up here I think there's a solution to it but let's try to actually present some solutions to the problems not just the problems at hand thank you thank you Robert uh let's talk I think there's several things that we need to clear the air with Morris in regards to the workshop that we had commissioner tobias's motion was just a a proposed motion it did not cast it I'm I'm asking this question now that was not set in stone and it wasn't an automatic that that was going to happen until the budget would be approved later on is that an accurate statement that's absolutely correct yes sir okay so once again there was nothing cast in stone at that budget meeting period hold on do not do that Sor please we've been relatively calm tonight let's keep it that way now tonight what we're doing is if I'm not mistaken I was mistaken once with Kristen so I don't want to be mistaken twice is this not in the event that we accept that proposal forms that are going to be used to enter into contracts with the cities is that correct these are proposed forms in a program for a grant program that would award funds to the city to help fund lifeguards at City maintain Parks yes sir okay so it does not say that we are going to do that does it Morris it does not you would have to ultimately approve through the budget process uh the the use of those funds but this would give guidance and and we would expect to receive applications from the cities if the board approved this tonight there's a deadline in the program of I believe uh is it a July 1st deadline for Grant applications that's right which would be prior to your budget hearings okay so just to set the record great there is nothing cast in stone here this evening until we have our budget hearings in June or July in the event that we entered into any of those agreements we would have everything ready to go and all of the forms ready in the event that this passes now I I have laidback on this for a long period of time and i' I'd like to make just a few comments one TDC funds are perfectly capable of being put into play for lifeguards I have wanted TDC funds be used for lifeguards from the very beginning I have a tremendous amount of respect for commissioner toaya I think what he he's saying is he believes and he would like participation with the cities and and I understand that and I think commissioner pritchett's trying to do the same thing but what I'm saying is is that I knew this was going to happen Happ this didn't take Albert Einstein to figure out that when these numbers were so high that the cities were going to come back and they were going to say no now I don't know what we're going to do if we have a stalemate on this it's going to be very ugly and it's going to potentially be very harmful to our visitors and anybody that's on that beach so we may all walk away from here say yeah we showed them we showed them yeah that was so great while we have people drowning on the beach or pulled from the surf I'm not buying it I'm not buying it so we're going to have to get together somehow or another whether it's we call a public meeting or a public Workshop or whatever it is to determine how we're going to get this done but by God we got to get this done because the first person that dies out there on that beach it's all on both of us not just the cities not just the counties but both of us and we can't do that so I'm praying that we can come up with some way to get this done before the budget's over and my I I'm not prepared to talk about it tonight but I'm but I think we need to use TDC monies and and do things like that so that's the last I've got to say on it commissioner Goodson Yeah question question Mr chair or Frank how much money can we use out of TDC what is the percentage could that could go 100% um are you that would the amount that could be used is dependent on whether you are talking about it going for um all the beaches whether it's municipal or Incorporated that point use for everything at that point the issue is um How much the board chooses to uh utilize within the pennies that are available and so you know so you're tell prioritizes that you could use it up to the full amount okay um and I believe the county attorney's already uh and I had inquired that of him and I believe that's accurate and I should clarify I issued an opinion earlier that said the use of tdt funds is permitted but I I should qualify and say it's only certain portions of the tdt that is available for lifeguards it would be uh part of the marketing fund basically and and for towers and Capital Equipment uh potentially through the capital program would be the availability but there would be certain pennies like ironically the beach fund you can't touch for lifeguards for example so is it would it be correct to say that we could fund 100% of the lifeguards or 80% give me some sort of idea if the if the money was there you could but I'm going to guess Peter would tell you the funds in the right places aren't available to do that but I'm I'm not the the money person now the other question would be right now there is an uptick in the money to the tune of $3 million did they not exceed it their last month was over $3 million in the previous year something like that the three Mill what you're saying the $3 million I'm saying the economy is so good that did they not exceed last year's uh March at by 3 million something they had a month where the collection I believe was in the $3 million range I think they were in what 26 27 million for the year they're budgeted for $27 million a year uh February was uh was $2.7 Million that's the last month of collections okay um so there's a possibility that everybody could be happy but at the same time if you had a turn down or a recession then it would be right back up here in our lab to try to fund it correct right tourism is one of the first areas that if you have a recession they're going to be hit harder okay thank you thank you chair commissioner pget thank you sir um I if we could figure out how to do that we tried this in 2023 and there was a hitch with being able to only do it for um capital projects that would be something that I would like to to look at um I'm not willing for people to die on the beach I um do think I I want to say this this is good dialogue and every time we bring something up and we're able to have these types of conversations um well we can't speak in private but you guys are watching us work out all of this information ask the right questions because ultimately we got to vote and we don't want to M make mistakes we want to make good decisions for the people inard County so this is a very healthy thing here that's that's transpired tonight and and finding out where people are and what they might be able to go back and help with um I don't I have no I commissioner Goodson I'm with you I I'm I would love to be able to use some more of those funds if if we have the ability to do it and they're up but I would really like for the cities to to to help with this too and go back and help figure out ways that you can help stimulate tourism funds with it as well um so it's it's a good start of a conversation and it's it's opened up a lot of good dialogue healthy dialogue but the goal is that nobody dies and we we keep a wonderful County here with with people being able to come and enjoy the county with a safe situation so if everybody would go and start working on moving their needles I I think we could possibly get somewhere I don't think y'all are going to be able to pull off half yet I don't know but if we don't help budget a little it has to be concerned so um commissioner Goodson good thought and if we could pull that off I'm I'd be very um pleased with it okay any more comments or discussion this evening okay do I hear a motion to approve f13 for the purpose of drafting the forms in the event that we end up with agreements from the cities on on this issue yes no problem commissioner about the proposal the one thing I do not like is commissioner put on there a preference that said I think a condition said that with the savings that it would go to transportation and safety okay I think that should be stricken because I think we as a board need to decide where the savings go if there is a savings did you not state that representative I mean U commissioner Taya or am I confused Mr chair yes sir go ahead uh if if Transportation was added in there it it was um uh a scrier error my intent was this to go to public SA safy I didn't any I didn't anyone want anyone to think if there wasn't the idea is there is no savings here the idea behind this program is as we've heard from Cape Canaveral that they may look into looking and getting this program and if if we got buying from the cities we could offer this grant program to communities that have beaches right now but don't have lifeguard programs and we've made good first steps on this uh commissioner uh sorry uh our County Manager as well as our uh County attorney had met with the cities like Indian Harbor Beach and Satellite Beach and said here's a program in which the county will pay 50% for lifeguards for Public Safety so so I hope there is no Savings in there I hope we're just able to take the same amount of money and provide lifeguards for a greater portion of our beaches but I have no idea it's pretty clear what one member of the uh Town Council of of of cocoa beaches but I don't know what all of are going to say but if there is some sort of savings I think it's very important it stays in public safety and public health I don't want it to go to uh and listen that's a broad category we spend tens of millions of dollars my one area that I put was for uh that that I line item something was for and we can add it in the budget was for the uh Public Health Department because Dr zanka was looking at providing services for uh for more for mo more folks in a more private setting now that would have to go through the budget process um and I certainly would spearhead that but I didn't want anyone to think we were putting this in in in in other buckets so uh definitely not Transportation but uh Public Health were and Public Safety were the areas that that were my intent okay thank you thank you sir okay any other comments commissioner Prett I was just going to recommend maybe we table this for one more meeting till we get data back on maybe some funds that might be available the tdt funds and then um if you guys would go back and and just do do a little sharpening see if you can help with this maybe we can come to a place that is good for everybody can I ask one question on on that of Morse um we had quite the discussion before that it using tourism tax was problematic um if there's enough money in the bucket um Can you're telling us tonight that potentially we could pay for the whole lifeguard program is that right and hear that yeah consistent with the prior opinion um it's again it's from those certain pieces of the tdt so it's a portion of the first two pennies and a portion of the fifth Penny that's in the marketing program uh it's depended on marketing that service as part of Tourism so you'll see things like lifeguard Towers on billboards for example or marketing efforts showing the lifeguards on the internet to support that as a service if you do all those things you can access those funds but I I want to emphasize that it's a portion of the funds and there's competition for those dollars in those in those buckets because that's your marketing fund so that's what you use to advertise and promote provide elsewhere I I appreciate the opportunity costs um discussion on that um so but without tourism tax or without the city's participation my understanding is 100% of the Lifeguard cost uh would come from County general fund is that correct that's they well currently uh there were you know Coco Beach was they've participated for many years up to this year where they changed it but they were paying for approximately 25% of the seasonal lifeguards as were other cities outside of that portion of the of the cost then the count the county was paying the rest of it through the general fund so without any other participation 100% it's going to be paid for by the property owners of this County right yes it it was like like I said a portion of it right is there a motion to table or there a motion to approve or M Mr commissioner go ahead uh here's a large problem with the we've heard that 100% so let's assume let's assume for a second that the money is there um let's assume that the economy doesn't take a town a downturn and we have consistent Revenue um let's even assume a three or 5% increase um let's assume that we offer and we fully cover the lifeguards in India Atlantic like we are now uh uh Melbourne Beach and Coco beach let's assume Satellite Beach is listening to us right now and Satellite Beach says wow uh we pay into tourist development there are some short-term rentals and and all that stuff and and we would like three or four lifeguards let's assume Indian Harbor Beach hears this and says you know what we would like lifeguards um this $2 million program will be a $5 million program overnight and there is absolutely no idea no sorry there is absolutely no way that the marketing fund will be able to bear that burden so it's it's a misnomer uh to say that 100% could cover lifeguard Services because it will not happen because the other cities will come and ask for equal treatment and then we start running into problems when we're paying 100% of lifeguard services for coco beach and zero for Satellite Beach so uh we as a board need to stop negotiating against ourselves we have a proposal here the proposal needs to be provided to the cities the cities then as a organization can come together and create a counter proposal to us what I'm concerned about if we don't take action today is what happened last year when we waited to the last minute and we said you know what we're going to going to do this one more we're going to do this one more year because that same uh that that same thing is going to continue I'm going to put a a a motion here that we take this proposal that even the opposing side said was put together uh very well and send it to the cities some cities May reject it some may accept it but at least they will provide us with their feedback and at least they may say Hey you know 50% is unreasonable I'm not willing to do away with the the the golf courses even though Bard County by the way did away with our golf courses and we don't spend $1 on golf courses uh but nonetheless uh we we put this forward so I'm I'm going to have a motion here again this doesn't require this is taking the documents that we have here and providing it to the cities again the cities can reject the city can make counter proposals but unless we don't unless we take don't take action now we don't take action now we're going to be up against uh the gun at the last minute when we're making budget proposals so my motion is to approve the B uh The Bard County lifeguard service grant program provide the city manager and City attorney the attorney to offer eligible municipalities that have uh that have beaches along the man uh along their managed Parks the opportunity to participate in the grant program provide the county manager authority to execute the grant agreements notice Awards requests for payments and any necessary budget chain requests associated with this program and uh agenda item as commissioner steel said uh this all gets encumbered in the budget we just need to have those numbers going in this is what triggers that I sincerely hope that the cities uh accept this and if they don't they at least provide a counter proposal the only counter proposal we have right now is from the city of Coco Beach which said oh by the way the 90 ,000 that we were going to pay this year we're no longer going to uh uh move forward so that is that is the motion um again this is just sending it out to the cities and seeing what response we get is there a second to the motion can ask a quick question for clarity yes sir go ahead uh what's the what's the deadline we get them all back by if everybody says yes everybody says no what's uh cuz to his point we may have to come back and clean some things up later so what's what's the timeline on this well in part of the package that you have there's a proposed letter that would go out to the cities that letter indicates that we're looking I believe it's um either July 1st or or June 30th and the reason for that is uh so that we can submit I can submit to the board an appropriate proposed budget that takes into account uh whose particip ating and how many dollarss you need to have in the budget to cover those costs so uh that's that's how it was uh put together is there a second to the motion second for discussion commissioner Pritchard second it go ahead commissioner so this is going to continue the conversation but here's my thought Commissioners commissioner feltner um I've got another six months this is going to end up being yours next budget you too commissioner Goodson so I think if you guys go find something with the cities whatever you want that you can live with if you guys can get you three votes together I'll be your fourth um so I'm going to I'm going to watch and see what you guys want to come back with you're the ones this is your area it's going to be something you guys have got to pull together for your budget so that's where I'm going to be but if commissioner toaya wants to send this out right now to keep the conversations going um I don't object to that because this is healthy but by the end of it whatever you guys come back with um I'll I'll be your fourth vote on it can I commissioner felner just real quick I I think the municipalities and the county could agree that um we would prefer for tourism tax to pay the whole thing right I'm seeing a lot of okay so uh I think that's a I think that's a good goal I don't I don't know that that's realistic but um I I think we'd all prefer not to have to pay lifeguards out of our general funds respectively so um we'll see what the future holds okay okay the motion's been seconded I have one final I think unless somebody else wants to add to this uh I think this is a complete waste of time I I think to send this out to the cities right now is a complete waste of time because the bottom line is is that I don't know about you guys but I heard what you said tonight you're not going to do it I said it before I'm saying it again tonight and we're wasting more time and more time and more time I just don't know how we're going to be able to get there with the proposal that's potentially uh the forms and the stuff that we have so until we get the amount of money that we could get from the TDC I'm a no vote on this so uh any more discussion hearing no discussion all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I I'll oppos nay nay okay the motion carries 3 to two I would like to take a f minute break if you could please thank you so much if [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] w [Music] n [Music] n [Music] [Music] a [Music] he [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] he [Music] hey this is going okay I believe we're on F2 Mark are you up any public works yes commissioner I i1 correct pardon me i1 commissioner yes all right i1 right good evening board uh this agenda item is to request the board receive a staff report as well as public comments regarding tree maintenance to be performed by PW in the coming weeks PW has long-standing concerns on this Transportation Corridor staff has focused on improving safety by bringing the road into compliance with federal state and County standards relating to roadway clearance for vehicles traveling along the road citizen concerns have mainly been associated with preserving the character of the Road Corridor most recently staff performed uh reviews as well as an engineering evaluation of the situation of the more than 1,000 trees in close proximity to the road just 61 or less than 6% require any trimming no tree requires complete removal however 15 trees which is less than 1 and a half% require severe trimming all 61 trees are in fair to poor condition and most have been previously struck by Vehicles Rockledge Drive is a public road under the jurisdiction of the county by virtue of deed plat or maintenance and therefore must be maintained in accordance with applicable federal state and County regulations trimming will be limited to what is overhanging the road at the state and federal minimum height of 14 ft as was confirmed acceptable by our Traffic Engineers analysis staff intends to send out notices starting tomorrow for advanced coordination with property owners on those trees that require significant trimming or cutting but is starting minor trimming as early as next week staff will staff will not be going on private property and will perform necessary cutting from the RightWay the only removal that will occur will be at the specific request of property owners within a appropriate lease of liability all actions will be minimal in accordance with regulations and required for safety while I also ensuring that the character and the nature of rockled Drive are preserved to the greatest extent possible for a win-win and to that end we have considered numerous Alternatives over the past several years including a one-way study a tree replanting program and relocating the road around the trees none of which were deemed feasible or acceptable Amanda and I as well as other key staff uh from Public Works are in the audience and are prepared to answer questions the board may have uh chair yes sir commissioner Goodson may I ask question sir absolutely I have quite a few uh Mark can you describe to the board the process for Public Works took in the tree survey yes commissioner uh so we performed U multiple uh time surveys over uh several years under the super supervision of our certified Arborist uh during past attempts to trim the trees the latest was performed in October 2023 the current uh survey that is in the agenda is split out into three categories which are minor major and major plus plus to re reinforce that we are not involuntarily removing trees on private property only what is in or overhanging the RightWay subsequently natural resources um performed a evaluation in October and finalized it in March that was by a certified arur as well which is Amanda sitting next to me and it was predicated on the tree locations provided by PW at the county manager's office request in order to uh review the health of trees vehicle damage percent canopy loss old growth and other exceptions uh trees were ranked in fair to poor health none of which were deemed in good condition thank you can you Des describe the process for our natural resource management tree survey to us as uh I just uh mentioned a moment ago um so Amanda went out there personally as a uh independent certified Arborist using the tree locations uh provided by PW and uh independently reviewed the tree health of all the trees uh that I just mentioned the 60 uh it started at 65 it's down to 61 uh because of Prior removal by owners uh they she reviewed the vehicle damage the percent canopy loss old growth and if any trees were Exempted under our Landscaping code okay the statement's been made have been made many times that we're clear cutting can you explain to the public that is not correct in what actually is taking place yeah clear cutting is not a accurate representation of the facts we are proposing to trim only within the rway which generally follows the edge of the pavement up to 14 ft high of the 65 trees that were looked at out of more than 1,000 trees surveyed or counted along Rock Ledge Drive um there were two that were accounted for in our October 2023 um survey that were removed by property owners and then in natural resources uh assessment an additional two were noted as being removed in the March time frame which gets us down to a revised total of 61 uh there are 28 which are slated for minor limb trimming and 18 uh which are slated for major uh limb trimming and uh finally there are 15 of those 61 that are slated for major Plus+ trimming Which is less than 1 and a half% of all trees uh on this 2.6 mile section of Rocket drive thank you can you explain to the public why now what's the hurry yes commissioner uh so PW has tried to trim the trees on Rockledge Drive uh since 2014 prior to that time uh we were doing it while there were some concerns our certified Arborist worked with residents and we were able to continuously um perform trimming when necessary um however since that time we've been impeded uh for a number of reasons uh and so we have worked with uh the Community uh specifically the rocklage drive tree Coalition and their current and past uh Council um attorneys that is um the public at large we've had public meetings uh we've met with County leadership elected officials we've even commissioned expensive studies such as the one-way study that I mentioned before drainage studies we offered a voluntary tree program to replant trees back further from the road we even looked at rerouting the road at one of our commissioners requests um around all existing trees in attempt to find a compromise but none were deemed viable okay can you explain to the public why the county can cut the trees yes commissioner under tree law which is based on Scott verse mccardy uh the adjoining landowner in this case the County May at its expense trim back healthy branches or roots that encroach onto its property but only up to the property line which in this case is the RightWay line or the edge of pavement um this has been upheld in situations where cutting even could uh harm the adjacent tree okay can thank you Mark can you explain to the public that County can impact roots and branches per the tree law yeah as as uh relate a moment ago under tree law as the property owner of the public road under common law the county owns the land beneath uh the surface of the land and the air rights above uh the surface uh that said the current uh efforts are focused on just tree trimming not uh The Roots although in the future and I'm we may get to that um if we have to put the sewer line uh down the middle of the road and or when we go to reconstruct the road uh routes may be impacted okay thank you does the fire department need the trees trim so according to fire chief vol on 30 October uh in his communication to me citing the Fire Marshall and the Florida prevention code um it states that not less than 13' 6 in of unobstructed vertical clearance is required for the fire trucks okay thank you do the waste man Waste Management trucks need clearance or should we just put dumpsters at the end and let the people take their trash to the dumpsters so according to um director Mull again on 30 October he copied me on an email to waste management documenting their conversation regarding trash collection service acknowledging that drivers collect trash on rockage Drive must cross opposite Lanes of travel in order to avoid the existing tree branches he also recounts that she stated in that email in that correspondence uh that 14 ft would provide a level of safety necessary for their trucks okay does or do the trees interfere with school school buses Mark yes County staff remains uh concerned about the safety uh for uh school children uh I had staff out there last week and we witnessed uh on multiple occasions a uh School Bus full of elementary school children as they were being dropped off on the afternoon of April 4th uh multiple times crossing the double yellow line in order to avoid the lwh hanging or leaning trees okay thank you is there any truth the fact the county roads do not have to follow the green book please explain that to me so uh according to Bard county code uh section 8669 it states that roads uh will comply with fdot standards further Florida statues 334 um in multiple sections provides fdot to adopt uniform minimum standards for the State of Florida which includes its political subdivisions um and our traffic operations manager performed an analysis on rockid Drive in accordance with both the fdot manual of uniform minimum standards for design construction and maintenance for streets and highways which as you just referred to is the Florida greenbook as well as the fdot design manual and uh in her analysis determined that instead of the maximum or the uh stated uh height of 16 ft plus an additional 6 in for Paving that we can reasonably uh lower that to 14 ft which is the best way to help protect the character and nature of rockage drive to the greatest extent possible while achieving a safe road because we are trimming at a lower height okay thank you why can't larger Vehicles use US1 so while they can use it um rockled Drive remains a public road and County staff continues to believe the appropriate standard required that the road be capable capable of serving emergency vehicles recreational vehicles trash collection school buses moving vans box trucks delivery vehicles Etc and this road was transferred by fdot to the county in the late 70s and it has the requirement to uphold all federal County and and State uh regulations okay thank you do you have documentation to prove maintenance yes so uh according to uh Florida statue uh 95 uh. 361 after 7 years of Maintenance All rights title easement and opportunities were automatically vested in the county without the maintenance map that we brought to the board um last month um as I mentioned a moment ago we have been maintaining this road and have records uh since the late 70s showing that we also turn that over to the rockage drive tree coalition on the 2nd of November 2023 which was over 300 pages okay what about the crash history on the road Mark so uh since 2014 there have been 26 crashes 10 involving trees with four as directly caused uh by trees as provided by state data in nm's tree assessment it noted that uh about half the trees were in poor condition half in fair condition none were rated in good condition and some were barely viable out of that 84% of the trees showed signs of vehicular damage okay thank you can you just why can't you just put up signs on the trees so uh we have uh posted signs uh when we met uh with the public back in 2021 after that there was a lot of conversation between us the rocket Drive tree Coalition and um members of the public and while it was adequately signed we added additional low clearance signs um and uh that is in accordance with the manual of uniform traffic uh control devices however it doesn't negate the current safety concerns uh and the county in not addressing state and federal minimum Road standards okay thank you I've read statements that um that they say trees do not cause cause the accidents explain your response to that so commissioner it's true that speeding uh not paying attention Etc are reasons that drivers run into trees and tree trunks however our focus is on the vertical clearance not the horizontal clearance in our attached technical memorandum as required by law we analyze this and there are distinctions both in state and federal standards to help maintain the character of the existing Road and also from a horizontal perspective um having those trees provide some level of traffic caling again our goal is to protect the character and nature of the rockage drive to the greatest extent possible while also achieving a safe road that meets state and federal minimums okay would you say this is a scenic drive so it is a Scenic Drive uh or route as designated in 1965 by the legislature uh but at that time there was no process or rigor according to fdot and fhwa Reps it holds the equivalency of design in a street after someone today that designation won't change okay why doesn't the County apply for funding to save the trees with one of the state or federal agents so as previously uh previously briefed to the board the only protection it offers is to avoid Billboards which is not an issue here neither program the state or federal is currently funded further fdot does not support an independent leg of the Indian River Lagoon byway and the Indian River Lagoon byway is not interested in adding this section po per my discussions in October with fdot and fhwa to be federally eligible you must uh first be State eligible and their acceptance would only be predicated on the state's criteria which doesn't involve saving trees or Transportation hence no Federal Protection this was communicated to the rockage drive tree Coalition as was forwarded to me by fhwa and fdot in October and they knew about um these Provisions okay the statement has been made that Public Works is not listening although it's my opinion that not everyone is being heard there are those in sport of tree trimming am I correct so that that is true uh the rockled drive tree Coalition certain members of the public and the media continue to to perpetuate some in misinformation not listening to what the county is stating about its safety concerns we have multiple service calls from rockage Drive residents who have reported they were harassed by their neighbors for wanting the trees trimmed and even requests by solid waste on behalf of Waste Management regardless they are a safety concern and not addressing them remains a liability okay the comment was made about purchasing smaller equipment I would find that to be physically irresponsible but what is your opinion to that so this option was explored and is possible at a premium equipment would be needed and sourced from out of the area however this isn't exclusively about the County's future plants the pave uh this is about the state and federal as well as County minimum standard of 14 ft for the box trucks for garbage trucks for fire trucks RVs as I mentioned uh a moment ago every day that travel the road right and of course you're well aware that the city of Rockledge doesn't do this and why is that what is that's correct so the maintenance map that was filed is regarding uh rockled drive for the unincorporated part which is from US1 to rockled City limit at 1851 rockage Drive the county has no decision-making authority over the city's portion of the road uh however uh state and federal uh as well as County standards do require a 14ot minimum uh requirement and I can't speak to what the city does or does not do right Rock Ledge Drive has been called one of the most historic roads in the county and they are the only ones and are they similar other roads are that is that the only one so uh North and South South tropical Trail are similar ly Scenic uh those corridors have height clearances that comply with state and federal standards and as a matter of course when any other tree on any other Road in unincorporated Bard is called in uh we have maintained them unimpeded um unlike rocket Drive okay and why did the previous commissioner promise not to cut the trees so uh that is not necessarily an accurate representation of the facts uh PW has a copy of the letter commissioner Smith sent and it states the county rescinded the voluntary tree removal and replacement program we attempted as a way to obtain voluntary participation at that time we also temporarily suspended trimming because it was the intent at that time to wait for the upcoming Paving that we told the citizens we would be doing the following year and to do it in conjunction however the L the letter affirmed the county maintained its right to do so as it does throughout the rest of the county because of the sewer project natural resources and utilities is undertaking we delayed Paving plans until the design is far enough along to determine if it will uh our Paving efforts will either disturb or uh or not be disturbed so that this way we can save taxpayer money and pave the road once okay are these specimen trees Mark I'm going to defer to Amanda even though I can answer that so uh Bard County does have a definition of specimen trees basically 24 in diameter at breast height which is 4 1/2 ft measured 4 and 1/2 ft from grade the trees have to be in good condition and I didn't see that any of the 61 trees were in good condition most of them were in Fair or poor condition thank you can you explain to the public the land clearing code in a nutshell um well uh the Lan clearing code does require um preservation and one of the things that I was asked to look at uh in contrast with the previous tree evaluation um was whether or not the lane clearing code applied to these specific trees what we found was more than 90% of them would be exempt because of their condition or because of the hazard that they were posing um and the others were only getting lightly trimmed so the code wouldn't even apply to those others the the remainder of those trees could you explain the impact of tree trimming to the surrounding environment so I looked at um canopy loss with the proposed trimming at at an extreme I was pretty liberal with that estimation and it was 25% canopy loss uh with the trimming that's proposed that would be recovered over time have you kept the public informed in all this I'll defer that to Mark so uh as uh mentioned previously we have um a prescribed timeline to submit agenda items and for both the March 12th maintenance map as well as uh this we've met those obligations um the agenda is then published uh to the public however in addition to that emails that were previous previously sent to uh public works or if those uh residents had commun communicated a concern they were emailed before both meetings uh once the public notice was made as a courtesy the County Attorney also sent notifications to the rockage drive tree coalition's attorneys um and as I also uh had mentioned earlier on we had numerous uh engagements both public meetings uh Commissioners uh between uh when it was both in the D4 district and then later when it was in D2 uh prior Commissioners to you uh commissioner had engagements with them uh but we have communicated at every step um either in public or by uh email and then uh by letter to those 37 affected homeowners that we're talking about okay all right is there anything else you'd like to say to the public tonight uh no commissioner happy to answer any questions of the board okay I have two I've heard that uh they profess that by removing these trees it will incur more flooding on that road is that a true statement I already you know so of the 61 trees again only 15 require significant lifting um and and I believe Public Works is going to offer the opportunity for the property owners the affected eight Property Owners to meet with their arborist to discuss whether or not they would like the tree just removed instead of significantly pruned um even if all 15 were removed there are more than 1,000 trees in close proximity to this roadway so it it's still um you know 15 trees out of 1,000 so uh you know increasing erosion I I don't know that that's a a real concern right right okay thank you both thank you chair okay um guess we should go to cards Tom Bradford thank you good evening Comm Commissioners thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak with you tonight um my name is Tom Bradford I live on rockley's Drive I've lived there continually for 30 years all right I am on the board of the rockage Tree Drive Coalition so I am pretty familiar with things that have come to us and things that have not all right and the first thing I want to say is going on three years ago I sat in Miss Mr AB body's office concerning the same matter and was told the matter had been settled the county would not be touching these trees which up to now it has not but now after two-year dormancy the entire issues Arisen again and this time the claimed reason for the county to have the authority to cut our trees is that first of all it's personal is valuable property of homeowners paid a lot of money for the privilege of living on that straight having those trays is the county claims continuous maintenance on the road and contiguous rideway property for seven years I dispute this claim our attorney J Christy Wilson has asked the county for proof of this Beyond signed declarations none has been forthcoming further notifications were only sent about all this to a few residents and with just a few business days before the March 12th and now the April 9th meeting on this matter most of us only heard about this through the grapevine and it's of great importance to us now if the county claims right a way that is not legally determinative the count is going to face inverse condemnation actions and we have cont contacted a surveyor we've contracted with them we are in process of having surveys done overlaying the maps to establish the attempted taking of private property trees canopies and so forth look this road is unique in the State of Florida all right and the explosive development of Florida and Bard County in particular have made such Irreplaceable Treasures as rockage drive all the more rare and it's important for the balance of the environment and for the quality of life for Citizens and and I am respectfully asking that any proposed action taking land claiming a right of way cutting trees be tabled if not ended once and for all so that Bard's residents can finally be assured that this Priceless one-of-a-kind designated Scenic Drive will be preserved and all of its beauty for the benefit of all of of our citizens and residents now and for generations to come okay I thank you for your attention question Mr Goodson question 63 and a half% of bouard total bouard voters said clean up the Lagoon how do you feel about the sewer line going down the middle of rock LGE Drive well that's an issue that isn't entirely clear to us because in all honesty we we ask about this about the sewer line and we get answers well there's really no plan yet all right um and this has been a little bit of the issue in that I feel like we have not really received some definitive answers as I think it's been portrayed tonight um I think there's been some inuendos I think there's been Communications back and forth to some degree but it hasn't been clear the other thing is I'm not sure sewers is even the best answer to this issue and we understand the you know the issue of trying to be to clear up that Lagoon and we're all for it all right but I believe there may be other Solutions such as advanced septic systems and so on like that that could make better sense because it will preserve the beauty of this drive and and if I could say one thing please okay we can talk about a thousand trees but only some of them are oak trees all right and and I would say probably the majority of them are are palms and things like that all right but some of these Oaks are Majestic and old Mr Sher yes sir well you know uh you say of dance septic and the experts say they're good but they're not near as good you said money down there but you want me to allow you not to have a sewer system and tie on to it but yet go Upstream to somebody or up the hill to somebody that might not have as much money as you and force them to have a sewer system is that basically correct I don't believe I said that at all I said did talk about you talked about money you talked about money and we I understand Rock there's a lot of money there but you know how would you I guess we're going to have to come to some agreement on which one's better sewer line or septics well I believe that I didn't know that was the discussion tonight well it's probably going to be eventually I'm ask be great thing to talk about at that moment but tonight I'm not prepared over those two things thank you very much we've got a lot of cards so let's try to get through them uh Elizabeth Ashley Hardy I miss Kirk didn't I yes good evening um my name is Ashley Hardy first of all I would like to thank y'all for your service I know it's difficult doing what you do and I think we can all agree that if you're in this room you're in here for one reason for only even if you're out there or where we are you love Bard County and you love our communities and that's why we're here tourist that sent about living on South rockage Drive in the area we're discussing tonight this is what I care about and this is why I'm here this is what I want to protect there are other places in the United States of America in Savannah Georgia on Victory Drive Lombard Street in San Francisco I realize that you don't think it's a you said it's not a historic Street it doesn't have much quality but look around Bard County people come to Rocket Drive because it is beautiful it is Scenic and if you continue cutting and not thinking things through we're going to lose this and you're going to continue to lose these beautiful trees that were documented back in the 1800s and that's why I'm here when I bought my house I have to tell you guys I had more people that told us to tear it down if I had a dollar for every single person who told me to tear down my house I would be wealthy woman right now is it hard hard to uphold a historic building absolutely is it expensive absolutely is it a pain in the rump yes it is it's difficult when you live in a unique area but you have to look for Creative options and that's what I'm asking for as a resident is creative options to remember where you are and if you have to look no further look to our Wonder wonderful beloved Capital Tallahassee Florida where I had the privilege of living and going to school at they have a lot of canopy streets and this is not an issue everybody's on the same page that they want it to look spectacular and so that's why I'm here thank you for your time I hope you'll put a lot of thought into this not just and think about the years and if they can't get down the street don't go down it don't go down it it's like Lombard Street you can't bring a certain size school bus down Lombard Street in San Francisco and we're not the first group I ask you to reach out to Tallahassee because they deal with this Savannah Charleston South Carolina we're not the first person in the United States Thank you Kirk Ral off good evening Kurt good evening uh my name is Kirk rhof I want to thank the commissioners for once again providing me the opportunity to speak in support of the Rock Ledge Drive tree Coalition I'm here today to present for the record a copy of the 9,052 petition signatures gathered by the tree Coalition in support of the effort to prevent The Cutting of the Live Oaks on rockl drive I will leave this document with you tonight for your review the document I am leaving with you today is the record of those 9,52 of your constituents that do not agree with or support the commissioner's decision to cut the Live Oaks on Rocket's drive thank you thank you very much commissioner Goodson question there's 240 houses how do you have 9,000 and I've reviewed that and some of them are out of like Japan I can't answering I answer that they are our constituents I can't answer that question sir okay thank you sandre Sullivan Jesus give me that thing I want to see it when she gets through the top one Sandra Sullivan at least there's no hot mics tonight thank you for that um so let's talk about Rocket's Tree Drive it's the oldest Road in Bard County it's beautiful and I think a lot of the of this issue is created because trust has been taken away for the people that live on that drive so in 2021 I was uh helping the tree Coalition with this issue and we're being told hey we're repaving the road we need to trim these trees to repave the RO the road I can't tell you how many misrepresentations have been told but boy weren't we shocked when I got online and and I came across a GIS map that this road was actually slated for sewer but nobody told the people on that road that that was the real agenda no you this commission misled the people on that road and that that's the Crux of why trust has been taken away and with with this tree trimming and the major trimming and how far is that going to kill trees it's because the trust with these people were taken away the people who care about the Lagoon many of them have put in advanced septic already their houses have set back from the the Lagoon they're far enough away more than 500 feet that's less impact those trees will uptake nutrient loading but you know what the real what the probably the most important reason to keep those trees is and this is so shortsighted when we're talking about the Lagoon is that this road was identified by Noah a federal agency as being having a increasing flooding from the Indian River Lagoon in storm events for resiliency well when we have a storm event it's just basic science The Roots hold the bank and stop the road from washing out so you got to look at the totality of the situation and you have to look at what is in the best interest of that road and when you look at the science what is the best thing is Advanced septic on that road and not putting in sewer and and for the sewer project you are looking at 67 trees being cut down this is about the quality of life on those on the people on that road and I'm going to say this situation and as much backlash on this is Backlash on this issue was created by misrepresentations by this County to the people living on that road that this these trees 67 trees were being cut for a Paving project which they were not and you don't have to buy them machines to do the special PL Paving you can just R you can lease them so anyway um thank you very much for your time and uh hopefully you make the right decision by the voters who voted for the sa of the Lagoon tax and you're not listening to the voters Matthew Nyon Commissioners um my name is Matthew nyen I live in Bonaventure on Bonaventure Drive and uh ride my bicycle up and down uh Rock Ledge Drive uh rode it today it's a beautiful place I wanted to call your attention to your own um chapter 62 um Article 13 division 2 Landscaping clearing and tree protection uh 62- 4331 purpose and intent The Bard County Board of County Commissioners finds that the health safety and Welfare of its citizens can best be protected by Land Development regulations that encourage the protection of Heritage or specimen trees by supporting and enforcing the following Community goals promote the establishment management and conservation of native vegetative communities promote Visual and aesthetic buffers between land uses encourage the protection of Heritage or specimen trees promote water conservation and Aquifer recharge encourage creative landscape designs protect life and property by appropriately planting trees and vegetation preserve and enhance property values control soil erosion mitigate heat air and water pollution and provide regulations that are userfriendly flexible and minimize conflicts with other land develop vment regulations while protecting property rights um I read this and uh and and thought this was a clear statement of intent of preserving places like rocklet drive and further uh it states that um that this um purpose um supports the comprehensive plan policies um as you guys know this is a very very sensitive environmental area we are right on the Indian River Lagoon and we are part of the Lagoon that is probably the most polluted and in the worst condition of any part of the Lagoon water quality there is very bad I used to fish the Lagoon I don't anymore because he can't catch anything now anyway conservation um um element objective three and Coastal element policy 2.3a improve water quality by reducing excess nutrient and pollutant loading into water bodies surface water and groundwater by uptake through Roots uh conservation element objective four reduce flooding by storm water runoff uptake through roots and therefore increasing flood storage capacity and um conservation element 71 reduce prevent erosion and settlement runoff into surface water bodies by stabilizing soils and dunes so again just reading your own your own um code there to you uh to remind you that that you thought it was important to protect places like this I think it's very important to protect places like this and I hope that you guys um will protect my beautiful neighborhood and and the beautiful trees that live there thank you Sarah hjj Sarah hodj mayed Island Florida um we have lived here I I've lived here all my life I was born here and those trees are special to everyone that goes on that drive people drive it from other countries other states they love that road it's the asset for this County and everyone that lives near there that is their treasure um I'm opposed to it so as my husband for the tree trimming or the plan sewer plan because I do believe that the event setic tanks will be better than a sewer system at that place and I think that we will have to do research and find proof but um the trees are important for the flooding for the filtering of the storm water it's you need to have those trees on that road and I support every comment that's going to be said tonight in opposition of trimming those trees thank you thank you very much Dr caribas Jack Carabas I know Carol Pope's here Carol thank you hi Carol good evening I'm Carol Pope I live on rocklage Drive first I want to thank the staff for this informational report it was very informative and it answers a lot of questions that we've had it also documents that you the County Commission are not required to maintain a 14t vertical clearance on South rocket drive there are no state or federal regulations that require you to adopt a 14t vertical clearance on a local residential low volume Road section 8669 was voluntarily adopted by the county to use the state greenbook as a guideline there are no state regulations requiring compliance with that you can make variances from that this is a local regulation controlled by you and you have the authority to make exceptions to your own ordinance in fact you are making exceptions page three of exhibit a in your package shows you are making exception for horizontal requirements on this same road right now if you can make an exception for horizontal clearance you can do the same with vertical clearance as shown in the accident report which is attachment G there were more accidents involving mail boxes walls rocks and posts than there were with tree limbs it's been mentioned many times that accident involving Tre liims can be eliminated with proper signs the report verifies that signs are working there are only four accidents with trucks hitting tree limbs all and all between 2017 and 2019 the low clearance signs went up in 2021 there haven't been any accidents involving tree lims since signage is working in other areas as well I have a picture that show in a Riverside Drive in Orman Beach on a similar road that shows a sign of clearance of 9 ft for their trees so it does work in other areas is and people are using it also the Florida fire prevention code allows lower clearance than 14 ft as with proper signage it's in their uh Florida code the fire code you've listed rockage Drive in your comprehensive plan chapter nine Transportation element as a Scenic Highway with States vegetation and trees growing Within in the right away of those roads shall be protected by development regulations your own comprehensive plan gives you justification to make exception to the 14t ver vertigal clearance and save the canopy this is 2 and A2 miles of low volume 25 mph residential historical Scenic Road with an extremely low accident record 26 accidents in 10 years those 26 accidents were from 2014 to 202 3 thank you Carol will it be your legacy of the commission that this historical asset will be destroyed or will it be enjoyed for the next hundred years as well thank you very much thank you Steve Kennedy good evening it's Steve Kennedy I also have lived along Rock lit drive for over 30 years years seen a lot of changes I want to appreciate all you say thank you especially support could speak into the microphone a little bit it would help okay sorry also want to appreciate the or acknowledge the support staff as a resident over 30 years having driven up and down and I only have one way into my home and that's rocklet drive I have seen those trees grow out of Maintenance and they're beautiful trees it's beautiful route it's What attracted us to buy down south end of rocklet Drive but when safety is a concern when a 9- foot clearance with a fir Tru with only one way in it's not going to work and you all know that I'm just saying if my vehicle is damaged who do I go after who do I sue who pays for the damage to my vehicle when I can't pass the road I don't know how often a 14 foot which seems reasonable would be maintained whether that includes branches as well as limbs I haven't got a copy of the report going to go find one and it's you know it's a lot of talking past each other I see and I think there is common ground for me a 14 foot clearance is not that big of an Ask particularly when you have the safety involved and you know you'll still have the the beautifulness of the oak trees I know in my situation if my neighbor had a tree that was damaged leaning over my house I'd be out there with a chainsaw and I have every right to protect my property so that's all I have to say and I thank you thank you Steve Grover Gregory very interesting name got a ring to it well thanks thanks uh to you guys giving me the opportunity to speak uh I would like to ask um I saw that uh commissioner pitcher was concerned about life about people losing their lives on the beach it happens to be that in America a lot of people lose their lives from vehicle collisions not being in the car we're well protected in the car where we're not protected is when we're walking our dogs we're on our bicycles we're walking down the road I happen to have a home office and I look out on Rocket drive all day I would estimate I haven't seen anyone do a traffic report but there are probably uh 10 pedestrian SL cyclists for every car and all I've heard discuss tonight is the safety of some metal I don't hear anybody talking about the safety of the people who are walking on that road and that is why we love that road it's beautiful if you get under a hammock and this is the hammock in the sense of the environment um you're protected from the sun it's cooler there and on rockage drive you have a unique situation with the seab breeze so when you go walk down rockage drive on a hot day in July it's a good 15° cooler because of that canopy so so I'm very concerned that nobody's talking about the people who use rockl drive on their feet and on bicycles it seems to me like we've got our priorities wrong if you make that road amenable and comfortable for big vehicles then you're going to get more big vehicles driving down there and when big vehicles hit people people die I'm also concerned uh about the misleading terms that we hear maybe it's technical jargon when you say trim a tree but when you Lop the entire trunk off I cannot understand why you think that you can call that trimming a tree you're not trimming that tree you are cutting it off you're killing the tree and that is what is contemplated a 14t if everybody would look up all you Commissioners I think that's about a 14 foot ceiling do you really think that we need trucks driving down the road that are that tall it's it just blows my mind we don't want to see those kind of vehicles on that road um so stop using you're going to have to sit down Grover thank you very much perhaps you probably ought to think about if your house was on fire if a firet truck can get down that road it it it depends on how big the fire truck is the biggest of them we just had six of them six of thank you for your answer Grover we get we got several people over here answering for you but thank you all right Walter Cornell hello Commissioners and staff I'm in River Ridge on rockage Drive in Florida and I've been there like a lot of the people you've spoken to for eons I was going to talk about the lack of answers that these people have been asking now for over two years on this same subject and I just got a thorough set of questions and rehearsed answers apparently about what we've been asking about which really come down to why why and we've heard everything the report that was submitted to Mr Goodson was as comprehensive as I've ever heard and I've been involved in this for two years so thank you for your thoroughness and your questions up till now it feels like we've been forestalled and I want to tell a story that reminds me of this that there were not good answers coming from staff or coming from the commission because we would all look at each other and ask a question well if you've raised teenagers you'll appreciate this story perhaps my mother raised three boys and as soon as we hit 16 years old on a Friday night we cruised by her as she sat and she asked natural motherly questions where are you going things like that mothers would be involved with she knew she wasn't going to get an answer so she answered herself where you going out who you going to be with P when are you going to come home I don't know and that was the whole dialogue well I was here to talk about I want to ask questions and I'll answer them myself why do you want to cut the trees down we don't know because what gives you the moral Authority to take what is so beloved beyond the residence of rockage drive because it's hard to fire us so some of these types of questions and the answers were addressed comprehensively as much but the residents of the county and the visitors to that drive haven't had that opportunity to understand that and they were very well prepared and and I sense rehearsed with the answers but if we worry about safety and we want to move the needle on this as Grover mentioned 10 to one traffic versus cyclist and walk that drive those trees and those limitations are slowing traffic down thanks thank you very much okay we are finished with that discussion and we will be moving on [Music] to um speak up bravard one two I two so we have several cards in regards to that and first what a surprise SRA Sullivan can we do a f minute break possibly commission you want to an overview first yeah oh that's right we need a small break here I apologize Sandra we've got uh court reporters and other things going on yes bre or you need to do an overview first okay five five minute sir yeah that's fine okay five minute all right [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] started on the speakers uh I would like to turn the floor over to our County Manager Frank abat to uh to discuss this issue Frank excuse me thank you commissioner uh item I2 is about the the speak up Bard 2024 citizen efficiency and effective uh recommendations submissions that we received under Bard County Charter section uh 2.9.1 and Bard County policy BCC 95 uh there's a process that's provided for Citizens as individuals or as an organized group of individuals to submit a formal uh recommendation for the enhancement of Effectiveness and efficiency of Bard County government during the most recent submission period bravard County received 59 speakup bravard recommendations those recommendations uh backup documents both the attachments and links um as provided by the citizen submitters and departmental responses have been provided as part of this agenda item staff has spent a significant amount of time to review consider and respond to each recommendation submitted uh as you know draft responses were prepared by staff and provided to each Commission office for your uh individual information review and input recently those draft responses were finalized and are presented tonight uh for the board's consideration staff is requesting that the board approve the staff recommendations and a single motion for all the citizen recommendations of course the board can pull any of the 59 items from the staff recommendations that the board would like to discuss Andor take alternative action on for any of the 59 speakup Revard recommendations that were received each responding Department that prepared these uh the staff responses are available to address any questions or concerns that the board might have thank you very much um okay let's go to sandre Sullivan Sandra Sullivan South Patrick Shores I'm not going to speak to any of the 14 items that I submitted I and probably the citizen and Bard that most comes to these meetings other than yourselves and staff and I dig into issues I think I'm very well known for that I'm known for I'm my background is as a systems analyst and when I was in the computer software industry one of the products that I was involved in is called collaborative software so I'm very involved in the collaborative process what we have in this process is not a collaborative process what we had here is a lack of communication on what the staff reports were until pretty much the agenda came out not a lot of time to go over that and I'm just going to speak to just generally coming to this County commission for over five years this is the sixth year and I have not seen in that time frame a commission like this one that that from my perspective my experience does not value citizen input and and I just want to point out as an example of that and I think this is the epitome of the problem and how speak up Bard was addressed sh illustrates that is that look at look at the merid island incorporation a vote taken under public comment in violation of State Statute 2860 1114 for public meetings a vote taken without public input and then when the vote was taken when we all came in here hundreds of people and before we even spoke a vote taken to accept that study now there's a greater issue here as part of speak up Bard in providing uh input to you on ideas and maybe the idea in its original form isn't perfect but had we sat down to a workshop and actually had a discuss discuss you may have arrived at to a very ideal solution because problems generally aren't solved by one person they're solved by bringing your brains your brain share together and your experiences together to better solu solutions that Bard is facing I think there are some very good ideas in there and it's just a shame it's just a wasted process because our commission does not value the public feedback and that's my experience and it's very very discouraging I have a commissioner that will not speak to me meet with me since last August very difficult to speak to a staff or in fact any of you so by our Charter my only recourse to really communicate to you is via speak up a word and you just showed just how much you value public comment not one of my items even discussed with me no comment no staff reaching out to me for clarification or anything no communication you do not value public input Uh Kevin is it shopshire sorry about that got another Kevin back there huh good evening Commissioners thank you very much I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak in front of you today uh I am a working parent resident of Port St John and I appreciate all the previous direct responses from my district commissioner on on assorted topics as they've come up uh we've worked together on several items and this was just an item that came up um last year when I was attempting to assist one of my children with his science fair project and I'm old enough to appreciate the library system that I had growing up and the availability of libraries I know we look to screens to solve most of our problems these days and when I went to our local Port St John library and was faced with the closed door and looked at the hours of Monday 9 to 5 Tuesday 9 to 5 Wednesday 12: to 8 Thursday 9 to 5 Friday 9 to 5 and Saturday 10: to 2 I don't arrive home from my employment until 4:30ish if I'm lucky with traffic so I can only ever attempt to do any Library work with my children Wednesday evenings I looked around and saw other Counties have other things and other opportunities so I used your speak up rard to put in a recommendation of different times uh a few hours on Sunday which I do realize would cost money um but the rest of the week Shifting the hours instead of 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. how about 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. p.m Port St John without knowing the exact demographics I can healthily say is a working community of families we all have children involved in science fairs we all would like some of us would like our children to be able to experience the library systems the way we were as well without relying 100% on screens when I submitted this the response was that the city of Coco has a library 9.2 miles away in the city of Titusville has 9.7 so basically I was told go elsewhere um I understand asking for more hours on Sunday when we don't have money is not acceptable but I would like to point out that Orange County the majority of their public libraries are open 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. during the week valua County 9:00 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oola County the few they have are 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. during the week I'm just looking for further consideration as opposed to just rejecting the recommendation uh further consideration to accept it the change of hours without costing any money to the county thank you thank you very much Richard web are you here or You' okay thank you Roberto Robert where are you Kowski Katie's here I know that oh Katie's left too huh Kevin Jeffrey there's the Kevin there's the other Kevin handsome as you may be young man okay good evening I would like to read a portion of the Constitution if you would wouldn't mind we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by CT their creator with certain unable rights among them are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights governments are instituted among men deriving their just power from the consent of the Govern I don't know but somewhere along the line politics has gone AR across the country and so you guys are representative the people are the government according to the Constitution and you're here to represent them and so I was looking through this speak up Bard I mean it's a great thing it really is that you guys listen to the citizens there should be more cooperation with the citizens now I know that some of you guys maybe you're lawyers I I wouldn't I would have going for this one excessive TV lawyers ads I mean who wants to hear that over and over again I would have voted for that right but look at this the issue of being able to having to pay for $35 to be able to get information out of the speak up Bard recommendations why are the citizens charged for that why is there why is it that there is no strategic plan for Bard County which is consistent in some of the other counties so if you are going to work together and really keep down a lot of strife I really think listening to the people really matters you guys are representing them they are the government thought they may have forgotten it you guys are Representatives too much in politics the politicians have elevated themselves to a level above the people and really I don't know if it's the case but it comes across as arrogant condescending Brash indifferent and as long as that's the case here's an opportunity right here with this speaker bravard to really reach out and show the citizens we really want to hear what you have to say not just checking off something that we have to do but the opportunity to be able to cooperate with you in real issues to get things done thank you very much thank you Kevin Susan connley good evening Susan good evening I'm very happy to be here I'm from Palm Bay and I'm very happy with the speakup rard when I heard about it and could participate in it really made me think and I appreciate that opportunity um I just wanted to comment on a few that I submitted one was on the mo Memorial Park I visited this myself and it changed my life and um it is more than it's under the Parks and Recreation but it's more than just a park it is a memorial to the Moors who were activists in their Community making it a better place for VAR County it has a universal theme about voting I can see that uh we can benefit by getting the message out that the Moors wanted by uh with tourists increasing our dollars with from tourists new homeowners people who uh from out of state they're coming in here 10,000 a day this is a a place that is uh has something for everybody and um the other one that I wanted to comment on was about uniform countywide development practices I think uh we're pretty much I'm from Palm Bay but the discussions I'm hearing tonight trees uh sewers um I hear a lot about infrastructure not being ready for development it's all it's all the same um the loow impact development methods how to do those um so I think that we could benefit with uh people and policy coming together with uh citizens uh citizens have a lot of answers and a lot of ideas uh I think what would be work here is coming up with some best practices that work for us all uh another big issue is the roads we share the roads you know you just don't drive in Palm Bay you drive all over the county and um so that's another thing that could be addressed with a uniform set of practices uh I wanted to mention another one uh is the prosperity initiative this is something that is from the Florida chamber I mean Florida chamber of commerce that is helping promote prosperity in our community uh the greater pombay Chamber of Commerce is leading this within our community to help increase uh Prosperity by dealing with poverty which is the number one barrier to a prosperous Community when we all Prosper uh then we have true Prosperity so again I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak up and to listen and to uh honor me with what I have to say to you thank you very much Kristen lordy good evening Kristen LTE Bard care citizens Coalition uh speaking on behalf of myself and I decided U despite the fact that I care greatly about this program and I would like it to be a relevant program I didn't prepare comments in advance because the conditions aren't right to have relevant comments there's about to be a rubber stamp vote that will happen my request for speaker time for speakers who had additional U made additional recommendations was promptly denied the fastest response I may have ever gotten from a commissioner uh to deny the extra time uh requested I submitted myself nine uh proposals to the commission and of those uh three of them were have the appearance of being adopted and by staff you know this was meant to be a a a exercise that happened between the people and the Commissioners and the staff is a part of it can be helping to get the recommendations together but you guys were supposed to have a discussion before this pull some of our ideas out have some disc talk about it and along my journey because I'm geeky and I research this stuff and someone in Bard cares posted they found the meeting minutes from 2011 right after this was put onto the charter and what they found was that in this season that there was supposed to be a 60-day period where there would be discussion between the Commissioners and the citizens and the idea of the workshop that Miss Sullivan Sullivan introduced to us that this was supposed to be a collaborative process but instead we have a rubber stamp process so nonetheless it's still a process but I want to make sure that I have um land my how I feel about the process that we don't feel heard the residents don't feel heard we were out rallying prior to the meeting outside those of us who were motivated to and that 8 83% of our recommendations were already recommended to deny before we ever walked in this room so I um denounce that I think that this should be a robust process nonetheless a require there is a requirement that you provide some people back to us in writing which is relevant to the residents and two of them that I'd like to mention since I only have time to mention is that one of them that was reportedly accepted with recommendations I um oppose that I say that this is really I had to read it through it several times to get the staff response and it was about my recommendation 03 to actually publicize the event in which staff did not agree to publicize the event staff agreed to put the event dates up on the website which might help to Decon confuse a few people that it's only available for public to input from December 1st to now January 1st so I'd like to say that was not adopted and just putting the dates up on the website is hardly a win um that's on the trivial side because I provided several um recommendations that would really help to turn this program into a real thing into a thing that people could input into the other one I'd like to mention with my last 10 seconds is that I put in the recommendation that Bard County needs a five-year strategic plan to which staff said we have plenty of plans and we're already good to go we're on our way and I oppose that and my time is done and I'm not happy about that thank you thank you Lewis Contin night continent continent good try I tried yeah terrific uh thank you L kotnik and uh representing the uh Indian River Lagoon Roundtable and The Bard Indian River Lagoon Coalition and I want to thank you and I want to thank the staff for accepting our speakup recommendation and urging that it be part of uh the B Bard comprehensive planning process um I think that makes a lot of sense I want to encourage you to go further and faster um chapter 12 um of the intergovernmental coordination part of the comprehensive plan um calls for very much what we were asking for which is a a planning process that can move forward our community both in the growth of our space uh good fortune and also retaining our quality of life um and so we ask you to go ahead and uh move forward with that specific points include policy 1.14 that says Bard County shall take steps necessary to coordinate with space Florida uh and other uh promotional efforts concerning the development of space Commerce other policies that it calls for is coordination on Coastal management Wetlands Sewer Service portable water Land Transportation additionally it calls for coordination with our Port based on our discussions with space Florida it appears that there's a real opportunity to move this forward cooperatively space Florida has begun their environmental master plan that includes virtu all of the projects that are being done up there and in the future um the problem is that their analysis is limited just to environmental issues and not the other issues that the comprehensive plan calls for including um the other thing is that uh space Florida has just completed its Maritime Intermodal study um which again uh there's supposed to be coordination uh with you and and the port so we urge the county to move swiftly to begin a comprehensive planning engagement with space Florida um and we uh the Roundtable and Bard um uh Indian River Lagoon Coalition would be delighted to help and support in any way we can we need a balance between space development and our quality of life thank you very much thank you sir Michael milj it's uh Michael my ja okay thank you thanks I may I'm Michael maack and like Lou I'm here representing presenting the Indian River Lagoon round table and there's a I wanted to to kind of take what Lou said and then raise that up a level because the staff was recommending that uh ours go forward I guess we're one of the 177% best addressed through the comprehensive plan process um that would be fine but you don't have anything to say about the planning at KSC and you don't have anything to say about the planning at Cape canaval space force station and you don't have anything to say about the planning that space Florida does so the problem is this NASA says they have already done their design they have some 8,000 acres to develop out there and they've figured out what's buildable well our national Indian River Lagoon North Indian River Lagoon Estuary and the Meritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Cape canaval Wildlife or National Seashore comprise the largest undeveloped Zone on the east coast of Florida and you can see it in the night when you see the the light vision there's a big black spot right there um more Kennedy Space Center is and so while they've identified 8,400 the national Estuary The Wildlife Refuge the seashore enormous in and I should say numerous archaeological sites are all in Jeopardy out there now keep in mind NASA has no Planning and Zoning Board neither does space Florida Titusville gave up their ability to review planning out there last year so what we were trying to propose was not just what Bard County can do to try to coordinate the shipping industry and the FAA and space flight because when we turn cape Canaveral into a Spaceport it's going to be a different place than it's been we're no longer talking about just National Security and space flights we're talking about commercial and that's going to roll in like a tidal wave think about what happened to Detroit when you look at it from 1900 you know it's a different place by 1920 and that's what we're looking at over the next 20 years and there's nobody talking about how we're going to grow a port that does nothing but put out Cruise terminals how they're going to bring in the the rockets that are being reused where are those going to land who's going to store those because when the Glen starts going up it's not just SpaceX so I'm out of time but I I appreciate you thinking about this at a higher level thank you Teresa Westerfield hi good evening I'm Teressa imperiali Westerfield um the I wanted to just talk to you a little bit about the traffic light that on uh proposed traffic light at the corner of pine Causeway and Peninsula Circle um that was part of the sear um recommendations and it was denied and I would just like to bring up some points that you might want to consider uh regarding the study that was done that brought the decision for this to be denied on my community the traffic study that was done by the company that was hired uh ended actually ranged from 2018 to 20122 three years of that study were during covid when there was very little traffic on the pine Causeway I could leave to go to work at any time of the day or night and I never had to I could bar barely had to look to make a a rightand turn onto that causeway now I take my life into my hands between the hours of 700 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. to try to make a right you can't make a left out of pine Causeway out of pine um I'm sorry out of peninsula Circle or Fringe Tree Drive this study um was also most of it was done was looked at during the years that um before the pin Causeway was linked up to Lake Andrew that occurred in May of 2021 so a good majority of the the data that was used for this study is no longer applicable since that time numerous communities have been BR have opened up on the west side of I95 even at the time of the studies that were done you could see that every year there was an increase in the number of accidents on that Causeway between 95 and Wickham Drive the traffic gets so congested that I have had days when I'm trying to go to work that I can't if i get to make my right hand turn to go towards US1 because somebody's taken mercy on me and decided to let me out of my neighborhood we need a traffic light it is dangerous there's constantly car accidents and when there's when it's not rush hour there's a 45 mph Drive uh speed limit that is never enforced I can tell you that for a fact it's used as a Raceway between the light at Estuary and pine Causeway and Wickham there's a two mile stretch that people decide that they need to floor it I apologize just if I could say there is a traffic light at the corner of kabad and Stadium right down the street from here and there's no and it's a one lane stadium is in one lane in each Direction Where We have two lanes Sarah you're going to have to stop now all right it's Teresa but thank you Teresa excuse me my brain's not working here that's okay that's because I'm looking at the wrong card to urge you Teresa thank you much thank you all right now I'm calling Sarah I'm looking at the right card Sarah hodj Robert Burns where are you oh Sarah there you are yep a long way home well hi Sarah come on hi Sarah Hodge and um I have three things to talk about number one there's been some real um problems with getting public records and I don't know if it's because there's not enough staff time or whatever and the cost 3450 for an hour monitoring a binder that has other copies and you could just have a video camera over that and there wouldn't be a need for a staff person there um you've got the clerk of court put all their records on several years ago on the internet why can't the County Commission do that too um next one is pasas I know you probably have heard about it right North marolin infested with it the fire foam 1998 they sprayed it fire got out of control went into North Meritt Island off the Space Center and there's 40 people with a class action suit right now from Death cancer autoimmune systems many other diseases that are going to court a lawyer in three states he's gonna the I you've seen the P You Know It uh they're allowing development still why would they allow that on past property there is a rule I've been told that it must be uh told to the buyers before and it's put on the deed Sarah is this part of was this a recommendation you put in a speak up Revard well I speak up because we're on we're on that right now okay but I'm speaking up with issues on Bard go ahead but uh that should you should be speaking under public public comments but that's all right go ahead okay you got another minute or so um it is a Bard issue go ahead tah okay um uh the um you know it it's um I I just don't understand why people are having such a hard time getting the records there's no reason for that and um you know the yeah you know there's there's a lot of issues but I'll stop with that well well we sincerely appreciate your comments well there's people dying because of the past and it's on it's on news programs it's highly documented everywhere and that has to CL it's going in the rivers which is what they were bring you know that's causing a problem okay thank you Sarah Mr Burns how are you good how are you I couldn't tell you kind of a little discombobulated tonight with all this but we'll get through it it's from the eclipse the eclipse kind of put everybody off um this comment is mostly Robert Burns I live in Palm Bay and this comment is more so for the public than for you guys and I just felt compelled to say this based off of some of the earlier comments that I heard and as somebody who um communicates with this body semi uh frequently I I personally look at public comment as a time for the public to hear what I have to say not necessarily for the commission to hear what I have to say because if I come up here for public comment to try to influence you or to effectuate some sort of change with you I'm already putting myself at a handicap of just having three minutes to to get everything out I want to say and I can't have a dialogue back and forth like I would want to so I would just offer you know my opinion and my personal experience with communicating with this body is to do so beforehand through an email or through a conversation um because you don't give yourself those limits and those constraints that you do coming up here at the last minute and there's there's always an opportunity to do that whether you feel like uh something that you didn't know was on the agenda or something that you thought of you know while you were sitting here but again while while we were sitting here tonight talking about lifeguards I I emailed every one of you a proposal about The Lifeguard situation that there would be no way that I could come up here and say it within 3 minutes uh but it's a pretty comprehensive proposal and I don't need to have feedback all the time you know my wife complains that I don't listen to her because I don't always respond but I hear her and I I if if if she can deal with me not responding then I can definitely deal with you not responding to me but at least I know that you you heard me and I'm not putting those limits on myself uh with 3 minutes and if I go back and read my email and real realiz I screwed up or something at least I can correct it but I think relationships are important and I think that if you as a member of the public if you want to effectuate change and be heard and have your your uh opinions acted upon that you have to continue to build those relationships and and uh try to communicate a little bit more effectively and maybe compassionately I don't know and you don't have to and if you don't like the responses that you're getting you know you know voice your opinion at the um the the voter The Ballot Box whatever you call it yeah it must be the eclipse it's getting getting me too but anyway I just wanted to come up here and say that and offer some advice you know whether you can take it or not to the public uh on how to communicate a little bit more effectively maybe thanks thank you Robert okay moving right along here the next thing on the agenda is uh I don't think yeah we do need a vote you're right I apologize um is there a motion to accept the recommendation of the no these are public comment cards more oh I apologize uh commissioner toaya thank you Mr chair um I was listening and uh uh Miss lordy said she disagreed with her recommendation being accepted with with revisions uh so I I I did listen to that 20243 so my motion will ref reflect that um so I move to accept the staff recommendations for all the citizen recommendations with the exception of 20243 and reject that one outright is there a second oh um commissioner pret yes thank you um Mr shopshire I um I I I agree with what you mentioned so I'm going to ask for Fe friendly Amendment commissioner tabaya um what I'm going to ask is that we go ahead and um open up on Sundays increase the Saturday hours it's a total of nine extra hours a week and then let's see where that goes before we work on the weekdays but um I think those libraries are very important for the families and the kids so um I appreciate your input tonight it um definitely made a difference with me tonight on on your requests or and you give great ideas so um commission if if you would be willing to entertain that um commissioner Taya if you if you'd be willing to make a friendly um Amendment on your motion sir to go ahead and add in um five hours on Sunday and an extra four hours on Saturday for the um Port St John Library commissioner toaya are you willing to accept the friendly Amendment that's okay yeah Port St John I'm I'm sorry I I I was looking at the the SE recommendation it was like $96,000 but that was for all the hours so trying to do the math to figure out it's nine hours just for Port St John it's nine extra hours a week for percentage of the total I guess of of that is that half a quarter Port St oh I don't know just Port St John CU I don't know if the data they gave us was for all of the libraries but all the libraries do have different hours so I I think this might be appropriate there are a lot of kids in that area it's probably less than 25% okay so so we're Wendy it will be less than 25 it should be approximately $25,000 okay then uh thank you for that clarification yes that would be a friendly Amendment thank you sir I okay I second well there's a motion on the floor with a friendly Amendment from commissioner pritet is there a second a second I think John made the motion she second sorry sir but there was an amendment to that he he he said okay okay so any discussion from the board in regards to that all in favor signify by saying I I all oppose nay the motion carries now chair commiss Goodson um I'd like to make a motion to the board to see if the board would consider meeting with speak up Bard and seeing if we can come to some agreement that uh every time we have a meeting they don't try to cut our throat so would the board consider that do I have a second don't be scared jump up there no second it fails without a second thank you board okay I'm quite sure what you what I wanted to do is me with them to try to get them to understand your reasoning or my reasoning or their reasoning okay is that constant battle we have seems like we could solve something commissioner Goodson let me just make a quick comment sure I I don't know what you did and I'm I'm sure your office reviewed these things I mean we went through these things tooth and nail at our office and and and and look here's the problem a lot of the recommendations are outright not going to work work period because of legal reasons because of a variety of other reasons I spent hours going through this stuff with my staff every one of them and and then but the but the point but the point is is is that staff has done the same thing and when staff determined that we can't do it the to to go back and to have a conversation with with somebody that put in a recommendation that we can't do it or or it would take us over the 3% cas app is is really uh completely frustrating beyond words some of those items were really really good items now I I do agree with you that perhaps on the top 10 or the top 15 or the top 20 that maybe you could do it then but to go back and and try to reconstruct this whole thing I think would be very very difficult very very time consume consuming and cost us the commission a lot of money I agree don't okay so we are back on going back to public comment now I [Music] believe I think we got the all right we got anything else commissioner to did you have something y next agenda item okay which is uh I3 oh why am I missing that is he introducing yes I I'm ready to introduce it when you are ready Mr go ahead okay this one will be uh pretty quick I previously brought this up uh item to the board's attention on February 20th this small but important change would require that recipients of County issue grants be required to self-certify having appropriate background screening procedures in place examples of Grants uh include but are not limited to marketing grants such as cultural Sports and major event grants Capital facility grants and soral grants uh again recall this is just for at risk populations this would not apply to pass through grants from federal or state uh governments uh uh the way this uh requirement is written would put the burden on the uh grantee and staff would not need uh to act proactively uh the motion after discussion would be to direct staff to add the requirement the recipients of County grants be required to certify having appropriate background screening uh procedures in place for any employee contractor or volunteer uh expected to have unsupervised access to a direct uh contact with an atrisk individual is there a second second motion on the floor by commissioner Tobi seconded by commissioner pritchet is there discussion hearing no discussion all in favor signify by saying I I all appay nay the motion carries excellent excellent excellent okay now we're going to public comments feel like we've been having pretty much public comments all night but let's do it again all right Sandra you know if you wear one of these watches you can probably get 10,000 steps in just from going back and forth little exercise Sandra Sullivan I have a topic that I'm very passionate about tonight and this is what I call agenda 2030 you will own nothing and be happy law which is sb102 but we have good news because you know a lot of people have been advocating to our state and in fact I think two of our our state representatives worked on this out of Bard one co-sponsored it uh a bill HB 7073 so what this allows Bard to do which is going to be very important for your budget if you uh choose to adopt this is to opt out of the tax exemptions for affordable housing now why do we want to do that you know it's great for affordable housing low-income housing tax exemption small part of the market but Middle America is the biggest market so their tax exemptions are middle class's actual tax increases we're going to see tax increases because ultimately for these high-rise developments somebody's got to play pay for police somebody's got to pay for fire and all the other services that the county has to pay for inevitably that means tax increases for the middle class now the middle class is facing skyrocketing insurance rates on not just uh property taxes but automobile and also flood insurance in addition check out the prices in the grocery store $7 for a box of cereal more than $7 I mean I got two I got three teens 6'5 6'3 I mean they're eating me out of the house and home okay middle class are really feeling the squeeze the American dream is to own your own home and raise your families what are we doing with this s sp102 their tax exemptions are the actual middle classes tax increases that are coming you're going to lose the American dream of owning your own home and having a family we're going to lose that we're going to see people having to sell their homes because they can't afford the new es the the new escrow their higher mortgage payments they're not going to be able to afford it so I'm asking this commission and this is something I'm very very passionate about we need to save America we need to save Florida we need to put Florida first we need to put America First and that means we have to protect the American dream so I'm asking you please go put some either a resolution or ordinance forward and opt out of these 30 years of automatic tax exemptions and save the middle class so I'm going to hand this out to you so you can read chairman I think we got to wait the governor signs and then you can't do it until 2025 so there's other stipulation govern you want to do anything telling you like the thank you okay Lillian are you here Lillian Liber okay Tom Erdman Haywood Davidson Jr boy we got some great names tonight I just want to find a Hamilton Blackstone III out there too if we can Heywood go ahead good evening my name is uh Reverend Haywood Davidson Jr and I'm the pastor of Greater Mount Olive am Church in mered island and I'm a member of bright affordable housing Committee in 2020 brigh was started by local congregations to help everybody uh people build the power necessary to impact policy in our community today we have grown to more than 10 churches through our members though our members very in theology race political party and social economic status we are united by a Biblical called to Justice we will work on the issue that impact our members and since we have were founded we have heard many stories about the risk of affordable housing that than any other issue in my local church there members who are you know they have to they're married they're working both of them are working two jobs and they having an issue with affordable house and they are now about to be kicked out of their house where they H also house their grandchildren as well so now they all are going to be forced out onto the street more than 3,000 families are paying more than half their incomes on rent our churches do a great deal of service and Ministry to the homeless and the very poor some of our churches have even built their own affordable houses but charity is not enough to address the significant economic issue yet there are solution to this problem there are housing trust funds all over the United States and over 500 cities and 171 countries creating a financial incentive to build affordable housing fortunately our country has set up a for fortunately our county has set up a Workforce that supported housing trust funds with the support of the voters of bvar County the problem is there there no still no significant funding in after two years housing trust funds using D dozens of Revenue streaming networks and we are asking as our as our commissioners to come to the table and find a wable revenue stream for our local trust fund each of you should have received the invitation to the action assembly on April the 15 at 700 p.m. at Suntree United Methodist Church where we are asking you to make a public commitment to work on this issue and fulfill the voters wishes for a fully funded trust fund and I thank you all Commissioners thank you very much Katie is left I [Music] see uh I guess the last name is Jeffrey I cannot read this name at all is it oh Kevin you're back all right I will recognize you the next time okay this was my first forray and to the commission meeting and again I hate to be a little the point but I want to raise it again my son worked as a CNA at a nursing home one of the things that he noticed is that the people whose family visited they were well taken care of and the people who didn't get family visits they were not well taken care of you guys have a public Trust it's to take care of the citizens of this County used to be that you were called public servants and if you look at the Greek there are several words that talk about servants but all of them talk about the fact you are slaves for the people I wish they would take the money out of politics that they would just get it all out of it remove the incentive of anyone who is not there to care for the people once you lose your care for the people I would suggest you resign I know it's hard to sit here in this meeting it was hard for me but do you know back in the Lincoln Doug Douglas debates they set for over four hours the opening statement by each person in the debate was an hour there was a care by the people and for the politicians as to what was going on the moment you lose that and you don't like that when you go to a restaurant and the people are unconcerned about you right you've been there right you don't like it when anyone is unconcerned about you I worked for 29 years at FedEx and people put up with a lot but do you know the thing that they never would tolerate is uh unconcerned for what they're desires were that is what's enraging the people I'm going to tell you there's a storm coming the people are getting tired all over this country they're tired of politicians who are unconcerned about them it's not even a lot of the issues it's the unconcerned about what they are going through a lot of that can be averted if you have politicians that were concerned about the people this issue which speak up provides is an example of it I understand what you said Mr steel commissioner steel yes okay maybe some of those things were illegal but talk to the people about them don't talk to staff well maybe talk to them but the people don't know what's going on they don't know that those things were illegal or whatever the problem was if we have politicians anywhere unconcerned about the citizens you should resign right now go do something else you do not want someone in office or in a hospital who are who are working around people who are unconcerned about people that's what you're here for thank you Kristen hello again hello again Christ LTE Coco resident for vard care citizens Coalition speaking for myself I agree with the prior commenter I don't feel the care I don't feel the care I really we weighed in I want to make sure that I'm uh sensitive to which agenda item is which and uh I've chosen two things to talk about under the non-agenda items one of them is the records policy so I've had a chance to take a walk through the records policy and you've all heard from me several times over the past month several times and uh what happened was was that I was interested in uh the two binders from the prior agenda item wanted to read those and I was buil $34.85 an hour to pay for staff time and their benefits in order to review got a picture of the two binders so I don't feel the care in that I didn't realize that the county attorney's office is the one who manages a primary manager of our records policy you put in a public records request it goes to the attorney the least expensive person that they can have to scan a binder when I tried to get in a digitized copy of the request $34.85 I don't fill the care and this records policy and I've got the records policy and they send it to you they're very happy to send it to you um and I dispute the records policy if the records policy is on caring let's change the records policy and let's make it one that is that is sensitive to the people I also made an over Overture to Chairman steel to get together let's talk about the issues let's get to know each other that was declined our officials do not always meet with the people I've also reached out to all of you about my records request I finally got response two days ago just before the mostly digitized copy was released but I want to make sure we get this $35 to binder $35 an hour not just $35 $35 an hour to read a binder because I needed staff overseeing me I don't know what I was going to do to that binder but I have photos of it and I have an invoice brought my invoice too I have a souvenir invoice last minute moving forward thank you commissioner gchen for um making a gesture around moving forward how do we move forward well not meeting with us is not really a great idea not meeting with someone like me who gets into the details and who realizes that it's not all a bunch of we can't do this because it's as simple as you guys won't publicize your own program with Facebook and put out a simple inquiry I have some very loow hanging fruit um that I put up but I will have a strategy and you'll hear from me for the next week up bravard and you'll be hearing from me because I've now found the egovernment tab the e-government tab and The speakup Bard tab is once you we weave your way through the the um you guys' web page it's the 39th hyperlink down to find the speakup rard program on December 1st so we can all look forward to that next year but you'll be hearing from me before that because I will utilize the tools that staff has recommended that the public do even though I'm being ghosted currently I will still use those and I welcome the invitation to a productive constructive conversation at anytime I am reasonable thank you okay thank you uh Grover Grover Gregory are you not here you are gone okay let's uh yeah I'm gonna GNA do that right now County Manager do you have a report no I do not commissioner toaya do you have a report yes Mr chair uh after the length I would normally skip uh over this but since we'll recognizing a uh since I recognize a County employee certainly am going to uh skip over the beginning uh parts and jump to that County employee uh the County employee recognition would be a Richard Atman he's traffic Management Center engineer Public Works traffic operations office Rich has over 20 23 years experience with Bard County Government in the public works department a little bit about him Rich's career journey is a testament to his extraordinary dedication and hard work he's displayed an unyielding commitment to personal and professional growth starting with the county in 2001 as a special projects coordinator he understood the importance of computer technology and took significant strides to acquire the necessary skills in it technology through rig rigorous self-study and practical experience he not only mastered it uh it fundamentals but he also applied the skills to to uh innovate and improve the process within his domain uh this dedication led to his career progression with the Department as an IT professional business analyst during which he led the effort to develop the Department's first web-based realtime management system which is still used today his ambitious his Ambi ambition didn't stop there Rich further uh uh expanded his expertise into intelligence transportate transportation system its operations in 2017 where leveraged his it knowledge to address complex challenges in traffic signal systems and transportation management his ability to adapt innovate in the specialized field eventually led him to a current role as traffic Management Center engineer in this capacity which has made substantial contributions to the efficiency and safety of the County's Transportation Network showcasing his remarkable Journey uh a respected professional in its and M TMC operations his story is a powerful example of how Contin continuous learning dedication and adaptability can lead to significant career advancements and impact fun fact prior to his time in bravard County Rich started uh his career in autom automotive world as a master technician between the years 1985 and 2001 he transitioned into the digital realm where he developed his expertise in all aspects of the computer field including audio video presentation web design and computer technology his career uh reflects a deep passion for electronics mechanics Tech technology digital photography and creative problem solving we're very lucky to have uh Rich working for us and and and the the story here is that if you get in on the ground floor and work hard you can progress uh through the county system we are very very happy with uh you as an employee and the citizens are very lucky that you're out there serving thank you excellent excellent commissioner pritchet do you have a report I do I have a quick one I want to um ask the County Attorney a question um it's it's not a hard one when um Miss lordy wanted to see the book is there a reason why someone has to be in there why she's reviewing the book yes we're responsible we're the records custodians for records this was a a binder that we had put together painstakingly for Commissioners it wasn't meant for Mass distribution so there weren't multiple copies be on that um so it's just our policy that when we have records of that nature that staff is there to review with the public there are other options offered it could have been just scanned and sent to her for probably the same amount of time and had the whole thing would it be um maybe an availability if we have if I don't know if we're thinking something might disappear out of it just have it under some kind of camera surveillance when they look through it and not be a fee then I'm just thr out we could discuss that we're just following applying the policy totally understand and when did we go ahead and publish it so that everybody could download it that item was never published that was a draft for circulation ultimately all of the uh the final versions were published for everyone and made available Thursday and they're they're out there on the internet and available okay and I think that's an important Point commissioner what we sent out to the board were drafts they weren't final documents they weren't final documents we gave it to the board almost a month early so the board could read review it because of part of the process was us spending the time of giving the Commissioners the opportunity to do exactly what you all said which was look to look through each one of them in case you wanted to have any input to us we finalized it uh within the week of the agenda item being published and then it was put on as part of the agenda never intended to distribute those drafts to avoid any public confusion if anything was changed between the draft and the final CU we could constantly been changing it before we had a a work product to present okay correct um uh something interesting I wanted to mention um I'm on the affordable housing board and it it's such a wonderful board and I found out something I didn't know and I should have known it because I live in Titusville but Titusville now allows a a res one situation to build an accessory um onto their property you still have to have setbacks but they'll allow them to have now bathrooms and kitchens so I wanted to see if something we wanted to look at because it might help some of the situations we have right now going on with housing so like on our property we might be able to build on an extra area for all my grandchildren to move into and never have to leave so anyways I just thought it might be something to discuss because we're we're trying to find ways to do density and people typically don't like density but this might be a soft touch to do it could I say something real quick uh to your to your point and and I know we don't do a lot of debate and board report but I think think in pondering that if uh there's a way that uh it could be written that there isn't guaranteed no short-term rental there um that that probably would be a lot easier that's just my two cense okay so you guys open to the idea of maybe looking into that a little bit and it's worth discussing Mr Goodson oh yeah you are okay all right and I'll start working on that for y'all to look at and review commissioner feler do you have a report no sir commissioner Goodson Do you have a report sir County attorney no report Mr chair okay I have I will have a report the next meeting I am meeting with uh Hussein cumber of bright line um the day after tomorrow to get some additional details on the potential station here at CoCo curve so we'll go there do I hear a motion to so's a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor signify by say I 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 program sponsor hereby expressly disclaim any in all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements expressed by any member of the public during any such [Music] [Music] period [Music] [Music] I