[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e e [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 related to County Business that are within the board's Control Authority and jurisdiction good afternoon and welcome to the May 7th County Commission meeting we welcome all of you um Donnie leg are you here if you'd come on up please and lead us in your invocation would appreciate it sirk let's pray father we're so humbled and thankful uh for a brand new day that you have blessed us with and father we know that you tell us to rejoice and be glad in it and we have every right to be when we see how good you are to us you put us in a country father that we do have freedom of speech and and father we have many freedoms that other countries don't and we're grateful for that most of all we're grateful for your love for us and how you've demonstrated that love to us you're good you're holy you're Sovereign and father we can do nothing without you you're The Giver of Life and father you are the one who s sustains it with every breath we take and we are humbled by that and father we're coming before you because not only that uh we recognize who you are and that we're before your throne right now but you tell us to bring all of our care before you because you care for us and father I lift up our County Commissioners and uh tonight they're before me and and father they have burdens of their own they have their own crosses they carry and yet they do have the burden of our County and the people they represent and so father what a a burdensome job at times and so father may we as a people come alongside of them encourage them pray for them and father be a people that don't don't desire to be combative with them but yet to come alongside and and uh help aid in Solutions father and uh we'll give you the praise for the way you lead us in that may this meeting tonight be conducted in such such a way that it's evident that your presence is with us and then father again we are so grateful uh being reminded of Memorial Day this month of people who have given their lives that we might Gather in a room like this and work out things in our County and and father we're we're mindful of that and so father again thank you for all that you have done the leaders you have given us uh father and and their desire to represent people um morally and and justly and and we're grateful for that so father as the meeting begins may you have your will in your way as we submit it to you in Jesus name amen amen thank you commissioner Goodson would you lead us in the pledge please of the United States of America and to the One Nation God indivisible withy and jusice for all okay um do I hear a mo a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting please is there a second all in favor signify by saying I all oppose nay motion carries um we have a couple resolutions tonight and the first one is going to be the resolution acknowledging family abduction awareness District 5 that would be me and uh my dear friend commissioner Goodson said he only wished that I would be abducted but I think he was kidding but I'm not sure but anyway let me uh read this out and we'll get from uh to go from there resolution whereas family abduction is a devastating and traumatic experience that affects countless families Across the Nation often resulting in emotional distress and long-term consequences for both the abducted child and their loved one whereas May 25th is National missing children awareness day and the month provides an excellent opportunity to demonstrate support for National efforts to reduce the uh threat or of family abductions reunite the children who are missing with their families and honor all those who working by the cause whereas every 40 seconds a child goes missing or is abducted in the United States States and statistically 90% of all the missing children get taken by their parents or another family member and whereas a family abduction occurs when a child is taken wrongfully retained or concealed by a parent or other family member uh depriving another individual of their rights of custody whereas the family abduction is often an act of frustration by the perpetrator was left behind the uh the parent the legal system or his her own situation in life whereas a family abduction has distinctive characteristics including emotional psychologically trauma to the child and left behind family and whereas bravard County strives to remain Vigilant and informed about the dangers that face children within our community and understand that it's critical to recognize the family abduction is a serious crime not only a civil manner in all 50 states now therefore be it resolved the board of County Commissioners name Bard County Florida does hereby Proclaim May 25th 2024 as family abduction day and encourages communities to educate residents about the the prevalence risk and and consequences of family abduction uh do we have anybody here from the thing okay do we have do I have a motion to approve this please there's a motion to approve by commissioner feltner second and there's a second by commissioner Pritchett any discussion all in favor signify by saying I all oppose nay the motion there covers uh we'll just hold the plaque maybe somebody's caught in traffic or something of that nature okay now let's move on to the next resolution and that is uh resolution acknowledging the second week in May as lung cancer action week and this is a resolution is there anybody from that organization here and who would that be okay Deborah come on up here for a second sitting in the front row if you would thank you so much whereas the American Lung Association celebrates 120 years of impact in 2024 in Bard County whereas about every two minutes a person in the United States is diagnosed with lung cancer whereas lung cancer is a leading cause of cancer death and whereas lung cancer screening saves lives and advocacy and increased awareness will result in more high-risk individuals getting screened whereas public support for research funding will result in new treatments and better methods of early detection whereas lung force is a national uh initiative led by American Lung Association to defeat lung cancer now therefore be it resolved that the board of County Commissioners bravard County Florida hereby designate the second week of May as lung cancer week uh done ordered and adopted this 7th day of May 2024 is there a motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve there a motion by commissioner feltner second seconded by commissioner Goodson all in favor signify by saying I I I'll oppose nay the motion carries Deborah would you like to come up and say a few words thank you so much thank you very much my name is Deborah Smith I've lived in Bard County over 30 years and commissioner feltner lives in my neighborhood um once again my name is Deborah Smith and six years ago I was diagnosed with with stage 4 egfr lung cancer complete shock to my system I was a pretty healthy person didn't see that one coming and I've never smoked a day in my life so my husband and I do a lot of volunteer work and advocacy for American Lung Association because of that my kind of lung cancer is treatable but not curable so my goal with these proclamations is to get the word out about lung cancer so that it raises awareness and gets and at some point lung cancer could be treatable and curable okay every 2 minutes in 14 seconds someone in the United States is diagnosed with lung cancer I had no idea it was that prominent lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among men and women in the United States 20% of them are non-smokers just like myself according to the American Lung Association the survival rate used to be 5 years ago 133% it is now up to 22% in The Last 5 Years that gives me a lot of Hope and that's important at this point if you have lungs you can have lung cancer lung cancer research has made huge incredible strides in the last 10 years but more is necessary basically if you can't breathe Nothing Else Matters thank you thank you very much Deborah we got a picture here that we can take here two one [Applause] two I believe this one's yours commissioner felner it is can we have uh Sharon null Cheryl spasio Sandra Leon and Michelle Fitzgerald come up and anyone else with the Waterway Warriors sorry I didn't mean to leave anybody out I don't know the guy in a blue shirt's got to change his shirt don't he need a yellow shirt on see shirt they oh man there you go I was just thinking something like that it's a privilege for me to do this resolution for you you know I think the world of your group I'll say this real quick uh about this group they go out and clean up trash on the side of the pinita causeway and I think they're adopting 528 is that right close Okay and uh their purpose is ultimately to keep that stuff out of the river and uh I think it's uh a worthwhile cause I went out with there with them one day kind of unplanned and um I think they're an amazing group so I'll read your resolution and then uh we'll pass it and then you'll be invite to speak whereas the vital need for environmental stewardship and individual accountability and safeguarding our waterways is at an all-time high and whereas the Waterway Warriors diligently cultivate a sense of personal responsibility among citizens to protect and preserve our waterways for future Generations by consistently organizing Community initiatives for both trash removal and prevention and whereas the Waterway Warriors consisting of hundreds of volunteers led by Sharon null Cheryl spasio Sandra Leon and Michelle Fitzgerald supported by the Florida Department of Transportation has embraced the challenge of environmental stewardship whereas the Waterway Warriors have successfully prevented over 50 tons of trash from entering the Indian banana rivers and whereas this Oran organization exemplifies the resolve and perseverance to Envision and realize a future with minimal adverse human impact on our aquatic ecosystems as a standard for all now therefore be it resolved that the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida does hereby unanimously recognize the achievements and outstanding accomplishments of the Waterway Warriors and offers them congratulations on their significant contributions to the protection of preservation of our local waterways and sincere wishes for continued success in their Endeavors done ordered and adopted in regular session this 7th day of May 2024 and with that I'll make a motion Mr chairman thank you very much is there a second there is a second all in favor signify by saying I all oppose nay motion carries congratulations thank you for all your hard work you want to come up I'll just take a minute um as volunteers we do adopt different waterways we've gotten the pinita under the adopter highway program through fdot Horse Creek we're working on oal and yes we would love to be able to tackle the problem at 528 we're not quite there yet however as the core four we are extremely grateful to commissioner felner and we look forward to meeting with each one of the Commissioners and adopting waterways in your areas thank you so much commissioner Phil all right let's take a picture boy thank you so much okay now we're going to go into um the winners of the 2024 Florida 4 Age public speaking program now Beth are you here here you are okay I'm actually gonna have Gus um ker speak as he leads the 4 each um speaking contest for the county okay thank you Commissioners for this opportunity the Florida forage public speaking program powered by FPL helps students fourth through sixth grade research write and deliver a speech on the topic of their choice they can participate in classroom school and county level competitions while practicing their research writing and communication skills these two students I present you with tonight um represent over 700 students in the school district that participated in the program okay Shelby who's going up aha I see earlier I talked to you and you didn't know why you were here well I know why you're here all right I'm just going to tell you this if your speech is as good as I hear it is then you're going to have to run for County Commissioner and replace me okay go for it Shelby do you plan to there you go Shelby for a commissioner Shelby for a commissioner go ahead Shelby splash I think I saw a mermaid or was it a manatee well that's kind of easy to figure out mermaids aren't real or are they did you know that there is some sort of female sea creature in almost every culture in Ireland they believe in the suky OR seal people that look like seals in the water but shed their skin to look like humans on land in Germany they have the meline that have by serpents or fishtails if this is true for other cultures is science actually correct first let's talk about how old the mermaid myth is the oldest recorded mermaid tale is from Syria it is said when the goddess atratus dove into a lake she tried to take on the form of the fish the other gods did not want her to give up her great Beauty so they had her stay half the same and the bottom half become a fish there are thousands of stories about a mermaid type creature and from all over the world in Greek mythology there there's a story about odesus when he was traveling home his ship went past where the sirens lived it is said that he wanted to hear their beautiful singing but knew that he would jump into the sea and the sirens would drown him he had a sailor's time to the Mast the other Sailors put cork in their ears so they would not be swayed but is this proof that mermaids are real I would say so if mermaids had been in stories for this long who's to say they've not been under the sea all this time or maybe they're extinct with all the pollution in the water it is a real possibility now you may be wondering how many sightings and mermaids are there the answer nobody really knows there have been sightings of mermaids all the way to the K Islands to Zimbabwe to Israel these sightings ranging from 1943 to 2012 and that's just three in Italy there siring of the Sirena in Russia they call the mermaid the Rula meaning mermaid it is said to be the souls of drowned women savan matcha is the Indian version of the mermaid it is said in the Cambodian and Thai versions of the ravana that she's a mermaid princess who instead of trying to stop hanan's plans to build a bridge to Lanka as originally planned falls in love with Hanuman when you hear all of these stories it is impossible that all of them are Just Fish Tales when you hear all of these stories it is impossible that all of them are lives I have a theory I believe if there are no mermaids on this planet who's to say they couldn't be on another Mars is samples of water that is dried up there are many planets that scientists believe could hold life if Mars's Waters contain mermaids I'm ready to go on a spaceship and see their remains all in all mermaids are real I've given plenty of evidence that should suffice should suffice and prove my point ancient cultures have included mermaids in the recorded history now let's Splish Splash back into the water to reunite with these magical mermaids thank you all right Shelby Shelby I'm getting up this is your seat okay I'm done I'll give you your first campaign [Music] cont our next speaker is Isabelle coincidentally both of these students are from ARL Stevenson Elementary welcome Isabelle thank you teachers a Priceless part of our everyday lives and a good majority of the time we take them for granted teachers teach us almost every basic skill and shape us as children and yet put up with so much I mean think about it annoying kids that talk all day and disrespect them work that isn't turned in and endless papers to grade most teachers would say that they love what they do so it's fine that they don't have the best salary compared to other professions most other jobs that have a four-year degree don't have to put up with this and get paid more but compared to other states in our country Florida has amongst the lowest average salary for teachers and is far from having a low cost of living the average teacher salary in Florida is between $32,000 to $51,000 per year depending on the county another way to look at this is a teacher makes the same amount of M same amount of money per hour as someone who works at a fast food restaurant yep that's right the average Florida teacher makes $15.43 per hour this is truly unfair as teachers do so much to shape our society and yet are paid as much as someone who could work at your local McDonald's a major impact of teacher salaries being so low is the teacher shortage last year in Florida 18,000 teachers decided to leave their job this is about 10% of all teachers in Florida many teachers realize that with the same 40 degrees they can make twice as much money as response Florida increased starting teacher salaries but not those of teachers who have experience and now many experienced teachers are living at record rates because of this unfair treatment and pay compared to other areas in the US and to other countries Florida teachers make significantly Less in states such as New York which is the highest paying the average pay per year of a teacher is $84,000 this is almost of this is almost a $35,000 difference to what Florida teachers make while other countries in Europe pay te teachers more than $80,000 per year teacher pay has to mention area values education and the impact it has on students it is clear Florida does not treat teachers with a respect deserved for someone that influences every aspect of a child's life did you know that teacher salaries can affect students research shows that higher pay attracts better quality teachers and shows higher performance teachers can affect the amount of students that graduate high school college attendance and even the students earning as an adult a simple 10% pay increase can increase student performance by 5 to 10% as you can see Florida teachers are treated unfairly and this treatment has many effects that impact the workforce and students themselves there is no other career in the world that influences the lives of children to the same extent and this is why we need to help them teachers make a lasting impression on students so if we want to create a generation of future students that will impact our world in a positive way then we need to help the teachers of today thank you thank you Isabelle you have some closing comments pardon sir you got some closing comments I just want to say thank you for this opportunity Commissioners the the biggest supporters of the public speaking contest are University of Florida The Bard County Board of County Commissioners and FPL we're so grateful to have you guys helping us well thank you so very very much Shelby Isabelle you did a great job very nicely done okay uh let's go on to the consent agenda does the commission have any specific consent agenda items i''d like to have pulled sir commissioner toaya commissioner feltner commissioner Goodson okay we have some uh speakers on oh let's let's uh I think the only one that we have is 18 where we have speakers on uh do I have a motion to accept all of the consent agenda except for item F18 so move there's motion on the floor and seconded all in favor signify by saying I I all oppos nay the consent agenda passes except for consent agenda number 18 and let's talk about Jack megleo is that who's come on up Jack please good evening Commissioners thank you for considering an executive session to discuss the wages of your Bard County firefighters in this short time that I have I hope to educate you on some of the pressing issues plaguing B CFR your fire department is hemorrhaging employees at a pace never seen before over the past 6 weeks bcfr has received 22 resignations from firefighters EMTs and paramedics only one was a retirement our employees are leaving at a record pace for other departments around the State of Florida taking their invaluable experience and training with them in addition bcfr has 27 employee retirements in June at a time when 2 months is away from opening a new Vieira fire station This Record setting attrition is simply not sustainable 3 years ago bcfr set out on ambitious hiring goals additional Personnel were allocated to fire rescue with the intention of expanding the floater pool of roaming firefighters to cut overtime overtime costs have not been cut additional Personnel were also allocated and prep operation of opening a new fire station in Vieira for the summer with future exp uh expansions planned for Port St John merid Island and also Palm Bay as our population continues to grow expansion of Public Safety and infrastructure is of Paramount concern in an attempt to stay ahead of the curve bcfr brought on a full-time recruitment coordinator to meet the demands of hiring in a competitive job market ultimately bcfr is not competing in our job market just a few short years ago bcfr would see hundreds of qualified applicants for 20 to 30 vacancies this gave fire rescue the ability to put applicants through a vigorous process to ensure the best and brightest were hired now we struggle to fill a new higher class just two weeks ago we uh were supposed to begin with 25 we only began with seven over the past few years we've been forced to hire all qualified applicants we have not done an interview for firefighter positions in over 5 years over a half of a decade simply put if they meet the minimum requirements we give them a job over the past 3 years in desperation we as a department have began offering scholarship opportunities to the community to pay for EMT and fire academy it's a great opportunity for our local youth but the associated cost for individuals who aren't even employed by bcfr is exensive when tired trained and equipped cost over 3 months would be about 20,000 per individual the scholarship is an additional 7,000 before they even step foot in the door thank you for letting me speak God bless thank you very much uh Christian Fleming [Applause] I assume all of you in yellow are with our fire departments is that correct yes sir I am actually see how smart I am you are wonderfully smart thank you guys for having us at this meeting my name is Christina Fleming I am a retired firefighter but I come to you as a member of the public because I'm a taxpaying member I just want to let you guys know our starting firefighters just basic they get $41,800 um Vision your dental your medical your 3% that we have to pay into the um the F FRS you have your FPL your rent all of these numbers go through the basic basic basic best case scenario is the firefighter EMT gets to bring home single firefighter EMT gets to bring home $380.4 to pay for food for the month worst case scenario is $180.4 now mind you that is a single firefighter if he has a family it is negative $44.58 that he can bring home to his family for food that's with everything covered that they need so what I'm saying is we've just lost 37 people since January 37 that is a lot of people and 37 counts one that came today so what I'm asking you guys is take that into consideration when you're having an executive session when you're discussing things with the county man manager and also Mark sugar the lawyer that you had to hire for this also um Mr toaya and Mrs pritchet you guys are out soon but you are still working until November don't kick this can to the next Commissioners please stand up and we voted for you guys so do what we voted for you guys Mr DEA I'm in your area so that's what I I voted for you I voted for you to be my voice so I'm asking you please do not kick this can to the next Commission thank you very much for all of your time thank you okay if you if you guys all would listen I I we respect and appreciate everything you've done but let's just please stop the Applause so that we can is we've got a long meeting and things of that nature and you're going to get the workshop and things I believe all heard out so we'll listen very carefully tonight uh Jimmy cff how do you say that Jimmy what's your yep okay come on up Jimmy good evening can you hear me yeah we can hear you fine my name is Jimmy Cundiff uh I'm a firefighter paramedic for rard County fire rescue I love working here I've been here uh collectively about 5 years to be honest I don't want to be here today um I don't feel like I have to make a case for why you know we need to be paid fairly like Chrissy just said um everything's going up we know mortgages I bought my house 13 years ago my mortgage is going up everyone knows this groceries FPL can't afford a car nowadays um so the fire department's a little bit different um you know it's not like Walmart where you can transfer to another Walmart make the same amount of money and have the same amount of vacation days where our firefighters right now can apply anywhere in River County Kelly days they can go to Port St Lucy make top out there is 117,000 a year the beginning I uh the starting pay is around 50 uh Palm Beach County top outs around 120,000 a year with uh Kelly day that means every seventh shift they work they have it off we've been behind the behind the ball for 20 years we need to start catching up um I love working here I know a lot of guys that that love working here uh but we're falling behind our top out right now after 15 years is 67,000 and some change um so that's after 15 years of service starting out um you know is around 50 um it's pretty Grim compared to any other place uh we also transport we ride ambulances the other fire departments around us um don't but you know I feel like we get paid unfairly um Palm Bay just agreed to around 35% raise for their firefighters um and we're we're struggling here uh we have we're a big fire department we do special ops Hazmat everything you know um I feel like we need to you know be brought up to the standard of everywhere else it's too easy for these guys to leave and go somewhere else it's just too easy we have F FRS where you can just transfer over to another County fire department and carry over your retirement you're not losing anything so it's even more of a case for these new guys to work 1 to 10 years even 15 years Year guys can go down south and transfer over their retirement with their high five and start somewhere else with uh 17 days less less days worked a year um so that's all I have to say thank you thank you Jimmy all right John Deo good evening hey John how are you good how you doing good evening esteemed Commissioners my name is John D I'm coming up on 18 years of dedicated service to bcfr this will be my fifth contract negotiation that I've been witnessed during my tenure I appreciate the opportunity to address you regarding a matter of upmost important it's wages retention Recruitment and the welfare of our barard County firefighters in the last six weeks our fire department has experienced an alarming Exodus of talent 23 dedicated firefighters EMTs and paramedics have resigned with only one of those being of retirement additionally we have faced the Imp the impending retirement of 27 more employees that is starting as a as early as June this unprecedented attrition threatens the stability and effectiveness of our department particularly as we approach the opening of a crucial new VR fire station despite ambitious hiring initiatives and recruiting efforts we find ourselves struggling to maintain adequate Staffing levels these hiring goals were developed by the current bcfr Administration and approved by the BC the the idea was to increase the floater pool so overtime costs could be mitigated however overtime costs have not been mitigated it has increased to the extent that some of our firefighters EMTs and paramedics have been given mandatory overtime twice in the past 45 days where once we had a surplus of qualified applicants we struggled to fill fill new higher classes this decline in interest is directly correlated with our inability to offer competitive wages work life balance and benefits as evident by the exit interviews indicated that compensation and work life balance are key factors in the employees decisions to leave these exit interviews can be made readily available moreover our Reliance on scholarship programs to attract new Talent come at a significant cost both financially and in terms of qual quality uh recruits many scholarship recipients fail out of the program or leave for other departments after theyve completed their training with bcfr the training costs over 20,000 to $30,000 per recruit leaving us with little return on our investment advertising a competitive wage package would surely bring back applicants we are s sorely losing to departments around us in the last 6 weeks again our fire department has experienced alarming Exodus of talent 23 firefighters that are dedicated to this job have left for surrounding agencies to address these pressing issues and ensure the safety and well-being of our residents and visitors I urge you to prioritize discussions on competitive wages work life balance and benefits for our firefighters during your upcoming executive session the residents of Bard County deserve nothing less than a highly skilled and dedicated Public Safety Workforce and our firefighter ERS deserve compensation that reflects the industry standard thank you for your attention to this matter thank you very much John all right Paige sasman good evening Paige good evening uh my name is Paige sasman I've been with bcfr for two and a half years now which um these days is a shocking amount of time to people I'd like to start by saying thank you for considering an executive session with Chief bter um I've lived here my whole life and I honestly didn't really care about politics that much until I started working for this department I'm about to become a paramedic with this department which to me I had a liutenant who's actually here tonight tell me I'm about to become more valuable it doesn't feel that way um I currently make, 1550 an hour that's with two incentives and I'm only getting a dollar for far more responsibility um once I become a paramedic as a solo paramedic I will be making about $2 more an hour which again a lot more responsibility which other departments around here as you've been told already I can go make easy $20 an hour if not more um I firmly believe chief chief voler has the best interest to do right by us in the field um he's shown so far that he does have good intent the reality of it right now is that we're hemorrhaging people and I wish that was an exaggeration but it's not um over the last month 20 people in counting have left and it's no secret that pay is the reason if the pay doesn't increase we won't have enough people to staff the units and it's as simple as that we're going to have to Brown out units um the people here tonight including myself are passionate about this department and this career but we need to provide for ourselves and our families a third of Our Lives is sacrificed for this job which is again the best job in the world in my opinion but because of the lack of pay we are now having to sacrifice 2/3 or more of our time if we can working overtime to just afford Bare Necessities um I love this department and I don't want to have to leave but with the way things are going right now it's it's not looking good um I love this department I love my crew I love what I get to do I get to actually do both sides of my job and I'm passionate about both sides of my job but at the same time I just bought a house my mortgage is double what my old mortgage was and my pay is not so with that I would like to say thank you please go into this meeting if you choose to with uh Chief volter with an open mind and open ears about the severity of the situation thank you thank you very much Craig finlin good evening Craig evening Commissioners my name is Craig finlin I'm a fire prevention inspector with bavar County fire rescue I'm also our inspector representative to the iff 2969 eboard um I come up here today just to thank you guys for having considering an executive session um and I come to you to uh remind you that there are more than just the firefighters as well our firefighters are incredibly important uh but there are inspectors that are in the CBA as well um our job is also equally as important as the firefighters uh we go in and we inspect buildings to make sure that they are safe for our citizens for your citizens um and make sure that there are no hazards for them that would cause a fire or other dangerous issues um and I don't don't forget about us as the inspectors as well we are also in that CBA um and I just want to thank you for having that executive session keep that in mind and just ask you to please do the right thing um our our wages are just as bad as the firefighters uh we recently had one of our inspectors that uh left our department to go work for Indian River County fire rescue her starting salary was more than our topout salary currently is a Bard County Fire um that needs to be addressed in my opinion we we can't get anybody we can't hire anybody we have I believe three um applicants right now and none of them are qualified for multiple positions that are available um with that thank you for having the executive session please keep that in mind and uh please do the right thing for your citizens and for your firefighters thank you thank you very much Richie Stein hello um Commissioners my name is Richie Stein um I'm a lieutenant with fire rescue I've been employed here for 14 years um first I would like to say thank you for taking a vested interest in your fire department the ongoing is issues and seeking an executive session you will hear about as you've already heard issues like mot retention attrition and recruitment problems low morale we have lost approximately 23 people as you've already heard in the past 3 to four weeks 37 since January we've hired 31 since January it's just simply unsustainable these are issues that we face on a daily basis but they are symptoms of the real issues substandard pay and substandard work life balance we will not be able to keep employees if we're not competitive in these areas I encourage you to ask about these issues during your executive session keep an open mind and understand our lives are affected by your decisions Chief voler is in a difficult spot he must weigh the needs of the county its citizens and his employees he understands where we are and what needs to be done to get bcfr back on track as i' I not as I've not always agreed with Chief on how we get there I do believe he has the best interests of all and also believe he is the right person to get the job done we are at a critical point here at bcfr and decisions that will be made in the next few months will shape the future of the department for the better or worse hopefully for the better thank you for your time thank you very much okay uh Mr body or Mr Richardson do we need to have a motion to pass this to have the executive session okay do I hear a motion I'll make a motion sir motion by commissioner felner is there a second second seconded by commissioner toaya any discussion just a comment thank you for what you do for us we will give this serious consideration when we get into into the executive session and hopefully we can make some things that work for all of us but thank you very very much all in favor signify by saying I all oppose nay the motion carries okay let's get into uh public hearings all right public hearing number one uh it's a temporary use agreement for Bard County to continue uh using a dewatering activity on County owned parcel for the Grand Canal muck removal project and that would be Steve Diaz number one Uno uno1 pardon me Virginia you want to do you want to I'm sorry Steve uh thanks commissioner I appreciate it do you want to give an explanation to this sure that would be great I'm sorry I I apologize for passing over you no no worries commissioner um as you said this is a public hearing to continue allowing temporary do watering activities on a county-owned parcel adjacent to the pinita causeway for the unincorporated Grand Canal mck removal project the current temporary use agreement expires Jun July 9th of 2024 this request is for up to four years bringing the expiration to July 9th 2028 we expect dredging to be done in 2027 but with site restoration uh carrying on into 2028 multiple factors contributed to needing this extension request Muk volumes are 30% approximately 30% greater than the original estimations that were based on surveys completed back in 2014 so 10 years ago changes were made to the interstitial water treatment methodology the covid pandemic affected material availability equipment and trucking we've had hurricanes and severe weather delays unexpected encounters with clay and rock and extra time to process material to meet State cleanup Target levels a public meeting with the South Patrick residents Association was held on April 25th to discuss the project and plans for completion public comments were received and residents concerns regarding the project were heard uh County staff have completed a list of action items gathered from that meeting um project staff and Consultants are available here tonight to provide any additional information at the commissioner's request thank you thank you very much Virginia uh Steve I don't know if I can put this up here somewhere but just want to show you how to how close I live to the demucking let me get there there we go that works can I hand these off to you guys I had some presentation stuff sure uh my name is Steve Diaz I live uh as you can see about 225 ft from the demucking site um so basically I just want to let you know let you know first starting off in the packets there there's 21 other residents uh that have signed a petition to either stop the demucking project and not to extend it or to find another dma site to try to figure out what else to do with that demucking um my main concern is my family and my residents uh we smelled a significant rotten egg smell on consistent basis uh from all my research that I've done uh it seems to be most likely related to hydrogen sulfide or uh H2S um I asked the county a couple of weeks ago when it had the community meeting to do a air quality test and why hasn't it been done in the four years that they've been working on the project and they admitted that they had not done anything for air quality which kind of goes against the US Army Corp Engineers the EPA and the dredging association's uh policies were it's U stating that they should be monitoring air quality as well as the human health impact that it could create uh um my family suffering from nose bleeds nausea headaches and loss of appetites at times where they've never suffered that before moving to the area um I know they think that they might have done an error test the last week or two but you can see in the last page of my presentation shows that the air Direction was away from our properties so that does play A Part um and also I just want to see if going to record to the county if they are going to continue this that they can give us some type of guarantee on the record that this is not a possible health hazard to us or to the community thank you thank you sir sorry we have U Mr Gary handland good afternoon Commissioners uh my name is Gary handland my address is 4052 thrust drive I'm just around the corner from the muuk area uh and there are several residents around me and the gentleman that just spoke from tortois Island uh I understand that it's uh there's some difficulties involved I think that uh perard natural resources has uh done a commendable job in trying to uh facilitate this cleanup it's a super big project uh as I mentioned to uh commissioner Falkner uh when I introduced myself I was on the Marine Advisory board for several years approximately 11 years quite a few years ago and uh if you would have asked me then if we could appropriate the money to clean up our canals I would have said I didn't think we'd ever be able to do it but I know that people at Natural Resources through their grant writing and everything else that they've done uh have done commendable job and I look forward to them addressing the concerns of the community which they did do in the April 25th meeting uh I think that uh with a little effort on your part and the uh natural resources we're going to uh maybe see some uh mermaids in the Grand Canal one of these days thanks an awful lot and have a nice evening thank you very much Jeremy Kendall I just want to thank you for listening to me today I'm uh Mr Diaz's neighbor so I'm also 225 ft from the demucking site um I won't repeat everything he said but uh we do have similar problems I'll come home for to my house in the afternoon and rotten egg smell would be would probably be welcome it's more of a methane smell and uh hydrogen sulfide as it collects in in areas that are not well ventilated we'll collect and keep and keep building as it keeps building it starts to smell more like methane it's also more flammable at that point so uh so when you come home to your house and it smells like methane like that uh all you want to do is you know evacuate that house your eyes start watering and this is constant my concerns are that uh just after the letter came out asking for the extension Mr Diaz and I were on Fox News and uh the day after that it seems like everything stopped at that site there were very few people there not much going on it was it was in full force uh for about 10 days we haven't smelled anything there since so I don't know if they were skipping a step that prevented the smell or or something different is being done but it doesn't make any sense that for 3 years we've been dealing with that and all of a sudden we haven't smelled that anymore maybe it'll come back I hope it doesn't uh but that's been the case uh also members of the uh Bard County uh environmental have been searching through my social media don't know why they were doing that and also the day after we were on TV uh someone came by our house you were sitting next to him at the last meeting uh in the back in their boat filming me and my wife on the dock and taking pictures of us don't know why that was necessary but I thought you should know thank you very much s Sullivan Sandra Sullivan so um one of my concerns with the Grand Canal project is the posos contamination so the EPA came out with a study uh in September of air inhalation risk but we have no vocc monitoring happening for posos contamination even though the base is the third highest contaminated base in the country you think we would be doing more to protect our residents health and safety the second concern I have is that this project was supposed to be done in 2023 completed last time I checked we're 2024 and they're talking about not being done until till 2027 well you know what if I do third grade math and I take four years over 68% complete which is where we were at the start of this year and I extrapolate with a little ratio comes out with 5.88 years for 100% well that would put you at 2025 not 2027 I did records requests and I find out where there's emails saying the satellite beads project is going to start in the 20 26 which would correspond to our project ending in 2025 so I called D and D tells me yeah the Satellite Beach project is going to be using the panita dmaa site so then I talked to Vinnie uh Toronto with the Soro the other day and he tells me that he called Amanda pek a d and she told him the county hasn't made up their mind yet so here's a very simple suggestion that you can do today for the Tua and you can just add in a clause with your motion add in a clause commissioner District 4 add in a clause that says we will only use this site for the Grand Canal project as for the delineation of area that it is now because we've got emails we've got here's here's from the permit saying salai Beach Project's going to be done in 2028 guess what the the oal project using the B V 52 site it doesn't end until 2027 so how can they be finished in 20 2028 when they would be starting in 2028 and then you've got Satellite Beach on social media bragging that they're using the panita dmaa site and then here's my email confirming with d that that's the site they're using and then you look at the the permit I got a copy of the permit and lo and behold you got pipe from oali all the way down 8.1 miles all the way down to the bb52 site in Palm Bay but what about the five miles between salai Beach and oali not in the plan huh isn't that strange so again if you're trustworthy and this isn't a bait and switch which has all the indications of based on what the d d has communicated then you would have no problem with inserting a clause in your Tua with an adendum that simply says this site is only for the Grand Canal project and we will not be extending it to other projects thank you very much and here's some handouts me just one Craig Wallace good evening con uh so I'm wearing Three Hats tonight so that means I get three minutes for each hat right no just kidding sorry uh the first hat is as a homeowner uh in tortoise Island Satellite Beach uh Grand on the Grand Canal um I've lived through the past three and a half four years of of the mck drudging project unfortunately fortunately I don't live across the street from it so I haven't endured uh some of the of what the folks here have talked to you about tonight uh but one thing I know is that when I moved into my house in March of 2016 I had a whole Canal full of dead stinking rotten fish in my backyard and the canal color was this reddish awful reddish brown color that I never want to see again and so I vowed at that point in time that I would do everything I could to make sure that you know whatever it was that was causing this problem we fixed it and so I've gotten been involved in this which is um my third hat but my second hat is that um oh first of all it's uh the as of right this past weekend after the dredge had gone past my house uh the clarity of the water was I could see 10 ft down I was watching snook pass by all kinds of game fish in there that we've never seen before so we we are making a big impact with this this project my second hat is as the um a member of the board of tortois Island um homeowners association and that I have heard we just had our meeting this past month and I heard from all the passion please from all of our residents uh as youve heard tonight uh it's really tough listening to to the stories they're telling and the and what they have to put up with so I understand that and you know they they all say that they want to make sure that this Lagoon gets cleaned up so they they they want this program to go forward but we need to work out the best possible way to try to minimize uh the the discomforts that they're dealing with especially if it's going to be for another three or four years my third hat which you're probably more familiar with me is as the chairman of the barard Lagoon Coalition which I have worked closely with the county uh to try to get these programs uh working and to communicate with the public the issues we have with these programs as well as you know what all the good that they're doing in in the county so having been through all of you know that that array of things hopefully it will help you perceive you know some of the challenges as you as I put before you tonight and that our best uh approach is dialogue and and I think all have mentioned tonight the meeting uh that the Virginia put on at on the 25th of April that really got all the people together got uh people asked questions and now the county staff has responded to most of the questions that were asked there I think that working together is the best solution to this so we just need to keep our our eyes and ears open so thank you very much thank you Craig all right there are no more cards on this uh have discussion from the board or a motion discussion discussion go ahead commissioner pritet okay Miss Virginia just to for the public um I I think we're about halfway done with the project from what I'm reading in the paper and um I got I got to be briefed before we had this meeting could you go ahead and let everybody know why we have more Muk than we thought when we started the project well mck continues to accumulate while we continue to put too much pollution in the lagoon so you know we have um hundreds of millions of projects millions of dollars worth of projects underway to stop that pollution before it gets to the Lagoon but those projects aren't complete yet and so um uh that pollution as well as you know grass clippings and um other things right there from the community continue to add much to the to the system and and part of it we we had more get in there before we were able to start the project when you did the first analysis correct correct those surveys helped you with that right the volume was surveyed back in 2014 so it's you know 10 more years of accumulation increased in so hopefully we're able to win that battle cuz it's hard to keep taking it out if if we have more going in just a a quick question just just on the simple end of it so by what these gentlemen are saying we can tell it's like really bad stuff in there if we have all of this um air quality issues over at their houses so um it's it's important we get it out and you did do a testing from what they said here yes we ordered um hydrogen sulfide testing and set up systems um closest to well first we surveyed all around the dmma site to figure out where the highest readings were and not surprisingly there where the mck is coming fresh out of the dredge pipe into the sand settling Basin and so we set up uh a monitoring system there then we set up another system um downwind between que where all the geot tubes are are dewatering the material um and then we moved the first station to the section of the construction area closest to um the homeowners on Tortoise Island and so we've monitored there um since the middle of last week and that monitoring shows that the our noses are extremely sensitive to hydrogen sulfide and so uh just because we can smell it doesn't mean that it's at at dangerous levels so what the sensors are telling us is that the levels are way way way below any sort of um human health concern okay are we going to be able to to monitor on a continual basis moving forward for a little while just to make sure we didn't have a hit and miss day or um you know if the board wants us to do that we can extend that monitoring but uh there's no reason to think that it would be different than what we have found so far and um you know in the history of all the counties dredging and all the other dredging that's gone on um this has not been a a human health concern okay do you think um there's going to be the problem with this situation a few of the homeowners are having for a while do you think this is is going to help alleviate itself after you get a certain amount out soon or I'm sorry I should ask you this off online first how much longer do you think this is going to be a problem the the smell yeah um it will as long as we are dredging fresh mck out of the Lagoon there's a potential for smell gotcha okay so um I I'm I'm hoping then with communication we'll be able to keep monitoring it as we need to so but thank you so much for all of your work and guys thank you for um bringing it all to our attention commissioner commissioner yeah yes sorry may I just add that the um the temporary use agreement that's in your packet it specifies that the purpose is to continue to fill to fulfill the County's obligation to conduct mck dredging along the unincorporated segment of the Grand Canal system and uh then it also says that the agreement shall expire on the date the project is deemed complete thank you commissioner felmer I think you kind of answered the main one there Virginia that um the uh cities of Satellite Beach and IND Indian Harbor will have separate contracts to go south right correct okay they they do not have permission from you as the controller of that property to use the County's dmma their permits specify that they will use the Florida Inland navigation District BV 52 site in Palm Bay right understood um certainly sympathetic to uh homeowners concerns um you said the board if gave you Direction you'd be able to continue the the the monit monitoring of uh the sulfide gas what um what additional cost or um burden would that add to the project I believe the the cost of the monitoring that we've done so far is around 14 or 15,000 to continue that for the month would bring us to around 30 33 36 33,000 thank you sign language from the back of the room okay but that's something also too that we could possibly discuss further at the next um County Commission meeting well the equipment will go back uh before the next meeting and we would have a new rental it's cheaper to keep okay the current equipment than to send it back and order it again okay so as part of I I tell you I'm going to make a motion to continue the project I would like to add in the monitoring for uh the remainder of the month so uh okay there's a motion on the floor by commissioner felner to adopt the uh the mucking facility as long as it's monitored for the end for the end of the month and it's been seconded by commissioner pritchet is there any more discussion hearing no discussion all in favor signify by saying I I all oppose Nay n okay the motion carries all right let's uh move on we're getting into i1 which is um Peter are you here Mr chair would you consider a five minute break I would all right let's take a five minute break we'll be right back thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] agenda item i1 and uh Peter would you like to lead us into that please yes sir Mr chair uh the this is item coming from the TDC it's a request from the city of Coco for a $5 million reimbursable Capital facilities grant for a bright Line Station in Coco Florida and sir I do believe the city is here uh prepared to do a presentation on this okay great I think Samantha do you want to take the lead on this or the mayor all right you're gonna get this party started okay she said yes never argue with two women mayor that's why I rule number one you're correct there chairman good evening County Commissioners County manager and attorney I Michael Blake is here to say all roads lead through Coco automobiles airplanes and now even bright line trains I'm happy to say the prospect of a new passenger rail station in the great city of Coco brings immense potential for economic growth increase connectivity revitalization not only for the Coco Community but for the Space Coast I'm excited to introduce to you our team that is here today for supporting this project and when I call your name please stand from the great city of Coco our deputy mayor lavander Hearn please stand from District number three Matt Beringer please stand from District number one Alex goings please stand our Stockton witton our city manager please stand the effervescent Mrs Samantha Singer the director of the Coco Communications and economic development and members of our various board members please stand and be recognized please join us because there is power power in numbers also from the bright line Executives Ben porit SVP and corporate Affairs Esquire kendle Moore and needless to say but also very in industrious the Space Coast transportation and planning organization Miss georgana Gillette the executive director please stand and be recognized ma'am thank you and also from HDR Jeff arms who's in the audience too as well please stand and now we will bring on Mrs singer to start this presentation but before I take my seat let me be first to say happy early Mother's Day thank you very much it's always a good idea to take a f minute break before you turn to Mike over to the mayor here so but we love him we love him Samantha please go ahead start off by saying that this is going to be a transformative project for the Space Coast not just for the city of Coco and okay so this uh as you all know the city of Coco is centrally located um along the bright line route you can see along the map here so we are centrally located along the Orlando Miami route with easy access to everything that the Space Coast offers including Port Canaveral major international airports major highways and more Coco also serves as a gateway to the many attractions in our area and we'll talk a little bit more about those as well this is a prime opportunity for development and growth surrounding the station leading to increases in the tax base from tourism tax sales tax countywide property tax and city of cocoa property tax the station will be situated on a portion of over 90 acres of land that is owned by either brightline or the city of Coco with parking which will be remaining public publicly owned by the city of Coco with easy access to Port canaval Kennedy Space Center visitors complex bravard zoo and the Melbourne Orlando International Airport the Coco station will Design and layout is anticipated to be similar to the boar Ron station it will be approximately 7,500 to 9,000 square ft with surface parking and there will also be additional tracking that will be done west of the station this will be a multimodal hub Transportation Hub for our area that can provide guests the opportunity to visit the Space Coast including a hub for Tours Cruise ships and Hotel Transit and ride share opportunities with over 90 Acres available for potential development the city of Coco envisions a station that is part of an urban mixed use destination that will not just be a stop but a place where people will want to go we will see a surge in both residential and Commercial de development including restaurants hotels again leading to increases in what we see in taxes sales and tourism taxes County property tax and city of cocoa property tax there's going to be a growing market demand will create a Vibrant Community with proximity to jobs access to public services spaces and activity Rail stations have been shown to create jobs increase property values and strengthen communities so we've already we we know a lot about our tourism we a report just came out from the space coast office of Tourism um we have a lot of great data you can see from their Mark 2024 marketing plan the reasons why people come and visit our Space Coast beaches Rock rocket launches pre- and post Cruise nature and Outdoors leisure activities all accessible from a centrally located station the top destinations and attractions along the Space Coast include Port Canal Coco Beach Kennedy Space Center Visitor complex and Bard Zoo again all easily easily accessible from a Coco station you can see from this graphic um there are uh a number of attractions along the bright line route from Miami tlando including Cruise terminals casinos Sports Arenas theme parks national parks and more getting the Coco Station built will keep Bard's Prime destinations that I mentioned earlier competitive along this bright line route otherwise these attractions are not a destination for bright line Riders the Space Coast Transportation Planning organization has engaged HDR to look at the feasibility numbers related to the Coco station and I'd like to welcome up Jeff who's here with us today uh to review some of that information with you just click there sure thanks um once again my name is Jeff arms I'm a vice president with HDR engineering been doing Transportation Planning in Florida for over 25 years so time flies but I'm here to just talk a little bit about some of the analysis we did in the ridership estimates and how it might translate into overnight stays um I know the city also engaged a separate consultant and Economic Development firm that came up with a similar estimate using a slightly different methodology so it's pretty consistent with the overall approach so bright line is currently had in 2023 1.6 million Riders um that is to note that the uh the this the Orlando station did not open till September of 2023 but they're on Target and their goal is a is 4 million Riders per year um what we ended up doing was we did a catchment opportunity which was to analyze using a travel demand model called replica that that captures a Riders ship it's an activity based model and it's able to um M take take Anonymous uh tra traffic cell phone data and extrapolate that into overall activity between different areas of the state and you can see that there's an there's right now there's 29 million interactions potential between or that are already happening between these areas um the way we Define a catchment area is we just follow the methodology that bright line had used for their ridership estimates for their bond holders and that is really to understand the uh the activity that's happening within a 45 minute drive of the station as we all know bright line is a premium service and there are some users they going to choose to um visit certain areas because they want to just not have to to drive and to be able to take the train as their choice for their destination some notes on the ridership we took a similar approach to what brightline had done in their ridership estimates was basically to take a look at potential market share of the interactions that are occurring overall and then we're resulting in approximately like 4% um of the overall interactions could be Riders um using the bright line service from there we just looked at what the room nights could be and just taking into account that um our estimate is that a very slight increase of users would choose to come to barard that may otherwise go somewhere else if it weren't for the option of the bright line and what we looked at was that we estimated that approximately 42,000 people and this is really only three 3% of the bright rine ridership if you converted for uh room nights and duration of stats you would get approximately uh 78,000 um additional room nights and that's like a conservative model and that's just .1% of the overall interaction of all the tra uh trips that would be going to Bard County already so we were just estimating that there'd be even with a slight increase of users that are now able to use the bright line State service to come to Coco you would get um 500 to a million or 500,000 to a million in additional um tourist bed revenues based on the the data and assumptions that are already out there so with that I'll um I just also wanted to note too the state had done an economic impact study of of bright line as a part of the Statewide rail plan and it did estimate the with 16 tradings a day which I believe is what bright line is currently running um there would be an economic impact of almost uh 2.8 billion and as mentioned you know how would Bard capture some of that economic impact act and with the station they could be able to do some of that so with that I'll turn over Samantha finish hold on there I think commissioner to has a question for you sure thank you and and I'm sorry um you you were Lo using a lot of math and assumptions and and uh so help me if we could step back you said your findings were pretty similar to uh the Downs in St Germaine I haven't seen yours so I'm going off I'm going off theirs um so some question because again I've only seen this wonderful six page uh slide that someone paid an obscene amount of money for um you they use estimates of 5% overnight visitors and 5% day Trippers 10 and 10 15 and 15 is you used this similar I took it we had a different methodology approach than what they had ours was based on um the percent I can go back my my qu my question is there are other stops along the way at West Palm Beach Bo rone Fort Lauderdale and Aventura those probably would be my guess the best estimates for people that actually get off the train my question did you use any of those numbers to extrapolate the the um uh dollar figures that you were putting up here I I'll I'll take a step and walk back bright line is a we're able to model the interaction between station areas based on the existing using the replica model which captures um Mobility between cell phones and what brightline has done in their ridership is they can understand the interactions between the the the tra the station area shed of where you could capture Riders um throughout the whole state about half the economic activity um will be in the State of Florida is actually captured along the bright line route and what we did in our approach which was different was was we looked at what the interaction was on as shown on the slide um of how many mill milons of trips but my my question is just simple my question is how many people get off the train right at at at CoCo at well that's that's an extrapolation off of other data we have we have data points there are other there are other stops those other stops again are West Palm boa Raton corre Fort Lauderdale and aatur between the beginning and the end right so if we're going to make uh a conjecture we've got a news station potentially coming up right we would look at the other four stations I don't know I don't to modeling but I think that that probably would be the first data point we look at so my question to you is uh how many people got off the train and spent one night uh or two nights at West Palm Beach boar Raton Fort Lauderdale or Aventura I don't have specific numbers um at my hand for for each but what I can say is the ridership um for bright line I think Believe last month was around 200,000 that they had achieved like 200,000 in just that one month rers our projection of the 4 million our projections take into account um all the stations being interactions in the future I'm just saying that I'm just trying to Fig I'm sorry I'm just trying to figure out how I don't care about those other stations I care about how many people are going to get off the train in Coco and then contribute to the the base we have other models to look at right and with other data points and you didn't look at any of those points yeah our model was that we estimated that 1.2 million per year based on following the same methodology that bright line had used for their ridership estimates would get off annually at the Coco station but okay and that's not off of any of the other stops there correct you're just using a number that was given to you by bright line is is that no I'm following a similar methodology for ridership estimates that bright line did I don't have bright line doesn't publish specifically what how many are getting off at each specific station one thing that's a little bit different about bright line is it is not a publicly run um station so that don't report the same ridership as a publicly run Transit Agency would so I'm not privy to their proprietary data what I can do is to follow um good Transportation Planning practices of ridership forecasting and that's what we did which was following a similar forecast that they had published with their um their ridership reports that went into like their bond uh selling okay and and out of curiosity um I I assume you're probably in favor of the the train station happening um I assume bright line is probably in favor of the train St station happening my question would be why wouldn't they share that data with you um what I can say is my job is not to be in favor of the station happening or not my job was is to analyze the feasibility of the station and to perform analysis and to provide results and data based on our expert opinion in the field so to answer to answer your question um you know we haven't completed the entire feasibility study bright Lin's already announced that they want to move forward with the station I was simply asked what would be an estimate a conservative estimate of ridership and how many could stay overnight at this location and we took a very conservative estimate that there's um 29 million interactions to The Bard Coco area station is what is occurring just as far as trips and that's what's shown on this slide and if you just took 0.1% of that was additional right was users that were taking bright line and then staying overnight it would produce approximately the same result as what the uh economic analysis firm that the city had um produced as well so I took a different approach and it was really just ma based on applying percentage to ridership and came up with a similar result to their estimate that that's all I'm trying to explain and and one last final question no go ahead commissioner yeah uh can you good question sir yeah I'm still trying I'm looking under again this you didn't do this one but you said it was quite simp I'm looking under the assumptions and caveats um under the the other one that you referenced downs and Germain um can you explain uh and you even mentioned this there many people uh would normally drive but instead would elect to take the train you you referenced that and that I saw that as an assumption missed here so can you explain how you've taken that into consideration did so I my question is that's not new money right it's just someone coming on a different method of of transport coming into Coco some of the ridership approach would be that people would make the trip already but there are also some ridership that would be like what we call like induced ridership like I'll be honest with you I live in Orlando the opportunity to go to South Florida and Miami is much more lucrative if I don't have to drive and and worry about parking so there are people that have higher e economic impact level or economic status that are going to choose to go to tr places because the train does go there what is that induction number and when you're through your modeling I'm sorry right so I I estimated that that would be 0.1% of all the interactions between with the the Coco station 0. 1% of the 29 million equates to the 42,000 um uh persons choosing to stay overnight and then you have to um take into account room occupancy then you have to take into account duration of stay and that's how I arrived at the 78,000 room nights um annually I'm I'm I'm not I'm sorry I'm just not I'm just not understanding because the the people are the 29 million are already coming your interaction number 29 29 million is already occurring correct so there's no induction there because we're let's assume that's stable right you're you're assuming that's not a that's not a variable that's that's already that's a consistent number correct but if if you just in my assumption based on the analysis if you increase that by .1% increase and those were folks that wanted to stay overnight in Bard that would produce 42,000 people annually why not why not 7% or 133% or 0.4 how did you come up with 0.1 the 0.1% was we took a took into account um with some of my staff looking at different um go to the next Slide the number of hotel rooms within Bard and how that equates to it's really just a small fraction there's approximately 12,000 hotel rooms in Bard County um that are going to be open by like next year with according to the the tourism data so the percentage and I I'd have to go back to the math um that would actually increase the number of hotel rooms itself on an on a nightly basis was fairly small and like I said the I'm sorry I'm not following you that that's Hotel nights right correct we're talking about ridership we're talking about ridership now so those I don't see the correlation between the two I'm just trying to understand how you came up with a 0.1% is that a is that a just a number that you pulled out of thin a or is there some industry standard that says .1% is the increase we'll see when there's a new type of Transportation okay so the market share of users was four was estimated to be 4% of of the 29 would be the writers ship okay I simply made a professional judgment um educated decision that 0.1% was a very small additional amount of trips that would want to take a mode okay so it was a guess it's a based on my profession in 25 years of being a transportation planner I'm the lead um Transit um planner for HDR for Florida so I do have some experience working in this type of field and based on um studies and my history and experience doing this type of work I estimated it would be a. 1% increase of inducement of of travel would result in that number of one final question so mhm there's no data to backup other than the the 25 years of experience that you have the 0.1% cuz that's an that's a fundamental number you understand we can increase that to 1% the numbers go up 10 it goes goes up quite a bit or we can do 0.01 it goes down but I I also took into account that it's somewhat constricted by how many room nights there would be so if someone was going to stay and induce extra nights and there weren't hotel rooms to do it you couldn't have those additional stays why now we we have airbnbs that's that's a not that's a number that goes up you know it I did con constrict it is what my my point was being was I tried to constrict the amount it could induce based on a realistic number and the other thing I would note is bright line is the only inner city private passenger rail in the country so there is not I will grant you there is not a lot of data points based on other um modes of rail and how much people would take what I would say though is I think we've all met people that have taken Amtrak to go visit other cities as like a trip and that's an inducement that they chose to go there because Amtrak went there I know as a kid I went from Washington DC to New York because amp Trak was there and we took that as a mode I'm just using that as an example that's why in my professional opinion too was taking into account the analysis in the 29 million and the 4% felt that the .1% additional was a realistic very conserva a amount of induced trips okay thank you commissioner I thought those were excellent questions I apprciate and and I think that they were answered very well by you thanks but we all know that what you do is you hire an expert this gentleman's an expert and addition to that some of these numbers are subjective experts have to rely on subjective numbers based on other data so we don't have objective data to determine the exact numbers but your questioning was absolutely right on the money so I am understand that and I think the answers were great Samantha so that leads us to um our final slide tonight which is um the project total and uh remaining Capital requirements so you can see from here um $6 billion has already been invested in the bright line system Network um which enables the city of Coco and Bard County to have a stop so they have already invested $6 billion in their system which enables us to have a station in the city of Coco we the city of Coco have earmarked $5 million our Council city council has earmarked $5 million towards the project the Space Coast transportation and planning organization is utilizing their future Federal funding allocations for $15.5 million towards the project brightline has invested 3.2 million to purchase the land in the area in 2012 um they will also be assumed uming all of the operating expenses for the project for the foreseeable future at an estimated value of $2.8 million annually for station specific costs which equates to a net present value of $82.5 million over the next 50 years the city will collaborate with the TPO and bright line to secure additional Federal funding towards this very transformative project and you can see that the two um allocations from the city of Coco and hopefully the allocation from the space coast office of Tourism can all be used as leverage for Federal grant funding so we can take that $5 million and leverage it to $20 million in federal funding so today's ask is for approval of the $5 million and available tourist development tax funding to support the city of Coco's efforts to make this multimodal station a reality and I'm we have our team here who can answer any questions that you all might have thank you okay so an thank you very much I think what we'll do is go to the cards and at the end we'll open I'll bring it back to the commission for discussion and we'll go from there uh commissioner pret did you have something you wanted to say first I'll wait when you're after the you sure we're I would love to do no go ahead no I'm good go ahead all right let's go all right then uh let's go to Pam Shia Pam you have three minutes welcome tonight thank you very much for being here thank you very much for having me tonight tonight I'm presenting historic coule village Main Street I am the president to the organization all of you should have received a letter from us this week along with documentation with over well over 100 businesses in the area supporting this beautiful addition to our community uh you've already heard them talk about um the addition of the tourism we've heard uh discussions on the Simplicity of the logistics of where this is located this is the center of bavard County when I moved here 24 years ago I was like oh what have I moved to and now I am so happy to live here and the excitement is tremendous over the fact that we have this bright Line train so we hope tonight that the commission feels the same way we do and that the $5 million will be moved in that direction we are the center we are five minutes from if you got off the train because I live right there and you take two traffic lights you're at the beach you take three traffic lightss you're at the Space Center you take one traffic light and you're at the port and you take two more traffic lights and you can come through Coco Village you get on 95 you can be at the zoo so this will open up many opportunities for all of us I look forward to riding this train I look forward to having it in our area and thank you very much for your time thank you very much Audrey Stewart Harbor a restoration okay a word from our sponsor hi I'm Audrey Stewart I appreciate you guys hearing me out this evening um Harbor a restoration is a family-owned business we've been in business for 40 years started by my parents and grandparents and 20 years ago we moved our business from South Florida up to Rock Ledge which has been incredible um and we've loved our facility in Rock Ledge right up until bright line started its construction um unfortunately since the construction began we've experienced flooding of our property and buildings erosion of the land behind our property and then the collapsing of our fencing system which is part of our security of our property and our client cars um over the period of the railro construction we've been in contact with both HSR Constructors and the project engineering for bright line HSR Constructors assured us that all of our issues and damage would be addressed as soon as the railway was complete once it was complete we followed up and then we were told oh no it's not our problem anymore now you will go to the project engineer of bright line and they will help you out with your your facility issues um both came out assessed our facilities and noted the damages and said that they would be in contact to assist us in moving forward um after multiple emails phone calls messages sending photos and videos of their flooding and property we received no responses from brightline um for months at a time unfortunately our business continues to deteriorate the property is eroding away and we've had to shut down our business on multiple occasions due to flooding um and safety concerns with loss of income to both our business but also to our employees so while we are not opposed to a station coming in we just asked that prior to releasing funding for future um progression of this bright line you asked them to take care of your residents who were negatively affected by the lines that they have put in um I appreciate your time and understanding thank you let me ask you a question real fast uh auto restoration do you have used automobiles or junk automobiles on your site we have so we restore classic cars from you know basically customers bring them in and we bring them okay so it's not a junkyard no it's not a junkyard restoration I wanted I wanted to just make sure that was very clear tonight so everybody heard it thank you very much yeah thank you all right so uh Chase chamblas mayor Mr evening Commissioners uh I'm Chase chamblas uh I have kind of a couple points here I'm new mayor of Palm Shores I replaced Carol McCormick about 10 months ago and uh I'm here to support this initiative uh support Mike Blake and his team and also commissioner Steel in passing this initiative I believe that uh it's uh Coco is ideal for location uh reviewed the information and I think that they've got a proposition here that would do nothing but benefit uh bravard County so keep it short thank you for your time thank you mayor councilman Matt where are you you I'm getting older uh green green e County Commission uh pleas pleasure to see you all and actually um as this issue is coming before you all I I actually I really do appreciate both the experience um and and really just the tenure that you have in your in your lives of Public Service to address what is at best a complex issue so you know there's not a whole lot I'm going to be to to to add uh relative to you know some of the financial assumptions that is for sure and so commissioner toaya thank you for asking those the scrutiny uh member felner as well uh I know that fiscal conservativism is a is a practice and a reality member pritchet as well and member Goodson uh so thank you for that because those questions will make this better the experience that you all have as a body will make this project better so I I I do ask that you make that consideration my consideration is is is simply this uh many of you were in service at some point in time uh when the Space Program shut down and it took a community to come together uh Beyond just one single entity to change a community I know that when the city of Titusville decided to do a secondary bond for Exploration Park when there was not a whole lot else there I'm so grateful to that decision because the reality is that when you go across the park now uh and look at Blue origin and the investment to SpaceX and the space and our space space community that is a transformational change the city of Coco we share so many issues collectively uh and this is one of those opportunities to make those transformational change to a community that we all represent as a representative for District 3 I'm about Ground Zero with this thing lands and so from a community standpoint I bring myself and and the voice to of our community as well from shared investment the one thing I I would hope that you would consider as well is you know for all the for all the money that we spend into Beach re nourishment I've never gotten a from somebody from the beach and yet we still do that because it is a shared uh benefit to the all of the community when we talk about laying as a utility the fiduciary responsibility to ensure that we have water access well into Vieira and Beyond right well into viira we make those Investments long before any of us will continue to serve it's the same similar investment and the consideration that I would ask to the benefit of the of our entire community Florida ranks the 15th largest almost economy in the world depending on who you ask uh and within that 15th largest economy the question becomes what role does Bard County have in supporting us as a state and we as an economy and we as Floridians I think that Bard County's role is significant and substantial when we talk about being a quint modal including from space ports to to train travel the reality is that we already myself and my wife as for work take the bright line down in Miami about once a month and it's a thousand times better than having to drive there and back so in Practical reality I say thank you for your consideration to this and I would just ask that every time we've made a large investment into ourselves it's paid off and we win so thank you thank you very much Candace Rogers good evening Commissioners County manager and County attorney and staff tonight is an historical moment in time as you IDE the approval of the TDC recommendation to Grant $5 million to the Coco bright Line train station to help you in your decision let us look at history significant development of Florida only began in the late 19th century with the coming of the railroad specifically the Florida East Coast railroad whose greatest achievement was the development of the East Atlantic Coast without the FEC railroad cities like Miami West Palm Beach and Tona Beach would simply not exist in their present form and stature in 2012 an announcement stated a privately operated passenger service would return to the FEC rails while some counties asked for compensation and others sued unsuccessfully coko asked for only one thing a station over a decade later we are here tonight asking for your approval of the TDC recommendation not just on behalf of the city of Coco but on behalf of bravard County and our space coast stakeholders yes it will be an economic spark for coko but also for Bard County will be seated at the same economic table benefiting from what will be the most inclusive wide ranging transformative Grant the TDC has ever recommended I kindly ask that we all get on board and make this opportunity a reality thank you Stuart glass good evening I'm St glass I'm deputy mayor of the town of IND Atlantic what's in the Atlantic have to do with bright line it's simple this is a multimodal community we've done a lot to make it that way we've been involved with bright line since the very beginning I'm just here to wave and support so please approve thank you thank you Stuart uh Julie Doyle good evening Julie good evening I'm also here to wave and support um my husband and I have lived in the county for many years and we've seen the evolution of the county the Passover from pinita to I95 um The Avenue being built in Vieira and those were all good changes we got more infrastructure we got more jobs we got more access to goods and services um we expect that bright line will do that same kind of effect but on steroids for us um I work for a major defense contractor my husband works in the public sector we come across many many people in our daily lives and we have not heard one person say that they were against this the the business Community is well behind this uh the taxpayers are behind it and we want this effort every time I saw that bright Line pass through here without stopping it I have to tell you it pissed me off I felt like we were we were missing out we were missing out on a piece of the pie we were missing out on the access to get to the airport to go south we were missing out on opportunity and um we have to not just look at who gets off at the station we need to look at what the station is going to do for that surrounding area all of the you you can look up the bright line effect all the development that's occurred in the area of the various bright Line stations up and down I I worked for many years in Palm Bay and Malibar and I have to say that what is good for one area of bravard is good for all of bravard it's good for all of us it will draw people to yes to that part of the county but and it will also help develop a a what we know to be a somewhat blighted area which is good for all of us it will bring in shops it will bring in restaurants you had a whole presentation by professionals on what it's going to do look at what when I first moved here the Avenue didn't exist I moved away for four years I came back look what's there now look what's suround it it's it's amazing all the condos all the all the place the hotels and all those people that's you you need places to live for those people that work in those defense contractors that are up and down the county not just in Coco SE they're in Malibar they're in Palm Bay they're up on the Space Center and and we need this and it's good for us and please support it thank you thank you very much Senor Sullivan yeah please okay Sandra Sullivan SS Patrick Shores so um thank you commissioner TOA for your point about proprietary data as I recall we've denied some TDC grants recently because when they want public money they need to provide data so let me go to one of his numbers he said the ridership was 29 million I did a just a little search on here yeah I wanted to see what the ridership was here's a Bloomberg tic they just downloaded their downgraded their writers ship to 4.9 million not 29 million all right so first things I watched a TDC meeting I sent out a little clip to a lot of people in Bard and first of all per your agenda item this is from the capital facilities fund which uh as our chair so apply said requires a super majority vote so that would be my first request to this board that we don't play a game that we're moving it to marketing when it's not a marketing expense and we actually do a super majority vote and not a simple major simple majority vote okay this the second point is I know you guys are pretty smart so I'm sure you've read the numbers that the bright line project is a $45 million project right not a $75 million project you could do math right it's 45 million and it's uh between a 75 and a 9,000 ft so that's you know point2 of an acre but what if what did they put up on their slide they're looking for 75 million so by their presentation that they did and they were very transparent about this this is a mixed use development this is for hotel for restaurants for housing etc etc we're funding what they're asking here is not for funding bright line it's for bright line plus all these other businesses okay last thing I checked you know we believed as as uh fiscal conservatives and in free market right now one last point I want to bring to you guys is I've been here this is my sixth year I've seen the bright line lobbyists come here many times okay and I think it's about time that if you're going to give public money you negotiate a better deal for Bard because as D3 commissioner brought out before in 18 years we're going to be burdened with and I think he mentioned seven stations in Grant V Cara uh seven sorry crossovers we're going to have a lot of fiscal responsibility and maintain those I think you guys have a fiary responsibility to the people and I'll just mention I looked up what it costs for the boa Raton station that they talk about6 million so maybe it's a really good idea to verify numbers before you start handing out millions of dollars of taxpayer money thank you thank you very much Ivon minus Mr chair and County Commissioners good evening I thank you for allowing me to speak on such an important item I'm very excited about the bright line having a stop in Coco however living in Melbourne I would have had or chosen for that to be a stop in Melbourne but nonetheless the stop will be in Bard County and that is what's very important I am in favor and hope you agree that the tourist development tax will be allocated for bright line in Bard County during the backtack tragic accidents that happened in our district in my district or better yet the district that I represent I cannot say how bright line in my opinion bent over backwards meeting with the mayor several staff members and myself including our city manager to aggressively put in measures to prevent any further accidents and fatalities now I will add that it if if it is the will of someone to take those drastic measures then nothing in the world can prevent that accident from happening bright line has kept our city AB breast of the immediate stop Gap safety and preventive measures and are still going on at each of our Crossings and through throughout our city given in the fact that the tdt already has allocated $5 million or have $5 million do available these funds are not coming from our property tax or any specialty tax which is a very good thing being conservative and making sure that our funds are in good shape being a member and the vice chair of the space Coast Transportation Planning organization we have allocated and you've heard before $15.5 million in federal funding to help with this much needed and worthy very worthy project I hope that you will agree with me and vote Yes for the $5 million coming from the tourist development tax and I thank you for your time thank you councilwoman okay um that ends our cards if uh I had a card mayor sorry I don't see yeah I don't I don't either but come on up we do this to you every time we try to hide you back there mayor and just don't want to talk to you this is Mayor Coco Beach mayor Keith welcome appreciate it um I just want to say I too was a little upset not seeing a stop in in Coco so uh I I think this is a great project is absolutely a tourist driven project um and it's absolutely a capital project so I think um having it allocated out of the TDC Capital fund is fully um it's fully worthy of that uh my concern is if it if it doesn't pass this vote because you need a 41 that it might get pushed off to the um the marketing budget uh and my concern there too is you guys have already indicated that you were not not sure if you even had 1.5 million to put towards lifeguards so um I don't want to take even more uh away from that uh considering um we will not be contributing to lifeguards so we want to make sure that the TDC will be able to fund that um like I said it I think it's a great project it's going to help with tourism uh more importantly for me it's going to help with residents being able to uh the roads between um the different locations like the airport um without having more traffic so uh that's one of the things that I would like to see uh also for locals trying to travel to International uh Miami Airport uh it'll Aid in that so uh I I hope that you guys do something with it I just hope that you keep it in the right uh in the right funding uh allocation so thank you thank you very much mayor okay I believe we're finish with the cards now um if I could I would like to go ahead and turn the chair oh you went to absolutely thank you um thank you for the opportunity chair I appreciate it I just um just a fun interesting thing Miss Julie I think you're Canadian because piss is a Canadian word and there's not too many of us use it so I'm I'm with you on that one I remember back when we started working on the bright line actually it was the term before I came on they had to work through the hard stuff of the the train trying to get the tracks down and everybody was so mad about a train coming but everybody's so in favor of a stop and and as as pissed as they were about the Train everybody wanted a stop and I can relate with that because I'm thinking once it gets in I'm going to hop on it and run over to Tampa and go shopping my husband's there but it's it's just those types of opportunities for us that's a good thing for Bard County to get a stop after we we've had to endure all the changes with the track coming through and Coco Canaveral Groves all the things they've um been so patient with dealing with and hopefully we'll get those other things worked out bright Lin's pretty good about helping work out some things we might need to work on this one L's issue I also want to just mention how hard Miss Georgian gillette's worked with this process she's been a real hero in it and um her her amount of work of trying to get all of the things lined up with the multimodal pretty impressive and it's so much fun seeing all the public servants here tonight it's like a almost a fun little homecoming um Matt and I served at city of Titusville in the very beginning years we both got in on this together and I think Fischer was the commissioner then and it was just a fun process of of working on this because we had been through such a crisis as a county and a community and I don't know if yeah you guys are old enough but everybody was moving out of here because there wasn't any jobs there's one out of three houses in foreclosure and I got involved because my children left the area with my grandbabies and I wanted to come and and help and make sure we had jobs in place so that when the next economic leveling comes and there's one coming there's going to be as sure as I'm sitting here I've been watching it and you know with the economy you'll have the ups and downs we're at a peak right now something's going to come soon to make an adjustment and anytime we can do something that will insulate Bard County from ever to going through that much pain again CU we got hit hit so hard with the space program and and the housing crisis and the banking mess and so anytime we've got something like this that's a diversity situation as far as bright line coming once they come they're not going to leave and it is going to bring a real uptick in our economy and Coco you guys did so good with this today and so I think this is such a good project and you said use the word transformational that was a really good word I was going to say change the environment but your word's better but we had the utus aom and I don't know if you guys remember that but we had this big area with nothing in it it was going in the hole and they come up with a great idea of bringing all these kids sports over and it was such a controversial item controvers everybody was complaining about it but my goodness that thing just took off and really helped the economy in Vieira and then we've had a few other things blue origin and this has been just such a job trying to get it done and um commissioner Goodson I really congratulate you for this sir because this is going to be a really good thing to have in your pocket for a for a great thing you did while you were in service yeah but it's it's such a good thing the only thing I wish different and I I think yvon said this I wish it was in district one but it's it's a good area and I'm just I'm just so proud of this and thank you sir for bringing this up at the TDC um I I just it's just a good project and tourist development this is tourist Development Fund so good job job guys thank you I think uh commissioner felner did you did you want to speak or commissioner Goodson thank you sir um I'm just going to bring up some things that we all need to be aware of if we do approve this tonight uh the grant would only be used for this it would be used for nothing else if it's you know the M the and also I want to make sure this doesn't lay there for years if they don't meet certain milestones for that Grant to stay there might wish to come back to us for reapplication okay the other things that Coco I I hope get bright line to agree with if you know anything about parking Revenue the port gets it the port gets it Coco I had a meeting with bright line bright line said absolutely not I had a meeting with the Coco and they said oh we we're getting it so I hope y'all settle on who's getting a share of the parking fee CU if you take a 400 car parking lot times just 300 days it's like $45 million okay now they say they need it for operating cost I'm not sure that but that's what they say I hope you do that the other thing that's going to be a problem for the city of Coco if they control access into their own parking lot then how are you going to get your taxis in there your Uber drivers and your shuttles the port fights that all the time if you know anything they're put on the back of the line which upsets taxi cab drivers because they produce Revenue by trips so that's a concern I have you know so that's something that you need to work out with bright line because if not you will live in utter chaos and aggravation you know and of course uh I don't know uh the next thing would be rental cars are they going to be on their Lots or their land and control that and you don't get a cut of that you can say all you want to about property taxes but the money for Coco is in Revenue sharing you can do onof a dollar on dollar off just like the port does at that station so that's all I have to say Mr chairman thank you very much as you can see commissioner Goodson is a great businessman and all those comments that he made are absolutely true and I think the details in the event that we pass this can be worked out very clearly and I think those are all good things commissioner thank you for bringing that up uh if I could I would like to go ahead and turn the the uh chair over to you and uh make a few comments certain thank you very much I think we all know that we've been working on this for a long time five years ago oh my God we're going to get a train station oh my God we're going to get a train station and yet nothing nothing nothing nothing nothing tonight opportunity is knocking at our door I think of the Field of Dreams every time I think of this build it they will come there's a lot of subject of information that came out tonight because the data is still not there but I'll tell you what is there there's a great train track rolling down the roads with beautiful new trains and we have the ultimate location in the entire State of Florida for people once they understand that Coco and bravard County because it's just not Coco this is a countywide thing that's going to help us all I've spent a lot of time talking to Morris and uh and and and and how to do this in the event that we could we could do it correctly so I'm going to uh read this as a motion and uh I hope my fellow Commissioners follow through and second it and we have some good discussion and get it passed I move that first that we make the following legislative findings one of the main purposes of the Coco bright Line Station project is the attraction of tourists to Bard County two the county bright Line station will be promoted to tourists as a transport transportation service in a destination venue three the Coco bright Line station is needed to increase tourist related business activities in counties four an independent professional analysis shows that the station will have significant positive impact on tourist related business and accounting and we have that five the tourist Development Council unanimously recommended that we approve this grant an 80 vote completely transparent it was I'm sorry for varying off and let me go on with the rest of the motion second that we approve a $5 million reimbursable Grant to the city of Coco for the bright Line Station project third that the source of the grant funds will be from the TDC Capital facilities fund 1443 if necessary to administrator the grant the city county manager is offered to transfer $5 million from the TBC Capital fund 1443 into the TDC marketing fund 1441 finally authorizing the tourism development uh Department director to negotiate and sign all necessary Capital facilities marketing Grant agreements and related documents upon County attorney risk management and purchasing service approved and Authority the county manager execute execute all necessary budget uh charges and request that is a motion it was carefully drafted by our attorneys and uh I would hope that we get a second and some discussion second with discussion yes sir okay um Morris did you hear that the grant would be only for building the ret track and the motion I think I heard it but I want to make sure you heard it so I I heard that it's going to be for the project that the request was for so it's going to be not not the track itself necessarily but for the bright Line Station project yes sir okay did you hear anywhere that the motion said that if it was there at any length of time and they didn't meet certain Milestones it would revert back to the county that was not included in the motion I will tell you our our typical timeline for Capital grants is a groundbreaking within 3 years and completion within 6 years okay is that possible chair if you would like to I will accept a friendly Amendment okay I'd like to make a friend friendly amendment that if they don't meet certain Milestones it reverts back to us for them to retry a later date and were those Milestones satisfactory three years and six years well I would we not want to Bright line ask them is that satisfactory just please Commissioners um that timeline works I mean that time if if you think of the timeline with this uh the Grant application which would go in at the end of May uh would be awarded um or decided upon by the you know by 2024 you would spend about 12 months uh going through environmental approval site design engineering design and then you have a 24mon um construction timeline so that would work then then okay is there a second to commissioner Goodson's friendly amendment that would be your my motion so you want to include that in yes I do I want to include that in the motion question uh can we get a second then or do you want to answer have a first and second okay I'm talking about the amendment hello there Jason get going here boy all right a quick question I'm sorry I was talking when you were talking so with this um change we just made to the motion it's still um very comfortable for bright line to finish their project is that what you said specific to the timeline yes okay perfect thank you okay thank you chair all right any more discussion commissioner Taya thank you Mr chair um I I think we've heard from uh the cooco director of economic development that this would be a transformative I think is was the word used in fact it goes on to say in a recent Florida Today article this would boost residential and Commercial development uh bring more jobs to Coco add tax revenue to Coco um create a Transportation Hub and develop a 500 uh space parking lot um these are many of the tenants of what a CRA is supposed to do and I think there would be some duplication of service here so um to be clear I've never voted for one of these um capital projects in fact I'm about ready not to to to vote no on the guidelines we use to do do this but I greatly greatly appreciate um all the work and all the time that you've put into this and I was challenged uh by a number of folks to find uh a yes on this one so I'll tell you where I am I don't know if this is going to be a friendly Amendment but it was the commitment that I gave to another a number of people to get a yes and that is uh very simple um I would vote Yes contingent upon the city of Coco providing an ex executable Ila sunsetting the Coco downtown community redevelopment agency in the year 2031 uh to be voted on prior to the distribution of funds and satisfying um commissioner uh uh Goodson's uh contingencies that he just outlaid there so that's that's what gets that's what would get me a yes if that's a friendly Amendment you'll have yes if that's not a friendly Amendment then um I unfortunately would have to vote no on this I'd certainly be more uh more than willing to discuss um this but uh I've spoken with a number of folks over in Coco and they've all been receptive not agreed with but they've been receptive to having uh a discussion on that so I don't know if you're interested in getting the vote but that's what it would take for me to be a yes on this I'm more than willing to discuss anything can I ask just a question uh for clarification so a year from now uh a new board here could they just by a simple vote undo that and continue the lifespan of CRA um indefinitely Mr chair yes sir uh since it would be an interlocal agreement I think they would have to get buyin from the city of Coco uh but I I don't see any reason I I have faith in uh you commissioner uh feltner for passionately uh supporting the opposite side but theoretically the answer to that is is is yes okay Stockton you want to come up here for a second yes yes sir yes ma'am thank you real quick Mr for you start um that might be something we should maybe talk to you about later if we're we're willing to do that I'm not going to support doing that tonight with Coco I I don't think my I'm I'm not prepared for it either and I'd have to look at your data but if you guys would be willing I have an idea okay and I believe I have this discretion uh Morris tell me if I don't do I have the option to be able to poll before our final vote you mean ask Commissioners individually they stand right in front of everybody with the poll this is not def final vote you can ask them as long as they verbally announce it out loud you can't do a secret ballot or anything like that but if you can ask them to announce where they're at and if they're willing that's up to them if they're so inclined okay I know where commissioner toaya stands but you need to say what you're going to do you're G to it's no unless you get what you want with the c I'm sorry if I wasar there's one no vote Rita I'm I'm agreeing with your motion okay so there's two yay votes Mr felner no Mr Goodson yes okay with the amendment yes sir all right well I'm going to close this out then and uh in discussion unless there's somebody else that has a question and uh all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I I'll oppose nay nay Carri straight a two thank you very much is that Miss Sullivan that's saying that Miss suvan one of these days when you Miss Sullivan stop if you ever did your homework and realized what you'd say is wrong half the time you'd understand what happened so that Miss Miss Miss Sullivan I'm done with you tonight good night okay well that's fine you would take a five minute break yes let's take a five minute break Jas Jason was good MO [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] getting this done we got some more stuff that's extremely important tonight buy he always loses very if I could see getting the tears out of my eyes what's happened to my agenda oh there it is all right uh we need to approve the fiscal 2425 tourist Development Council Capital facility grant program application funding guidelines Peter yes sir um this is again another item from TDC funding program of up to 1.7 million for TDC Capital facilities uh grants again this is the guidelines application and score sheet there were not substantial changes this year over last year okay make a motion to approve you don't have cards no we have no cards there's a motion to approve is there a second I'll second commissioner Goodson seconds it any discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I'll oppose nay okay such a surprise John all right uh let's go to the I3 the grant agreement between Bard County and the economic development Commission of Florida Space Coast Incorporated and County Manager are you going to handle this or or you just want to call uh um any way you want to do it commissioner it's this is a a request uh for one year uh extension of the expiring agreement that I believe expires in October beginning of October uh and it's a request by the EDC to have the funding restored at the Grand amount that had previously existed for a number of years at 1,400,000 Todd come on up thank you so not many people can say POA no there you go that's perfect thank you thanks Todd I practiced all night long because I knew you're gonna be here well good evening Mr chairman Commissioners uh it's a pleasure to be here this evening uh my name is Todd POA I'm with the Vieira company I'm representing uh the EDC this evening I serve on their executive committee of the board of directors uh so first and foremost I want to thank you all for your your time this evening and your consideration of this agreement uh the EDC values the commission's commitment to maintaining a robust and sustainable economy for its residents uh I'm asking for your continued support uh by voting for this one-year agreement with the EDC our long-term partnership with the county has fostered the diversification of our economic base and supported the investment and retention of leading high tech businesses here in our community the partnership we have is evident in our legislative and Pentagon visits in Washington DC and in our collaborative approach toward economic development success as a community we have faced some significant ecomic challenges and over time this has not deterred the EDC one bit in fact since October of 2010 we've been successful in attracting projects that amounted to over 8,000 new jobs with capital Investments above $1 billion this includes companies such as blue origin embri a locki Martin and space perspective while these projects are the easiest outcomes to notice I'd be remiss if I did not address how our program of work extends Beyond business development M the EDC Works diligently to secure resources benefiting countywide programs including infrastructure projects in fact we secured a notable $3 million towards infrastructure one example is the $1 million for site preparation secured for the new emergency Operation Center facility thereby reducing the burden on the county another area of focus is Recruitment and Retention of talent to support local business the EDC created Talent asset pipeline program focused on Workforce training with increased access to entry-level jobs since 2017 we've provided over 800 scholarships totaling more than $800,000 to individuals seeking a career in manufacturing Aviation and the Aerospace industry currently we're addressing a Wastewater infrastructure challenge affecting the county Cape Canaveral uh space force station in NASA we secured a $200,000 grant for the completion of a phase one study to identify facility upgrade options we're also closely working with DOD to secure an additional $830,000 toward the next phas of study these are just a few of the highlights of the edc's positive impact for your consideration I want to thank you again on behalf of the EDC for your partnership your consideration of the agreement this evening and your investment in the shared vision for our economic future here in Bard County I look forward to further successful collaborations with you thank you very much thanks you might as well stay right there anybody have any questions I do okay uh commissioner tobio was first okay and then commissioner Goodson thank you Mr P and and clear clearly you're wearing a couple hats here right uh as as Viera uh upper level management in Vieira right as well as the EDC so I'll start with I'll start with the uh with with the VR1 first since I think that's the one that you mentioned um is it correct to say is it fair to say your adver advocating for us to sign this contract yes I am supporting the county commission's positive consideration of this agreement have you read the contract I have a copy of the contract question have have you read the 28 pages of the contract yes and I have staff here as well to answer any questions I was just curious um would the Vier company enter into a contract without measurable deliverables without it depends on the nature of the contract commissioner toaya there are many many contract that we enter into that does not have measurable deliverables what are you said you read the 28 pages of this my question you is can you name one measurable deliverable in that contract I I've read it many times no I'm going to ask EDC staff to come up well you said you read it my question is can you so there's a program of work that you've been provided that details what the EDC is is doing I want sorry my question is one measurable deliverable right that I can measure there was a success based on a measure or there was a failure you you said you read it right right okay I have it right here my question can you cite the one measurable deliverable in this contract just one so as I said there is the the work plan that is specified as an exhibit to this agreement so includes why don't you give me the page all of the actions so that is on page two of 28 and it refers in section 3B to the specific annualized work plan and that is attached as exhibit B to the agreement and this includes all of the objectives and actions as part of that work plan for fiscal year 2425 so that would include and under that creating and distributing materials and Publications a a a measurable outcome would be 500,000 pieces of uh documents given to you know uh x amount of uh citizens or x amount of businesses come in I'm I'm just trying to find a measurable these are all very nebulous I can't find anything the only thing measurable in here I can find is what you're asking for which is the $1.4 million that's measurable I can I can I I can measure the money I can't measure anything here no and commissioner toay I would like to ask Trudy from the EDC to join me here at the podium and perhaps she can provide further detail in further right you said you read it that's correct tree would you like to join me please hi commissioner how's it going I'm sorry can you can you tell us who you are I'm sorry try I apologize try McCarthy I am the Executive Vice President of the economic development commission okay so the the contract that you're looking at is um an exact duplicate of the contract we've been working with the county for the last 10 years the ask was to extend that by one year enabling the commission to um I'm going to stop you there because that's not true and the reason that's not true is because last year you got 1.2 million correct we the amount and now and now you're asking for 1.4 so it's not an extension it's an extension Plus a couple $1,000 we'll get there a little bit later but so it's not a direct extension correct it's an extension Plus additional Revenue I appreciate your perspective that it's not it's not a perspective if you want a continuation of the last one it's at it's at the dollars that were last year okay so our grant agreement with the county okay was this is the same Grant agreement we've been working on for 10 years the amount funded last year was revised for last year so the measurables that we provide to the county and to our board of directors is a monthly measurement in in that we provide different deliverables and different goals so that I'm sorry you're asking for revenue from the county correct so it's wonderful that you give your board that stuff right but they're not County and the county manager that is provided to you okay okay so you give them a flashy handout that yeah but it's wonderful that you do that I I appreciate it but I'm just trying to measure a success here so can you help me here in the 28 page hopefully you read it in the 28 page document how I can measure and the fact that it's a copy of what we've done in the past doesn't mean I haven't voted for these ever I'm just asking for a measurable um deliverable here there is not one measurable deliverable there are plans of actions with objectives that's all I was looking for there is not one measurable deliverable which is counter to what we heard from Mr PCA who said there were measurable you understand why there I'm having some concern here here we have OB and then my followup to this and this would go to Mr perria here um why why if we're getting if it's a copy of last year we're getting nothing new why would why would we want to move forward with an extra couple hundred, if you are getting nothing new you're a business individual right if you're getting the same contract getting the same Services which are nothing we've just we've just been told no measurable deliverable why should I pay more now for no measurable deliverables I'm not following that I understand why you want more money I get it but if we're not getting anything in return Why would why would we pay 200,000 more so commissioner at the time that the commission considered the funding last year and cut the funding there was discussion amongst the the Commissioners that there would be consideration perhaps of restoring full funding when it came back for consideration this year year based upon some of the progress and the achievements that the EDC was pursuing some of which I outlined during my remarks and those were reviewed with individual Commissioners and the uh the county manager office and meetings leading up to this this meeting today okay so there were no measurable just just to reiterate one more time I appreciate it right there were no measurable deliber you didn't meet those uh because you can't measure measure them right um this contract though much longer still has no measurable uh deliverables nothing we can say you succeeded here or you failed here which is fine um but we want $200 plus, more is that is that is that a fair assessment of of this contract tell me if I'm wrong no we're asking for a restoration of the funding that was in place prior to the action of the County Commission what extra are County taxpayers getting in this contract that they didn't get in last I I'm asking because I I don't see anything in this we in fact you have a person who works for you saying there's nothing in here so what I don't there's not one measurable deliverable before there's not one measurable deliverable now what extra are we getting for that $200,000 in fact I would argue that we're probably going to get less and and let me let me explain why we're probably going to get less here and and tell me I'm wrong right right um I guess we have uh a ballot language that may come up here about tax abatements and you that is cited uh in the contract uh in a couple different areas that you provide services um namely Section 8 of the contract this this new contract here that hasn't met this board that hasn't the board hasn't voted on this and even if the board does vote affirmatively and I don't know whether they will or not it still has to go to uh through ballot referendum it still has to go to the voters and the voters may decide they don't want to do that right so we may actually be getting less so my question is we were getting nothing before now we're potentially getting less why should we be paying more so I'd like to propose this to the commission um as you're considering this we do have a request for the restoration of 1.4 million if you would like to add on deliverables to that request we can work through that if that is something that the commission would like to consider um I leave that just a question what are we getting for the sorry what are we getting for the 200,000 that's that that's my question what new what new items are we getting for the 200,000 I don't understand okay so we took a cut last year we cut back on some of our services you'll see that there are a couple of positions that were open that we did not fill this year so some of those positions are areas we cut but um we are looking to restore back to our full funding so that we can be I'm not con I'm it's wonderful right but I'm concerned about the taxpayers I represent I'm not concerned about your employees I understand you probably want to pay them more and goodness gracious all those wonderful things so they can go on vacation go on the train and do all those wonderful things but what are we getting it's it's a question and the answer I suspect is nothing right what extra are we getting for that 200,000 you you've been you were on us before you is are we getting anything new just name one thing we're getting new for this extra 200,000 I understand it you got 200,000 the year before but this past year you worked for 1.2 and change for us now you're asking for the 1.4 what for that Delta of 200,000 what are what are we getting I understand what you're going to do with it you said you're going to hire more people or get bonuses or whatever the heck you're going to do but what what are taxpayers what are commissioner if you would please just uh at this particular point in time I think you've made your point and it's been made several times they can't answer your question and you know obviously you're going to vote up for this I would think that would be the thing I mean I don't know how many more times you can ask him and not get the answer I'm just the answer is not the answer is nothing but she hadn't said she gu we should say touche and move on so that we can get through with this unless you have another question that no all I wanted to hear her say was nothing she was very honest and she said we get no measurable deliverables I thought we were going to get no and I didn't want to lead on to that question so that that being said I I appreciate it um and you don't have to say it the chairman sh saved you on that one I apologize commissioner I wasn't trying to be disrespectful no you're not you're not your point your point was made I think very very clearly okay thank you all right commissioner Goodson yes do you um roll over any money at the end of the year or you just spend it and it's zero there was one year where we did roll over some funds that was invested back in the following year so we work just to um budget accordingly so that we spend the funds year by year and you're that good on your budget that at the end of the year you have zero left we have other Grant programs that we work with that are leveraged threeyear funding um so the funds that we expend are broken out into the different Grant and then private investment fills in any extra okay now um you there's a fee for ver to be in thec correct M okay how how much do you raise in the fees that you charge other businesses to be at your table and I'm sure you're going to tell me this this if you get to be the junior hat player and the main hat player with the ball so there's different fees correct correct correct how much money you raise doing that so our current fiscal year budget allows for $840,000 you raise $840,000 that's good and of course I remember one time when you cut out all the small businesses because it was too much aggravation is that still true you have to be a certain statute to be on the board that is not true so you take you take a painter that just opened up at at $50 fee that's not true either so where does your fees start we have a nonprofit rate and a individual rate of $750 and it goes up from there so $750 I could join if I if you're individual peanut stand entrepreneur I okay well I'm glad you went back to that because one time you did that's all my questions okay commissioner Prett thank you sir um last year oh by the way you're Canadian aren't you I thought I thought you give an opportunity for a second so I I get it right now um but the um the the thing that I want to um make a comment on is last year we kind of got you for a discount you and let me let me ask you this how many people are on your board approximately 160 okay but on your your main board I know Mr Paka is there the executive committee is pro the board okay and and um just a few of them what their their um occupations you run a whole area here and do you still have an astronaut we have a diversity of representation we have service providers we have um accountants lawyers real estate agents developers smart people how much do they get paid a year to do that nothing nothing okay that's that's my point so you've got all these people that donate their time to put this together to find ways to to bring in and increase our economy and they're not taking salaries if they did we we couldn't even afford this so when you look at the the amount of money we're invested into this if we try to do it on our own as a county we'd pay so much more than this for for the opportunity to bring in Economic Development and I'm always um very strong on the side of it because again I I said it earlier I remember being hungry and being in critical conditions where we weren't making it North Bard was bad and so anytime that we can create job creation I'm in and as long as you're doing that job and and there's I there might be not things you can measure what you're going to do going forward but we can definitely look at back in the back and see things that have come because we went ahead and made Moves the um space force you know I got to sit in on some of those meetings when there was that strong working for bringing more of the military presence and Linda weatherman was really involved and I've I've been to Washington one time and I think it does Happ to go again but we'd walk into a room and all these generals would say hi Linda hi Linda I mean she gets up there and she's just a shaking and a moving and um maybe if Linda wasn't there I might not support this as much but you guys don't take a salary the the amount of brains that come together to try to work this for our county is is is pretty phenomenal so um I don't know if you're going to pull it later or not but I'm definitely going to be sorting um supporting option one with y'all tonight because you took that hit last year and it's it's not that we're giving you more we're restoring you cuz we put you on sale last year so that's why I'm thinking of it commissioner PR would you take the chair please certainly sir uh thank you very very much I you know I I serve on the EDC and spend a lot of time there and I absolutely understand commissioner Tobias questioning on deliverables and things of that nature and candidly I haven't read the contract either I'm just going to tell you that right now but I what I have done and I've done for years now is I've sat in those discussions when we brought in Brian Holtz who used to be one web and started conversations about a new company called mangada and started other companies and what we did for them was we found them the land we got them in touch with the right people to permit their land and we got them to the point where they could get conduit financing from space Florida and then we went out and helped them get all their permits which would have been two more years a time now would that have been measurable I don't I don't know that anybody would ever done it or measured it because we were doing it secretly behind the scenes to get it all done done oh my gosh secretly yes we went over and met with a St John's Water Management District and got a permit that's public record oh my God it's a big secret Jesus Sandra so I want you to understand that when we're there oh it is John and I I really would like to take you to a meeting with me because when you sit there and the members of the corporations have employees and the people that that are there that the discussions that go on I think you'd be very impressed with and I was impressed with your line of question and I always am because you're you're you do excellent deep work in that but but the truth of the matter is is that EDC and Linda weatherman without them in this County would be in big trouble it would be very very difficult to get any major company to come back here and do stuff they might get here in 3 years four years down the line figure out a stumble around for a while and figure out how to get this stuff done but you go to EDC it gets done a lot quicker so I'm going to support the motion tonight and I and once again I completely understand commissioner tobias's questioning am I still cheering right now I'm going to shut up if there's any more Outburst I'm going to have somebody escort you out we've got to do business right now there's ma'am officer will you please we we just can't keep doing this is there a card no but it'll be time for that but we don't talk out from that area when we're having conversations it's just not good atmosphere can't get business done we haven't got to that part we haven't got to the public comments commissioner still you're welcome to jump back in okay thank you pardon me are there any other cards on I3 I don't see any other cards on I3 okay okay we're back on we're back okay commissioner felner what is the issue can we let her Phil one out and talk who Sandra Sandra's got a card filled out but it's at on this item on this item possible that we don't have it it's possible we don't so what is the point you want s to come back out fill out a card hold on let me grab let me grab real quick right now attorney right now I was trying to let commissioner still finish his part I think if she comes back in for a comment it might be fine but we can't have people talking when the commissioner's talking I absolutely agree I think she should be issued a Stern warning and and let her know that the next time it happens she'll be removed for so doing but right now so commissioner still can finish his conversation this is all right right now we'll let her come back absolutely and he can call the cards when he's ready before calling the vote I'm going to turn you commissioner thank you Miss Sullivan if you come back in and fill out a card you may come up and speak it and once again any more outbursts from you in the audiences by yelling or screaming at the Das we're going to not we're going to have you remov so you may fill out a card and make your comments after do you want to did you what what is your point you want them to do it now no no sir just go ahead go ahead sir I got to chair back all right so anyway I'm finished with my comments and uh commissioner felner do you have any more comments on on the EDC no sir I don't think so all right is there a motion do the card pardon me want do comment card yes I do want to do my comment card so you want to talk about this SRA come on up see she filled out on the we this was the wrong WR card but that's okay yeah right yeah right that's fine Sandra Sullivan sou Patrick Shores did you fill a card yes I did fill out a card for this item and I confirmed it with the clerk in the back just trying to find it it SRA it doesn't have to be like this we can we can no absolutely but I saw this moving towards the vote and I wanted just to give you the courtesy that I filled out a card we're good thank you um so of Interest of this item in coming here for many years has been a number of companies who um under the EDC have received abatements only to find out that they did not fulfill their contractual obligations and those uh abatements were terminated those projects didn't work out several of them actually um and so I actually have a a proposal to make uh to the county because I see from our budget Workshop that we have considerable fiscal challenges ahead of us and um I think we have some duplication of what the EDC is doing with EDS the north Bard Economic Development Zone and um uh commissioner to when he campaigned he campaigned on doing way with EDS what I propose is renaming and it's related to this renaming EDS to The Bard Economic Development Zone and the basis for that is I did a search I wanted to know how other counties uh did business if they had a separate entity as an EDC and this is Fort Lauderdale and there's this internals on their County website one of the advantages of doing that is transparency and accountability and you also have more in-house control of the direction that you're going in um you already have staff uh Troy post on staff a full-time employee to doing Economic Development for the county and uh certainly that could be expanded so you had save $1.4 million put that in to developing those uh uh resources inhouse of course having a board working with the community and it would bring more accountability and transparency I tried going to EDC event and I put in try to make a a reservation or go to one of their things and they didn't want me there okay at least bringing in a house you have a you have transparency to the public so that concludes what I want to say is please consider given the number of abatements of companies that have not worked out um and that the um Bard um North Bard Economic Development Zone has been doing a lot of the overlap of what is in their work plan for the EDC there's a duplication here that we don't need to have and we don't need to pay twice as taxpayers thank you thank you very much all right was there any more cards that we missed I didn't see okay is there a motion on the floor there's a motion on the floor motion to a floor is there a second second by commissioner felner option option one motion option one motion one year extension then you guys can renegotiate next year did you second commissioner I'll second okay any more discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I all opposed no no okay carries 3 to2 all right thank you so much um let's go to item I4 the uh who wants to handle this one Tobias there you go thank you uh Mr chair can I go with this yes you can please okay uh I brought this to the board November 2019 um it did not pass uh we've got a new board here uh so I'll go over this pretty quickly if you're against it that's fine uh this was I was just recycling here towards the end of my term uh so let me tell you what this policy uh uh would do this is the assigned policy um that uh allows Commissioners to put their name all over signs so so what this would do is apply to signs and equipment for signs related to construction projects that use County funds this would include road signs as well as Park Renovations it would also include joint projects with municipalities when County funds are used let me tell you what it would not do it would not stop the signs from being put up uh with project information or contact information for the Department responsible for the project uh it would uh not apply to wayfinding or directional signs in other words this way to commissioner taya's office uh and it would not apply to signs already created um so the reason for this change one single commissioner is not solely responsible for all of these projects uh whether it be for construction uh or renov uh renovation uh I just think it's uh doesn't send the best message when we throw our names up on construction uh projects as if we're responsible for footing the bill for all this we're put in here for uh you know as as placeholders for the next person and our names probably don't deserve to be on those signs so anyway that's it's just a change for from sign policies uh again I'm I'm I I think this is good policy but if you guys don't agree I will uh quickly demure on this one I I agree is there a motion to ask a question yes M of commissioner toaya this is apply to constitutional offices I'm going to pump that one over because my thought would be they would not be joining us on these road construction projects but I there may be a there may be a c I don't know if the sheriff has uh something out there I'm just I'm just asking for a clarification on the face of the policy the way it's drafted it would apply to any signs for which county funds are expended um meaning signs in the way of uh related to a county construction project broadly construed uh conceivably that could relate to a a construction project of a County officer since they receive County funds although I believe it's intended here to mean County in the form of board of County Commissioners projects sir yes sir I'm I'm reading here on uh 2 be for the purposes of the policy elected official shall mean each person elected to a county office municipal office Schoolboard office or other does not include state or federal elected officials so commissioner toay I'm happy to go with you here I think we should just uh not just make a point uh that it doesn't include the Constitutional offices that that'd be my suggestion you want to make an amendment accept that as a friendly friend that would be a friendly Amendment correct fine you okay with that that's the friendly Amendment you're good all right there's no other questions on this uh so uh I move to adopt the attached policy relating to the prohibition of District designation or elected officials names on the signs and Equipment as presented the agenda packet with a friendly Amendment uh provided by commissioner felner limiting it to County Commission uh officers all right I'll second okay uh any more discussion all in favor signify by saying I I all oppose nay motion carries thank you okay um commissioner Goodson you want to handle this one go ahead thank you chair yes sir um this amendment would just allow people to talk that wouldn't have to sit here all night and wait like Toby over there you know that would let him talk first and it's that's all it simply does that okay there's uh some cards out there s Sullivan you have a card on this one okay Katie Katie I hadn't heard from you all night sitting over there very quietly being such a nice good girl good evening Katie how are you great how are you thank you good good evening everybody my name is Katie Delaney and um I just want to thank commissioner Goodson for bring forward this change to the public comment policy um I understand that the county manager talked about how this would be used as like an overflow um as far as at least that's what I read in the documents that um 30 minutes up front and the second comment would be used to as more of an overflow My Hope and suggestion is that we could get to the point where we're extremely citizen friendly and we open it up to both C public comments for um anybody to speak under and um since I have some more time I'd like to speak on the um even though we're not making changes on it uh the consent portion I would love to see on the consent agenda um the amount of money for each consent item to be on the page Katie I apologize but that's off the subject matter of this agenda item okay no problem um again i' just like to thank commissioner Goodson for this uh for this change we're in the going in the right direction so thank you okay uh is there any other questions or discussion from the board commissioner I think no I was turn it off okay we done uh I question for the sponsor Mr chair yes sir go ahead you two go ahead uh thank you Mr chair doors are open uh Mr Goodson on on March 21st 2023 the board unanimously voted to pass resolution BCC 97 removing the second public comment portion of the agenda and removing the time limit on the first portion in fact Mr Goodson you made the motion for this I'm second it I think Rita made the motion uh you made the motion to approve it it was on consent but you made the motion uh went back and watched so my question Mr Goodson if you if you voted to approve the changes at the 321 meeting and and now we are reversing course how do we know that we will not reverse course again if something changes well we can only hope we won't reverse course CU you'll be either elected somewhere else or leaving somewhere else but I was new on the board at the time okay I didn't realize that this was that big of a thing for the public if we're going to restrict the public why don't we just restrict them totally and not you know not let them talk at all yeah I I I don't want to restrict anyone let me be very very clear none of this is is restricting absolutely everyone is given the three minutes of public it's it's where that three minutes uh uh comes there's no restriction to be very clear there's not one second of restriction of time but you're going to make somebody sit here for three hours to talk on something is that what you're going to do Mr chair no I would never make anyone sit out there I wouldn't make my parents sit out there for for for any so you'd rather him not come correct I did not say that either absolutely here's here's my question um there are there are people out here that sometimes bring uh representation they bring their attorneys here for a number of and they're paying their attorneys I don't know what an attorney you probably use attorneys more than me hundreds of dollars an hour so my question is if we put public comment ahead of that time their attorney while they're sitting out there in that chair is billing I imagine is that a fair assessment so it literally could cost hundreds of dollars for people that went through a long process are on the agenda but now have to wait for public comment that precedes that if it's at the end then they they don't have to go through that extra that extra time paying those attorneys costs that is you know if you're coming here with an attorney you have a reason to try to get something would you not agree or get something swayed because you wouldn't pay $300 an hour for him to sit out there but you're going to make a citizen sit out there and not have the ability to talk first then go home if that's your choice hey I hear you it's not mine I made a mistake but it was your choice on again on March made mistake I said I made a mistake and thought it was going to save money but it's evident it didn't because you didn't even want to save money to have the Planning and Zoning meeting before the regular meeting so whatever you wish to do on this so be it if you got the votes to kill it so be it and that's it but I'm just trying to help these people be able to talk because they're not you know they're not you know given the opportunity and if it's anything you I believe maybe I'm just kind of strange but government is by the people and for the people okay and I'll you know so I'll be more cautious thank thank you thank you sir okay where are we I have a motion in a second I don't think think have a second no I'm asking for a motion in a second I'm second can and then make the motion and I'll vote for John a quick comment commissioner Goodson um I I understand um your your thoughts on that um I think when I did this we were going through a lot of um D have your attention we good I hear I hear you a a lot of abuse happening with with people using it out there in network to where something happened when I was chairing that all got taken care of because I'm not chairing anymore and commissioner toaya jumped in and and did that thing as well to take care of that um because there's some things we can't control as far as hearing the public I agree I always want to hear the public but um even tonight you know we had like 17 different opportunities for Public public comment for the things that we have to deal with so um I'm I um I don't know that um bringing it back to the beginning will make a lot of difference except for the sweet little lady sitting out here tonight we we usually never go this long on meetings either but um I I I think is is also um I don't know her but if she would have called me in my district I probably would have done anything you need me to do for you um you're such a nice person but the ones that come and abuse us continually it makes a little bit tough at that time too so I I if you want to compromise may maybe move it back to before board reports if you think that'd be a little better to cut back on time after we just get rid of the agenda that we have to go over that's already on the agenda that everybody comes prepared to do but um that's just a thought I had for a little compromise okay chair yes sir does it really matter if it's before board reports or at before the meeting it's the same time giving people the opportunity now all that being said I hear you I have not felt any hostilities maybe I'm just lucky I'm sure you did I remember the comments and all that but uh you know we're elected to Serve the People we're not elected to say you can't talk and you know keep putting putting the time and of course granted if it P if it fails it fails and they'll be at the dead end and I hope there's quite a few that come and can stand it till the dead end but that's all I have to say thank you m uh Mr chair could I ask quick question um would you split it 15 minutes so we take the first five cards um who would want to speak on the first public comment and then the rest go to the second comment is that something anybody would be I'm asking you if you'd be amendable to that let me just make a comment on this because let let me just set up a scenario for you because here we go we have agenda items in the back of the meeting if we set up public comment in the front they could be up here talking about the agenda items that's going to be in the back and then afterwards talking put filling out a card for theend genda item too so so now you got them talking twice not that that's bad but now you have twice as much time being spent on stuff and it just is going to make the confusion it you're not going to have a smooth meeting I'm going to do whatever you all want to on this but could I could I clarify something U Mr chairman I I think it it specifically says that they wouldn't be able to speak at both public comment um periods so they would have to pick one or the other so but they could make a public comment and then go in and make an a a comment on the agenda item so they can do that now they can speak on the agenda item and they speak at the end ofe would they would here's what the problem is when you speak in the beginning you are lobbying for what's going to be coming on later on it's it's it's it's dysfun it's not functional well do you want to read yes sir govern isfunction yeah I think this it's dysfunctional quite a bit we have problems anyway but okay but anyway have let it lie where it all right Morris what do what do do you have a comment sir U yes sir if I may just for clarity uh the public comment section it's specifically prohibited for someone in that section to speak to an item that's on the agenda elsewhere so if you want to speak to an item on the agenda you have to speak during that item public comment is for items that are not on the agenda only chair yes sir sometimes you know these motions these motions get kind of carried away I was just trying to make it that much easier for people that they represent that we represent to speak before us on issues that's all but if it's going to uh be a burn and it won't fly or I can't get a second it dies but it will die because of you people not allowing the public talk all right is there no second to this hearing no second to Mo wait hold on just a second um commissioner Goodson I'm I'm not real sure that's a fair analogy I umum I probably don't mind one way or the other if you want to do this second the emotion well let me finish my conversation because when you say that it we know I have I sered with four other really awesome people here and they don't have that intent but from the things we were trying to deal with at the time and I I I almost think I will second that as long as we do another one adding to that the public public does not come up here and campaign if we make it a campaign prezone then that might help alleviate a lot of the problems we could have too at public comment that would be a friendly Amendment could I say something on that issue I think that's well intentioned but I don't know how you police that at all we did at city of Titusville we had a campaign prezone people could not come up so they're running for office and we didn't have to me mess with any of the campaign stuff okay I don't I don't see that being workable I maybe we bring the back then check legal there's a motion on the floor by commissioner Goodson that I believe has been seconded by commissioner pritet is that ACC with it not yet no yeah I agree with yours I would more than welcome that because I don't want to see somebody campaign up there do we want to talk with the county attorney make sure that we can do it we did it on city of Titusville I would like to have his comments on that's lawful you can do that there's a fairly recent Federal Court case upholding a similar prohibition I believe in Daytona Beach okay commissioner gson I also like what um commissioner feltner threw out that we divide it up in two and just have a certain amount and then we take the rest to the end 15 minutes would would be five comment cards so somebody who does want to come in and talk and get it out of the way and go home I I appreciate that I do okay then the others out at the end I'll accept that all right might as well stir this thing up really good because really I think it would be better if we let this go into effect on November 5th of 2024 so you two guys can do whatever you want well that's we we'll have that option then any we'll have that option then um with due respect no let's don't wait that long I don't I don't like that Jason or chair can can we just clarify the motion I would like to hear the motion again so commissioner Goodson you'll set my friendly the motion it would be to allow the public to speak at the beginning 15 minutes five cards correct with the understanding that they cannot politic at the dasis here right is that correct and uh that's pretty much pretty much it all right sir in good faith I'll second that okay is there any more discussion all in favor signify by saying I I I all oppose nay nay thank you okay the motion carries thank you sir thank you sir yes um I've got a a followup to that um another motion if you if you it doesn't cancel out that one I I want to thank commissioner Goodson for being such a stal worth for public engagement and citizen input clearly we just saw that today um he's changed his mind on everything else but he's spoken uh very clearly on this and at the 49 meeting commissioner Goodson made the following motion he said quote motion to see if the board would consider meeting with speak up bard to see if we can have some sort of a agreement so that every time we have a meeting they don't try to cut our throats uh surprisingly supporters of speak up Bard like this idea despite the shenanigans of it not being on the agenda uh I believe the board was including myself I'm I'm saying I was wrong here commissioner Goodson so I believe the board was too quick to to to throw out your motion um so after some additional consideration I believe this proposal uh may have quite a bit of Merit so I have uh this uh motion I mve to create two publicly advertised and recorded meetings one in July and one in October to be held in the commission Chambers during business hours for a minimum of 1 hour in duration for the purpose of of discussing speakup RAR recommendations and other related citizen concerns and designate commissioner Goodson the responsibility entirely for scheduling and conducting the meeting and to have commissioner Goodson report back to the rest of the board via board reports that is the motion chair I think that's so sweet of you John I just would I would uh offer a friendly Amendment okay we're gonna we're gonna stop right now okay swe just hold it stop all right I understand what's going on here first of all I'm going to call commissioner Tobias motion out of order because it needs to be an agenda item even if it was so that's the first thing second thing is is we we have we've had enough tonight okay with this so I'm going to go on and move on to the next agenda item I know we're all getting a little punch drunk but this is done all right so where are we now I6 board discussion of citizens request consideration of legislative intent permission to advertise Amendment section 62133 for agricultural residential Au and the creation of section of code entitled commercial recreation vehicles recreation equipment and trailer storage and such and such is anybody from uh on on that issue here have cards too sir okay have cards on this Tony how are you very good sir nice to see you all right young lady please Kelly Honan development strategies I'm a planning consultant I am just so excited to follow everything that has just happened tonight so I know everyone wants to get out of here so I appreciate you hearing us tonight um would you like me to present the request go ahead okay thank you wait a second Billy or Jeff Billy hello my brain's not working Mr chair did you or Tad who who wants to present this did you want us to give you a little bit of back yes I would I'm sorry I apologize absolutely meeting is getting a little crazy I apologize Tad no sir I understand it's been a tough meeting um the SE this evening this request is a citizen request for the board to consider legislative intent and permission to advertise amendments the section 621 1334 which is agricultural residential Au and agricultural residential Au light um to allow for the out storage of commercial and recreational vehicles Recreational Equipment trailers as a conditional use should the board Grant this request and staff would initiate the legislative process in amending the code this would this includes the ordinance being reviewed by the building construction advisory committee and the local planning agency then staff would bring the Amendments and the advisory board's recommendation forward to the board for your cons consideration um in addition to the analysis we attach to the Agenda Report staff would offer the following to Aid the board with their decision currently RV and Boat Storage is allowed in the retail warehousing and wholesale commercial bu2 zoning classifications and Industrial classifications changing this code would potentially allow the use to occur on 7,389 properties properties this equates to 5,123 properties in District 1 1,29 properties in District 2 211 properties in District 3 164 properties in District 4 556 properties in District 5 if you presume that each of these 3,800 I'm sorry 389 properties but three other Parcels you would be affecting potentially 22,000 properties in bouvard County with this amendment there's one active code enforcement case for RV and Boat Storage on Au property the uh requestor is also prop prop proposing several conditions as part of the amendment to be considered with the conditional use and of course I'll let M Honan um present those to the board if you have any questions of us we're happy to answer one more time what was the number that it would affect the total number so if it would allow if the board were to consider the change it would allow 7,000 it would allow the use to occur on 7,389 properties potentially okay you're up thank you and do you have a copy of the proposed language yes in front of you not in front of me but I've read it okay would that be okay if I just absolutely hand it out a copy I did have one question about the number of properties does that take into account the regulations that are proposed related to size and previously developed Properties or was that just the total number of properties that were zoned to Au ma' I'm sorry you have to direct all your questions to chair so they have time to prepare later if you put in questions sure okay so what we're looking to do here is two things it would be to add a conditional use in the Au zoning District I don't intend for this to be for aul the way it's written I believe I put in there is just for the Au zoning and it's to allow a use called outdoor commercial recreational vehicle Recreational Equipment and trailer storage and the commercial word there does not mean heavy equipment um it doesn't mean people's work Vehicles commercial just essentially means for non-residential uses um a with a a slew of proposed regulations and when I was looking through adding in this use in the Au zoning District I looked back at other uses that are already allowed in AU today that are the same or higher intensity so what we're asking for is lower intensity than many of the uses that are already allowed so for example we have let's see here um landscaping business that's permitted with conditions um there are no conditional use required it has size requirements for conditional uses there's boarding of horses and horses for higher composting facility Farmers Market that's open to the public um roadside stand that has parking on the property and open to the public veterinary hospitals kennels clinics and also Zoological parks with standards so what we're proposing along with this is for there to be a couple standards with the commercial recreational vehicle storage and that is a minimum size of 5 Acres principal structure setbacks would be at least 25 ft from all property lines the same as the principle structure on the site a 300t setback from any rideway no commercial vehicles or heavy equipment allowed I think so it has to be on a developed property screened on all sides by an opaque barrier 6 feet in height minimum and it shall not exceed 50% of the area of the property so with those regulations allowing this use would allow for something to happen in AU properties that are of lower intensity that are already allowed in addition to get approval for that you have to get conditional use through planning and Z zoning board and the board of County Commissioners thank you okay um we have Keith capy have you left okay see he's answered that very clearly is yes I've gone okay um John Connelly first of all I want to do these papers so that everybody can see what we're dealing with okay thank you sir okay this John connley forar County I'm out of uh heel road again with heel Road uh this uh property what we're we've all gone to Farms small farms that's what we go to agriculture for we don't want to live in the city we don't want to live in this with the the uh sidewalks all that we're real consistent with our animals and trying to keep it rule uh what we're asking for here is not just this property we're asking they're asking for you to look at all properties in Bard County the cons we need to be consistent this consistency is the state of Florida has this set up what we have here everybody in other counties are set up the same way with zoning we start taking a higher density and putting in a lower density we start mixing things together so we shouldn't have a a zoning company or zoning business in in Bard County at all we don't have any zoning if we take high to low and mix them together we don't keep it we got a uh magistrate to deal with with this problem I'm the complainant with the with the the way that's set up code enforcement officer does not go out to a property unless they are asked to go out to the property at that time they tell the the people who has made the complaint which they typically come down to the person that made a complaint and  that's the way it goes so what I'm asking here is there's a there's a a lot of problems that come with this one is the building department and the zoning department along with Fire Marshals try to keep an ISO rating which is the insurance ratings low in this County if we start mixing high with low they have a tendency to not want to Ure you the insurance companies I've talked to say that if you they were to ask if they have a high a business within an area or a certain area they they won't insure them so we're may be dealing with insurance problems here we're also dealing with uh toxic chemicals and we get a fire in this type of situation everybody Downstream is going to pick up all the toxics that are picking up everybody gets off a fir trucks going to be packed out with a with a respirator everybody Downstream in this fire is going to catch all the toxins come off of this thing uh the other problems we got over there is this is a 24-hour business Wayne Ivy is going to have to get involved in a situation what I showed you there what we have right now we're in a residential agricultural area and all of a sudden the guy puts up a hedge all the way around fills the property up and puts in RVs and and motor homes and boats and unless somebody complains we don't pick it up because code enforcement's tied to their chair I'm I'm willing to stand up and say this is wrong we should be consistent with the state of Florida thank you thank you yes sir all right uh Ron Thompson yeah good afternoon Commissioners and it has been a long day and this all make it any easier for me or anybody else that lives in the same area as you know y'all sat In This Very Room about 45 days ago and also approved a G1 residential up to to to B2 now you know why you said because uh mitt Road was a commercial carrier a commercial Corridor and it should have been approved well you approved uh a B I mean Au residential to be2 now that's taken a little bit too far I thought but commissioner steel you said you knew the people on Hill Road and you like the back of their hands if you sit there and approve this today you don't know Hill Road CU all most of the properties on Hill Road are Au uh residential and we don't need an additional storage unit y'all ever approved a storage unit right down the road at Hill and and mitton for Mr CLE uh eks systems so why do we need more of that we don't need the invasion of more commercial into our residence so where is it going to stop you know it's no need for this I understand he likes it it's a money make for him and he's also makes a lot of money now he he has a own uh complaint and he's under orders now to remove it so why in the world has the commission all of a sudden come involved in selling a Zone complaint I don't know and if you can explain that to me I'd like to know who brought this forward okay which one of you brought this this forward you go you're not going to live through 2,000 people that you're affecting 7,000 people when you start changing B2 into agricultural residents you've already wasted the the staff's time to help a prepare what you've asked for now why is that so if you know Residential Properties then you don't need this you don't need the hassle that you're going to get and you don't need the suit that you're going to get if you approve it because you're afraid of having a a suit brought to you because what you wouldn't approve denying that project last two months ago so so there's a lot of people 7,000 of us that's going to object to this so I hope y'all have common sense common sense don't need discussions but when a project like this comes forward to me I don't know and I don't think what what I call passing the smell test so good afternoon thank you all right um Judith kumman last but no but not least on this subject Judith good evening my name is Judith kumman I live at 1680 Willard Road Northwest in palom blé which is off of Hill Road um on April 4th the hill resident stood before you and protested Mr Cole Oliver and the West malar Property zoning request from Au to be2 which you approved at that April meeting many residents expressed to the board our concerns for continuing commercial property encroaching into our residential are area Mr Mason's property is approximately 4/10 of a mile from the corner of Hill Road and mitton and in this Agenda Report dated May 7th referring to the summary explanation and background that his representative discussed uh the the property records that I researched showed that Mr Mason's property is approximately 5.95 Acres so it meets the minimum property size of 5 Acres however the aerial view shows that his property is a flag lot so he is not on a city street or a County Road he is more on his own Ma Street it looks to be about one width car width wide off of heed Road road so as you know we all were concerned about traffic so the review of the cup as outlined in section 6291 of The Bard county code of ordinance states that the applicant must show the effect the granting of the conditional use permit will have on adjacent and nearby properties including but not limited to traffic and pedestrian flow and safy curb cuts off Street loading and parking off Street pickup of passengers odor glare and noise fumes Etc as well as draining and of course the screening that his representative already stated and the space and economic impact on the nearby properties in our April meeting we expressed our concerns about the traffic problem we also expressed that hild road has no sidewalks or curbs so I ask you where do the owners of these recreational vehicles plan to offload and park while offloading their trailers fifth wheels campers as well as possible passengers will this bring more additional vehicles and people transferring possibly from one vehicle a camper they're traveling with other groups of family members into our area how are you as our County Representatives protecting the E economic impact to my personal property and my home by continuing to vote for zoning changes that continually encroach our residential area with Commercial Business If approved who and what stops Mr Mason from storing something other than recreational of vehicles I myself do not consider him a good neighbor of healed residents this change once again opens the doors for others to submit applications to the county and C cities for continual zoning changes are we going to what sorry thank you very much okay um you want to take the chair for a second yeah please my light on okay would you like to say something yes yeah go ahead commissioner PR it I'm a female what do you think I want to say something I you are a lovely lady you're so kind um if if you guys um um proceed with this I'd like to I don't know if we can do this we did this on something before carve out district one because this would be a catastrophy for district one um with the land that we have up there and the it it just it wouldn't fit for district one at all if you let me make a motion I promise you this will all go away you got it sir okay all right thank you I I have first of all Tony Mone is a very good friend of mine I've known Tony for a long long time unfortunately no matter how good a friend he is it's not going to move me in a position to make a motion that will affect 7,000 properties in this County so as much as I like you Tony I'm sorry but I'm going to have to move to deny I second it motion and a second any discussion hearing no discussion all in favor signify by saying I I'll oppose nay the motion carries okay so let's go to uh public comment pardon meard reports or board reports okay you want to do public comments Tom will be happy that way Anita Graham Ingram Ingram Ingram Ingram I appreciate so much your patience and uh because this is a very short and simple thing that I've got but um so that should be some consolation it's short and simple um I have a Facebook group that advocates for the vi Wetlands so this is about the viir wetlands um this is real simple tonight I was uh told this was a way to go about this we want to implement a no pet policy and I was asked to by the my commissioner and the assistant County attorney to bring this before the board so everybody could weigh in so uh whether we need to make a vote or put it on an agenda I have a mountain of source material that if you want to consider all the evidence that I presented to them in a meeting uh I can give you that um but that's basically it we want a no pet policy at the ver Wetlands it's consistent with other public lands that the county uh that the county has where they allow the public and they already have the ordinance and they already have the same uh setting and everything so it just makes sense to to me to roll that policy into what you know what we need to for the Vieira Wetlands I can certainly go into more rationale but uh I'm not sure how this all works so what else do I need to do to get it get a vote on it well unfortunately this is just public comment time and that's where you tell us okay how you think but we really don't answer your questions okay well I'll rattle on for a little bit longer then um we got a minute and N seconds so right on okay in my opinion it's only a matter of time before the wetlands will encounter an incident requiring it to be permanently closed to the public if preventative actions are not taken now so that's one of the preventative actions um adding a pet policy so since cars are no longer uh with us dogs and children have no where to be safely stowed if desired so now we have little tiny kids and domesticated pets underfoot since we do not have cars the people kids and dogs are all out wandering in the roads together extremely close to the wildlife in many cases so I believe it's time to make a determination determination to synchronize with our other County wildlife habitat pet policies it's dangerous for many reasons which the county has already detailed for other lands um right now we allow pets on leash but unfortunately there are many who refuse to abide them by that uh some use the leashes that extend out many feet and allow pets to go down by the water where there alligators and pets are an unnecessary risk that there's no need to have in that area thank you thank you okay uh Charles is it torby or to Toby Toby Toby all right haven't seen you in a while young man Charles Toby t o v y for County I have no address and this is why I'm up here I don't know where I H I have nowhere to go I have nothing and my property is my life Li and pursuit of happiness I wanted to fix the house and people that are homeless living in the bushes I'm sure would love to have a house in a place to stay and after I fixed the house I want to donate it to some needy family somewhere and we have plans of a multi-use building and we've always had these plans and I have everything to do the house it it's not my fault that I got hit on my bike nine or in 2013 I got hit on my bike the guy messed me up after I've had other accidents I've been recovering I'm still recovering some days I'm in great pain and people want to address me and I'm rude to them but I try and be nice and ask them to leave me alone but it's consistent and they just won't stop and I have to express myself accordingly um I don't know what to do I don't know where to go I have nothing I can't do nothing and the other thing was that I'm a little bit behind because of the critters took these keys for a month they were missing and I found him way out in the someplace I never go my wallet my driver's license I found that in the bushes someplace I never go um and there's um my money couple several hundred dollars it's all gone and every day there's a problem with the raccoons and right now I'm doing everybody around me and my neighbors a favor by managing the problem and they're tearing down my house so I don't need to get a permit to tear it down I'll just let the raccoons continue and then y'all will be satisfied and I won't have to pull a permit but this has been an ongoing thing because of the development the the the problem with the wildlife and no place to go for them and no place to go for me I the birds have a nest foxes have holes I have no place to lay my head and why because I didn't fix the house in time because my lawyer took nine years to settle for me to get any kind of reimbursement of my medical funds so I had a choice buy the stuff for the house to fix it or pay my lean I I can't do both and I have investors they met me halfway I have the other half all my money is tied up and fixed in a house thank you s Sullivan okay so I just wanted to come and Sandra Sullivan South Patrick Shores and talk about um this land swap um reading documents on Investigation it was appraised that uh 35 million for the staro property without the C so um I'm kind of concerned about the county losing this particular uh piece of property and the uses that you've had um so a statement was made by The District 4 commissioner that this land hasn't been used in 20 years I just want to correct that so in 2023 it was used for Hurricane debris I'm just wondering whether the county has an alternate place to put hurricane debris when we have the Hurricanes the second one is it was used for a number of years as a DM a site and so that brings us back so that was used for oali and uh so this from the the permits is the uh this is oal here this is the pipeline that's going to go down to uh BV 52 as you recall and that's going down 8.1 miles what is the added cost of transporting mck over 8 Miles when immediately across the river is the Sarno property up the uh up the river and uh see see 8.1 miles um so I find it kind of interesting too that in addition the same night that you guys took your boat the same night they voted to double the height of the Florida recyclers on the adjacent property it's like you know in 2022 you guys wanted double the height you got you wanted to increase that height and the city wouldn't do it but they're doing it now so all this you know doesn't really make a lot of sense to me the property you want to swap with was purchased for $420,000 um you paid over 7 million um they're not Apples to Apples the appraisal was as I as I mentioned was three and a half million without the cup so you know this is a little AI uh generated artwork as you can see it's a a Renaissance Fair next to a dump it it's kind of entertaining but the bottom line is I'd like to know and I think there's a fiary responsibility when this comes to the county to put out what what are we costing the county to ship mck when there's one much closer and the other one where are we going to put hurricane debris and what's that going to cost the county by losing the site thank you thank you very much Neil I'm not even going to attempt to uh pronounce your last name but come on up thank you oh yeah there you go thank you very much thank you sir K we still got your card so after the doctor's up you'll come up okay do you have yeah thank you thank you very much I appreciate it uh thank you for the honor of being able to address you all today um I'm here as a a citizen I'm here as a uh husband a fa and a father today for you um to say that uh my neighborhood my home life uh it's all essentially being destroyed and we need the help of our local government to help fix what's going on in our in our neck of the woods in our community I'm way up there on A1A near the uh near the state park near uh Sebastian River Park I think we're kind of uh no one no one kind of knows we're there but we we have some real problems there and uh essentially I moved in to my home there in uh in October the first day I moved into my house I had the police out for problems this morning at 6 o'clock in the morning I had the police at my house again I probably called the police 50 times to my house in 8 months okay I've been burglarized vandalized harassed continually my children have been harassed my wife has been harassed and my neighbors are harassed everyone in the neighborhood has had enough of it we've met with commissioner toay it I've met with other politicians in the community our community needs help simply put there's a public access near our home and that little access road which is designed to maybe handle three cars is probably handling a 100 cars a day and it's not one day it's every day of the week 24 hours a day that place is rolling okay it's rolling with who knows what's going in there but one of the biggest problems that we've got there is fishing rolling through there I sent you a slide they Park illegally the place is not set up to handle the cars they're parked on conservation land they're destroying conservation land but the biggest problem is this fishing going on this is the scene you can see this slide I have that in front of my home 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 9 months straight when I take my daughter outside and I say hey we want to go on the beach too we're met with profanity abuse threats every single time it ends with me having to call the police and the the general the general course of action that I've gotten from everyone I've talked to is well you need to just keep calling law enforcement we need an actual plan there we need help there's shark fishing there's trespassing there's vandalisms there's no toilets there so they come into my yard to defecate and urinate all day long and threaten me and threaten my wife if I go out to them and I say hey guys this has to stop they'll threaten me to my face and these are not good guys they're often drunk they're often high it's not a good scene out there it's not a scene for any homeowner we put up no trespassing signs within a day they were ripped down and vandalized right down the street from my house if you go down the street from my house about 2 miles down you're in Indian River County in Indian River County you can't smoke on the beach it's nonsmoking even you can't have pets you can't have glass you can't have fishing boating no surfing no alcohol nothing why is it that in that county they have rights and in my own home I can't even sit in my home it's crazy what's going on there we need help that's why I'm here I'm begging someone in our government to step up and help us okay thank you very much thank you very much sir sure Katie Delaney they cross I have no idea hi Katie hi there good evening again um my name is Katie Delaney and I'd like to start out start out by um saying a quote any restriction of free freedom of speech is a restriction upon democracy and I say that because maybe the public wouldn't keep coming and being harsh Miss pritet if people felt heard if people felt like we were being listened to if people felt like our concerns were your concerns and that goes for for everybody of course um it's not only your job JS but it's your privilege to serve the public and to be in the roles that you're in and who cares if somebody wants to speak on a topic two times if they speak on a topic in the beginning of the meeting and it happens to be an agenda item I understand that that's what the policy says according to the lawyer um but who cares just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do it and if people have taken the time out of their day to come down here and speak to you all the least you could do is listen to them especially sitting through a 5-hour meeting the issues that are going on um in the grand uh Grand Canal um I want to speak on that a little bit uh I went to the sorl meeting that that they just held and have to give um give props to the staff because they have done a great job staying connected with the people who were at that meeting um there there's a rolling email that's going on with questions and answers and I I just had to give a shout out to them because when people get it right you need to tell them thank you um but one thing I think we need to do better is we need to make sure that we're testing the aerosols that are going on whenever were muck drudging regardless of where it is I see you itching to touch the button yeah um can you pause my time please yeah pause my time please I'm sorry we have we have policies in place and and BCC 973 G1 is pretty darn clear and it states uh gender shall provide a section for public comment at the end of every regular accounting commission meeting following the board reports the purpose of public comment is to allow individuals to comment on any topic County Business which is not on the meeting agenda the mck drudging has been discussed only for the Grand Canal I was speaking in general Matt sorry I so so you're welcome to do that I just want to make you aware of a policy that we have in place yes thank you commissioner um start got you you've got another 40 50 seconds so thank you I appreciate that um and see just just that right there is my point and every chance a a particular commissioner gets he shuts down the public and and really it's a couple and that's not okay and that's why people are infuriated it's why people show up here you know 50 people 100 people show up here because they're infuriated because you're not listening and you've been up there for eight years not listening good luck thank you commissioner toaya thank you for the uh the rule thing I appreciate it um report all right we're going to board reports County manager no report County attorney no report Mr chair commissioner pritchet I wasn't going to but I figured this was a good night for it a new article came out in the Washington Post from the National Institute of Health and how bad it is to be an angry person that um it's actually shortening almost 30% of people's lifespans so um people that stay angry all the time about everything it's there's going to be a it's it's going to mess you up it restricts your blood vessels almost takes 40 minutes after your anger for it to release so um the environment we're in with where the nation is we really need to learn to kind of control that bit and take a chill pill um because otherwise your family's going to be going on without you later so that's all I want to do tonight since we had such an interesting commissioner Goodson none I'm angry commissioner toaya thank you Mr chair and uh as a vice vice chair I'm going to skip over uh the first couple but I do want to go uh to the county uh employee recognition uh uh this is a little bit more than normal this is a former employee of mine and someone that I now consider a very dear friend uh Billy purad out there he's a deputy director of Planning and Development that's it today we're going to get there uh from uh Tad Tad said the work that can be accomplished in eight hours is amazing we are very thankful and blessed to have Billy on on Team Planning and Development um uh Billy has been here 7 years and on a personal note I know where Billy was 7 years ago he was I was interviewing Billy upstairs when I had a office up here and I remember he came in quite frankly a really bad suit and I remember thinking really I can get a board certified attorney for $45,000 what I didn't know is I can get a damn good board certified attorney who's only gotten better for for that amount so uh let me tell you a little bit about Billy first and foremost uh today is Billy's 40th birthday yes at 854 uh p.m. Billy is away from his lovely wife on his birthday who I've been informed has fresh crab cakes waiting for him but he is speeding into old age uh he has uh jump started uh as a chief of staff until he got a green flag and SLI streamed right into planning and development office while being a public Serv vant uh can sometimes be in the pits Billy is always moving at GeForce speeds to get things done and reach the Finish Line fun fact if you can't tell Billy is an avid Formula 1 fan in fact one of his favorite memories was watching Ferrari D driver Charles L cler win the Italian Grand Prix in Monza in Italy in 2019 when he was around 15 Billy zoomed straight through qualifying and won a gold medal in the Junior Olympics in martial arts and has a black belt in two different disciplines wow at 16 Billy felt he' made the pole position when played first chair violinist in The Bard symph Symphony Youth Orchestra and didn't suffer a lock up when he jammed out and uh renowned sell with jammed out with renowned C celloist YoYo ma Billy loves to race home after work so he could experiment with new cooking techniques spices and try out authentic recipes from around the world uh he also loves to travel around the world and has visited many states and countries some of which included turbulent elephant rides in India getting turbocharged while visiting Chernobyl in Ukraine becoming uh engaged near the Apex of a volcano in Washington doing laps while canoing uh the glaciers in Alaska and testing his aerodynamics by paragliding in the Swiss Alps Billy you have been a tremendous addition to uh my office uh and now to the much larger uh uh County we greatly appreciate your service here and uh thank you so much for everything you do and continue to do happy birthday [Applause] Billy all right are you uh finished over there yes commissioner feltner you got anything I'll say happy birthday Billy and I'm sorry for Bethany that we kept you here all [Laughter] night okay I have no report motion to adjourn there's a motion to adjourn is there a second second all in favor signify by saying I I I'll oppose nay motion carries 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 period [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he