##VIDEO ID:_JECBcQ2Www## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e if everyone would please take a seat welcome to the Indian River County State Legislative delegation meeting for the 2025 legislative session this meeting is called to order if you would please turn off for silence all of your electronic devices I would appreciate it if you wish to address the delegation and are not on the agenda please complete a speaker card available at the registration table in the lobby at this time I'd ask for you to please join me please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republ for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all and if you would please actually remain standing um we're going to have the clerk of court Ryan Butler lead us in the invocation good afternoon dear God we thank you for this opportunity to gather together today to hear from our local representatives in the Florida House and Senate and to let them hear from us we pray that as they enter into the 2025 legislative session you will guide Senator gr and representative bracket with truth justice and wisdom and give them the guidance to continue to be faithful stewards of the public trust as they uphold and defend our Constitution and its moral foundations we pray that you will give them strength Clarity of purpose and insight and guide all of us as we begin this new year and open our hearts and Minds to your wisdom so that we may work together to maintain and improve Indian River County and the great state of Florida for all of its citizens in the name of the father son and holy spirit amen amen noting that both both members of the delegation are present we have a quorum and we want to representative bracket and I would like to thank you for joining us today it's great to see so many familiar faces so many new faces um and we really appreciate you engaging in this process and letting us know what's important to you before we go into this next legislative session and at this time I would like to recognize um my staff that's here with us today Tyler Wadsworth is here with me on the D dis and then Sharon Stewart is also here who I know she's right there in the back um I know many of you have met and talked with both from my office we also have Marty milky who's out in Lake Placid in my Lake plet office she serves the district and Micah doer if you have come up to Tallahassee uh Micah and Tyler are with me in Tallahassee during session Micah is there full-time um our office is always happy to help you with any issues that you have in the way in which you interact with state government um and so you will likely see them most of the time as they are the Frontline to all of those inquiries and try to help the constituents of our five counties um whenever possible and at least get you pointed in the right direction or the agencies that you are interacting with um engaged on your issue and so I'm blessed to have a great staff and um this time I would like to turn it over to representative bracket so he can introduce his staff thank you um yes thank you for everybody for attending today we appreciate your input uh like Center Gro I have a staff here that District Aid that works out of here uh works out in this County commission bu here Susan aguire she is roaming the room here somewhere right back here uh back there and then my legislative Aid is sunny agoal who goes to Tallahassee with me he spend time up there he's the brains of this operation um and so uh he keeps us all in line keeps me out of trouble when I'm in Tallahasse so uh but again our office is always open any concerns uh complaints uh or you can call us and tell us you like us you want to do that too we'll take that also U anytime you want to do it thank you I know we have a number of um elected officials with us today some of you signed in so I'm going to go through the list of those who signed in if you would just stand when I call your name so that everybody in the room can see a name and a face at the same time I would appreciate it also if I don't call your name because you're not on my list please um feel free to raise your hand once we get to the end first I have Taylor Dingle Vero Beach city council Ed DOD Sebastian City Council John kugo ver Beach city mayor of city of ver Beach Peggy Dr Peggy Jones School Board Vice chair Karen deagle Hospital District trustee Jean PCA School Board Aaron Voss Vero Beach city council Cindy Emerson director of Indian River Community Services Linda mois city of virau beach vice mayor darl lore County Commissioner oh in the back used that's your usual spot I'm sorry sir um Jacqueline Rosario School Board in River County and Joseph flesher Board of County Commissioners welcome did I miss anybody oh Laura Moss I'm sorry Fred Jones Sebastian city council yes Anna Kirkland mosquito control district and John Carroll city of Viro Beach and Joe man Board of County Commissioners and Eric flowers our Sheriff Matt erpenbeck mosquito control see this is where I need I the thinking this quickly in fais from up here is very difficult we also have the superintendent Dr Moore with us today too and Diamond lyy our public defender thank you anybody else any other elected officials that I have missed okay well thank you very much we are going to go a little bit out of order on our agenda today because we did have three individuals register by the meeting deadline which means they get three minutes they are not here with any particular organization they are appearing as constituents so we are actually going to move them to the front of the agenda um and first we will hear from James Kars and he will have three minutes and Tyler just for everybody for the way in which the meeting is going to run Tyler will be keeping a timer the timer will go off as you can see we have about 31 pre-registered um presentations and so and also speakers at the end and so we will ask everyone to stay to the time limits that are set and we appreciate you all being here if we have more to follow up on after we are happy to do that as well and Jim my old neighbor it is good to see you and if you would like to go ahead we'd love to hear from Youk thank you and uh don't worry about the time I'm on Flomax I can't speak too long anyway so all right uh thanks for the thanks for inviting me uh in the time that I do have I'm not going to be able to make any argument or representation of real need so I'll offer this to begin with is that I have all the material you would need or might need to move this forward including a 14 page uh example legislative language document I didn't bring it with me it's email and we'll decide at the end whether that's worthwhile or not um uh also uh what I'm going to ask very succinctly is that you support emergency communic iations by permitting a limited key word limited form of amateur radio external antennas wherein when they're prohibited by the HOA industrial complex I kind of threw that in myself okay all right so I am a licensed amateur radio operator my call sign K2 jjk I'm also a member of the our volunteer group called The amateur radio Emergency Services we provide emergency services to Indian River County these guys all know that we provide emergency services to the State of Florida we provide emergency service to the nation as a whole and most recently in North Carolina and when the Hurricanes came through in uh Puerto Rico and even at the blackout in Puerto Rico we were in communication with them all right to do this we need antennas that can communicate a long distance IE 500 to 1,000 miles just for us to get to Tallahassee which maintains an h a ham radio station for the purposes of aemergency communications we need an external antenna so I'm not asking asking for a blanket permission right to upset all the rules and regulations that a HOAs have I'm asking for a pretty limited permission to provide emergency communication Services usually this involves a wire and a pole that's it not a tower not a rotor not a huge antenna a wire and a poll to support it that all height and distance can be negotiated all right but it's not ugly thing Now does not have to be in the front could be in the back but it might be visible from the street thank you very much Jim if you do have supporting information on that what the legislation would look like if you would forward that to our offices I would appreciate I will do that thank you very much for listening to me next we will hear from Jillian eslinger welcome hello um my name is Jillian eslinger I have two children who are utilizing the family empowerment scholarship for students with unique abilities that is run through the organization Step Up For Students I'm here today as a citizen representing my family and to some degree also the community of homeschoolers in our area who are utilizing this resource to educ educate their children we are extremely grateful for the scholarship and that the State of Florida has recognized the need for financial support toward the education of its students with differing abilities I want to bring to light today a few of the issues that have impacted our family personally and that we have encountered repeatedly in three years of utilizing this scholarship and ask for your assistance and intervention moving forward firstly um I ask you to advocate for shared representation in an oversight committee including parents providers lawmakers and representation from the Department of Education there is currently no accountability for this organization secondly I'm asking you to help represent our families when we're faced with blatant fraud uh examples of this are repeatedly denying approved items when all documentation has been provided and applying Unwritten rules to reimbursement requests all requests need to be or I'm sorry all rules need to be clearly outlined and those rules need to be followed by both families and Step Up For Students lastly I'll ask you to revise the Department of Education rules that currently allow step up 60 days to provide reimbursements to parents and providers and change that to 30 days to fall in line with other services such as insurances Social Security Etc the 60-day limitation is creating extreme financial hardship for many families who are utilizing this scholarship um I thank you all for your time and ask for your consideration of these requests I'm happy to answer any questions um at any time either right now or in the future um but just ask for your support for parents as we move forward thank you thank you for being here thank you representative Breet if you have any questions at any time today just jump in doesn't need to be that formal next we will hear from George Glenn Jr welcome thank you great to see you Senator Gro representative bracket I'm here to speak on behalf of the Florida communities trust program uh Florida communties trust Falls underneath the umbrella of the Florida forever land conservation program uh it's been around since 1990 it was historically funded at between 62 and 66 million a year uh the program acts as the local match for local governments who have uh past were enacted some type of local land conservation program Indian River County uh the voters approved two years ago by 78% margin at the inob County's third local uh land conservation program uh we've been very successful in the past uh getting matching grants from the Florida communities trust program I think uh most people would agree that our first two Bonds were very successful because we were able to obtain so much matching funds that we basically got double the bang for the buck uh the last two years fct has been funded at about 15 million a year before that it had not received much funding at all we're not asking where I'm not asking that it goes back up to the 62 to 66 million but we've been in talks with some of the Statewide organizations and we agree that if we can get up to 30 million this year uh that would be very helpful we believe that there are 23 counties in the State of Florida that have a local land conservation program to protect our lands uh and given the growth that the state has seen and given the number of counties that have uh put forth a program to protect their lands we really need that matching grant program uh to help all the counties out 15 million is not going to go far when you have 23 different counties who have programs uh so that's uh the pitch is that I'm hoping uh when the time comes to pass a budget that we can get 30 million this year for Florida communities trust and as a side note thank you very much for the funding that you've given the land conservation programs over the last couple of years it's been very robust uh it's going to do a lot of great things to help protect our quality of life um and please keep that up we appreciate it I have a question real quick absolutely if you know and um do you know if there are dollars that are going because I know we've been putting so much in land conservation did we increase dollars somewhere else do you know like is there a specific place where you can see oh maybe they increased over here so it came down in this line I didn't if you know if you don't I've steer every month at these status reports so shame on me if I haven't memorized them yet um Florida forever has a traditional program that's D State lands and that's about $100 million and you all pass a law either last year or the year before that said you know what we're going to fund it at 100 million a year as it was historically done uh there is the rural and family land stewardship Pro uh Protection Program which now falls under the Florida Department of Agriculture and consumer services uh that that did get a higher level funding I believe that was also placed in law so that it is not uh it's not an item each year that is funded through the budget is already in law uh the third was the uh Florida um Greenways we not the Greenways but the um Wildlife Corridor uh was put into the law that's 100 million if you look at Florida community's trust again 1990 through probably about 2009 it was between 62 and 66 million uh then like a lot of the conservation programs it lost its funding for several years I know the last two years it's been 15 million I don't believe it received anything the two years before that I believe the year before that it got 10 million uh and then you have to go back a few years before that for 6 million so um historically uh the conservation programs would get about 300 million um that's going back to 1990 just last year uh the legislature I would say bumped up back to 300 million when you look at the r and family land the uh Florida forever D State lands and the wildlife Corridor uh but as far as um Florida community's trust uh I would not say at all that it came down so another could go up um and again 23 counties these programs are going to be successful by the way they can leverage their dollars and the federal government has been a big actually source of funds in the last couple years that's probably not going to be there uh we really need the state to just do what they were doing for 20 plus years you know help local governments be successful uh especially with all the population growth thank you I appreciate the information thank you so much y'all we are going to go back to the beginning of our agenda to presentation by governmental platforms they will each have five minutes um first we will hear from Indian River County and from the County Administrator and John if you would we'd like to also thank you and your board um for always um opening your chamber for us for this purpose um it makes the running of our delegation meeting very smooth so thank you for well we appreciate the opportunity that you come here and you hear from the citizens as well the other agencies we want to one good afternoon thank you welcome we appreciate the opportunity to be here uh to present uh briefly some outlines that are important to the board of County Commissioners and our residents um clearly uh actually before I do that I would like to acknowledge our our County attorney who joined us this past September uh Jennifer Scher and I'd also like to acknowledge some of it's not is very familiar to you Kathy Copeland our legislative affairs and then we also have edar Fernandez and his team that that works to help represent us in tasse uh I am happy to report um that we have scheduled a ribbon opening ribbon cutting rather for uh County Road 512 and I would take take a moment and I want to thank you Senator Gro I know yourself our chair our former chair commissioner Adams commissioner flesher uh they were instrumental along with you at the state level advocating to fdem to get this project re this roadway reopened and it's built better I mean it's there's two 60-in pipes there versus what was there before and it's just it it's just a real asset for the community they're putting guard rails up and they should be doing the uh final Paving here shortly so we want to thank you for your leadership in that uh I want to thank both of you for your leadership uh in supporting the county in numerous issues uh both during the concession as well as sector 4 we appreciate that uh they've been um that have been high priority issues for us and they continue to meain that and uh so I mean when we look at the the high priority issues it's probably not a surprise to you storm water uh management restoration of the Indian River Lagoon uh as well as Beach nourishment uh are are high on our priority list we also ask for your diligent support to fully fund programs that make it possible for the county and other local governments to execute projects that move the needle towards meeting Bap requirements uh Lagoon restoration ongoing ongoing legislative support uh for these and funding for these state wide Beach for nourishment and Inlet Management Programs includes projects and funding opportunities for Dune protection and restoration the county commit is committed working collaboratively with the state as it seeks to uh devise new methods to address erosion challenges uh we understand the legislature has been clear that Project funding should be channeled through Grant programs we've heard you loud and clear and so staff has listened and in addition to septic to sewer Grant applications which you've been GED to support the natural resources department continues to apply for Grants as it relates to storm water management for equipment as well as funds for floating aqu aquatic maps and storm water for storm water ponds adjacent to the St Sebastian River uh I think it'd be they would not do my job if I didn't come up here and just say home talk about home roll I know you're going to hear that probably from a lot of my colleagues uh providing customer services Paramount to the Border County Commissioners and and it's evidenced by the multitude of opportunities that we've created for our citizens to address the board and address any of the efforts that we're doing engaging public you know uh uh public engagements efforts incorporating them in heavily to our planning efforts so we can hear what the citizens are are looking for uh the so the commission's made a significant investment in both personal and INF personnel and infrastructure to keep Pace with the influx of new residents protecting home rule uh is vital to the County's ability to plan uh to budget and to provide programs and and projects and services in response to what their citizens are expressing in terms of needs it's equally important to uh help us and I think you you all understand this is to defend against unfunded mandates because if we're trying to fund a mandate that's imposed upon us it could come at the expense of some other vital service that the residents believe is important and that we feel is important as well as a to entire community so preserving a power of home rule both administrative and fiscal continues to be a top priority just a couple policy issues septic to seror conversion I don't want to beat this we talked about a little bit in the past 2030 deadline we completely are sensitive and understand the intent of legislation uh in in the law the county would just like to EMP emphasize there is a heavy financial burden with that um and I'm just going to kind of expedite this but as previously expressed that 2030 deadline is highly ambitious cuz there's approximately 30,000 you know septic systems in indine River County at roughly a 15,000 you know on public side cost just to connect you're talking about a half a billion dollars in today's dollars to you know to undertake this initiative and that doesn't include running new lines maybe planning for plant expansions to accommodate for Wastewater and then also dealing with water uh and I will get with you later about inate medical costs but we just do want to thank you for your leadership and we appreciate all that you do on behalf of the county thank you very much next we will hear from in River State College Andy Andrew Treadwell well thank you madam chair representative it's always a pleasure to be here uh first on behalf of Dr Tim Moore and our District Board of Trustees thank you for all your work on our behalf it's really been a tremendous few years uh we've been able to double the size of our nursing program complete the advanced Workforce training complex and we've implemented one of the the best promise programs and not just in the State of Florida but nationally we've had the three largest first time in college freshman classes in Indian River state colleges history so we are humming uh I know Dr Moore would like to be here today so he does send his regrets uh you will have to deal with me as your consolation prize it'll be less exciting but I'll land the plane in less than five minutes can you share your title cuz I have a hard time it is the associate vice president of government and community relations I'm like a Mexican jumping bean at the college Senator we're just moving around u i I'll get through this very quickly our Council presidents this year is going to be coming to you with a large operational increase uh I know the outlier years are starting to look a little bit rougher but we didn't receive one of those last year and we've held tuition harmless for the last 13 years we're very proud of that but then we do depend on operational increases from time to time uh Dr Moore's top priority and you'll have a one-pager in your packet on this is the completion of the state group health insurance transition a 98% of our employees successfully trans transitioned over to that we're we worked very hard on that we we have to thank you once again that was a a uh a wonderful opportunity for our employees and that's going to help us down the line with recruit Recruitment and Retention uh however the governor did veto the $80 million that was set aside to help with that transition uh I've talked with the governor's staff it seems that that was just too much of a rough estimate now we have some more hard costs so we'll be working with you all to hopefully resolve that in the back of the bill with the Department of Management Services our other priorities are really capital outlay projects you have helped with these in the past uh we've got three this year and you have one pagers on all of these first is 7.4 million to complete the science center it was built in 1992 on the main campus in Fort Pierce uh and you know lo and behold maybe putting physical science labs and Fume hoods on the first floor of a three-story building really will give you some Roofing problems so we'd like to renovate that building and make sure that our stem programs there are top of the line uh second project is 6.2 million for our deferred maintenance projects uh these are outside of our normal deferred maintenance just projects that have to be done to continue to upkeep all five of our campuses and then finally you'll see one final one pager this is a new project introduced this year is 733,000 to replace a public media tower on 37th Street in Fort Pierce this is important as the folks that do the maintenance on this project have said you're almost hitting the the uh the date by which we can no longer climb and repair the tower so our foundation has put some money aside we're going to match some of the state funding this has been put into the Florida Department of education's legislative budget request this year as a recommendation so um with that unless there are any questions representative we'll see you in sunny and Tallahassee and Senator I'll see you in okobe on Wednesday for a redo thank you next we'll hear from Florida Atlantic University Ryan Brittain I'll keep the good news and higher education going as uh as my colleague Mr Treadwell has has had a bunch of good things coming about uh chair Vice chair it's great to see both of you it's good to see you again um there have been wonderful things happening in Florida Atlantic as well well like just like Indian River State um and and that's due largely in part because of the support that you all have given us and provided Us in Tallahassee and Beyond we're incredibly appreciative I come uh bearing greetings on behalf of my president Stacy vck as well as our Board of Trustees and I'm joined here by our director of State relations Camila mic it's it's really been a tremendous time at Florida Atlantic and we're looking to continue the great progress that we've made we're experiencing record enrollments 31,600 students for the first time in the University's history history record Freshman Class admissions record Freshman Class applications were becoming a university of First Choice and being able to pick the best and brightest students as we continue to push the university forward and so we're tremendously pleased with that and we'd like to again just see that continue we're currently ranked 103rd in US News and World Report so we are on the precipice of being a top 100 public research University which we're incredibly proud of we're also on the prec precipice of becoming an R1 research Institution which is the nation's highest ranking for high activity research institutions um something that is is near and dear to this community's heart and that's very important to us is our Harbor branch oceanographic location Harbor Branch now accounts for over one-third of our research portfolio so there is a tremendous amount of of funded research going on here at Harbor branch and that's really helping push the entire University forward um going to talk a little bit about the future and what's coming we have a handful of priorities that we're looking at one is a capital project we have been expanding our our health programs specifically our College of Medicine as well as our College of Nursing we we receed some funding and we're very appreciative of that that's allowed us to grow our College of Medicine we've taken that program we had 64 students per class in our Medical School we've taken that to 72 and now to 80 we've increased our College of Medicine class size by 25% because of the support that weed from the legislature we're looking to continue to grow that we can go up to over a 100 students but we begin to experience infrastructure concerns so we have a health science research and Professional Training Facility that's one of our projects that we'll be hearing more about that'll allow us to deal with the growth in both medicine and nursing and allow us to conduct interdisciplinary education we also have funding to help us continue to pay our faculty at competitive salaries as we deal with increased enrollments and growth and becoming a top 100 public institution as well as a Premier Research University those require investments in our research infrastructure and core facilities which we're making um as a result and then last but not least the Henderson School something that I think both of you are familiar about we have one of the best K through2 schools right now K through2 is experiencing some hardships as math and reading scores have seen declines postco our laboratory school is Bucking those Trends and we have been very good at at basically moving in the opposite direction as some of the national Trends we've gotten a wonderful facility because of the support that we received from the legislature we want to create an Institute to help continue to share the good practices that we have there and be able to to do that work Beyond just the scope of our laboratory School we're already doing trainings for both teachers and educational leaders and we just want to continue to broaden that reach and so with all that we'll be seeing you in Tallahassee and I'll happy to answer any questions thank you thank you both for the time next we will hear from the school district of Indian River County Dr David Moore the superintendent good afternoon and happy New Year to everyone um thank my board for being here and supporting my opportunity to present their legislative priorities and I want to thank each and every single one of you for your hard work and your support I know it has to be difficult as you travel the hallways in Tallahassee and you're meeting with your colleagues who are supporting school systems that are struggling to make the bills uh struggling in academic performance uh having continuous openings here in school district of Indian River County uh we have improved our financial ratings from poor to stable to positive all within the last four years uh we have received a district uh grading of a for the two last consecutive years um we've doubled the percent of a schools and 95% of our schools are an A or a B our board has made it clear uh we want to lead the way in terms of choice in public education leading the way uh and continue to be the number one choice for children in public education in order to support that work we want to continue to increase the allocation for safe schools categorical funding uh the cost of ensuring our schools are safe and secure for students to walk in and focus on the learning continues to increase with inflation with Staffing we need to continue to push that that dollar those dollars up the state has been outstanding in leading the way but ultimately we will do in fact need more um we want to continue to restrict miners access to purchasing vape pens and vaping materials both online and in stores by reinstating home rule there it is again uh and giving our local governments the authority to take the appropriate action uh increase allocations for mental health funding uh we want to be sure that we can meet the needs of our families and our students and we need to increase that funding when it comes to academic Innovation and achievement we want to continue to provide uh as much funding I'm sorry 100% funding for our prek programs currently they're at 50% and the quicker we can have access to these students uh the better it would be for all of us as a community we are requesting 100% funding for pekk programs uh we want to continue to advocate for flexible funding around instructional material allocations ensuring that there's no uh their ability to adopt materials both inside and outside of the adoption cycle uh the state is advocating for choice we want to be flexible and having the opportunities to adopt curriculum that a align to the standards and B meet the unique needs of our community on that same lines we're requesting a in order to maximize and show lead the way in terms of choice a startup application driven process to apply for funding to create new educational Pathways uh the current system of public education as the previous uh gentleman was was speaking is seeing declines not in Indian River County but we want to continue that pathway forward and we need to innovate and reinvent what public education uh ultimately looks like and do that for our community in retention and recruitment we want to continue to provide allocation and resources to continue to increase teacher pay we as a state have done an outstanding job in improving beginning teacher salary but we have to offset that compression that's been created to honor those who have dedicated their lives to teaching uh over the course of 20 and 30 years we want to we want to provide opportunities for teachers who have retired to come back within 30 days uh after one month so they can get back back to work with no penalty um on their um pension we want to ensure that instructional certification doesn't take any more than 30 days uh allowing us to get teachers hired in place is taking way too long any support that you could provide to say State you have 30 days to get our teachers in front of our children in terms of being certified would be greatly appreciated and then funding is always going to be um something we're asking your support and we want equal funding for transportation as a choice District that leads the state and how to do Choice uh every single one of our schools in our community is a choice school and we need equal funding to make sure that we can maximize the opportunities to transport children to the choice school that parents have identified we want to expand funding beyond the 180 days if we're going to reinvent public education who says it has to be done over the confines of 180 days so looking at the state's funding model and being flexible in unique ways to ensure that we have 12 months to educate children and funding to do that over the course of 12 months um cost increase for student based allocation and operational costs the operational cost a question real quick on what you just said okay does that mean that you are looking at kind of a yearr round model that you'd like to be able to use with a different brake system I know that's been talked about a little bit so I'm going to make sure that our B our funds are are balanced the answer to that question is I would love to consider that uh right now we're funded on a 100 80 Days uh so having flexibility to modify that there are pilot programs that are in place uh they are limited uh which in some cases that slows our progression or growth or our ability to think innovatively about how to meet the needs of our community thank you U continued increase for student based allocation uh significant uh increases in student based allocation need to continue to grow and those are our legislative priorities cannot thank you enough for all of your support um advocacy and we will definitely see you in Tallahasse well and congratulations to you on the recognition that you've received throughout the state and the country for your service well thank you thank thank you that is that is something our community that that's not me uh it is our community it's our families it's our teachers that's something the entire Community should be proud of thank you thank you Dr Mo next we will hear from the city of virau beach I believe we're going to hear from Monty FSE thank you Senator Gro and representative bracket I don't know how I got scheduled to come behind David Moore but thanks for whoever did that um on behalf of the city council members who were all here thank you for all your help you've given the city of vir Beach uh in the past and we look forward to working with you in the future I want to Echo my colleagues concerns about home rule and the city has really three things we'd like to talk to you about today and when we prepared these we were going to be asking for Appropriations from the House and Senate for three projects and it looks like two of those projects may we may not need that and that's a good thing but those projects are the humon park boardwalk and there's been some real uh momentum in the community and we think we may not need any state funding for that so I look forward to working with uh my friends of the county and the private sector the private sector has already stepp Ste up to the tune of $175,000 in pledges and we look forward to working toward that the other was the replacement of the roof at the ver Beach Community Center and I found out as a Friday that's likely to be covered by our insurance so we probably will not need that but the last and important downtown issue and we're trying to work as downtown one of our priorities is an upgrade to Pocahontas Park it's going to be about a $1.4 million project and as details become of available I'll be working with you for an Appropriations request and I'll cut mine short from there and if you have any questions be happy to answer those and if not we look forward to seeing you in tallah hasy uh just one thing comment um for the community center U my office is now working with Tallahassee to find out I was told there possibly would be a fun setup for governmental buildings uh from the hurricane damage and the tornado damage so we're looking at to we'll get back to as soon as we hear something that's great thank you so much thank you next we'll hear from the city of Sebastian Brian Benton City Manager welcome good afternoon Senator gral representative bracket thank you first off we want to start off by uh our city council and our residents thanking you all for your support and your proclamations uh recognizing the city of Sebastian since anyal last year in 2024 so thank you all for that we also want to thank you all for your support and continuing to fund um Grant programs throughout the the fiscal year um one of our priorities the city of Sebastian continues to support legislation that provides a recurring source of funding for local government programs and projects that protect Water Resources improves local water quality and quantity mitigates pollution and storm water runoff and expands the use of alternative Water Resources Sebastian also supports State initiatives to boost funding for flood mitigation and storm water management programs at all local levels including additional funding for the Indi River Lagoon the legislature's continued support and funding projects to reduce pollutant loads and prioritize funding for the Region's Bas and management action plan the city also supports s maintaining the Integrity of Home Ru power both administrative and fiscal that allows us to provide appropriate solutions to issues and challenges that are local to the community the city of Sebastian supports legislation that provides funding for Florida's affordable housing programs that are targeted to meet the needs of Workforce housing that's a large priority for our Council and within the city of Sebastian is Workforce housing and getting that affordable housing within the city it's vital that state and local governments work together to create and sustain an equitable system that offers all Floridians the ability to live in a safe and healthy neighborhood the city of Sebastian continues to support legislation that provide funding opportunities to incentivize and assist homeowners with the cost associated with abandoning their current septic tanks and connecting the sewer as you all are fully awarehouse Bill 137 9 has a um has identified 2030 as a deadline however one of the things we're asking is that that deadline be um requiring that we have plans in place and continuing to allow and provide funding to assist not only the infrastructure from the public side but also to incentivize and provide funding for our our private residents as well um the city of Sebastian has approximately 11,000 septic tanks uh that are currently in place we're currently working with the county uh to identify our working Waterfront CRA area as our main priority as that is an area that directly uh pollutes to any River Lagoon so that'll that's our main priority Public Safety Recruitment and Retention the city of Sebastian supports uh legislation and funding to enhance Recruitment and Retention so recruitment is obviously a big source for this but also retention of Municipal public safety personnel this will help communities maintain effective emergency response and public Safety Services uh throughout our municipality so with that I'll answer any questions but thank you all for your support and we'll see you in tallahi thank you for being here the Indian River Soil and Water Conservation District will not be appearing the submitted materials um that explain the issues that the legislature has been considering with regard to those um the public defenders office Diamond ly you are recognized Madam public defender good afternoon um first of all thank you for your support um for so many years and um I'm here today as public defender but I'm wearing two hats so thank you on behalf of the public defenders offices and thank you on behalf of lifebuilders our member project um first of all on behalf of the fpda our uh first priority this year is to increase the salaries of assistant public public defenders we did get an increase several years ago that helped us stem the tide of of people running out the door like their clothes were on fire and being able to staff courtrooms um it was very helpful but we are at that Crossroad again and so we are going to be asking for an increase once again for salaries to recruit and retain um my second hat before you today is for lifebuilders of the Treasure Coast um the 501c3 we started 15 years ago that helps people who have touched the criminal justice system or dependency court system be successful um I cannot in any words impress upon you how that member project has helped so many people in Indian River County and the entire ire 19th Judicial Circuit break the cycle of crime be successful and not ever get back in trouble again because of your support in the past and again I cannot thank you enough um we have been able to not only help people with financial um issues but also we have been able to hire a case manager um as I I think both of you know we are run totally um on volunteers 98% of every dollar we are given goes to help people so um thank you thank you and um I'll be seeing you in Tallahassee as well thank you thank you for being here today next we will move to the Quasi governmental business and nonprofit entity section of the agenda and first we will hear from Alzheimer's Association John kugo welcome thank you good afternoon happy New Year and and thank you as always for investing your time in in uh in in this meeting as you know as you know we know each other well I've done this been doing this actually prior to getting involved in with the city and actually I think this is the fifth or sixth time I've actually been doing this in front of to you today I'm I'm here to advocate for the Alzheimer's Association and I actually to Advocate on behalf of my wife Jan Williams whose mom Betty Claudine cook in her journey uh with Alzheimer's and how she and what she went through has given me the the Imp um the motivation to be up up here these many times as I know many of you have been directly or indirectly touched by the reality of Alzheimer's and related dementia Florida is the epicenter of this Health crisis with with the second highest number of individuals living with Alzheimer's in the country in fact a recent Rush universities study six out of the 67 counties in Florida were ranked in the top 100 counties in the nation for the prevalence of Alzheimer's there's 580,000 fans suffering with Alzheimer's disease as we speak including 6600 here in Indian River County and when knew uh the ratio of two Health uh two caregivers to one patient that is essentially the entire population of the city of Viro Beach somehow related and infected with Alzheimer's disease that's the kind of impact it has just in our small County so as a proud advocate for the Alzheimer's Association and with your support we we remain relentlessly optimistic as we propo propose our 220 2025 legislative priorities first it is imperative we educate our community about the early warning signs of Alzheimer's we have one of the only governors in the country who has made Alzheimer's disease and related dementia is part of uh the State Health Improvement program and uh we should be proud of that and we should put support that by making by raising raising awareness of what to look for and when to go and speak to your doctor we are a ating for funding for that Statewide Public Health Awareness campaign that utilizes multiple media platforms and focuses on those from UND UND underserved communities who have high risk for developing Alzheimer's second we must continue to increase the funding for critical rest bit Services over 840,000 Floridians are dementia caregivers and over 66% of caregivers manage their own chronic conditions we must support these individuals and resp services through Alzheimer's disease initiative provide help so care care can get a break currently there are 18,000 individuals on the wait list for these services and it's additional funding is needed to eliminate this weight list finally we we ask the legislature to continue to supporting the funding of the Alzheimer's Association brain buus this mobile outreach program track travels estate providing information on brain health warning signs and caregiver resources through support and funding from the legislature the brain bust has been able to travel to all 67 counties so on behalf of the Alzheimer's Association and over a half million flans living disease thank you for the opportunity today and we'll see you up in Tallahassee when purple invades invades a state capital March 10th through the 11th thank you so much next we'll hear from the Coast Regional planning Council Thomas Lanahan executive director welcome thank you uh good afternoon uh again I'm Tom lanan executive director of the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council um we cover Indian River County St Lucy Martin and Palm Beach um we do Economic Development urban planning Transportation Emergency Management uh environmental issues and public policy um we're uh asking for your legislative support uh regarding a few issues and there are uh resolu Solutions adopted by my Council that are in your package um they concern uh Water Resource investment coordination and planning um looking to do that on a um strategic and a Statewide basis um rather than the uh quote unquote beauty pageant uh approach that seems to happen sometimes now um reconnect the North End of the South Florida Water Management District and the south end of the St John's River Water Management District uh there were historic flows in that area um they're cut off essentially by a um line on the map a boundary um so we' like to see those um reconnected it gives both both districts a lot more flexibility um reduce single use carry out Plastics uh that are turning into um trash for us to manage and um pollution in our waterways and uh support for the us27 rail bypass um project uh an alternative and resilient uh Freight route uh between uh Southeast Florida and the central part of the state and the rest of the country um we have uh typically uh and we did it this this past year uh joint meetings with our U Partners in the south Florida Regional planning Council so that that uh covers Miami Dade through um Indian River counties that whole uh area there um we addressed uh property insurance most recently as well as the Silver tsunami our aging uh population of um Elders here uh in Florida and specifically our region and it's actually really nice to follow the previous gentleman uh on that um and identified Solutions such as a national disaster pool uh which would help with the reinsurance issue uh and um State facilitated retirement program uh which would ass uh assist with um private sector employers uh to be able to provide retirement programs for their employees uh and then also support for home-based care uh as the most efficient and costeffective way to provide care uh help folks stay um in their home as long as possible and um clearing out uh waiting lists for existing programs uh related to elderly services uh through funding support um you have a lot of good programs out there already um that are obviously attracting um potential clients but they can't get in um and I just want to let you know we are a resource to you uh both now and during the session if you have questions about any of these issues or anything else uh we're happy to help so thank you for your time today thank you for being here next Christ Church virau Beach anglicans for Life Catherine Booth you're recognized thank you Senator Gro and representative bracket for the opportunity to make legislative request to guide your governance my name is Katherine Booth Florida statute chapter 77521 already defines an unborn child as human at any stage of development to be human means to be a person according to Google AI all persons have the right to life under the Florida Constitution therefore abortion is already illegal in Florida Florida our governor and legislators need to say it and enforce it by abolishing abortion when only one sell a new human individual with his or her own genetic code is formed from Human parents this pre-born baby like the infant and Adolescent needs only to develop in accordance with his already designed nature that is present at conception a pre-born baby days or weeks old does not have a lesser right to life than her mother simply because she differs from an adult in terms of development dependency and size nor does a pre-born child have a lesser Right to Life by reason of his or her location in the womb of its mother the womb is meant for another human person to occupy it is of no use at all biologically to The Woman except to be a safe and healthy place for the woman's son or daughter to develop until birth thank you for the six we abortion ban legislation that saved 60% of pre-born human lives in the wombs of their mothers last year however abortion terminated 40% of pre-born children 6 weeks or younger gestation the six- we ban is an arbitrary restriction because conventional ultrasound is incapable of detecting the baby's heartbeat until nearly 6 weeks gestation but in actuality his or her heart began to beat by day 22 or 3 weeks gestation before its heart is beating the pre-born human person is viable outside his or her mother at 6 days postconception when Frozen in IVF and remains alive and can be implanted decades later and be born adults who are not their parents speak on behalf of children being abused what is more abusive than killing of the pre-born human person in the womb I will speak on behalf of the 8452 children abused by their own parents in the worst possible ways by poisoning or dismemberment while alive abortion should be abolished on behalf of the mothers women assaulted by rape through incest or sex trafficking do not want abortions pregnancy is the evidence of the crimes being perpetrated upon them instead Florida statute returns these victims back into the control and abuse of the perpetrators please abolish the intentional killing of pre-born children by abortion because they are human persons and legal citizens of Florida whose lives are already protected by statutory definition and Florida's Constitution thank you thank you for being here next we will here from Indian River neighborhood association Mike Johansson welcome thank you I'm Mike Joe Hansen the chairman of the Indian River neighborhood association some 2,000 members give or take depending on who I've irritated lately so um we've uh I'm not going to give you some details that's all in the paper that I assume is in your package if it's not I have copies here I'd like to leave you with some broad Concepts our organization has two main functions one is the Lagoon and the other is land use or uh home rule uh and I'm going to break uh stride here with everyone else and and say that you guys did a great job um You probably don't hear that a lot but uh 1379 was a mathematically way what we describe it as a necessary but not sufficient condition um and on the Lego and an septic so there's three great evils in the lagoon World there is the septic there is the storm water and then there's the muuk and we don't talk much about the septic which is the poop or the muuk which is the muuk and storm water is easy but it's not uh so uh as you go forward we we would like you to think about those three things one of our local Realtors kind of made a statement uh recently that was U possibly a little self-serving but very preent uh when he said if the Lagoon turns into a toilet bowl we won't be able to give this real estate away and so everything you've heard today from the schools to the this and the that and all the services that this area provides if if we lose the Lagoon we we've lost the whole thing um lastly the uh the Bap and the fdp we we think that they need a little strengthening a little help um we would like that uh the people who have done a good job keeping up with that that uh that has a little bit more teeth in the whole process uh it's it's a good program it's not the ultimate but it's the one metric that we have that we can all use uh to gauge our progress in this area in terms of home rule we would ask that you uh not order to think long and hard about starting out a legislation with uh this legislation preamps all municipalities height and density restrictions uh I understand the intent of the that particular legislation um but the the solution at least from the our point of view would be to use a scalpel rather than a nuclear bomb so um as you go forward we'd ask that uh that you would give that some consideration and that's all I have thank you thank you very much thank you for being here next we will hear from Ocean research and Conservation Association Dr Edie Witter good afternoon good afternoon I'm here today with the CEO of uh Orca Wayne Mills I am the senior scientist and uh CEO of orca first and foremost we want to thank you very much for your efforts to protect the Indian River Lagoon our Lagoon is the backbone of our community as we just heard impacting both our health and our economy and your support is critical to its restoration your support has made it possible for Orca to maintain our currently deployed killoy water quality monitoring Network which is the largest real-time monitoring Network in the State of Florida we currently have 24 systems spanning five counties along the IRL each station measures 15 water quality parameters including nutrients and Blu green algae and we are working to add 10 air quality parameters including atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and six meteorological parameters including solar Radiance wind and rainfall because the killroy are compact enough that they can be installed in canals and tributaries they're providing critical information to policy makers about which inputs to the Lagoon are cont contributing the most to the decline of the health of the IRL over the long term they are documenting year-to-year changes in the concentrations of nutrients entering the Lagoon while at the same time providing insight into short-term events like nutrient loads carried in freshwater flushes or drop in dissolved oxygen associated with increased water temperatures the killroy are also continuing to be used in collaborative efforts to develop remote uh sensing algorithms capable of tracking harmful alal blooms and mapping seagrass Meadows with satellites such tracking is powerful monitoring tool and the killroy are providing critical ground truth data to our collaborators at Kent State University to test and validate their algorithms the kill Roser are easy to install systems that can be installed on existing dock pilings and channel markers they are wireless and solar powered and collect data 24 hours a day streaming it back to home base where we make it available in real time for free to anyone by accessing our website at tor.org some of the current users of our real-time data include Bard County Natural Resources Martin County Natural Resources Indian River Lagoon National estoy program city of Stewart the manate center in Fort Pierce Florida oceanographic society and Florida Institute of Technology as well as a number of schools that are using the data classrooms including veral Beach High School Marine oceanographic Academy Prep at Forest Grove and John Carroll High School we are also a contributor to the D real-time monitoring dashboard that they are currently under uh that is currently under construction Orca has worked very hard establishing growing and validating the Kil Roy array we're very proud of how many policy makers Nos and community members are using our data we thank you for all that you do to help restore the Indian River Lagoon and we ask for your continuing support in this coming session thank you thank you for being here thank you next we will hear from Senior Resource associate Association Karen deagle good afternoon I'm Karen deagle I'm the CEO at the Senior Resource Association and uh thank you for your service Senator Gro and representative bracket um thank you for your support to Senior Resource Association for all the different programs that we provide but today I want to talk about one particular Transportation program um in 2020 Sr launched the Treasure Coast Developmental Mobility Program also known as the advantage ride program through a partnership with the Florida developmental disabilities Council St Lucy County Transit department and Florida commission for transportation disadvantaged this program exclusively serves individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities providing them with essential transportation to access quality of life activities specifically to work and education programs since October 1st of 2020 the program has has provided more than 173,000 trips making it the most successful door to-door Transportation program for the ID individuals on Florida's Treasure Coast the program involves coordination between two Community Transportation coordinators Senior Resource Association and St Lucy County two eligibility specialist and six Transportation vendors trained specifically to work with the ID population three funding sources Florida commission for transportation disadvantage Florida development mental disabilities Council and St Lucy County contribute approximately 1.3 million annually totaling 5.35 million since the program began a significant portion of the funding 1.2 million comes from the Florida commission for transportation disadvantage development Innovative s Innovative service development Grant which is set to expire June 2025 without this funding from the ctd this program will be eliminated leaving the ID Community without the essential resources essential transportation resources we're seeking to secure ongoing funding to secure the continued success of the expansion of this Advantage ride program thank you next we will hear from Vista Gardens Condominium Association Katherine Booth you're recognized hi hello again Katherine Booth as an owner in Vista Gardens Condominium Association I am grateful to you for chapter 718 regulations and HB 1021 improvements last year it is apparent that many Association boards do not want to be held to an ethical standard and will not act justly and fairly on their own and therefore must be made to do do so by law the only protections of condominium owners rights are by legislation and more regulation is unfortunately needed these examples occurred in 2024 owners should be allowed to speak for three minutes uninterrupted by the board or audience and Interruption should not be counted towards their time favorites of the board get more time and are not subject to the arbitrary stopping of any owner still waiting to speak chapter 718 prohibits using or threatening to use in intimidation or any tactic of coercion to induce or compel a member to vote or refrain from voting in an election or on a particular ballot measure the board majority appoints all committees all representative all respective chairpersons and members including building Representatives building Representatives May receive compensation from owners in their building for transportation or services and representatives could influence owners to vote a certain way because of this relationship or even become their proxy to vote in favor of some something the board wants this is not expressly prohibited by regulation chapter 718 allows electronic voting but does not restrict each unit to only one vote a survey conducted by our board went to 700 emails more than the number of units if the association allows multiple votes per unit we will not have Fair elections recently owners opting for electronic voting did not receive an email notice of candidates to fill a vacancy on the board how can there be fair elections when the association is not emailing election materials for electronic voting to owners who may be unaware they didn't receive it there is no regulation removing board members who fail to attend meetings fail to provide other board members the same information at the same time equally for subjective content on all owners in common areas such as art or music that would be objectionable to any reasonable person intimidate and harass other board members make public accusations against another board member that board member's family or an owner without any evidence because property insurance artificially bloats total annual budgets it should be excluded from the calculation determining if boards can approve contracts without board meetings please exclude property insurance from the budget calculation so owners can have input and I did send you a a list of other things that are I consider to be egregious and I thank you for looking into this for me thank you thank you for being here Democratic executive committee William Evans you're recognized Mr Evans good afternoon Senator and representative bracket first uh as the loyal opposition I would like to offer our congratulations uh to you both for your recent election wins well done as a political party that supports workingclass voters we sent you a list of our legislative recommend recommendations in our delegation letter I'd like to discuss several of them with you today the first is around health care and child care we urge the legislature to accept Federal Medicaid funding and use it to construct a robust Child Care Program or provide block grants to counties so that they can put Associated programs together uh so our working parents can have affordable child care alternatively we ask you to investigate North Carolina's program using Medicaid funding to purchase a medical debt uh from hospitals freeing them up and the individuals who have incurred the debt uh from that liability as you know the number one cause of bankruptcies in the united states is medical debt education uh Florida teachers have the lowest average salary in the United States uh we heard Dr Moore speak we certainly Echo his concerns and we would just add that you return control of Education regarding salaries testing and evaluation to the local school boards environment the number one issue identified in recent County survey is the environment the Indian River Democratic party plans to form an environmental working group to work with the state government local government and the variety of uh interested stakeholders that we heard from today to help help us come up with solutions that we can be supportive of so you can count on our support there women's choice we understand that abortion is a subject that that evokes strong emotions on both sides in the last election 57% of State voters 53% in our County voted to enshrine that right in our state constitution that's a clear majority of our voters we ask that the current termination of pregnancy law be modified to raise the current six- week term to something higher we also want a safe medical environment for women in our state and we do not wish to see Florida pass additional laws and restrictions that make us look like the state of Texas affordable housing and insurance the state working with the county should investigate the issue of affordable housing although we understand that's mostly a local situation however something needs to be done about housing insurance in Florida one thing that we do recommend ending is the practice of peeling off insurance policies from citizens property sending them off to Startup insurance companies that are underfunded uh and in some cases have been friends of the governor uh causing us to have an issue when we have a catastrophe uh thank you for your time today and please count on us if you need any help in the future thank you very much appreciate you being here next we'll hear from the the Treasure Coast Regional League of cities mayor Ed Dodd just a slight correction it's not mayor it's a council member red do we elected Bob Mc Partland mayor at a November meeting so I don't want to give Bob a hard time right now hard to keep up okay well hopefully you um get a little break and um Bob's workload will pick up a little bit but thank you for being here all right thank you okay I'm here today representing the uh for Le of cities um the Florida League represents U many high very high percentage of the 400 plus cities in uh in the state from the smallest 100 population up to the largest Orlando Tallahassee and so forth um all of those cities have desparate needs um and so what the Florida League of cities tries to do is to bring those groups of people together uh giving voices to the small cities as well as the large ones and through their policy um committees create policy statements on action that takes place at the state level um many legislators are are used to telling me that what they hear from Le cities is what they're against all the time well all of our policy statements this year support action on the state level which is kind of a unique effort however we'd like to put some local voices to that effort as it takes place um I'm not one who likes to use the words home rule it's confusing to everybody what home rule means uh we don't want to rule the city we want the city's voice to be interpreted as part of the process in which legislation takes place for example in affordable housing or Workforce housing there's certainly a demand for that it's a national problem the state can do a lot of positive things in that nature but we would like local voices brought into that course the local governments have to do uh Land Development codes they have to do comp plans they have to make sure that there's enough fire and police and other infrastructure to handle that so that when that legislation is done it needs to be done with the local voices in consideration as it takes place with that so our primary legislative policies this year are about uh affordable housing as mentioned electric vehicles which is an attempt to make sure that the state and and that the municipalities don't lose gas local option gas tax money because electric vehicles don't use ta gas so we'd like to see some action taken in that regard uh property taxes one of the issues with giving advolum tax credits or reductions to people for taking actions is it just transfers that we have to raise our aderium tax levy to make up for the revenue we lose from the people who don't pay it so there may be other Alternatives that are better for municipalities in trying to incite people or incent people to do some things that you want them to do but reducing aderium taxes is really a negative impact on our businesses um it's a negative impact on the residents who don't qualify for that reduction as we make that shift and then sovereign immunity small cities have a very difficult time affording even the level that was passed uh two years ago I believe um and so sovereign immunity we understand that's going to probably pop back up this year trying to raise the sovereign immunity limits it's very difficult for small cities to to do that it impacts us dramatically from a financial perspective um we have to buy the insurance it raises we have to go through the whole steps with that so we're going to ask the legislature uh if they can to try to hold the limits on sovereign immunity as they move forward with that uh we would like to be your partners as I said and lend local voices to that so when our lobbyists come in don't gringe uh you know they're representing small cities as well as large so thank you but thank you for your efforts thank you for being here thank you next we'll hear from gford Youth Orchestra Casey Lunsford good afternoon I'm Casey Lun the executive director of the Gord Youth Orchestra we want to thank you for allowing us to present our specific project for your consideration and hopeful support in the upcoming legislative session the giord Youth Orchestra is requesting an appropriation of $1.5 million to help support the completion of our permanent facility in the heart of gford the corner of Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard and 32nd Avenue the GI for Youth Orchestra was founded in 2003 by the Reverend Dr christop mol who's with me here today as well as our board president Jane Burton and our chief philanthropy author Jennifer trap we're 501c3 nonprofit in the State of Florida and focus on providing afterschool and weekend music lessons instruction and performance opportunities for children ages 3 through 18 primarily in gford we started with 15 children in 2003 and we've grown to over 100 active today in 2024 we serve 142 students from gford felsmere and the South County area through our weekday programs and summer camp opportunities 74% of our children live in gford and 95% of our students live at below the poverty level according to the United Way Alice U metrics we offer children opportunities to gain experience with musically and socially our programs include the development of public speaking skills building self-confidence Poise self-esteem team and discipline along with the team building through musical performance however we need a permanent home we're vagabonds we go wherever there's space available we teach lessons in homes schools churches we perform concerts wherever there's a venue available and right now we have a waiting list of children but we don't have place for them at the time is needed the new facility that we've proposed and is in your packet is 6300 Square ft you have the architect rendering with you we have a budget of 3.1 m million to complete the entire project we've raised 1.4 million today again we're asking for your support for 1.5 we're continuing to raise the remaining dollars needed and build an endowment fund to sustain and maintain the facility once it's completed through our donors fundraising activities and Grant Foundation Awards we've done all the preliminary permitting and are submitting the final plans for the actual building permits in the next week we want to start building facility as soon as possible using the dollars that we've raised those funds are enough to build the exterior shell of the building and the facility infrastructure such as Electrical Plumbing AC restrooms we need the remaining dollars to complete the interior practice rooms recording studios offices and Open Spaces besides serving our own program the building itself will be an economic driver in the heart of gford and be an aesthetically pleasing addition to the current Street landscape the vacant lot that we are building on has been used in the past by some bad elements and to say some interesting uh legal issues but we can help improve and reduce crime in that area just by our presence our security plans include safety measures to enhance not only our students and parents safety but also the safety of people in and near our facility we will truly live the gyo motto for the last 20 years less violence more violins so we please appreciate your availability answering questions and I'd be glad to drive to Tallahasse with everybody else if you need us to thank you very much thank you for being here next we will hear from bike walk Indian River County Hal Lambert director of safety and advocacy welcome hello there thank you for uh placing me on the agenda to talk to you about the handsfree legislation distracted driving is a leading cause of motor vehicle accidents in the United States the following facts are from the National Highway Traffic and safety administration 30% of crashes are due to distraction while driving and 34% of crashes occur within one minute of distracted driving texting while driving increases the risk of crashing by 23 times and is six times more dangerous than driving under the influence of alcohol sending a reading a text message takes a person's eyes off the road for an average of 5 Seconds which at 55 miles an hour is is the equivalent of driving the length of a football field with one's eyes closed Florida has one of the highest road fality rates in the country and our insurance rates reflect that Florida drivers killed more more pedestrians and people on bikes than any other state uh nine people per day six from distracted driving what is distracted driving well it's taking your eyes off the road your hands off the wheel and your mind away from driving and the cell phone is particularly when you touch it with your hands it does all three of those things as you can imagine this legislation is critically important to cyclist and pedestrians we have some members of ver cycle a 600 member or 400 member local club and bike walk here today um our lives may very well depend on this legislation um we are the most vulnerable if you get hit by a car doing 45 miles hour your chances of survival are only 15% if you get hit at 50 m hour you don't have a chance of living at that point um bike lanes are great but they're not going to protect you from distracted driving 31 States and more than 30 countries have now adopted legislation which makes makes it a primary fence to hold a a mobile device while driving each state that has adopted such legislation has seen crashes fatalities drop by 10 to 25% um the hansby legislation that we that will be proposed is a modification to the existing Florida statute 316.305 the existing statute makes texting while driving against the law but it still allows you to hold your phone while talking Andor entering coordinates for your GPS so it's very typically not enforced because officers cannot tell how the phones are being used the existing law also makes it legal to text or hold your or use your cell phone if the vehicle is stationary stoplight so we've all experienced people standing waiting uh waiting when the light turns green they're they're on their phone they're they're doing Snapchat face messenger Tik Tok Google camera app WhatsApp you name it YouTube and even streaming services so if you run the risk of getting a ticket for holding your phone behind the wheel it's simple um there will be less temptation to or to initiate or respond to distractions uh while using your cell phone and also that it will keep traffic moving and reduce um road rage so I would ask you to please support the handsfree legislation for our state and urge your colleagues in the House and Senate to do the same thank you very much thank you for being here today and um I was there I was in the house when we passed the original legislation and my big push was for us to be at handsfree because I think there is a tremendous issue with enforcement and then privacy ultimately because of what it's just better to have a bright line does somebody have a phone in their hand or do they not have a phone in their hand otherwise we start to get into different types of issues because we're all holding a computer in our hand um that has all of our private personal information and starts to introduce a lot of different concepts that are difficult and so I did have some questions about why that came out of um the proposed language from last year I don't know if you have a senate sponsor for this already um but it's probably something that I would um I'm definitely interested in moving this wonderful to hear that wonderful to hear that and and as as my understanding we don't have a sensor a senator sponsor yet uh we have a house sponsor and the final language of the bill has also not been determined but it's we're working on tweaking it now because of all the complexities that you mentioned yes I I will let you know when we need you to come up to Tallahassee to awesome to testify so hopefully we can get something moving thank you for being here next we will hear from the farm worker Association of Florida Maria Martinez welcome good afternoon uh originally Maria was going to speak and I was going to be the translator but because of limited time it would just be me speaking English is that okay we could or we are running we are running good on time if you would like to stick with your original plan you are welcome to do that too okay she pervers I just thank you so much uh my name is Renee Gomez I am the Civic engagement coordinator for the Farm Workers Association of Florida and I'm here with my colleague Maria uh we're a Statewide organization 501c3 nonprofit that Advocates and supports not only the farm working Community but as anyone in the rural low-income communities uh I'm standing here before you today to talk about the plight of Farm Workers not sure how many of you know what a job description looks like for a farm worker but I figured I'd read off an example from the US Department of Labor for job position located in felir uh it reads that a worker must be able to hold an 18 to 20 foot ladder on one shoulder and a picking sack in the other one they're going to climb the ladder and with that piging sack fill up the crops that fill up about 70 to 100 PB once full depending the size of the crops once they're finished they're supposed to get down the ladder and fill a box that holds 75 lbs of crops once that worker does that they're awarded a whopping 75 cents per box now their hourly wage is estimated at $15 an hour if these workers are able to fill 20 boxes per hour so 20 boxes time 75 lb equals 1,500 lb of crops in an hour per person that job in itself is very difficult but then when you add on to the extreme temperatures that they work in the summertime and with this Arctic freeze that's supposed to happen in a few days it'll be like 30 30° and then they inhale toxic chemicals pesticides and herbicides a lot of these workers don't have water shade or accessible bathrooms and some of these workers are leaving paycheck to paycheck that they don't even go to the bathroom they'll either urinate themselves or they'll hold it in so much that they cause renal issues so what we're asking here for you today is to create better and safer working standards for the farm worker Community for the people that feed our community and our children this is a basic human dignity issue but there's also an economic issue to this Florida's agricultural sector and the construction sector rely heavily on the Immigrant Community that's the majority of the workforce unfortunately the American born citizens aren't lining up to take the jobs because of these harsh working environments now the new federal Administration is planning on mass deportations that would affect our agricultural sector because if you Deport the majority of the workforce you're not going to have enough American born citizens to take the jobs which will create a labor shortage in turn a supply shortage and it will increase prices which affects both citizens and immigrants now unfortunately this affects small towns like felir because bigger cities have more resources more funding and more job opportunities so I ask you today I think the state legislator passed last year taking away local government's power to put in resources and preventative Majors for safer working environments so I ask you to think about the workers to think about whether you care about immigration or the workers rights it doesn't really matter you can take politics out of this and make the right decision for the people you represent thank you thank you for being here today next we will hear from um moms for Liberty Indian River Florida Jennifer Pippen chairman welcome good afternoon thank you Senator Gro and representative bracket for your tireless dedication and hard work over the past few years and to support families and citizens both at the county and the state levels because of your efforts and organizations like us along with teachers and staff our school district has earned an a rating and we believe that your legislative leadership has played a significant role in encouraging the district to prioritize the needs of Children and Families above all else we truly appreciate you and everything that you've done for and continue to do for our community and States so thank you we fully support Sheriff um Eric flowers and this call for legislation regarding adults who send unsolicited sexually explicit pictures or videos to other adults without consent I didn't know that this wasn't a law while there are existing laws that protect minors from such actions there's currently no similar legislation to protect adults in these situations we believe it's crucial to address this Gap and ensure that all individuals regardless of age are protected from this harmful Behavior currently for children it's 84 7.14 um if you wanted to use it as a reference um so for our state level moms for Liberty legislation we are requesting zero funds and we just need your continued support as um we've received in the previous years um we would like to um strengthen parental rights by making sure that there's an optin for all K to2 student health surveys and services including Mental Health Services and guidance counseling currently there's some um loopholes with this current law recognizes a parent's right to opt out of certain um instances but does not adequately Safeguard parentals rights to maintain control over the health and well-being of their minor children in an educational setting we would like you to take a look at this please and make sure that parental decision making is the authority in an educational setting also with uh supplemental material so um parents and Educators and community members are able to review um state adopted curriculum and curriculum that's not state adopted but a lot of times we're not able to see like the teachers manuals or the supplemental um information so if we can include include that in um the legislation that has already been passed the past couple years that would be wonderful again just for full transparency so we know what is going to our children in our schools um and also um I know you guys tried to um pass last year um through the legislative session um anything of divisive symbols and just having um our United States flag our Florida flag and not having any other politics or anything in the schools if people want to do that at their home that's absolutely fine but keeping um the politics out of education is really important for our students a lot of Educators and people want to bring their personal um views and values into the classroom and education we don't need that in our schools and I just wanted to uh thank you very much and if you need anything from us let us know and thank you for everything that you do for our County thank you for being here next we'll hear from the one voice Coalition Nicole grabner welcome thank you for having me hi um so I just wanted to to give you a little bit of background I believe I've met both of you all of you already um in Tallahassee earlier last year I'm sorry I can't believe that it's already a new year um um a little bit of background my husband and I are both disabled veterans and we have two children that are on the Spectrum my youngest was diagnosed three years ago and when we received his diagnosis we were told from the doctors to not expect any quality of life for him so I began my advocacy Journey just out of probably a lot of parents frustration and and anger with that answer so I'd like to thank you first for having me this afternoon and also for the work that you did last session on the bill to increase funding for the agency for persons with disabilities um as you are aware we still have over 23,000 uh individuals on that list and I know that we had um some wonderful movement last session but I'm hoping that this session we can continue forward and I'm going to ask for the big you know fully funding even though I know that that's probably uh not where we're headed but that's what I'm going to ask for anyway um just to keep in mind that for the families that receive these Services it's already obviously a struggle uh we talk about economic disadvantage this hits our families uh quadruply hard because you talk about all the support services and interventions that we are looking for um so any support that you could provide for us there would be greatly appreciated um the last thing I'd like to discuss is uh the ESC program in your public schools and so um I'm happy to hear a lot of the the wonderful progress that the public schools have been making um over the last couple of years but when we talk about supports uh for our children in public schools having more transparency for parents because it's a confusing process um just trying to navigate every system that we need to learn and understand but perhaps having some kind of uh either single point website that the Department of Education can help that is accessible and when I say accessible not not a um big manual like they they provide usually that's really difficult you think of a lot of our families think that the children and the parents kind of also struggle with this as well graphs uh charts uh hearing accessible those kind of things so uh having that information transparent and easily accessible those are the two big things that I wanted to discuss I believe both of those are in the packet and I'm happy to answer any questions and I will see you again in Tallahasse so thank you very much for being here and for your advocacy for your family and for your service thank you and I I pray every day that we have transparent accessible websites in the State of Florida and it's prayer that is yet to be answered um we work on it too it's not just prayer we work on it and it's a very frustrating technology um from the seat is a very frustrating component of the job because it could make things function much better for all the citizens of Florida if we could figure it out next we will hear from the taxpayers association of Indian River County Lance Lansford president welcome thank you Senator gr and I also want to thank the lady who spoke before me for her advocacy and for her service and also I would like like to Echo the comments made at the beginning of this by thanking not only uh Senator Gro and representative Brackett but Tyler and sunny and of course Susan and Sharon for all their work and helping us set this up so uh if I can begin the taxpayers association is pleased to once again address the Indian River County Del delation on behalf of my board of directors uh we continue to appreciate the collaboration between Senator Gro and representative Brackett on such issues that are of pertinent interest to our long-standing association I'd Echo the sentiment expressed by John tanic and Mr Dodd Mr Falls Dr Moore and uh Mr Benton on preserving as much local and Regional autonomy as possible via legislation that preserves home rule I know something the three of us would agree on is that the age-old principle of that government is best which governs least uh crafting and supporting legislation that empowers our local municipalities and provides more flexibility when making decisions is always welcome policy now I've jokingly stated on numerous occasions that whomever solves the insurance issue could be governor for Life uh but while that may not be a serious exaggeration I do think it underscores a serious fact that our residents and businesses continue to suffer from the devastating stress through the increased costs on their bottom line and on our family's budgets any relief the two of you could provide would be Lifeline for our community furthermore all of us must work together to ensure that our County's economy is second to none in the State of Florida and as Andy treille said at the beginning of this to ensure that we are a thriving hub for a skilled and robust Workforce while ensuring Indian River county is the place to do business our Economic Development must be Visionary yet preserve our small town charm and be properly integrated within the space and Treasure Coast communities I'd simply End by stating the obvious we live in a special place and if there's one goal that highlights everything our association is trying to do it's that we want to see our beloved Indian River County continue to be a crown jewel of this nation any support you can provide our businesses our philanthropic entity our local governments through greater Appropriations alleviates the burden that we all have to face at a local level and would certainly be greatly appreciated whatever you guys can do the legislature and the governor have worked super hard to continue the state's track record of balanced fiscally responsible governance and so the allocated resources will not be an undue burden on our state taxpayers now uh I'd end by simply saying all of us know how session can get intense so we wish you the best of luck and know that my Association is eager to assist on any item that you face that could benefit the hardworking citizens of our County just to Echo what Ryan said at the very beginning of this may God bless you both and may He bless the great state of Florida through the work of the 2025 legislative session thank you for being here next we will hear from the convention of States Florida Troy D darling you recognized welcome good afternoon and welcome to 2025 we have great hopes for it I want to say I overprepared we've had conversations before and I I just want to reinforce we have Great Hopes and great expectations for 2025 a big part of that is because of all the thank yous I've heard and they're not the typical platitude thank you just to get your attention and ingratiate ourselves we're impressed by Florida legislature by our governor there's no question as to why we are either the number one or the number two state in the nation that people are moving to the free state of Florida is respected and we are the Envy of the nation in part because of your work you're DED and actually I need to make sure I say this quickly Senator Gro hello from your number one Super Fan Michelle laflam we've we've had the opportunity to meet in your office and the fact that we have we have super fans of our state legisl is is an amazing thing but now down to business and I'm going to try and keep this quick um I am a legislatively aison for Convention of States I'm also a pastor which means I like to talk um put simply we we love you guys we're thoroughly impressed by you but the reality is it is your predecessors who created the Federal Government that we have it is your predecessors who failed to stand for state sovereignty and for federalism that brought us to where we are where the federal government encroaches so deeply into lives of of the individual Citizen and into the state that prevents us from being really the the federal under federalism as it was intended so what we're proposing today is especially with we us knowing that the state legislature is behind the Article 5 movement not just the 24 14 call for a convention that occurred but the two that we had come across your desks last year everybody's talking about Article 5 it seems and and now now that poll positions have been swapped we see Democrats talking about it not just the Republicans this is truly a nonpartisan issue but what needs to happen is it needs to go beyond hey at some point we're going to have this and I can't look around the country and say that there's any legislature or any state in the nation that I would prefer to see lead the charge part of that means being prepared we have to understand how us as a state you know how we're going to prepare how we're going to select our Representatives how we're going to select you know how we're going to control their behavior so that they don't have a runaway and they don't act inappropriately and because of that we've given you a package that talks about the formation of a article 5 working group that would provide you the opportunity to set in stone how we as a state are going to call not act not if but when a Convention of states is called uh if I could ask you just one last thing is to confirm that you have the package I submitted I do not have it in this binder but we may have it I I do have a thumb drive because I don't like Taking Chances if I can leave this with you it's got all the the same documentation Sharon is right there I'll give it to Sharon on the way out but again thank you very much for your time God bless you and have a wonderful wonderful 2025 thank you you as well thank you for being here next we will hear from Friends of St Sebastian River Tim Glover welcome Mr Glover hi there good afternoon yes Tim Glover I'm president of the friends of St Sebastian River and U the St Sebastian River is been listed as impaired uh for water quality issues by the state under the Clean Water Act for many years it's one of the largest tributaries to the Indian River Lagoon I think most of us are aware of the millions of dollars that are being spent to try to restore the health of the Indian River Lagoon um and Florida administrative C code establishes certain segments of the Lagoon as outstanding Florida waters in our area it's Malibar Deo Beach but that same code specifically excludes the sashan river as an outstanding Florida water so we're asking uh that it be included and that would make it uh require it to comply with the stricter requirements of storm water discharge of future development within the Watershed to an outstanding Florida water and that specifically would require an amendment of Florida Administrative Code 62302 700 so we're asking for your support for that thank you I have a question is the um definition in the administrative code do you know if that is statutory like is there statutory direction that it has to be that or is that was there a Ru making Authority given to kind of Define I'm afraid I I don't know how to answer that okay because if it was basically there are ways for it to be changed without legislation if the statute um isn't overly specific so we'll be happy to look at it and continue conversation thank you thank you next we will hear from the Republican executive committee Lamar notor Gamo thank you very much um Senator gr and representative uh bracket um I want to say Echo the sentiments of several others we are very blessed to have you representing our um our County so thank you for the good work that you're doing and um I want to focus on our constitutional rights and I consider both of you to be champions in that regard but more specifically uh red flag laws after the tragic high school shooting at Fort Lauderdale High School on Valentine's Day 2018 which left 14 children and three adults dead Tallahassee and DC politicians were lining up to do something because doing nothing wasn't an option in a rare show of bipartisanship our Tallahassee legislators under Republican leadership which allowed many pro Second Amendment bills to die in committee during the previous legislative session hastily passed SB 7026 despite a massive of public outcry from Grassroots citizens Dave arenburg appeared on MSNBC celebrating Florida's frequent use of red flag laws saying law enforcement officials are using Florida's so-called red flag laws to remove guns entire gun collections including ammunition that was bought and paid for by private citizens with no compensation five times a day as of August 2019 Florida law enforcement had seized firearms and ammunition of approximately 2 200 citizens a public records request in P County Florida which has the highest rate of gun seizures in the state revealed that at least 10 to 12% of citizens targeted were wrongly accused their names were added to a national criminal database without being given the opportunity to defend themselves against false charges and each had to pay for a private attorney and go to court to prove their innocence within 14 days if they could find one eventually they got uh get their firearms back but they must fight to have their names removed from the national criminal database what happens to those who cannot afford an attorney or find one to represent them according to reason magazine 95% of Floridians who have had their weapon seiz still have not gotten them back after a year even though the risk protection orders are supposed to be temporary how many gun confiscations are enough to make Floridians feel safe will red flag laws AKA uh risk protection orders keep flori and safe from mass murders Andrew Pollock father of mea who was killed in the in the Margery Stone Douglas shooting believes that lacks disciplinary policies are making school children vulnerable and has now become a strong advocate for second amendment rights after initially supporting red flag laws on September 10th 2019 he tweeted the following incredibly dangerous and Reckless policies led to my daughter being murdered on the third floor of her High School in Parkland these same policies are found in Side schools across the country January 22nd 2020 paulot tweeted this nice to see the vice chairman of the Florida GOP Chris Ziggler on the right side of this issue we need more law-abiding citizens armed and ready to counter the criminals who despise and ignore our laws please support similar legislation to hb31 which I guess was tabled because Joel Redman uh who sponsored the bill has decided to run for Congress so please keep up the good work and let's restore our rights thank you very much thank you for being here next we'll hear from communities connected for kids I believe we're going to hear from Karen tul today welcome Karen good afternoon we are again blessed to have you as our delegation your staff are fantastic they're responsive and when we can't get you we get them and we're grateful for it um I just want to a few things uh communities connected for kids we are the contract holder through the Department of Children and Families to provide child welfare services for the circuit um we are performing very well in our contract we're meeting our state metrics and our federal metrics but unfortunately as you can imagine we are underfunded um DCF has met with kmg to work on a new funding model and we're praying and hoping that we can be adequately funded child welfare and fixing broken families as you can imagine is a very expensive Venture and something that we lean into very seriously here um but we are very fiscally responsible and very very um you know we work closely to maintain our fiscal responsibility and conservativeness but we would do want to thank you for last year's appropriation for the early Services engagement program that started October 1st in St Lucy County that is um a program where high-risk families are being met in home in a very high intensive way to keep the children from being removed so we started October 1st we're serving 36 children at this point um those 36 children would have been removed if not for this program and at $75 a day um for the average out of home cost your allocation is saving dollars and we're grateful for it and we're going to be back asking for the second year of the program in this session um the two counties or the two circuits where that program is being run it's really making great uh gains in keeping children in home as you can imagine once once a child gets removed it's really difficult to get them back so we want to keep them there if it's safe and we can make it safe and um we are grateful for that support of the ESET program so thank you so much and I hope youall have a great session thank you um and look over the next committee weeks I believe that um in my committee children family and Elder Affairs we will be probably having a couple rounds of um presentations questions and answers on the funding model they get pretty controversial St and it's like Chinese I mean nobody really understands it so um we look forward to feedback after getting those presentations and hearing from other senators and I'm sure the house will be having very similar conversations we would be so grateful because you know it's really strange they reward people who don't do a good job with more funding but people who get children home and people who keep kids out of care get less it just doesn't really make a whole ton of sense so it doesn't so I appreciate your voice in this and look forward to more conversations as grateful for you guys thank you so much thank you next we will hear from Florida police chief's Association Keith Touchberry chief of police not here okay not here let me move to um public comment speaker cards we have a few speaker cards that will um these speakers will be given a minute to come up and address the delegation first I am lwin luck I saying that that correctly udwin I was going to say please come help me I'll still give you a for effort um my name is luon luck Senator Grail and uh uh representative ret I just want to introduce myself my name is luon luck the representative for Chief Financial Officer uh of the state currently that is Jimmy Patronis um once there is a new uh CFO I'll also uh represent that individual so what our department does the Department of Financial Services as you may know uh we handle uh any issues when it comes to insurance so if a policy holder regardless of any type of insurance whether it's property home a life uh you name it uh we help the policy holder address uh issues that they may have with their insurance company so many people may not know that we exist uh I just want to let you know that um if there's any constituents or anybody that may have issues matter of fact um uh right before the um holidays uh one of the representative bar County right after the meeting or right after the legislative uh delegation I had an issue with their uh constituents I was able to address that that was in regards to uh I believe um a my sayfe Florida home program and there so there's many other programs and services that we provide I just want to let you know that I'm here I cover BR County all way to India River so I do have a big region but uh uh I know sunny and any of your staff members can uh reach out to me if uh you need our assistance well thank you for being here and thank you for introducing yourself to Indian River County so um and looking to drum up some business I'm sure you might get more phone calls for anybody that watches the the government channel here thank you next we'll hear from Richard Leonard he left um John nyand or nand good afternoon my name is John Nyland I live here in uh Indian River County uh just wanted to touch base on the flation issue uh I know you've all heard our attorney general here in the State of Florida address the issue and I'm I'm very disappointed that um here in Indian River County they haven't taken any action yet many of the municipalities here around Florida have they've either either stopped the practice all together or at least at a minimum that put a moratorium on it um little background on fluoridation started here in the United States about 75 years ago more people are forced uh floration here in the United States than the rest of the world combined 97% of Western Europe refuses to do fluoridation they recognize it as a neurotoxin and we're not about to um introduce it to their citizens um one of the biggest things about fluoridation is informed consent uh no exaggeration fluoridation fluoride is a drug not my definition it's the fda's definition that floride is a drug put into our water system to medicate people um the federal government is not allowed to put anything into our Public Water Systems it has to be done on a municipality basis so when it started back in the 1950s it got voted in one city at a time one County at a time and here we are we find ourselves but to back up a little bit you look at the history of United States we thought DDT at one time was good for us and we thought at one time asbestos wouldn't hurt us and we thought at one time here in the United States that lead wouldn't hurt us well floration is the new lead it is a nor Toxin and there are at least 100 studies worldwide that have proven that it is a neurotoxin and it affects the IQ of our children uh I'm associated with a group called American Environmental Health service project we just spent millions of dollars seven years in trial finished our trial up out in California 80 page ruling by a judge we brought in experts from around the world put him on trial the EPA had a chance to question him uh it was an 80-page decision by the judge it and um hopefully here in Indian River County they'll pay attention to what our Surgeon General has said and at least at the very minimum put moratorium on it and until um we move forward thank you the Arc of IRC Heather EO I get the last I was going to say you are just Challen welcome hello aravan River County heatherd thank you for your time and really cannot thank you enough for all you've done for people with special needs um uh the 11% last year with APD phenomenal we really needed it uh and I do want to lend support to Karen go senior resources the advantage ride program that does help the ID population out especially for back and forth transportation for employment purposes um I'm here asking for legislative assistance for transportation rates uh agencies for persons with disabilities has a different rate structure than the transportation disadvantage rate just to give sheer numbers $10.17 is what we get paid uh Transportation disadvantage is 3356 same person same everything I'm just asking uh for looking at same metrics APD it's arbitrary there's no methodology um do has a methodology system we're asking just to use that methodology the rates the systematic approach uh funded uh last year uh November of 2023 I submitted for a rate increase uh with the state legis with our state and to date nothing there's no system approach so I'd love to have legislative support to have it systematic if you could provide um our office with anything that you have I did give Sharon a little bit and I'd love to talk in further detail and I thank you so much for your time thank you thank you for being here that concludes our speaker cards have I missed anybody that has filed a speaker card okay well thank you all um it brings us to the point of our agenda where it's time to elect a chair and a vice chair it's very formal and competitive and so at this time I would like to nominate my vice chair representative Brackett to chair the 2026 delegation and myself as Vice chair um hearing no objections from representative bracket he will chair the 2026 delegation and I will serve as Vice chair and having no further business before the delegation ation at this time the meeting is adjourned happy New Year everyone