e e e e e e e e e is everybody ready we'll go ahead and call the Tuesday July 2nd Commission meeting to order we're going to start with a moment of Silent reflection for our First Responders and members of the Armed Forces that'll be followed by an invocation by Minister Jack White with the gford Church of Christ followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by our vice chairman Mr commissioner Joseph E flusher if everybody will please rise morning good morning let us pray Heavenly Father we come to you this morning with bow heads and Humble Hearts we thank you dear heavenly father for watching over us as we sleep slept and Slumber on last night we come just now dear heavenly father in these Chambers and we ask that you continue to bless the members of this government we ask deely father that you give them the wisdom and knowledge that they need to govern this County that the decisions that they make would not hinder thy people or anyone within this County we thank you deely Father father for Life health and strength but most of all we thank you for your dear son Jesus Christ who died on calvary's cross that we might have a chance to inherit everlasting life we come just now dear heavenly father asking you to watch and continue to bless our men and women who serves in the armed forces continue to protect them from seen and unseen dangers at all times we also ask a special prayer dly father for our First Responders our firefighters our EMT our law enforcement and also dearly father those who are in in the health department we ask that you continue to bless them and not just them only but also bless and protect their their families and as we unite this day in this part of the vineyard Heavenly Father we ask that we continue to love and be unified one with another and we ask that we continue to love and forgive each other as you love and forgive us and as we go from day to day de father we ask that you not only bless us this day but all the days to come this prayer we so humbly ask in Jesus name let us all together say amen amen ladies and Gentlemen please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance the greatest nation on Earth the United States of America home of the free because of the Brave I pledge allegiance to FL of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you all okay all right Commissioners um additions and deletions to the agenda we do have one deletion uh requested by staff 12 J2 and I'd like to add uh veterans benefit checkup month for operation stop by in July under informational are there any other additions or deletions M chair move approval second all right we have a motion and second all in favor opposed motion carries with that we will uh move on to Proclamation H I'm sorry I'm sorry M Madam chair what were the uh also pulled of J2 was 8s pulled station 11 inter Tech you want to pull it for discussion or pull it off the agenda oh no oh I'm sorry I'm pulling things off the agenda apologize got Hotel no worries we all need more coffee this morning I can totally understand that I'm three cups down in my my my coffee all right with that we're going to move on to proclamations and presentations our first is going to be a proclamation honoring Blake Allen Bartholomew on his I don't see him here yet oh he's not here yet I'm sorry unfortunately he's not able to make it today we just found out so we're going to delay this until do you want to do it at another time we'll just hold on to this or do you want to give this hold on to it hold on to it the next uh schedule meeting fantastic that would be wonderful we definitely want him to be able to be here we're good with that thank you that gives you guys extra time to work up a whole Extravaganza to honor him in style since he missed this one no pressure all right with that we'll move on to a proclamation declaring July 20th through 28 2024 is Treasure Coast Waterway cleanup week in Indian River County Florida this will be um this will be read by commissioner irman and presented to Mr beard m i a t and I'm not even going to go into all that come on down with everybody you have to tell me what all those um letters mean after commissioner Erman reads the proclamation thank you madam chairman and welcome it's my uh honor to read I participated in this a couple of times it's you'd be surprised how much stuff is out there and left behind with that we'll read the proclamation it's a proclamation declaring July 20th through the 28th 2024 is Treasure Coast Waterway cleanup week in inie River County Florida whereas the marine industries Association of Treasure Coast Incorporated in the Florida Inland navigation District f are deeply concerned with keeping Treasure Coast waterways clean for all to enjoy and whereas the 17th annual Treasure Coast Waterway cleanup will be held Saturday July 27th 2024 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and whereas over 1,200 volunteers as well as numerous Waterfront homeowners associations will participate in cleaning up our waterways and whereas since these efforts began over 100 tons of trash have been collected from approximately 125 miles of waterways along the Treasure Coast and the sustainability of our waterways is dependent upon efforts such as this so future Generations May appreciate and enjoy them now therefore be a proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of any River County Florida that the board declares July 20th through the 28th 2024 as Treasure Coast Waterway cleanup week in any River County and encourages all citizens to participate in this supporting event and commends the sponsors and volunteers whose contributions to this effort are critical to its success adopted this second day of July 2024 and signed by all five County Commissioners sir we thank you for your efforts like I said I participated in this many times it is surprising how much stuff is out there in our waterways and left on the spoil islands that that we try to clean up I think it's better I think there's more awareness to it now but there's still a lot more we need to do to keep the um to keep the waterways and the spoil islands and everybody that boats and camps and all that stuff can enjoy but thank you thank you commissioner and and other Commissioners for for allowing us to be here today and for reading the the proclamation you did a fantastic job commissioner Ean and the the acronym is marine industries Association of the Treasure Coast okay it's a mouthful um but uh we're excited we've been doing this now for 17 years and we've we've really engaged quite a few volunteers throughout the Treasure Coast um from Sebastian all the way down to hopes sown and it's moved on to a week-long effort so we have the main cleanup is going to be on the 27th but you can also participate virtually at a side of your choice if you can't be there on the 27th so you can go to our website it's Treasure Coast Waterway cleanup.com and there's more information to to register um we do have a few official sites here in inion County so we've got the Sebastian Main Street boat ramp the wabbasso causeway boat ramp the Riverside Park boat ramp verer Beach Municipal Marina and the Oslo boat ramp so I'll be at Riverside Park on Saturday morning uh 27th so if anybody wants to come and join me it'll be a good time um and again thanks for for having us here this morning appreciate it well we definitely appreciate what you guys do and helping to keep our waterways clean I know it's um can be a probably very frustrating job at times but we we appreciate all that you do in putting this together every year thank you [Applause] awesome thank you congratulations all right our next Proclamation is recognizing July as baby Moore Campbell National minority mental health awareness month this will be presented by commissioner lot Moss to the ladies of Zeta F Beta sorority Inc the Lambda beta Zeta chapter ladies come on up commissioner Moss uh thank you madam chair and welcome ladies thank you clation recognizing July as baby Moore Campbell National minority Mental Health Awareness Month whereas zet beta Rarity Inc an International Community Service organization founded on January 18th 1920 on the campus of Howard University in Washington D.C promoting scholarship service and Sisterhood and whereas in May 2023 Zeta beta sorority Inc and Mental Health America announced a partnership to broaden Mental Health Resources by providing the Mental Health America National screening and prevention program to Black indigenous and people of color communities and whereas mental illness is an essential part of overall health affecting more than 50 million Americans and it is vital that everyone has equal access to screening treatment and information providing them Choice over their care decisions and whereas a sense of belonging and inclusion is vital for the well-being and mental health of bipoc individuals and community-led spaces such as cultural hubs are sources of belonging that promote overall mental health and wellness by providing areas where people of specific cultural backgrounds can come together to provide services and connect with one another and whereas connection with one's culture and Community is key to supporting overall mental health and individuals who have strong connections to their communities have better mental health outcomes including lower rates of suicide violence and feelings of isolation and whereas National minority health awareness month was founded in 2008 in honor of ABY Moore Campbell a mental health Advocate with the goal of creating mental health awareness and eliminating stigma among diverse communities now therefore be proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of Indie River County Florida that July 2024 be recognized as baby Moore Campbell National minority Mental Health Awareness Month in in River County and call upon its citizens to increase awareness and understanding of bip po mental health and the need for appropriate and accessible services for all people with mental health conditions adopted the second day of July 2024 by the board of County Commissioners ining River County Florida and signed by all five Commissioners so welcome to the sari thank you so much for being here thank you thank you thank you yes we're very happy and thankful to be here my name is Demetria Williams I am the chapter president for um lamb beta Zeta chapter here in ver Beach Florida I'm also the CEO and founder of take counseling and Consulting LLC here in the county I'm 100% virtual and one of the things that I'm partnering to do here in the county along with the mental health collaborative with West Salmons is to provide more awareness in this area so we're very excited about this and we appreciate the opportunity to have this day for Indian River County yeah well it is such an important um aspect of of the community to have a place where everyone can belong feel that sense of belonging I I think we're all aware of that um each in our own way um since since covid I think that that feeling of you know we all experience it to greater or lesser degrees sense of isolation so this is so important thank you for your efforts in this area yes thank you so much thank you 104 years yes 105 in January very excited oh and it's the 16th it's the 16th of January 1920 I think I think the proclamation says the 19th was the 16th yeah that's okay yes thank you [Applause] thank you thank you slide down this there's a little there used to be a tape in the middle that's the middle stand on at the tape yeah yeah that's the official line yes that's it yeah everybody's all sented look at that awesome thank you ladies thanks everything you [Applause] do all right in keeping with our theme I'm going to take um an informational item out of order which is Veterans benefit checkup month for operation stop by in July Wesley do you want Cindy want to come up and tell us what you guys have going on because it sounds pretty cool good morning Commissioners and thank you very much appreciate the opportunity to be here today what um what we're doing is we there's of course you have your uh veterans service office um but also and and they have their veterans come in and ask about numerous things that are available to them as far as education and I'll let Cindy kind of elaborate on that go ahead and tell them a little bit about what that does sure our veteran service office is our accredited vsos and what they do is help with um spouse support Education Health Care and we do have a reduction in our weight time right now in our vso office we also have walk-in Wednesdays and Thursdays and now in collaboration with the Property Appraiser's office for the month of July we're doing a campaign called stop by in July where our accredited vsos Our Heroes helping Heroes will be right here in the vo office um supporting with walk-in support for our veterans and the goal behind this is there's numerous uh exemptions available through uh that I'm able to give our veterans uh with through the disabled and for example if they their percentage of their on their VA card as far as the percentage disabled you know if that in it goes up then I can U increase the their the amount of their exemption other things that people don't know about um I'm always talking to people about the uh members of the reserves that get called up into active duty a lot of people don't know that every year the State of Florida approves a certain theaters of conflict that if you're deployed over Seas at and elevated by in in the reserves to these theaters of conflict if you're there for 180 days the following year I get to knocked your assessment in half if you're there 365 days I get to knock it down to zero and it gets approved it's everything from operation enduring Freedom operation jouti there's about seems like about 25 or 30 different theaters of conflict around the world that any reservist that get called up into active duty if they get deployed there uh it's a benefit that they're entitled to and I want to see to it that they get it for them doing that for our country we chose the month of July obviously because of the 4th but we didn't want to celebrate just one day we wanted to make it all month and so if uh anybody if we have any veterans out there that want to know about any services that are available we'll we'll have that anybody wants to know about the exemptions that are available we encourage them to come in uh we're going to do it at our virau office this year only uh mainly because of the space um but if anybody needs us y you C stop by tell them W sent awesome now real quick what is the time times and the dates it's every Friday every Friday every Friday yep every Friday for the whole month of July yes ma'am all right so if any veterans have any questions about any benefits not just necessarily the property appraiser benefits come on out on Friday there'll be somebody there at the Property Appraiser's office to help you live and in person every Friday the whole month of July absolutely perfect and we're we'll be doing some Outreach I've got some uh some videos will be trying to get on the public access Channel and uh doing some Outreach to let the community know so we certainly do appreciate this and adding to that as emergency item I didn't realize this was the only one the meeting that you had so that's why the scramble no worries and we appreciate you guys collaborating and and helping us get our services to the people that need them as well and they have been wonderful the the veteran services Cindy the the whole crew um we're excited about this first time doing it well hopefully this is the first of many to come absolutely awesome thank you guys go ahead I'm sorry I appreciate the Mad chair I appreciate this coming out but I want you to know over the throughout the years that your office has been very open and ready to and willing to help a veteran I see Billy Aon here uh he's he's one of your your players absolutely I uh I wind up having to deal with a a lot of veterans that are un unaware of the benefit that they can receive and it's the vso the pamphlet that when you see it and you just show it to them they don't realize in in 10 minutes their taxable value can change drastically absolutely and they've earned it they deserve it they just don't know how to ask for it exactly or put in for it so but thank you thank you commissioner maybe you're going to be a little busier really awesome thank you thank you guys thank you all right Commissioners that brings us to our approval of the minutes we have the minutes of the regular meeting of May 7th and May 21st M chair move approval both second all right I have a motion in a second all in favor opposed motion carries um in other informational items our event calendar is attached and we also have a letter of intent for another derel vessel removal so excited to get um that out of the way right in line with Waterway cleanup week so perfect that's actually a uh Grant from the US boat Foundation to to it's a nationwide Grant they have a lot of money from the federal government to do it because it's a problem All Over Texas and Louisiana everywh so I'm glad we're taking advantage of it y all right that brings us to consent we do need to pull 8s is there any Sierra 8 Sierra is there anybody else any I'm sorry is there any other items Commissioners s that Commissioners any other items that you'd wish to pull no all right anybody from the public wish to pull an item from consent for discussion no Madam chair move approval as amended all right right we have a motion and a second all in favor right opposed motion carries we'll move on to 8s for discussion yes Madam chair um I I see that we have uh a bid um adjustment again and uh this is a project that we're traveling since 2020 and 2022 uh it it has been a painful project to observe and I want you to know that yes uh I know that we have had some changes in the project uh we've had some amendments in the project but the project itself leaves somebody in the balance the men and women who serve in River County as fire medics and they and the public should know that during the time from the time the construction started till now been living in a portable trailer Inside the property with most of the essentials that again they work 24-hour shifts they live in the building and most of the amenities have been altered have been Limited and it was a lack of effort on the construction timing that caused a lot of concern and grief for the men and women who serve in in River County um I don't know how many of you visited uh but uh I was uh regular visitor of the location and I did not see the master craftsmanship that should be put into our project again this is not just a building this is a place where alire Medics live for a period of time while they await that 911 call and it is still not in good shape and there has been some work that was done and during one of my visits I took a look at what was being done and again that's for the our contract engineer uh to determine I was very disappointed there were many times where I I visited where there was no workers I understand that we have these adjustments amendments and sometimes there's a little delay there's a permit it has to be approved there has to be materials so we might have a down day we had a lot of down days and after looking at this Madam chair I want to recommend that we we flip the bond at this point this has been way too long it's it's arduous to look at we have other projects we have other fire station projects and we we we can't we can't settle for mediocrity and false promises in dealing with getting the job done and I think the taxpayer I think the the taxpayer deserves that and I believe that the fire Medics deserve that because after all they're bunking up in the trailer and I don't know if you've seen the condition they're I think some of you may have but they are they are not exactly the best and when you dial 911 you want people rested ready prepared with the proper equipment and you want them alert and using all their skills and abilities and knowledge and quite frankly I think this is a test yes I've seen it and I I would agree it's um it's one thing for a project to go on in the short term but it's it's been in this state for en entirely too long um commissioner Ean you had a comment oh and then Chief I'm sorry dude let me comment on this commissioner flusher you be me to it it was under my matters to bring up to and I appreciate you bring it up and I agree completely with what you said as many of you know of course I was a fireman for 35 and A2 years here and I went through the days of uh when I was a lieutenant of Station 8 and Sebastian of staying there while it was under construction I went through the days of mold remediation in the stations and stuff like that and those projects did not take as long as this project is taken I agree completely with what commissioner flasher said I think that it's um time that we flip the bond I think it's time that we move on this project started out it was pretty much just a remodel and it shouldn't have taken this long but the conditions they shouldn't have to endure this anymore again I I feel for them I went through it but not to the extent of this and something that was just for a remodel um this has just happen this has just been going on too long it's it's time to to to make a change and and uh you know get somebody in there that can do the job and whatever we need to do to get done and um I I think I'm not going to add to what you said I think commissioner flasher said it all for the same same reasons but uh yes I completely agree Chief good morning Commissioners David Johnson mergen Services director I agree 100% we've been very dissatisfied with this project since after the first three or four months we've had our fire chief up there daily I've been up there weekly trying to prod these people to move forward and it just doesn't get anywhere um they are blaming us for certain things which are not correct um they give us their payouts very late change orders take weeks or months to get taken care of so it's been a very poor situation especially for our crews up there who have done gallantly sitting there in that dust uh while serving the public so yes I agree 100% uh we have talked about pulling the bond uh with the county attorney um the only issue is with doing that it delays the project even longer uh through the various fights we a would have to go through with pulling the bond so I'm open to whatever you want me to do and whatever is decided by the administrator and the County Attorney how long well how long of a delay are we talk I mean how long of a delay are we talking about first and second I mean it's it's been delayed so long I yes and some of the delay is is attributable to what was found out there on the site that there were several starts and several stops along the way that really couldn't have been prevented or could have been foreseen if we call the bond now it we would use the lack of having qualified Personnel on the job and the lack of progress made on the job the bond company would come in with a new contractor and be required to finish the job I would imagine that the bonding company would do that under a reservation of Rights allowing them to still dispute the alleged breach of contract by Intertech will it delay the process the letters that have been been going back and forth between the county and Intertech back on June uh 12th we sent a letter to InterTech urging their performance asking them to provide us with Milestones within five days um eight days later on June 20 they responded with a letter basically ignoring the lack of qualified personel and lack of progress and complaining about the starts and stops and that they weren't in breach of the contract um as far as the past history um there is no supervisor on the project now he was fired um they're going to have to re I don't know reup the the the ante as far as their employees getting a new person out there I I I'm thinking that it would be a walk basically what I'm hearing is any delay caused by us taking this route is probably going to be dwarfed by the delay it's going to take them to even figure out how they're going to fix the disaster that they have created for themselves at fire station 11 I think that's the long and short of it yes all right anybody else have any comment I mean it seems pretty I've been out there it seems very clear to me I have no problem with this I I don't even know how they would fix what they've done I will say though I think I think part of this is exacerbated by the fact that this company is very far from the area they're out of what Coral Springs Coral Springs Miami and so they don't have anybody here that's monitoring that nor do they are they sending anybody up on a daily basis so they're basically subcontracting out the work and not overseeing it which is a is a problem and I know our purchasing process requires um you know kind of lowest best and and most responsive lowest bitter scenarios and there are State statutes that require us to go through certain processes there but for me this is an illustration of a problem when we don't have people that are local and I don't know how we fix that if there is a way to fix that in our purchasing process because we have some capital projects coming up and I don't want us just taking the the lowest bidder and getting back into a scenario where you know they're they're the lowest biders coming out of Tampa I mean that's nobody's going to come over for three hours to work for three hours to go home for three hours is the way that's going to work and expect projects to get done so that's my first question and then secondly I know we've talked about kind of a capital projects manager of some sort moving forward for some of these which I think in this instance would have been helpful to have somebody from our staff coordinating more with this project to make sure it didn't get to this point but what can we do from the purchase is there anything we can do or think about doing in the future absolutely uh good morning commissioner JN fhy uh purchasing manager we did have a local preference um probably about 15 years ago in the county code um that was before my time it was sunsetted because they thought it didn't really work out um there are definitely lots of different approaches that we can do so I do plan to uh after budget season talk to the County Administrator about some changes that we do want to make to the the purchasing section of the code and we can definitely bring a local preference in um in as part of that and enact that going forward I mean I can see where it might be a double-edged sword to an extent but I just I think we need to have more control other than just the lowest most responsive bidder to make sure they're qualified and they have the staff to do the job that we're hiring them to do you you you brought up the local preference and thank you for that about 14 years ago I initiated that and uh another commissioner uh had observed that there was no participation in about 6 months so I guess the anxiety level uh was enough to compel to take it off the books it was a process where uh you could uh match the next the the other bid the lowest bid uh and if you can match the bid and you within 5% uh you can take the the bid you had to perform at their rate but you can uh have a local preference of unfortunately it was during a a lower end of our economic time and there was not much activity to be able to uh engage in in that we did not have many bids out in that six-month period um and and I think we need to bring it back I and I think we will we will be bringing it back I'm happy to to pull something together and some options um I know it works in other areas there are matter fact there will be times that statute like when when we're using State funds we wouldn't be able to utilize it but for our our our local capital projects definitely to bring something back after the budget when we get through that and just discuss what options we might be able to I'm sure that that ordinance and those processes are probably old and haven't been looked at for a while but we might just freshen it up and see what other people are doing and having successes with yes commissioner M um is this something that the utsman could help with you know focus on this and and you know drive it forward so actually just I would just provide some context and for the purposes of the record based on the the board's comments back in mid April after about a month or so going back and forth we actually convened a meeting with staff all those involved as well as the Intertech Construction Representatives uh they committed to providing us a detailed schedule but in 3 days they didn't they was it was their commitment uh and then the schedule they have provided even the first benchmarks or or identified days they were they didn't comply so but what I would add is we already have established from uh to assist in the permitting Andor review process we establish a single point of contact within the fire department to work with fire prevention as well as establish a single point of contact for building and permitting so there was no while I was trying to get in touch with this person I was trying to get in touch with that person I haven't got that so we did that already so I would just I don't disagree with the county attorney uh in terms of the lack of performance and we've gone back and forth in emails letters and it just doesn't seem from our perspective that they're making any progress or is is there any sense of urgency to resolve and amarate the conditions at the station and we even put a conx box out there for the purposes because they committed back in April oh we have the materials we have the materials we have the materials it's July 2nd and that box is how full is it it's empty empty yeah so I mean just to sum it up they obviously don't care we've tried to work with them they're not performing and it's time to move on so we can get it done I agree any other discussion Madam Madam chair I I feel that we uh we have exhausted the discussion on this I feel we have make a motion consensus so he did okay so can we just ask Jennifer is there any pay request for work that they've completed that's been signed off on that we must approve we have they just sent us four pay requests for March April May and starting of June we found errors in all of them so we sent them back for correction and we haven't received anything back at yet I and I I didn't mention the workmanship either um but it was not that's okay I did exciting yes she did and and uh the so the public knows that if you'll notice we did not know that each other was there or visiting in any way uh and haven't discussed this but uh I'm glad that we had this discussion now so I I I mve to second direct attorney to go forward with the the the bond recall all right we have a motion by commissioner flesher with a second by commissioner irman so the motion would be to terminate the contract with Intertech and uh put the bonding company on notice that they are to comply with the terms of their um performance public corre construction thank you well restated Mr attorney all right we have a motion we got to I know he's got to keep us straight we have a motion and a second if there's any further discussion seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you all right Commissioners if I am in the right spot we are moving on to public hearings 10 A1 fiscal year 2024 Grant application for Capital and operating assistance and bus replacement from the Federal Transit Administration let's talk buses welcome good morning everyone I'm Brian Freeman no staff director and also joining me here today is Chris Stevenson the director of Transportation at the Senior Resource Association um SRA operates the goal line and Community Coach and I just have a update on the current um state of the transit system I promise I'll be brief and then just also briefly just kind of look over the Grant application that's before you and this is a Grant application where um both County staff and Sr have worked together and putting together this Grant application and it's exam an example of the partnership that supports our local transit system where we work with our um funding Partners at the state and federal level to uh to fund the system and on the screen before you is the current goal line route map we have 14 goal line routes they currently operate six days a week um I I think the levels of service coverage that we have here in Indian River County are um beyond what you see in similar counties uh you know like small Urban counties like Indian River um around half of all County residents live within A4 mile of a goal line route and when you extend that out to 3/4 of a mile that's 84% of the County's population is within 3/4 of a mile of a goal line route and I think because of that you know the history of the goal line is one where we've seen steady growth in the system uh really going back to the early 2000s we had just one year where there was a drop in ridership from the previous year and that was 2020 um we all know what was going on in 2020 and um since then as the chart shows um ridership has um recovered and we had the highest uh ridership levels ever in the uh most recent fiscal year um back in early May with uh a grant uh funding support from fdot we were able to add two additional hours of um week day um evening service and those were from 700 p.m. to 900 p.m. and we had over almost 8,000 passengers um ride in those additional two hours during the first 35 days of service and as that red line shows on the chart the trend is going up where we're seeing um usage increase and we also saw increase of ridership by about 40% from the existing 5:00 p.m. to 7 P.M hours I think most you know Riders on the goal line system don't want to rely on what's the last run of the bus a day so when the bus runs later not only do we have people using those new hours but we get even increased usage on those um hours that preced it just before um I think with all the usage that we're seeing on the system and and the way that we've recovered from uh the pandemic um you know it's not a surprise that uh you know compared to every other system in the State of Florida we're um easily the most efficient on a cost per passenger uh basis we used to be neck and neck with um Gainesville they're now um second place because they haven't quite seen the recovery in the ridership and right now um Gainesville system is almost twice the cost per passenger for um you know um goal line and I I think that's really a testament also to the way s um runs a system and how efficiently they run it and it just shows the utilization of the system that's there so just looking at the Grant application today um we don't know yet what the uh final numbers will be but what we've requested um from um FTA is a total of 7.2 million in funding with 5.2 million going towards Capital assistance I'd love if we could get the whole 5.2 million but I don't think we will but um the uh the I guess the budget that we put together for that includes um vehicle replacement uh continuation of our bus shelter program um um expanding the uh the vehicle Maintenance building also other equipment like computers security equipment and um maintenance equipment and I'll just note that for this part there's no local match required that we're able to use uh what are called toll Revenue credits from fdot as a soft mat and so we don't have to put up any local funds for the capital expenses for the system and then on the operating side we're requesting $2 million in funding assistance and um it's there's no additional local funds that are required to to uh to get the 2 million um because we've already uh pledged local funds towards the state grants and so we can use those combined state and local grants to draw down um the federal funds and and so basically there's a three to1 ratio that for every $1 doll local funds that we put uh into operating the system we're able to get a total of $3 back in state and federal funds and so at this point uh would just uh recommend that you uh open up the public hearing and then adopt the resolution uh in support of the Grant application awesome thank you Commissioners is there any questions of Staff seeing none at this time I'll open the public hearing anybody from the public wishing to speak on this item please come to the podium and state your name and address just for the record and seeing none we'll close the public hearing move approval I have a motion by commissioner lore with a second by commissioner flesher any further discussion chairman yes I know that you and I and commissioner fleser attended the faac convention last week in Orlando and I had two Commissioners from various counties on that list right there that asked me how do y'all do it we're almost $30 per person per ride how do y'all do it I go you got to come up and talk to Brian or no guy and Chris said so I'm I'm very thankful for that it's it's nice to receive those comments from fellow Commissioners that you see maybe once a year that that are noticing that how efficient and good job we do here in Indie River County so thank you thank you all right any other disc discussion seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you guys you always doing a great job all right the next item is a public discussion item request to speak from Mr Bill Rigby regarding our RFP policies Mr Rigby welcome sorry we missed you at the last meeting glad you're feeling better first of all my name is Bill Rick B I reside at 8465 59th Avenue or B of Florida before I begin to speak I would like to say this that I'm not here to step on anyone uh Toes or anything like that I'm only here this morning to speak on policies about the RFP uh the RFP that was just uh awarded to uh Waste Management uh my here here's here here's my understanding if I'm wrong please you having ATT turny please correct me first it first in RSP it goes to the uh um swed swed and returns take whatever they need then it goes to uh purchasing from that and then on but purchasing and swi they work together once the RSP has been initiated and everything has been performed then uh it goes then to uh purchasing purchasing then become the sole authority of that uh procurement what what I mean by that is that I see that and correct me if I'm wrong again I see that when it's done that SW comes up and takes over what I say that the control of that procurement process when I again I'm saying that in all my experience that it's supposed to be purchasing become the sole authority of that procurement DMS with the state is the sole procurement of procurement when it comes to whatever but I see that squid comes and take so control of that and I have a problem with that because Miss Heidi Miss hey she is she is supposed to be the sole authority of that tment process meaning that the evaluation all of that is supposed to be done by her then from that if swed want to interject anything in that he's which is who's the director or staff then they come up and interject whatever they want to interject it interject in it but what I see here because I've been doing this over 14 15 years upon my experience it could be different here in in River County I don't know but I'm saying in my experience dealing with contractual and dealing with procurement that is the way that it was done for over I know 14 15 years but when I come here it's totally different maybe in River County maybe have a different ordinance they might have a different law of how I operate I don't know but if it is some can please educate me on that I'm moving forward I just want to bring that clear now in the interal into interlocal arrangement to collect recyclable goods I'm bringing two parts here and it's going to be about RFP recyclable goods and the RFP to collect trash in intera County under section 42 42 USA section 1981 1983 is crucial every person who under under color or any statute ordinance regulation custom or usage of any state or territory the District of col subjects or cause causes to be subject any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights privileges or immuni secured by the Constitution and laws suit INE Equity or other property proper proceedings for redress except that any action brought against a Judicial office by an act or emission taking such officers judicial capacity and be and uh before I say this again I want to say it again I'm here in a orderly and uniform of application of only the law the RFP RFP negotiation was crucial resulted in reduced price for Waste Management to win if if the county wanted a lower price it should have went to an ITB ITB is what they call an invitation to beid if it was based on cost but you but remember now you said that in that RFP in the in the initial bidding of the RFP that FCC was across the board with the with the most rating and I looked at again in category one it was 90 something points category two they was 990 some points so it with that the SW director got up and said that they negotiated on a cost and when when negotiating on a cost to me you split in two things you using a RFP and now you're going to IBT for cost and I just heard you said I just heard you say now that sometime the low responsive bid is not always best and sometimes it's not Mr Rigby yes I'm not sure what point you're trying to get at but it seems like there's some confusion as to the process that we went through so we did a best and final offer process which was well put out to all the biders and applicants that submitted from the very beginning of the process that is a process process that's been used in other places it was well within our abilities to do so so I'm not exactly sure where are did are you do you have questions about that process or okay can we get to those yes I'm going well I'm going to get that in a few minutes okay when you when you ask me is that do I have question I have I have question about the process because if s FCC was across the board evaluated the highest then you dropped them down to the next option which was you put them against Waste Management I'm my question is how how can I be one I'm high all the way across the board you Dro me to a low bracket and then you asked me to drop my price for what if that's not something that the bidder wanted to partake in then they should not have availed themselves of the process we were putting out there repeat that again please if that if if you were if you were a bidder and you were unwilling to provide a lower price FCC did not bring their price down significantly they stayed with the first price that is their right to do Under the process that we did Waste Management chose to do something else and we've had a large discussion about this at our last meeting and the meeting before that um so you might want to go back and watch those meetings there was a lot of information on this issue provided at that point I I didn't watch the meeting but I did go back and read the RFP I read the the RFP extensively and reading the RFP uh extensively and in my experience as doing procurement I'm saying again I understand what you're saying you did or you have done what I'm saying is that what you have done according to the law is not done properly that's all I'm saying here and and and and when you do something properly and with the guidelines of the law then there's there's no no one has no discussion of what is either I would be standing up here because because you did it right that's what I'm saying and if you let me finish my speech I will you are welcome to um but I'll be glad to me okay excuse me I'm going to move on I'm try to be brief as I can we must uphold the principle of transparency and fairness in our procurement process this RSP which has raised concern should be considered to ensure that all applicable laws and fla or and fla procurement statutes are adhered to as overseen by your person's manager for and most as we need to establish establish a clear policy framework our procurement policy specific uh participation goes for minority own Service as able veteran own business can guide us to a more diverse and inclusive recycling service landscape in in River County providing reassurance and confidence in the Pro proposed changes it is also essential to address a recent statement made by the person manager whom in who indicated that the county does not follow inclusion of an artive business is is still dealing with the RFP monar business of self disabled veterans and owned business in the procurement environment as mandated by Florida stat the lack of transparency is is is legally problematic and cont to the principles of equity and inclusion that the county service to uphold additionally I have review the inter rer County cord of ordinance chapter 204 Solid Waste disposal and found no provision that exempts the county from complying with these stats as such I request that the person manager provide a written statement con confirming this policy for my records especially given that the county is is positioning the person Department to complete for the national procurement institution achievement of excellent excellence and procurement award given the current situation we must question whether the county can genuinely compete with a national procurement institution achievement of excellen and procurement award while willfully ignoring segments of the FL Florida statute related to minority business all right thank you so much Mr rby for your comments we appreciate them I'll be back again you sh you're not going to shut me up I'll be back next next Wednesday after Tuesday to finish this all right fantastic we look forward to that with that we'll move on to County Administrator matters uh next item is strategic plan proposed County mission statement and core values good morning members Madam chair members of the board going to come before you provide you the updated uh where we are as well as kind of present to you the uh proposed Mission statemented core values next slide next slide next slide sorry do I have oh I do okay here we go so just to rehash or kind of review where we started if you recall we started in uh interviews back in uh uh August no October of last year and then there was a survey sent out to all of our employees in November and then in December we had a strategic planning workshop with our consultants and then we received the report it was accepted by the board and and February and then later in April we presented the goals to the board based on the themes and the the results from the surveys uh and and you adopted those the next we had a literally a week later we had a staff Workshop if you will and there was more than 55 60 people that attended that workshop and uh with our consultants and then our go teams have been meeting and now we're here to present to you the process where we are so this is the overall strategic planning process I know you've seen this before it's a busy chart but it kind of walks you through just from a a system standpoint uh right today we're going to be talking about Mission and values uh and then after well we already started this but identifying strategic issues based on those goals and then the goal teams will be evaluating you know what are the Strategic issues what are the responses to those issues and developing and formulating strategies action plans and objectives for those so I don't go over that too much so as you know uh environment governance infrastructure Public Safety and quality of life are are five goals in which the goal teams will be uh working for the purposes of identifying their strategic issues and the objectives and so we've got the goals adopted we're here today to present to you the mission and values uh and that will help guide I think I believe in a significant way the uh goal teams as they develop those smart or specific measurable achievable relevant and time bound you know objectives for this the county strategic plan so the mission the various themes that we that came back from the uh the the survey and the from based on that was largely predicated upon the interviews is you service serve delivering service community service Equitable governance quality of life natural resource protect the environment future what residents cherish about Community the community so we try to distill that down into a a simple statement you know mission statement again our mission statement is our purpose the reason for which we exist so with that after several iterations and conversations uh we have proposed we are proposing the mission statements that the residents would understand and our or our employees would understand what we stand for who we are and you know what's our why what's our purpose and we are dedicated to IND ner County through service Excellence so that would be the mission statement that we are proposing to you uh we could stop here if you want to have comments on this before we move to values if you would like Commissioners any comments okay so then I'll open it up for public comment after he finishes his presentation so then we looked at the values based on the the themes that were extracted from the survey results and the interviews and you see the various values but professionalism competency customer service transparency honesty Integrity respect uh accountability Pride confident trust dedication collaboration so with that you know the committee the Strategic plan of the core committee came together we had put together with brainstormed virtually and also the most recent uh meeting was in person and we just kind of knocked it out after several uh proposals were were developed and so we come up with Integrity the and essentially the Indian River county is going to conduct itself in the highest ethical manner in all that we do with a commitment to respect accountability and transparency responsiveness indiv county is going to provide excellent customer service by being accessible approachable receptive helpful and Innovative and collaboration Indi County will work together cooperatively United in our purpose to serve the community our core values are if you will they are organizational moral compass those are the values and and the standards by which you and the public can expect Administration and us as an organization to act and conduct and carry out the Affairs of the public business so with that uh I just like to take an opportunity to recognize our goal Champions that have been identified uh for the each of the teams I would also thank Kathy Copeland who's been been serving in multiple roles but also assisting coordinating with our strategic planning consultants and myself and others and the the goal teams as to our project coordinator Mike zitto Nancy bunt uh Beth pal environment goal co-champion Kylie inula Kristen Daniels Susan Bole governance Sean lisy infrastructure with Christen Lind Decker Dave Johnson our Emergency Services director for Public Safety s Cindy Emerson quality of life and our um budsman jumped right in and specifically this last meeting as we're trying to really kind of land the values and our mission statement uh I will mention you'll see the aster those are our core strategic planning team members but we have more than 55 team staff members that attended the strategic planning kickoff Workshop to include members from I the teamsters and and then others were there were the supervisor a coordinator managers uh traffic engineer uh directors we didn't limit it we wanted to get as many as possible together for the purposes of reviewing the process going over and soliciting and listing their support and and their participation with that in terms of next steps our strategic plan go goal teams are meeting to identify and develop those objectives and strategies of tactics uh we anticipate in August a preliminary draft being provided to the board uh it'll probably be we're thinking like the third week of August not the 20th we would want to we understand that meeting with this being the last meeting prior to the 20th so probably be a special call meeting after that standpoint but the goal goal is to bring a have a public Workshop in September and then bring the final draft strategic plan back to the board for the board and public comments on September 17th uh then we would take a little bit of time formulate document you know and put together the final strategic plan to present to the board for adoption on October 8th and then after that the most you know that that's critically important but then continuing to drive this down into the organization meeting with our you know our leadership team meeting with our staff so we can drive and change the culture and then there's a full firm understanding of the direction in which the county is going and the goals the objectives uh and the strategies that we'll be undertaking so and the other thing I would add is as we've adopted the goals the board the count uh you'll find in the upcoming budget message staff you know included a component this year an extra step to where everybody had to identify what go goal for all the new requests for anything over $5,000 what what goal is that related to and then we also looked at the prior the priorities for those so we could have a our basis to determine what we should be presenting so with that the recommendation is to adopt the presented mission statement and core values as part of the County's 2024 2027 strategic plan I'll thank you and open up for comments and questions Commissioners any questions or comments back back excellent job I think it's long overdue uh no matter what service we're providing uh to our residents uh customer service good customer service is always Paramount so thank you for your effort and um I'm glad to see that it's going to be cohesive and coordinated and will filter down to every single employee that the emphasis will be on customer service that that will become the culture um like I said it's it's long overdue thank you anybody else all right anybody from the public come on up and please state your name and address for the record good morning Tom Sullivan 4187 West 16 square uh if we John if you could go back to the mission uh to the mission statement uh I was familiar with MBO back in the 80s and 90s I think a lot of your stuff is very similar um now is there any way I can put this so it can be up there OB I don't have this much secretarial service any Tim's got you I would like the mission statement to be a little more aspirational um I think that when people work in an organization they look up to that statement I think if you have this statement people are going to say I'm dedicated to Excellence what does that oh sorry I won't be able to have both of them up at the same time though oh okay okay you can take those down okay than I'm sorry that doesn't sound uh aspirational enough for me and and what I think we want the people of the community is to feel that as they work here they're working for everyone within the community uh as you can see I I really my handwriting has to get better uh to ensure that the citizens of Indian River County continue to enjoy and benefit from the beauty of our County and the Abundant Natural Resources by providing exemplary government services now I I feel Joe this fits in what a lot of things used to say I remember when I you came here at one time and we were having that water thing out there and you wanted to turn it into a park and then we found out the government said you couldn't put it next to the resource water you know I remember Joe saying thing all I'm saying is I like people that work for an organization to have aspirational goals I don't think it's I mean maybe in police work that first statement would be much more uh applicable but I think as we move along at the government we want people that work here to say hey this is what I want you know I work for the county I want to maintain the beauty the natural resources and I'm a government employee that helps to do that obviously through legislative ideas like you have you know so that was my only thing I don't I I since he's been here I've agreed with everything he's done uh I've talked to several council members about that I think the idea of the MBO being put in place uh is interesting goals and objectives going down the line but I think when you come to the top statement about what is your mission statement now I have to tell you I've worked at four major universities these things are dealt with like for months on end just like he did okay but I've never come up with a task to be the mission statement the Exemplar government I think should be fall more under a task in other words how are we going to do this we're going to be very efficient but to say that I want to work for this organization I work for the county of Indian River and I'm totally efficient uh we could apply that to a lot of different things okay but I want people to work for the county and I did hear a statement we're going to bring the culture from the top down I've been a basketball coach for 35 years okay and I can tell you instilling a cult is difficult as you would know okay uh as you would know in the fire department but you can okay instill a culture if you get the people at the bottom to feel that they're really part of this system sometimes by forcing the culture downward it does not have the exact effect you know and I and I've witnessed here you know some of the things which I you know tend to agree or disagree with uh that's a funny statement I guess when you talk about people being taken off at Wills or being put on at Wills that can create a certain amount of angst uh how that angst is later uh you know brought about or how it's sent through the system is very curious okay I I know that lately I've been trying to get in touch with people and uh the last thing I would say is that we're efficient okay and I hope in the future that will be the first thing we'll say but again I just wanted to bring this up I wanted this for your consideration one of the things my wife said was maybe they should have a contest with the children okay in schools to come up what they think the mission statement of Indian River government should be and this would involve them you know and again we all know as you do that the mission statement is critically important to when people say this is what I believe in I just think you know in in my career if I would to tell kids you know we're going to be the highest scoring team they would say well how do we you know you know they want to be part of a group that is going to display values that's going to be good citizens you know and and and that's the way I look at it and I I just bring this to your attention I I unfortunately or fortunately okay I read all this stuff I appreciate that I appreciate your comments um the only thing I would add to that is that that this mission statement was something that was collaborated on across multiple departments by multiple staff members so it wasn't directed from us or or from Administration they all worked together because they all each department and each person does a different role within the county to try to find kind of an umbrella mission that they could all get behind and then to your point the the goals and objectives and and vision of how we accomplish that will be drilled down under each department as we move forward and I think that's where that statement might fit some of those departments specifically as far as goals to how to accomplish that but it it might not because the county does so many different things fit all of the Departments as an overall uniform mission statement um yes so I just uh I'm not disagreeing about the the necessity of really evaluating the mission statement Andor but I think the comment would be you know when you look at aspire you look at your end State what's the vision and the vision usually comes at the end of the process where you where you determine what your end state is where where do you want to be in 5 10 years from now so your whereas your mission statement generally speaking is your purpose you're raised on The Talk The reason for which you exist as an organization for us we're saying it's to provide that service Excellence being dedicated to that that covers internal and external customer service and then to to support that we're putting in core values that and our goals that specifically highlight the various items that about which you're speaking and then to to the commission the chair's Point more than 480 employees were invited and they mean actually about all of our employees that email and more than 480 of them actually participated in an online survey in terms of what was important as we looked at and there was interviews that existed beforehand it was an interview process then the survey to distill and synthesize and come to the themes that were most important and then we had more than 55 employees and I think one of the things for me in my experience and I've been doing probably about 25 years I I I've taught strategic planning at The Graduate level is I believe the mission statement needs to be short succinct and memorable so because that drives that employees or that that organization because then they know what's my job oh to deliver Superior Service oh to to provide service Excellence that's my that's my why that's the purpose that's the reason why I exist for this organization I hear what you're saying I believe that the mission statement should be aspirational and so you know and we we're not going to come to you know you that's yours and that's mine and and that's fine okay we definitely appreciate the input thank you so much all right anybody else yes commissioner Ean I don't disagree with you the mission statements should be inspirational aspiration but also agree with our County Administrator it should be succinct and it should be something that everybody's it's easy to remember and for things to do police departments and fire departments always have a mission statement some of are very well known by the general public because you see it on the side of the police cars the LA City PD protect and serve you got I don't remember what what what was New York sir you remember and professionalism and respons fire departments our family serving your family they've all been very short and sutin and to the point because you have to make your employees have to be able to remember that and be able to repeat it it's not like something you repeat every day like the pledge of allegiance that we were brought up through school but it's something that that needs to be short succinct into the point and something that's attainable and I think that's attainable I don't disagree I like more inspirational but it's when you make an inspiration you make it longer and and all that sort of stuff so I I thank you for your comments but I I I I got a side with our administrator on this one because just because what I'm used to you know our family serving your family protect and serve all that sort of stuff well the wonderful thing about any strategic planning processes it takes a lot of input to get a good result at the end and we appreciate all of the public and the staff um participating in this because it is about what the county as a whole direction is going to be so um all right Commissioners other questions comments or concerns anybody else from the public Madam chair I'd just say that you know through the years the uh these philosophies have been shortened been lengthened uh sometimes they get too long that their employees and others public can't understand them uh so as it is in 2024 they're much more shortened Public Safety has always been somewhat short but we've all been on committees where we're looking at the Strategic plan but most importantly uh the core values are Incorporated in that uh and that is what uh the administrator got here this was his mission uh to change the culture of this agency which he is well on his way I do believe that um and we're going the right direction with that I motion to approve second all right we have a motion by commissioner lore and I'm going to take the second on that any further discussion seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries and with that I know you cind you got to put up a presentation stuff we're just going to take a brief um five minute break e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we'll go ahead and call the meeting back to order our next item is departmental matters Community Services Children's Services advisory committee recommended program funding allocations for fiscal year 2425 ladies welcome thank you so much my name is Cindy Emerson I'm the community service director and I'm joined here with my team with human services we're really excited to show you some of the progress that we've made over just the last 11 months um in collaboration with volunteers throughout our community that were both appointed and then also um members who were put on the subcommittee through the appointed members that you guys had put on so I just want to go through our funding recommendations for this year and start first with the responsibilities and roles of seesac one of the things that I heard last year prior to being hired into this position is that we needed more visibility more structure and more systems in place and over the last 11 months we've worked tirelessly with our volunteers on children's services and I I I cannot tell you enough how much work that they have put into streamlining and putting our ordinance into practice uh there are very specific roles that each of us hold within Children's Services based on ordinance and the guide book and so first the role of the needs assessment committee they really are the ones that drive the progress that we're making with Children's Services by looking at the needs um the gaps within our community and current programs and addressing that through analyzing data and looking at research uh the grant subcommittee they do the grant evaluations one thing we'll talk about today is what we've done through the RFP process and the scoring rubric to really structure that A Little Bit Stronger they also make our funding recommendations to the Children's Services advisory committee and they do performance monitoring which we have made um we we've coined the obnoxious transparency through Children's Services making sure that we have everything located on our website as far as our quarterly reports um progress monitoring that's happening within our agencies and the outcome measures that we're receiving as a result of that with our return on investment the seesac committee they work through the needs assessment planning process and oversee the needs assessment they also work with the program recommendations and funding allocations we just finalize that process and that is why we're here today with the final funding recommendation and they monitor and evaluate and then we also do inter agency coordination through our children's um Services advisory Council they also make sure our policy and procedures are maintained the board of County Commissioners what your role all of this is to be the policy approval program approval Financial oversight and making the appointments onto our children's services advisory committee our staff responsibility and we have really amped this up this year with having additional staff in place we provide the support services we make sure that the monitoring and Reporting is both visible and maintained we do our Grant Management we also are available to write grants to seek add additional funds outside of the board of County Commissioners funding which we hope to begin that process this year now that we have stable Staffing and have um increased our staffing we also do the financial management we do all the reimbursements and audits um we do the documenting and Reporting and coordination and communication what we've added on this year is professional development support and um we have taken the guide book from 1997 and have uh reissued it and um made sure that is in compliance with our BC policy and ordinance the needs assessment subcommittee uh met and went through the collection of data using a SWAT analysis and the patch framework and finalized recommendations this year um the members on the needs assessment subcommittee are considered some of the experts out in the community including Dr mcmah who sits as the accountability and research director for the school district um um we have the executive director of the substance abuse uh Council as well as licensed Mental Health Counselors members of Healthy Start Etc lots of real expertise there to help us dive into that data and disaggregate it and from that we came up with the three funding priorities that the funding recommendations this year are aligned with which are the health and well-being of our community nurturing families and communities and success in school and life we're really proud of this because it really emphasized is prevention looking at identification and intervention as being the pivotal foundation for all of this really also building up parent and guardian capacity in children's services so these are the focus areas with health and wellbeing with nurturing families and communities and with success in school and life and from that framework the grant subcommittee look through um close to 60 different programs and in this process for the funding recommendation in February our staff offered professional development coaching the application opened in March the professional development continued with research-based program design and evaluation I would say we're looking at progress not Perfection yet this is definitely going to be a slow and steady process to ensure that we're getting the strongest research-based measurable outcomes with each of our programs and what we're hoping is at the end of the next Grant cycle we're able to show the board of County Commissioners and our taxpayers the real return on investment for those three funding priority areas um in June the Grant subcommittee met over four full days um prior to that they went in and scored over 60 applications these volunteers worked tirelessly I couldn't be more proud of the work that they did um in advance of these meetings to make sure they had their questions ready um our agencies responded to their questions by giving you know really clear and accurate representation of what the return on investment would be for our community and then in July um we're bringing now those funding recommendations to you after taking it to the Children's Services advisory committee and getting it approved there are a lot of benefits to the RFP process and the scoring rubric that we initiated this year including increased accountabil ability making sure outcomes are research based um addressing identified needs and then ensuring there's organizational capacity with each of the agencies behind our programs um we wanted to make sure that our community is aware of all of this so this entire presentation is public uh as well as the funding recommendations for the committee and has been on our website we invite you please participate in the process and if you're interested in being a part of this volunteer movement with children Services we do have vacancies that are going to be open that we're going to be looking to fill in October and November for our grant subcommittee the uh funding recommendations have been broken down into each priority area so you'll be able to see for health and well-being for nurturing families and communities and for success in school and life exactly what programs align to each and the return on investment will be over 17,8 189 anticipated children served that doesn't include our families that get the benefit of these programs along with our community and the long-term return on investment back to our taxpayers what we say is we're creating the future law-abiding taxpayers of tomorrow and so with that we know that the return really is incredibly valuable um research shows that for every dollar spent there's a $10 return on investment so we just want to thank you for the amount that you've been able to fund for children's services this year and also also acknowledge that we're saving about $30 million for a community of the future by having these programs in place uh in July we're going to have some professional coaching and support by our new human services manager Miss Megan Kendrick she's going to be working with our seesac grant recipients giving them um program implementation support reviewing their outcome measures and refining them where we can make some really strong um evidence-based uh implication and then planning to collect Monitor and analyze that data for the agencies that were not included in um funding Megan will also be working with them giving them some feedback um reviewing the Grant application and giving them some potential future outcome research-based models that they can look at and use for the next Grant cycle this is always going to be our intent that we're trying to create the strongest return on investment with the programs and the best way to do that is by building sustainability within our programs and our agencies and helping drive them to reach their goals we also have Community forums this is new to children's services around each of the different funding priorities we will be bringing experts in we will be inviting the community to participate at the IG Center as we go into what research is available what programs currently exist in our community to support these funding priorities and what our next steps are to really create a robust return for our taxpayers and with that um I know you have received the funding recommendation and staff fully stands by the recommendation of the Children's Services advisory committee all right Commissioners Madam chairman yes if I may I would like to expand upon that and tell you about my experience this year being that you appointed me when you became chairman to head of the uh children's service advisory committee as the commission's Lea on to that board I I know everyone on this board has had experience with it commissioner lore even when he was Sheriff had experience with it and commissioner Moss previously did this and I know we've all done it and I remember when I became a commissioner in 2020 that it was run by just Leanne he was the oneman band doing this thing and she kept the she kept it together with Band-Aids and glue and everything else and kept it moving forward and uh I thank you for that so I didn't know what what I was getting myself into with this but I can tell you what I saw what I witnessed what I was a part of was absolutely outstanding um I say that because there was transparency there was openness there was organization there was U time to take and explain to the members of the main committee and of the of the all the Committees underneath them what their job what their purpose was what they were what they were sworn to do what they were what they have to do uh whether it's uh popular or not but it was their mission and and these ladies uh let it let it through them and did it very with with with much grace and much Poise um I would tell you that um there was at times that may have got a little bit questionable not I would say not to the point of contentious but some people asked some questions and and their answers were were very uh professionally and politely politely responded to and most of the time after anything was said the the person that asked the question got the answer that they were looking for and I thank them them for that all of them um the process was was um tough I know that none of us would want to be one of the people looking for uh funding to go before the board that was a tough group led by Bob slit who did an outstanding job as the chairman it was uh it was a tough group I I said I wouldn't wanted to to to give a presentation to them but I say that with the fact that they were very professional to the people asking for funding they even gave them suggestions and ideas on how to improve and not everybody got funded if you'll see on your U list there was a total of 3.4 million requested with 56 proposals and they stayed within the budget they are actually less than the budget they they didn't spend 128,000 so I would commend them for that I wish we could do that with a lot of things around here that we could stay under budget and and have the outcome that they had but I'm going to tell you that this process has gone from Leaps and Bounds of when I was the first commissioner because I did question where we were going what the transparency was how we were doing it were we doing the right things were refunding the the organizations that that we needed to fund and and and fund those organizations in a proper fashion and I think uh they've answered they've answered all that questions is it is it perfect yet will it ever be I don't know if that'll ever be but it's darn sure better than it was and uh I think you you all could agree that you learned a lot this year to even make it a better process in the years to come so I want to um thank Cindy Megan and Miss Maya for all the work that they've done with regards to this and um I think it was just um a really good process for everybody that was involved in it not only our staff but for the uh the groups that that got funded and the groups that didn't get funded I think they learned a lot too and and we'll see where this goes in the future I think there will always be some question from some of the naysayers or why we're funding what we're funding but I can tell you that the papers that I read the the few the meetings I was able to sit through through the grants and through the main committee which I was a part of I think most of those questions were answered and so I want to tell you that you can be proud of your staff for what they did they did a great job and uh I would be in favor of of approving this and move forward is that a motion that's a motion okay second it we have a motion by commissioner irman and a second by commissioner Moss Commissioners other questions comments or concerns Madam chair I just like to say that the uh RFP scoring I reviewed all of that I think that's uh refreshing uh not only for the Commissioners to be understood about that but throughout this whole process so the public knows the Commissioners were kept in in the loop by email step by step by step which I don't believe happened last year uh and that's also refreshing to know what direction you're going and having offline conversations with with Cindy and others about how the process hearing some of the aches and pains along the way which is you're always going to have that so it's great process and obviously I'm in favor of it as well wonderful all right um anybody from the public see okay good morning morning um uh I I'm prideful and uh it's a pleasure at the same time to be able to be here uh and tell you uh I was very much a part of this process this year uh I want to start to by thanking all of the staff who played a vital role in this clearly from the human services and Community Services up to Mike Zito and the County Attorney was involved at one or or more instances for rulings um you've got a lot to be proud of in terms of who's here and even if some of the faces aren't necessarily the same same faces we started with everybody played a role in making this a really important and impactful process uh which is what was intended uh you approved a new ordinance with structure they're putting meat on the bone um and have done an amazing job in the first year year and I know that it will only get better um I'm sort of in a unique position I think I was the only person that uh served on both subcommittees um was not my intent to do that I wanted to be on the grants committee which is something I'd never done but I'd been on needs assessment for I don't know 15 years so I kind of backed away but um the chairman of that committee insisted that I not leave so I I was on both the subcommittees um and uh I know how hard both groups worked good groups of people in every instance who took their jobs very seriously and I think special thanks needs to go to two of the seesac committee members who chair those I think uh hope Woodhouse did an amazing job uh with a group uh trying to Define um the data to help guide the process and I know that Bob schit just as well uh did an amazing job with the grant subcommittee the amount of time that goes into this is not uh it's not a small number of hours that each and every one of these people put in I know what I do these guys had to make it all make sense in between each meeting that we had um the the bottom line is uh huge kudos to uh the staff um I I you know I've got a vested interest in this that's you all know that it's been a long process I've been working with uh seesac trying to uh improve the process and and get more dollars and everything that that that um it means in terms of helping the kids in the community and I think that there's much to be proud of here and lastly just before I left the house um uh opened up TC palm and I saw that the fast scores are out um I'm not in the school district I'm not uh I don't even know all the ins and outs but I see that Indian River County's scores were the best at the Treasure Coast and that it improved 3% and I reference this because cac's part of that just maybe a small part but we're part of that we helped we're helping a great many of those kids uh to stay and and fast if you don't know it and somebody helped me here if I say this wrong it's like four areas that they test now it's the new school it's not just reading it's it's language arts it's math it's science social studies um and 63% of third graders are at or above grade level take pride in that this is part of where these seesac dollars have been going so again uh I want to thank you for starting um the change the revolution or evolution of what seesac was into what it is and I know it's only going to get better so I thank you very much appreciate the support that you're giving um and if I was dreaming and missed an actual vote uh thank you and if not I certainly want you all to approve the funding that's in front of you thank you thank you Mr Kent all right anybody else from the public good morning I'm Donna Hower and uh from Pelican Island audabon I'm the executive director there and uh first I just want to say thank you all for allowing us um to serve um the children of Indian County uh we're in our 10th year uh of our after school program Science Program outdoors and um Leanne I worked with her from the very beginning and she's always been very supportive I think she needs a special award personally um but also due to the excellent training and support that they've provided this last year I think it's really pushed us to focus um even more on our um numbers on where we're moving with our children a cing track and we certainly have several children because it's been 10 years we have children in college that are environmental Educators now we have several of our students that come back and serve our camps all summer long and the other challenge was getting further family engagement not just involvement but actual engagement and that has U increased by 50% this past year and it's almost to the point that we're past capacity uh that we're able to provide that um we provide kayaking for families to come on the weekend that are in the program and we've had to double up all of our Saturdays to provide for every one of the families that have been wanting to come so that has been like just a an added bonus on the end um I also just want to um I really think it's a really vital service that we all provide all of the agencies together work hard to serve all these children in all areas and I do think it helps uh their overall wellness and um growth and education um and we work with over 15 partners and collaborators within the community that I know of we may have more than that and it just really shows that everybody has um um skin in the game and you know I'm really proud of that so thank you very much and I'm glad to hear that you agree with us thank you thank you all right Commissioners there is a motion by commissioner irman with a second commissioner Moss Mr smth welcome Doug deuth uh 1804 East Sandpoint uh seesac main Committee Member uh and your financial chair on that committee first of all I'd like to correct something that uh commissioner Herman said that the uh the budget was uh underspent by $128,000 not completely true because what took place was the step program for $168,000 more or less was pulled from it due to some paperwork issues and challenges associated with uh the funding between seesac and the school district so without that the entire amount would have been spent in fact um there is a an issue being investigated into how that step program can be funded and the very strong potential that that 128,000 could be come coming back to you and being asked for to being to being spent on that step program and possibly a bit more um so that that's that corrected um second issue I'd like to bring up with uh in the the process that took place this year was the substantial number of conflicts of interest that came up on the grants committee meeting or on the grant subcommittee nine of the 14 members had conflicts of interest four of those nine had multiple conflicts of interest and refused to question the organizations with which they had conflicts of interest however according to our attorney uh Mr Dew voting for those organizations was not a problem voting to fund those organizations didn't matter so that no that's not correct well that's the information that you provided and that's how those that's how those folks I'll correct you right here please that they were able to vote for the final allotment as a group not as the individuals exactly so so if you combine if you take one conflict of interest and you combine it with another organization that does not have a conflict of interest evidently that's no longer a conflict of interest interesting ethics in Florida I guess in fact one of those by the way had a financial transaction take place wherein they evidently received money after they voted last year to fund a particular organization from that organization so is that a conflict of interest is that is that vote null and void because it was combined with others Mr deuth as you were explained to in the final vote there were a number of agencies that were selected to receive funds from the different three categories the vote of the Committee Member did not inure specifically to any of those it was to improve all of them much like if there was a so that is not a conflict of interest there there along the same lines as when we had a commissioner sitting here on the dis who had a brother As A Firefighter whenever they would vote to approve a contract obviously a benefit would enure to the brother but it was also inuring to the benefit of 200 or so other firefighters and union members so therefore the cont the conflict does not benefit someone specifically because you're voting on the group it's funny I mean I read I read the voting conflicts of interest in the uh State Statute and I didn't see anything in there wherein you could take the conflict of interest marry it with other non-conflict of interest and call it a non-conflict of interest and vote on statement sir but continue on continue so in any event therein we have a problem what I would suggest is that we need a major house cleaning on the cack committees to eliminate these conflicts of interest we ought to take a strong look at that and eliminate a number of these folks because it just it is not it does not serve the public well it's not a way to allocate dollars public taxpayer dollars secondly um I bring up the the process of the Omnibus R rfps um they lack in objectives timing and key performance metrics there how can you put out a a RFP for 56 different organizations and expect to get anything of substance targeted towards the sorts of things that are needed by children in this community you can't you can't what we need are specific rfps written for specific targets with key performance metrics with objectives and with timings in there so that we can judge whether these organizations are performing or they are not because right now all we did this year was we put lipstick on last year's Pig we put more money in the trough and all the r all the nonprofits came in to feed off of that trough and that's what that's what we're ending up with a number of issues weren't even addressed one of which I'll just I'll bring up one one of it which uh is the issue through number one issue throughout all communities in the United States and that's Child Care Child Care was not addressed we have 59 organizations in this County that evidently do child Early Child Care from Zer to 5 years old uh we have no idea how they're performing uh is there capacity enough for this community we don't know because it wasn't it wasn't investigated how do we improve what they're doing no idea so how how are we going to address that we didn't even we didn't even touch that one um you know and there are others but I'm not going to get into it I mean it's just that's too it's too long childhood obesity was one that came up on our radar screen not addressed outplacement programs for graduates 400 kids a year don't know what they're going to do when they're handed that diploma we need to provide them with some sort of entity wherein they can go in and get a little handholding to get into our complicated economy and so finally what I'll I'll do is um I'll offer up some Golden Fleece awards for this year number one on my list is the youth sailing Foundation last year we gave them $40,000 this year they got they got uh they're going to get $65,000 and in the paperwork that they provided uh one was a spreadsheet that showed about 105 kids in there one of those kids happened to be a have a name that's very familiar in our community and plastered across quite a number of buildings here I don't know whether that kid is getting our benefit or is not but on another on another chart that they provided associated with this program they they stated that 300 I'm sorry yeah 300 kids were getting the benefit uh 285 actually were getting the it looked like they were getting the benefit of those kids 200 were over 200% of the poverty level only 85 were under so who's getting the benefit who's getting the money are we are we create have we created a free sailing program for anybody who wants to come I don't know it's impossible to tell based on what they provided but yet you're going to vote for them to get that $65,000 today um second one is crossover Mission I've had a problem with them for a while three years ago they hired $125,000 a year fundraiser last year or year before that or after that they hired that a fundraiser for $180,000 and last year they hired that fundraiser for $180,000 this year they're only asking $107,000 for that fund or proposing to spend $107,000 for that fundraiser so if they're capable of raising the kinds of money that can afford over $100,000 a year of a professional fundraiser why are we funding them when do we cut this off you know last year we we gave them $115,000 $15,000 was supposed to be for academics and 100,000 was for Education well evidently that didn't sit too well so this year what they did that was they they're asking for 130,000 in Omnibus but they split it into two $65,000 allotments one for education and $65,000 for the basketball program I mean does that something smells funny to me and finally The Learning Alliance I mean year after year after year four years in a row we've been bouncing around 60% of our kids or I'm sorry 40% of our kids are not at grade level for English language arts it has improved slightly for math but nothing has happened for that and we've spent aund what $1.34 million during that period of time and we've gotten zero results I would recommend strongly that we put something in next year's requirement for these folks that they need to improve and and get us up to 70 or 75% grade level because right now they've done nothing we're stuck in the mud we're stuck in the mud with these folks and I just don't see where we're getting any value out of them so that's that's my sense of of what's going on that's what I had to sit through and I did sit through all of the grants committee meetings um and by the way when it came to the youth sailing organization I wasn't allowed to ask any questions about the data that they provided because again our attorney would not allow a main CAC voting member and the financial chair to ask questions during that Grant committee meeting I was not allowed to do that so we're we're blocked from questioning the organiz ations that are coming to the trough for more and more money something's got to change this is not working uh it is it is it is a mess and I am working with a group from the taxpayers association and some other groups to put together a revised format for CAC that hopefully by Year's End we will be able to present to you so that we can get direct directed specific RFP that we can get a focus on major issues associated with child care in this community and that we can get some real progress put on the books versus the same old same old same old thank you very much thank you so much for your comments always appreciated anybody else thank you I'm Miranda Swanson I'm the health officer for the county and also the seesac chair for the last 17 years I've seen seesac grow and change over those 17 years and certainly the progress we have made in the last year is nothing short of substantial we've had de many many dedicated people over the years serve on seesac on our grant subcommittee on our needs subcommittee and our grant subcommittee this year with the new evaluation rubric and the diversity from all parts of our County both in race and ethnicity chaired by Bob schlett it's absolutely amazing what we do and what you fund and the difference that our organizations make I wanted to thank all of you for your support for the time you spent on seesack to thank Cindy and her staff and all of the members of our subcommittee because they have done great work this year thank you thank you anybody else good morning Commissioners Anthony Brown also a member of seesac it is very troubling to sit here having been a part of the seesac subcommittee and hear us attacked belittle undermined and all the effort that those those people that said those days when you have 60 programs I have two binders about this thick that we have to decipher and try to understand we have a group of dedicated professional people in that room who care because you all care and a lotted those monies during the process this year I had four deaths in my family within 6 weeks but I still was trying to do my part in making this happen it is appalling that someone who sits on the main committee and is involved with this process will come in and demean those others who are in there doing what they think is right who are doing what you want us to do to make sure that this money is is dedicated to the proper sources we had to come about with some changes changes is not often times accepted but this year under Cindy and her group those changes were beneficial we accepted them we worked with them we used them and as so many people have said it's not perfect yet Mr Herman but it's going to get there as long as you as committee members of the commission stop and not hear the naysayers somebody can find problem with Theona Lisa and how it was painted but does that make them an expert I applaud those people that I sat in those rooms with Ken mark caring to uh everybody it was an awesome experience to see that kind of dedication and and ladies and gentlemen it it is hurtful to sit in this room and hear that kind of work malign and and torn down please continue to do what you do and not listen to the naysayers thank you thank you Tony we applaud you and all of the other members of the seesack Comm thank you thank you I just want to uh make a brief comment that I hope you continue this great program the children are the most important thing that we have in our whole Community us adults have not done such a great job in running this world and we depend on getting our kids educated and uh I just saw some statistics uh there are more birders out there uh and most of them are young kids now then there are golfers there in our country there's 20 million 25 million uh golfers and some are pretty young there's one they quoted as six years old out still golfing but there are close to 70 million 67 67 million people out there birding most of them are kids and so there's more and more kids getting out the youth sailing we got to get kids out I I don't have anything to do with the youth sailing but but getting kids outddors is very very important the average kid most of it is 15 minutes a day and that's probably waiting for a school bus most of them they're on their computers or I mean on their phones and they're inside these days so we got to get the kids out our program with aabon we we we we are concentrating on lower income folks we are we're working with four uh County Title One schools they come out one on one m one on Wednesday Tuesday one on Wednesday one on Thursday do 14 weeks and then the second semester we do it the same for 14 weeks with the same school we've been actually she said we've been doing it 10 years now these kids are are changing and they're they're it's hard to show how effective we're doing but but we're we're we're trying to get information out there that show that these programs really work thank you thank you anybody else welcome Mr mcpartland good morning Bob mcpartland city of Sebastian also a longtime seesack member I didn't want you guys to be left with a bad taste in your mouth and you know sometimes I complain about your support of this program and I really do want to applaud you the 3o4 million for children's programs and I want to correct uh commissioner Herman on one thing well he he started when Leanne was one person that ran it when we start I started she was only half of a person that supported the program and you know the community has been for years you know coming up and trying to get more support for seesack to structure and you know from last year when I spoke to this year it's as Miranda had said it's unbelievable your hire of Cindy was was phenomenal and then you know she had she's no longer here is Amy Rutherford but uh Megan and Miss Maya doing unbelievable job uh commissioner lore when we first started seesack meetings were every other month for about might last 30 minutes those were the meetings that kids had to sign off in a government meeting would come to now those seesack meetings are every every month for at least two hours typically going well over two hours where there's a lot of discussion several you you Commissioners I have spoken about some Childish petulant behavior that happens in the meetings but you know what I look forward to it every month because I think the cack needs to be challenged in certain areas because it only makes us that much stronger and again as as the you know I heard about two of the programs there was Major things with one of them I did go visit the other one the youth sailing I couldn't go visit at the time because Mr Kint and Mr schit went on the site visit at the same time so I am looking forward next year and as last year I had spoken if there's any program that you have a problem with just let me know I'll go out and I'll see it and I encourage you to go see these programs that are funded as well uh some of I just I'm I'm I'm amazed at what happened and again this also started with uh Mike zto and Beth Powell had a had a great deal to do with it get it up and running and hiring the staff and again from where we came from last year to this year I can't even imagine where we'll be in the next year and I'm also this past year we did the first uh what was it we had the lunch Cindy did as far as showing the the emphasis of the programs and all the Commissioners were there I can't wait till the next one comes up gold golden impact Awards and so I look forward to those again and again thank you for supporting the programs and thank you staff thank you anybody else all right seeing none we do have a motion by commissioner Airman with a second by commissioner Moss Madam chair yes make a couple comments of course I just want to take a moment and I'm going to usually say the be for last but I'm going to start with the start start with them um Cindy Megan you know um Leanne Maya Amy was was acknowledged uh you know we just adopted a mission statement that talked about exemplifying dedic dedication to in River County and then a commitment to service Excellence they exemplify that and I thank Cindy for her leadership and everybody else in that department and that staff that work so hard to you know provide a safety net and to ensure that our most vulnerable are looked after uh I think you've done an amazing work this past year uh from just the Improvement in the processes the you know promoting transparency and accountability uh you know Bob mentioned the golden impact Awards but there's also the the highlighting of the the success stories in terms of the metrics for each agency that's working with us how you take the time and you work with the agency to improve their organizational capacity so it it goes beyond the fact that you just wait for that application to come in and review you're also investing in the community investing in nonprofits that are going to help those who are you know their circumstances may not be ideal not doing to their own nothing that they did but we're there for them and so I just want to thank you all for that I want to thank Mike for his leadership uh Bill your your your legal acument in this effort and then I also want to thank the the seesac committee members uh as evidenced it's it's it's it's not an easy job you put a lot of time in evidence effort into this as well as the subcommittees I mean you're making an investment in the future of our community and looking out for those again who are the most vulnerable but they are the future and you all are the ones that are carrying the banner and the flag to ensure that they get the services that they need and I just can be prouder of our staff and again as I sit back and think about how we adopted a mission about being dedicated IND River County and also you know by service Excellence I I would I would like to thank the staff and Mike for that as well as the CAC committee as well thank thank you madam chair all right all right Commissioners if there's nothing further again we have a motion by commissioner irman with a second by commissioner Moss all in favor opposed motion carries thank you all right with that we will move on to Public Works 8550 jungle Trail waiver request to flood plane cut and fill balance requirements it's just in time for the rain just in time for the rain how appropriate to be talking about cut and fill I don't know talking about flooding I don't get a lot of opportunities here welcome hello did you bring the rain with you we talk about flooding right right right right um K ler acting Public Works director um I'm here today to um to present a wer request to the flood plane cut and fill balance requirements on residence 8550 jungle Trail and I'm just seeing if we can get the um map up it's AA you don't have it Kim can you turn up Kirsten's microphone a little bit you're tall so theic away did I ask it to turn up the microphones there you go and the rain's not helping I don't have that problem because I'm below the microphone turn up the [Laughter] mic are we bringing up the pictures so we know what we're talking about okay what number is it I guess we don't have it [Music] coming down there we go yes all right um so the um property owner is cine fiser and the owner's engineer is Coastal waterways and they're requesting a waiver of the cut and fill balance requirement for the 10year flood storage requirements in accordance with the County Land Development regulation section 93.0 7 and it's located um uh it's the size is 3.67 acres and it's located on the east side of jungle Trail um just south of the captain Forester Hammer reserve and between sea Oaks and the Island Club divis division to the South um there's also a single family um residence just to the south of it um of a smaller size so the design for um that subject site is going to is proposing a 3,750 ft residence a 2,400 ft garage 2400t workshop and a 2,264 ft covered deck and 23334 square foot of um driveways and I don't know if we can see the side [Music] plan okay all right this is the um side plan and um the buildings are shaded in Gray um so and the driveway is to the South all right so the site is split between two special special flood Hazard areas um zones AE 6 and 7 with a 100 Year base flood elevation of six and seven respectfully and the 10year base flood elevation is 3 ft um IC regulation 93.0 7 requires that the site will not increase the flood elevation by more than 1 foot and um the applicant engineer has provided some documentation and determined that the flood elevation may rise between .12 2 and3 ft for the 10 and 100e base flood um per hour code cut and fill means that an equal volume of storage capacity must be created for any volume that would be displaced by a fill or structure except if the Board of Commissioners Grant a waer for the project um the applicant has shown that by means of competent engineering study that the development project as designed will meet all other requirements of the storm water management and flood protection um chapter and will not create an adverse impact on the flood protection on other lands um the waivers can be considered for the 100 100y year flood event only or 410 year flood event together the applicant is requesting a waiver for both storm events to allow to fill um so the 100e flood elent event compensation requirement would allow filling 6.59 acre feet and um the second request of the 10year flood elevation would be an amount of 2.7 acre feet of storage um that concludes about 35% of the available 100-year flood plane and 47% of the available 10year flood plane um for the board to consider um some considerations um would be hardship Environmental water quality treatment neighboring impacts and potential impacts to the county um for the hardship um that could be considered is that the natural ground ground elevation is between 1 and three foot and that poses a problem for the site to develop the site um some of the existing ground is at or below seasonal high water table in the elevation of 1.1 foot so in order to build the property um the site must be raised significantly to meet both flood protection criteria and the gravity septic drain field requirements um the ability to provide additional PL bra flood brain storage on this side is minimal [Music] um the applicant has provided a hardship example depicting the amount of storm water area required so you can see that in exhibit F but um you have that I think in your documents alternatively any other meth method of avoidance would require the res resident to be placed on pilings or a deep stem wall and use the first floor as a garage with flood events because the seasonal high water table elevation way back to avoid groundwater seage and direct building impacts um the residence located to the South which was constructed in 1994 has this type of construction utilizing the first floor as garage and storage um but The Bard of county commissioner has given a flood waiver to that Resident as well back then um environmental con conation there's a 54 acre vetland connected to a larger offside vetland system as part of the captain Forester hammock preserve um and um the design proposes to avoid filling the wetlands um that can be seen here on exhibit B um neighboring impact I think that's the most important the north side is B bounded by the um Captain Forester hammock preserve Refugee and um I I don't think it has a lot of impact on that side and to the South we have the two-story um single family home built in 1994 on 46 Acres there's also a 19.6 acre of an old Citrus Grove with an old stagnant retention fond which borders along with our property um another area is the um it's directly on Jungle Trail which is designated a historic Road and falls under Bo Board of county commissioner resolution 8936 adopted April 11 on 1989 this resolution provides requirements for the 40 foot jungle Trail rway and the 30- foot management area on both the East and the West sides of the trail the impact to Jungle Trail is the installation of 2 16t driveways through the 30ft Management Area the driveway are proposed to be native dirt matching the look of the trail the applicant proposes to leave the 30 foot management area in its existing state Which con contains a few cabbage Palms additional plantings are not proposed any proposed planting of this area will require approval from the Planning and Zoning commission potential impacts to the county and that might be the biggest um section here the county has adopted an FEMA flood plan guidelines and particip iates in the community rating system um our last audit placed Us in category five which enables um residents to re receive a 25% flood reduction rate on their flood insurance if we would um be Declassified into um um higher number that would mean that the um um percentage of deduction would change from 25 to 20% um we do not know what that impact is currently um the county is undergoing the audit right now and we don't have the new rating system yet um however um staff recommends um the applicant has provided competent engineering study that the development site as designed will meet all other requirements of the stormwater management and flood protection chapter and based on the applicant study they will not create an material material adverse impact on flood protection on other lands um in consider consideration of this the board of County Commissioners May in its discretion Grant the V from the provis provisions of 93.0 7 um the board of County Commissioners should consider and determine if a v should be granted from previous from the provisions of the Land Development regulation section 93.0 7 to I if granted staff recommends the board of County Commissioners approve the 100-year flood plan waiver and then approve the 10 flood 10 year flood plan we with the exploration of the we to coincide with the type- c permits type c permits are codified to be granted for 6 months with an allowance for a six month extension the we should be granted from the date of approval transfer to Association approved building permits upon its issuance the W then can be active as long as the building permit ballot and that's that thank you all right are there any questions Commissioners comments or concerns yes commissioner Moss that's complicated um just confirming uh I think I heard you say it through the rain um not filling in any Wetlands with this and with the the the point system could you just be a little more specific in that FEMA system FEMA doesn't every 3 to 5 years um the last one was done in 20 two years AG no it's much longer I think um we are just going through the audit right now so to a new audit on the last audit um we are um we have been raised from category six to category five which is better the smaller the number the better it is the more benefit to the counties um uh residents to have that have to purchase flood insurance because they get a higher rebate and there are certain options um from FEMA how you can um increase your your points and increase um and and one this is section 4 430 um where the county is asked to um do um restrictions on like not not on on structures and stuff to build flood protected air homes um and and create this additional compensative storage which we have been um providing so far so this would be a wave and it would cut some points um off of our current um state so we but we don't know exactly right now how much how many points that would change because we currently in the audit um we did um approve two waivers earlier in December 2023 and I think we are only losing the points once once you do a waiver then there's no additional points that you're losing by giving an additional waiver however I don't know the U 2023 um wers were in the last audit and this would would be maybe in the next audit because it's it's today and we currently the audit is closing I think on 78 um July 8 thank you all right Commissioners any other questions no I was all on to back up okay Madam chairman yes Tristen they they're proposing to are they going to bring in the 10,600 cubic yards of fill or will that be excavated on site and distributed I don't think it's they have to bring in material yes I don't know if it's 10,000 because they're going to do a dry Pond I I'm not sure how much excavation is for that dry Pon do you remember but they will have to bring in W be any excavation really on site except for maybe some grading because the high water table uh the fill that you probably see there as far as the acre footage will probably be more because the actual fill needs to bring you up above the 100-year storm event but when it comes to calculations you just kind of look at that 100-year elevation whether it's six or seven 10 years three jungle Trail is I think between two and three but you probably know that better than I do and they will we need to use jungle Trail as a Hall Road for to bring in that fill and how much of the threo uh whatever 3.67 Acres will be filled will all the 10,000 cubic yards go to the house and the garage and the workshop and the roads or will it be distributed all over the property right now it's just proposed for the building areas and then I think on one side there's like a garden along the road that goes back towards a workshop and dway so the Wetland which is like a half acre plus or minus will not be filled and then Parts on the South Side think about 25 ft they have I think if you can see it they show uh some kind of a retaining wall I think it's a rock wall so they're proposing not to fill beyond that towards the neighboring residence to the South during the process did they make any attempt to mitigate the fill that would be necessary or the impervious areas well they are providing roughly three Ines of treatment in the front dry retention area um they did at first they were going to fill part of the Wetland they decided to shift it completely out of the Wetland so they're offering that up as far as other mitigation no it's you really have it's kind of a catch 22 you really have a high water table so you don't get much benefit at all by doing any excavation you know on the other hand you have a neighbor to the South that you know do you really want to have a first floor that floods you know so it's you have to balance what you want there good question and they're going to use I mean there's no other way to access it jungle Trail is the is the hall route yeah and that's kind of like halfway on that that section of jungle Trail that's don't do it when it's raining yeah they probably have to have flaggers yeah I mean it is what it is there's no other way to get there so I get it but I guess you could get a navigational permit they could they could float it in on a barge that might be might be more than they want to undertake all right Commissioners other questions comments or concerns anybody from the public Commissioners what is your plan motion approve mam chairman this this property was ALS has been nominated on for elap I don't know if the owners have if if Wendy or Beth have contacted the owners yet whether they're willing to if they're willing to sell it doesn't sound like it but I don't know but it is just Just for information it it was a nominated partiel on the U wonderful that is a process that will be Ono going and um we'll see how that plays out but there is a motion by commissioner flesher with a second by commissioner lore there's no further for approval of the waiver if there's no further discussion all in favor opposed motion carries all right thank you with that we will move on to Utility Services announ we're going to announce a public workshop and schedule public hearing for fee and rate modification associated with the Indian River County Department of utility services welcome good morning Commissioners how are you all fabulous Sean lekey utilities director I will try to make this short and sweet um I was thinking earlier that all the people in the audience were here for me but I don't think so I don't think there's anybody left so they totally were waiting utilities um just the rain just wanted to kind of go through a couple things so in 2018 we had had a previous rate stud that was performed um there was some adoption of a few things from that rate study but a lot of what was done in that rate study was actually not adopted and so we participated or we partook on a on a process to initiate a new rate study um in November of this year of 2023 of last year we got approval to award the RFP to stantech Consulting to conduct the rate study soon thereafter we actually met with them and and had a kickoff meeting to kind of discuss the rate study and what would be involved um around mid April mid to8 late April they had some preliminary results that they uh introduced to us we got a draft report from them towards the end of May we're still kind of working through that draft report with them right now working through some details of what that's going to be we should hopefully have a final report here within the next um couple weeks to month um so what we're looking at trying to do is look at schedule of public Workshop um to introduce the results of the rate study to to the public um and to receive feedback from them the plan would be to have that workshop on August 22nd um and then we're also asking to set a public hearing to actually hear the the um the rates and to approve those rates during the September 24th um commission meeting so what we're asking today is to set that workshop for the 22nd and to set a public hearing for um September 24th all right Commissioners question questions comments concerns approve all right we have a motion by commissioner lure with a second by commissioner fleser anybody from the public seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you all very much and have a great Fourth of July you too all right 12 J2 was pulled from the agenda so with that we'll move on to county attorney's matters 13A referendum for Amendment to tourist development tax are you handling this yes Commissioners you have patiently waited this whole time so yes so have you go for it um I'm Shannon Gordon I'm the summer legal intern speaking on behalf of the county attorney's office I will also try and keep this brief um Last Summer the board approved an additional percent increase to the County's tourist development tax however the state statute was updated that required the increase to be approved by referendum at a general election so the resolution before you today request that a referendum be placed on the upcoming general election on this matter on November 5th and the resolution also includes the draft referendum language and the notice requirements which we have already been working to ensure that the notices be placed on the supervisor of election website the County website and local publication thank you awesome Commissioners questions comments and concerns no all right what is your pleasure let Ro motion approved all right I have a motion by commissioner flesher with a second by commissioner Ean anybody from the public seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries fantastic job on presenting your matter thank you very smooth and efficient counc you took notes I I'm just now are you going to take a stab at the next one 74th Avenue property exchange no okay I I'll I'll take that you're GNA go out on a high note I like that all right and thank you sh we're really appreciative of your work in the office before I go on to 74th and give Kim a chance to bring up the the little diagram I'd like to introduce Dylan we Goa Dylan is another one of our summer intern SL shadowing folks he's a thirdeye student at the University of Florida he decided to come and stay with us for a couple of weeks this summer to see if he wants to go to law school so I I don't know what kind of impression we're making on him so far I guess we'll give him a couple of weeks to decide but we're very pleased to have Dylan in our office as well welcome aboard we look forward to your commission agenda item in the future very good Commissioners the uh right away between First Street Southwest and Fifth Street Southwest along 74th Avenue is kind of confusing back in 1959 there was a dedication of 100 foot of uh Canal right away and you can see how that ended up when the dedications go from the the dedications for the canals go from the track line and 100 ft from that track line there was a discrepancy in establishing where that track line actually lies and you can see on the exhibit that you have there that the first 50 ft from the canal is indeed Canal RightWay then there's a 30 foot strip that is owned by the property owner to the West in this case it would be Mr and Mrs Baron then there's a 20 foot kind of vacant strip and then in blue you can see the other 30 ft of RightWay Dedication that is kind of sitting in the middle of The Baron's property not only Mr Baron but also the other land owners that are involved in this Oslo uh Road Agriculture and also Beal Holdings what we propose to do is an even exchange that we will go ahead and dedicate to them the 30 ft shown in blue that's demarked there is 74th Avenue that we will in exch we will uh give that to them and in exchange we will go ahead and take what is demarked in yellow as far as the property that is owned by Baron it works out to be an even swap uh what we'll do in this case is we'll get everybody to go ahead and sign onto the exchange agreement we'll do an exchange of quit claim deeds they'll be recorded by the county and this situation should be resolved by that exchange um and get everything back into its proper place and correct the erroneous Dedication that was there so the recommendation today is for the board to go ahead and approve the property exchange agreement and approve appr the accompanying resolution that adopts the property exchange pursuant to chapter 125 if there are any questions I would be happy to try and answer them and thank you to Kim for her motion computer extraordinary experience all right Commissioners um any questions comments or concerns commissioner Ean that was a motion to approve second and a second by commissioner Moss anybody from the public seeing n all in favor is that all in favor all of us okay any how about we go with all opposed none all right motion carries thank you commission emphatic it wasn't as emphatic I'm sorry we're we're getting tired we're still good we're running up on lunchtime all right with that we will move on to swid Solid Waste Disposal District first three items um if we could take those together uh minutes of the special call meeting of April 24th minutes of the regular meeting of May 7th and minutes of the regular meeting of May 21st M chers so move and I will second that all in favor opposed motion carries next item is approval of the fiscal year 2025 annual adjustment requests by Waste Management Atlas Organics and Indian River sustainability Center welcome good morning commissioner Zan schuma managing director of the solid waste disposal District um annually we come to the board uh for Consumer Price Index on our various agreements um we have two agreements with Waste Management one with Atlas Organics and one with Indian Rivers sustainability Center and um today I I do have Atlas Organics here uh U they operate our yard waste facility and uh wanted the opportunity to for for them to introduce themselves they've been in our County for about four four plus years uh doing a great job and as part of this request I wanted to just have them uh present a little bit to you I have uh David barenberg uh Jared and Michelle here uh and I think each of you have a copy of the presentation yeah thank you very much Commissioners for having us I'm David barenburg vice president of compost operations for Generate upcycle uh we operate in Florida as Atlas Organics our mission is organic waste diversion from landfills that's that's what we do we operate nine compost facilities throughout the United States five of which in the State of Florida and one right here in Indian River County we are a little over four uh years into a 10-year partnership with Indian River and in talking with Hamachi this was a great opportunity to come and introduce ourselves to you because we we've never been up in front or told you what we've done or how we've been part of the community Community um we divert annually over here 90,000 tons from landfill saving landfill uh space turning that into compost and soil amendment providing it to companies such as uh Scott's soils and and uh we value the partnership over here and we wanted an opportunity to tell you a little bit about us so with that I'll turn it over my business partner Jared Bond and he'll work through that presentation yeah uh good morning Commissioners and thank you all for for having us um so about five years ago uh just to give a little background Atlas in the county entered into a public private partnership uh 10e contract so we're about to enter the second half of that um that 10-year contract we're in year five right now at the beginning of that contract uh we invested in some infrastructure improvements at the yard waste uh tipping area um to improve the the customer experience and most importantly the safety of the County residents and and companies that that dispose of their waste there uh we're proposing as as part of this contract modification to uh continue with that investment in a uh in expanding that tip area as the county has has grown and continues to grow uh to uh similarly grow the yard waste tipping area allow more space for County residents and businesses to tip their yard waste as um you know over over the last 5 years the inbound tonnage and volume has has increased and we anticipate will continue to increase so we us say I think that Solway disposal District see that as a as a necessary investment to continue the the operation that facility in an efficient and and safe manner um so you know that that's that's how we started and and um you know part of what we feel is our value proposition as a company is is we invest in the communities that we operate in and uh you know we we feel that our presence in Indian River county is a uh a testament to that um we do that by literally investing in the infrastructure that we operate uh as well as the people um and the place that we operate at um we take great pride in our safety record uh we have a dedicated safety team within Atlas Organics and generate Up Cycle um and and have a great safety record at this site specifically over the last uh four plus years uh we divert we've diverted over 400,000 tons of organic waste that's yard waste and food waste from the landfill and uh We've also increased the the uh headcount at this facility by over 100% in uh the last four years since we first started providing jobs and Economic Opportunity uh at wages that we that are uh on average about 12% higher than the market from what we've what we've what we found in the data uh We've also just continued to invest in the facility to grow our services and product offering over the years and and we hope to be able to continue to do that into the future next slide um some of the advantages of composting um composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions namely methane um a lot of the emissions you may hear of are are carbon dioxide methane is a a very potent greenhouse gas that uh is at least 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide and and it as yard waste and food waste and other organic waste sits in a landfill it decomposes and amids methane uh in a control and professionally operated Compost Facility emissions are are near near zero um so that helps us to keep keep the air quality in Indian Riv River County um good and and uh protect residents health and safety it also reduces waste and extends the life of your landfill landfills are very expensive to build and take a long long time to to permit um about a third the waste that goes into a landfill by volume is is organic waste so we we take that we recycle it and we put it onto the fields and and Lawns and um other areas of the county instead of taking up space in the landfill pushing out that costly investment into you know years and years later uh and lastly it's a it's a much lower risk disposal method as composed as a compared to a land application of single ground yard waste which can can uh emit odors and volatile organic carbons which can be uh negative to to Residents Health uh just a couple of things that we we hope to do in the next uh 69 12 months uh we we are actively working on a a project to increase the food waste diversion at at the Compost Facility that we operated in New County um we've ramped up our our acceptance of food waste over the last couple of years and and hope to make a significant investment at the facility um in the near future to enable us to accept more food waste which will expand the impact and uh the diversion of of our project uh in partnership with the county that investment will be uh beneficial as well in in our uh in that we will be providing additional jobs to to County residents at the facility as part of that project and expansion secondly we're also uh in the process of opening a a retail area we've we've worked with the County Planning Department um to get an approval and and that is we are approved we are approved uh for that and should be opening that in the near future a week in a week yeah so we're looking forward to that and believe that that'll provide additional benefit to County residents and businesses and uh in in that it'll provide convenience for them to be able to come and pick up landscape materials right after they tip at the landfill as opposed to going to the landfill and have having to go go drive another 10 15 miles to a landscape supply yard or something like that so lastly uh you know we we we're prepared to invest additional dollars to develop the infrastructure at the county similar to what we did at the beginning of the project um you know we've operated for for going on five years now and as we've learned about the facility and and expanded our partnership and relationship with hu and and and the others at the solways disposal District uh we believe that that investing in this infrastructure is necessary and will uh extend the the life and the U ability to continue to divert organic waste from the landfill at that site um our proposed amendments We Believe are are an increased opportunity to add value to the county in relation to Alternatives that we believe may may may or may not be out there um we're a leader in organic waste disposal like like Dave mentioned operating five facilities in the State of Florida and and nine Nationwide uh and our our parent company generate upcycle uh operates waste to Value infrastructure processing food waste uh compost which is atlas Organics as well as Wastewater projects across 20 different projects across the country across the United States Canada and Europe so and we would welcome uh any commissioner that wants to come by and tour the site and see firsthand what we do we would love to have you out over there and actually show you the process uh from start to finish and take you through the flow uh one of the one of the most well-run sites we have out of all of our nine locations fantastic okay Commissioners any questions I have been out there it's been quite some time it was right after you guys first opened and it's a pretty cool I mean I like composting so it is pretty cool process that you guys go through yeah the earthy smell like you know gardening and whatnot there's all sorts of stuff that goes into it it's not just putting stuff in a pile and waiting for it it is not you got to turn it and move it and monitor it it's a whole shebang a shebang is a good way of putting thank you all very much thank you thank you Commissioners again a great partnership with Atlas and I just wanted to have them an opportunity to to Showcase kind of what they're doing what they're planning to do for for our community we're we're excited about uh the continuing partnership with Atlas so getting back to sort of the agenda item again these are annual adjustments that are allowed in our contract um Waste Management U has requested a 2.47% increase so that would be our current franchise agreement that we have in place now through September 30 202 uh five this would be the last increase if you will for the current agreement and along with that is the recycling collection agreement that Waste Management currently has so this would be the last increase uh for those two agreements until the the new franchise agreement uh goes in effect on October 1 2025 um we also have the indan riverse sustainability Center they've requested uh a uh 3.4 4% uh CPI increase and an adjustment for leech a quality which which uh staff supports so happy to answer any specific questions you have but um wanted to just bring any questions comments or concerns no Madam chair yes move approval the CP adjustment right I have a motion by commissioner fleser and I will be happy to second that anybody from the public seeing none all in favor opposed motion carries with that we'll move on to work order number 12 to kimley Horn for various landfill Improvement projects I have a motion by commissioner flesher with the second by myself all in favor opposed motion carries and then lastly we have approval of solid waste and recyclables collection franchisees agreement between swid and Waste Management Inc of Florida appr I have a motion by commissioner fleser with a second by commissioner lore all in favor opposed motion carries all right well thank you everybody for a super awesome exciting meeting everybody please have a very happy and wonderful 4th of July and remember to keep all hands and appendages away from any fireworks that you may be setting off so you come home safe just go to the go to publicly provided fireworks display is always the most responsible thing to do always are the safest all right everyone have a happy fourth and we'll see you later