##VIDEO ID:tG90KqZTYRM## e all right we're going to get started started in just one moment one commissioner down and there he is and there he is making his grand entrance on this lovely October [Laughter] 22nd all right we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order we're going to start with a moment of Silent reflection for First Responders and members of the Armed Forces that'll be followed by an invocation by Pastor Chris Coleman of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer followed by the Pledge of Allegiance by commissioner Joe irman if everybody would please rise We Begin our meeting this morning in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen let's pray almighty God Heavenly Father we thank you for Gathering us here today uh to do the business of the county we pray that you would uh bless our meeting today we thank you for all who are here in attendance and uh we pray that you would give our County Commissioners wisdom as they continue to lead and guide our County and care for our residents all these things we pray in Jesus name amen amen is join me in honoring the greatest country in the world the United States of America alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible lice [Music] the [Music] all [Music] thank you all right Commissioners um we do have one addition to the agenda um under administrators matters 11a would like to add a hurricane update are there any other additions or deletions to the agenda Madam chair move approval as amended second a motion a second All In favor opposed motion carried all right with that we'll move on to proclamations and presentations our first is a presentation of proclamation honoring the 2024 2025 indu County fire rescue Lieutenant Sergeant engineer fire medic and unit of the year so Chief you guys want to come on down while I read the proclamation all right it's my pleasure to read a proclamation honoring the 2024 2025 Indian River County fire rescue Lieutenant Sergeant engineer fire medic and unit of the Year whereas on December 17th 1923 local volunteers established the first fire department in Indi County and whereas over the course of the past Century the department transitioned from volunteer to career Personnel from a department crewed solely by trained firefighters to today's Crews who are dual certified in firefighting and Emergency Medical Response as well as being trained in a multitude of specialized Disaster Response scenarios on both land and sea and whereas in 2021 the leadership of IND over County fire rescue reinstituted the long-standing tradition of annually recognizing those among their ranks who perform their duties in a manner that EX exemplifies a competency reflecting the highest of Standards supports fellow fire medics in achieving their goals supports the Department's policies and regularly demonstrates the ability to lead or follow based upon the existing circumstances and whereas indan River County fire rescue is proud to announce the award recipients for 2024 2025 fire medic of the Year Chandler light Lightner I'm sorry rescue sergeant of the Year Marcus Robinson engineer of the Year Joshua Morris Lieutenant of the year Brian gonch unit fire prevention Richard Marini Alex norat Jennifer McKennon Bob Burns Jenna Turpin Tanisha Atkins Nicole Roth and Rose West now therefore be it proclaimed by the board of County commissioners of Indi County Florida that the board supports the efforts of our fire rescue Department to publicly commend those members whose dedication loyalty productivity and professionalism have been recognized by their Co co-workers be it further proclaimed that the board of County Commissioners is grateful to all our Indian River County First Responders and the valuable Services they provide to the residents of our community adopted this 22nd day of October 2024 and signed by all five County Commissioners I just want to say congratul rations before we turn it over to Chief it is an honor to have such consulate professionals within our County and and doing the good work every day we really appreciate everything that you guys do chief Commissioners I just want to thank you for taking time to recognize our best of the best so to speak um our men and women in uniform who are out there every day performing the duties that to make sure our county is safe uh whether it's in the field or reviewing plans and inspections they do something every day that gives Creed to the our motto of being out there to protect and provide for the safety and property of their our citizens they go above and beyond each and every day showing the dedication and the Excellence that we like to have as a department and they give our name true it's we are the fire rescue department and they exemplify that every day we have individual plaques we'd like to give out to each one of them and see if they want to say something Lieutenant Brian [Applause] gonch so thank you guys thank you for the opportunity Station 14 B shift I'm here because of them so rescue Sergeant Marcus Robinson thank you everybody for this honor it's greatly appreciated congratulations engineer Joshua Morris thank you very much and for the fire prevention staff I'll get assistant chief Rich Marini the plaque I want to thank the commission for my team for this award and all the Chiefs here at the department and uh I'm privileged to work with a great guys and girls of the whole fire rescue family so and during this last storm it showed how we work as a family it was great to see that happen and I'm very proud to be part of this team thank you and again thank you again for recognizing these men and women they are our team they're the roots of where we come from we exemplify everything that there is to be in the fire rescue Department thank you fantastic thank you well congratulations to each and every one of you I'm proud of you proud of what you do and carrying on the the Legacy that's been going on for so many years Morris what took you so long working on it gunch better late than ever same way Marcus started pretty much when I left congratulations to you guys and and fire fire prevention you guys are outstanding I mean you've been slammed over the last few years least since I've been a commissioner with everything that's going on and you you persevered through it uh with with with with our appreciation and the County's appreciation know it's not easy we can't make everybody Happ happy but y'all have done a y'all done an outstanding job also but congratulations to each and every one of you and good job Morris i' like I I'd like to thank you especially in behalf of my district district five um and you did by the way receive accolades at coffee with the mayor last Friday uh the city manager Monty Falls uh chief of police uh Dave Curry on the Mayor John you know it could just came up in conversation where were giving uh we were giving a report about the effects of the tornadoes um on my district and and it was very well attended it's probably about 100 people and you were recognized Chief Mar because the Operation Center that was set up at engine Company 2 so that it was it was run from there and people were very very grateful for that I mean as you well as you know better than anyone uh parts of my district were just devastated um you know absolutely devastated so your support uh your hard work um your courage were especially appreciated um during that storm and that's the time you know those are times and I know you face emergencies every day but that was such a wide spread emergency and uh so I just wanted you to know not only today but there are other days and other places such as coffee with the mayor that you're being publicly uh recognized and thank you again all right coming up Wilfred I do apologize for this but as you all know September the 24th I lost my grandchild and um fire rescue um man they were out there and numbers and they did a job I was sitting on that little green bench over there watching you guys in action and my family is so appreciative of the work that y'all did for us even though we didn't get the results that we were looking for and I'm not leaving out the shaft department the city uh ver Beach Police Department Shores all the different uh counties that came out to help out but I definitely took notice of of the fire rescue and the job that y'all did for us and shamar's going to be missed greatly but you guys just keep doing what you're doing and may God continue to bless you as well thank you thank you right guys and chief are you going to take the official big flock or [Music] what whoa whoa what what keep the short ones in front of me don't move the ladies too far mean that nicely ladies thank you thank you you want to be seen I the struggles real thank you together we got to stick together all right that was a wonderful way to start the meeting um and following up wonderful wonderful things commissioner flesher I think you have a a special thing for us today would would you like me to introduce uh a man I call Maestro the music director from ver Beach High School and he has brought some of his uh well talented individuals to promote thank you to give us a little sample of the red white and blue thank you a very patriotic tradition that has happened in this County for many years and being produced by the virau beach uh High School band and it is while it is a fundraiser it's a fundraiser it is patriotic and it's an experience that I'd like everyone that can to attend not only to help the band not only to help the community but to really just unwind and feel as patriotic as you possibly can because this music is something not to be missed and today we're going to have a small sampling correct as we did before the meeting Mr shron shrigley thank you thank you CH uh good morning my name is Sean shrigley I'm the associate band director at beer Beach High School along with my colleague Paige how uh as commissioner flesher just said um the reason we're here is to promote our red white and blue concert that we put on each year at ver Beach High School so thank you Commissioners and staff for allowing us to be here uh just a little history on the red white and blue concert um I actually played in the first red white and blue concert along with my buddy Chris Hicks that's here um 30 years ago um our band directors Jim and Sheila Salmons they uh we were planning to go to Washington DC to play at the Pentagon as part of the D-Day anniversary rembrance and so they they put on a concert that year um as a preview concert for our community and our our families and uh the year after that became known as the red white and blue concert and we've continued that ever since then uh in the early years uh the red white blue concert took place in the the wit gym at VB High School uh tickets were sold at bills TV on State Road 60 and because of the enormous popularity of the concert two performance was two performan were added and eventually a third uh a reception took place afterwards uh for the veterans in our cafeteria put on by by our Color Guard each year this year we've moved our concert to November uh to coincide with Veterans Day um we know that the time with our audience has changed over the years and we still include the music from the big band era the World War I and World War II times uh but we're looking this year to include uh throw in a Rolling Stones piece to kind of uh connect with our veterans from the Vietnam War era so we're we're trying to adapt as our audience is changing as well this year we also want to recognize our Our First Responders as uh they have such a huge role in our country of of keeping our us safe and our security so we want to recognize all of our veterans and our First Responders this year uh last year as we prepared for this I told the students this is the concert uh that's the most important thing they do this is not for a rating this is not for a trophy uh this is something we do to recognize our our veterans and our First Responders in our community and the pride that you see in our vets when we play the anthems from the different branches of service um the the reverence and respect that you see from our vets when we play the star spingle banner and Taps um that's what it's all about to play play for us and uh there's there's no other thing like it so we really appreciate the opportunity to do that um like I said we moved it to November this year it's typically been in the spring um so we have two concerts one Sunday November 10th at 2 pm and then the second one is Tuesday November uh 12th at 7 p.m. at F Beach High School uh tickets are half priced for veterans and First Responders so uh my students gave you some cards feel free to pass those out to family members or vets that you may know and uh we're definitely looking forward to that so with that being said we're going to give you a little snipp it one more piece of music for you okay fabulous thank you the [Applause] to a [Music] [Applause] to see that R white BL conc and the dates again let's November 10th is the 2 thank you you fantastic thank you so much that was awesome all right Commissioners with that we will move on um there's no minutes for approval and no informational items is there anything from consent that anybody would like hold anybody from the public see none Madam chair move approval second I have a motion and a second all in favor I opposed motion carries which brings us to oh item 9A I forgot to um remove that at the beginning of the meeting Sheriff flowers did email and would like to reschedule um his forgot we oh all right we call back to order Mr Rigby yes ma'am you are you are up to discuss federal and state funding for the existing RFP for waste collection welcome back and thank you madam chairman and good morning and members of the commission good morning let me uh this morning Begin by saying this that uh I call myself an game and when I come up here it's not really for my benefit it's for my children and my grandchildren benefit that they can have Pursuit of Happiness and any tree to the fruit of happiness because uh I know that one day that I'll be going for that you won't be seeing my faces uh pretty much so when I come and speak I'm just here really not for myself but for my children and my grandchildren that they can have an opportunity to have some of this wealth and now I began my presentation I come before you today to address the County's failure to follow federal and state procurement laws regarding Min Artic own and disabl Veteran on business in the RSP for recycling collection services and my previous presentation I asked if the account will be willing to sign a documentation stating that it does not support when northy own businesses I receive no response that was the last time I was say I did ask that question but I no one responded and you can check the tape if you want to I'm not here today to complain about anything I'm just here to condemn bad behavior and bad and Bad actors well what in the government assistant destruction of the entire procurement process violating federal and state laws including Florida small and minority procurement act which mandates that government agency activ promoting participation of minority owned and disable owned businesses in their procurement process and I'm going to read this again one more time today I w't read it again and this is for the recycling program all Universal trash commercial and natural gas production collection include and RFP for recycling services in that case the contract policy should allow disabled veteran and the mark owned business to participate not encourage but to participate in the RFP because the county receives Federal andate funds for recycling and Veterans and minority owned business should receive funding from all revenue streams and that comes again from the guidelines of uh the guidelin of Grant guideline Grant compliance in the recyclable program that's where that comes from now I'm going because I'm been whole lot of time up in today it is crucial to point out that grants are heavily involved in the RFP process for recycling services for an example the bipol infrastructure law provides significant funding for recycling initiatives another is the solid waste infrastructure for for recycling grant program which offer investment to purchase new fleets of recycle collection vehicles and bins to expand cured side recycling service to communities Laing access question you don't have to answer you don't want to uh any these Grant be used toward waste management and this grant being used toward waste man for as producing I would say hiic or anything like that sort I'm sure it's not I'm just asking the question is it okay one want no response M CER please make that no response I'm sorry we don't what is I'm ask question question are there any grant money I know it's not but I'm asking the question I believe it's not are there any grant money being used for the help of Waste Management person of any vehicle anything like that I know it's not but I'm just asking a question okay but it's not right okay Madam clerk please make no response I wouldn't say no response I think it's unfair Mr rby to say no response no response mean that no one is up here is saying if I ask a question no one is saying anything weally don't answer questions in this part of the meeting so proceed thank you okay you say repeat that again please I didn't hear that you said we typically don't have dialogue where we answer questions during public discussion okay F if excuse me okay I'm moving on these investment authorized such act such as the uh save by Seas 2.0 act are intended to improve recycling infrastructure and promote Economic Opportunity federal and state funding tied to the RSP demands participation by minority own and disa vet own business when Public Funding is involved compliance with these laws is not optional but a legal obligation including the recycle collection process in the RSP and the inter agreement that all revenues become available for minority and disabled V own businesses there are nowhere around this except the cter deliberately refused to apply the necessary legal standards to the AR of Peace such access as not only is unethical but illegal and the county has sensed 1992 that you have to get it right but you haven't the issue is not new the County's flaw procurement process has been ongoing since 1992 let's talk about the interlocal agreement formulated that year the county negotiate with two hallers simultaneous simultaneously which should have been bid it out but they didn't they B out later on still after receiving the procurement I found no meetings minutes of meetings associated with agreement's original intent stating why just those two halls has this opportunity or anything associated with the interlocal agreement any count of meeting without official minutes can be challenged as invalid and the deal can be contested there are three criteria that I would like discussed with the interl agreement that must be addressed immediately so that I can thoroughly understand its validity one the interlocal agreement must have minutes to be valid number two when legal entity approved this interlop agreement I see a court stamp date by the local court but I do not see approval by Department of legal Affairs I thought the local Court house handled Judiciary side and the department of legal Affairs handled legal representation and protection they review state laws and regulations number three the interlocal agreement must include language ensuring the participation of anointed own and disabled owned Business Without this the document is legally flawed and in val the count failure to include these rision to both the inter agreement in the RFP blatantly violates perment laws federal and state funding in the RF and the RFP such as that provided by the bipartison infrastructure law and the solid waste infrastructure for recycling grant program means the county is legally obligated to ensure that minority owned and disabled own vet businesses have access to all Associated Revenue scams by failing to do so the county is breaking the law and denying Fair opportunity for companies that is enti to participate I'll take my seat when I say this truth should always bring on Justice truth should always lead to Justice conclusion thank you for your time and thank you for I mean to speak or there any questions and I I take my seat again I'm GNA take my seat I'll say this I know sometimes that when I come here and speak that it appears to me that nothing get done that I come before you and speak and to me you think just I come before you just to speak but I don't I don't come up and waste my energy and time just to speak to you I come here looking for some type of action to these issues that has been brought before disc commmission now I say this again you can sit here find the days of the DI and don't do nothing just think I'm com here blowing smoke that I'm not here to threaten no one at all but I do know this that hey I'm not coming up here just to be blowing smoke I don't come up here and waste my time and Ing and research this stuff over and over and over and over again for nothing to happen I'm not going to do that I come here for Action I come here with some type of action to be taken or or some type of consideration to be taken but I'm not going to be coming up being wasting my time and you do nothing just take me as though well it only be a ree and I'm not going to do anything I'm not going to do that but I will come here and come and come just justce be served and just Justice be done because I'm not I'm over the heill I am I'm in my 70s and I'm not going I'm I'm coming here for my children and my grandchildren that they can have a Pursuit of Happiness in this count my child shouldn't have to go to Nevada uh North Carolina Georgia to get a job or even get something done here they shouldn't have to they should have a piece of this pie like everybody say they want to come there be awake do some waste holders they should if they want to come in do whatever do some AC work they should you got site business out there that we can that a liced contractor we have license contractor that can do that work give us some of that work Mr R last time you were here you asked for information and you were asked to go to the cuz you were making a public records request to go to the attorney's office so it could be logged into the system and we could provide the information that you keep coming and asking for did you do that no she just got with me this afternoon just few minut ago but I so okay but the one thing I want to say is the continued allegations that we're doing something illegal is is inaccurate and false and you have been provided with that information and those answers and I appreciate that perhaps you feel like you're not being heard in the process and and I get what you're trying to say but we are not doing anything illegal and we are not doing anything unsavory or underhanded and all the things that you point out as far as people having access to the process they do have access to the process whether they choose to Avail themselves of being a part of that process is a different story and I think that there is a misunderstanding of what the process is but I can tell you you can read state law and you can read federal law and you can read code and all those things and if you are not going to the attorney's office or the procurement office to find out how it is applied then you are reading those things in a vacuum and it is creating Mis information for the public so I appreciate and you're always welcome to come here I appreciate when you do come and what you have to say but I feel like these questions have been asked and answered numerous times but perhaps they're not being answered the way you would like them and that's what's causing this constant um distress Madam shair person I appreciate the terms that you have just said to me I'm going to say this again I'm going take my seat I've been in procurement for almost 14 20 years I understand procurement totally but when I go and get this and then I follow your rules and your regulation according to the recycl recycle program that you have I don't understand why you telling me that I'm in flawed programs or whatever because this is the guideline for that for recycling program this come down from the state and the federal law hand it down to the local government and it says this if you going to get federal dollars you must follow federal and state laws procurement it's and all get those drinks okay thank you so much Mr Ry always a pleasure to see you all right thank you for I did say I just not to belor this at all however um it should be noted Mr rby in years past I don't think any of you were here at the time but he was part of the procurement process and he was an applicant and uh there were many U I just wanted to call Hu because see these people watching and after hearing that it was not accurate I just want to ask one question have we ever ever engaged without applying the procurement process and which is open to all who are qualified and are being able to perform the function good morning commissioner for the record Mona managing director of the S disposal District commissioner no we we have we've not excluded anybody if if somebody is qualified um our process does not exclude anyone uh and um Capital sanitation in the past Serv as city of Sebastian yes um they've had opportunities to participate in our procurement process um we have records of them coming to our you know U meetings and U being a bid holder but we've never received you know a response um a qualified response that we've selected um just quickly Indian n county has not applied for or received any federal or state grants that that were just mentioned so just for the record you know we do not have any such grants both accounts were addressed that was the next question thank you I just wanted the public to hear that after they heard what they heard as we gave Mr Ry the opportunity to speak uh an opportunity to speak is one that is open to every member of the public however as commission law pointed out we were not going to engage in something more specifically if it's inaccurate information I just wanted to clarify it because people are watching yes sir thank you thank you thank you Commissioners with that we'll move on to County administrators matters 11a hurricane update Madam chair members of the board want to thank for the opportunity to provide this update first and foremost I want to extend our continued heart our prayers and thoughts to the community especially those impacted by Hurricane Milton uh the county and our partners will continue to work tirelessly until we recover uh I certainly want to acknowledge all of our staff and I do mean all because they all played a role and to include I appreciate the county attorney's office for their assistance as we've kind of navigating through the early stages of recovery and been preceding that with the the state of emergency local declaration and then I want to Miss to thank each of you for your time and attention in terms of our update calls as well as filling me in if there's any issues that are present that maybe staff's not aware of somebody called you we appreciate that because it certainly it's a team effort to respond to a community a disaster like this and so with that I just want to recap a little bit of what happened and where we are and I'll share some information I know that's probably important to some people that want to know um as We Know Monday Monday morning actually the weekend before Ryan uh Mike Zito Dave Johnson was s were monitoring the the storm you know what was going to come out but on Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. on October 7th the EOC did activate till level two uh and then we upgraded to level one the next day at 2 p.m. largely so we could Implement Sheltering plans because of the the potential path for the hurricane the level one activation continued until the post storm which was Friday Friday 11 uh Friday the 11th at 300 p.m. when the Sheltering operation ceased uh our EOC uh was staffed for the Emergency uh emergency information line uh and which was staffed by employees that did not work for Emergency Management they w't from other departments so we appreciate that collaboration and everybody coming together uh they they handled 1210 calls during the time that they were there uh that line is still open for those members of the public that may have something they want to ask or something they want to report at 772 226 4000 772 226 4000 uh you know we open shelters we sheltered a total of about 420 um families 20 number of animals and then we also had 45 in our special need shelter uh our fire ree they continue to to respond to calls they 811 of which about 176 were related to the storm in terms of uh wires water are damaged they obviously as soon as they have the first opportunity they along with many other agencies the Sheriff's Office the city of AO Beach responded to the beach side to help the where the tornado uh the the ef3 had done most a lot of the damage uh in terms of Damages uh we as of the most recent update we're still about 50 just over $59 million 43.6 which is residential we did have 51 homes dist and we have 91 that were damaged but categorized as major there was total of 794 residential structures that incurred some form of damage uh commercially uh we 15.3 billion we have three businesses completely destroyed in 26 with major damage uh public cumulative damages in terms of uh roads and bridges water control facilities public buildings equipment uh we fared well for our County facilities generally but we still did experience or incur at this moment about $7.3 million of damage um so that's just kind of brief overview there I just want to kind of touch on FEMA has opened as you know and so the public is aware of the disasterous recovery center they did they opened a soft opening at 1:00 on Saturday I want to thank parks and R and others who participated made that happen uh and they rolled in real quick once they got there they rolled in real quick with the logistics set up the team uh small business administration other agencies there fdm FL Department mergency management was there so we have other state and federal agencies at the IG and they are open every day 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. till further notice uh and that's again at the 159 9th Street Southwest uh I would be remiss not to uh the other thing to is to acknowledge United Way United uh excuse me uh United against Center came together with other agencies and stood up a Mark or a multi- agency resource center and the one week that they did that they served over 1750 households in providing assistance and we had eight Representatives if I recall correctly from FEMA that were there to help with Disaster Assistance as well uh and our staff also augmented and help make that uh that Center of reality because besides the agencies Manning their their tables their boots there was a need for some operational assistance and I we certainly appreciate all the staff members from departments from Planning Development utilities we had commissioner assistance that helped out uh it was just WID Community Services it was widespread and we appreciate that because it really was a big Community effort and so we want to thank you know the United Way and the United against poverty uh I do would like to announce the human disaster Survivor assistance team that was at gford youth uh achievement Center that that that location closed last night but the uh thank you to the Senior Resource Association because they are going to be uh providing free transportation from the GI for youth achievement Center to the IG Center for Disaster Assistance and they the FEMA is going to be de deploying cing in the neighborhoods you know up into the various areas to make sure that we cover everybody and if somebody I would like to say if somebody believes or that they are aware they have damage and they're not certain it was assessed or that we're not aware of it they should give us a call again at 77242 64000 we will dispatch our building official or our building staff to do the assessment of that so make sure we can mark it down uh I want to encourage everybody if you have incured damage to file an insurance claim with your carrier start that process get your documents and start that process uh and then also you're going to we want you to apply for fale assistance you can get the assistance directly at the disaster recovery center at the IG Center or you can go online at disasterassistance.gov you could use FEMA's app they have one or you could call FEMA at 800621 3362 uh if you have issues with your roof and there's tarps uh please don't pay for anything I would call the Operation Blue Blue Roof which is being put on by the United States Army cor of Engineers and it's 21 days and it ends on November 5th so if you have if you need tarps for your roof you know please contact www.bl roof. goov or call 888 roof blue or 888-7664 258 and you can get your roof covered and we've had several people that have taken advantage of that rather Reliance and we show up I know a big issue out there right now and then I'll go into some updates briefly is uh what are we doing with the debris our debris contractor uh started yesterday uh the management company came in they did an assessment you know prior to them starting yesterday the pickup contractor establishing zones as well as uh kind of get an estimation of where we are in debris uh so what we want to make sure everybody realize is that Sirus Environmental Services they started yesterday they started in the South County in the highlands area and if you are a waste management uh sub subcriber your customer you may continue to follow noral protocols for your trash pickup uh disaster B is handled on the that special agreement through that we have an advance with Cirus environmental for the purpose of clearing debris so what do we need to know what we really need to know is that we need everybody to separate their debris and categories and place it in you know right outside the RightWay don't place it in the RightWay meaning like in the RightWay to block it but you should have one pile that's vegetative with leaves mulch plants logs Etc uh building materials Metals bricks you know shingles kind of like construction debris and then other types of like you know Furniture other materials like mattresses drywall pressure tree wood anything like that you have those three piles that will facilitate the collection of the debris in a in a more orderly manner uh one of the things that we are uh for everybody follow your normal collection schedule for household trash uh but we are asking for people that are doing debris uh do not place it in a bag and I'm going to go back home later today and take mine out of the bag um or in a can you need to just set it out on the side of the your property line and let that get picked up uh a claw truck is being used that's why they're not going to be it'll slow the process down I know everybody wants to get rid of debris but it'll slow the process down so they are not stopping to empty cans or bags as it relates to debris so just place it in a pile those one of those three piles right outside out of your on your property line not in the right way though in the roadway uh so no BS no bags no cans uh I will add you know the county did uh wave uh the fees at the landfill for the first 10 days for you know for everybody uh to try to get G of two weekends to get you know get stuff in we know that there's long lines there we're hoping that over time that they will they will kind of get the become more expeditious uh but right now the commercial commercial tipping feed landfill is $10.30 and then for residential it's free uh we do estimate that it's uh going to be 4 to six weeks is the early time that's where we believe that we're going to be able to get this done and I know if you've got debris out there like many of us you know you you're probably retired looking at it they started yesterday we had to follow a process because this is something that's subject to FEMA reimbursement but uh please be patient we understand it's it's challenging it's difficult but we are doing everything we can to you know get out there and pick up and collect debris I saw people working Waste Management working on Saturday you know collecting debris in you know on 27th uh 27th and then also on 20th Avenue I've heard it's been they're collecting it in Sebastian the city's working on it and the County's working on it we're doing our level best to try to get this debris collected in the most expeditious and efficient manner as possible but at the same time time it is going to take time it's so we what 540 520 540 square miles and there is a lot of debris we had a total of eight hurricane or excuse me eight tornadoes that preceded the actual arrival of hurricane Milt an ef3 which was in my lifetime I don't know about anybody else but I've never seen that type of tornadic activity and when they say it's unprecedented and I my first hurricane was in 1979 Hurricane David that I can remember as a child and I've never seen see that type of ttic activity so we we appreciate everybody we understand everybody's still dealing with the impacts but we are working hard our our Solid Waste division our debris contractor our Public Works folks are working hard to respond and and get rid of this debris as well as other issues I would like to share with the board and members of the public uh we had over 40 staff members after that storm hit uh come out within hours and start damage assessment activities through on zones throughout the entire County we also had uh representes uh paig from a GIS helping to lead that way in terms of the leadership of Scott McAdam and and uh Erica and Candice but so the point is it was a team effort people from building people from unlicensed contractors though they weren't out there trying to ticket people like I saw that on Facebook or maybe it was next door at that wow they're out there trying to ticket or give people a violation no they were out there trying to help and help us get further along in that recovery process by understanding the damage assessment again I want to know if if the dam if you have damage you're not certain it's been assessed because maybe it was in the back of the yard or maybe it was in the side that maybe we couldn't see call us at 772 426 4000 and we'll make sure that we get you know get somebody out there uh and it's important to get that documented and I would also like to add that we are waving permit fees related to damage Rel you know to repair damages caused by the tornadoes or Andor the hurricane uh and we we also work to expedite that permitting on your as well um and that those efforts also involve Planning Development Services so from a utility standpoint you know we have about approximately 348 lift stations and only about 22% we still a lot 7 about 78 uh at one point we didn't have power we were rotating our staff for our crews it did a phenomenal job uh we didn't really have any major issues with our Wastewater and Water Treatment Plant we did have unfortunately we did have a spill at one of our re pump stations at the North wastewater treatment facility uh we do estimate a spill of about 32,500 gallons but it was all contained in one of our rapid infiltration bases that join the site so we're kind of we're very fortunate in that sense obviously from a the power standpoint that affected everybody it affected us as well specifically our traffic operations uh we have like about 167 signals that we manage we did have to coordinate with fdot to work with them to get the traffic signals up so we could safely so residents could safely uh Traverse our roads we had 141 that didn't have any damage so we really were down to like that 20 that 26 that did and then we they had to deploy stop signs uh to get them out there and we had to work with fdot as well and we know there was damage related to some of the railroad crossing so we appreciate everybody you know taking heed to the to the to the warnings and the and the encouragement by the sheriff and our other em staff during our press briefings to to be careful and just be to be neighborly uh we thank Ren Bridge obviously we still have a significant issue with County Road 512 uh if you recall going back to Hurricane I think it was Ian uh the state was able to repair get a temporary fix from s Mainland to S Island week so we're kind of calling it project sville for what we call for the category 512 St John's Riv Water Management District they're working with us they're you know Audi and the team they're working against conceptual plans uh St John's is going to provide us emergency authorization or exemption we're going to get that repaired and in a very short time frame we're estimating two to three weeks still just two three weeks so we are working to get that done uh just ongoing repair we did have some graders that went down I think everybody's aware of that uh and we still have some work orders still out there basically we're prioritizing them a the public works department there was 883 183 requests and we still have just done over about 130 or so that are still open that they are working on uh I already mentioned our facilities and our County facilities generally fared pretty well other than having to do debris pickup and Report uh but our parking lots we have the EOC and the Sheriff's offers we did have respond to air conditioning issues uh and then obviously we all know that there was localized flooding issues 6 10 inches of rain during that 2hour period during the tornadoes really impacted I heard the other day that uh that uh that it's the canal systems design I think it was 2.3 in per hour and so when you get six to 10 in of rain that really impacts the ability and it's my understanding that they did have a why didn't they open the gates the gates were open they the locks were open so I just want to point that out but our public work staff has beening a good job out there trying to continue uh just want to note on the parks recreation side we you know all our facilities parks and conservation areas are open with the exception we have tracking station Beach Park uh the Sebastian canoe launch Jos Schuman Park Vera Highlands Green Space The hallstrom Farmstead Conservation Area the Oslo Riverfront Conservation Area and the Pelican Island National waterlife Refuge is closed until the US you know uh the US uh fish and wildlife service can get out there to open it themselves so uh and then just know at the IG Center if you're going to go there we still are doing multi The West Wing is the FEMA disaster Center but we still are doing our intergenerational programming on the other meeting rooms and also on the the gym court and stuff like that so that's still this so just know it's going to be could be pretty packed there we have comfort stations out and that's one of them uh in terms of and two more things after this um our beaches we had significant Dune Retreat uh and lowered our beach profiles mainly in sector 3 where our Dunes remain intact but we have experien and was still our experience in beach erosion and our natural resources you know they're monitoring it so we can document it and do what we have to do in the aftermath lastly I really want to thank and uh highlight and and I know there's always OPP opportunities or room for improvement but you know we operate in a digital age and I just want to share some of the Outreach that was done in addition to the the daily calls you know that Ryan our Emergency Management Chief held with Bob Seuss that were heard during the morning 88 something in the morning and then 6:00 at night we also held daily 130 p.m. press conferences uh to kind of update and keep the public informed but one of the vehicles that we use through um through the Sheriff's Office through just even our partners they would disseminate whatever we put out there but just on looking at our own site I asked and our our uh it folks were able to uh get us some information as it relates to what happened you know in terms of our Communications and our stuff uh we saw 151,000 views uh between October 6th and 9th on our website uh in our Facebook we had an increase of over 700% like [Music] 123.1mi River County's Instagram in addition we reached 61,000 people and the Emergency Services were just under a th000 next to our app we had 61,000 post views so every time we post a next door app it got it was out there and then uh we also if you recall we have the ever everbridge and a wear and prepare there were posting items there and people saw it and then the one thing I also mention is I saw constantly the same things that we been posted on next door we posted on those that have the ring cameras they have an alert Network as well and they are posting that uh that's just kind of a brief well maybe as brief as someone I apologize I too long but uh I think it what it talks about is you know when we talk about one of our core values being united in our purpose to serve the community well that happened during the storm I think the leadership for the emergency management team and all the our partners at the EOC is greatly appreciated and they provided what we needed and we will continue to work to help our community to recover and if you again if they have any questions you can go down the the IG for the Disaster Recovery Center or you can call us at 7274 426 4000 or 727 226 4000 sorry about that and we will certainly assist you and again I want to thank the board for the opportunity to present this today but it's really on behalf of all the people and the staff and our partners that did all that work out there we do appreciate that wonderful Commissioners any questions mam chair John you mentioned the 7.3 million the damage to prop to County Properties can you be a little more specific on which properties yeah c can I just provide a list to each of you later today because there's some like I know the road at County Road 512 uh that's about 500,000 $550,000 the water treatment or control facilities was about 785,000 but the ones that I probably need to get some breakdown on are the public buildings and Equipment about 2.4 million and then as it relates to Parks and Recreation facilities and I believe this includes the beaches but it's at $3.5 million okay thank I'll get you a further breakdown of that and I'm sure you're constantly working on the after Action Report which we could probably expect in maybe December yeah I me we're going to circle back with Ryan and chief Johnson to uh to to to do that we've been asking all the department heads you know to make sure they adop I mean tab aad specifically uh for the purposes of doing that yes that's a great opportunity not just to evaluate it's it's a better opportunity to evaluate what we can do better in the next time not so much what we did wrong but what we can do better to improve our response and our recovery operations right and just for the public know that the county is not in charge of exfinity uh because we that's a good one that's one thing that we're not in control ofinity so I appreciate all the social media but sometimes when they don't have they can't receive so thank you I agree with you on the social media thing for sure it it gets out of control with some misinformation and stuff like that I'll touch on that for just just a second but one thing I do want to add is that uh I spoke with David Gunner on Thursday at the any fors water Control District and and of course on social media you heard you know the locks were never open all that sort of stuff I got phone calls that that my yard hasn't been flooded in 40 years and now it's all of a sudden decided to to flood I can tell you that the locks for the in River Farms water Control District every one of them were open on the Friday morning before the Wednesday storm they were open so it's what four or five days before before the storm there had been you know previous rains a lot of groundwater but they were open he said five days of the Friday before the the storm on Wednesday but said four days and uh his canals like like uh County Administrator said the any hars draining District canals are rated at at handling 2.3 to 2.5 Ines of ring per hour pretty comfortably after that you know it it becomes it becomes an it becomes an issue because I got calls again that you know neighborhoods out by where I live were flooded I mean my road flooded uh I live on a lake that ends up dumping into the canal system and I had uh the bass and tilapia and blue gill swiming in my yard so that it went down by morning time but I would tell you that any any U criticism of any River Farms water control district is unjust because you know that that guy has done more hurricanes than most of us in his lifetime and he knows exactly what's what what's taking place with that these can were slap full I mean they we received in my house I received almost 10 Ines of rain in two hours that's that's unheard of um very much so and the canals running out to the 8 Street Canal which runs to the 50th Avenue Canal to the main Canal they were Max Capacity and uh they did everything everything possible that they could do but I just wanted to make let everybody know that the locks were open Friday before the Wednesday Day storm with regards to that with regards to any flooding that you may have the other things I've been getting in maybe ask County Ministry me asku about this is was that you know we received calls of of people wondering why isn't the the landfill free and I said well for your the questions that I answered it's always been free if you had vegetated your Brae and then just recently we started a $103 charge for commercial land well they were have had some of them complain about that too U but you know we have a we have an operation run there in new business to run but my only question maybe if I ask you m you this is how are we I heard there was a long wait at the landfill obviously there is so if you have these these landscapers that are paying they're stopping to pay is that sloving up the operation with regards to everything that's going on out there in the land uh good morning Commissioners again for the record of mon mea managing director of Sol waste disposal district U so it was just the timing if you will we we did uh as of October one as board approved we did a 3% increase on all our tipping fees and as of October one we did initiate a vehicle waste service charge uh for commercial landscapers that bring in small yard waste debris uh typically they there is no charge for the material they bring it's free but we did start instituting this $10.30 charge and then the hurricane happened and as the County Administrator mentioned we waved all all all those fees for about 10 days for yard waste and commercial construction materials uh we have as of Monday yesterday we have restarted our fees uh there were lines uh yesterday uh late in the afternoon basically I was out there with help with Republic Services we closed down our inbound Lane and basically used both lanes to get everybody out as quickly as we could this as of this morning what I've instituted is we're collecting that $10.30 on the way in so when when a when a when a commercial customer identifies that they have small yard debris we're collecting the 10:30 right there and then that way they're not having to wait on the way out to pay that fee so um it's it's a way and from what I right before this meeting I found out that we have about three people on the inbound and about three people on the outbound so as of this morning the the lines are under control um I mean we do have a lot of material that that private uh you know uh landscapers are picking up and they're assisting our community which is great and so we do have that increase in traffic uh however I think you know this this fee is we're looking for way to how to speed things up and I think the the plan we have now where we collect the the fee on the way in uh is going to help kind of reduce the the traffic J at our facility can y'all explain the the debris situation with the municipalities and how you're hand on that and what we are doing for just somebody wants to bring in their own construction debris they're not a commercial holler anything like that all that particular portion of it um if I can understand question or or I'll say it this way um we our our facilities open days a week 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. it's open to the public uh so any any private contractor uh that wants to bring in construction materials yard ways tobr our facilities open what we have done is we're looking at you know the eight tornadoes and some of the major damage that has occurred throughout the county uh we've been in contact with the city of be Beach uh related to that construction what we call class three waste so it's construction materials household waste and they they estimate about 5 ,000 tons of material that they have that they want to bring to our facility and some of the discussions I've had is encouraging them to look for alternative locations for for that material um the reason being is we are at limited capacity uh at the landfill about 5,000 tons is about a month uh material that we get on a typical basis and so um although we have a new 10 Acre cell that's close to being ready it's not quite ready yet and um this influx one month of capacity that would be depleted uh is something that I'm trying to reserve for our regular uh customers regular you know day-to-day trash um so it is some discussions we're having with the city of River Beach uh and uh and even our contractor series if they're picking up a lot of construction materials we're also encouraging them not to use the landfill uh to to use those a private facility across the street Obby landfill is also available uh to accept the material so we're just trying to kind of watch our capacity and make sure that uh as we continue to kind of you know move forward that we always maintain capacity for our day-to-day garbage so it doesn't change anything Hall motor brings in their vegetate debris no charge they bring in construction debris or Furniture something like that there is that construction debris charge nothing changes from that that's correct so all if if it's a chargeable item that they bring in there's a there's a charge for that whether it's residential or commercials if you bring in construction materials that is a chargeable item you cannot bring that to the comedian Center it must come to the landfill um and so there's there's a you know charge for that uh for construction materials we do have that 1030 as a minimum so even if you brought in one ton you know if you brought in 4 500 lbs we still charge that $10.30 for for construction materials but it's typically by weight so whatever the the weight that they leave us is is kind of what we uh assess the charge for based on Artic rates I mean I honestly don't know what the problem is but I guess we need to make sure that we let everybody know via social media what the operation landfill that basically nothing's changed but it's clear as to as to what we're charging for what we're not do whatever but thanks for your efforts and what y'all done I know it's never easy after Hurricane or dis like this to to you know everybody wants their stuff out of the way as soon as soon as they can and taken care of usually start advertising in June beginning of the hurricane season to to have folks start cleaning things up start trimming their trees and so on and so forth but uh but yeah we've been through this before uh usually folks bring in a few you know right two days before the storm and then many days after they continue to bring all their stuff so but we're open we're open for business okay M on the other thing Beach and Shore met yesterday we had from natural resources they're going to go back out on Thursday and and reassess again the beaches did take a hit weo Beach seems to be the one to take a hit but overall we we did fairly well the sand on sector 4 is going to start over all there's I mean there's some repairs that need to be done some things that need to happen but it's not uh it's not like you know think just a storm come from the East might have a um I just want to thank all of our um all of our employees that not only the ones in the EOC but the ones that were out in the field I think um a lot of times you know we see the First Responders and they did a fantastic job most definitely but we don't see our Public Works guys and our utilities guys that are they are making sure infrastructure is safe and making sure um people can get out and get around and and access and you know unlike some of our neighbors our utility system did a fantastic job we didn't have um really any discharges at all I can't say the same for some of our neighbors so kudos to your guys Shan um and Audie uh rad and Bridge those guys I know they worked like five six seven days straight over the weekend long hours clearing roads grading them getting everybody back in so I really want to thank um the boots on the ground that were out there doing the work to make sure our community was safe um the only thing I would add and I think um you know commissioner lore and commissioner e both touched on it but social media is is a fantastic thing it's a great tool but for the residents that are getting their information from their neighbors on social media versus the official channels on social media or going to um the website where that information is I would just encourage the community to please make sure you're seeking the information from the source um not perhaps from your neighbor that moved here three years ago um who was great and they have a lot of great information about what's going on in your neighborhood but but perhaps not the exact information about how to get rid of debris or where to find FEMA assistance and that type of thing so our website has all that information our social media Pages have those inform that information the municipality social media pages so please make sure that you are um going there for that inform information and and for some of the um neighborhood pages that are run by people in our community I really appreciate them helping to share our messages and amplify the proper information um because one of one of the things it's very difficult to combat in emergency situations or disaster situations is the misinformation so we do appreciate our Community Partners helping to share um the proper information so people knew where to go but all in all all you know it could have been much worse I'm very thankful that it it turned out to be what it was and not what it could have been um we were very blessed and I appreciate everybody that helped us get through it it's never easy to get through these things um and and as much as you prepare and you go through trainings and you go through scenarios when you're in it it's just there's always anomalies that pop up and you kind of have to roll with it so I appreciate everybody that did that I know it's it's stressful and you know we'll we'll get to where we need to be but it'll be a little bit to to get all this stuff processed and and moving forward so thank you everybody for your hard work John anything else you want to add to that uh no ma'am I just want to thank Bor and again I want to thank all of our employees as well as our partners that came together in response most definitely all right with that we will move on to Utility Services 12j one utility accounts receivable bad debt write offs and foreclosure Activity thank you good morning commissioner Sean Lei director of Department of utility services um I first want to start by saying thank you all for for work you all do and John great summary of everything that transpired during and and following the storm um I you know I agree I think there's a lot of unsung heroes out there that did a lot of work to to protect our community one one thing I did want to clarify um for the breed management collection um our contractor is picking up private um HOAs and gated communities but only if we have a an access agreement signed access agreement so if you're in an HOA or you're in a private community on a private road um get on our website please and fill out that access access agreement or we will not be able to pick up that debris from your area so that's critical for all those who are on private roads and and just to follow up on what Sean said that information is on our website under our storm Center resources link click on that and it's right there on that front page okay um with that back to the uh the item at at hand um you know we we have a lot of pass do accounts that we um you know are working with to try to get payment and often times those end up going to perhaps for to foreclosure um we do have an ordinance that allows us to reach agreement in L foreclosure and I know Brian's going to talk a little bit about that um I'm just going to take a minute to Inu Brian beavers who was our finance director and he's going to take it from here but talking a little bit about kind of bad debts and and where we are this year good morning I'm Brian beavers the utilities finance manager and we're here today to request approval to write off as bad debt uh some amounts related to some settlement agreements that have been completed on our past du accounts receivables oh w we have slides that's wonderful okay what do I click do you see this on your screens yes perfect okay so this morning uh we're we're here to talk about first of all 10 settlement agreements uh that we have signed over the last fiscal year FY 24 which ended September 30th 2024 of those 10 settlement agreements toing 618,000 we have completed seven completed means that the party had completed all the payments required to finish their settlement agreement the seven completed settlement agreements were for a total of 437,000 of of which the customer paid $276,000 of payments and we're here today to request write off of $1 16,45 A3 uh related to those seven completed agreements we also had three additional agreements that were signed in FY 24 they are still underway the customers making payments towards those those uh three agreements total $181,000 uh we're expected to receive $47,000 worth of payments from the customer for those three agreements and we're projecting a write off amount of $134,000 and9 I will note that as we continue down this road of doing settlement agreements we're seeing a shift of the amount of ride off that we're going to have to do and it's primarily because or we feel like it's because um the difficulty is growing on the circumstances related to to the past due amount and it's just requiring additional Monies to be written off to be able to reach an agreement oops skip too many so we have also uh during the year completed two foreclosure sales which is new for us this year in utilities um the first one was a closure sale that was sold third party which means that uh a third party buyer bought the property and so the county did not end up with that property we were able to recover all of our bad debt uh amounts plus attorney fees Etc so the actual debt that we are able to recover for that particular foreclosure sale was $3,975 there's no Rite off related to that we had a second foreclosure sale that was completed in FY 24 on that one uh the there was a different department that actually foreclosed upon the property and utilities had an outstanding balance for it for that one uh we were required to well let me back up there was um no bidder for that particular property so the county acquired the property and as a result of that we received no proceeds towards the utility bill so we had to write off both service charges of $932 plus penalties and interest [Music] [Music] that are more than 120 days past due and this is a trend right now we have $1.7 million of 120 plus days pass to receivable balances in 2020 that number was 3.7 million so we are bringing the number down it is a slow process uh of the $1.7 million we have 21 accounts that we have referred to a foreclosure attorney to process foreclosure and the balance on those is $891,000 so they're large dollar accounts that we have currently foreclosure in process then the remainder of that balance of $63,900 additional accounts so they're roughly 10% of the value of the ones that have gone to foreclosure so in summary we're here today to ask approval to do the ride off for the bad debt uh that we've had we need to write off from $1 16,45 of3 and it relates to penalties and interest on some P to accounts receivable balances any questions Commissioners questions no right what is your pleasure mam chair U Move approval of the the write off comment that I truly appreciate 's work in analyzing and assessing and taking County's best interest going forward even if it is a write off it has done so in a very calculated and way and thank you for being a good Steward for the tax pay dollar and for the properties in which are entrusted thank you that be have fantastic all right we have a motion I'll be happy to suck at that any further discussion anybody from the public say none all in favor opposed motion carries thank you thank you so all right that brings us to our last item which is commissioner flesher's item I will turn it over to you commissioner closer Madam chair yeah close us out well uh speaking of closures um I believe you all got the memo uh Mr Steven Hayes uh who has uh performed a a very beautiful function on the tourist Development Council um he did begin as an owner operator as you recall he was the uh he operated the U airbolt operation out in your neck of the woods and uh I he work Joe as well um he was a fine asset uh unfortunately uh it has come time where he has choosing to make another Endeavor and spend time with family so he's tended his resignation he's not an owner operator any longer um and uh we accept his resignation and in the process to continue uh I did pull all applications uh there was one from Nicole Johansen which as you know is very involved with the north county operations uh she also is the executive director of the mfisher museum uh granddaughter of uh mfish as well so she's been very much involved with tourism and then the other application is a Diana bosel which I have not had the opportunity to meet but she submit her application she's looking for any appointment on in any committee uh so at this time Madam chair um i' I'd like to uh thank Stephen for his Services uh and all the appropriate documentation is done and I'd like the opportunity to Appo Nicole Johansson to the tourist Development Council fantastic that is a motion by commissioner fleser with a second by commissioner irman I think that um I also echo my thanks to Steve it was always fun to work with him he's great guy and Nicole has been a great advocate for North County and I think she would make a fantastic addition um any other comments from commissioner's questions con I think she's a great all right with that there's a motion of a second all in favor opposed motion carries thank you m chair thank you that was that was a great way to end the meeting all right if there's nothing else for the good of the order please stand adjourned