##VIDEO ID:hyc6tTCNW-Q## [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] there we go okay thank you so much to our technical people welcome everyone to our 300 pm. uh purchasing policy a workshop uh and I'm going to turn it over now to our County Administrator Madam chair I'm going to hand it off to uh Ken Morris who's going to get us going I know he'll do this but you know I I know you know rashonda and of course uh Daryl but it's not every day that you get to meet our purchasing director so Melanie I know she's uh she's not nervous at all she's ready to roll here and uh but again this was an item commissioner that you all requested uh and uh and I'll hand it off to Ken and he'll get us rolling good afternoon again little winded back toback Workshop it's been a while since we've done that uh as the County Administrator was saying this Workshop was requested by the board to review the proposed revisions to the County's purchasing policy as you know the purchasing policy governs the procurement of the supplies the equipment the services which support the County's operations to meet its responsibilities to the citizens on a daily basis it basically touches every County department and just about everything we do uh we brought an agenda item to the board in January seeking to make some updates to the purchasing policy um routine exercise was just a top to bottom review it been several years since we've done a a major review and update to the policy so in your materal materials you'll see a lot of references to you know obsolete terms and changes to definitions and legal updates when uh upon the recommendation of the County Attorney and we also took the opportunity to identify process improvements um and and some changes to the purchasing thresholds to reflect the current cost of goods and Services when we brought that item to the board in January Commissioners you uh provided direction to schedule the workshop you wanted more time for discussion and consideration of the changes um now full disclosure there's some people at this table that think the workshop is cursed as this is our third attempt to have the workshop uh may recall this was originally scheduled for May and it subsequently was canceled following the tornadoes was rescheduled for late September but hurricane Helen had other plans but we're here today I'm joined at the table by several colleagues including the County's purchasing director Melanie hulie I'll hand it off to in a moment provide a brief presentation um we also have the County's um uh budget director rashanda Bradley and darl Jones our MBE director uh in case the board has any purchasing adjacent questions we wanted to have everybody here to answer any questions that you might have the work sh materials going to Great length to describe the proposed revisions melan presentations again very brief it's about eight slides leaving the board ample time for questions and discussion uh We've also provided in your attachments because I I know this has come up before um basically three versions of the policy the proposed policy the current policy and the redline version if you want to go through all the changes but again we'll cover all of this very quickly in Melanie's presentation take it away he hi happy to be here finally um like Ken said I'm going to do brief overview uh I know it's riveting material but I'm going to try to make it quick I am going to go over the purchasing policy the current procurement methods and the suggested revisions to the right okay so the reason we have a purchasing policy is to ensure best value which is the most advantageous balance of price quality and performance and to enhance vendor confidence through transparency and fairness the another reason we have a purchasing policy for grant funding and applications when we apply for a grant there's significant amounts of questions regarding our procurement methods the policy that we have defers to the most stringent of those requirements so we're able to satisfy any procurement requirements the current procurement methods are small purchases which are for your everyday supplies office supplies small tools quick services such as carpet cleaning uh those purchases we usually use a PE card which results in significant rebates it was 95,000 in fiscal year 23 the purchasing quote threshold requires three competitive quotes and in instances where it's possible if an mwsb e vendor exists we require that the staff request at least one quote from an M mwbe vendor the example of purchasing quotes would be Furniture software minor facility repairs then we get into competitive sealed bid which is the ones that usually come to you guys for approval invitation to bid is generally cost based it's only cost based um those are for continuing service agreements such as Plumbing painting elevator maintenance or construction projects like the library renovation or the Concord school and like I said we do bids for that it's solely cost based awarded on cost uh rfps the requests for proposals are qualification based and we do rfps for studies Professional Services um Architects Engineers that type of project and invitation to negotiate we currently are doing an invitation to negotiate right now for your next Generation 911 system we do an ITN when we're looking for a specific goal and we want to establish a competitive range of qualified vendors to provide those Services there's also outliers such as emergency purchases single and soul Source Cooperative purchasing um I'm going to go ahead and move on to the suggested revisions uh the policy has a lot of red lines if you're looking at the red line it was mostly to restructure the document there was a lot of um duplications in processes uh it they were duplicated in each type of solicitation which I felt was redundant so I um move those around they're only in there once and they apply to all the ass stations stuff like General conditions public notice requirements um we added some relevant definitions and removed obsolete definitions uh there's some legal update language that I did in um correspondence with legal for the ever verified language uh to comply with Florida statute removal of the newspaper requirements in in compliance with Florida statute and County ordinance um that should save us about $44,000 a year if we use the online advertising we also updated the bid protest procedure to streamline the process and provide a very specific timelines and evidentiary requirements and we also apprised and defined the ITN process to adopt a best practice we are doing an ITN right now in uh in compliance with Florida statute but we don't have have it apprised in our policy which I felt was an important distinction to have it as a best practice in our policy uh we also added some clarifications for categories that are exempt from competitive procurement just a general cleanup and clarification of existing exemptions for instance books for the library are exempt but digital books are not in that technology contemplated software maintenance agreement that type of stuff we added uh employee recruitment Services as an exemption for higher level Head Hunter services that are kind of difficult to uh bid out so we can use local head hunters for higher level the process improvements uh we went over them pretty thoroughly in the item but um we removed an obsolete field quote category what that was was it was it allowed um divisions to go out and get quotes um I'd like to remove that and lower the three quote thresholds in order to provide for increased purchasing oversight uh by the purchasing director uh we haven't used that field quote process in in a number of years it's just simply outdated uh we updated the informal bid process we now use an online system called open goov to do all of our procurements um so we're able to utilize a sealed bid process for informal bids whereas it used to be fax machine and relied on on somebody sealing it so I'd like to formalize that process um it should it's for smaller projects such as the tourism trail design or the Williams Landing floating dock it's for lowcost continuing service agreements like root pruning uh just a sealed sealed bid process that's sent out to local vendors on for smaller procurements uh we'd also like to add an informal bid process reserved for small business Enterprise um that is consistent with the joint mwsb policy we recently brought something to the board for the library roof replacement which would which had been reserved for um small business enterprises and we expect that to increase opportunity for sbes to do business with the county and the purchasing thresholds um this is on page seven if you're looking at your headers and page nine if you're looking at your footer um the changes are reflected in bold in that in that graph in that chart I would like to increase the small purchase from 2500 to 3500 the last time that that threshold was updated was in 2017 like I said those are your small purchases your office supplies uh getting your carpets clean stuff like that um and then the related Warehouse increase I'm not sure if you guys are familiar with the warehouse program that we have uh for often used items we have a warehouse for Public Works uh purchasing quote requirement like I said earlier to decrease um just to um counteract the removal of the field quotes and this is the introduction of the informal bid process reserved for sbes like I was speaking about earlier um and increase to the non-contractual budget or I'm sorry blanket purchase order from 5,000 to 10,000 a blanket purchase order is essentially a method of payment it's an open line of credit at a um at an establishment that requires a purchase order that would be something like um for Fleet Clark Monroe needs to buy small or Fleet needs to buy small truck parts so they have an open purchase order um so they can buy little small parts uh no no single purchase would exceed the small purchase threshold so it would just be little little purchases and it should lower administrative costs and avoid any PE card fees uh also some of these vendors required that we have a purchase order so to cut purchase orders for $8 and $10 for a part and then lastly the contract award and signature Authority thresholds I'm requesting to increase my signature threshold from 100,000 to 125,000 just to correlate with the increase of goods and services um and allow execution of smaller contracts in a more timely manner $108,000 po I have to email County Administrator and ask for permission and and five years ago that would have been a $80,000 po um board authority remains unchanged County Administrator Authority remains unchanged however we are looking to add his signature Authority for employee benefits agreements that are either zero cost or time sensitive for existing employee benefit agreements I'll just add on to that the employee benefit agreements so it would apply to benefit programs that don't cost the county money so pet insurance would be an example uh the County Administrator would have the authority to execute an agreement for the upcoming year for a new pet insurance program or if we're offering through human resources uh a legal representation benefit the The Authority would also extend to uh benefit programs with existing vendors uh uh that have been approved or funded through the board's budget process so for example uh this takes place in the in the fall months for example board goes through the budget process in the spring and summer months we know roughly what our increase in healthc care costs are going to be say for for uh Healthcare CHP or Blue Cross um and then given that they're an existing vendor uh the approval of the the ten approval of the budget would authorize the County Administrator to execute that agreement with the existing vendor if we were to go out and seek a new vendor that would require board approval then that's really all I have I'm happy to answer any questions Madam sherff thank you for your your presentation um yes commissioner pro thank mam chair can we look at the second slide right there this okay previous next one sorry no sorry prior you want to chart commissioner I want to look at the three different one was a invitation to bid one was a um um yeahp RFQ RFP uh it's on page nine of our bottom I saw it was presented to us up on the screen when I first saw it I have my page seven and I have my page it's page nine iable threshold yeah is that it commissioner uh no it was three items the categories of which we uh made the invitation the bottom yes that's it thank you um the invit when does the Bond b n d required for either of those categories and when we utilize a bond for vendors to have to put up is that arbitrary is that regulated by State Statute is that regulated by ordinance um can you help me to understand when is it that we require sure it's in our policy at 200,000 um but I have the opportun I I guess um option to remove that in um I would have to ask for County Administrator approval but but it's it kicks in at 200,000 so all um expected uh procurements in the area and above 200,000 would require correct Bond uh M could I ask Mr Jones the question of uh how does that Bond uh uh requirement uh inhibit uh um um black businesses uh how does it inhibit small businesses and do you believe that um that could be lifted to uh a higher number given that the ask is for an increase for even the discretion of U the personal director page page um 11 of 177 I'm sorry page n at the bottom page 11 17 for the uh agreement the purchasing director to have uh thresholds up to 125 should it not be a requirement that the bond uh also go maybe up to 350 400,000 well as my colleague has described often times those Bond requirements can be Exempted at the for approval of the County Administrator however what we try to do is make certain that our firms are equipped with the bonding capacity they require by working with the Small Business Development Center who has the outreaches with uh potential bonders who are able to bond our businesses what we have seen particularly as we're reserving more projects for our sbes one of the things that we do is connect them with that viable resource to provide uh the bonding capacity that we need on those particular projects okay so it no longer is a uh element of frustration for the vendor who's the minority being able to make that connection with the fam small buiness Development Center and the varied options in terms of bond purveyors which are now available for our firms I don't know that it remains that same level of uh consternation as it may have been in the past but that's because we're making those resources most readily available through our certified firms very good how local are the dollars that we spend actually going back into this local community and how much of our money is going outside of our community and do you have the categories uh for which these Investments of our local procurement dollars are uh going too well all of the mwbe money by definition is local to be an mwbe you have to be uh located within the regional counties um I don't know that we divide or or that we analyze how much of all of the overall procurement is local anecdotally uh seeing what comes to the commission even bigger projects we don't see a lot of out of town vendors except for the occasional 911 system maybe a a cyber security function uh but a lot of your construction and Contracting Services are are local the overwhelming majority and and and to the county attorney I I I I don't think that this we we lean toward an illegal bent but we have been quite partial as a board uh in years past to an emphasis of our money being spent locally and is there anything that's prohibitive in law that um uh annihilate uh our our stance to encourage as much of our money to go to local uh area vendors that can provide services as possible is there anything in law that prohibits that continued path yes please thank you so if you're talking about competitive sealed solicitations yes because ITB is just cost so if you have a vendor from Jacksonville who's $110,000 less than a local Vendor by virtue of the fact that the only thing that you can consider for that ITB as cost you're going to go with the vendor in Jacksonville because you're just going off of cost now what we sometimes do with some of our solicitations is there is a a criteria uh where for a local vendor a local vendor can get some additional points but you cannot consider that an ITB so you could potentially consider an RFP and you can consider a lot of things in an ITN but depending on the procurement method that may limit in some instances whether you can dictate whether you have to go with a local vendor or whether you go with you know whoever is the lowest cost well Commissioners I I just believe that it's um very important at this time for us to reiterate uh and reaffirm uh our desire for local tax dollars uh to the extent possible to go back to be reinvested into uh vendors who also pay taxes in our community and um I don't know if it's a policy thingy that we have uh stated anywhere but without question we are a local preference uh board looking out for our local vendors I wanted to emphasize that and I don't know if it should be in the policy or what thank you um commissioner proor yes Madam chair madam attorne I'm sorry I believe the purchasing director also wanted to add some information for that yeah we do have a 5% local preference in bids um at a cap of 20,000 so depending on the cost of the bid um we could award to the higher bidder that's local depending on the percent the cost very good my final question off of page uh seven the new category for bid informal bid process for small business Enterprise that number you're suggesting is from 50 to 300,000 and I'm asking is there any um uh prohibitive bases of factors why that couldn't be 25,000 to 300,000 I believe that number was figured by your committee or well what we as you recall when we made our mwbe par our mwbe utilization report report to the County Commission it was very very clear from the direction and instruction from this board was that you wanted us to be able to optimize more opportunities for minority women-owned firms to operate as primes subsequently that's why we were able to set the thresholds because based upon what we're witnessing in terms of the size of projects we wanted to escalate that number to as high as potentially 300,000 because we see that would be opportunities for us to build capacity for those firms and be able to award to those firms directly our SB program now qualifies both our minority women and local firms to compete for those without having to compete with firms that come out of Market or compete with firms that may be of Greater scale than what we find with our already certified firms so we follow the guidance that you've given us and that's where we set those parameters up to as high as $300,000 so that we could optimize opportunities for awarding contracts as primes okay my point is in the opposite direction not the ceiling but the floor I'm asking the floor of theow the 25,000 uh I'm appreciative where the ceiling is at 300 super but at the floor is at instead of 50 why can't it be at 25 commissioner if if you look up uh two lines to the purchasing quotes the ceiling for purchasing quotes is $50,000 so it's a it's a different procurement process for things that are up to $50,000 once you reach $50,000 you trigger the informal bid process and for sbes we're going to go higher in that informal bid process we're going out seeking contractors uh exclusively that are sbes the library roof repair or replacement was was a great example that was a project that only certified sbes could bid on because it was up to 300,000 and the good part is for those uh uh procurements that are under $50,000 as was explained one of those is reserved one of those quotes must come from a a certified mwb okay then my last question um at this point is um in terms of companies uh who are integrated into the platform such as such as right now we're in open enrollment and if I uh had an insurance company um minority insurance company and I want to be on the panel I wanted to be on the panel of uh uh companies uh I just have a AED voice it's just that much you know it's it's just what's on the inside um and I wanted my company to be how is that factored for open enrollment and those kinds of uh I guess you call them service agencies they not selling widgets but the those that are offering advice advisory consultant blah blah like that each spring summer Human Resources uses its insurance broker to go out and see what services available often times they'll survey employees to see you know what's the Gap missing or what what services would you like to see um again I I keep mentioning Pet Services Legal Services long-term Health Care um there's just about everything under the sun when it comes to the some of these extra benefit programs but again that's all carried by the employer that that opts to you know have that coverage okay thank you very much thank you commissioner Proctor commissioner man thank you madam chair um I appreciate your questions commissioner partner one thing it says the SB the informal bid process starts at 50,000 proposed threshold 50, 300,000 we didn't have anything before Mr uh Mr Jones can you talk to me a little bit about there's a difference between the SBE and mwbe correct yes okay so that informal bid process is SBE not mwbe right but our m our mbes and our wbees qualify as SB okay so all them qualify SB yes so my my I'm be honest with you my my interest right now and my my my um Spidey sensors are really really pointing towards making sure that our mwbe are are participating in all levels here and as I understand it through what I'm looking at here mwsb do participate in all threshold levels in the current and proposed correct yes and the percentages are ones of such that that are our aspirational goals and all of those not on these projects well depending well actually depending upon the size we may very well ascribe aspirational goals but because of the policy Direction given by this commission if a MBE or a wbe is awarded a project that has goals they already self qualif they already qualified through self performance so an MBE would only be required to meet the wbe goal and vice versa corre and that was policy Direction given by this commiss is okay thank you madam chair thank you commissioner madx uh commissioner Miner thank you madam chair I just got a quick question from an old it guy um so the county uses open gov procurement as its as its uh third party procurement system right um and I know we use it for the um informal bids and and one of the revisions here is is getting away from um um basically using open gov as a way to um adopt the seal bid process for informal bids right right um what else do we use open goov for is it for the RFP posting as well we for all of our sealed bidding so when we talk about uh basically foregoing the publishing in in the paper of of bids rfps shifting to open goov entirely which you're already doing but but just solely do using that Medium as a way to post RPS we would also be advertising on column software uh which is the notification public gotcha sure okay all right sounds good and um lastly I just I want to thank our procurement director and uh and everybody else for working on this this is a lot of work that's been done on this I know that you also met with the county attorney's office as well just frequently just to make sure everything was airtight so just wanted to thank you for all your work appreciate it thank you thank you madam chair thank you uh commissioner Miner on point is it on point commissioner mad thank you I'm sorry was my first meal of the day so um now on our purchasing on our on our rfps and all that kind of stuff uh there's a difference between cuz just now we're talking about the professional lobbying contract um the county Min stator said that if we wanted a minority piece to that we would have to specify it so that that difference exist in professional contracts and construction contracts correct aspirational goals yes aspirational goals so there there are no aspirational go goals for professional contract yes it's 6 and 5% how much it would be 6% MBE 5% wbe okay now would that would that cover like like like what we're talking about just now the the lobbying contracts other professional contracts or what what kind what kind of well the process for us is when we set goals we look at the number of available certified firms and if there's a level that rises to competition like three or more which I do believe is in that particular category then goals can be ascribed okay commissioner I'll just add the existing lobbying contract you have now which uh went out to bid many years ago and I'm sorry went out to RFP many years ago uh it did include a uh minority participation aspirational goals MH I don't want to put words in the county administrator's mouth but today you were discussing a very specific purpose um sort of a narrow scope and dollar amount and so that was why that conversation came up about do you want goals associated with that uh meaning if you set aside 40,000 do you want all 40 going to a prime contractor do you want some of it going to an MBE that's why we were looking for that analysis or there is no there is no status to anything we put we put out it automatically has those goals on it like some things we need we would have to specify those goals we well through our process through pre-solicitation when we meet with the project manager based upon the Scopes of work is how we make the determination on what goals would be ascribed whether that they be a nbe goal and a wbe goal sometimes they are aggregate go based upon the number of firms that we have certified through both our office as well as through the office of Supply diversity is there go ahead I'm sorry your disparity study lays out different goals for different uh Services architecture and engineering construction Professional Services but when we go and actually put the project out on the street stre purchasing M mwb office go do we really have something in this field do we really have enough certified MBE wbes in our Market that can respond to this sometimes the the answer is no sometimes and so we won't assign aspirational targets now when that all comes back to the board for approval we'll tell you hey this does not have aspirational goals because either because the Market's not there or we're using state or federal monies and we're not allowed to assign aspirational goals to this project but we always make that very clear in in the agenda materials B Commissioners take comfort in knowing that Miss hul and I review each procurement before it hits the street to make that determination Madam chair final question when when we um when we when we put out those rfps and those contracts those aspirational goals that we have um are there is that a floor meaning meaning let's say if we the floor there are floor so we could as a board ask for a higher goal uh than than what's aspired no the goal is set by the disparity study but respondents can respond higher than the aspirational goals okay thank you mam chair thank you Comm M chair I ask this question um T Housing Authority uh set goals at and met set and met what what does the T Housing Authority uh have uh which the county of Leon does not have in terms of meeting such modest numbers that we set uh I believe they set something like 3540 and met them and the county says like 4% 5% you know peanuts and in struggle if I if I may miss Brenda Williams has a public private development whereby she she is equipped to make that determination we are bound by a disparity study that provides the legal defensibility for our program and based upon that disparity study that's how we ascribe those aspirational goals across those four procurement categories and we're real happy that she chose to use our office to meet her Supply diversity demand she used the firms that were certified through our office to meet that goal of 45% Private Industry can do that but then they also run the risk without a disparity study of potentially being sued for having set those goals well I I need to say that um uh she's just blew out all the candles 45 done um she's blown out all the candles on the things that we say that are not possible to be done and right now with respect to the limits and the narrow confines of what we have relative in instruction to what she has done it don't make sense uh the the the vendors are there um Miss Williams has shown us something and our um disparus study is not reflecting that same level of light and illumination on what's out there and I think that right now uh it's a suspect uh C category to me uh our disparus study Brenda makes it look totally suspect and unwarranted and it's not uh an accurate portrayal of what one agency whether private or public uh but was able to set a standard meet it um and the rest of us you know the sky is falling can't be done and we typically have our again and again in this area Commissioners our contract is going to if you tell them 3 and a half% they not going to go past they won't come in with three uh. 75% they 3.5 and 3449 and stop they will stop at the very number every single time and do all that they can not to exceed uh there's no gratuity if you will uh in their commitment levels in uh minority participation and I I believe that we ought Tas Housing Authority has set a precedent that we need to look at and maybe we need a new dispari study to um to um um cuz our contractors are not generous in this area they're not uh they're not U benevolent in this area and they're going to do as little as is require and they're faithful they're good and faithful to doing as little and not exceeding um could you count on one hand the number of times that our contractors have actually crossed the line of you know 7% 9% be rare well uh uh commissioner uh for example on construction projects we have an aggregate goal of 23% 14% MBE 9% wbe the beauty of what we are currently doing is that the disparity study which is one of a kind in the nation is that we have three jurisdictions all operating from the same sheet of music as you recall prior to my to the consolidation of the mwe mwbe program there were County goals there were blueprint goals and there were City goals here now that un uniformity of goals as well as a uniformity of a Consolidated policy means that every business who operates with our jurisdictions are all operating from the same sheet of music that means that we are able to be even more efficient we often times see that our respondents based upon the availability of our firms particularly on our construction projects do exceed that goal and that's been because of relationships people want to do business with people that they know and we make a point of highlighting our firms one of the things that we also do to raise and raise and the level of participation and drive down good faith when she publishes her excuse me when when the county publishes its procurements we then uh contact our firms directly our certified firm so that they too are aware of those both subcontracting opportunities and Prime Contracting opportunities so the program is certainly more robust because of that uniformity because no matter how you enter into this procurement process everybody's working on the from the same sheet of music and from the same process and there in lies a tremendous problem for me because uh the process that we now have in place uh actually uh Aus skates uh what used to be a clear reality and that is for our 2 oev uh we could ask the question what is the specific dollar that is spent with black businesses from the county or what is a specific dollar amount that is spent from the city's coffers but to put um the city spending the county spending and others who uh whose numbers comprise that total it does look more robust you could say robust but robust relative to what I honestly can't track any longer uh Leon County spending with black businesses that I am aware which um the numbers of which I'm aware of what the percentages were uh around 2% uh but in the new framework uh our spending levels with women uh with blacks with other minorities is um is not trackable so actually commissioner when I made our presentation earlier this year we exceeded our goals we had more than $8 million that was made available from the procurement set were identified with for which we set aspirational goals we exceeded the goal by 200% one category I believe it was 400% in another category and that was just for County spending on projects for which the goals were applied I wish to see um a breakdown and I'd like to see as a policy measure um that we would encapsule as policy uh A continuing uh breakout of that there's no uh um this this number this this statement is not meant with ill intent but to make sure that clarity and distinction that there is no collusion of City spending County spending and oversight no no sir I still want to see and we make separate reports to each jurisdiction you'll recall that there was a receipt and file uh memorandum that highlighted both uh solely uh mwbe expenditures for blueprint projects we provided a report directly to you all where we highlighted the amount of monies that were made available to minority owned firms and how we exceeded the percentages particularly in those categories of greatest operation that's that is architecture engineering and construction subcontracting we also were able to highlight that there was an increase in the number of minority firms that were being selected as primes far different than what we had reported previously because of the policy direction that you have provided we are now segregating projects and identifying these projects for sbes where they now are coming as as the general contractor so those types of the policy direction that you have given us we're now seeing that in response and it's subsequently being verified in the numbers that we're reporting to you annually that was in June that that annual report I like a copy another copy of it let me ask you this let me just inter this commission Pro they did give us that report I like because the 400% 200% am many C we we got that report and we we laed them for just making sure we had MBE and uh minority business and just women business we had all that broken down very good may I please receive a yeah you can I'll for that to you yes sir thank you um in the area of Ethics um Can county commissioner do business with with u you all I'm looking at the ethics policy and pondering relationships and how directly or how far how many cousins over removed you'd have to to be have we had issues in the area of insider trading uh with our monies with employees or I guess friends are okay but um I'm talking about kinship is there any uh specific bar um in terms of ethics and public contract in section 12 I don't well one of the things that we do for our program is when we have our mandatory pre-bid meetings where we formally would only have the prime to attend subcontractors are now invited to participate because we do realize it is about relationships so when I if I am darl Jones a painter and you're the prime respondent if I show up at the mandatory pre-bid meeting you don't have to use good faith cuz I've already told you that I'm available to respond on that project by virtue of my presence at the pre-bid meeting we don't cite that as collusion we site that as an a NW working opportunity for our firms to be able to connect with the firms that we know will because if it's a mandatory pre-bid meeting anyone who responds to that bid has to be present so if the subcontractors are present the subcontractors know who the potential bid respondents will be and they make themselves available and make that connection in real time on that occasion and in that space and that is all born of the policy that we're providing today County attorney we don't have a whistleblower protection for in in the section uh for those persons who would be aware of um conflicts of interest uh or habits and practices that uh otherwise might be prohibited uh can we possibly add a whistle blow protector section that those persons reporting such crude incidents could uh be protected and not uh be suffer any retaliation or retribution uh Madam attorne or is that otherwise already covered by state of federal law yeah there's already whistleblower protection under state and federal law so you could put it in the policy but it would have to just mirror what's already law absolutely I'm saying I yeah thank you it's a desire to see it to tighten up this area that we've reviewed I'm so sorry what was your last comment it's a desire to see that uh language place here to protect our process further that even if um because Commissioners we we don't know what but for those who may know and the best situated to uh inform uh if there is any Panky Panky uh any collusion any uh you know father son mother daughter we we need that Protection security it enhances uh our processes and that those persons so reporting would not uh suffer the consequences of Retribution Madam County attorney there could certainly be a provision that's placed in the purchasing policy that references uh the existing whistleblower law um so that it's expressed in the policy there's no problem with that perfect thank you madam count attorney okay thank you commissioner Proctor I believe I have commissioner o'keef and commissioner Maddox thank you madam chair um the um those are good good points by uh commissioner Proctor and perhaps at a at a future meeting well let me ask a question um do we have an anonymous fraud or abuse reporting line already we do okay then um you what was the question we do do we have an anonymous Fraud and Abuse report line someone call them we do okay good um then uh I just want to quickly thank thank the staff for doing this and for the for the board for bringing it up I was skeptical about a purchasing Workshop but um having been a department manager in an unnamed organization trying to get things purchased while you're trying to run your operations if it's too tight of internal controls can be real difficult and it's really easy for government agencies to just not look at changing and not looking at what keeps due diligence and effective internal controls to prevent abuse and fraud and non-compliance but how much can we meet those limits and make sure our teams can operate and not spend uh a week back and forth with procurement which I'm sure never happens here that's somewhere else so I just want to thank you all for that um and that uh it doesn't go unnotice to me that you're balancing our controls and making sure our folks can operate efficiently thank you uh commission Oki commissioner Miner you ma'am I I have already spoken oh you oh okay I'm sorry okay commissioner kaban I believe you're in the que thank you thank you madam chair um I'll go ahead and move for staff recommendation option one thank you is there thank you it's moved and second the staff recommendation option one is there any further disc yes ma' so I I I originally I believe early this spring um brought to attention some of the purchasing policy items U the reason for that was when this came before us to the board it wasn't red line so we had several several pages of old policy and then we had new policy and after a day of having alley my aid over there go try to go through and see what a change it was very difficult um so I appreciate staff taking the time to kind of clarify what some of the changes are I'm spoken with the County Administrator I've spoken with the county attorney um this is all this is all kosher with me um you know I do think that it's important that big purchases and bigger threshold decision- making still comes to the board but I believe all that is is still in this item and the changes are more um minute and pertinent to uh staff stto day operations so thank you madam chair thank you commissioner any other discussion let me ask you this uh commissioner Proctor uh and the and the County Attorney discuss that whistle blow protection uh and I believe that is something uh that should be part of the motion to just have that reference um in our purchasing uh policy yes Ma I I didn't know if commissioner Proctor wanted to make a motion for that himself or if you want to include it in yeah okay let's add it add it to the to the motion and um it's all good with me okay is that okay commissioner okay great great any other further discussion hearing none all those in favor let it be known by saying I I any opposition same sign and let before I adjourn let me just thank all of you all for all your hard work uh on this policy and for your presentations uh as well uh assistant County Administrator Mr Bradley and of course uh Miss what how hulie hulie hulie okay I thought that was my bad writing hulie oh okay and of course always uh Mr Daryl Jones you guys do do a great job thank you for cleaning up uh our purchasing policy and for the changes that are not real major but I think it's something that we as County administrators need to be aware of so I just wanted to give you my my acul on that one brief comment from commissioner proor on that whistle it's my thought that the County Attorney would be the source of which the blowing would occur if I'm oh absolutely it would be in conjunction right review with her absolutely commissioner c i just uh would be remissed if I not point out and this is the last meeting you will gavel out as the chair is that true it is and is it you and for you and I and I want to say is that not accurate Mr County Administrator this the last meeting that she'll gavel out right well unless you have a motion you'd like to make um oh you said gavel out okay yes ma'am I just want to say that you know I've thoroughly enjoyed uh your leadership this last year you know you you've done a phenomenal job and you know uh you kind of uh kind of you know stepped it up a little bit on from commission madx from our first year so but yeah thank you madam chair okay thank you uh commissioner command I think in November I will gabble Us in right but I won't gabble us out is that right okay okay thank you guys for your attention participation input and the meeting is now adjourned [Music] --------- ##VIDEO ID:AR3yGxWx7u0## everything that we do during the legislative process we know that we'll have a new presidential Administration don't know who but we know it'll be new um what will that look like for our federal legislative efforts and there's always the potential for changes in Congressional leadership uh your teams will touch on some of those things in a moment and finally Commissioners as requested at your meeting last month on September 17th today's materials also provide an update on the county contract lobbying Services uh there's several comparative analysis of like siiz counties including uh how much they spend on contract lobbying Services how much they secure through the state uh Appropriations process uh and through their legislative delegations for their local project requests and finally as requested by the board the workshop item provides options should the board wish to secure uh additional lobbying Services specifically focused on the County's Appropriations request with that I'll hand it over to Nikki thanks Ken starting off as we do each year Commissioners your Workshop materials provide a list of County projects proposed for this year's State Legislative line item funding request but I want to provide a very quick overview of the different Avenues we seek funding for County projects through the state budget each year prior to the start of session the county submits local project request to our local delegation to sponsor line item funding in the state budget the state Appropriations process is highly competitive as legislators receive many funding requests from their districts which which can include requests from numerous local governments nonprofits and private entities with this in mind to best position the county to secure competitive State funding these projects on your screen reflect those that have a one-o-one local match are shovel ready and align with the anticipated priorities of the legislature for the upcoming year in addition to line item funding the state budget also provides funding directly to counties to be administered through state agency Appropriations and through programmatic grants it's important to note Commissioners that the county leverages most of its state funding through these agency Appropriations which includes funding for things like fdot's annual work program and Grant programs administered through FD for water quality projects in fact during the last legislative session the governor vetoed a record $200 million in line item local water projects indicating that funding for these projects should be sought through fd's Grant programs but as noted in your Workshop materials the county has been successful in securing funding through many of these types of programs especially for major infrastructure projects most recently the county uh secured over $56 million in fiscal year 2024 through various state and federal agency Appropriations again demonstrating that this is the Avenue where we primarily secure funding through the state budget with this in mind in addition to our line item funding requests the workshop materials include an extensive list of County and blueprint projects that we will continue to pursue opportunities through state and federal agencies as they become available throughout the year so moving on to our proposed state policy priorities for the next session Commissioners each of the issues on the screen you'll recall from past years so I'm just going to touch on these at a very high level recognizing that our policy priorities are generally incremental in nature you can see our proposed list includes a number of long-standing priorities of the board such as advocating for the protection of our State Workforce as well as the restoration of Passenger rail service in North Florida which we also recommend in our federal priorities which you'll see in a moment but at the state level some of our priorities on the list also seek specific legislative action such as the creation of a reliable Statewide database to easily and accurately determine whether an individual is eligible to vote and as we do each year we've included support of the Florida associations of counties legislative platform for 2025 which includes issues of interest for All Counties such as preemptions to home roll Authority or unfunded mandates and cost shifts to counties and Commissioners up next I'll just briefly go over our federal priorities starting with with our first which centers on opportunities available under the infrastructure investment and job jobs act or the $1 trillion infrastructure Bill known as the iig which includes funding for local governments to address a variety of community needs such as new sewer connections as well as other local infrastructure Investments and as we discussed earlier there is some crossover between our state and federal priorities such as our support for passenger rail restoration along the Gulf Coast route we also have our other long-standing policy is issues such as support for the descheduling of marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act as well as support of the city's application for a foreign trade zone at the Tallahasse International Airport and as we do each year we've also included support of Na's legislative platform for the upcoming year and finally to wrap up this first segment here's a quick look ahead to some important dates coming up the next session of Congress will begin in early January which will follow the November election with the new Administration taking office in mid January and the state legisl legislative session will begin in March with their interim committee weeks kicking off in just under six weeks so with that commissioners I'll hand it over to Vicky and Pamela for an update on what to expect during the upcoming session of Congress and some considerations ahead of the upcoming election and then we'll hand it over to Jeff and his team to provide an update on the upcoming State legislative session and how the legislative priorities we've identified here today will take shape in the year ahead it's on I'm on oh I'm on thank you thank you very much I'm Vicky CR and it's an honor to be with you again today and to see you all here and to be in beautiful Tallahassee in such lovely weather um in the past years I've appeared before you with my colleague Sarah vilms she has since moved on since we were here last year to um a national trade Association and so I bringing my colleague Pamela Welsh with me who is my co-lead in our government relations particularly our state and local government relations practice and so I'm going to turn it over to her to talk first about the lame dock session of Congress which is coming up right after the election and then I will talk about next year um and the priorities that both campaigns presidential campaigns are talking about and how that may play out in a new Congress next year so Pam great thank you uh it's a pleasure to be here and I look forward to working with all of you uh Congress is scheduled to return on November 12th there are several must pass pieces of legislation that they need to address before the end of the year including the National Defense authorization the Army Court authorization and then most relevant to the county the farm bill which authorizes nutrition programs such as snap and Wick and also the fy2 budget we're currently operating the federal government is currently operating Under A continuing resolution uh that is set to expire on December 20th the first thing that they will need to address when they return is an emergency disaster supplemental to provide additional funding to FEMA the small business administration and USDA disaster programs um in light of the recent hurricanes and flooding resolution of the fy2 budget will largely depend on the election outcome should there be a republican sweep of the White House House and Senate we'll likely see a continuing resolution going into next year when the new Congress takes hold and they'll have more um more power over the process otherwise speaker Johnson has said that he will not do an Omnibus at the end of the year so we would likely see smaller packages or mini buses of spending bills before the end of the year Leon County has been very successful in securing Community Project funding or earmarks through the Appropriations process through Representatives Lawson and Dunn uh redistricting left the county solely in representative dun's district so with a larger area to cover and a limited number of requests he had to prioritize other projects in FY 25 but we're optimistic for FY 26 and look forward to working with the county to advance compelling and competitive projects and for the farm bill just to close out given all that Congress must address in those short um that short period of time we'll likely see an extension of the farm bill that will go into next year thanks Pam so with the election just two weeks away the race for the White House remains a tossup most recent polls former president um show former president Trump and vice president Harris tide more or less in the key seven swing states which are Arizona Georgia Michigan Nevada North Carolina Pennsylvania and Wisconsin control of the house is also a tossup right both House and Senate are very very close as you know currently um the Democrats must flip five seats for majority control and key races for the control of the house are in California New York and Pennsylvania and the Senate which is currently under Democratic control at 51 to 49 requires that Republicans must pick up two seats to take control and Democrats are defending 23 seats this year to Republicans 11 so it's a bigger challenge for the Democrats to keep control so what this augures is likely a continuation of the past two years with tight margins in the house and the Senate and limited legislative action except in areas of bipartisan consensus but as we've seen over the last four years um even there are a lot of opportunities to still pursue even in narrow margined Congress um like the bipartisan infrastructure bill that uh Nikki referred to um and the passage of the Federal Aviation Administration Bill and other pieces of significant legislation but it also means that the narrative will likely be driven by the temperament of the occupant of the White House so it is possible that you may see many more executive actions and then of course resulting potential legal challenges to the executive actions uh for the White House to move a lot of their agenda forward regardless we do know that some things will come up on the agenda next year um one is taxes so the Trump era tax cuts expire in 2025 so this will trigger either a renewal of those Provisions under a trump White House or an attempted tax reform under a Harris White House regardless it is very likely that whatever tax legislation is enacted it will include an expansion of low-income housing tax credit something that given the national affordable housing crisis which you also have in Leon County um is is a bipartisan is I think something that bipartisan Le can be agreed upon uh in the tax bill and of course there will be a lot of talk and and negotiations around the important things like tax rates if Trump president Trump wins may also include repealing portions of the inflation reduction act but if vice president Harris wins could include reinstatement of the child tax credit and other credits for low-income individuals um there is also a trade agenda that may be quite different depending on the two candidates under a trump presidency there is potential administrative action to raise us tariffs um and in sort of on the alternative side vice president Harris in contrast will likely continue current trade policies with support for Workforce Development and maybe some Pro labor policies and then using trade tools to address climate change internationally housing is something that I think will be addressed in the next Congress just because there is a national affordable housing crisis um president vice president Harris has proposed a $25,000 tax credit for firsttime home buyers uh she strongly supports the low-income housing tax credit which a number of Republicans do as well um and she claims she will increase housing Supply by 3 million units uh president Trump former president Trump has suggested that increasing large-scale deportations would reduce housing demands uh and drive down prices he has also proposed opening portions of federal land for Housing Development and supports easing zoning restrictions on the small business uh ISS area vice president Harris has suggested expanding access to Affordable loans and grants for small businesses especially for women minorities and historically disadvantaged groups in underserved areas uh which include increasing the startup tax deduction for small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 um she also has an opportunity agenda which includes providing 1 million forgivable $1 million forgivable loan loans to Black entrepreneurs to start businesses providing Education and Training to help attain family sustaining goals jobs and the launch of a National Health Equity initiative initiative to address health issues disproportionately impacting African-Americans um but again all of this that is aspirational on the part of the presidential um uh campaigns will need to go through Congress to be approved and depends on the makeup of Congress um immigration will also be a big topic for the the next year or two uh the second Trump Administration will resume border wall construction and try to enact mass deportations and heavily restrict political asylums um and vice president Harris would try to work with Congress to recreate the bipartisan immigration reform measure which Senator Lanford championed last year and did not pass it out of uh Congress uh and she also proposes more support for Community case management and provide Pathways for dreamers to become citizens and then infrastructure as Nikki alluded um the infrastructure investment and jobs Act is historic um infrastructure investment the bipartisan infrastructure Bill does expire in 2026 so why that won't be on the agenda next year people will be starting to think about how they want to reauthorize that legis ation and whether it will be a simple Transportation surface Transportation reauthorization or if it will be slightly more ambitious package it likely won't be as ambitious as the one that um that was enacted four years ago um and we will want to be aggressive I think in approaching this particularly to make sure that um water issues particularly sewer issues and septic to sewer are included in any infrastructure package and so it's not just a narrow Transportation infrastructure package and also water rate assistance which um was something that was created during covid years but has since laed might also be included in it so I want to thank the excellent team for Nikki and foran here uh you have great team on the ground and um we it's a pleasure working with them it's a pleasure working with you and we look forward to working with you to enact your agenda that you're going to approve today thank you thanks Vicki Jeff thank you thank you Nikki and Ken thank you for the introduction that was a very very informative overview again Jeff shy the capital Alliance Group um uh thanks again for the opportunity to represent the county been doing this for a while and uh it is uh it is one of our top priorities our client base and so we we welcome that I want to introduce our team here um we got Taylor beill as you all know the best dress guy in the capital probably usually uh Sean Pitman and Sam Peltier with Pitman Law Group thanks to your help last year in terms of kind of ping up a little bit of our of our contract um we added Sean and Sam and they've been very helpful this will be really our kind of first year kind of working full Full Tilt together starting early on on on the County's agenda so we want to thank you that so I'm going to go over you know just a quick overview of what's Happening from from last year's budget and kind of talk about you know what's happening in terms of Elections and Leadership most of you know this a little bit of the budget and then key issues that we anticipate will be coming back next year and then potentially uh how how the Leon County priorities kind of fit into some of the discussions we've had with House and Senate leadership as well so obviously number one on the agenda for what's going to have an impact is the presidential race I mean it'll certainly transform what's going on at the federal level at at the state level and at the local level depending on who you know who wins it'll Empower those particular uh different stakeholder groups political stakeholder groups party stakeholder groups uh and have an impact that'll that certainly will reverberate uh throughout the state Governor Dan sanis last two years in office uh he is still uh he's still pushing hard uh he travels every day to someplace certainly post hurricane he's been very visible and I frankly I think he's done a fabulous job in terms of mobilizing FEMA uh local communities Etc after these two major hurricanes that have gone through but he's on his last two years um and and as you can imagine uh you you you can almost hear it over in the capital and around downtown uh after this session uh the new governor's race begins it's already kind of beginning but you'll see it in full force and and my colleagues can speak a little bit about this I'll just tick through this uh we got we have a year and a half to go to the to the election uh but certainly in terms of potential candidates Wilton Simpson ad commissioner Jimmy Patrona CFO Matt Gates uh one of our regional representatives represent Byron Donalds from the Naples area um and even first lady Casey Dan sis has been mentioned I mean yeah yeah yeah the Attorney General as well on the dside mayor of Miami Danielle LaVine Cava Jason pizo Senate Majority Leader uh Senate minority leader um everybody's trying to get buddy Dyer to run mayor of Orlando constantly and even John Morgan has been mentioned you know so so it would be Morgan and Morgan in Florida but uh we go that and the legislative races are you know obviously going to going to shape things um on the on the leadership in the house side speaker D Danny Perez from Miami he's a good friend of ours we worked with him on a variety of issues he's carried some legislation for us he'll be coming in in November uh and we believe that representative Stan M McClure Larry McClure will will be the Appropriations chair on the Senate President side Senator Ben Al Brittain will be Senate President uh he's Senate President D now great guy uh rural Focus he's a citrus grower um and I and I'll mention when we get to our things we we've had several conversations with him on things that he's going to prioritize that I think are consistent with what some of the things that Leon County will see uh again November election we'll have an organizational meeting where committee chairs committee members uh memberships will be assigned so it's hard to tell exactly right now where our local delegation will sit as well as as well as folks throughout the state we'll mention just in terms of tight races if you haven't seen a commercial about Corey Simon on television just let let me right off the bat um there are probably three tight Senate races Republican Senate races Senator Simon is one of them um uh so there's a lot of support going into his race versus darl Parks um and on the house side there about 10 swing potential swing races on the Democratic side uh as you know representative tant who's been a fabulous supporter for Leon County and our delegation is a little bit in that crosshairs but but I think I think she'll she'll Prevail um if the if some if 10 Democrats win the Super majority in the house changes which makes a big difference on preemption bills and a variety of other things funding bills um again as Nikki mentioned organizational session November 19th interim committees they come back in December for a couple of days and then really kick things off in January uh kind of quick budget issues you know we had a we had a we had a pretty robust budget last year 117 billion Governor vetoed about a billion we got about 116 um and we'll kind of talk about some why some of those vetos happened in Mass but uh um Revenue estimating conference for the state we pay attention to that in terms of what the revenue estimates going forward are uh a year ago it looked as if things were were going to be declining in terms of the state to revenue uh estimates U things have picked up economy is stronger uh inflation is going down the state's Investment Portfolio and the pension fund the State Board Administration has gone up significantly as you can imagine if you get stock portfolios you'll you'll know that so we're probably anticipate having $3 billion more uh over the next two years uh which is which is really a change from from last year um obviously there's $21 billion in new uh in new expenditure New Impact cost demands expense demands over three to five years um but if we focus on next year we're going to talk about key issues now uh as you can imagine hurricane recovery rebuilding um in terms just in terms of the cost of debr removal of of rebuilding of infrastructure rebuilding is is is is front and center is going to be front and center in this year's legislative process um Taylor Taylor's done some research on this uh about 200,000 uh in claims from just from Milton about $2.3 billion so this this leads into not only property insurance uh issues which have been front and center for a couple of years there have been some attempts by the legislature to to address that uh there are a lot of folks out there who who don't think enough has been done uh and as you can imagine with this post hurricane impact on on homeowners uh it's going to be it's going to be a big issue again this year and it's it's it's it's a challenging issue we've got some clients in that space who are trying to help help resolve that um that uh that environment but uh but along with that will come building code zoning issues in terms of rebuilding Coastal communities flood flood zone issues flood plane issues so for you know folks in McCulla County and folks on the coastal areas you'll see probably um a big focus on what what will we allow to be built at going forward so we got property insurance post storm building code zoning flood zones Etc and then one you probably don't hear hear about but may not be prominent here in Leon County is a condominium reform uh won't go into it too much but as you can as you know after the Surf Side collapse legislation was passed requiring assessments I mean real hard assessments people got to come up with assessments for maintenance building it's it's driving people out of their condos all over the state particularly in South Southwest Southeast Florida supressing sales suppressing sales so that's going to be big uh next is you know we've got we've got some interesting amendments on the ballot uh 1 2 3 4 five I'm not mistaken um you're seeing a lot of that on TV as well whatever passes and we we we're tracking these polling on those whatever passes of course the legislature will have to come back and Implement so uh medical Mar I mean the adult youth recreational marijuana number three uh Reproductive Rights number four are Hot Topics um and in both in both cases there will be some legislative effort coming back to to address those affordable housing huge continues to be big we worked on the live local act Senate President pedo for the last three years very active in in the space of affordable housing um they'll be coming back when that hurricane rebuilding Etc uh but if still a major crisis everywhere in the State of Florida uh and Florida a you're reading that uh commissioner Simpson and of course Senator Albritton who's a citrus rural uh senator uh that's going to be a big issue the agricultural um uh economy has has been very very impacted and then some last a bills from last year that you know we we we helped many instances defeat will be coming back and that includes the cola requirement the cost of requirement and the retirement thing um these are kind of specific to Leon County I'm talking about term limits for County Commissioners uh Municipal rate utility reform we we've talked a little bit about that in the past Monument removal restrictions that ties into uh some of the some of the issues that LE county has looked at in the past millage increases requirements employee wage regulations sovereign immunity caps etc etc so um you know that that's kind of a quick snapshot Sean Taylor you want to comment and anything there um Sam thank you and um good afternoon everybody uh apologize for being um late I was over at the Florida State University School where our firm does their legal work so I had a good excuse I can get a note if you want me to but uh happy to be here and um listen first of all thank you for um um the opportunity to work with this team um we Sam and I work for dve Broward and Palm Beach counties up here in Tallahassee uh for many many years almost 20 years for all of them um and um it's a delight to be able to work for where you live so uh and you've got staff and with the firm that's been representing you really really um strong Professionals in this area and uh and I will tell you one of the things I love about Capital Alliance Group is um the um intention to detail and the level of um um of attention they give to this client that's important if you work over there um that you have a team that works for you every single day because you only have 60 days to make something happen um I I do want to illuminate um when we talk about the increase in Revenue um potentially for the the next couple years particularly next year um the Amendments matter some too um if Amendment Three were to pass you're talking about uh a revenue increase of somewhere between 150 million to $420 million um um that will add to the to um the the state in the state revenue um you're also talking about a a a savings um par particularly Mr long of um the judicial area and uh processes and what you save from um not having to prosecute um folks for small amount of marijuana we always have to pay attention to those things because that new Revenue are things that can help you gauge and and and can help you uh decide where you want to go and in talking to your your local folks about how they help to make sure those dollars are going to things that that we can benefit from and then the second thing I will add to what Mr shy has already illuminated and that is the real opportunity here for agriculture issues um I think when you look at the Senate President being a big ad guy and you look at the fact that the current current commissioner is has greater aspirations uh real opportunity for us to meet these leaders where they are and understand their agendas and and then it's our job to come to you and say hey this is what they're going to be putting money into we need to think of projects that are in line with their interest so really really happy to be working with this team both internally and externally and also with with all of you all did I get it thanks Sean yet it's a pleasure work with with h Sean and Sam and their team they're uh very focused got a lot of relationships and it it's been very productive so far and again we're looking forward to it next year I will just mention lastly um in our conversations we've had coners personal conversations with Senate President D all Britain and interesting enough his his his to share with this with you if you had to guess what his top priority was and I he said he he goes to sleep at night worrying about kids who aren't being fed and this is that's that's a different perspective a little bit from from some of the voices over there so that's his number one priority and number two is water you know septics areum are water issue so I think our some of our issues here are going to be going to be front and center for them and of course post hurricane uh the emergency backup generators is probably much more prominent and since most some of those people across the street live through this one maybe maybe almost two of them uh you know I think they're they're very sensitive to potentially this evacuation any evacuated yeah exactly right so let me stop there and again so we' got some comments once once obviously when we get into this and again appreciate the opportunity to to be here we didn't talk about the policy issues but that's kind of not what we're here for going forward so um all right V for it Commissioners moving on to the comparative analysis section and the information requested by the board the following slides will show you what other like-sized counties spend on their contractual lobbying services and the state Appropriations they were able to secure through local project requests as you know funding requests through the legislature can be affected by many factors including the priorities of legislative leadership which you've heard about today uh the presiding committee structure and presiding chairs of the Appropriations Committee the political influence of legislative delegation members and of course the priorities of the Governor there's a lot of data and Analysis in your Workshop materials today Nikki has about five slides left in the presentation which highlight the comparative analysis data we also thought it'd be helpful to include uh the city of Tallahassee and some of the tables data I just share that as a warning so you don't think we elevated the city to County status and uh you should the board wish to expand or modify its contractual lobbying Services the presentation concludes with several options ranging from issuing an RFP to hire additional lobbyists for the upcoming session to going out to the market for an RFP for both state and federal lobbying contracts for 2026 um I'll turn it back to Nikki to bring us home and then hand it back to the chair all right so to Jump Right In uh on the table on your screen provides an overview of how much like-sized counties are spending on lobbying Services as well as the city for comparison purposes as you can see total expenditures range from $60,000 to up over2 200,000 which is a broad range with leyon County on the higher end at $185,000 for its state and federal lobbyist as shown Lake County and the city both have their state and federal lobbyists under one contract but when looking at just State lobbying expenditures leyon County Falls right in the middle with an annual contract rate of $85,000 but that's just the big picture Commissioners this table along with additional analysis is available in your Workshop materials also as requested by the board your Workshop materials provide an analysis of how we compare to our Pure counties in securing funding in the state budget but as noted earlier it's important to note the various avenues that counties receed funding through the state budget each year the county leverages most of its state funding through agency Appropriations again this includes things like ship funding for affordable housing to the millions of dollars we secure annually for septic to sewer projects in addition to State Appropriations and programmatic funding we also submit line item funding requests for specific County projects to be sponsored by our local delegation members which again is a highly competitive process with a lot of Dynamics at play which I'll come back to in just a moment but a at a high level the table on your screen provides an overview of the funding secured for local project line item requests submitted by leg siiz County's last session as you can see commissioners in addition to leyon County the city in St L SE did not receive line item funding in the final state budget this past session meanwhile for the counties that did receive funding these Awards range from $125,000 to $20 million in St John's County is certainly an outlier as you'll recall from the previous table they spend the least on state lobbying Services yet they receive the most line item funding but it's worth noting that the speaker of the house and the fiscal policy chair in the Senate were both members of the St John's County delegation and it's not uncommon for legislative leaders to bring home big money for local projects we also see received a request for additional information looking back at funding secured in Prior years and the table on the screen provides just a snapshot of the total line item funding awarded among our peers since 2021 again this table just shows the bottom line of funding requests that were awarded following the Governor's vetos in past years which demonstrates that that line item funding can be very Dynamic with some counties receiving no funding in some years While others just get one funded projects and others multiple again you can see St John's County is an outlier leading in the number of projects funded year after year which aligns with the tenure of their delegation members in leadership positions in recent Years also as shown in the table Leon County was able to successfully secure over $500,000 in Project funding across 2021 and 2022 and a full breakdown of the County's funding request over recent years is also provided in your Workshop materials and finally as requested by the board your Workshop materials include an option to issue an RFP for additional State lobbying Services specifically for the purpose of securing State funding during the upcoming legislative session as detailed in your Workshop this would be in addition to the County's existing state lobbyist if approved we would issue an RFP to allow the additional lobbying firm to come on board prior to the start of session in March uh it should be noted that this option would be an unbudgeted mid-year expenditure so therefore would require the use of the general fund contingency account in addition the item provides an alternative option to provide additional funding to Capital Alliance Group to subcontract additional lobbying Services during the upcoming session this option would not require the county to issue an RFP which would allow the capital Alliance Group to hire additional support before the start of interim committee weeks in December this option would also be an unbudgeted mid-year expenditure and require the use of the general fund contingency account alternatively the board may also wish to consider the plan consolidation of the county state and federal lobbyist contracts currently the county state and federal lobbyist contracts provide for a base term of three years with two one-year extensions the County's first of two one-year extensions for the state contract began on October 1 and the first one-ear sension for the federal contract is set to begin on January 1 both contracts provide for automatic renewal unless the county provides at least 30 days notice prior to the expiration of the current term should the board wish to pursue this option staff is recommending issuing an RFP after the 2025 legislative session for the board selection of the lobbying firm by this summer this schedule would align with the fiscal year 2026 budget process and provide the necessary time to provide the required notice with the two exist existing lobbying firms Commissioners it's important to note that these options are provided for the board's consideration only and are not exhaustive and the board has the discretion to exercise any or none of the options provided so with that in mind uh we are recommending the board's approval of the proposed 2025 state and federal legislative priorities and we seek any additional direction from the board on these priorities as well as the County's state and federal lobbyist contracts so with that we're happy to answer any questions thank you all Mr County Administrator any followup okay Commissioners we want to certainly thank our state and federal lobbyists for the analysis for the presentations as well as for the written material Mr County Administrator for your staff uh for providing this information now Madam County attorney I believe since we are in a workshop we're not restricted to having a motion uh and second on the floor before we can discuss and ask questions am I correct that's correct okay thank you very much um I want to just give Defence to commissioner caban he raised some of the issues uh related to our our lobbyist contract uh commissioner command are you prepared you want me to sure I can I can jump in now I acknowledge you at this point um for clarification we need a motion um to to open and discuss freely no because we're in a workshop we okay thank you madam chair um before we get started I want to pass these around um to the board briefly um it's pretty much very similar to what um was on the screen there's some parts highlighted I think we have a couple extras how many you got two yeah two need two more then I have some for you all as well one ex thank um before I get started I do want to give um Nikki Peyton a big shout out um this is your first legislative Workshop right sitting at the head of the table second I think you've done a great job and I appreciate all the work that you guys have done in um securing State funding and just the year round efforts I really do appreciate it I appreciate our our federal and and state lobbyists as well I know that uh this this takes a lot of work and a lot of late nights and a lot of early early mornings especially during session um for me I I brought this up last meeting um because my position is always going to be what I think is best for Leon County taxpayers and right now what we' saw in the agenda and I requested some additional information from staff I have 2022 in here 2023 and in 2022 Leon County ranked last of eight in approvals by the legislature um in like-sized counties and six of eight and a total approvals in 2023 we ranked last of eight in approvals by the legislature Leon County ranked last of eight in total approvals and in 2024 Leon County ranked six of eight in approvals by the legislature in Leon County TI in last of eight in total approvals so what what I kind of want to bring up to the board is this one I don't believe that Leon County taxpayers deserve to be six out of eight or eight out of eight Leon County taxpayers state pay money into the state budget every single day we all pay money to the state budget every single day I'm happy to see that we get agency funding um but when it comes to our priority projects um we're not getting anything um and it's bothersome to me because the State of Florida has been flushed with cash over the last four years the tourism is booming our economy's been booming um Florida has had very Prof profitable years uh the state budget's been bringing more Revenue than anticipated and if this is the best that we're going to get over the last four years and this is our result I think that's a problem and I think it's worth having a conversation um ultimately I want to be where the board wants to be um I uh you I brought up last meeting I think that we should look at putting out a request for qualifications or an RFP out to bring in an additional firm um solely for Appropriations um you know I Madam chair I I I don't I can make a motion I can I kind of want to hear where the board's at um i' rather yeah well few more comments yes ma' I I agree um I think really what it boils down to is the longer we put like if I'm a betting man looking at these numbers I think in 2025 legislative SL session we get no money um and so for me we can we can push this off to next summer we can do an RFP next summer um or we could do it now but I I think we owe it to taxpayers to have a conversation um there's a lot of money in the state budget we have a lot of priority projects Commissioners we all have projects in our districts and I think there's money out there that we should be getting that we're not currently getting um so Madam chair I'll pass it back to you thank you thank you um commissioner caban and let's hear some other comments commissioner 'I thank you madam chair um I actually have some questions on our priorities uh before I get to questions and comment on the Contracting issue um looking forward to um next year and I think this would be under the federal last year we talked about efforts to reduce past exposure um for for people and the Public Health crisis with it have we seen any progress uh in funding or policy that um could impact on our community was that to the federal delegation okay it's to you madam chair and then you tell them where to go uh we have seen some progress with the EPA uh uh developing rules on pasas um and some legislation primarily around airports um the F in the FAA reauthorization which passed last year um this is something that continues to be on our radar and we will continue to work um with you on that thank you um my next question on priorities is uh following up from something we had at our last board meeting where we had a report on our the need to update or expand our detention center and part of the need to in the future was to reduce our average length of stay at the Detention Center which the the main process they thought to improve was to improve speed and efficiency through the judicial and court system and so um is there any opportunity or effort in Florida or at the at the federal level that provides new resources or judicial openings or anything that we could leverage to help um move that process faster to achieve um both Justice for people faster and the necessary reduction in length stay can we get more money uh for courts to have time to process a couple things Commissioners we'll talk about the facility itself um that's one where we play defense a lot of years um about 2 three years back the legislature was looking at changing uh the the definition basically of what is a local jail versus a state prison right now it's if you're sentenced to more than 12 months you go to a estate prison anything less the County Jail uh there was conversations about increasing that to 18 months staying in the county jail that would have a significant impact on the jail population when the Consultants were here last month uh and they talked about all of their uh their formulas and forecasts and they said hey now this is assuming you know everything stays the same and there's no big changes that would be a big change to to all of those forecasts if if now we had to accommodate inmates for 18 months rather than 12 um second part uh trying to think mental health uh is is something that the you know we've moved to this model of outpatient facility our patient care if you will um we're always looking at our insurance expenditures our our Primary Health Care expenditures for the County's uninsured program um and that's hit us over the years in the jail as well uh we budget money for inmate Healthcare in the jail sometimes it goes over and and we have to uh write the budget um but we have been following efforts at the federal level to allow uh Medicaid to uh apply to inmates in the county jail there's always been this revolving door problem of somebody who may be eligible and on enrolled in Medicaid uh then gets into the county jail they're no longer on Medicaid and we pay the full bill for their daily costs and any emergency costs at the hospitals then they get out and there's a delay in enrollment back again so yeah we're following um having that Medicaid uh remain eligible uh to to inmates that are incarcerated Point yes um commissioner madx uh thank you madam chair K when you when you brought up the Medicaid thing made me start thinking about um the rights of of uh inmates U whether they be at jail or prison that are taken away could you refresh me on what all those what all those are I know they they lose Medicaid that kind of what what other things are you thinking voting rights sir are you thinking Voting Rights Voting Rights is there anything else besides voting rights Medicaid that they lose they they can't be appli you you wouldn't get any SNAP benefits uh while you're incarcerated you'd have to go out and and apply for those things again and and that happens before conviction correct I believe so um you guys no certain I believe because you could be you could be in the county jail for example if you had a um you're charged with a violent crime and you're remanded in the county jail you could be in there for 6 months right until you're or longer until your case is determined yeah this this is probably a bigger issue that that we probably need to discuss at a different at a at a different date but um one of the things I'm I'm interested in and you joging my memory and I think I thought about it maybe even a year or two ago is those rights that are taken away prior to conviction what what do we do right there is there something that we can do to move the ball on on some rights being uh not taken away prior to conviction versus those that are taken away after um like medicate and things of that nature because I mean you are innocent until proven guilty so my my my thoughts there is if you're innocent until proven guilty why are we taking your rights away before you're proven guilty so um Madam chair I don't know if that be the right this be the right Arena to have that conversation but um maybe at some point if I don't know if we added to a legislative uh priority or something like that it's something that that's on my mind I love for us to have a conversation about thank you commission Madison I apologize commissioner had were you come were you finish did you have more questions oh no I'm going to finish ma'am oh okay and thank you for the for the uh followup uh Comm matters commissioner minor oh no no I'm sorry I still have more oh you did oh that's what I was asking if you had more sorry okay go ahead commissioner Keith um moving on to sort of the the what I think will be the bigger discussion today about um lobbying firm and Effectiveness um I have some questions you know we we we have this information and some of the information we got ahead of time is talking about line item funding in budgets we also learned and showed summaries of agency funding where we seem to do quite well um my question uh Madam chair for you to direct wherever as is appropriate is there are also defensive things there have been some bills that come every year that would have significant financial or home rule impacts to the county and um part of having a representative and a lobing firm is not getting surprised and playing defense and so do we know what some of the large impact that we avoided um last year and and coming years on the county by having um our current Representatives uh yes uh last year through the avoidance of the fs Cola green statement as well as um the proposed property tax exemption increase uh we approximately Dodge about $20 million in cost shifts just utility mhm can I come on you're on you on thank you um yeah so I think as as as Nikki pointed out there's you know there's a number of subsid of policy bills tax bills in particular which have you know a huge fiscal impact and I think she's mentioned those we work very closely with fa on those you know Le county is our only local government client it's a top priority so we don't you know we got private clients very very focused on this so when when you know when the issue like this Municipal U uh uh rate tax bill which would affect the city County's relationship and or the cola you know we work very closely go to see our key people not just our delegation to try to try to soften the potential impact of those so there's that um in addition to that I think you know just and and I want to come back to commissioner kab's comments just for a second but um you know there are you never one priority across the board forever has been protecting state workforces right we we have worked very hard with with with when when Senator you know osley was in when when Senator Cory came in with senator represent tant Etc on on ensuring that State Workforce is paid adequately you may remember the old lard brick comment from many years ago right but now there's a very strong interest in making sure that state employees across the board and Leon County has a disproportionate number of those so we got 2021 $13 per an hour increase a billion dollar in 2022 a 5% pay increase for all state employees Dro program extension in 23 and and again another 3% bump so you know we we worked on all those which have have a significant impact um so I I I can wait to you know come in on on the spreadsheet here and just in context and my colleagues can I mean when you're in the Appropriations project just just in terms of these percentages you're showing we get we got six requests from the county last year we got four of them funded that's we got four of them in the in the legislative budget that's that's four out of six so so whether whether they're $500,000 or $2 million you know it depends on those come in different silos they come in education Silo they come in transportation silos so the success rate on the project request is different than the money that you put in there which and I I understand your calculation I'm not trying to this this is one way of showing it for sure um we we know listen we did have some vetos and we could expl the governor vetoed 126 of the 240 water projects we had two of them right so to some extent you I mean the question is you know are we good with the governor's office I'm just going to be straight up about this I think you know very good but some of the some of the types of projects that we were requesting and they're some of them are very different this year fall into these categories of water projects where he said listen I got $150 million at D for water projects you need to apply there again vetoed 126 the list is five pages long of water projects they so two two to your point commissioner um the line item didn't get veted got vetoed but we got them in the budget but you know we went afterwards and got and got grant funding for them and and just a quickly piggyback off of that to to commissioner turn your mic on make sure your mic is on the button it was on you see I don't see sorry commissioner it's on it's Illuminating okay but commissioner caban what what projects that that Madam okay I'm sorry commissioner o'keef was asking a question okay yeah thank you and I've got the answer um that I needed okay thank you do you have follow-up questions no questions I have my comments on it and then y'all be done with me okay thank you commissioner o' okay so um comments and I'll be done um oh you do yes uh okay um thank you that answers my question you know my thoughts on this on on changing at this point is um I I really oppose it uh for a number of reasons and so one thing is when I look at let me preface with this there are no red or blue counties so our county is filled up with conservative and Republican and Democrat people but for Simplicity sake when I say right or blue I mean the majority of the voters um and when I look at line atom Appropriations it it doesn't look like it line up with who's the lobes it looks like it lines up whether it's a red blue County um everyone on this list we got ahead of time the the red County got some big bucks and and especially St John's for example where it mattered on who had influence and so I'm all for spending good money after good if we know it'll be an effective outcome but I don't think we have that guarantee um my thought is you know this just isn't good business practice we if we wanted a different firm June was the opportunity where we would say hey we don't want to renew the 2-year contract and I don't think we should go around when we only have 2-year renewals on a contract saying we renewed it for 2 years three months ago but now we didn't think of it until now we want it we want to switch it up and change it um if we want to now I'm all for with any vendor if we've had them since 2008 in this case when our renewals come up I say we go out to bid because we got to make sure we get the most competitive but we the renewal on this do the standard process is in 2 years we had our chance in in June and so um the other thing is you know we talk about all the things we want to do to help our community um with a budget with a limited budget and this is uh adding currently would be an unfund would be general fund uh contingency which I don't think this is worth it cuz I mean I'm new to politics but the numbers and the vote counts and and the voter registration counts seem to not lie to me um or that's what they seem to make sense to me um and then you know I think again um I've got no particular love for this vendor or the other vendor I just don't like the business practice of coming in after the fact shortly before we need people um and saying you know we want something different when we we could have done this in good order three months ago um and then I don't know where we're going with it um I'm curious if we know if we have who we would want in mind or if we are going to a bid um and then that has to come back and get approved or whatnot I mean session starts pretty quick and uh my only concern my other only concern is if we move forward with predetermining we aren't going to continue or we are going to assign another lobbyist at the state level and let our current lobbyists relax and and no offense relax and collect the contract um we might undermine the effectiveness of our current lobbyists if the people they talk with know that we're checked out so um that's my thoughts and why I don't think this is a good idea at this time um during this current renewal thank you thank you uh commissioner o'i and there certainly variables a lot for us to consider um depending on what action we decided to to take commissioner Miner thank you very much Madam chair um I've got some comments on the legislative priorities and then also some comments on the comparative analysis let me start with the um legislative priorities on the federal side uh Miss cran Miss Welch good to have you here um just a quick question and I can talk about this offline with the two of you but just want to bring it up here um this last um application cycle with the US Department of Transportation uh our ctpa which is our Metropolitan planning organization um submitted a a Grant application with usdot under the Safe Streets for all uh program uh for drawing down $17 million for safety improvements on Northern row um we didn't get that accepted this time around but um based on conversations we've had with usdot we want to apply next year uh we were given uh High marks for the content of the application we just think we need to apply for it again next year the city of Tallahassee actually has done that they they got an award this year but it was their second attempt um according to the the the the GR program parameters they don't necessarily don't they don't necessarily encourage lobbying for the grant Award right you fill in the application you see what do brings back to you putting that aside I mean acknowledging that um do you think there are some things that you and and and the firm could do to help us in terms of working with our Consultants that are completing the application with our Mo to help increase the odds of us getting that application and and we don't need to spend a lot of time on it here but I did want to bring it up now see what your preliminary comments are and then perhaps talk with you offline absolutely um thank you commissioner uh yes I think we can be of assistance to you uh first of all you want to request a debrief which you you may have already done and so you have the information you need for a successful application um one of the things that we always encourage is that you go to the department and meet with them not specifically on this project but on the overall Transportation uh direction that you're going in and and show how this project fits into everything else that you're doing so you're not specifically advocating for that particular project because they discourage that but they do see the context in which uh this project would fit and so we're happy to to set that up virtually or in person for you to just sit down and talk with um with the Department that'd be great and and and I'll I'll work with you on on the setting up that meeting but I think it might be helpful to have you join us at the ctpa and maybe perhaps even our Consultants to talk about that but what you're telling us is very similar to some of the things we heard about during the USD uh debrief so thanks very much I'll follow up with you on that later so um the next thing uh thank you very much to to both of you moving on to the State Legislative priorities um I want to thank uh the commission here I want to thank the board for adding to our Amtrak rail restoration the uh the element there that talks about the southern rail commission if you all remember last time I was talking about this the southern rail commission is comprised of Alabama Mississippi and Louisiana they were formed in 1986 this is a u multi-state um commission that advocates for restoring passenger rail among other things to the southern states um a lot of experts will tell us we really should have Florida become a member of the Southern rail Commission because then we can use the power of a multi-state coalition to leverage that power and bring down federal dollars for the restoration passenger rail um at the Florida Association of counties they have adopted preliminarily speaking um uh a legislative proposal to make that a priority at the Florida Association counties in November they're having a legislative conference I believe that policy is on consent for approval so what that means is that the Florida Association of counties is poised to have joining the SRC be a legislative priority at the state level for Florida ass counties um I just want to thank all of you for your support here at leyon County for helping make that happen um in addition um I'm working with a team of folks other County Commissioners from around the state that are working on a letter that will go to the governor and leaders in the legislature urging them to have Florida join the southern rail commission sometime before our November meeting I'd like to email you a copy of that letter um have you take a look at it and then at that November County Commission meeting ask you if you'd be willing to sign on to that letter our goal is to get uh dozens of uh local elected officials throughout North Florida south Florida signing on to that letter so that we could present that to the governor and the legislature prior to session urging them to join the southern rail commission this is a letter that is uh being worked on in a bipartisan fashion both Republicans Democrats are working on this there's a lot of enthusiasm in North Florida specifically but also some interest down in South Florida too to to finally connect North Florida with passenger rail that will be established on mobile and also going up uh the eastern coast through Jacksonville right now there's nothing in between so we're trying to change that so I just want to let you all know I'll be sending that letter to you by email please take a look at it at your convenience and then at November at the County Commission meeting then I'll ask if you'd like to sign on to that letter joining the other County Commissioners from around the state that are doing that um now on to the comp comparative analysis um just a couple of questions Nikki as you said and and as um our County Administrator said during the briefings we we do a really good job of getting the agency Appropriations about $60 million a year um that's terrific and that's that is by far the bulk of what we get from the state um how does that compare to what other similar counties are doing in terms of their agency Appropriations if we get 60 million dollar what are some of the other counties around the state doing that are similar to ours [Music] we we don't have a a a way to track that Statewide we we collected that information internally we know what we're getting from different state agencies so that wasn't something we can do in the comparative analysis what we did jump into as an example uh we looked at the fdot work program we thought that would be a transportation funding would be an important issue you can draw some comparisons but there are limitations given the size of the county and who has rail who has a port who has airports uh the vehicle mileage of interstates so there is some differences um in your materials you have the comparison of all those like-sized counties that we had up earlier uh alatua count is probably our best Pier just in terms of the the makeup and demographics of of the county that sounds good I imagine you know there's a lot of factors that come into play per capita the Dynamics whether an airport as you said you know that that type of thing so I understand okay um next question um um again I'm I'm going to ask a question that relies on about 50 different factors that are unknown but um when it comes to the line item Appropriations from the legislature the prospects for the upcoming session a lot of factors at play you know what are the priorities for the speaker the incoming speaker the incoming Senate President um what other projects we might be competing against as best as you can say as best as you can surmise what do you think our prospects are for Appropriations in the legislature next next session for for Leon County I'll comment and then show and de everybody can comment as well um you know issue one is what's the budget going to look like you know as I mentioned there's $3 billion more now you know inflation was a big issue last year and they were concerned it was going to increase so I think um and they have about 18 billion in reserve just F Hurricane's going to impact a lot of that we'll see we'll see what that really plays out but as I mentioned I think um you know we have a great delegation Senator Simon's in a in in a tough race he's been very helpful staff is fabulous we work with him all the time but he's got he's got 13 counties he put in 200 requests for funding last year he did he did our six right which is which is you know to his credit uh represent T's got three counties so they have to kind of you know allocate their but I think if I had to kind of just drill down here looking at what you've got here obviously as I mentioned backup generators I think is a is a pretty good is positioned well water projects are positioned well um for everything that the Senate President has told me for sure um the appalachi regional park is a unique iconic um asset for the the state you put a lot of money into it I think that matching you know that potential matching that you've already invested uh makes that positive you know when you when you get up you know our our representative schau is part of our delegation but he really focuses on you know his Gulf County Etc but he's very helpful because he's an appropriation subcommittee chair so on education issues he's he's typically very positive um as I mentioned we you know we the requests we've gotten over the last year are really in the 300 500,000 R they're not $3 million they're not $2 million um uh speaker rener you know pulled down a lot of money last year in large chunks of so I think when when you get into uh Fairground beautification at$ 13.5 million that's a big ask right that's that that gets to be a big ask and so that's got a lot of explaining to do and I think the uniqueness I know commissioner Proctor this is this is important to you what that really means for the community has got to be explained um uh to to the Appropriations St all of whom live here I mean for the most part all the staff live here they get it we spend a lot of time with them so if I had to kind of tier you know triage them right that'd be water projects um uh the uh generators uh appti uh Regional Park and then uh you know libraries have taken a little bit of a beating over the last couple of years uh for a variety of reasons um so I put you know that and then you know we we we can we can put really hard on on the fairgrounds issue but it's you know that's that's a lot of money if it was a university or a college asking for the money it's a little different right but but typically um those types of allocations from for line item issues unless it's put into an agency request you know who was asking for it um or Andor a like it was if it was D or fish and wildlife or something uh it's got a little better choice so hope that answered your questions yeah it it does thank you very much Mr you want to Jay you want to come in a little better because we're on the team so a lot better no I you know listen I it's that's a hard it's hard to answer that because listen if you think what goes on over there is is a onetick pony it's not it's not one-dimensional um and any any way of looking it like that is is not reality I mean a lot of factors come into play and strategy is really important the amount of time that that somebody or a team has at working your issues relationships are everything um trying to to connect um where you're trying to go with where they're going is also very important the amount of money that's available is important what you ask for and how many of those are important who is elected in the area um to represent and make those those budget requests extremely important so election Cycles become really important um so there there's just a lot of Dynamics and I can go on and on um I think the one thing that we try to take advantage of is um and I think Jeff sort of alluded to it is realizing that this is still a very staff-driven process even the Appropriations process so the the the leadership will come in and say I got to take home this or that but at the end of the day there's a lot of staff that are moving pieces and making decisions and guess what they're our neighbors so you know utilizing you all as our partners in this becomes really important to you know the people that we go to church with and the people that we we see in the grocery stores and we see in the Parks and we see at events they're making decisions over there and when you don't connect that you're making the job much harder so you know it's hard to say what our chances are they're the same as they were uh except every year is different every single year is different and you have to be Eng AED enough to know that so that you can lean in where necessary and at the and at the end of the day you all have some responsibility for that too Nicki and the team because you know a lot of local governments go and ask for things that would never that are never going to happen and it's our job to tell you that's not going to happen you might not like us saying that but it's our job to say yeah they're not going to do that correct and some other year they might yeah you know this year the Chief of Staff has been for the speaker has been living in Tallahassee for decades I think that gives you a better chance than you had last cycle right again the Senate President is going to focus on a issues where where's our you know how do we illuminate those and and and get in to see the people who will be moving this for him right so that they can make the suggestion that you know Leon's got a great project that'll make you look good right we got to do that and during the process of session you guys making yourselves available you know nobody can talk about Woodville uh the way um um Bill Proctor can the way commissioner Proctor can well commissioner Proctor ought to be the one leading that and we ought to be the ones putting them in position to do that and all of you have unique um uh District to which I know very well I ran and lost by 100 votes which I told caban that he was going to lose by but why don't you run just just take his job uh but but know District 2 very well but District 2 has great opportunities that somebody with his um um his his his connections and his business acument could lean into if we use him that way right so so there's a lot of pieces to all of this it's it's not you know and to think about it any other way is is a onedimensional response to a complicated reality it is complicated thank you thank you Mr Pitman did I answer your question yes okay I just you have F questions let me let me let County Administrator weigh in at this point then I'll come back to you commissioner M just one minor piece that I wanted to add to that but it's an important one it it this certainly doesn't affect how hard we go after Appropriations that sort of thing but we we tried to present the Appropriations process a way that kind of shine the light on just again how nuanced it it can be and that sort of thing one of the things that we deal with that I thought the board uh May appreciate is uh and it's not the way that we look at it necessarily but it is the way the legislature looks at it is the amount of funding we receive as a county so while we have our list and that's what we care about make no bones about it the legislator look looks at what did you receive from these line item requests for the in your county when you look at that not only are we very competitive to our comparable counties we're very competitive to all counties in the State of Florida because of Florida State University because of FAMU because of the state infrastructure all the state infrastructure that's in place and so again I just wanted to shed a light on that because it's something that we deal with on a regular basis they'd say well how could you come here you all you all received and we say well not really us well we're you know we're the County that's the way we look at it but the way the legislature again often times looks at it is what did your community receive in terms of the slice to the B we had actually a graphic of that in this item we we took it out because we didn't want to sort of say hey look we're not we're trying not we're not trying to take credit for what other people are doing and advancing me their priorities and that sort of thing but it's a very real issue that we deal with anyway thank you madam chair thank you thank you Mr County Administrator commissioner Miner thank you madam chair and I'm I'm going to wrap up with some final comments cuz I know some other people uh want to go ahead and and have a chance to speak so Mr County Administrator if you that's a really good point which I haven't thought about in a while but uh the legislature looks at it in terms of the community irrespective of which entity actually receives the money from that area right so that's a really good point listen I I um I've worked with our lobbyist for many years uh on a host of different issues and um I've always found them to be very responsive to the issues that are important to me and my district but also to the county overall um I know that they do a uh a good job representing us at the capital that's not the case with every lobbying firm uh not every lobbying firm pays the amount of attention to the clients that uh that they should but I know that our lobbyists do that um let me be very clear about this part Leon County receives a significant amount of State funding we receive a significant amount of State funding uh most most of it comes from our agency Appropriations um we don't get that the last couple years we've not received a lot in terms of our line item legislative Appropriations but as we've already as we talked about here there are a lot of different factors that come into play on that um I want to make sure we we we help our our our lobbyists get the best chance we can on bringing those Appropriations dollars down but I do know that a a large part of what we get $60 million a year comes from our agency Appropriations um I'm also thinking to into account the the the work that our lobbyists do to prevent bad stuff from happening you know that that commissioner O'Keefe brought that up and this was a big concern of ours last year about the $20 million in in budget shortfall we would have had if some of those F FRS changes had taken place uh we' be in a much different spot uh financially um in terms of our our Financial Health in Leon County had some of those uh legislative bills passed and Chang the F FRS uh we'd be talking about much different things if it were not for the work of our lobbying team here preventing that that from happening uh and so I think uh our folks get a lot of credit uh working with Nikki and Ken uh and in our lobbyist to prevent that stuff from happening and also let you know I mean it was not a a a fact wide thing to to fight against these F FRS uh uh changes not every county in the state was pushing against this from happening uh some counties said well you know we've got other things to to to focus on this particularly doesn't affect us that much so you know we're not going to have a Statewide effort for it so what that meant is that it came down to our lobbyists and our staff to work uh on behalf of leyon County to prevent that 20 million shortfall from happening so kudos for for doing that thank you very much um I I appreciate commissioner caban bringing this up we always should take a look at what we can do to improve our operations and improve our our contracts um in this case I I I side with commissioner O'Keefe though at this time I'm not interested in making a change uh I I would like to see more line on Appropriations come our way uh but based on the work that you have done your history of of working for leyon County based on my personal knowledge of the attention you put upon us as a client I'm not interested in making a change at this point Thank you madam chair thank you a commissioner minor commissioner wilch thank you madam chair um so I got a couple things before I get to the the lobbying thing uh Vicky and Pam Welsh you almost got that name right just Clos I think you're the Irish weles I'm the I'm the British Welches but I think we're all we're from the same fam Jam Vicky CR all right sorry um it feels like the stuff that goes on in Washington is so dependent on what happens in 2 weeks that I don't even know why we flew you guys down here to even talk about this I feel like we could talk about this stuff in January and it'll have a lot more meaning to us as a as a board because it's we think the legislative process in across the street is convoluted the legislative process in Washington is a total mess when you're talk about continuing resolutions and omnibuses and mini buses and all the Dynamics of what go on up there in terms of the impacts of November so thank you for coming I appreciate all your work um to our State team a couple of questions and Jeff it's a little hard to hear you on the microphone did you say 117 billion was the 23 24 budget is it 12 yes7 and you anticipate or the revenue estimating conference estimates another 3 billion potentially over the next couple years okay yes two years so next two years so we're looking at billion billion next year about a billion s year so 120 to 121 billion dollar budget over the next couple years we anticipate yeah okay and then um you we spoke about the potential impacts of a revenue from Amendment Three save cost savings and things like that on the Cy's I I assume that would impact the County's General budget if we're talking about uh revenues for Amendment Three I mean does that have any impact on does the legislator know what they're going to do with the revenues from Amendment Three have they said like I grew up in Mississippi right when we when they approved gambling in Mississippi that money went to education and you saw schools near casinos get real fancy real fast we don't know what's going to happen to amendment 3 money in the State of Florida yet no commissioner the state economists have done some analysis and estimates on this so as as Sean pointed out the numbers they're you know they're anticip you know should it pass uh they'll give that that information to the legislature the legislature will then decide how to tax it right currently medical marijuana is not taxed so there there's some assumption that recreational will be and it could could vary by several hundred million doar yeah okay I would assume it will be taxed for sure and we talked about we did not talk about the homestead exemption Amendment which could have a significant fiscal impact on the county correct not as significant as the uh proposed increase um on the existing property tax exemption the Constitutional amendment is limited to um a pce yeah a annual adjustment for inflation on the exempt amount okay um which I believe was an impact of around 130,000 uh for the upcoming year so not as significant as what we were looking at originally this past session okay so they're not Apples to Apples no okay um okay well I think that's all I got on those all right when it comes to the state lobbying contracts I tend to agree with commissioner caban on the notion that we all acknowledge repeatedly in the questioning from commissioner O'Keefe and commissioner Miner the nature of the Dynamics across the street it's a dynamic environment Mr Pitman relationships are everything right so when we talk about percentage of projects approved by the legislature and I and I recognize that when we look at total approved projects it's different correct but I think that speaks to another Dynamic which is executive function and how do we navigate uh a veto process that can seem arbitrary at best um I think when we talk about water projects and how what was the percentage that got you said about 120 got approved out of about 350 is that right or vetoed or right one way the other 136 were vetoed out of 240 240 get the numbers here yeah okay means 100 got approved yeah okay well I'd like to know what can we do to be in that list of approved water projects right so for me when we talk about agency uh funding commissioner Miner you took that question right off my paper um the only statistic that we could create was based on fot funding which I have heard repeatedly lags in Leon County significantly compared to neighboring counties because there's variables and there can be all kinds of variables absolutely I'm speaking to the variables Mr Beal the idea here is that there are a lot of variables I want to identify as many of those variables as I can and overcome them and if relationships are everything then why would we not seek to to find a relationship that can overcome those dynamics that are fickle and capricious and arbitrary and sometimes or or I would say quite often left up simply to the Personalities in the room who who is a former Chief of Staff who is a campaign strategist turned lobbyist who over there across the street has the relationships that can navigate those Dynamics or overcome those Dynamics or supersede those Dynamics and so for me if I'm looking at it from the perspective of what is in the benefit of taxpayers in leyon County I think I want to be as multifaceted as possible I want to have every tool in the drawer that I can possibly afford and so what we had discussed at our last meeting was the idea that we are happy with the lobby team that we have and the work that you do I think that I I think that it we shouldn't be here defending our lobbying team we pay them we shouldn't be going oh they did such a great job doing this or that they that's their job they're supposed to do that um I think that the F FRS Bill impacted Municipal governments and and teachers unions all over the State of Florida so to suggest that it was a Leon County that you guys just defended that on your own over there I think is not fair it's not true we have a we have a we have an association of counties that fights these battles for us regularly every day okay so so fa took no position on on the F FRS Bill I just I can't imagine that that's the case um but aside from that I think that again it speaks to the notion that we want to be as flexible to Pivot to the Dynamics you guys have a good relationship with Ben all Brittain I understand you have a good relationship with the incoming speaker commissioner Miner asked if we could possibly predict any outcomes on the line item budget items and we couldn't and so I think that it's not a bad idea to say hey let's let's put this Theory to to test right let's can we hire some is there some magician some some person in this community in Tallahassee where most of the lobbyists live where a lot of the staffers live is there somebody who we could hire and go we'll give you a bounty to go bring us a return on that investment if it doesn't work then we have proof of concept it does not work doesn't matter who you hire but if it does work then it is also proof of the idea that this it's so Dynamic across the street you really got to be on your toes to try and find ways to wrestle money out of that legislature when we're getting you know 18% approvals 12% approvals 31% approvals that's just one layer then you have to find a way to navigate the the the governor's office's veto pin so I just don't think that's a bad idea I mean I get the sort of logistical issues associated with having a lobbying team that we've already hired and that we've already paid I agreee with you commissioner O'Keefe this is probably not the right time to have this conversation but man we got 3 months until that legislative session starts and you've got an election in two weeks that will drastically impact the shape of that legislature in terms of who is who's going to be Appropriations chair in the House and Senate right that'll be determined in the next month right November is already know that I'm sorry Mr Bill I wasn't we already know that okay so let's figure out who has good relationships with those people then and see if we can't massage our way to some better successes and I'm I on the agency funding side of it too Ken I want to I want to figure out how we can get more money out of the agencies I would like to know I guess this is impossible to find how much do other how much did elat County wrestle out of the agency process how much do Hamilton County and Dixie County and I recognize the Dynamics of the people elected and who's who's in the legislature at the time is Senator Simon going to be more impact ful than Senator Parks I recognize all of that but there's I mean if there's no better way to get better results then I think the only way to find that out is to put this Theory to test so I don't know what the shape of the mo the motion is going to be commissioner command I don't know how that would work for the county administrator's office in terms of amounts or terms I I would not want to commit to any length of term I would like to just give it a one-year shot and say can you bring home some bacon in 2025 that's significantly larger than 18.7% approved or 177% you know one project at $400,000 or zeros or zeros thank you thank you thank you uh commissioner uh Welch I just want to make sure we got limited time I want to make sure I hear from uh all of the Commissioners I think commissioner caban I see you in the queue um commissioner Maddox were you I didn't see you in the Q commission I didn't see you commissioner Maddox and then commissioner Madam chair I can yield to commissioner PR I'm sorry what I can yeld to commissioner Pro he's in line you don't you don't have any comments um not yet no ma okay commissioner proor thank you madam chair Commissioners we need uh an additional team to represent the county uh we have a County government we have a a city's government government we have U at large Commissioners we have District Commissioners and the reason that I'm um able uh Mr Pitman to tell you most things about uh W color is because I mean Woodville is because we've had a district commissioner assigned and on the night that you lost District 2 by a 100 votes I won district one by 12 votes so had you been District 2's commissioner You' know everything about Lake talin and Highway 20 and blah blah that's what I've done for 28 years so in our community we have a black University it's number one among uh public institutions we have a white University it's in the top 25 among public institutions and I I'm unable to understand how our community would be disadvantaged to have two lobbying firms with 20 billion uh on the table I did a little um a little um found out uh how much money uh we had uh State of California has 21 billion uh dollars for about 35 million Texas has about 144 billion for about 28 million and uh we're wrapping 117 billion about 22 million people but last last year we had uh 949 million6 9496 million almost a billion that was vetoed now on this Des I may be the only person here I may be I don't know but the only person who's been a Special Assistant to a governor of the state of Florida and in that rle and capacity uh it's after the legislature closes sign die that that 10day period 12 whatever number of days it is that the governor has to either sign uh veto or if he does not veto it goes into uh effect that is a critical period so to the point that uh was represented by commissioner Welch we wrote the same quote relationships mean everything and I have literally this is not Tech tbook vents this is literal beating there in the trenches grown men cry grown men plead grown men beg for a governor to not veto their monies and unless you have been in the trenches as I have been you won't know the importance of on the back end you can go and work the front but if you ain't on the back end and have extended relations uh you won't be able to defend and keep uh what the legislature has approved so I say in this instance with the duality of two governments one sitting on this end and probably about 50 yards down the street there's another government but when the hurricanes come and storms both uh removing debris both working for the interest of this community and if we had another talented firm we would have both in possibly covering those relationships in particular in the back end uh to protect the gains that you meandered through that process and and and and eak out um this is why I strongly support and this is not to take food we're not trying to take food off of um any of you all's table and um it's not to prohibit you from uh supporting my candidacy in 2026 but if you don't want to that's okay too um my reelection is not contingent on what you do for me but our extending uh additional help for3 more billion dollars and for the kind of fighting required we need it I mean if we didn't need additional help to fight why why would we extend and go past the uh the Army why would we need a Navy why would we get the Air Force for what we got a badass Army we don't need the rest but we've got all of that we should likewise secure the Arsenal that has a good ground game Air Force Republican who's coming to the pre-party who's going to the after party we need that that's how I feel so enough on that uh Vicki uh hi we're so glad to see you all um I'm not sure we need an additional firm Federal but um apologize um that we're meeting with all of you all this week instead of on the 12th uh this meeting should not have occurred before the election and we're merely you like us uh perspectively uh pontificating uh we should come back on the 12th and have a real meeting once we know who's in charge but you indicated that um under Trump that Trump fa but open Federal lands and I think you said for affordable housing did I hear you say that yes that's one of his proposals okay very good I think he's talking primarily about Western lands Bureau of Land Management lands Etc but we have significant Federal lands and federal properties in the county okay now those Federal lands is his thought to ex executive uh uh order those are to congressionally U secure pure it depends most of them have to be congressionally approved okay so for the federal lands which about 20% the occupancy of the federal land presence here is about 20% of our total we would have to secure Congressional approval if Trump is our president is what you're saying yes we very good sir I want to for the record if Trump wins the first thing that I think is important is a designated uh legislative effort to secure more Federal properties for affordable housing here uh secondly for mental health thirdly for jail and expansion of that facility that's what we need right now now Commissioners uh federal government has land and uh Puerto Rico Guam uh Philippines uh federal government got land in pencil Cola uh egland and Fort Walton Tampa uh Miami uh uh Cape canavero hell they got land all over Florida they don't need and they don't use a purpose for the land in leyon no base Cape caner is not associated no research nothing we need the land and if Trump wins that has to be the first priority because Trump already understands that federal land is and the Civil War is Over the occupany of the federal presence across the south for the purpose of which they remained here that threat is gone and there's no purpose I want that land we needed to move forward um and I'm appreciative for the years that y'all have served and done very very well for our County Commissioners um I want to say uh the notes here we're not getting enough money we're not getting enough money for the ours being about the 13th used to be the 13th I don't know where we are now but the 13th largest county and I'm I don't know if we the 15th or 16 but on a prata basis of what counties are taking we are not receiving food commen to our size and to our needs of a community if you subtracted Florida State University Florida M University uh Community uh uh T TS Talis State University man what would we have Miss Pitman what would this County get if Florida State and FAMU and uh Talis estate was not here it would be poultry we would be D County we would look like uh lafette County we ain't getting enough and then to say that we're right here literally literally a a stone thrower way across the street to the state complex we are literally we is not benefiting in any way we might as well be in a Key West relative to what we secure given the proximity of how close we ears to that stack of money stacks of money we need more we got to have more and right now we are barely scratching the surface and 10 and uh uh 17 billion is stacked up in our faces and I'm not satisfied with what commission we've got 15 minutes before i y the floor um Madam chair unless you want me to make the motion I'll defer the commissioner uh the Bandon make the motion okay let me let me make a comment first and then i' I'd like to entertain the motion first of all again I want to thank our our lobbyist and our and our uh County Administrator and County staff for this workshop and for all the information that you all have provided and I certainly agree and understand that this legislative process uh like um Mr Pitman and all of you all have indicated it's just not it's not not onedimensional uh we can look at the numbers and the dollars that we have received each year and do a comparison but that that doesn't address all the issues and all the variables that that are involved so I appreciate the fact that you all have relationships um with the powers that be and with those that that make the decision all the way up to to uh to the governor um and so I commend you guys for that so uh Commissioners as far as uh staff recommendation I'd like to uh entertain a motion when I finish to approve um the the priorities that we have before us I didn't hear anybody recommend any other any other priorities but as as it relates to the comparative analysis that we have and that has been very thoroughly explained and delved into by all of the Commissioners again uh I think great job uh but I also feel that Leon County deserves more uh we are the state capitol County and what I want to ask our County administrators that I mean our County attorney really we have a contract uh that's in place and if we look at the options that are are for us and I'm looking at options three and four uh and I believe and I'll ask you either one of those options uh I want to make sure if we adopt either one of those options it won't adversely affect the contract that we have in place right now with our lobbyist with our state lobbyist it would not adversely affect the existing contracts uh option number number three would require an amendment to that to that existing contract uh option number four would just be an additional uh solicitation and ultimately a new contract with a a different lobbying firm but either one of those is legally permissible and and an option so option number four would affect the legislative section that session that we coming up to right now am I correct yeah it would uh be in effect uh but you have to allow time for the actual solicitation process so uh three would probably move faster than four but either way you should have uh a new lobbying firm in place by session okay and then option three would involve when it says modify it would involve an agreement with our current lobbyist to make those additional changes am I correct we would have to amend the existing contract with capital Alliance Group that is correct but option four would not adversely affect the contract ongoing contracts that we have now they would be status quo that's correct okay all right so uh the Commissioners as for as of the comparative analysis and of course you might move differently uh but I'd like to also uh entertain a motion to adopt option four on the comparative analysis and the option is indicated on the report except the report uh commissioner madx Madam chair I'm sorry may I may I provide comments before the motion I'm sorry once we get the motion in a second and we can comment okay am I correct Madam attorney oh if you if you want this a workshop so yeah you can comment now but we have a 3:00 Workshop all right thank you madam chair um count T leaves right now looks like we're looking we're moving in the direction of adding a firm here's here's where I am um if we're going to add a your pull your mic down thank you if we're going to add a firm I'm not I'm not spending any more than 20 to 25,000 on RFP uh I won't vote for anything more than that because that will put us at about either equal to what people are spending the maximum amount total or about $55,000 more I believe we can a firm who wants to help us right now and really interested in Leon County getting more dollars can do it at that amount of 20 to 25,000 so uh unless we going about that much that's about as far as I'm willing to go there but point on point okay commissioner on point those counties that we're looking at they don't have 52% of their tax base Exempted and not not see so so when you're looking at the base of a comparison it ain't we got to go deeper because we we don't have the same taxable land base I get that I I know that there are firms out there that would be interested in helping us at between 20 to 30,000 I'm not willing to one year go above much than about 25,000 again that will put us at about about 5,000 more than what I think I think aola is is paying paying total and so if if if counties are really interested in it I believe I'm sorry if if firms are really interested in it and really want to help us out and we have we have a firm that's on right now we're adding addition I think that addition can be about 20 25,000 and those firms be willing to come in come in and give us give us a good look understanding that we're we're trying this out to see what it looks like for next year so that's just where I am now it's going to pass either way but I would like for us to be between 20 to 25,000 when it comes to the RFP or if we're going to give uh Mr shy the ability to go out and find a partner um as far as the priorities are concerned I'm good with the priorities I thank the team for what they're doing for us I am interested in some in at some point in looking at that that that um that priority of how do we how do we deal with those rights prior to conviction that's probably a bigger issue than what we can talk about right here right now but maybe with with our federal folks you can talk to me a little bit about what kind of room I what kind of changes and room I have to push for that that would that would help me out a lot um as far as whether it's three or four I could go either way um I believe that if we go with four I think four is the option where where we get give our our current lobbyist the ability to go go ahead and find three is three is the one where we give our current lobbyist ability to go and and find a partner um to help them with Appropriations if we do that I believe Madam attorney Mr Mr administrator you said that moves faster or what what the what timing wise with RFP which one we're looking at timing Madam chair commissioner both would allow us to have a contract in place prior to legislative session and and prior to committee weeks okay okay so I can go either way there um I'm at 20 to 25,000 otherwise I'm I'm just not I'm not going I'm not going to 50 I maybe can get to 30 that's that's my limit as far as the priorities I I can I can go matter of fact M Madam chair if we could separate them can I make a motion for option number one and then we take on the second one uh after we finish option one second any discussion all those in favor let it be known by saying and option one is just to approve the legislative um priorities that are before us today no other discussion all those in favor say I I any opposition hearing none it passes commissioner matters since I won't I won't take commissioner command Thunder since it was his his his um his idea so I'll allow him to speak and make the motion on on the other item mam chair if in just your discretion commissioner caban thank you madam chair yes um first of all I I appreciate um the sentiment and and the dialogue from all the Commissioners I thought I always enjoy um honestly when we're when the board has the ability to discuss um items and thoroughness so Madam CH I appreciate um you allowing us to have like robust dialogue um May I address commissioner Maddox briefly so commissioner Maddox I was thinking prior to this right so and in um Capital Alliance contract that is currently laid out $85,000 a year for for uh legislative priorities and Appropriations I I agree I don't think we need to amend their contract I'm leaning towards Amendment four could you get to $4,000 on an on an appropri on to Delegate for Appropriations because I would like to be a 30 how I can go as 30 and and look I think it passes either way I'm just saying the highest I can be is 30 okay well listen I want what the board wants right um so I'm sorry I no it's okay so I I want firms to want to come in in bid on this so my fear is if we go 20 25,000 that it's not you know it's we want folks want to get paid for their time right so I want to make sure that there's enough juice behind it where we get it bid competitively out um you're at 30 ma Madam chair where do you see dollar Mount where would you like to see it at well U Commissioners my concern was not to adversely affect the contract that no we're not not that's we already have we're not we're not doing that no but I'm saying is I'm going with option four but before that we need to set a dollar amount for it not to exceed Madam chair so I I want to know where where you would like to see commissioner madx is at 30 um I want to see you know I want I want to be where the board wants I I'm good with 30 I think it should be a little bit more personally um I would make the motion for for 40 yeah um but I also well before yeah before you make uh before you make your motion I think if we look at uh option uh number four and we put a dollar amount on it just specifically for this legislative session um that might be appropriate and I'm not sure if it would be appropriate if we would be uh me ourselves and maybe not have any responses any effective responses to the RFP you know if if we if we put it out we want uh an additional firm to come in to look specifically at I think specifically at a certain area yes ma'am so I'll make this easy I'll make I'm sorry I ask on point question okay commissioner madx sorry um Mr administrator with these contracts are they uh do they include a minority percentage with this with with with this addition with that dollar amount with that yes if Madam chair commissioner if if you want the new portion of the contract to include that you'd have to give us that direction okay here's where I go here's where I go I'll go I'll go 40 but 10,000 of that has to be class has to be specified for minority contract so move Madam chair I'll I'm I move to accept the motion do so we'll do this I'll move to um I move to move staff recommendation option four not to exceed not to exceed $440,000 with a portion of the contract has to go to a a mwsb 10,000 and is is your motion that 10 10,000 can we make it 10 10,000 25,000 there we go oh or whatever the percentage I was going to say negotiable right I mean like that way it I want to go what whatever our percentage is for mes whatever that percentage is that percentage goes to a minority firm as the aspirational goal yes' 2% okay so that's the motion did you second it I I'll second that but I'll also ask for the uh you would probably need to make amendment that we pull those Ms from contingency from yes ma'am from contingency okay awesome awesome so it's been moved in second we've got a motion on the floor we've got 3 minutes to our next uh Workshop all those in favor Let It Be know I saying I I those in opposition same sign Nay n okay we probably need a roll call cuz I'm not sure who all said n Madam clerk we do a roll calliss M hi nission Miner nission commissioner proor I wel yes com yes so the motion passed I believe Mr count administrator is there anything further on the agenda for this session we have nothing else on this item Madam chair thank you thank you Commissioners thank you all you L we really appreciate want thank you all I mean listen I this is a healthy discussion we sh we appreciate our priority is the county whatever whatever is successful so we look forward to working with everybody okay thank you all for all your good work Commissioners we've got 2 minutes and we'll be back for three [Music]