##VIDEO ID:4## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right Welcome to our August 16th 2024 August 6th yeah okay don't rush it I'm getting ahead of myself rushing it you wish I wish yeah uh our August 6 20124 um Board of County Commission meetings our invocation will be by Pastor Stan Allen from Redeemer Lutheran church and school and our Pledge of Allegiance will be from William Mar marari US Marine corpse veteran please stand and remain standing for the pledge good morning let's pray merciful father we are so thankful for this day another day you have given to each of us to serve thank you for this great joy and blessing Lord we also ask that and thank you for the various gifts which you have given to each of us and today we are especially thankful for the gifts given to each of our County Commissioners that they would serve the people of Martin County with wisdom compassion and joy Joy Lord I pray for guidance and strength for our County Commissioners as they discuss the matters brought before them and that you would be with them as they carry out their work with a spirit of Joy enthusiasm and humility and father we're also so thankful for all those who work in and for our County government may this service to the people of Martin County be joyful and rewarding and I ask that you would bless each and every one of them I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ amen amen amen thank sir morning I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay um good morning morning morning my name is Bill mski and uh I'm honored to be here and uh I haven't uh done a pledge like this for a long time and it meant a lot to me we certainly grew up doing it in school every single day um back then um and um about my Vietnam Service uh step into the mic a little bit closer sir I'm sorry um with my Vietnam service um I joined the Marine in 1967 after a um a dismal year in college I graduated high school in 65 tried College in ' 66 didn't work out that well so I joined the Marine Corps in 1967 um was sent to California I went to uh Vietnam in 1968 and 69 I was with an artillery unit and during that time every had everything had changed in our country it was still a ground war but we were being trained in something brand new and it was called gorilla Warfare in the jungles and rice patties of Vietnam and it was a really different uh time in our our country we had half of the colleges and college kids wanting to go of Canada did not want to be a part of the draft even though I had joined I wasn't drafted and uh other people um were joining and wanted to be a part of of the fight uh for America and it really split our country and I'm kind of thinking about this today because I thought it was um the worst period in my life but it's not so different from where we are today with a split country um on um when we were moving one of our guns I was with 38 in hitzer battery um we were ambushed and just before the ambush my very very good friend from boot camp who I have not seen in six months yelled out my name and how he could pick me out of that group of Marines in the in the jungle yelled out my name and said moari 30 more days and he was going home 15 seconds later he was dead and all hell broke loose um but I'm proud to have been a marine proud to have been there and uh I I think I thank my parents for being so patriotic anyway thank you very very much thank you so [Applause] much well all right so we have 505 public comment um 11 uh a.m. preset executive session Department 3 five uh and then at 50:5 which we will we have a very short agenda today so there are no way we're going to uh be there no matter how much commissioner campy talks funny yeah funny leave jokes to me okay okay um we have a request to withdraw from the agenda um consent 7 request to release a Unity of title for Lots 21 and 23 of the St Lucy Inlet Terrace plat and then Department four uh bright line update um we have no consent polls and with that commissioner Smith good morning uh move approval of the agenda with no additional items uh the request withdraw consent item 7 Department 4 uh and there are no polls and I think that is all that you added second okay we have a we have a um motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner campy all in favor I all opposed motion carries 4 to0 with commissioner heatherington absent okay our first um order of business is a proclamation actually it's a presentation by Jenny Fields Martin County property appraiser good morning good morning good morning I think I'm gonna sit down because I have a PowerPoint is that how that works absolutely okay I'm going to sit down never had a talked talks right yeah so good morning thank you Miss Woods Mr Donaldson Commissioners thank you so much can y'all hear me okay um thank you for inviting me here today uh this is an important time of year um I think uh in the back of the room we we are passed out our uh supplement this year which you're going to see I think you each have one in front of you which is I'm going to be talking a lot about that today um but mainly this is the time of year if you are a property owner or a business owner you need to pay attention mention to what comes in the mail because these two documents that you see on the screen the one on the left is a trim notice and the one on the right is the supplement which you have in front of you that is chalk full of information that as a property owner you need to know as a new buyer you need to know deadlines important things coming up there's a little bit um about some a constitutional amendment that you're going to see on the ballot what that means to you is a property owner so I encourage you to read through that um but today we're going to be talking about what is trim what is truth and millage so in 1980 way a long time ago the Florida legislature passed um a law and it was called the truth and millage act and basically what that means is as a property owner before that time you would write your check at the end of the year and pay your taxes but you didn't really know how it was derived what the value was who the money was going to how the rates were established there were so much involved with the taxes so they they is uh implemented this act that basically said it kicks off January 1st or uh actually January 1st is our date of assessment but July 1st is actually the starting period for trim truth and millage and on that uh for the July 1st we actually send all of our data files to the Florida Department of Revenue for audit and approval we also at this time submit all the taxable values to each taxing Authority um that that yourself is the board of County Commissioners you have your school board each of your municipalities Children's Services Florida Inland navigation and South Florida Water Management District all of them get their reported taxable values and at this time on July 1st we also put all the values that we've proposed on our website so at any time from July 1st on you can look up your parcel and see what value we've placed on your property now to do this one of the things that we did is when we reported to I'm going to use yall as an example when we reported to you your uh taxable values in Martin County we reported a 6.43% increase in market value that was attributed to a couple factors the first one being appreciation and values based on the 2023 Market there's a couple things I want to cover in just that sentence the first thing is you're probably wondering if you're reporting the 2024 values why are you even mentioning the 2023 Market well that's because the Florida law states that we have to Value property on January 1st which means we're prohibited from looking at any sale that occurred after January 1st so the values that we report to you is based on a market that could be a year old but that's that's what we have to do we have to review the 2023 market and appreciation means that when we look at the market the sale prices are what basically dictate the value on your property so if you see an increase in your market value it's because the sale prices for homes similar to your own or businesses similar to your own they were s the sale prices were higher and law states that we have to value at 100% of the market price minus allow we allow for cost of sale so typically we're about 15% less so if the sale prices are higher the values are going to be higher um one of the other uh things that attributed to this 6.43 % growth is new construction now this is countywide this isn't just in one particular area across all of Martin County it was a total of 758 um million doll it that consisted of 542 single family homes six multif family projects and 30 industrial buildings uh totaling over a million square feet so that was really what attributed to the um market growth but now the taxable value most people would be like well if the market went up 6% why is the tax bll going up 10 so in this in this scenario um the taxing authorities also benefited this year from Florida's unique assessment limitation laws by receiving a taxable value percent increase that exceeded the market and what I mean by that is when you look at Market values okay this is an example of what's called the recapture rule so here you have um a base year let's say they filed for Homestead market was 400 ,000 this was years ago as market value appreciates okay you can see that till now where it's worth 725,000 the assessed value is limited okay and that's a law if you're a homestead property owner it can't go up any more than 3% a year and it's actually 3% or the Consumer Price Index whichever is lower there were some years that it was lower but either way over a 5year span this property only has an assessed value of 443,000 while the Market's up at 725 so their nest egg their nugget of savings if you will is $281,000 that they pay nothing on okay and so what happens is when you start to level off we don't have that much of an increase in Market not like it was in 22 and 23 so they were a little higher but some values you might find that didn't change at all in this scenario you can see from the next year market value stayed the same at 725 but if you look at the assess value it still has to increase and it will continue to increase until they match until they equal market value again so in a market where it's not going up like I said we only reported 6% Homestead Properties are still going to go up 3% even if they didn't see a market change and actually the example of this which is a Homestead Property the main driver this year was your 10% non-homestead properties because all your commercial industrial vacant land things like that they get to go up the they're only capped at 10% so even if their market value didn't go up at all or let's say it only went up two or 3% they're going to go up the full 10% until it meets the market value so your commercial ones will actually had a higher driver this year um because of this recapture rule so with that um just to kind of show you a little bit this is in the um handout and anyone who uh the handout will be uh in the mail with you when you get trim notice uh which is going to be in two weeks so again this chart is in that thing you have it in here with you and this just kind of shows you um how all the municipalities um did this year based on the appreciation new construction and the recapture rule um now from July let me go back from July 35 days after July 1st is when the taxing authorities each one of those um authorities have to report back their millage rates they've looked at their budget we've reported to them their taxable values so you've determined how much tax rate you need to set to get the the budget that you need those are returned to our office and then 55 days after the July 1st we're required by law to send the notice of proposed property taxes which is your trim notice that's this now when you get this a couple things number one this is this is the time to be informed this is the time to ask questions so I encourage you to look at the value we've placed on your property that is the red column in the middle if you don't agree or you don't believe that's a fair taxable value please call our office we have operators standing by you can walk right in no appointment necessary but we are happy to to you know show you all the information all the sales we used but this is the time to ask questions likewise this is the time that the proposed rates are listed on this trim notice so in the um gray section you'll see that's all the prior year information so the first three columns on your trim notice you'll see the last year's final millage rate for each taxing Authority you'll see the value we placed on their property and you'll see the um the taxes that you paid last year the blue column is when it's called the rolled back rate and what that rolled back rate basically means is when the property appraiser reports the taxable values countywide if those taxable values increase from last year it thereby lowers what you're required to pay because each taxing Authority got more money so the rate they don't need as much right for them to get the same amount last year they would just use the same rate but because we gave them more taxable value it drives the rate down that's called the rolled back rate the yellow column pay attention to that because that's where your proposed rates are for this year based on the new budgets that were set by each taxing Authority that is the that uh percent that you see from the blue column any rate increase or decrease in the yellow column from the blue is actually a tax increase or decrease according to the Florida Department of Revenue so those three columns the value very important call my office we will talk to you or if you have questions about the rates this is the time to talk about that and on the back side of your trim notice all the budget hearings will be displayed this is going to be where you can go listen to Children's Services if you want to see what how they come up with their rate if you want to go to the South Florida Water Management if you want to come to the BC all the hearings will be listed here for your review I encourage you to go to those hearings and be informed listen because you guys explain everything that they need to understand and this is the time to do it because in November when the tax bills are mailed that's it everything is final at that point so whether it's just a question about your value whether it's a question about your sale this is the time to talk up speak up yes commissioner can I interrupt why of course this piece right now so all those other taxing authorities that you just listed they are independent of the County Commission correct we have no say over what The Water Management sets for its its rate that's correct correct city of Stewart the same yep we have no control over that school board we have no control over that correct so I it's and maybe you will say that in your thing but I think it's important that people when they do look at their their trim notice just remember all of those categories those hearings are entirely separate taxing authorities and I will I will if we go back here on the left hand side of the trim notice you'll see every taxing Authority listed what we do is the main taxing Authority you'll see is in bold all the ones they're responsible for are listed indented over underneath it if they start out in the beginning none of those answer to the other one you only are you only have control over the ones listed under the BC does that yeah so and if have any question on that when you get your trim notice please call our office our number is at the bottom and we can answer those questions for you okay so with that I would like to just kind of switch gears with new home buyers when we send out the trim notice probably we average about 2,000 phone calls in the first two and a half weeks and the people that call the most are the new home buyers but there's a difference whether you purchased in 23 and whether you purchased in 24 so I would like to just break that down a little bit so here's what you need to know first of all date of assessment by law we again I kind of mentioned this a little bit earlier we have to value your property on January 1 it's a snapshot of your property on January 1 which means if you're going to apply for homestead exemption or any property tax exemptions you have to own it on January 1 and you have to reside there on January 1 to qualify for any exemptions if you're filing for agricultural classification the use the agricultural use must be in place on January 1 if you construct a new home if your home is not done and didn't get seed until February you're going to get a bill in November on a vacant lot because it wasn't completed on January 1 so all new construction has to be done on January 1 and then we take all that information and then we review every sale that occurred last year in 2023 so we take all those sale prices what we compare that to our value or our vales too low are they too high and then we report the value so when you look at a timeline of 2024 right now we are in this spot right here in August when the trim notice is coming out just know that when you get that notice it is based on a snapshot of eight months prior January 1 likewise in November when the bill comes out it is you're paying taxes based on a a snapshot 11 months prior and that's based on a market that could be a year old so just I I know it's it's a timeline thing but as a new home buyer just know our date of assessment is January 1 and this is why if you purchase your home and this is very important because these are the people that we're going to be talking to in the next two weeks if you purchased your home in 2023 the mortgage payment that was established at your closing was based on the 2022 taxes okay so just know that if you bought it in 23 it was based on the sell's information from 2022 the second second thing the taxes that you paid as a new buyer in November of 23 were not yours they were not your exemptions they were not your uh value caps your save our homes benefit it was the sellers that you inherited the third thing your deadline to file for your exemption was March 1st this year because now on January 1 you're the owner so now this is your base year so if you missed your deadline I encourage you please come in you can still file late you can do that all the way through trim um so if you have not taken advantage of filing for your property tax exemptions please call our office and we can um help you out and then the last thing right now is you need to communicate what your proposed taxes are with your mortgage company because November is coming and that mortgage company is going to get the bill now and it's not going to be what they had last year and this is the reason last year when you purchased the property this was the trim notice you received and you see remember that market value 725 but because the assessed value had been capped it was only 443 and remember that save our homes benefit of 281,000 that means that the taxes were 6,600 bucks that's what your mortgage payment is based on that's what the trim notice you saw last year so now this year that seller took all of that with them to their new property and now you're starting fresh so now your value is based on your sale price of 725 which is now looking like taxes of $1,00 ,000 so now imagine you're going to get a trim notice you've lived in the home for more than a year you're happy you you've been paying your mortgage and now you're going to get a trim notice from my office and it's going to go oh here's the prior year column you were paying 6,600 and now you're paying $111,000 and now you're calling us going it is illegal for you to be raising my value 70 or 80% when really that didn't happen at all it's because you purchased it from someone who had a cap on their property that they now took them to retire up in the Panhandle and now they have that 281,000 up there cuz they ported it with them and you're starting over and one of the biggest quest one of the biggest comments too is they say I don't understand this I was told that if I file for Homestead it would save me money well your homestead's only 50,000 of value you just lost 281 in value got replaced back on the roll do you see what so it's very difficult to understand and the way to fix this is to really hammer and we Hammer this in all our education pieces wherever we go talk it is just crucial if you know anyone who's looking to buy a home estimate your own taxes using your sale price and communicate that with your mortgage company or at least it'll help you plan ahead for your financial impact so again yes yes commissioner SMI J I should have I should have interrupted before but so in the timeline of when you buy your house when do you have up to to claim your homestead for the coming year when you when you buy a home your deadline to file for Homestead is March 1st the following year following year so if you buy a home in August this year right now it is the the the the deadline or you can file for Homestead now but it won't go into effect until oh you can always pre-file from the moment you file your deed at the clerk's office you can come and you can file um the application and then we'll we'll we'll process it for next year but your deadline from the time you buy it your deadline you have from that point all the way till March 1st of the next year so conceivably if you buy a $400,000 home today in August the homestead doesn't go into effect until 25 correct correct if the values reset for 25 and let's say the market went up $100,000 that that Homestead won't go into effect for that 100,000 until 2025 right but now now think about that if I if I closed a my home today okay and that property had this 281,000 on screen that's what's not being taxed this year I inherit that but now next year I'm going to file for my Homestead because now I'm the buyer as of 1 2025 I'm going to file for my Homestead that 281 gets put back on so now you're already already going to see an increase of 281,000 but now if the market sales that were happening this year are higher our value might go up another 100,000 or 50,000 or whatever the market says so you could be getting hit with this and with just the typical one-year Market increase and now you file for Homestead thinking that's going to save you money on taxes when really the the exemption the homestead's 50,000 in value the butt though is that at least at that point that's where it starts correct whatever there yep in March 1st right of 205 if it went up to if it was a $400,000 home and it went up 25,000 let's say that's what the new Homestead value starts at for the following year yeah even though you see this increase the homestead exemption is crucial because that is the lock in but from the year you qualify which is if you own it on January 1 so all these sales that are happening right now they're going to this is going to be their year next year so whatever value is placed on that that's where they're locking it in that's from that point it can't go up any more than 3% per year they've locked it in but it's the jump from when you're buying it from someone who has a significant cap to when you file for Homestead and you see that increase and that it's very hard to explain when the whole time they're going nobody told me that nobody explained that to me and so that's what all of our education pieces are we started sending out just to try to be proactive we now send out uh cap letters to new home buyers when we we re once a month we run a report and if you have a if you've purchased a property on something that has a significant cap you're going to get a letter from us going you need to start calculating now you need to start estimating your taxes and the only Nuance to all of this would be if you were porting from someplace else and buying a new home and you were bringing value with that would be the only other that is correct if you're the seller you're going to take that 281,000 with you to the Panhandle to retire but if it's reverse if you're coming from Broward mhm and you sold a million doll home but you're buying a $750,000 home you're porting with you your million dollar no you can only port a maximum of 500,000 anywhere it's only 500,000 maximum and if you're down so if you're downsizing like that if you're coming from a million doll home to a $700,000 home here you'll get to take some of it but not all of it it'll be a proportionate amount if you're downsizing but if you're like moving from a $400,000 home into a $700,000 you get to take the whole 281,000 will go with you and come off the value your first year and that's where you start so if you have you're sitting on a nest egg like that which you will see on your trim notice when you get it in two weeks down in the purple section it says save our homes that is your nugget that you're sitting on so if you go to sell that is going to go with you and our tax estimator on our website will will calculate all that for you if you're looking to move okay so with that real quick I just wanted to talk real uh about the people who are buying right now we kind of touched on it but so right now you're buying it after the first that property that trim notice you're receiving none of the information on there is yours that's not your exemption you're looking at even if you pre-filed you're not seeing yours because you don't qualify till next year right so when you get this trim notice what you see on there the proposed taxes that you see on there might actually refect reflect or be very similar to the prior year because it's all you're inheriting what was there last year not much of a difference because that Homestead person their value only went up 3% right the next thing is any exemptions or value cap shown is the buy is the sellers it is not yours okay yours is it's going to come off and yours is going to be on in 25 and then your deadline to file for your homestead exemption is March 1st of next year you can absolutely come in and pre-file but your deadline isn't until next year and then so important estimate your taxes now using our um tax estimator put in your sale price it won't be exact but it's going to be a heck of a lot closer than looking at what the seller was paying and thinking that's going to be remotely close to what you paid because they could have a hefty a hefty sum um and again this is what all these all these buyers that are doing that right now all this year they've been buying this trim notice on the left is what they're going to see six 6657 but now next year in 25 right they're going to see similar to what we looked looked about two seconds ago when we were looking at the 23 to 24 this year we're not going to hear from them because they're not going to see a a significant increase but next year we will because that cap will come off next year for them so um a lot of tools helpful tools and resources on our website we have um a handout uh that really goes into depth and and explains that the tax estimator right under the quick link section of our website and then a video there's a couple videos out there that really get into as a new home buyer what you should expect so I encourage you to um go online and and look at that if there's any questions please call our office I know this was probably a lot and I kind of ramble a little bit but is there any questions for me it was all right thank you so much thank you amazing and very complicated okay the test is coming after break so okay all the facts all right we have uh two proclamations one uh Purple Heart Day and uh one Florida water professionals month and I will good morning Commissioners how are you representing the Communications Department nurseo from tourism our first Proclamation is declaring Purple Heart day here in Martin County the purple heart is the oldest military decoration used in used today and evolved from the badge of military Merit created by the general created by General George Washington in 1782 the Purple Heart Is awarded to members of the United States armed forces who have been wounded or died in combat with a declared enemy of the United States of America the board recognizes August 7th as Purple Heart Day in Martin County and appreciates the sacrifices of our Purple Heart recipients and all the veterans have made defending our freedom we would like to bring back up Mr William morowski US Marine core Vietnam veteran service and purple heart recipient please to [Applause] accept have him take his sticker off for the picture there you go sorry want take a picture up do you want to give a couple of words again I'm honored and I thank you very very much for this um um George Washington um on August 7th um declared uh the purple heart and I see it uh ever so often but I'm honored um to be up here to receive this today I'm honored also to be a resident of Martin County and I love Maron County thank you we're glad to have you thank you very very much [Applause] take your sticker off take your sticker off there you go no she don't looks like a bandage on looks good thank you so much thank you very very no name t no [Applause] drinks we have one more Proclamation it's a proclamation declaring Florida water professional month here in Martin County um we have David vo and Peter Vasquez that will be accepting from utilities Solid Waste plant Chief operators the water industry professionals dedicate themselves to the production and distribution of safe drinking water as well as the proper collection treatment reuse and disposal of Wastewater and storm water water professional professionals are essential First Responders as defined by Florida statue 43.86 5B Rel relating to ensuring safe drinking water and safe disposal of waste water for our communities during storms and other catastrophic events August is recognized as Florida water professionals month and the board asks residents to join in thanking all Wastewater and water professional staff for their hard work and dedication thank you thank you and good morning it's my pleasure to join our community leaders here today I want to thank you for passing this clamation for Florida water professionals month Beyond a doubt safe drinking water is the most essential need for a healthy Community safe clean water is a boon to our economy not a drain economic prosperity and Environmental Protection go hand inand a healthy economy beets a healthy environment a healthy environment is a stronger economy today brings myself and utilities employees great pride to be recognized for a commitment in excellence dedication Innovation and water and wastewater to provide safety drinking water and keep our groundwater and in your River lagoon clean our two Regional Water and Wastewater facilities have won the Florida Department enironmental protection PL Excellence award twice also the American Waterworks Association best tasting drinking water and unprecedented 10 times M nice our facilities operate 24 hours a day 7 days a week just recently govern Ronda sandis passed legislation effective July 1st 2023 that that basically says the services are essential to the health and well-being of all citizens and that water and wastewater Personnel will be given first responder designation that's very important that's good um I want to say thank you to Sam Amerson our deputy director um Jeremy kovi and and uh the rest of our Personnel that brought here today um Derek Watson um J Brotherton Marsha Sawyer who's in charge of our underground Department um Britney Basset Pete Basquez here um once you start naming names yeah I can I can go on but everybody's very vitable everybody's bring everybody let's take a picture in the well I brought everybody up today very important we'll take a picture come on come on nobody so everybody up thank you thank [Applause] you Harold come up here for the picture everybody do it in the well it's there's enough of you in the well see it's a water term is Deputy uh you practice that all weekend Sam Amerson I see let's go that back row Bring It Forward you guys do a terrific job thank you you might have to do yeah tall in the back not as tall in the front we're going to try to get a couple of them in here thank you so much thank you thank you toot right during the meeting thank you that's right as long as the check clears say he has a presentation to make let job S I guess not maybe to me okay now it's time for public comment we have two public comment um forms um you have 3 minutes at 2 minutes 45 seconds you hear a tone and that just means to uh you get 15 seconds to wrap it up and uh Mr Donaldson has a Spiel for you yes so as you come up to the podium since we are in an election season politicking is prohibited which is defined as advocating the election or defeat of a candidate for public office either partisan or nonpartisan this includes the use of words dates signs props and or wearing apparel that convey a message of support for a person or group of persons thank you okay and with that we're going to start with Mr Tom Pine followed by Sam Malone Malone Malone Malone there's a y at theone good morning Commissioners my name is Tom Pine I've been a resident in Martin County for over 50 years the budget hearing on July 22nd 2024 was informative Story Time about the beach cafes was entertaining the Beachside Cafe in Jansen Beach prior to the County government taking over that controll and operation were a total mess years of total neglect by our County government much of the equipment didn't work or if it did it didn't work properly at one point the west west rooms were not working properly either I recently met the owner of ohana surf shop on hutchon island and had a very similar story about the Beachside Cafe in Stewart Beach his family he his family and friends would often do maintenance for John the man who operated the cafe and went on for years then one day out of the blue someone from the county informs John the county is closing the cafe with no warning it was well known that John was a veteran it shows actions are speak much louder than words in Martin County the years of neglect I believe were planned once they deteriorated bad enough the vendor at Jensen Beach had enough the county moved in the head of the Parks Department explain the scheme they use to circumvent democracy and operate our Beachside cafes and other businesses throughout the county he's all excited about the net revenue from the high-end hitting bays in restaurant two more businesses the County government operates net revenue up $728,000 I did a public record request for the total cost of the clubhouse restaurant and high-end hitting Bays around the time it opened it was charged $30 and got 30 pages of nothing they like to brag about how much how much money things make but they sure don't want to talk about the total cost to the taxpayers to build the project that's a secret why are we the taxpayers being forced to pay $15 million plus interest of between 7 and 12 million for a train station for a private company that has absolutely nothing to do with the operation of our this government who is going to benefit not the average taxpayer that's for sure could it be your handlers at the Chamber of Commerce in a sick irony we the taxpayers in Martin County spent $4.1 million trying to stop bright line just a few years ago that's hard to believe what you permit you promote what you allow you encourage what you condone you own thank you for your time [Applause] Mr Malone is our last uh speaker form if anybody else would like to speak please see the bof morning again you all uh my name is Sam Mahoney retired lifeguard the topic was removing the EMT certification for job requirement I first came in here I called Doug Smith's office and he advised me his secretary did that you can come speak and uh but I they also asked the subject and so his office must have shared with the fire chief so the morning I came to speak the fire chief was here and he stomped out that fire the best he could to represent his decision to tell you why he made that decision uh I followed through coming again next week to show you and tell you the high-risk requirement at the beach is well suited for their jobs it's not just the EMT requirement for the job it's the high-risk pension and the the work that they do meets all of those requirements so then I went met with Donaldson in his office and he too had called the fire chief so when I walked into his office the fire chief was there that morning and I just wanted to see Donaldson to see how he felt about this issue um he said they don't keep secrets from him that's why the fire chief was there but he certainly kept the secret from me that the fire chief would be there and so today I come back I see he's not here I just ask you all you are the employers of fire rescue the sheriff's department and all the these people so you have the authority to agree or disagree with me on this topic that the lifeguards it's not just bikinis and beach balls anymore this ocean rescue and this ocean in this position in Martin County on the coast of Florida and the numbers of people that we're seeing at the beaches and the work that they're doing and the exposure the high-risk pensions not just double when they retire but it covers their high-risk exposures to hepatitis AIDS all these other exposures that they can get exposed to and we have been was testing immediately um I this issue for me is just right and wrong like the pastor's prayer this morning and the proclamations that you have made to these in the work that you do it's easy to see right and wrong and I've been trying to B Bend an ear to get some support from you all on this and lifeguards have needed it over the years because of the bikini and beach balls mentality that comes with lifeguard starting and uh the um administrator did mention to me that pensions are going away and young people during these days they're not looking for pensions these are the comments that I had during that meeting and I made me just shake my head to know that it's just more bikinis and beach balls because he doesn't see the millions of people that these guards see people come to the Martin County um they don't expect to get caught on fire or have an auto accident but they do do go to the beaches and your residents and our families go to those beaches um will you see me again will you contact me I can only hope but I know you have the authority to reinstate this and it's not about removing the EMT but them staying in that highrisk pension they deserve that and even though all the current guards will your time is up thank you new employees do deserve it thank you for your time hear from you as well have a good day [Applause] all right with that not seeing any more public comment commissioner comment I did see did you want to I think there is somebody oh yes just fill out one of these forms and give it to the bailout before you after after you're done yeah apologize for my unpreparedness uh my name is Tana honey and I'm a u citizen of Rocky Point and I'm here to speak about the 300 feet at Twin Rivers Park um my girls are here um we feel that um we'd like to just push pause on the current project we know it's starting imminently um but I don't have anything prepared sorry but um we just think that they they kind of push the easy button on the Armament project for the um 300 ft of of Beach and we'd still like access to it for our children um even beyond that we just feel that maybe the due diligence that was done was is not probably the most natural and best for our um environment so we'd like for you guys just to maybe push pause on that and maybe we could put our heads together and pick something that's a little more gives a little more access I know it wasn't supposed to have access um I know you the citizens weren't supposed to have access but we've become very fond of the 300 ft of little Beach area that we have there and if you guys can find any way to um protect it that would be very much appreciated thank you nice job all right anybody else seeing none commissioner Smith I'm all set too there is absolutely nothing going on in the dog days of summer in South County anyway how about you Mr campy I'd just like to take a moment if you remember a couple of months ago I had a gentleman come forward to talk about his he was an author and he was3 years old Mr MC John McHugh and he wrote a book about how folks from the islands were brought up during the war to the United States and you know imagine being from the Caribbean and then you are transported to Buffalo New York in the winter or in the fall to glean and reap crops that would have otherwise died on the vine if it wasn't for volunteers and folks that came while our men were in the war these folks from the Caribbean came and worked on farms and did the work and he is turning one 104 years old today is his birthday so I wanted to wish him a birthday you don't normally get to wish someone who's 104 years old a happy birthday but in this particular case we do so John McHugh I wish you a very happy birthday I thought you were going to go the other way and so that's really nice news yeah no doubt yeah no that's very good news he turned 104 today that's right or yesterday I believe you sure heard I'm set all right uh Mr Donaldson uh just one thing while I was uh off last week I did did go to a short conference with the American Water Resource Association and met our new uh Colonel um uh Brandon Bowman from Jacksonville district and I just want to let you know that I gave him our number one priority uh which was to no releases from the S80 so he he got the he got his first week on the job our message so just letting you know thank you all right and with take place with that we will um um go to B and C number one Board of zoning adjustment appointment M uh Miss Donna Gordon yes she is Donna Gordon uh this is for the board of zoning adjustment and at large position countywide two votes for Mr mcale two votes for Mr sterm do we make is it a time sensitive appointment uh it may affect the I don't have a calendar in front of me do you know when the next boing you want to continue it to next week till the next meeting yes excellent excellent do we have to make a motion to do that or we I'd make a motion that we continue uh BNC number one the voting and appointment of the board of zoning adjustments to our August 27th meeting second okay we have motion by commissioner campy second and by commissioner Smith all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously with commissioner heatherington absent moving on to public hearing number one public hearing to consider the adoption of the final assessment resolution for fiscal year 2025 Solid Waste assessment and certification of the special assessment role to the tax collector Mr Amerson thank you good morning Mr chair and Commissioners it's good to be here today for the record Sam Amerson utilities and Solid Waste Department director uh the board of County Commissioners is required to adopt the final assessment resolution for fiscal year 2025 single family Solid Waste assessment rates in in July the board adopted the initial assessment resolution for this uh a notice of public hearing has been published in mail by first class mail to each property owner proposed to be assessed notifying the property owner of the opportunity to be heard at the hearing today the solid waste Municipal service benefit unit provides services to approximately 48,900 residential units in the county on January 12th of 21 the board approved a new franchise agreement with Waste Management or WM is called today allowing for an annual CPI rate adjustment ranging from a minimum of 2% to a maximum of 5% the single family dwelling unit rate for 24 uh FY 2025 for the Solid Waste mspu Services is proposed to be $444 69 this is comprised of $300 96 for collection $15.53 for disposal costs and $28.20 for administrative costs the change in this amount uh compared to the prior year which was $421 65 is due to an increase in solid waste collection rate and the amount of solid waste generated uh per household Chris trabber who is our County's uh the County's special assessment Council has reviewed the resolution and the agenda summary and confirmed that the form of each is proper so this increase for the year is $234 per household that equates to uh approximately 11 cents per pickup an additional 11 cents per pickup uh so that that's about little less than $2 per month increase so with that uh Donna can you scroll to please for me to the recommendation I'm afraid to touch it so the recommendation is three-fold uh first move that the board receive public comment at this public hearing second move that the board adopt the final assessment resolution to the solid waste Municipal service benefit unit and third move that the board certify the special assessment role to the tax collector and that concludes my presentation okay any questions for staff commissioner campy just to clarify the numbers that you said I know there I had received a couple of emails from people that were concerned when they saw uh increase it's how much per year $234 per month per month a little less than $2 and 11 cents per pickup yes um it was not that we just decided it was contractually agreed in with when we did the plan correct that's correct and I remember at the time uh there was some controversy about who we picked and I remember saying that it's more of a service than it is a very you know defined it's not like we were purchasing equipment and that service is for many people the only true interaction they have with governmental Services if you're not doing some of the other things uh the trash collection and in this particular case using WM or Waste Management I've been reading with interest what's been happening in St Lucy County and Indian River County and I think I would hope that our residents would agree that the the negotiation and contract that we put together with WM saved our residents including all of us uh a tremendous amount of headache I know that they've had nothing but uh difficulty maybe they're starting to iron it out but nothing but difficulties with once a week pickups no picking up where your trash would stay forever at your house or for long periods of time many neighborhoods don't allow you to have the trash stored outside so imagine having your pales in your garage um so the 11 Cent increase in a year when we're hearing a or let's call it what it is a $24 annual increase uh in a year when everything seems to be going up for everyone so for the gas prices and the M uh maintenance prices for Waste Management to have that I think is a reasonable effort I also like to thank the taxpayers association uh for coming out with a pretty clear um Outsiders perspective on what this agenda item was I know some people were concerned but I think under the circumstances no one wants to pay a penny more but if you had to for this valuable service that I think is handled very effectively and if there are people that don't think it's handled effectively you need to contact either us or WM directly and they will um in every case that I have had where residents were concerned even if it wasn't waste management or wm's fault if a neighbor was throwing stuff out with no containers especially out in Palm City Farms we've had some folks that have suffered through that and when we contacted uh Mr Sabin at WM the residents contacted back and said they were very happy with the resolution of their complaint so if someone is unhappy with their service please contact WM directly um Jeff Sabin call the main office number yeah call you know you can visit his home if you see him out in public you can ask him no I think that's fine I'd make a motion to U accept staff's recommendation as it was presented commissioner Smith uh I'll second and come back to that after public comment okay uh do we have have any public comment on this uh agenda item seeing no public comment commissioner Smith yeah a little bit of tag on to what I had just had to say um two things that um that we oversee that can't fail that Sam's involved in um one you can't fail in trash collection and you can't fail uh if you're on our utility system with your toilet flushing and so um Sam you do a remarkable job with both uh Waste Management does a remarkable job on their end and and to Ed's point for the handful of of calls we get a year and and that's usually what our office gets maybe yours all get the same sort of thing but um waste management is always on top of resolving the issue as quickly as possible and they've done a remarkable job all these years thank you Sam you know what we say you're number one and the number two business you got a shirt to prove it do now I do I wear it proudly okay we have a motion by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner Smith all in favor I all opposed motion carries unanimously or four to zero with commissioner heatherington uh absent thank you moving on to public hearing number two public hearing to consider adoption of an ordinance amending chapter 9 animals Article 1 General provision section 9.1 definitions and Article 4 Animal Control care and treatment comma section 9.95 dangerous dogs general ordinances Martin County Code boy that was a mouthful I'm sorry can you say it again morning Mr Chair George Stoke assistant County Administrator and your animal care and control oversight board uh staff Le aison we just wanted to give you a nice long title for this morning longer than the item yes hopefully we can be brief and Brilliant here um basically what staff is coming for is we would like to amend are the ordinance so it can better reflect what's required under Florida State statutes as well as improve the process from what it currently exists the main changes are number one we're asking to change a a dangerous dog hearing from uh it being heard by the County Administrator to an independent magistrate as well as there is a requirement uh we're looking to amend that seeks to impose requirements of residents who relocate their dogs in the Martin County that those dogs then be registered or have been declared as a dangerous dog then be declared and registered here uh in our County and with that that there are some minor changes both from grammatical as well as just little things and with that we're seeking for your approval uh for these amendments and uh Miss joined by me is Miss petric from County the county attorney's office here to answer any questions you may have good morning morning morning any questions for staff we should ask a question just one just so she's got yeah we did present it to the ACC oay who did approve it I did forget to mention um seeing none any public comment well okay motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner herd um all in favor I motion passes 4 Z commissioner heatherington absent thank you congratulations on being the shortest agenda item of the day so far so far next uh presentation by growth Management Department um by Mr Paul Schilling and Peter Walden good morning Commissioners Paul Schilling growth management director for the record we appreciate your time here this morning we have a brief presentation and of course we anticipate some questions associated with the data that we provide here our our goal is to provide an overall view of the department our daily activities uh activities in the future and our goals and objectives and we'll go across all the divisions of the department so just a breakdown of the of the chain of command if you will we're all aware of this but the director uh and then we have the four divisions comprehensive planning Administration uh environmental and then development review so the staff of the department you'll notice the differing divisions here and allocated staff positions uh I just want to point this out that these these staff work cohesively and across uh fluidly throughout the day day day in day out um so if you can imagine an environmental scientist or a landscape architect also giving guidance on a code enforcement case which may eventually lead up to a development review application in the future and arguably the most important department is a support staff which take in applications process them digitize them uh distribute them and then ultimately close out projects when they're successful so the task this is a snapshot in time from pardon me from January to June of this year so building permit reviews we talk about those at times with the with the budget and performance measures we review thousands of permits a year uh some of those permits May be a one-time review for example a shed which all the information was provided they they may also be multiple rounds of review associated with a permit for a pool which is adjacent to a preserve area that also has our environmental folks looking at those uh criteria with respect to preserve are setbacks and so forth we have several thousand zoning inquiries a year uh those vary in scale and in complexity from a realtor asking a simple zoning question can single family residence be built on this slot all the way up running the gamut to u a zoning uh company act actually asking uh 20 questions on a property that is potentially going onto the market those inquiries take up a significant amount of our resources at times because of the complexity of those and the professional staff that need to be involved to either answer those properly and concisely and accurately the comprehensive plan amendments we currently have 19 of those you may be I'm sure you're aware of the evaluation appraisal report we we have embarked on that we've had a couple applications to the local planning agency recently and we were providing all the the climax of those events on October 22 with uh transmittal with this board so that is ongoing we currently have uh projects these were approved 36 projects and those could run on scale from a simple administrative amendment to a business adding on a parking lot or in addition to a building uh all the way up to a plan unit development we currently and this is historic we average about 70 70 odd applications at any given time those can stretch out for two or three years at times so our numbers are always consistent with the basically with that amount we conduct uh 874 inspections in this case from January to June and those inspections are construction ad adjacent to preserve areas uh they could be Wetland impacts as part of a code enforcement case which we tend to operate about 30 cases at any given time uh differing scales of those which can involve the environmental scientists and folks with respect to um clearing violations uh Wetland enhancement and then uh ultimately uh bonding of of requirements for those Code Enforcement cases should there have been impacts to Wetland uh Wetland areas or Upland facilities so I'll I'll turn it over to Peter and we have some of the um first of all we pride ourselves on providing excellent customer service our surveys have shown that our customers tell us that with some few ex with a few exceptions of course but um that is the operating goal of the department day in and day out and um so that's the over writing goal I'll turn it over to Peter we'll get into some particulars in this slide and then we'll move on we have a few more slides for you this morning okay so in addition to all the daily tasks and routine that uh Paul just went over I I want to go over a few things that staff have been working on to increase our customer service uh the environmental division have worked on consolidating and organizing over 800 preserve area management plans in the county uh this involves going back in time to the late 80s going through paper and digital files uh making sure they're recorded making sure they're up toate and accessible by the public and staff this amounts to over 11,000 Acres of privately owned uh preserve areas as uh everyone knows that on every development order it may entail adding preserve areas to the county uh to the county uh preserve are management plans and this entails all Wetlands uh and buffers and up to 25% of all Uplands get into preserve areas through development orders uh this adds up over time and like I said that's over 17 square miles of area that the growth management staff are responsible for overseeing and M uh the maintenance of those and uh staff is now working with the Property Appraiser's office to make sure the pamps show on their records as well uh this should cut down on happs when property changes hands and new owners may not be aware that there's existing pamps and Preserves on their property this will make sure that all of that information gets transcribed to new owners uh the environmental staff is also working with the comp planning staff on the ear update we're working on the chapters eight and nine of that and um with that I'll go to comprehensive planning as you know the wait hold on just a minute commissioner Smith sure you and just for the sake that somebody may be listening and not fully understanding 100% what is a pamp a preserve area management plan that is all of the environmentally sensitive areas either Wetlands their buffers or Shoreline protection zones or Upland habitat areas that have to be preserved according to our comprehensive plan and a requirement of a site plan and a final sight plan and any so generally speaking since the 80s any develop that has occurred has a pamp anyone that has either habitat on it or Upland habitat or Wetland on it has a pamp on it yes and then there in that approval process there is a structure a sort of um a written requirement for maintaining it taking care of it and that's what you're going through and reviewing constantly that's happening that's what equates to the 11,000 Acres yeah that preserve area is either adopted through the development order in a PUD agreement and it's done uh in coordination with our environmental staff who um go out and inspect these areas to make sure that they're consistent with what the environmental uh appraisals have been done on the property and that's all through the site planning process and then the other one is an ear yes the eval uh evaluation and appraisal report that's due uh to make sure that all of our chapters in the comp plan are consistent with the state uh we have the coastal management which is chapter8 and the conservation and open space chapter which is chapter nine our environmental staff are working with public works and comp planning staff to uh get those updated properly and when that's all said and done what happens uh all of those chapters are going to come before the board in October and that'll be a very full agenda there's there's going to be a lot to go over with all of them and there'll be comprehensive plan amendments that will be reviewed and voted on and then that will all be sent to the state for adoption as the year um Amendment adoption process correct just you guys do this every single day most people don't sure yeah okay thank you okay so the comp planning staff as we just discussed is uh going through the ear process uh that entails going through all 19 chapters of the comprehensive plan making sure that it is all consistent with State statutes and they also make uh possible recommendations to update and address local issues uh this this project included coordination with staff from several departments it's not just growth management and it's ongoing uh the there'll be public hearings uh at the LPA and finalizing for this in October that is the plan and uh those will be very full agendas for the board it'll take a uh considerable time they're also involved in an impact fee study right now and uh that involved a third party and an evaluation of impact fees and an update to article six of the Land Development regulations this is for residen iial and non-residential development and the culmination of this work is uh proposed to go before the board in September uh in addition to those items comp planning is always working on population and residential updates and data that keep the board and the public up to date so the next is development review and staff have made updates to further our customer service goals we've updated checklists templates forms and the application process itself have been updated to provide a smoother and more efficient development review process this benefits the public as well as staff and making the system work better so more time can be allocated to reviews rather than the redund redundancies of filing and time and timekeeping so staff have also brought forward updates and changes to article 10 development review procedures we've updated Article 4 commercial design and we've updated chapter 8 in article 12 of the CRA code and we're currently working with CRA staff as they and the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council Revis architectural guidelines for the CRA as you know the CRA recently adopted land use and Zoning changes but the emphasis at that time was on uses and development standards now staff has the chance to review and update the architectural standards as well and that is expected to be brought to the board possibly in November we are also working on remodeling of article 3 to incorporate division 7 category C zoning districts into the general standards of the code this will be brought to the board in September and this entails taking the 50 plus pages of division 7 code which date back to 1967 and incorporate those uses standards and terms into the current article 3 code uh and the last thing I want to touch on which is a big part of what we do these days is dealing with public records requests uh those have kind of evolved in the last few years as um to a process that's everything from someone reaching out to saying they would need a copy of a site plan to uh the history of uh industrial puds in the county so even though we have a dedicated staff and administration that deals with this growth management is the record holder for much of that information and we spend an awful lot of time either uh procuring these uh information for these requests and fulfilling uh making sure all the records and everything is properly retained so that's little Compass of that commissioner SM yeah Peter when when that agenda item gets formed and Dawn when that gets formed for November uh specifically to the CRA Architectural Review side of things I brought up I think it was last meeting the conversation about the settlement architect idea and hopefully that comes back with that together I don't know if you were going to do that sooner or later but if not sooner it would seem appropriate that that comes as part of that uh discussion okay I'm not part of that uh I'm not leading that charge but I'll I'll relate that to staff for sure thank you okay so uh oftentimes the the growth in the county is is is obviously at the Forefront it is every day um so these are some charts that were garnered from the Florida Department of Revenue as part of the shimberg housing study and it gives you a graphical depiction of the history of single family homes by year built in Florida and and you'll notice in the early 2000 it escalates of course in the height of the market and then drops off and then comes back up and these are 22 numbers um I would point out that through in Florida last and during the study in 2022 just for for purposes of context in Florida there were 125,000 single family permits residences built in Martin County there were 546 uh I have some other numbers of interest that I'll go into in a few moments but these are the new residential units in Martin County from 1992 to 2023 you notice there's a a hierarchy or a higher amount of these in the early 90s Associated presumably with Martin DS and so forth uh and then it kind of drops off at the at the recession and and it slowly um has been traveling uh pretty much a straight line until um just after the pandemic and then it's increased to just under 500 but just for context on that on that level um I had some additional information that I wanted to share with you so our neighbors to the to the North St Lucy County this is for context in 2022 There were 5,461 single family permits issued and in Palm Beach County to the South there were 3,810 permits issued for single family residences um the top 10 counties within Florida I won't name them all but P county is at the at the highest number one which was 9,235 residences in 2022 at the bottom of that scale is Marian County and these are the top 10 at 4,799 with St Lucy about seven in that scale so I think that's important to keep things into context and we can talk about the pressures of development U Miss Fields was here talking about the value of property the value of property has has come to a point where it is we have situations with projects in which uh someone maybe has 10 acres of land and uh 10 years ago they could facilitate several units on it uh and it wasn't financially feasible because of the environmental concerns um Upland habitat restrictions and necessitating of preserve area but now those numbers make sense economically for many developers so you could have a project 10 years ago that was 20 units and today it's only 12 but that that project could be successful economically simply because of the market new commercial units kind of the the the idea here is just the trajectory of the in the in the early 90s presumably Martin DS as well as uh the West Jensen area the Treasure Coast mall and then fairly straight trajectory into the early uh mid 2000s um and then it's risen up to some extent within the last couple years associated with some of the larger uh industrial projects SS and um um the K Waterside project so the median home price most people are aware of this but this is kind of astounding actually with respect to what when we talk about housing and and the shortage of housing and attainable housing um the the this is in Martin County with an average and this was from the same study of 574200 which is at the in the middle or I'm sorry at the lower fourth of the of the orange here uh also including Palm Beach Miami Dade and Fort Lauderdale but you'll notice that the higher end of that scale is 750 to a million which is Monroe CER and then um Walton County in the Panhandle this population projections we talk about those at times and we will be doing the population technical bulletin that will be coming before the LPA and then chapter four with along with chapter 4 is data and Analysis for the evaluation appraisal report but just for context the the population projections here 2023 as you see on the screen so the challenges and progress with our our daily efforts as well as long range planning Peter hit on quite a bit of this uh I would point out as I mentioned uh in a previous hearing that we have we have had at times a shortage of of Staff in being able to recruit and retain talented individuals um with which gets to the next point is we spend um we I mean the department as a whole spends um many many hours cross training so to give you an example to have someone that can provide customer support at the front window here at the zoning desk which at times involves everyone in the department at one time or another uh to have an IND individual in that position to be able to make determinations quickly concisely with uh with an ongoing um um customer service attitude is um highly unique I would argue in very very difficult to to to find that individual and then ultimately to retain that individual be because just of the uh the nature of the business and what we deal with on on a day-to-day act uh um processes that concludes my presentation I'd be happy to answer any questions any questions commissioner her yeah I carefully watch development review both at the staff level and also uh I I uh also monitor the LPA uh agendas carefully also um in anticipation that those projects are eventually going to end up here and I'm now looking at um the ear amendments um and I this is not a criticism of you because I know that you're not driving the agendas and I know that you're not driving the deadlines because uh the Treasure Coast Regional planning Council has been contracted with to provide the support but I'm noticing that the LPA took up their first review of year amendments last week and they're going to have two or three chapters uh a meeting until the 1 of October and and that seems reasonable to me and then I reviewed that this board is going to take our very very first and only look at ear amendments in one meeting on October 22nd in the past when we've done year amendments we have broken up the public hearings to make sure that the public had ample opportunity to review these ear amendments this is irresponsible it's Reckless there is this it's it's it's ignoring the public um by not giving them an opportunity to look at the at the year amendments it's doing a service to this board to to to think that we can carefully review 19 chapters of brand new law that governs all of our local development is irresponsible you cannot do that in one meeting I don't know who's driving this Reckless irresponsible uh process but it's wrong commissioner I I appreciate that I'm driving the process in compliance with State Statute so there is a requirement in State Statute that all of those items be transmitted on the same date uh with respect to public comment fine we can do it on the same day it's just that we will cumulatively reach that point I I I'm fine with sending all 19 chapters up on the same day I just am not at all uh supportive of reviewing every single chapter on the same day let's let's let's you know have two a meeting just like the LPA is having and then finally we put just like we used to do back in comprehensive planning days we would do do them up over a period of time and then we would send them up to the state all at the same time Elise um Elise Elder Deputy County attorney so they require one public hearing for all the chapters that are being being transmitted so in order to do that you would just have to break it up and continue the public hearing every time you move it forward okay um we have to get them all to the LPA first and then they all have to be transmitted before the end of November so there is a bit of a time crunch there so that's we got all of October and all of November unless you just want to hide these amendments from from the public commissioner campy I agree with commissioner [Applause] herd it's not a first uh I also believe and I've heard what you said but I also think it's a burden on our staff and what you heard from Mr Schilling is that he's trying to follow uh a situation where these rules and this concept was stated out of Tallahassee but in the real world of having to do it it's not fair to you all to have to prep to that level and then present to that level and for us to have to deal with it at that level and the and the public to also the ones that are interested and there's a decent amount of folks that are interested to follow along at that level the the volume of reading and prep for you all and then for us and the public makes it too much so I guess if two to the LPA doesn't get you there to us in time then maybe I mean we are having 19 they're having two uh stack them up a little bit so that we could have at least three or four um I think that's reasonable reasonable for all of us commissioner Smith yeah I guess I what I would share my thoughts about what I've listened to this morning is that um we by far have the best growth Management Department in the state of Florida um to and I I would go so far as to say the regional planning council is one of the best there are one or two other Regional planning councils that are of exceptional quality in the state um our certainly Rivals those other two that I'm thinking of if not the best and so for the public listening um to what was said uh our process is incredibly thorough um you have the best staffs in the business reviewing doing the work and rest assured whatever comes forward will be meticulously looked at and worked on and reviewed whatever time it takes to review it this board will deal with that but don't think for one second that somehow the process is being pushed aside and it is reckless or it is some other word that was used by no means would I ever describe our staff as anywhere as even close to what was just said you guys are the best in the business and what you just rattled off with your growth management update proves the fact that Martin County is incredibly different the numbers support exactly what I'm saying to the north of us is an entirely different situation to the south of us is an entirely situation what's going on in The Villages is insane we are not any of that and nor is the review and nor is the staff and nor is any of the the other outside agencies that work on our behalf to help us get through this so I am very confident that what comes forward will be of the best it can be um and typically in the past when we have sent our ear and uh reports to the state um they have come back with very little comment appreciate those sentiments and uh staff will definitely review the agendas going forward and see what we can do to break them up and make it more palatable for the board thank thank you let me just clarify I apologize just to make sure we have you know it's it's appropriate that they sit on both sides of the dice when I said I agreed with commissioner herd I agreed with the concept not with the irresponsible or and that's her opinion she's entitled to have it and I'm not going to get into it but that's not what I meant I meant that her point that having 19 chapters in a single day doesn't work I understand why you want to do that I'm not on board with thinking that your ear responsible or uh whatever else I just meant that the concept and the process needed to be stretched out a little bit Mr herd and I prefaced my remarks by saying that it wasn't a criticism of staff I heard that because you're not driving these deadlines I recognize that you're doing a a a responsible job of uh meeting the legal requirements of ear so go ahead may I just point out that there there are time frames involved here which arguably are very very intense but there are contingencies that may or may not happen with respect to quorums at the LPA so that is the Genesis of of this schedule that we have uh to provide for a contingency plan should one need to be pushed because they're solely dependent on the LPA as well okay might I make a suggestion Mr chair please if need be we have scheduled multiple days sometimes to review budgets we have scheduled multiple days uh for other situations if need be we can add on our side after you figure out what's the LPA is strategizing an additional Day to a calendar for us to get together to do this it happens once every seven years it's very important it's complicated we would need you the ability to lay it out to us as Commissioners and the public in a fashion that makes it a little more palatable if need be so I should have interrupted you at the very beginning your very first slide when you were talking about the different departments with the um employees or fdes are all of those positions filled they're not currently uh we are recruiting for a senior's zoning compliance technician or reviewer rather and a senior planner in the comprehensive planning division those are two pretty important spots yes sir I just wanted to point that out thank you thank you all right anything else do you see that in your future no um it's still open I could put a hell no in front of that they're trying to recruit okay anyway um with that do you need anything do you need anything I thank you this is a presentation right okay thank you thank you thank you and with that we're at our 10:30 um close captioning break we'll come back in 10 minutes please thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e you're on all oh oops can we start without her or no thr who s Sarah I didn't notice she's not here Elisa's here okay there she comes okay there she is all right we're going to go Department one office and management of budget items which require board approval Stephanie merley merley good morning everybody Stephanie merley director of of OMB here to present seven items on the OMB item today our first item is a permission to apply for the national Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant for the Indian River Lagoon Estuary restoration project our environmental resource division is requesting 1.6 million to support seagrass Restoration in the Indian River Lagoon and it includes seagrass plantings clam restoration and the removal of harmful alal blooms we are required to contribute 450,000 which is Pro rammed over multi- years of the Indian River Lagoon CIP project our next item is a permission to accept the Emergency Management preparedness and assistance trust fund or empa Grant um our division of Emergency Management is requesting to accept $105,600 our third item is a permission to accept the Florida Department of State Division Library Information Services grant our library department has been awarded a grant in the amount of $6,279 item number four is a budget resolution to accept the FY 25 allocation of the of the Federal Highway Administration um Metropolitan planning organization or Mo um in the amount of 93,587 helicopter pilot training the training is going to provide an additional certified pilot to assist the sheriff's office um in the amount of $2,091 commissioner Jenkins is going to put his application in for that one okay helicopter pilot is his retirement plan there you go item number six is a budget resolution to amend the Florida emergency med Emergency Medical Services or EMS trust fund Grant this is an annual gr Grant we get every every year from the Department of Health in the amount of $1 19,8 for Emergency Management operating needs and number seven is a request for funds to conduct conduct sorry conduct future fire facility needs analysis staff is requesting funds from fire impact fee reserves in the amount of $35,900 um for an analysis of future fire needs out in the Western lands that's all I have today any questions for staff motion to accept Miss Merle's presentation okay we have a motion by commissioner campy seconded by commissioner Smith all in favor I all opposed motion carries forward zero commissioner heatherington um absent now moving on to Department two contracts that meet the threshold for board approval $1 million or greater Christie brother good morning Christy Brotherton Chief procurement officer uh we have three contracts for your consideration today and the first contract is for our Golden Gate El Camino uh Trail project um staff is recommending that the board award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder which is BDI Marine Contractors in the amount of 3 million $579,500 and this is for the base bid and the bid alternate number one and move that the board authorized the County administrator or design to execute all documents related to this request uh the next contract is a continuing Services contract for Civil Engineering Services uh this contract has a maximum not to exceed value of $6 million and a maximum not to exceed term of 5 years staff is recommending contract award to the 10 highest scoring firms which are AECOM Technical Services cap Tech engineering carahan Proctor and cross Drummond Carpenter Hoy Tanner and Associates Johnson Muran and Thompson Keithan Associates singoff in half Stant consulting services and wsp USA and move that the board authorized the County administrator or designed to execute all documents related to this request and last we have another continuing Services contract for professional Engineering Services related to Transportation projects uh this contract has a maximum not to exceed value of $1,500,000 and a maximum not to exceed term of five years and staff is recommending contract Awards to the five highest scoring firms which are cap Tech engineering Johnson murmuran and Thompson kimley horn and Associates Marlin engineering and Stanley consultants and move that the board authorized the County administrator or designate to execute all documents related to this request and that concludes this item commission Smith Mr chair move approval second okay we have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner campy all in favor I all opposed motion passes 40 commissioner heatherington absent Mr Donaldson can we do Department 5 in the next 9 Minutes yes yes so we have a preset at 11 yes sir I certainly hope so okay um this is a request uh to uh to execute a lease agreement with uh uh Village of Indiantown for the use of two of our Towers uh in that area um Miss caros Cur is here just to uh answer any questions do we have any but the uh what's of note is that um uh the village and their water Wastewater um um uh utility has been um uh to go some significant Renovations at this time and as part of they're wanting to attach on our antennas uh means to automatically collect um meter reading facilities um and has uh been requested that our normal leas fee be waved uh as they're in this time of trying to get their utility up and running um and it was important to them to to ask for this the the normal fee is um uh was it $1,300 uh roughly per per unit it would be $2,600 a year um they've also asked that we U allow them to um uh Ure it uh under their current insurance program and not at the rates the county has for other users which is a slight reduction so um I've uh supported their request to bring It Forward you do and ask that you uh uh authorize us to execute an uh the agreement um I've uh requested the two amendments to the standard agreement one is that um the termination Clause that if there is some change to the property that we want to make that there is an ability for the county to terminate the C uh with proper notice uh and the other is that the renewal would come back in five years perfect commissioner Smith yeah I'll move approval with the notation that it's just one of the small little things that we can do um to support Indian Town in their efforts to uh become the place that they want to become uh completely agree commissioner herd yeah I'm not going to support that this agreement uh that we that we propose to Indian toown is uh the lease payment rates and the insurance requirements are consistent with all existing leases with other mun municipalities uh within Martin County that utilize our Towers uh if we wave these lease fee lease fees it shifts the maintenance burden to the county and the reduction in insurance requirements opens the county to possible increased liability uh we have this policy in place we have these requirements uh with all the other municipalities they should be the same we should not make exceptions to these rules Mr Donson I understand that uh the only other municipalities that utilize something like this is actually out of counting correct yes it is uh toqua but they are serving Martin County residents with that facility second we have a motion by commissioner Smith seconded by commissioner campy all in favor I all opposed opposed motion carries 31 with commissioner heatherington absent okay all right now department three um we're car six minutes yeah thank you Carla minutes early for um which is executive sess session session uh pursuant to Florida statute section 44765 for collective bargaining negotiations it says Heather is going to you're not Heather yes uh good good morning Commissioners mcram assistant County Administrator um just to read into the record Martin County is currently in the process of negotiating with the teamsters their contract expires in September of this uh year September 30th 2024 the County's negotiation management team is requesting an executive session to discuss the labor negotiations the Border County Commissioners has a limited exemption under Florida Statutes 447 605 which allows the board to meet in an executive session to discuss collective bargaining the session will be attended by the County Commissioners our negotiation management team um as well as our County attorney and Deputy County attorney thank you so okay so we are going to uh pause journ and we are going to do our executive session and then we will uh come back and um go from there thank you we'll be back look e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we are back from our um executive session and I think our lawyer has something don't you normally say something when we come back this oh okay all right and with that I guess we're done right we are I do have one announc okay well I was going to call for public um comment but we've got nobody in the gallery so we'll move on to comments Mr dson so I just wanted to uh recognize our uh CRA uh in in uh in getting several Awards recently and I think it was they're nice and that they also illustrate their um collaboration with uh our Public Works field operations and so I just there's three Awards I just want to uh uh that uh Susan korus and her team won and one is the 2024 honorary special recognition for Marts uh emphasis on Art Award for the Ripple storm water Eco art project from uh uh from Martin arts and then number two was the Florida friendly lscape gold status from the University of Florida for Indian Street landscape meeting project in Golden Gate and then finally was the Florida friendly landscape gold status from the University of Florida for the Rio uh bios swell project so I just thought that was important to recognize the good work by our CRA and uh and the cooperation between them and the public works and achieving those Awards congratul them thank you very nice M Smith nothing um I do have one thing um that if anybody's interested the train station will be moving from its location Uh current location to downtown Hope Sound on the 18th as I understand it it will be the Wei hours of the morning and it should be passing bridge in through the Bridge Road US1 um intersection about 5:00 a.m. so if somebody would actually like to watch that go by um so what time is Harry's open up um yeah I don't know exactly yeah and watch it Go by yeah that'd be kind of cool I don't know 5:00 a.m. might be a little early for Harry but anyway so we're all um in town very excited about that the um Footers are being dug at its new home as we speak so commissioner Smith yeah I was thinking about this the other day and it was going down to Harry for breakfast the other morning and just wondering how the banion trees that whole project was going um but it also struck me too that um uh during uh in November last year when we were doing our priorities we talked about um I talked about and Harold agreed that we'd have a tree um ordinance or Like A Champion tree something coming um I would hope that we would get that on our agenda before Harold departs us um so that um he can make a motion if we're so inclined to approve whatever we create for that so just a reminder it's August and those months will go by quickly if we're not working on that and I would love to see that happen before um Harold departs well the last I heard that the all these lawsuits were still kind of not resolved right but this is this would be this would be like an incentive program I don't think that the lawsuits would affect the idea to incentivize somebody to keep a champion Tree on yes I completely agree and so it's not forcing anybody to do anything it's like if you have this spectacular Tree on your site um and you want to take advantage of a of a something that we can create that makes it worthy of somebody to keep it fantastic well if Peter's listening I hope he is um maybe we can get that done the trees on Bridge Road I know that's a town of Jupiter Island situation that they have the agreement to maintain them and everything else but I will tell you as um their caraker for the last 40 years um and especially this last um little episode with the tornado um we are reaching critical mass on that beautiful tree canopy um all of them survived even the ones that I had given the death sentence to when we stuffed them back in the ground are actually pushing out New Growth which is surprising but those trees have gone through a lot that particular variety they're not bions that's Ficus my carpa that is U actually an exotic um there's only one species of of um of Ficus that are native to Florida which is the Strangler which is what um Trent our Stuart Trent is trying to we've put one uh as as a as a uh trial that's the first tree that's closest to the beach that's thriving but um that what are the ones on old St Lucy Boulevard those are um the largely Fus um Don quazo is calling me right now I probably could ask him and he would know um the exact species but you know there's 150 different varieties of of f so they seem to do they do very they do very well um and so my point of bringing this up is um this conversation of having a program for replacing those trees has been going on for 25 years and and um Mr Reid was leading the charge uh you have to for years and years and and never really got any traction with the town or the club or the county but um I can tell you and I think that any arborist and horticulturalist that really takes a hard look at what is left of those trees are telling you or will tell you that we have to come up with a program to maintain that canopy in the for for the future and um so I just kind of wanted to it's been kind of gwing at me because can we is that something that's what you just outlined is difficult but can we do that I think that with the city I the I think we're going to have to work in concert with the town of juper Island yes and um so anyway with I make a motion to make Carol Jenkins the chairman of that new tree committee yeah well okay fre canopy you know I I have a funest for those trees and have personally stood them up more than once so and the other night uh went all when I came home from dinner um I don't remember which night it was um my wife and I went out to dinner and I came home and saw half of my um patio furniture in the pool from one of the bands that came through I went into instant shock ran back out to the garage jumped in the car and went down Bridge Road to make sure that we weren't had a tree L down because and and and we're good so um so anyway with that said commissioner campy you used up all my time okay Mr H I'm set okay and okay and with that um our next meeting is August 27th and uh we are adjourned thank you bye M cor we already