##VIDEO ID:V1yfENcJ-3o## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e deers you're going to take happy audience out when you go have a great Christmas thank Youk conratulations congratulations sweet that woman does know she knows a lot you want to go into the other and come back just give it a minute for the room to clear out one of our presenters is not here yet um he has messaged me and he's on his way so we will go ahead and go into the uh Planning and Development public hearing for the solar farm text Amendment well Miss Jennifer is getting ready uh we want to give our condolences out to the rebels family and we do have a couple members who um couple uh Commissioners who may have to step out early um we're going to try to be steadfast on our time but if you do see a commissioner get up and leave it would be simply because they want to attend the services of that family good morning good morning everybody my name is Jennifer so with planning and development services this is case number lc2400 1 the application is for a text Amendment to the Land Development code the applicant is kimley horn the agent is Mark Shelton the request is to amend puam County's Land Development code by adding solar Farms as a use by right in the Agriculture and Agriculture state zoning districts as well as the addition of a new section 45-21 defining solar farms and its standards Florida statute 163 32053 specifically States a solar facility shall be a permitted use in all agricultural land use categories in a local government comprehensive plan and all agricultural zoning districts within an unincorporated area and must comply with the setback and Landscape buffer area criteria for other similar uses in the agriculture District maintaining consistency between Florida Statutes Land Development codes and the comprehensive plan is the main goal and responsibility of Staff the proposed text Amendment will bring our Land Development code into compliance with Florida statute 163 3205 staff recommends approval of the request to amend the Land Development code as the request is consistent with Florida Statutes and consistent with other comprehensive plan goals objectives and policies at the scheduled public hearing on November 13th 2024 the Planning Commission voted to recommend approval of the proposed text amendment I would also like to point out that there has been a revision um since the last hearing and that would be to the standards in section 45-21 we had an addition of an additional 45 and six um for read solar Farms will increase all correspondent setbacks to increments of 10 ft may increase the allowed impervious Surface by increments of 5% of the development of site number five is in addition to increased setback values increasing the width of vegetated buffer by increments of 10 ft may also allow an increase in impervious Surface by 5% number six is internal Pathways shall adhere to access with requirements established by the NFPA questions there any questions commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair did we address commissioner nul's question about additional setback thing from agricultural so that would be the the trade for that essentially if we were to change the setback requirements for all agricultural districts it would create so many Parcels that are in non-compliance so instead we kind of did a tradeoff as where if they increased their setbacks we would increase their impervious allowances gotta I understand that I I kind of saw that in the state statute but you know okay thank you commissioner newold I do appreciate you guys creatively addressing the concern and I like the idea that it it incentivizes the idea as opposed to penalizing um I think these entities will likely take advantage of that and um be good for both sides so thank you all right any other questions or comments from the board all right this is a public hearing um I'm going to open the floor for public comment for or against this item all right having no one come to the podium um back to the commission mam CH Madam chair I move approval of the LDC text Amendment 24- 0000001 one solar farm text Amendment second we have a a proper motion and a proper second any further discussion okay all in favor say I I I any opposed all right motion passes thank you all right we'll go back to presentations Craig mlan with the waterways and trails committee and Sam Carr with the waterways and trails committee they have both given us a handout and it's also been submitted to Ashley clerk reports good morning Craig hey good morning chairman and Commissioners it's good to be here this morning speak to you uh welcome to the new Commissioners on the back at the work so it's good to have you aboard uh this morning um we had drafted a letter through the waterways and trails committee on uh the what we refer to as a gap which is a section of the pet Lake Butler trail that continues into the city of patka a few years ago putham County had agreed to be the maintenance entity for that section of Trail once do finished the construction do has recently announced portions of the trail that they have Acquired and the programming to do the construction it's out a number of years um and that's like six to eight in some aspects so what we've put together is a letter to D asking them if they could expedite um the completion of that section it's been envisioned for over 20 and it's been worked on by De at different levels for about 15 years so we're just uh through that letter just wanted to um Elevate the subject a little bit with theot get a conversation going with them about what does expedition mean what can they do on their end to move along a little faster so that's pretty much for if you have any questions on the project itself the extent the the duration it basically runs from the plaque airport the missing gap between the trail system pla airport to um Highway 17 which is about where the Italian Latin Grill used to be that's a nice Landmark for folks to think of so um before I call on you commissioner Harvey I served on the waterways and trails committee and um ask Craig to bring this forward to us because of the letter um as you know when anytime we receive requests for support those are the type of things that should come to the board um not individ ually as Commissioners and so um that's why he's here today um commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair Craig good to see you this morning thank you for being here you know that section of the trail is probably the most U challenging I don't want to use another word um but is there's some obstacles to to get across right there um you said that the BCC committed to the maintenance of that trail when did we do that do you remember I can go back it's about three years ago back at the same time the uh commission had agreed to be the maintenance entities they turned in the proper paperwork to dot to also maintain the section of the St John's river to see loop from East Paca to the South just I want to say I I don't want anybody to be scared off because of the word maintenance we haven't really done any I mean it's not like the trails are falling apart they're really built well so we we haven't done a whole lot of Maintenance and sometimes that scares us off a little bit but in this section it's it's not a worrisome for me at all so thank you yeah it's mostly been Mowing and blowing off and and just keeping it um somebody going through once in a while to make sure it's passable and just to be clear uh Commissioners this is not an expense to your local tax dollars this would all be F this is all funded uh at the fdot level we're just looking for a letter of support correct all right thank you um do you have any other any other comments or questions all right I would like um M chair I move we support this cause with a letter and allow you to sign the letter of support for trail maintenance in this Trail Gap I'll second that all right we have a motion a second all in favor I I any opposed thank you and then um good morning Mr Claus Sam car I say that because my grandbabies love him um they see him as Santa Claus all the time um anyway so Mr Carr is going to give us an update on a request for duns Creek State Park you mean he looks like s yeah I know and he is this is this is the information um well thank you and good to see all the the new faces and everything and and the old ones too so um very glad to be here on behalf of the uh waterways and trails committee uh in one of our last meeting or one of our meetings um back in uh uh earlier in the um or late in summer we started a discussion on duns Creek State Park Park and dun streek state park has been a state park since 2001 and in 2019 management plan was written and in that management plan was for the development of dun Street State Park and um so uh it it it is just basically sat here I've been involved almost 20 years with uh dunek State Park through the friends of duns Creek State Park and I'm not representing them at this point in time but my I'm representing uh the waterways and trails committee to say that we're going to uh try to uh uh move on the development of dun Street State Park by making requests to the legislative session coming up in January I would love to have the commission's uh agreement and support to do that um basically at 65 6200 Acres uh the brochure that I gave you is the financial statement basically for dun Creek State Park and um it's um it it would be a revenue generator for the county from the standpoint of having uh campsites out there we would earn TDC dollars for every campsite and every day they spent out there currently the the Florida Park service has the Rodman Campground which is full it has 68 campsites and we reeven and we uh gain thousands of dollars worth of revenue from those campsites every single year you know uh earlier in the year the uh the the uh uh legislator the Park Service decided to put G golf courses and this that and the other and all these things and spend millions of dollars in development yet here sits duns Creek State Park undeveloped and the plan is there and all of that so we want uh we want the county commission's um agreement to go forward with this and uh and uh present this to the legislative session coming up in February 9th or in January all right very good um commissioner Alexander yes ma'am thank you so I went and visited dun Creek State Park uh I guess about 3 months ago with Sam and I had only been out there once or twice when my mother was working with the equestrian community and I thought it was just the old goat farm for lack of a better term but after the tour that Sam took me on I did not realize there were over 6,000 Acres that are there that could be used for camping trail riding concerts just a huge underutilized resource lutam County um I would like to see us get behind it I think that it would be a great thing for our community for our children and for our future there's not anything like that in surrounding counties that is just sitting dormant it's a huge opportunity for us thank you commissioner Alexander commissioner Harvey thank you m thank you madam chair uh Mr car I would love to get behind it and I really think that's a jewel out there I just need you to spell out what we're getting behind when that time comes there's a man there sometimes in the legislative process the narrative changes and we need to have defined goals that we're looking for and this commissioner will get behind that no problem um I I do have the the management plan and I can forward that to you guys to see ex just something from the waterways and trails that this is a these are ABCD that we're after and I and I'm on board okay that's fine that's fine just to um again give you an idea of the traffic out there now U you've got the brochure and what the state park says but uh through the friends of dun Creek State Park we're going to realize over 2,000 people coming from outside the county coming to the county and enjoying those things and in February there's going to be what they call the mammoth March and um they they take uh reg and these are people who are walking at least 20 miles in a day on on the trails at dun Creek State Park there are 1,000 registers they had to close it off it's it's it's overbooked at this point in time and that'll be happening in February so these are the kind of people that you get there uh we don't have a dock that you can dock boats at which is totally ridiculous and uh we don't have a campground for people to stay at and uh and we need that in putham County we definitely do so thank you and uh I'll follow commissioner uh leot and Joshua's Direction Joshua is going to be the chair of our of our committee now and so we with them to get you what you need okay thank you Sam um so excuse me being on that committee um I uh I definitely um encourage this I can see this being on so many different levels being such an asset for putam County and again this is a request not for our local tax dollars but us asking the state to step up and create use that Park and create a great um outdoor park for all of people to come visit um I'm part of a group on Facebook because I have a camp a camper and we go camping and um all the state parks are full in Florida all year long you have to basically get on a one-year waiting list and so having some Camp campsites available for this in putham County would be great commissioner Alexander yes ma'am I just wanted to Echo what you were saying about this being State dollars and it's not coming from our County but it would drive additional Commerce to our community so it's truly a boon for us it's a it's a gem it's a win-win all right um can we get just a motion for a letter of support I'm sorry goad bring back some yeah okay I think commissioner well we don't have time because we're looking at the legislative um delegation meeting is prior to our next board meeting the the management plan just to say the management plan is about $5 million out of that the campgrounds is about half of that for the development of the roads in there and they've already drilled the wells they've already paved the road down to the turnoff and all of that so the manual 2019 and that's been there and so the only reason it hasn't been done is because the state hasn't allocated the money to do it so we would be encouraging the state to follow up when and do what Their actual do what Their management plan says that's right that's exactly it I have no problem with that Madam chair as long as we keep it in the confines of the duns Creek and no surprises from outside of that area okay all right I think we can handle that motion that commissioner our chairman allows to follow the management plan to duns Creek and in that confined area okay all right I'll second that thank you all in favor say I I I thank you Sam we appreciate your pres thank you all right um moving on to consent agenda items um are there any public comment on agenda items only consent agenda items only are there any Commissioners who'd like pull anything from the consent Madame chair I like to pull item e all right anyone else Madame chair hearing no one else pulling an item I'd like to move consent agenda for approval of items a b c d f g h right we have a motion on the floor second no proper second any discussion all in favor say I I I all right commissioner Harvey um item e thank you madam chair I just want to say um the new mayor of En alarin is here Pastor Rick Haynes if you'll stand up and be recognized thank you mayor for being in the audience and the reason I said that is uh mayor Haynes has really took upon himself to be involved in the community we have a wonderful Sports Complex out in the West End that frankly we put no money in because no one wanted to use the park and it was being being torn up and there's no sense fixing things that are just going to get torn up so this is an opportunity for the people in the west end of our County to use that that facility that was put together by the volunteers many many years ago and uh actually the Army Reserve went out there with their pans and bulldozers and practice and dug and move dirt and a lot of things were done so I look forward to this uh last year on my appropriation money that I had for Capital Improvement we put some money into U some things out there we just recently had to put a new well in so we're looking forward to the Youth of of putam County West End to go out there and use that the roads are paved to that area now so it's a win-win situation for the for the youngsters of putam County and the West End and I I just want to say thank you for doing that and uh we appreciate the effort of that so Madam chair if you don't mind I'd like to move item e for approval please all right we have proper motion second that second from commissioner Alexander any discussion uh Mr Harvey commissioner Harvey I would like to just say thank you for your leadership in that obviously um having our kids out and about in the community doing sports activities is very important to us so thank you you're welcome all right all in favor say I I I any opposed all right motion passes I also want to take a point of privilege and on Item B for the fee schedule um we had some constituents come at the last board meeting and this is uh fixing that that was just simply an error on staff's level at parad Paradise Point and so we have resolved that and I appreciate the department heads and the staff working to get that taken care of thank you um moving on we are on Code Enforcement case fine reduction case good morning Thomas good morning go ahead code case is 27509 address is 121 Brett Avenue the property owner's name is Royal Palm Sunshine Group LLC the violation was unsafe structure and permits required original fine amount was 1 15 156,50 187 there was a tax Surplus received on July 3rd for1 95566 the total cost of enforcement action was $1,972 the property owners recently purchased the property it is now compliant we requesting approval for the fine reduction and requesting approval to use the tax Surplus received for 95566 which would bring the total still due to $16.34 if the board approves we recommend the reduced F to be paid within 90 days thank you Thomas is the pres all right Madam chair I move approval of case number 27509 to be use the tax surplus funds of 19556 and pay $16.34 within 90 days all right proper motion second by commissioner palir any discussion all in favor say I I thank you thank you thas all right moving into new business um we have Administration discussion regarding um project funds for fiscal year 25 good morning commissioner good morning this is a discussion regarding our last year we established a special project funds for each of the Commissioners each district commissioner was allocated $200,000 and through the year they could spend those funds as directed provided that they met a few criteria meaning that the expenditure was otherwise a lawful purpose of taxpayer funded projects it must be a capital expenditure or a one-time cost that doesn't re doesn't create a reoccurring need in the budget um it must be fully compliant with the procurement code and the um fund balances or the project initiatives are reported quarterly during the budget reports um during fiscal year 25's budget development which all of you know kind of starts at the beginning of the year we had other board members who were turning off and didn't want to make the decision on this initiative without three new members having some input um so today we're bringing it to you um to determine whether or not this commission would like to initiate a similar program and we also have included for you last year's spin report there is a um balance uh encumbered or carryover balance um for two of the Commissioners um District Five had a very small amount but he still has two projects that are in the process of closing out so it is likely those funds will be needed to close out those two projects that were still in process before he left and then of course commissioner Harvey still has a little bit of funds to allocate staff is looking for direction from the board as to how you'd like to proceed all right very good if you look on your um agenda packet you'll see how the previous Commissioners um had uh utilized this a lot of good projects were done such as um Pico Road boat ramp repair some lighting at Francis Field and other sports complexes and um just Johnson Community Park also received some things so there's a whole list a fire station infrastructure upgrade um so lots of things that happened and and we are the ones on the front line who are hearing the needs in the community and um that's all I have to say at that point commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair this I just want to remind the board this isn't a slush fund for us this is actual money that was saved in our true up and our we put money back in Reserve building reserves is good building too many reserves is not good um so we need to get the money back in our community and I believe uh last year we saw the Commissioners were able to see things in their District that needed immediate help and we were able to get there and help using Capital Improvement funds uh that we were instead of coming back and requesting the whole board and going through all that process moving pretty quick and getting things done done in our community so um I support this wholeheartedly and um that's where I stand thank you madam chair do we have any other discussion at the board we have a motion Madam chair I move approval of this item we have a second by commissioner pelier any further discussion all in favor say I I I any opposed motion passes thank you next item on the agenda is Animal Services partnership between Animal Service and Best Friends Animal Society good morning Mr Helms good morning how are youall doing hopefully you have goody day and a you know future uh um Christmas and New Years and all that good stuff this time of the season goes by quickly but I will be very quick and simple um I meet with awl probably uh well at least once a month sometimes twice a month depending on the week and um they brought us um some information about best friends um Animal Society um and I think this would be very wise just for my staff in general um there there will be a partnership that we work with them so we're really not looking for um a vote but just kind of a wave of approval if there something you want us to go into and look into I think the benefits will truly outway anything that we have to give them it's mostly data that we give everybody anyways that they'll have to look at and um for me with my staff um the more training that I can get my staff especially at the cost of zero is something that would be wonderful for us and so um just in dog handling and and how to deal with just the ins and outs of a kennel they're going to give us some of that training I think it would be very beneficial um I have Miss Diane Kelly here um she's a a wonderful person to work with she's so nice and such a good heart um and I will introduce her but if you have any questions for me I think of it from my my old time in the education world as building a bag of tricks and as an educator as a a leader you have to have ways to do that and so this will give us another bag in our trick that we're able to um adap and improvise and do things that our animals need and so I'll will introduce Miss Cy and I think we like the word toolbox it's a great hi uh welcome to the new commission very exciting um my name is Diane Kelly I live in Crescent City and some of you know me as one of the leaders of the Animal Welfare League of putam County and you all helped a great deal uh with the spay neuter capability that we're going to be launching very soon and this is another major effort that we want to see move forward because it's not just we definitely want to prevent unnecessary births of animals to help control the population but we also need to enable putham County Animal Control with all the tools and the services that they need to be successful you can't look at social media and not see people pleading for help uh with these poor animals but anyway that aside um I have known uh folks from Best Friends Animal Society for many years now they bring in about 200 to $230 million a year they're a huge organization best friends is leading the national effort of no kill so they have a massive goal to get the country to no kill by the end of 2025 and that really means that any animal that enters a shelter leaves alive if they can be saved and can be saved uh Carolyn Fitzgerald is going to talk a little bit more about that shortly but the bottom line is uh we putam County we're not quite there yet we're not at a no kill State we are considered a kill County not a good thing that we want to be recognized for not that we haven't made progress we have and Brian and Pooky and others at Animal Control have done a phenomenal job and we just want to try to help enable them with more tools and and support because they're doing great we want to keep them we want to nurture them give them what they need and we certainly have to do this for the animals uh so we want to my role has been to help facilitate the connection between Best Friends Animal Society and Brian and his team so that we can get putham County to a no kill State and even even Beyond uh 90% really no kill means those that can be saved at least 90% of them leave the shelter alive and that's what we're focused on uh best friends uh leading the no kill effort has been instrumental since 20 2016 to really move the nation uh closer to no kill the nation's not there yet but hopefully by the end of 25 will'll be there and we want to be a part of that Carolyn Fitzgerald is the individual at Best Friends Animal Society that we've been working with she's a wonderful individual she's actually got a lot of experience on the ground floor doing what Brian's team does in her past uh very credible organization very credible young lady she's a senior strategist for best friends for the east region so we'd like to introduce her she's called she through te uh telephonically so that she can share a little bit more about putham County State and what they can do to help us and just one last thing I wanted to share many of you may be aware that we had a lot of animals unfortunately that had to be euthanized I believe it was in August and uh due to a massive parvo outbreak I asked Carolyn uh recently I said Carolyn I said you know talked to her about that particular case briefly and I said could best friends had we had an arrangement with you could you have potentially helped us limit that problem and she said yes uh because what they have as Brian mentioned they do have standard operating procedures that also are related to helping to control the spread the detection and the spread of disease so it is entirely probable that had we had a relationship with them and implement mented certain procedures we might have been able to sharply curtail the death rate of those poor animals so that's just an example so we can't say for example that parvo outbreak oh well can't control it so sorry we had a A bad month that's not going to be good enough as we move forward we're going to look at ways to prevent that anyway that is it we'd like to introduce Carolyn is she on thank you so much we're going to call call our number okay as she's doing that you may have heard too that there are big cities in the nation that are now considered no kill like Los Angeles and I believe New York city so best friends was instrumental there as well yes please so while we're doing that I do you uh I see commissioner Harvey do you want to wait until the presentation over if you don't thank you I think you're hello good morning this is uh puam County Commissioners good morning how are you good so uh Miss Dian Kelly has given us an intro and she has said that you have a few words she'd like to share with us yes thank you so much um for taking the time to meet with me this morning um this is the first time I've ever done a commissioner meeting over the phone so please grant me some Grace as I um experiment with this um did you were you able to look at our auor of support for plam County it is in our package okay um so Best Friends Animal Society uh is very interested in supporting Pam the community in implementing this offer of support it's uh at no charge to the shelter so um if there are any funding needs that are go along with this we can talk about funding at a later time and um I wanted to ask if there was any questions about this or organization that I could address to help push this forward not at this time T what is was there anything particular you would like her to talk about Carolyn did you want to share maybe a little bit about what you see in putam county in terms of the data and then also kind of how you see this partnership moving forward more specifically the types of uh changes or enhancements you'd like to uh collaborate with us to implement yes thank you Diane um so we're looking to help improve and uh the life- saving programming at puam County Animal Shelter um last year according to us about 91 animals um were not able to leave the shelter uh and we're hoping to implement some programmatic support to make Sol for that the first thing on the offer of support is a shelter review and what this would look like is a review of shelter operations from intake to outcomes to with recommendations um and program implementation to support the shelter um you know putam county is doing a great job in making life saving a priority and supporting its community and really want to offer that extra support to the staff in the community to help make these things seamless um one of the things I noticed was to offer a foster program mentorship which would allow our staff at best friend Animal Society to work with the staff at puam to support Foster programming um for animals that may additional time or space outside of the shelter capacity which will greatly help expand the experience of the community also preparing those animals for adoption or transfer at a later time um another thing that we offered was um it's called Los or length of stay pathway planning and giling rounds and these are shelter standards um and different things that we can do to help seamlessly allow animals from the time of intake to outcome where every animal is prioritized and we know the pathway like when a dog comes in what are the dogs what does it need to receive in order to make it adoptable or to have it um move through the shelter seamlessly and the the fourth thing we're offering is adoption promotion and Community engagement trainings um these are aimed to increase and coordinate adoptions Foster and transfer Partnerships and also to help support a mentorship through social media um we work with shelters around the country and implementing these programs um and each plan and each uh offering is it's not cutter so we work with shelter a here and we're doing the same exact training it's tailored to the unique community that the shelter serves okay and just as an FYI right uh in 2023 we were at 83% as far as a save rate and surrounding counties on average averaged 88% um Florida is one of the key target areas in the nation to move uh in a much better Direction so Florida's already behind the times a little bit bit and we are part of that although we've made progress and that's important but we want to continue to move forward so and I've seen counties also that are uh much worse than County isely surprisingly St John's County is the worst of the surrounding ones as I understand I would have thought just the opposite but many are doing better few are doing worse but um we just want to continue to move forward all right Miss Carolyn we're not going to keep you on the phone is there any questions for Carolyn from the board all right thank you for your presentation um I just I have one question um well the lights are lit up I'll let you go first commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair do want to say it's it's going to sound a little callous and I don't mean it to be everybody knows my position on animal control and I wish we weren't in it I wish people would wish I wish people would take care of their animals the way I took care of mine um I can't afford another one the way I want to take care of one so I'm not going to be in that business but I wish everybody would by Statute we don't have to be in that business but we choose to do it and we get a black eye constantly from doing it so Mr Helms I want to say to you and your staff thank you for all the work that you've done since you've been here about moving this forward we used to have a really bad reputation and it's gotten better I don't know if we'll ever get to be a completely no kill um because some animals do need to be put down there's no doubt about this some whom All Children's faces off I have no pity on that and um I'll keep my comments about the owners to myself it should not happen in today's world and people should take care of it but I do believe we're on the right track I believe with the Foster program that you instigated I believe that the UF process that you're working on I believe the new animal shelter that was Carl Beck's vision of a better place for people to come in and and adopt is going to be significant and I believe that the location of this with the vet tech program from the sheriff's department we have a lot of things going in our favor that's going to help us um but again the responsibility comes back to the owner of the pet to take care of that pet and it should not have to be that it's dropped off at County government to take care of um so I applaud you I really support this I want this to be successful and uh but government in my opinion should not be the end all to we all and that's the problem I'm facing with this because truly if you take government and our budget and if people just police thems how much money will we not have to charge the citizens of putham County and um and I understand that and they won't but you know I just I feel for the animals it's not their fault it's not their fault a bit um and it's sad that people just abandon we had one last week in commissioner Alexander's District that the people are the residents are feeding these cats because the people just walked away and left them that's not fair no one should have to do that um but also the brown dog that lives in my neighborhood that's now chasing people up and down the road because the homeowner just decides it's his right to let the animal go that's not fair so you know but Mr Helms again thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the work you've done because this is a complex this is a complex problem and it's not going to be solved by one thing it's going to be solved by all of us putting our heads together all the groups getting together and Spade neuter is a big part of the front end of the problem so if we can get that accomplished you know so thank you can I just m just a quick comment and an Accolade to to Brian um Brian's working very closely with the Animal Welfare League Thea Beldon is here behind me and they're working very closely with others to look at an animal ownership accountabilities and how do we enfor how do we get the right things in place and how do we then enforce them so just wanted you to know we're very sense of that we all feel the same way and he's doing already a lot of work in that regard so that's another prong in this whole effort that we're focused on and maybe maybe there there's a reward instead of an enforcement maybe there's a help you know some people might get over their head and they have two cats and all of a sudden next week they got four cats and the following week they got 10 cat I'm just making maybe there's some incentive that we can do to help that person because people that hoard don't realize they hoard until somebody says hey look at your yard or look at your you know you got a problem here well you know I got 30 cats I take care of you know well how many do you really need so thank you thank you madam chair commissioner Alexander you recognized thank you madam chair I I just want to Echo what Larry had to say um I attended the awl meeting about three weeks ago and the accolades and the praise that Mr Helms is receiving today on his efforts are genuine he was out of town and uh taking his daughter on a trip he wasn't there to plead his case and I heard nothing but good things about Mr Helms so that's all I want to do is thank you and thank you Diane for the efforts that you guys put forth uh I'm an animal lover and um I really appreciate what you guys are doing thank you commissioner Alexander commissioner newold thank you I wanted to express my support for this partnership um it's it's we have an animal services program that's on the rise I had no idea how big this issue was you know coming into into office um learned a ton T out there and it's it's nice to see the spirit of cooperation the willingness for you know our staff to take on these Partnerships and and take on those new tools so thank you all all right are you looking for a wave of support I believe they are I'm waving and support other Commissioners are waving absolutely all right you got unanimous all right thank you thank you thank you Miss Kelly thank you Mr Helms all right next item on the agenda is Public Works acceptance of multiple RightWay Deeds yes ma'am good morning Commissioners um this is just some cleanup work that Miss Maria had done where they had done lot splits and it and it's it's shaping up our rideways where the land owners gave us the 66 ft that's required in case we need to go back in the neighborhood and do drainage work or we need to do additional things road maintenance it just it just is cleaning up the RightWay so that's the acceptance of these Deeds is just strictly for clean up of things have been brought through the building department or whatever that has a legal lot split or something that just gave us the access that's required by the Land Development code is this the only um time this would have to come in front of us if we vote on it today I don't know this the only time that'll ever come back in front of you is yes yes this particular one for these cases yes but I mean we may bring more back in the future to clean up understand that but for these particular ones okay yes ma'am okay sorry M question any um discussion from the board Madam chair I like to move approval of the acceptance of multiple rightaway Deeds resolution number 2024-the to vacate a portion the gentleman owns both sides of the road and just wants to vacate the right away in the middle so it's a comp practice that we do we bring it forward to you guys to schedule a public hearing this is the first stop before you guys put on a further agenda to have a public hearing all right so this will come back to a public hearing do you need a do you need a motion today yes ma'am we need a motion to push it forward to a public hearing Madam chair I'd like to move approval of moving this forward to the next meeting on January 14th at 9:05 a.m. proper motion second second by commissioner Alexander all in favor say I I I any oos like sign oh I didn't allow for discussion was there any discussion all right item e uh Public Works Saratoga Harbor drainage easement yes ma'am once again this is just some drainage easements we needed as the 2023 uh dirt to pave one out uh this is a neighborhood that required an extensive amount of drainage e drainage uh with the topography the land and the elevation changes um and this was working with the citizens down there to get the drainage we need to accept um these easements in for um the shedding of the water into the the lake and it eventually ends up in the river but um this is just a place where we can put the um runoff water from the new paved roads that are going in the neighborhood so again this is not this wouldn't go back to another hearing item this is this is for this situation yes ma'am that's correct today would be if you guys accept these drainage easements and we have the ability to work inside these easements in order to put the drainage into the um proper location all right I would move move for approval of item e resolution 202 24-1 143 all right we have a proper motion second and a second um any discussion from the board all in favor say I I I any opposed like sign motion passes right moving on to Administration our legislative day priorities discussion as you uh know um our legislators Representatives will meet and I believe it's January 9th here in this boardroom and we'll have an opportunity to go over our priorities and legislative requests today we moved um the duns Creek State Park uh that will not be an Appropriations request however it'll be a letter of support to be added to this um administrator Suggs has given you our legislative request on a piece of paper uh administrator did you want to go through these or do we just want to Madam chair however you would like to do that this morning I can I'd be more than happy to go through each one of them uh real quick you know we had we talked about this a few weeks ago this is just a list of some conversations I've had with staff as well as elected officials and these are in no particular order uh you have uh Port infrastructure as you know we're continuing to push that Port project through uh this is for the expansion and development of some property between our warehouses and the annx property uh for future development out there uh your fort Gates Ferry this has been an ongoing project for quite some time uh we've got the engineering department poor engineering is looking at The Landings and hopefully coming up with some type of cost estimate to complete this project Madam chair yes can we take these one at a time as we go through if you don't want however you want be appropriate that'll be fine all right so uh he's already discussed Port infrastructure does anybody have any questions or comments on Port infrastructure okay Fort Gates fairy I do have a question on that or a comment to make um you know we kind of I've in my career here I've gotten one phone call to open the ferry back up um I love the ferry I think that's a really cool idea but the citizens of putham County subsidize that Ferry the rebuilding of the West Side I'm all in favor of that the problem that we faced was and we had this room packed if you remember Mr Suggs with the uh Park official out there and you've been to Washington to even talk to the deputy secretary of interior about this we can bring people across the there we can drop them off on the west side in the ocal National Forest but we only own just a very small piece of property at that landing and then if they don't take care of their and I don't want to use the term roads because they don't like to use the term roads um out there if they don't take care of their service area then we can drop people off and say good luck getting to State Road 19 uh I'm not opposed to it I'm just saying that we need to be mindful that when we do talk Ferry um it is a it is a a road basically and people the citizens of putam County have been subsidizing that if it takes care of itself this commissioner has no problem I think it's a very cool trip and if you never took the fery across I think you should I think it's very very historical I think it's nostalgic I think it's old Florida at its best but we need to be mindful when we talk about that of all the ramifications and that that's my only comment can you clarify your comment if it takes care of itself I'm not sure I follow your comment on that when you said if it takes care of itself what does that mean you know when we look at subsidizing um we hired a a group down there to basically run the ferry and they charged the fee but that in no way took care of the cost of that faer running across the river so I think that's what we but you know in all reality nothing we ever do is completely level and fair when it comes to taxes and fees we just try to make them less burdensome on the on the people uh but it is a route that people can use to get out more convenient to cross the river but I think we need to be mindful of of that when we look at the people in the West End would they really use the fery the South End probably would a lot more than the West End um probably people in El AR and don't even know there's a fery out there you know for all intents and purposes but I think that's what we've got to be mindful of Madam chair thank you all right thank you commissioner pelier um in my less than 30 days being back in office I have had several calls on this it is in my district um I am working hard to see if we can't come to some resolution about uh fixing that down there um I think well one it is the I'm told the oldest now hadn't been operational since I think hurricane Irma but it is the oldest fery in the state um I think there's some historical value that and as uh I think commissioner Harvey said if you've never rode across it it's a it's a unique feeling to be out there with your vehicle floating across the middle of the river and thinking the worst could happen but uh I've done it a time or two and it's it has never happened thankfully but um saying that uh we have a potential um development of some sort that we really don't know a whole lot about coming to the South End the county and I think that thing is going to be very um an added aspect of that venue down there that that gentleman is U bringing forward and um it could turn into to really be something U that is um very useful to all everyone in putham County as well as the attraction of people riding it to get to their destination in the South End of the county coming from the the West Side that's I I just think it's a good thing and I'm going to pursue pushing this forward in the uh islative session thank you commissioner newold well I've only been on the job so to speak for a short period of time I've got a handful of of uh questions and comments from the opposite side um opposite side of the river so to speak not the topic um I'll be putting together a meeting with some folk on in the Wella side here shortly so I'll be able to come back with a little more information in the future and you know I'm a proponent of saving our historical sites and things of that nature so I'm I have interest uh in the topic but we also have to be practical as well um whatever we do has to make sense and you know maybe across time we can come up with some public private Partnerships that that get a little more skin in the game across the board so I'm glad to see that this isn't going to just be sunk so to speak and that there's a little we'll put some our our brains to it before we take action so thank you Comm Alexander yes I did have a constituent reach out to me about it even though it's not in my district um he made reference to funds that were allocated uh to fery years ago and uh he was kind of vague on whether they were spent or how they were spent so I'd like to I'd like to learn a little bit more of that I'd also like to know what the final cost might be to bring it up and operational I he said that they provided funds to rebuild the barge itself so there is some Community involvement and Community interest in it so I don't want to negate that so I I would like to learn a little bit more about it before we lobbied for it yeah so the reason thank you commissioner Alexander the reason this is in front of us today is particular to are we going to ask our federal government to help us with this project that's the bottom line and so if it's a priority of this board it has to be a priority of the board not one particular commissioner um while one commissioner can push the idea it for us to set in front as a group in front of our legislators and say this is what we want as one of our priorities in the in our County and it's important to us that we would have to do that as a group so the question is um my understanding first is that we had um some funding from fdot before and um was it fdot at the state level and it was a legislative priority and we could not make the project work for a number of reasons and um then we sent the money back that's the bottom line and so um this is a difficult discussion to have because um we sent the money back so now are we ready as five Commissioners to say to the state we sorry we sent it back few years ago but now we want the money back and I think that's the challenge and it's hard for me and I'm speaking just on my behalf it's hard for me to get behind this as a legislative priority it is because I'm good with us having the discussion and if we end up um using somebody's um designated designated dollars that we just approved for it I mean it's hard to say I mean all of these projects we don't have dollars associated with them yet so we're a little bit early but we have to have the discussion to know to direct staff as to whether or not to go forward and get tell us what are these projects look like and before I believe it was a couple million dollars was it like 2 point the fort Gates FY it was before couple couple million one and some change one million and some change is what we had re previously had gotten approval from from the state and um since then some work has been done in that area and so but then we also know the cost of goods has gone up so it depends on what level are we talking about that we need to do this on so that's where I'm at um I'll I'll uh listen to uh commissioner paler you're next um the number I was told was 1.7 million and while we return that money I I that escapes me um you should go back and watch the videos it's quite entertaining oh okay um I'm not for spending any um State money on the ferry itself because that is a private entity owned by a private individual and he is paid for his services and therefore he should pay for repairs and take care of his equipment have it insured or whatever that might be I'm not in the fery business but we have one half of the landing fixed it would not be very wise on our part to not fix the other half of the landing what do we what do we spend that money for nothing so uh I'm I'm still going to stay behind pushing that we fix the uh west side of the thing to make it operational and then go to the next stage of finding a ferry or a ferry operator maybe different than the one we had I don't know that you know because I'm I'm not familiar with with that that individual how that actually works that part part of it but we do have half the project done that would be a total waste of money if we did not fulfill and complete the project on our on this side not just because it's in my district but I mean you you've gone halfway right right and I don't I don't know that I disagree with you on that but I guess the question is do you feel like it should be a legislative priority or is it something that we should do um locally with local dollars I think that's the question that we're here today well I think we need some numbers back from um um engineering as to what that's going to um cost before we decided exactly what we how much we do need um I never saw the damage that was done from the storm um but it must have been extensive for 1.7 million to be allocated I think there was a difference in fdot standards versus our standards of making it operational to what we needed to make it serviceable versus a fdot standard yeah yeah so um change the length of it are you discuss for go ahead commissioner Alexander no I I agree I just um I wanted to have some more discussion to learn about what the project was what the damages were because this is all brand new to me Jr and I spoke some about it earlier this week uh I agree with Mr P here that um if we have made a partial investment um we might consider fixing it but where are those funds going to come and it's hard for me to go back and ask somebody for something a second time that they'd already given us once and we couldn't follow through and finish up the deal so again the question is do we we need numbers to see how much it is if it's something trivial maybe we fund it here we figure it a different way right so that's where I'm at okay and just for clarity when you speak commissioner Alexander and all of us actually when we refer to Jr we need to refer to Mr to Grimes or to newold so that the public doesn't think we have done something something that we're not supposed to be doing um as far as Sunshine violation so you had a conversation with Mr Grimes yes ma'am I did and I'm sorry about that two here it's this is all new it's not a problem I just want to make sure that we're so um am my understanding that on the port infrastructure we were all okay with moving that for a legislative priority is that correct let's let's go I'm sorry I'm having to go backwards yes yes do we have a wave in support on that okay and on the for fairy it okay go ahead I thought you were thank you madam chair um Let me let me these are two different projects so what you heard today one was the east side of the river one was the West Side the east side of the river a commissioner and a private citizen convinced us that we didn't need to spend that much money that they could we could do it in housee and the board of County Commissioners spent money to fix the east side of that um and you can watch the video and you can even watch the last few couple meetings ago that the citizen came here and um projected his disappointment although he took that project on so but this is a whole different conversation this wasn't State money that we got for the west side there was damage on the west side and again like I said the the conversation was we didn't have enough Landing we didn't have a whole lot of footprint down there that was one issue and the other was uh we advocated for those roads to get fixed uh Congressman yo at the time did get some money to to fix what we call a road they call service area um and we've had them in this chamber we've been to DC um that shouldn't hold us up but it is their property out there and they can do what they want and they made that very clear to us so fixing the west side I'm perfectly fine with having it a legislative priority I'm probably not leaning towards that because I think it's a it's a minor cost that we can do inhouse and have the and I agree with commissioner palace here when I said um and I don't want to put words in your mouth but you know we need to look at the price and we need to look at who's Manning that and as long as it's not a burden on the taxpayers I have no problem supporting that but I don't think it's a legislative priority all right so does that give staff Direction so you want to I have no issue with doing anything that the board directs and I believe we can work on getting our cost esess through our engineering department and bring back uh between now and July 9th do you want me to Contin 9th I'm sorry January night do you want me to continue pushing this as a legislative or do you want to just pull this off legislative and work inh house at this time um I believe commissioner Harvey and myself so far are wanting to not have it as a legislative priority is there anybody else on this board that does not want to have it as a legislative priority I don't think it should be a legislative priority again I I I have a hard time going back and asking for money again it sounds like we don't have the votes for it to be a legislative priority however we do have it as an item that we need to work on in the future yes Madam chair that's fine uh just for clarification though for uh for those that are listening to those that are involved with this uh as we put our list of priorities together you know my job is to reach out to each one of our commissioners and and to also with our staff and see what projects might be out there and I do appreciate the uh uh the vo at this commit commissioner has brought this forward has already had some conversations outside of the legislative with some potential Partnerships so uh we'll continue to push that item through uh like that as well as bring back the cost to the board for future uh funding from the bccc all right moving on Wastewater Plant yes ma'am as you know we uh this is for potential growth U out there on the East End of putam County uh we have to expand our water uh wastewater treatment facility so we're going to uh look to go back back to legislation again this year uh we actually had support this past session from both the Senate as well as the house and then at the end of the in the budget process it it got cut however I think we need to go back one more time to see if we can uh get any dollars allocated for that expansion of that particular facility with the potential growth we already know is coming all right commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair I think this is one of the most important ones we have and the reason I say that is simply years and years ago when I first got here and commissioner palis was here we did the groundbreaking for the Wastewater Plant in East Paca down Yelvington Road up on the hill up there um and honestly since that time we've had numerous storms flooding events down in on the on the on the U Riverside down in that area we've had Governors who Tor the area wanting to get those septics off of the river uh we've had water management active in our in our grant process of getting uh shared money to move septic to sewer along that River to make a healthier River um but I'm but I'm going to say if we have a limited capacity there's only so much we can do and I think this is a priority we need to tell the story right and we need to let them know that basically this is what you wanted and you wanted us to do this and we need some help to finish the project out so Madam chair those are my comments thank you thank you commissioner paler um as commissioner Harvey said um I was here when that got started and um I did some research uh some months ago and that plant at that time was at like 58 59% capacity and it's my understanding they don't run those plants to 100 um they just can't do that they have to have some fluctuation in there for I guess U excessive rains what have you that that that may influx and you know CH cause a a a difference in their how they operate that thing so we definitely this would definitely need to be on the uh uh priority list of we need funds to help expand that for the potential growth that is coming to the east Pac sanona Corridor area thank you commissioner any other comments does it so do we have a consensus from the board to move this forward Yes sounds like it all right um next we have Financial software package uh yes ma'am uh B chair this is uh uh as you know we are working off of what's known as a green screen as400 system have been for for uh many a year is very Antiquated very outdated very difficult to to continue uh uh processing and so uh uh honorable uh Clerk of the Court Matt Reynolds as well as Deputy Administrator uh Julian young uh we have talked about this multiple times about possibly bringing this forward as a an appropriation request it's going to cost us somewhere between1 and2 millionar I believe we might have some funds allocated through the clerk of the court and if this is a a need to be pushed through what I would suggest is that we put Mr Reynold's staff and our staff together uh to work on the development of the software and the modules to make sure everybody is uh at the table so we make sure we get what we need so we have a true estimate going forward but this I'm going to tell you as County Administrator scares me very very much uh we really got to start looking at getting ourselves into a uh the 21st century so to speak with our financial software because because we are uh we're putting ourselves in a position to where if any any type of catastrophic failure and we're going to be in in in in a tough position moving forward and Mr rold you can correct me if I'm wrong I believe even once we get everything in place this probably a two to threeyear migration if I'm not mistaken yes so uh I would I would request if you have any questions let's ask the experts in the room Mr Reynolds and Miss Young about this appropriation request but I think it's one that's very valuable all right thank you commissioner alander you recognized thank you madam chair um I've met with Mr Reynolds regarding uh the software package and as most of you know I come from a large mechanical contractor background and we dealt with software as a service and every day you see on the news and the television we've been hacked or we've been this or we've been that our data has been mined um and with the technology that we have in place currently we are greatly at risk and we will also lose what we experienced in in my history is that a lot of the software isn't supported anymore those mines that develop that are dead and gone for lack of a better term or retired and some of the hard components aren't manufactured anymore so we are in a bad position as a county and I think we should all support this all right thank you commissioner neol I would just speak in support of of commissioner Alexander's comments um I was surprised with how Antiquated that system is um it would you know we're only as good as that infrastructure backbone so I would express my support for the project as well Mr rolds would you like to weigh in sure thank you madam chair um I'll just add in whether the board um wants to have this as a legislative request of the state or not I would I am still a proponent of upgrading this software and that's something that um I've spoken with several of you before um when the the budget true up comes along this uh fiscal year um I was going to request of the board to set aside uh the return money that we just returned from last fiscal year it's about a half a million dollars that should help um start to build a reserve and um if we're able to to have access this year or not use the construction monies um uh that the board just set aside at the last meeting um that can kind of be our Nest EG to get started on on this project and as Mr Suggs mentioned um it's going to be at least 18 months probably more like 24 months minimum to get this um to get the Erp system completely changed out um so the sooner that we can start the better um but I I'm I'm fully in support of of asking the state uh uh for a legislative uh funding request for all right thank you commissioner Harvey you're recognized thank you madam chair and I am fully supportive of this project too uh Mr clerk showed me the potential of what we could be looking at and when you want real-time data with your finances I don't know about you but I check my bank accounts every morning um just normally have done that my whole career as a as an agency owner um the real-time data is important to know what you got on hand and what you can spend and what and our staff our staff's time is worth a lot and they're having to go into antiquated um systems and try to pull information out and it's difficult and what you showed me would be vastly improved like almost immediately we can tell you what the fund balance is in an account what's Inc and I think that's important you know you can only um Mr well doesn't matter uh told me years ago when I first got here that you make the decision based on the information you have at that moment and if we're making it on bad information then we can't make the right decision so I appreciate that and I support this as an item thank you uh commissioner Harvey it sounds like we've got the support I just want to say for me it's all about efficiency and um anytime we can become more efficient we can serve our citizens better so um sounds like we've got support to move that request forward to a legislative uh priority uh next is Courthouse design um do would you like me to take that or do you want to take it sure I but I can add in as well all right so um as you know the courthouse has had some issues over the years and um what this would do is just simply we're asking for A needs assessment to decide whether we need to renovate the courthouse or to potentially build a new one um but it would be A needs assessment so we would have an outside agency come in an outside firm that does this all the time they would meet with every um different group at that utilizes the courthouse and then they would come back with a uh report that says this is what you should be doing to meet the needs of the current and future of the courthouse so that um does not mean that we as a County Commission would be funding the courthouse or funding the the the um the building it's us this is the first step forward to see what are the needs of the courthouse so that we know in the future because let's face it we have to start thinking about the future people we can't just be putting out fires every day we got to start planning and thinking about the future and one of those future things that we have to think about is the the staff that's in it from the public defenders to the state attorney's office and then how does that look forward and then you know they can truly come back and say you've got enough space you need to move this here and move that there who knows but I feel like um A needs assessment would help us get to that point um Clark Reynolds if you want to step in on that yes ma'am um just just to back up a little bit for for um the newer Commissioners who who may not be familiar with kind of the background story on it um this discussion was kind of borne out of uh the recent decision to list the the old Clark building for sale that building was originally purchased uh with the idea in mind to renovate it and move the state attorney's office over into that building um but um and there was bids and plans that were put out um more recently when meeting with the state attorney's office their issue their main issue was um security related and their question was is the county going to provide security um in that building as well as as the courthouse building um and as you all know you know funds are limited um so the security contract that we already have in place is is set at a certain budget amount having to add more guards into a separate building it just didn't seem feasible um so it um in discussion with County staff um the idea was kind of um it sounded like it would it would be more efficient um more effective to expand upon the current Courthouse um since those entities that are located in the courthouse do need more additional space the state attorney's office is uh really kind of busting at the seams um and um so that's kind of where this idea came from was um either A needs assessment of of expanding the current courthouse so that um those entities have plenty of space and can remain behind Courthouse security so that people coming in to see them have to go through security um or uh a complete uh new facility so um I'm I'm definitely on board with this we the clerk's office we make doe with the space that we have throughout um four other buildings that are located down there um but it like you said before on on the previous uh item about financial software it's about efficiency and there are a couple couple of of pain points that I see personally one of them being we don't really have a Lobby for uh whenever we have jury duty uh first thing Monday morning if it's bad weather outside there's often time a line down the sidewalk into the parking lot of people waiting to get in to go through security uh to come in for jury duty so um you know an expanded area within the courthouse or something like that would would also be beneficial for the citizens that were requiring to come down and and serve on jury duty so um I'm definitely in in support of that and I'm I definitely like the idea of A needs assessment so that we can determine we can talk with public defender office Guardian adidam State Attorney's Office Court Administration my office all of the different partners that are located throughout those five buildings um down at the courthouse campus to see what the what the true needs are and and what makes the most sense and isn't there um some specific requirements in statutes as statute as far as of uh office space and that kind of stuff there is Florida Statutes 29.8 says that the county has to provide space for all of the entities that I just mentioned and um if you dig further into it there's some Department of Management Services that provides requirements on office spaces and and things like that but that's really getting down into the weeds and and the nuts and bolts of it and like you know I mentioned earlier we are making do with the the space that we have and and we just yeah we just kind of kind of make it work but um that kind of gives guidance if you were to to look at it strictly uh uh regarding the spaces that you should have versus the number of employees that each of those entities has and that's what I'm assuming this uh an outside firm would do for us isum assess total amount of employees that each entity has and then um they could extrapolate you know the office space required and whatnot okay all right commissioner Harvey thank you than you madam chair also last year during my reign as chairman Reign is that proper my time served as chairman um we we approached the chief judge and we approached the state attorney to sell that Ronnie Clark building there was four partials there we put three out to bid uh we kept one down there the farthest one to the old uh Baptist Church or the Bank building if you will um so the idea was to look at with with the promise from the chief judge that because trying to retrofit that building to what the needs of they they needed for the state attorney and public defender was just not going to happen and then they would be exposed when they walk across the road so really the security that we could provide didn't really accomplish what they were looking to do um so the promise was made that we would go in this direction and look at it you know but keep in mind even though we call it a legislative priority there's silos of money at the state level for Courthouse expansion projects so it's not like you would just put all your hopes on your legislator having an appropriation you're putting your hopes on the fact that the legislators support the idea and we move forward and we at this moment we have the full support of the chief judge we have the full support of the public defenders office full support of the state attorney's office and when we talk about Courthouse expansion you know I think Jr had a vision of the parking lot area a building there not to move it away from downtown but to enhance that area to provide for a better secure location so I I think this is a win-win for putam County all of the surrounding counties have had Courthouse expansions we have not ever and I think it's our time to to make that request but we do have to know what we don't know prior to going into it so I fully support this thank you we have to know what that's what the purpose of the needs assessment is commissioner Alexander okay so this discussion is just regarding whether or not we support the um needs assessment of the facility that's correct okay so when we undergo the needs assessment are we going tell us the needs so to speak I mean I not trying to to simplify it but I I think that's the whole idea is you know what improve if if we're going to stay there if that's what the assessment says yes this building is viable and you need to stay here this is the way I see it I'm not sure yeah I just want to make sure but yeah but what do we need to do to make it you know safe and ex an expansion and that kind of stuff so we need an outside firm to come in and do the needs assessment for the entire house not only what's safe space safety space and then also um I think it is if if there's work that needs to be done on the existing or they could say the whole thing's not worth anything and you got to tear it down and build something new somewhere else I don't know what they're going to say but it's not for it takes it from us to a professional who can view all sides come in unbiased and say this is what the needs are and then this is how we think you can resolve the issues right right well I understand and that's that's if that's what is intended yes cu the only discussions that we had there were just about safety and efficiency so I wanted to make sure that the physical health of the building was also addressed and whether or not that's valid that um that was looked at and if we could line up with some of the funding and the silos that Mr Harvey had talked about based on physical condition of the building you know mold other issues that we might be able to procure funding or secure funding from the state but I don't want us to fall into a situation where we got to have a new building got to have a new building and we end up like some of the other entities in our community where they had to have a new building and the previous building that was unsafe is still being used currently correct I agree with what you're saying I don't disagree with that yes I just want to make sure we're looking at the takes it off of us and onto an outside independent firm to tell us that those kind of things so and the first step would be that needs assessment and then we would then reconvene and say this is what the report says and and it's not going to take it's going to be if we got the funding the needs assessment it'll be a year out probably before we ever got the result so this is long-term planning yeah I just didn't want to do a partial assessment where there might be other issues that aren't addressed we look at it again so that was that's my only comment all right so it sounds like we have support for um I'm sorry commissioner piser thank you mad chair thank you madam chair um I I support that absolutely um but something that I hope is going to be looked at in in about this uh possible expansion of the building uh is parking parking is a is a prime down there especially as you said when you have jury duty I mean there's just absolutely nowhere for anybody to get ab and I hope that would be considered I'm sure when that Courthouse was built and even expanded upon it was probably in thought of a county that was going to maybe max out at somewhere around 40 45,000 people and here we are tipping at 80 so we certainly probably have outgrown our our resources and we need to be looking uh into the expansion if it's feasible um but the parking is a is param model my list with the appeared growth that might be coming downtown it's uh something also that might be a private partner um ship that we could come together with some sort of terms there that might work for everybody saying that I'm going to excuse myself as I need to attend this funeral thank thank you thank you commissioner thank you commissioner all right moving on um medical examiner request okay Miss Young I got you want Mr s apologies no no worries uh as you know uh Pam County Partners with uh will fuchia Flagler in St John's County for the medical examiner Services uh St John's County has found a need to update their facilities uh so uh while we're at uh conference last week as a matter of fact Deputy Administrator Brad Bradley got with us and they're putting together their legislative appropriation and it's a request for a new facility for the medical examiner and so what they've asked uh from us this morning is if we would uh uh be in support of that process for St John's County and I know there's a lot of questions that we need to have answered moving forward but I think it's the uh probably the appropriate thing to do because we do have a 30% share I believe it is in a contractual agreement so uh anything that this board can do to support that board in there Endeavor for a new facility I think is uh is warranted so so uh just for clarification we're not asking um we don't have a financial request in this other than that we would like to support St John's County in their Endeavors to facilitate a new building is that correct so as part of the collaboration we share a medical examiner's office which means the expenses to the medical examiner's office are divided out based on utilization for the prior year so each year our percent of expenses that we have to cover changes if we collectively the four counties or three Three Counties I'm sorry we only share a medical examiner with three counties are able to get the legislative appropriation it takes the burden of paying for the new space off of the counties we still will have the financial burden of supporting Building Maintenance and overhead as well as the operational expenses of the Em's office however um um last year St John's County attempted this appropriation it got through several stages and then vetoed and so we had a decision to make collectively and St John's County graciously kind of Pumped the brakes because the bill that they were going to end up sending to putham was quite substantial um and would have been burdensome so they're asking for us to collaborate together so that we can take the burden off of all three of the counties that participate commissioner Harvey you recognized thank you madam chair here I support this project I think it's very important that we move this forward um but in all reality we did get a bill after we were done with our budget and it was significantly higher than what we budgeted for and we were not aware of that but that was are the days today operation dollars those aren't a building dollar so I think that we do need to support St John's County and their Endeavor and write a letter or stand up and applaud whatever we need to do to make that happen um maybe that would help reduce some of the burden on us in the future for Building Maintenance and things like that so thank you madam chair so just for clarification we're asking for a letter of support and discussion during our legislative day PRI something that putam is behind just like the courthouse which would be shared for the seventh judicial circuit um we would share this initiative with St John's and Flagler County who that's our Tri County Medical Examiner um and so we would all petition on behalf of those Three Counties the proposed location is in St John's County but that's where the emy's office is today correct okay all right is there any discussion from uh the commission everybody in support of this all right sounds like you have the support go ahead oh okay um and uh Fairgrounds uh continuation support the continuation of The Malt B building that's pretty self-explanatory yes it is do we need to have a discussion on that I think everybody's in favor of that um you got a question go ahead commissioner sorry thank you madam chair um I do have a question and and I am support of the building don't get me wrong when I say this but when I first became a commissioner one of the big things that rubbed me a little bit the wrong way was we were buying the front end of the car with no idea how we were going to buy the middle car and the back end of the car um sometimes we just have to live within our means and buy a lesser car um I worry about this project might be getting larger and larger and larger as the day goes on I support a new building over there do not get me wrong but you know sometimes we have to live within our means and if we don't get any more appropriation then what do we look like and what is the board on the hook for at that point do we say we're not going to go forward do we say we're going to send the money back we've heard that comment today we don't want to do that so I think we just need to be mindful of how we go forward at this point and what are we really trying to accomplish and I think the building over there is a great building is for educational purposes it's badly needed but let's be mindful of what not building the front end of the car and hoping somebody builds the back end thank you madam chair thank you I don't disagree with your comments commissioner newal well although I don't disagree with them um it it is valid there's the price tag on that project has gotten large um there's been a model used by the state and other Fair authorities for a number of years now um using these phased approaches and they've been very successful there a number of Fairgrounds out there that have four five six-year phased approaches now I cannot guarantee that those will continue to be funded but um there's a you know a certain amount that I would be willing for us as a county to to run forward with there be a fantastic asset out there um anyway I'm I'm in support of the project and and you know in the future if this doesn't come through appropriation you know I'm in favor of looking at reallocation better place plan funds so there's a there are other avenues which I would rather not dive into but um anyway I'm support of the project all right so for now um we are support of the continuation of the The Malt B building phase three is that correct everybody's in support of that all right thank you um and just one other last thing um I believe I heard this when we were at the convention that there was some discussion and maybe uh commissioner Harvey can help about the change of the population asking the legislature to change the level of uh population for the fiscally constrained counties um can you speak about that because we we follow we're right in that tight spot right now well currently um we're at the last senses we were under the the um threshold so we still got to maintain our fiscally constrained County for two reasons one we didn't have population and one we were contiguous with Bradford County who is a physic physical constrained County so those two things worked in our favor but what we are seeing there's one state agency that doesn't recognize that and Julianne's been dealing with that who thinks that our mat should be a little bit more so we've been able to avoid the matches that that other Counties have to do because of our physical physically constrained status but when that time comes and that next census happens and we're over that threshold and maybe maybe Bradford County is not contig I mean not that they're not contiguous they'll stay that way but maybe they're not physically constrained then that could throw us out of that and when we get thrown out of that it's not really the Glide path you're kind of thrown in the middle of the pool and you're trying to swim and we need to be mindful of those Grant dollars when we talk about 25% match and 50% match those monies add up very fast and right now we're very blessed not to have those but we need to be mindful of that as going into the future that um we need to stay phys physically constrained as long as possible and even advocating for a Glide path when it comes to um our Port our port of the um the share thank you for speaking about that um commissioner Neo go ahead I I guess I need some clarification on you know where that that Matrix is you know where when do we fall out of this favored status commissioner um I think it's up to the state agency and we're arguing some of that with one now um they've interpreted statu different that agency has than the rest of them um I think it's just going to become project by project and agency by agency and we're going to still make our case that we're fiscally constrained at that point and I guess my point of bringing it bringing it up is if we're standing here in front of our legislators it's a very good point to remind them of our um you know our funding and we we do rely I don't want to say rely we hope to get the support from the state but on a lot of our projects like scop and scrap Grant and all those things our match is very very little to none um on a lot of these grants that we get and so because we're under that radar but as we know we're growing and so the concern that I have and and it was brought up at the convention was where's that number right is it 75,000 is it 80 is it 90 and so we just want our legislators to be aware that when we're making these rules in Tallahasse that how that affects a small County like ours and that that's where my point was at on that um I see a couple lights uh commissioner Alexander so what is the determining factor is it a number is it a it is population it is population know do we know what that threshold is is it 990,000 75,000 yeah we're right there at it and our census had 73 okay and um I can attorney Commando would you like to weigh in my only suggestion because I travel around a little bit from County to county is if there's any way you could convince the legislature that it shouldn't be strictly populationbased because even though our populations increases our property values are not increasing at the same rate as some of our that's very so if there was a a formula that looked at the rate at which your property value is increased and the population that to me would be a more fair way to determine whether or not you put into that category yeah I agree and I appreciate that input um because as we both know homes in the average home in putham counties 250 the average home in St John's counties and the 600 plus so a big difference um commissioner Harvey thank you madam chair I I was remiss to say there's another factor in there too and it's Julian if you'll correct me when I do this um it's based on the mill how much Mills produced or the value there's a value formula from the property appraiser that can also trigger that non-compliance and and when I say that I say if we didn't have the Georg pacifics and the seals in this area probably wouldn't worry about it but their value is really high and so it's kind of an an abnormal number if you will when you look at Colombia County who is basically their same size with two interstates in it and they don't have a Georgia Pacific or a seminol electric so there's a there's a third Peg to that stool that needs to be looked at and and the property appraiser does report those numbers to the state am I correct Julian yes sir you're cor cor correct um and depending on the funding source there's a different metric as to what happens when we trigger that right so the fiscally constrained dollars are going to have a a stair step the one that we hit last year that had a different um definition as to the metric that they used it was a overnight you you hit the number based on the state census and you now no longer qualify just like that no matter what you had in the works so um it will what we're going to see over the next couple of years is a disproportionate impact to putam County as we continue to trickle up not enough to replace those Revenue Generations but enough to continue growth and so certainly very important to all of our small or fiscally constrained counties throughout the state thank you for that discussion so I just think that we should touch on that during our comments um however that would be Madam chair may I yes finish what I was talking about earlier when we look at buying the front end of the car I didn't mean no disrespect to any anything that we were doing we just have a lot of moving Parts out there that are that could come the chickens could come home to roost and we need just to be mindful and and commissioner newo you're right if we have to say if we don't get this and we still want that then we're going to do this I'm I'm all for that but let's know what we need to know going into the process and and I think long-term planning as commissioner Wilkinson has said with the courthouse and the other things we're talking about today we need to be mindful of if this happens again because we weren we were kind of C offw aware of that and it happened overnight and it cost it it it was a match we had to do now let me say this I love shopping at stores where there's buy one get one free because I feel like I I come home with four of this when I really only needed one but I felt like I saved money you know I got a free one out of the deal right I don't I like it when people partner with us and pay half the bill I like it when they partner us and pay 75% % of the bill I like it when they pay 80% of the bill I like it but we need to know what our obligation is that's all I'm saying thank you commissioner Wilkinson thank you Madame chair all right with that um I think that closes our legislative request um as we move forward so I appreciate the the discussion I know that was a little long winded and I'm sorry but we had to have we had to have that because of timing constraints all right at this time are there any public comment on miscellaneous items this portion of the agenda is designed to allow citizens an opportunity to bring matters to the attention of the board it is not reasonable to expect that the board will engage in debate or deliberation about matters on which the board has received no prior information as part of the agenda please limit your time to 3 minutes public comment cards are conveniently placed at the meeting room entrance and should be submitted prior to the meeting to the deputy CL clerk who sits to the right of the podium Miss Madam clerk do you have any cards do we have anybody who wishes to speak publicly all right hearing none we'll move into appointments um commissioner paler had to step out and uh he has given uh administrator sugs his district appointments District appointments do not require a vote uh thank you madam chair yes uh uh commissioner piser had asked me if I would follow up for him as he had exit uh this morning he's looking to reappoint these are all district appointments he's looking to reappoint uh Gina uh condrick to the affordable housing her term expires I believe this year uh December 31st of 2024 he also wants to uh let me scroll this down uh Justin Morris has a district appointment to the Planning Commission okay and he has asked to reappoint Mark fiser to the zboa as a district appointment okay all right Laura you have those all right commissioner um Alexander yes ma'am I just have one uh there is an at large position open with the Planning Commission and I would like to nominate Jason Sheffield all right that requires a vote so you have a motion do we have a second second you have a second a motion a second any discussion all in favor say I I I all right you be clear Commissioners that's filling the at large uh resignation from Mr Frolic yes ma'am thank you okay not not Mr Hodge no Mr Hodge is going to continue his term or he's going to stay on I did speak to him oh if you then you need to make that motion okay I thought we I apologize it's okay no no no I just saying we needed we need that spot as well I wasn't trying to be thank you um again uh I would like to reappoint Stanley Hodge do we have a second second second all in favor say I I I all right great that fills those two spots I appreciate that there anything else commissioner Alexander for appointments at this time no ma'am all right commissioner newold I'd like to reappoint Anna Cruz to the district one slot for Parks and Recreation and also I'd like to appoint Kirsten nolles of Crescent City to the district one vacancy on the fishing fund on the fishing fund I miss that one okay Kiren Kirsten NOS yes and I have his address and contact information I can pass okay to give to Laura all right anything else no nothing thank you all right commissioner Harvey Madam chair I have none thank you all right I have let me get to my paper Okay affordable housing committee at large I would like to point appoint Bill Pickins former commissioner as an um affordable housing committee as a I believe it's an employer representative so that would fill that one of those spots didn't you kind of thread him to do that I would like to reappoint um our building contractor on the contractor's review board Aaron Gil is that is that a vote you need a vote on Mr picks I need a vote on Mr Pickins thank you madam chair I move approval move approval okay we have a motion the second all in favor say I I I I all right um to the contractor review board um appoint reappoint um Aaron Gil I spoke with him and he's is willing to continue a service vote um I made a motion do I have a second second second all in favor say I I I all right and then um for the fair Authority uh for District Two um I would like to remove Giovani Palencia and replace replace him with Marshall fulam for as my District Two appointment all right and then moving on we go to comments Clerk of Courts thank you madam chair I'd just like to take a quick moment to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year thank you thank you madam chair I'd be remissed if we didn't acknowledge that Mr Clerk's birthday was last Friday so happy birthday thank you commissioner much appreciate and also the courthouse looks beautiful thank you thank you for that I agree I thought it looked very well for the parade so yeah it looked very well thank you County attorney Commando that's a tough one to follow but happy merry Christmas and happy New Year to everyone as well County Administrator uh yes ma'am uh Madam chair just a quick reminder that we have our luncheon today at 12:15 has been P pushed back so if anyone wants to take the opportunity to go over and visit with the family of the rebels you'll have time to do so uh after that you know just again you know with the for this is really for all five Commissioners but especially the three uh new Commissioners thank you all for your time uh youve been coming in on a regular basis and visiting getting up to speed on things and asking a lot of great questions I will say and Echo this on behalf of the administration and staff we really appreciate that and it and it shows uh when we get in here so thank you all so much for that and just joining everybody else I want to wish my staff uh and the Commissioners and the residents of upon the county a very very Merry Christmas healthy holiday season and a prosperous New Year and thank you all for all we've done for this past 12 months thank you thank you sir um before we go into commissioner comments um I do want to backtrack a little bit um we have some board appointments for Commissioners um we have a space on the ride solution board we need a county commissioner to serve on that we need a county commissioner to serve on the um solid least adjustment is that correct and then um also on the also on the um small County Coalition commissioner neble do you have a comment on that yeah I I'd be interested in serving on the waste adjustment okay program all right yes ma'am I'd like to volunteer for the uh ride Solutions God bless you committee yeah yeah that's something my wife has told me is very important to her so uh happy wife all right all right welcome aboard I'm sure that that you'll be well received Madam chair yes I I think you should be serving with me on the on the uh small County Coalition all right so with those three appointments everybody and and good with those okay and then on the Development Authority we have um myself commissioner newold and commissioner Harvey are you aware of that yes okay all right so that's all of our appointments for that all right now moving along to commissioner comment starting with commissioner Alexander yes ma'am I had a uh wanted to discuss some things about duns Creek boat ramp but I would like to table that until the next meeting thank you sir yes ma'am you have any other comments you'd like to make I did miss an appointment can we backtrack to that real quick as far as Jerry Hafner um District three appointee for the Planning Commission I would like to reappoint him okay thank you yes ma'am all right any other comments I'm done okay commissioner newold I wanted to thank a few folks um the city of patka um Crescent City interlockin they all put on fantastic Christmas parades and those things I don't know you look at them and you think it's fluff and it's silly but I mean they were well organized well attended by the public and they just give you a you know a great feel of small town America that that we really are so I thank those communities I thank all the Commissioners for you know participating it was just it was it was wonderful so thank you guys um I'd like to thank Public Works um Mr Stout and Mr Grimes uh just their quick action their um willingness to to Shepherd Me through some little challenges and uh we've got good staff who are ready to jump into anything and and you know support the citizens of the county so thank you guys and Merry Christmas right all right buttons are going on and off up here I'm just trying to see all right um commissioner Harvey thank you Madame chair and and I just want to say you know it's a pleasure for us to be in the parade and ride together and get to see our small town communities we can't make everything there is no possible way in this holiday season but we truly um it's a wonderful time the anaren parade the other night um yes it was the kids were very close to the side of the road and um Eugene was a great driver they kind of um surprise you because they go from one side of the street and theyve learned to go to the other side because they can double their candy load at that point but um it's so nice to hear as we go down the streets you know your name being called out or you thank you for being here that that's all about and you know serving in putham County I've never served anywhere else and I don't have a desire to I love putham County uh we have diversity we have challenges but I can tell you there's a fundraiser going on almost every weekend there's someone being helped in this community every day and it brings joy to me to see that I also want to wish our staff a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we had a little celebration for him yesterday which was minimal at best but it was good good food and good time and um we want them to know how much we appreciate them in a very small way wish we could always do bigger and better but I can tell you that it's very appreciative by the staff that we did help and serve yesterday in the food also want to apologize publicly to my new Commissioners because I should have known better I did not know until I was in Tampa last week and I am the chairman of the Institute of County government that there will not be a new commissioner workshop at the first of the year as always like I told you there would be um I am traveling to Tallahassee this coming thur Thursday to meet with our fac staff I have a trust meeting Thursday night and Friday morning and try to resurrect a meeting at the first of the year for new Commissioners so that egg was on my faith uh they kind of did that staff did that on their own the the administrator of fac Ginger delog had promised and has promised that she would come to putam County and put on that for you um but we're going to try to do it a little different 77 new Commissioners joined the team with um the fac staff during this this election period only about 35 took advantage of going to Tampa uh so there's still a big pool of people that we could to could get so that's my goal Friday is to sit down and see how we can make that happen during legislative days so I do apologize I did bring back packets commissioner Wilson if you'll pass them down there to them and this is the the biggest packet is your small County Coalition in the back I ask that you maybe one night when you're before bed while you're sitting there go through that packet because it shows you what a value of Mill is um throughout Florida and the C it's really good data sets that are going to help you in the future uh what the value of a mill here in putam county is so when you start looking at the budget for this coming year you'll be able to say well if we lower a half a mill this is what it's going to cost if we raise you kind of do the math on your own but it's valuable information and how we compare to other surrounding counties now keep in mind when you look at what a mill here is in putam County versus for example St John's County and then you look at their if you go on and look at their tax base they have a lot of different fees attached so our Mill might look like we're higher but the fees that they charge are a lot more so everything's revent so just kind of look at that and keep that in mind but you have a great staff I'm you figured that out already that you know there's there's not a question that they can't answer or get the answer to and um but those those data sets are very important and Madame chairwoman I want to say I appreciate what you've done so far this Christmas season you've decorated you've worked your butt off on the float um you've kept us all in line and I appreciate that and I look forward to a prosperous 2025 so merry Christmas everybody thank you commissioner um I want to recognize a few people in the audience we have a representative from St John's River Water Management and we also have a representative from North Florida Regional Council so thank you for uh both of you for coming today to view our uh board county commissioner meetings also uh mayor uh Michelle Meers reached out to me via text and wanted me to personally say thank you to each one of the Commissioners for coming down there and attend attending their parade um and of course we have been we've been to interen we've been to Palaca we have another busy weekend we cannot make them all but we do our best um I had four events on Saturday uh several other Commissioners had we had at least two some of us had three four events so we were all busy uh trying to do things throughout the community and I'm glad to see that we have such an active board um various toy drives going out going on throughout the county or have already happened I know commissioner Alex ER helped with one of those um for the boats and um for foster kids and there's other toy drives going on we also I also want to give uh thanks to Paul's for putam they did a treat toy drive they had a box here at put at our office and uh they did that and also during the porch Fest there was an adoption event an adoption event adoption event for um for our animals out at animal services along with there were on Sunday there was another event in Jacksonville so we try our best to continue to hold these adoption events and um I just want to say thank you to this board I look forward to the new year I feel like uh we've got a lot to do but I also feel like that we're well equipped and um I look forward to serving with each one of you thank you to our staff and administration and everyone have a good Christmas and a happy New Year thank you this meeting's adjourned e