e e uh today is Tuesday March 26 it is 9 oock I've asked Pastor Jarvis Wright with St Paul Church to come up and Lead our invocation and our Pledge of Allegiance will be done by Bill Pickins commissioner Pickins All Rise if you're able to do so let us pray Lord we thank you for this day that you have made we thank you for the opportunity to serve our community we thank you for life health and strength and we ask that God that you would continue to strengthen us as we serve we pray God for our commission we pray for our city our County and we just ask God that you would continue to visit us we even thank you God for this Holy Week as we commemorate what you did giving your son Jesus and we bless and we magnify your name in Jesus name amen amen please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Pastor Wright and thank you for coming in at the last moment we appreciate that very much um thank you commissioner Pickins our first order of business is the approval of the amendment stated in your packet move approval second proper motion proper second any further discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I pose like sign the eyes have it we're going to recess The Bard of County Commission meeting call to order our Port Authority meeting and the first item of business is the award of putam County Port development plan contract uh move approval second proper motion to move approval proper second any further discussion on the motion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I POS like sign the eyes have it the next item on Port Authority this is only Port Authority business if you have a public comment on our Port Authority items and see no one running to this Podium we'll close the public comment period of our Port Authority Commissioners is there any general discussion on Port Authority items hearing none then we'll close our Port Authority and bring back to order our border of County Commission meeting and the next thing is our presentation Mr clerk Matt Reynolds or the clerk of the court you have an employee recognition good morning Mr chairman and Commissioners thank y'all for giving me the opportunity to uh to recognize one of my staff so um as you uh as you ladies and gentlemen know I um I try to honor um employee of the quarter every quarter and so this quarter's uh recipient is Mrs Emily Griner if she will come on up all right and I'd like to just take a quick moment to say that um Emily has has been absolutely amazing amazing um she uh when she first came on board she really stepped up um she took some handwritten notes standard operating procedures and just took them and ran with them um even uh as recent as yesterday we had a a pretty long jury uh selection procedure yesterday that went into to the afternoon after 5: and and Emily was still right there helping us out so um I just want to thank her for being a stellar employee so thank you you want to come get your picture Emily if I stay on the other side of you then you'll be Laura you want to be in there I congratulations Emily congratulations our next presentation will be Julianne you have a PowerPoint you want to share on the recent situation with our animals thank you chairman thank you most of you have heard that we had an animal situation over the last few weeks in putam County there's been a lot of questions um and we wanted to take a minute to just share the real information instead of a lot of assumptions that were made um so before you today we're going to do just a little recap of what happened with Wednesday morning uh we had a joint meeting between the putam County Animal Services Administration and the putam County Sheriff's Office to determine the best course of action and plan of attack Wednesday we went and met with a homeowner and they agreed to surrender the dogs and staff began collecting the dogs Wednesday midday about noon better yes Thursday staff returned to collect additional dogs and began working with rescues to establish placement of the dog being collected Friday an adoption event was held where a few of the dogs from the case which were ready for placement were available along with every adoptable dog that was in our shelter possession that had been waiting some of them for weeks or even months everything was done in compliance with state law and County ordinance from the time of the first capture of the dog until the placement of the dogs with rescues Andor those shelter dog adoptions was 40 8 hours the first dog that began the story is Vinnie Vinnie was probably seen or can be recognized by the press conference that was held on Thursday when we began releasing information to the public the Suggs family adopted Vinnie Mr Suggs and his wife Julie were here and seeing how small Vinnie was they agreed to personally pay for an emergency vet appointment at their family vet veterinarian and all related care for Vinnie it was at Vinnie's vet appointment that their veterinarian learned what was happening in putam county and reached out to us for assistance some of our heroes throughout these 48 Hours definitely includes Dr vdic she's a local veterinarian the one that met Vinnie and her day she volunteered free of charge along with her medical staff STA and brought the masses of the medications used on each animal that was available at the adoption she did an examination and counseled each adoptee about General Health of that animal things like age and things that may need follow-up care were discussed all dogs were administered medication for internal parasites worms she dosed them at at based on weight and need bordatella a one or three years rabies vaccine deter dependent on which was appropriate and a dhp which is a combination vaccine that covers viral diseases like distemper hepatitis and parvo another one of our heroes is Jennifer Baker the CEO of First Coast no more homeless pets when we announced the adoption she reached out and agreed to open her um Surgery Center on a Sunday for any animal adopted who might need a spay or neuter putam County staff transported these animals leaving at 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning to the surgery center for all of them who desired to be spayed or neutered free of cost to anyone who adopted with us on that day some of our other Heroes at the adoption event Clay County Flagler County Marian County and Valia County an Animal Services all jumped in IM after they had heard what was happening in putam County they sent us resources they transported dogs they showed up at the scene with our staff that was there and helped captured they worked at the shelter um they worked at the adoption event they helped um logistically set things up we could not have done it without our surrounding count couny Partnerships pretty Paul's dog grooming immediately heard and they came to the shelter and began grooming any of those dogs who needed those hygiene care they also donated their time for several days at the shelter doing this in a makeshift grooming station we had numerous puam County teams both at the adoption event and throughout the 48 Hours employees volunteered their lunch hours they volunteered different breaks during their day to come out and work the adoption event and help with logistical needs the putham County Sheriff's Office was an invaluable resource from our first meeting on Wednesday throughout the end of the event Colonel Wells was the first to say what resources do you have that aren't met and how can we do it they supplied inmates to help with shelter cleaning the the masses of animals that were coming in Deputy Werner went on site with us she helped capture animals um they were there their law enforcement officers were everywhere at the adoption event helping to steer people and guide people in in the direction that they were supposed to be our animal services staff have worked basically seven days a week and nearly Around the Clock since this first started during the event and after the event including Sunday when they left here at 6:00 a.m. with a truckload of animals to be spayed and neutered and then returned them to those owners that Sunday afternoon Emergency Management jumped in the minute they heard Stefan and Danny were on the phone with State resources and getting us the necessary uh items that we needed along with fire rescue who also volunteered their time at the adoption event to be there and help the adoption event brought in numerous donations with which helped us replenish shelter supplies but also provide for the shelter animals that remain there a little bit about the animals that were adopted on that day we had 45 animals adopted two were returned one because after the weekend the family realized that a family member was allergic to the dog and two because the dog chased the family cat um those were returned to us and we're happy to take them back in they were placed with rescues and and that's going to be a great thing Juniper was adopted by the marz family Juniper was a shelter dog who had been with animal services for 50 days Juniper was spayed through our ongoing partnership with UF veterinarian school the Cox family adopted Mona they told us Mona is very happy and she is loved she's constantly sitting in my lap she's spoiled she's amazing me by doing something different every day she waves hello to my other dogs and she is happy here the Moody family adopted poppy they report that she's fitting right in and she is the sweetest thing their family veterinarian has taken over follow-up care the Johnson family adopted Bach they chose to work with fix a all for sterilization services but the pup has been a great addition to their family there's boach sorry I'm ahead of you Maddie was adopted by the Wilkins family the family tells us she is so sweet and getting better every day Maddie has seen their family best and is being treated for any follow-up needs the more family adopted cie C had been in the shelter for 67 days before finding her forever family C had been abandoned and picked up by animal services but now is now happy the Caraco family adopted this pup who they have now named Bandit and Bandit is doing great adjusting to their family the Rogers family adopted Badu you may have seen Badu because Badu is Facebook famous he escaped his enclosure on the first day and was out for about 5 hours before they got him back the family says he is doing fine he is well trained he only poops and pees on the pads and outside and last night he had his first walk in the park everyone loves the addition to our family thank you so much he is helping with our stress the butler of family adopted this senior fell they named him bear and Report he's doing great the Jennings family adopted Belle they told us she is amazing and a perfect fit for our house Belle came to the shelter malnourished very skinny but oh so sweet Belle stayed with us for 297 days before finding her forever home with the Jennings family the Maxine family adopted Miss Missy she's seen here freshly groomed and has appointments for all of her family all of her follow-up care in Clay County where she resides the suton family adopted Luna prior to finding the Sutton family Luna had been a shelter dog she was adopted once prior but due to our landlord policy was returned once again to the shelter and abandoned Luna is a sweet girl who has been waiting 149 days for someone to take her home the Cox family adopted Ginger Ginger is doing well and has established care with the family veterinarian the Richie family adopted Darla Darla was a shelter dog she had been waiting to be adop adopted in our shelter for 290 days her family tells us she is good and she does not like to get in her cage she really likes to lay on the couch but she gets along well with the other dogs and my toddler STI was adopted by the esbon family and they are so happy with their new addition the Family Veterinarian has taken up follow-up care the Mullen family adopted Loki they told us that he is a very good and he is getting used to his environment they love the dog he is Loki his name fits him well Loki also was a shelter dog who had been with us for 27 days in the shelter he was very sweet but it was not a great environment for him he was very scared and timid and we are so happy to see him thriving in his home the ebond family of St Augustine adopted this pup where they have also established follow-up care with their family veterinarian the faraby family adopted poppy they tell us we've named her Poppy and she's doing very well we have two cats that decided early on that they like her which is a blessing she's had a bath in the kitchen sink and her ears cleaned and Nails trimmed she's sleeping on my lap right now thank you for letting us have this lovely little girl she is loved we are very happy to welcome her we recently lost our Olivia and after having her for nearly 15 years she had been a rescue as well poppy had been helping us heal with her Antics and cute floppy ears bless you for the good work that you do the Swain family adopted Rusty they tell us Rusty is doing okay getting adjusted but the Swain family is well-versed in rescue dogs and they have everything they need to care and love on Rusty the Goodman family adopted Izzy they tell us she hates being alone she loathes it she is already partially house trained she loves car rides and bath apparently she loves my children too my youngest who's about three was crying on the floor throwing a fit and she came and laid on his chest to calm him down cry don't cry the wine cof family adopted Maddie Maddie is ajusting and being loved on by the entire family the Jackson family adopted Thor they tell us Thor has been really awesome he's good with kids he listens when I call him he goes out the door when he needs to it's been an awesome Journey Thor was also a shelter dog prior to Thor finding Jackson family he was with the shelter for 41 days the Richards family adopted this sweet girl they've named her Porter and she's fresh from the groomer here the Fowler family adopted Debbie Debbie goes for rides in the truck and lays in the living room floor the family told her we got her new callar new name tags and some treats she gets along with the dogs and the outside cats she winds at the door to go out and we couldn't ask for a better dog she's a big Love Bug Debbie was also a shelter dog who had been with us for 121 days before finding her home with the Fowlers the figero family adopted this Precious Pup and has established care with the local veter with their family veterinarian the Cornwell family adopted this silly guy they say he's doing great grantley was also a shelter dog and prior to finding a home with a Cornwell family he spent 260 days in our shelter the Castro family adopted Mara and they just love her the Davidson family adopted bianka Bianca was also a shelter dog who had been with us for 68 days she's working through a few behavioral concerns as she adjusts to life outside the shelter but as staff has done with each of the adoptees we have checked in routinely with them and we are working with the family to provide them any resources that might help the family and Bianca adjust that includes specialty training harnesses or leashes it also we have set them up with a dog trainer free of charge who will come and continue to work with Bianca the Middleton family adopted aie the family tells us he's our baby boy and living the good life now pup cup ice cream treats and a ton of toys and clothes for Aussie the white family adopted Mushu Mushu was also a sheltered dog that had been with us for 35 days the family says she's great sleeping on the couch and spoiled rotten the mom also told me it's now like having two teenagers in the house the gozman family adopted this sweet girl they named her Delila and she's fresh from her bath the Belle family adopted biggie they told us she's doing so good thank you thank you so much this is actually our first dog biggie was a shelter dog who had been waiting for her forever home for 252 days before finding the Bell family the Augustus family adopted two shelter dogs Loco and arrow seen here both Loco and arrow are shelter dogs that came from very unfortunate circumstances to the shelter in March but the Augustus family reports that they are doing wonderful and are well loved that's our adoption stories and they are wonderful and we have continued to follow up with them with all necessary resources that might Aid any of the adoptees whether it be a shelter dog or otherwise that they may need from there all the rest of the animals were placed in rescues numerous rescues we had rescues all over the State of Florida and all over the state of Georgia who reached out to participate in this event some of them some of them are Roland's senior dog this rescue jumped in and immediately offered to take our more Senior Dogs Andor those that are more needy aside from our most senior cases which are very hard to place they also took in a fellow with one eye and another fellow with only three legs a few of them are pictured here Roland has a long-term partnership with putam County and has once again shown as a shining star for us although it probably goes without saying all of the rescues that that are featured here are all accepting donations for assistance with these animals so the Facebook page is listed there and their Facebook page will take you to a link where they all um almost unanimously have a Facebook fundraiser going if anyone has uh the desire to get it more involved Arc Animal Rescue Consortium also an ongoing partnership that's been longstanding that we rely upon um and has come through for us time and time again art can be found again on Facebook and is also seeking donations with the dogs that they pulled almost home Haven for Animals this rescue also located in patka and unique to them they're typically a kitty rescue but when they heard about the huge hoarding case in putham County they knew they had to help so they took in two doesn't say sound like a lot but for them to be a kitty rescue in our own town and come to uh assistance that was big for us a journey to Forever again rescue located right here in putam County there're are F small Foster base rescue that rely heavily on donations and they also can be found on Facebook and are accepting donations to care for the dogs F's small dog rescue fwn small dog rescue pulled many of the dogs that needed significant hygiene or grooming these are the dogs before and here's a few fresh after the grooming K9 Rescue they pulled many of the dogs that needed socialization so so several of the dogs a handful of them lived inside the house with the elderly person and sat on the couch and watched TV with her most of the day but then you had several that were also outside that were less socialized and more timid K9 Rescue has done amazing work and you can follow the journey on Facebook as well Clay County Animal Services aside from bringing officers and resources and trucks and supplies they also came and they pulled more than 10 I believe 12 um of these pups Flagler County Animal Services again aside from providing resourc resources and supplies and officers and Manpower they pulled uh another 12 of these pups Florida urgent rescue also known as fur is on Facebook and they pulled many many pups poodles and pooches Rescue of Florida pulled about 24 to be fair most of the rescues pulled between 12 12 on average and 24 pups uh at each batch Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League they pulled many um dogs that needed that were in various degrees so they had some that were more um readily vetted and some that needed more Medical Care um Peggy they can be found on Facebook but uh success story that we're already seeing is Wednesday of last week two days after the dog two business days after the dogs were at the shelter all four of these guys were opted out into loving homes and Nate's honor animal rescue this is the last one we're featuring and the by far the largest resource that came to the table they arrived and pulled 51 dogs some of them being pregnant so it was not but a few days later that their number grew when pregnant dogs began to have babies they also brought medical supplies and um comfort care items items for the remaining dogs that were at our shelter I appreciate your time today Julian thank you so much Mr Adam that you have a comment I just have two questions because there's two questions that have been out there on social media and stuff I think you addressed the one all the animals from this are out of our shelter is that correct correct then the second one is well and let me let me be or have been given to rescues or they have with the exception that we are still we still have a few more timid or scared animals that we're working to capture every day and so and that's one or two but I don't want to on the property you mean everything in our possession has been um placed then the other question was is there still animals left in the woods or around that's that was the question that's been asked very few and we are still working Animal Control Officers are still working we've set traps we've got Provisions in place um to attempt to capture those animals as we're able to oh thank you yes sir you know Juliana want to say this before you leave and I'm going to be looking over Mr sugs and Mr Grimes the comment Mr Turner made not too long ago and if you don't mind me stealing it from you depends on which one it was well I won't say the you know every day you come to work staff comes to work and we have demands put on you just like everybody else you have your own jobs to do and you work for five other people and then you work for 73,000 residents in putham county and then the whole day is blown up and the whole week's blown up and then it turns into two weeks and we understand that and it's frustrating on our part to move that ball forward and land the planes but some things are just more important these dogs being happy these dogs being taken care of that's a win for putham County I don't care who you are if you can't understand that's not a win you don't belong in this County I'm just telling you so I want to say to staff how much we appreciate that you come in every day thinking you've got a job to do and it's completely something different you know somebody asked me the other day what does a county commissioner do I said we go from A to Z every day and that's what's great for a type eight personality but when you have budgets and you have person now and you have things that you've got scheduled and then all of a sudden 200 dogs that are that are needing a home they had a home but they're needing to be taken care of come into play what a tremendous and Mr Suggs thank you for sending up and adopting one um I hate to say that that's why I can't go to the shelter because I would take them all home with me but it's just amazing to see what this community in our partners and other communities did to help this situation we don't get it all the time we don't but we get we take a bad RP in the county for not doing enough and I tell you people don't realize how hard you and staff works and our animal services department works to to take care of these animals because truly it's not our responsibility if I was I was a pet owner my pet died I miss him terribly it was my respons responsibility to take care of that pet and I knew that you know it's not the government's responsibility thank you Julianne Mr attorney you had a comment uh yes um in echoing everything you said I totally agree excuse me but I think it also needs to be brought out that most of the people that were out there working on this situation is not in their job descriptions that's right our Deputy County Administrator you look at her job description or our Deputy County Administrator for operations or our administrator who was out there you won't find in there that they go and have to care about dogs and do things that they've done it's not in their job description they put off the business of the county around here some of it was very important business because of something more important at the time at hand so I think that for and and everybody in here that knows me knows that I'm not very politically correct when it comes to these kind of things so I'll preface this comment with that but some of the some of the hell these people's caught on social media is unfounded and unjust because they didn't have to go do this they could have just sent somebody else to do it they had people to do it but they didn't they went out and spearheaded this project theirselves and did made the best of a bad situation so again what happened on Facebook was unjust and out of line I'm just telling you it was and so this commissioner says thank you very much for going up and Beyond the Call of Duty and up and beyond your job description to make the best of a bad situation in our County that we all love thank you Mr chairman I agree [Applause] all right thank you Julianne for that presentation and we're going to move on to public comment on agenda items this portion of the agenda is designed to allow citizens an opportunity to bring matters to the attention of the board it's not reasonable to expect that the board will engage or debate or deliberations about matters on which the board has received no prior information as part of the agenda we will limit your comments to three minutes public comment cards are conveniently placed in the meeting room entrance and should be submitted prior to the meeting to the deputy clerk who sits to the right of the podium my left Miss Ashley over here so do we have any public comments on agenda items and we do Mr Jason Brown would you like to come forward sir and if you will state your name and address for the record please sir and speak right into the microphone yes sir Jason Brown 520 you can pull it up to you yes sir kind of short there you can you hear me yes sir uh Jason Brown 524 Elwood Avenue PAC of Florida um I'm hearing regards to the to ordinance that we're looking to approve um a rate increase um on behalf of myself I I I've I we were invited to to a meeting which was 11:27 to 23 at the Johnson and Johnson's Brothers facility uh there's an ongoing situation regarding my business and them as well so I was unable to attend that meeting um I received the proposal as of 32024 went over it um had a brief discussion with one of the representatives of Johnson and Johnson's Brothers um I'm asking that we maybe postpone this um I'm curious of a data analysis who did the data analysis um Consumer Price Index things like that I'm curious how we came up with the percentage rates that we are proposing um some of the rates are 100% increase um I'm I'm only looking for in the future I look for putam to be growing as well as our surrounding areas have we're looking to grow substantially um I don't want to cap us off if we go 100% now in 5 years that we want to do this do we ask for 100% again because it just seems a little too excessive to go that high so quick um U one of our our former uh ter uh Terry Walters he passed away he was the last one that came in front of this committee and and asked for a rate increase um again I'm not a percentage person I I haven't sat down to do this I I I apologize I just didn't have the time um I think his last percentage rate was a 25% on certain things that that was across the board on certain stuff um I know that I've looked and putam I think that the last one was 2012 I can't be for certain but I do know that I have one here to shows filed in 2004 um I've looked at St John's County which was 2015 Valia County 22 2002 Duvall County 2005 Maran County 2008 I've also looked at a few things in there where as far as Duvall County every October 1st since 2005 they're supposed to do a Revis so every year they do a revision of it so again what I'm asking is just to look at that analysis see where we're coming up with these percentage rates among other things I mean I've got I'd like to maybe offer a oversight committee over the the recing businesses here in puup County so that we have an outside Source not anybody that's in with the the sheriffs or the police departments or within the Toe Companies itself here an outside source that is a committee an oversight committee so I guess that's about all I have to say and I I I feel bad that I'm coming up here because we do need an increase um our insurance has gone substantially this year mine is all of ours has gone out the roof so I my time it thank you sir thank you is there anybody else that would like to speak on consent agenda items only and hearing none we're going to shut the portion down whoops please come up and speak in the microphone I'm sorry I wasn't sure this I need to speak up I was given a number for this morning so I wasn't sure ifine this is my opportunity okay this is your opportunity okay yay okay state your name and address for the record please so good morning I would like to introduce myself my name is Tony ly Hammond and I'm the accountant for Johnson's Towing and Recovery I am um okay Johnson's Towing and Recovery is one of five local companies that provide emergency and non-consensual towing for the county of putam today we join here with putham County's rotation record companies to bring a rate increase proposal to the attention of the board of County Commissioners on a previous dat we joined with some of the other companies and agreed to what we thought would be necessary changes to continue providing these Services I have prepared some supporting documents for each of you that I would like to provide if allowed so that you can follow along you may if you'll give it to Miss Ashley she'll give it to us at that point thank you I'll give you mine after Ashley where you have one for the record putam County's rotation record companies request a new resolution for putam County's Towing and Transport ordinance 2004-2 this ordinance was initially created May 25th 2004 and filed with the Department of State in Tallahassee on July 12th 2004 the purpose of this ordinance was to establish definitions exemptions and maximum fees for non-consensual and trespass Towing in 2010 we came before the board to request a resolution for these rates the resolution was passed approved and adopted on the 26th day of January 2010 resolution 2010-05 had minimal changes it increased the hook rate mileage and storage for light duty Vehicles it did not involve any rate increases for medium duty heavy duty or the separate charges that this ordinance includes therefore the majority of rates involving ordinance 2004-2 has not been changed in 20 years some of the terminology in this ordinance is outdated as well as we all know the cost of doing business has increased dramatically during the past 20 years I would like to focus on some of the things that have p played a part in the increase of the cost of rotation Towing and by rotation Towing I just assume that we all know what rotation Towing is this is when there's an accident in town we get a call and we're um in charge of cleaning the scene of the accent okay so one and two that I listed in my outline was the cost of Fleet so um the obviously the cost of a vehicle we all uh drive a motor vehicle so we know the cost of them has went up I've provided some receipts here in my book if anyone would like to see a proof of um them I'll be more than happy to provide them so number one is Class A Fleet so a standard roll back purchased in 2002 was for the cost of $63,000 the replacement roll back purchased in 2023 costed $136,000 this is an increase of 115% number two Class C Fleet a heavy record purchase in 2002 costed us $185,000 a replacement heavy recorder purchased in 2022 costed us $59,000 I have these bills of sale if anyone would like to see them um this is an increase of 172% number three I listed insurance I'm not going to really elaborate on insurance I feel like it's not really fair to compare one insurance policy to another um but we can all agree as um motorists that the cost of insurance has went up number four equipment things like tires or hourly labor to replace the tires um I looked at some of our old invoices most of my invoices only go back to 2007 so I compared some of my 2007 invoices to what the cost of the tires cost us today my percentage is 172% cost increase for tires and the hourly labor is up 107% these percentages are based B on when this ordinance was initiated to today number five fuel fuel's a big thing in the towing world because these trucks are always moving diesel was on average a162 in 2002 today on my way here I checked the sign and it said $384 this is not the only cost in fuel that has accumulated in the last 20 years there's a new thing called diesel exhaust fluid this was not required to run in diesel engines back when this ordinance was initi initiated it is a requirement now I spend approximately $400 on a 55 gallon drum of death this would be a 100% cost increase last but not least supplies these supplies are things that we use to recover erect vehicle whether it be overturned in the ditch submerged in the wood line whatever the case is it requires oil dry for spills and cable for the winching I have also brought receipts for those things if you guys would like to compare but my numbers are there these are up 114% and 141% after review of these numbers the overall price increase for record operators is on average 136% to get a better idea of what we thought would be acceptable rates for these types of jobs in 2024 we did a lot of research we looked at surrounding counties and what we found here within the city of Paca was quite astonishing I have brought with me the rates of Flagler County as well as the rates for the city of Paka those are any inside your packet the city of pak's rates show that they were initiated back in 2010 the class A Hook price is still nearly twice as much as what the counties is today can you bring it in for a landing please if you you've got a lot of information I do thank you but but we are over all right I'm finishing up right here so we have prepared a rate proposal for all of you to review the average increase we are requesting would be 92% this is not nearly as much as the 136% cost increase that we previously mentioned we wish to continue serving the motorists of putham County with up-to-date equipment and highly skilled operators however this requested increase makes a resolution absolutely necessary thank you Mr Mr Adam that and then miss what um and only because you're here so it's kind of convenient um because I researched some of this as well what like if you did it how does it work if you do a toe and like I have Progressive insurance so I have Towing typically so do you get Char do I get charged by the county and ress Progressive P so um obviously if you have full coverage insurance your insurance would pick up your bill now every U motorist has the right to an owner's request so if you're at the scene of an accident and you want to owner request a company you can but um the majority do not it goes up for rotation that Deputy or Trooper whoever it is has the right to call it in and that next person up on rotation is who gets the call and they rotate us out as record operators so you take a call from like your Progressive or triple I'll take a call from the Sheriff's Office no if you do yeah separate from this Pro right what do you charge for a call um regular car um actually believe it or not um so our cost increases has went up a lot for cash customers but they haven't in 20 years for accidents so unfortunately my cash customers are paying nearly what a w pays today because those have had multiple increases in the last 20 years and this hasn't in 20 years right and what's that amount that's that's what I um I would say a $75 um hook for a car staying in town maybe something like that thanks Miss Wilkinson Tony thank you so basically you besides the fact that you've used your um expenses actual expenses from then to now that's a great comparison um you've also reviewed uh your data analysis has city of Paca and Flagler County as basically comps right comparables that and what the policies that they've adopted and you've taken that into consideration it looks like yes and the main reason why I chose Flagler is because um a lot of the counties are looking like us at a 20 year or 15E a lot of them are going a long time without a rate increase and if I if I remember correctly putam County was one of the first ones to set an example last time with the with the rate increase and um I know flaggers was just approved last year and I I really compared a lot to Flagler because um so sometimes Johnson's Towing is one of the only ones in putam county that provide the heavy duty hauling and sometimes if we get a tractor trailer accident and it requires something like a rotator or airbags we don't typically have those things and a lot of times in our ordinance we have the right of Contracting out another company if I was to have to call a company to help with a recovery like that our companies are in Flagler this is their ordinance this is what they're going to charge me so if they charge me 12,000 for the airbags and my ordinance says I can only charge five I'm out of pocket $7,000 W okay I I understand this thank you thank you you well thank you for coming I appreciate that you so all right anybody else want to speak on agenda items all right Commissioners we're going to go to pulling consent agenda commissioner Pickins you have any items you want to pull yeah I guess I want to pull since we're discussing it the uh item C item C okay commissioner adamac ITF commissioner Wilkinson I have none commissioner Turner none additional okay and I have none so the chair will entertain a motion Mr chair I move um approval of consent agenda a b d e and f second a proper motion proper second any further comment on the motion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I I POS like sign the eyes have it Mr Pickins you have the floor for item C the establish rates for towing thank you chairman Harvey and I was trying to remember back if this had ever come to us before um and I don't guess that it has and Terry Walters I knew him well I graduated high school with him he was a fine man he was um I mentioned the staff this morning and this was just where this landed I'm not pointing a finger at anybody I think this should have come as new business as a workshop with the amount of information in here one big problem is not coming to us or not asking for increase in what 20 years is that what it is it's 10 years Okay we okay but to go over this at least to see it every couple of years I think would be beneficial for both sides um and I'm in business um um so I understand cost and everything like that I'm not in the towing business but I'm in the Autoparts business so we work with the toe people I know Vicki briquette back there really well um so that would be my suggestion is maybe to send this to a workshop to um let us review this a little more get some more information and then uh make an educated uh increase and then maybe even some increase allowances moving forward so that's all I am thank you Mr Pickins Mr Adams that yeah I don't know that we need to do that in this case I mean I did a bunch of research on it I think her numbers align with what we already have in our packet and in 22 years I think most of it's 100% or whatever isn't unreasonable I i' I've had Ben towed literally two weeks ago in Maran County and it was because I got sideswiped by someone on 301 um it was it was more than that so um I think it's competitive compared to what I see in other things from people I've called that do do Towing and from Toes that I've personally had so I I have no problem moving it forward the way it is written today thank you Mr Adam Mr Turner thank you Mr chairman um I don't really have a problem with the increases that have been asked for today I probably have a problem with how it's been being handled uh Mr Pickins I think kind of touched on that and I feel the same way this should have been under new business or this should have been something that or went to Workshop um and everybody knows I'm not big on Workshop because I believe you can handle it under new business in most cases in the in the deal um I I would propose that because this is new that we table this agenda item today and we put it on the next meeting under new business where it can be researched and discussed and and talked about in an open Forum I really don't think I really don't think at all that I'm against what they're asking for I really don't but I think that we owe it to the public to at least discuss it in public and not pass it as a backro deal on the consent agenda I just really feel like that and so I I think that that's what we need to do I think we need to put this off until the next meeting and put it on new business where it can be vetted in the open like it should be vetted that's just my opinion Mr chairman thank you Mr chman Mr Pickins you have the floor yeah and I may not have worded it right because we used to have regular workshops in the afternoon at 2 o'clock um I'm with putting this on the the agenda item for new business at our next meeting for uh for discussion and maybe even some public input um so I'm I'm with that so thank you and I'm not opposed to that either I do realize you need an increase there's no doubt about it U but I do believe that prop the proper format would be to go do that and I think there was some different points of view and I want to take all that in so Mr chairman you're ready for a motion I am sir I move that we table this item to the next meeting and it be placed on new business at the next meeting proper motion by commissioner Turner do we have a second a second proper second by commissioner Pickins any further discussion on the motion at hand hearing none all in favor signify by saying I iose like sign the eyes have it thank you we'll have it on the next agenda and if I may just say something Mr chairman sir guys I'm not against your increase I'm not I just think it needs to be vetted correctly to the public and not just shoved through the consent agenda so you know this this is the proper way to do it we'll have it on the next one guaranteed okay thank you all right next item up is our codes enforcement Thomas are you here yeah it I'm sorry item F I pulled oh yeah oh I didn't hear that he that yes I pulled F I didn't we passed she didn't say ITF but we passed it as part of what the motion was so yeah I'm I'm I'm not objecting to it I'm just pulled it for advertising sake so the okay the Melrose May Fair and music festival is May 4th 2024 it's in our agenda it's a Heritage Park in MOS Hall from noon to 8:00 p.m. it's a great little event in in that little park down there and uh I don't know if a lot of everyone's been to everyone out there on the internet has been to many events in metals I'm sure and it's just a a really cool event so I didn't pull it for any objection or anything just thank you Comm let everyone know that it is a cool event that's happening soon I'm sorry I didn't hear you and I have met with the business owners out there and they do not mind the road closure so okay I'm sorry I just did not hear that so I apologize my age is getting to me as can't hear everything like I used to don't admit it okay don't admit it what don't don't let the old man in that's exactly right isn't it that's a true song right there okay Thomas where you at is there anybody here today Mr I'm gonna I'm fixing to ask that is anybody in the audience for codes case 2006 d0 653 uh Richard Bronson or 265 or 587 or 540 okay let's is there anybody in the audience for codes Enforcement cases today anybody in the audience for codes Enforcement cases today seeing No Hands nobody standing up we'll move on Thomas you ready yes sir Mr really need Thomas to go ahead I hear you I mean if y'all want to just do it like we've been doing I'm fine with that Turner um Mr chairman with regards to Coast codes case 2006 00653 uh my move that we reduce the fine to $1,474 have paid within 90 days second proper motion proper second any further discussion on the motion I'd like to just say one thing this is one of the ones that's closest to my house and I I drove by it and it it is a huge difference from what that lot was before and it just I I love this program and it's really great but usually we haven't had any out not by me so this one Happ be out by me I drove past it several times and uh it's been a huge Improvement on that lot since this if you think we're trying to rush something through we're not we're really wanting compliance and when things come into compliance we're ready to move forward that's our main goal as a County Commission so we have a proper motion proper second any further discussion hearing done all in favor signify by saying I I POS like sign the eyes have it Mr chairman regards case 207 00265 that's the right one I I move we reduce fine to $1,500 have paid within 90 days second proper motion proper second any further discussion this one has a tax Surplus yeah yes sir I have a tax Surplus I wanted to use okay well then it would just come out of the tax Surplus is all it would do I mind the second y okay we have a proper motion that's been amended and a proper second been amended any further disc discussion hearing n all in favor cing 5 I I iose like sign the eyes have it Mr chairman would and by the way thank you for bringing that to my attention commissioner Pickins I missed that one on that one um code case number 2014 00587 I move that we reduce fine to 2,000 staff recommendation of $2,266 have paid within 90 days second proper motion proper second any further discussion hearing n all in favor signify by I I post like sign the eyes have it Mr chairman with regards to case uh 2018 0054 um I move that we take staff recommendation of 2,000 uh $68 if paid within 90 days second and that's on tax Surplus too and that anticipated under discussion Mr yes sir under discussion Matt how would we handle that I guess we don't know how much Surplus there is yet what says that there's one that's anticipated that's pending correct it I would say that you guys could pass that motion just like you have in the past and just say that whatever excess funds go back to the proper in if it's less than then someone would have to pay the difference and if it's more than it would come out of the Reser or the excess funds and then okay so that's your motion yes yes sir that's my motion second that's your second Mr Amite thank you all right any further discussion hearing none all in favor signify by saying I iose like sign the eyes have it thank you commission thank you Thomas appreciate it appointments uh starting to my left Mr Pickins I have none starting over to my right Mr adamac I have none today Mr Turner I have none Miss Wilkinson I have none and I have none now our next item on the agenda is 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 the board will engage in debate or deliberation on matters on which the board has received no prior information as part of the agenda please limit your comments to three minutes public comment cards are located at the right of the meeting room and should be given to Ashley before that you don't have to fill out a card but we appreciate it we are going to limit comments to three minutes so please who's our first card Dan steel Dan Steel good morning County Commissioners my name is Dan steel I live at 202 M Lane out by Trout Lake out there in the Locking uh I'm going to call that the new putting them because we're even getting the Taco Bell and then they locking so you know we're moving up bought I'm here to talk about the roads you bought an Miller's place yes I did nice house uh uh the roads are so bad out there fact my truck I've already had to have the cab mounts replaced in it which is very expensive and uh I can I can walk faster when I can drive my truck in some places it's that bad out there I have worked on Twin Lakes Boulevard excuse me and uh I've cut trees back on that I've tried to make the road safer for everybody out there that drives it I've even graded it a couple times but my own expense my own time but they're they're terrible we would like to out there like to see a couple of roads that would tie into uh lake Lake View Trail out there so we can go to Gainesville without going east to go back West I mean it doesn't make any sense now with the price of fuel and gas or anything uh and I'd like to propose something else and I don't know if it'll fly or not there's a lot of people in putam county that retirees they have driven trucks heavy equipment loaders dozers compact like that would there be a a possibility for to you the county to hire these people they they don't need insurance they don't need to be fulltime but if we can get the equipment we could put in a mile of road probably 2third of price of what someone else can we can save a lot of money we can cover more ground we're going to take pride in what we're doing we're going to put that road in right and it'll be we'll save a lot of money doing it and uh i' I'd like to see if that can't can't fly somewhere we uh I don't know you can't be full-time so if you work 89 days I guess and then lay them off for one day and then hire him back if you want to hire them back but we we could definitely do the work and make it uh you know be take pride in our in our County of doing it uh also Al the other thing is can someone change that 50 mph speed limit on Highway 20 that thing there you're coming into in on any other Road into putam County they're all 60 MPH and above that road being 50 m an hour that from interlock and Hawthorne is kind of ridiculous Mr sheal I'm going to say two things attend the msbu meeting that you've been told about and also um they're not driving 50 I almost got run over the other day and they getting tickets they're handing out a lot of tickets there good good for them so thank you thank you for coming today we appreciate it thank you Mr Ralph haggy how youall doing good I'm Ralph heggy I live at 112 Paul Drive in Hollister and uh I do have a map if you all familiar with the roads in interlocking yeah y all okay cuz I do have a map if you're not what I'm talking about is the uh road to U are you familiar familiar with Flingo road yeah well Flamingo turns to Rome yes and then you know if you come down Jackson Terrace and and come on the union that makes a complete you Circle that from 35 over to so another access to to go out uh for safety and for I'm just going from dirt to pave is what I'm trying to got a little stage Sprite but that's okay you're fine anyway uh I'm trying to get the dirt to pave there because it's a safety thing and then you also have uh you know bus routes and stuff like that and uh and my main concern was is that I'm a renter I'm not I mean landlord I I rent uh property out there but uh we're starting to get more uh people living in tents and uh it's starting to it's it it's an easy access for them to live in the woods when it's not you know uh you know paved and to where we can start putting uh more houses in there you're fine you're fine anyway we understand go but anyway um I just want to make sure I get everything in here but uh it's just that I've seen a lot more Riff Raff coming in there and people are getting more scared you know you would be scared if you had to live next door to somebody living in the tent you don't even know who they are but uh and and the other Nexus would be the um uh I just want to see interlocking grow you know uh if we keep continue leaving it dirt then we're not going to progress we're really not I mean it's just it's just a it's assess pool for people come in and just camp out but um and on your behalf I I've got six rescues I've got four dogs I lost one he's 16 years old but but anyway uh but uh I had two cats and uh but uh I I I commend you on that so but U If I Was A Millionaire I'd probably have my whole backyard full of but anyway I was just like to address that just be aware of I mean if you all not familiar with the roads I got a map here to show you and the road in between Mr hey I do feel like I owe you an explanation this board does understand that in West putam MSB there's 96 miles of dirt roads I get one mile a year okay this board understands that and before I got here we didn't pave roads inside of an msbu but we are now so we're doing we're moving forward it's slow steps we are trying to uh I know Mr Adams that's got some Paving going on I've got some going on the problem with West putam msbu is the elevations that are out there it's the highest right I I understand it's the highest point in putham county and we don't own many Lots out there to put drainage everything was sold but we are looking let me assure you I mean you saw what I did with Mariners Lake you saw what we did with Lake View you saw that that started helping we're going to start looking at some other areas but work with Tony back there Tony raise your hand yeah I know who Tony is all right well let me let me call on Mr Adam back he has a comment and we'll move from there okay Mr Adam I would just say this I mean there is the possibility of a Paving msbu which is a citizen based things I will say that the two or three since I've been here where the people in the mspu thought that the rest of the people would want to do it failed but that is an option if you know the people in the area or certain roads that you could get together and try to pull people together to try to do a Paving mspu for a specific area um but again it so far since I've been here every one of those the citizens didn't get behind it like the people that wanted it paay thought they would I'll just warn you with that but I would recommend going and talking to all the people and seeing if they would be interested you know where I live and that Road's paved that road was paved by the citizens of putham County not the county okay we all got together like Mr Adam act did we paid $238 a year for 15 years I did the same thing to get yeah to get that road paid right I had a couple guys standing there the other day kind of bashing me about some of the roads were Paving down by there and I said these people paid but they still live on dirt road but they're not doing that any we're getting this done so it is taking little steps but we are moving forward that would be another option to it's an option holl we had to P like you did and it was very eff you know very good for us to have that road paid because Hoover Road was horrible oh you go down and come we all know but I appreciate you thank you Mr hegy thank you very much thank you sir have a good day you're fine thank you no you're fine Mr hegy Steve Carri are you're next please state your name and address for the record thank you good morning my name is Stephen carer I live in Jacksonville so I'm not a putam County resident welcome to Florida I've been here five years and I love it all right so I'm the manager of the Florida state animal response Coalition and a member of the state agriculture response team which supports ESF 17 for agriculture and animal response here in Florida we provide Disaster Response for communities and families with Companion Pets in disasters and emergencies we also support temporary and emergency Sheltering for local and national animal rescue boarding cases since 2011 we've trained over 4,000 shelter and Animal Control staff and the public to help communities with situation similar to your recent 200 plus dog rescue case when asked to help your Community we immediately engag with many wellestablished shelters and programs in Florida who are part of the Florida Association of Animal Welfare organizations we also received major support from the University of Florida veteranary medicine and Sheltering program in a matter of just a few hours from a phone call from your emergency manager we coordinated Hospital quarantine Sheltering transport medical and Adoption Services capable of rescuing all 208 dogs off your hands I want to repeat that all 208 dogs I'm a little I'm sorry I'm a little nervous and I'm a little upset how this transpired because our organization went way out of our way to help you guys and so forgive me if I seem a little tense volunteers from our 960 person disaster responder program and a mobile animal response equipment trailer were requested everyone who responded to the call was ready we strongly recommended postponing your adoption event to reduce the threat that unfixed untreated animals with unknown diseases would create we were told this event was going to happen regardless the next morning other rescues began arriving at your EOC without prior knowledge to your emergency manager who we were coordinating with the ones we coordinated were turned away Peggy Adams Rescue League sent a team starting at 3:00 a.m. from West Palm Beach driving 4 and 1/2 hours to pick up the 30 or 40 dogs that we coordinated to be picked up only to be told they weren't getting them they did receive a few SPCA Florida my employer in route with supplies and donations was turned away after arranging to pick up an additional 10 to 12 Dogs by our best estimates 73 about 36% went to the rescues we coordinated and Nate's honor was one of them about 45 or 20% even though they did receive vaccinations at your adoption event were adopted to the public unfixed the remaining 86 or so 88 44% were transferred to other rescues or groups and that's not to say they weren't valuable to this effort furthermore when a free sper neuter opportunity was coordinated last Sunday at First Coast no more homeless pets for those 133 that we didn't help coordinate only five animals showed up about 4% of that number if we've been allowed to carry out what we were invited to do through your Emergency Operations Center the biocurity risk and breeding problem would have been far less to your community and I'm almost done thank you Mr carer may I continue I have one more paragraph right ahead really quick we feel the very heart of animal rescue and safety in our state was undermined we also feel the basic tenants of incident command unity of command clear messaging and objectives clear coordination and understanding use of available resources were also disregarded as it relates to our participation in this exercise this experience continues to erode relationships between nonprofits and government which need our help especially where your resources are already stretched too thin to handle cases like this and by the way great job I realized it was very timec consuming and a huge strain on you guys thank you Mr carer we need to wrap this up okay these relationships need strengthening not straining so that we can sexually do the job we were asked to do when you ask us which is to rescue and adopt out only fixed and vaccinated pets keep our shelter's number low and keep your community safe thank you sir M [Applause] Miss not going to happen today you can do all the standing clapping I'll ask you to be removed if that continues thank you Amy car oent Amy carteno thank you for coming please thank you Mr wealth good morning morning I'm I'm Amy K Nudo I'm the ex I'm sorry I butchered your name that's okay that's okay I'm the executive director of Flagler Humane Society I'm also the president of Florida animal protection and advocacy Association and I'm on the board of directors of Florida Association of Animal Welfare organizations I understand how staggering an event like this can be um my shelter busted a 400 dog puppy mill many years ago so I understand that this kind of thing is overwhelming that said you had so much help on the way legitimate uh Statewide organizations doctors help from the University of Florida First Coast no more homeless pets reputable rescue groups and shelters I left voicemails and emails with your Deputy County Administrator begging her to postpone the dog giveaway I said y'all deserve to be hailed as Heroes after this kind of a rescue I hate to see you butchered on social media for some bad decisions for some dogs these dogs lives could have been so much different instead of going to areas of the state that have resources to provide complete veterinary care and adopter willing to go through the slow stage of getting to know the animals that are scared um instead they were handed over with minimal vaccines were they microchipped yes the the dogs that are leaving from my shelter from this are going home with air tags which the air tags can be synced up to an app on the adopter phone so if the dogs get away they can track exactly where they're at um but putam Administration handed them to people that weren't trained on how to care for unsocialized scared to death animals there will be people bitten if there haven't been already there will be dogs that get lost there was also no true provision to ensure State Statute required spay neuter under State Statute 82315 animal control agencies must either sterilize dogs and cats prior to adoption or enter into a written agreement and collect a deposit I don't know that deposits were collected State Statute requires a deposit to and again enter into a written agreement guaranteeing that sterilization be performed within 30 days or prior to maturity failure by either side um to comply with this is a non-criminal violation punishable by $500 fine next time a situation like this happens and it will because you've got unsterilized dogs that were given away please allow officers your officers that know Animal Welfare to do their jobs and allow Animal Welfare agencies nearby to help and accept the help it will be better financially for your county and it'll be better for your citizens and better for the animals thank you for coming Mike Merill you're next and then Diane Sykes if you'll be on deck hi my name is Mike Merill I'm the founder and executive director of Florida urgent rescue um a couple of you might remember a couple of you might remember me from uh nine years ago when I was here uh different issues um I founded Florida urgent rescue in 2015 and since then we have pulled more than 600 dogs and cats from the putham County shelter um as a foster based rescue we do what every other rescue in this hoarding case would have done and and those that actually pull dogs do when a dog comes in from a hoarding case they must be quarantined they should not be adopted out to members of the public in 48 to 72 hours that's that's a violation of every single tenant every single best practice of shelter medicine somebody made a statement from the county saying we did not adopt out sick dogs how could you possibly know you don't know you can't do that um vaccinating them on the way out the door is not proper vetare that's one element of it but what what we do we to us you're speaking to excuse me yeah you're speaking to us yeah okay so so what we do and what we did was we run full blood work including heartworm test we run feal which um in we heard anecdotally from the shelter staff I had spent two days at the shelter during this event and there were dogs sitting there were pools of diarrhea in every kennel that in could be change in diet but could be hookworms or heart or other parasites could be coxidia or Giardia we heard from people at the shelter that these dogs have coxidia we test it that takes a few days to get that back you can't get that test back in three days so Florida urgent rescue pulled 23 of these dogs 19 of which went to poodle and Pooch we later took in five more um we took in three from the rolands and we took two that were returned by adopters the first five sets of or the first six that we got the blood work back and the lab results back five of the six have coxidia and cryptosporidium six of the six have hookworms those are zuntic they can be transferred to kids to family members to other pets these unsuspecting adopter have no idea and they're not going to go to their vent and say hey can you check for coxidia it's not something that they would think to do this adoption event should not have happened it was it there was no need we put in a rescue hold for 100 dogs and we were told no you're not allowed you can't have that many you can only have the original 35 of which we got 23 because there were too many other rescues involved too many rescues were turned away with zero after sitting there for hours there was no need to hold an adoption event and to adop to adopt out animals that had not been quarantined had not been properly vetted and had not been spay or neutered thank you thank you Mr Mike Diane Sykes you're next please give it to Miss Ashley she'll do it thank you Diane Sykes 304 Chestnut Street Crescent City of Florida and I too am talking on the adoption event uh though I do appreciate that the county wanted to resolve this as quickly as possible those dogs had been there for a long time and two extra days to allow the shelters to come in and the rescues to come in and do it the right way wouldn't have hurt and in the long run it would have had a better outcome thank you Jennifer Pierce and then Jenny Oakwood so I'm not with a rescue I'm just a private citizen that's okay and I wanted to say that I agree age with what you guys said about trying to do your best to M make the best of the situation and that you probably weren't H you know you're not experienced in handling any of this so it was a huge you know I I can see where it could have been tough so the plus side of that event was that a lot of long-term dogs were adopted which is amazing what if in moving forward we tried to advertise some events like this and I'm sorry um you're fine go ahead the new facility that I guess has been promised for the past three years that could be so huge that little facility that we have is sad and disheartening I I wish that you guys would go and look at it if you haven't been there recently because it's it's sad um also I would like to know why we don't hold people accountable for things like this like not necessarily hoarding but not spaying and neutering um letting their animals run free you know wouldn't it benefit some way to issue fines for things like that not only could it benefit the animal control and give them funds to do more with what they have um and then I live out in floor home and 3 years ago a gentleman was attacked by Pitbulls on a bicy ble and just ripped to sheds this past week some another person was attacked over in Keystone pit wols ripped to shreds I love the breed I'm not saying it's a bad breed I'm saying that there's a problem with people letting their animals roam free they need to be held accountable there's got to be some way that we can work together to hold these people accountable so things like this aren't happening they're not the dogs aren't breeding like crazy everywhere and having Strays to where it's overflowing our Animal Control they're doing the best they can and I give them props and everybody that have dealt with this situation it's not easy I can't even imagine but in the past month we've had 100 dogs here 200 dogs here 140 dogs here they just last week it was Union County you know it's just it's a problem so I just wish that there's some way we could work together to fix it and move forward and the right thing thank you Mr Adam yeah it's not specific to what she's saying but um I'm very appreciative for what staff did from a perspective of the hard work that went into it can we always improve on what we're doing absolutely um I think people have made some good points on Facebook and people have made some crazy points that were unfounded I mean there's a balance that anytime that you have Facebook what I'll say is this is and some of the rescues that are here I've never met before some of them I have um we have a need for Rescue every day in this County it's not cuz we had 208 animals there's 500 animals out there right now that we could go pick up but we have nowhere to put them um so that that's a fact in putham County there's people in our County that are shooting animals when they come on their property because there is nowhere to put them um so I mean if you guys want to start pulling animals I think we could probably arrange that every week for Perpetual I mean in the dozens um because it's a constant issue and until we have somewhere to put them and building new animal control I mean I'm an ad okay yeah absolutely I fully support Spade neuter laws um but until we do that the new animal control facility the day it's built is going to be filled so I'm just saying we do have a need to get animals out of the county every day so thank you Mr Jenny Oakwood that's my last card that I have Genie Oakwood address 1952 South Highway 17 in Crescent City I agree with all the statements made to hear today we took in 14 one of them is in hospice she was 15 years old plus and has cancer we had two that we had a place in isolation due to respiratory and I learned a lot from this event one thing as a leader I need to put money aside for these horrific hoarder situations I have an additional suggestion we should have permits and fees for any breeders in putam County I see signs constantly about French doggies and poodles and labs and there are selling them 5,000 plus that's a way that the county and the health department can bring in more income to our County um we learn from incidents like this all of us here present with the orange shirt except for myself um Kathy from safe and Mike are here to help you I really believe that we need a strategic plan uh putting our heads together with Miss Young Mr HMS Kathy from Animal Control and us we will be glad to assist you in any way that we can just like planning for hurricanes this is the same concept this will happen again it will and I'm working diligently to have a spray spay and neuter uh uh trailer and facility here in this County and that will happen and I want to conclude to all of you here today is the importance of having this new shelter I hope and pray that it happens this year because if it doesn't we are going to be in more hot water thank you thank you Mr Miss oood anybody else from the public will wishing to speak please come up and state your name Mr Miller you've already done that no I'm good thank you you don't mind good morning good morning my name is jod blood um I live at 213 Medlock Street in Interlocken I am a frequent volunteer at Animal Control um and I just wanted to state that the one thing that I haven't heard too many people mentioned today is the person the actual hoarder who was in this situation um I've only lived in the county for three years and I can tell you that I've lived in uh I've lived up north I've lived in the midwest I've lived in another County in Florida and I've never seen anything like the animal situation in putam it's definitely out of control I live in Lake Estates that pretty much says it all um but the the person the lady that was the the actual owner of these dogs um I was told that this is the second time that animal control has had to go in and remove a very large number of dogs the last time was between 15 and 20 years ago so it was before the um computer system was put in so it would be something that would be located in an archive um I am was told that this woman was out of the hospital and that she was receiving some of her dogs back uh I assisted uh pretty paw with some of the grooming one of them was an extremely elderly poodle who had an eye that had rotted out of her head she had very few teeth she had never been socialized she did not appear to have ever had a bath or I mean I've never seen fleas like this in my life it was it was you could almost not see that one of the dogs was partially white because there were so many fleas on this animal um I'm hoping that if this person is given back any animals I do understand if she is they are going to be spayed and neutered but that there's going to be some sort of severe fine something hanging over her head because I do not believe that a short visit to the hospital for a leg injury is going to resolve the mental illness that is hoarding and it is a mental illness um and I do want to say that I was at the shelter the day that the adoption event was going on um and the staff are some of the most amazing people I've ever met in my 51 years on this planet they don't work there for the money they work there because they love the animals um Kathy Britney Ryan everybody that works there is is amazing and they took this situation and the lack of communication and the lack of allowing their feedback since they're the ones that work with the animals every day they took that very personally in my opinion it was a very emotional situation um and I know everybody did the best they could in a hard situation but if we could possibly do something to assist with these situ situations with the mental health aspect of it it may prevent us from going back I know she's elderly so I don't see us going back in 15 years and getting another hundred dogs because she's in her late 70s but what if she was in her 40s or in her 50s so if we don't resolve the actual mental illness she's just going to go out and collect dogs again and then this is going to end up to be the same situation thank you for coming thank you m you got a comment I I just want to reiterate what she said the important thing is and I heard it from everyone that called me complaining about what happened and and saying good things is that the people that were working were working their butts off and whether we got everything 100% right or not I do appreciate Pooky and all their staff and everyone else that was actually working on the ground and trying to do what they felt was right at the time um we can improve like I said and uh but uh people did work their asses off and I appreciate that thank you all right that ends our public comment period and now we'll go to Clerk of the Court Mr Matt Reynolds I'm sorry you had a comment pleas please come up to the microphone and state your name I'm G allow this sorry Mr clerk if you'll wait just a moment I apologize my name is mallerie Krueger I live at 1604 Green Street in PKA um it's really just a quick question everybody here has covered everything that I had to say um I think the whole purpose of this was to have the issue added to the next agenda to actually be able to have discourse on it because you know we were blatantly told at the beginning there will be no discourse there will be no argument because it's not on the agenda all of that so does a a formal motion need to be made to put it on the next agenda agenda how do we go about that because I heard the towing people get theirs put on the next agenda so how do we do that that would be up to a commissioner to put it on and to bring It Forward if they wanted to do that this point um I think we've heard from everybody and I think what you've heard today is people have done the best job they can possibly do and moving this County forward okay and fair enough to a certain extent but then who is going to be held accountable or who is going to follow through on those dogs that were adopted out that were not spay and neuter that um those promisory notes did were their dates that they had to have that completed by did they have to put down a well if you read our if you heard the public comment it's not reasonable to expect us to deliberate on items that we don't know about you can laugh at me all day long you have people behind you that did I'm just saying this is my first attempt to hear this okay and I respect that fully but that's why my question commission wants to bring it to the next agenda we can do that and have a discussion Mr chairman yes sir before we wait a minute before we no no no no no you don't place it on the agenda just because you don't she doesn't agree with what we did agree with that I'm sorry I'm going to Bow up the staff did the best they could do animal control staff did yes did the best they did and they didn't have to go help them either they could have sat in their office next door and they Animal Services go take care of this by the honest it probably would have been better that way okay we're not going to do this that's your opinion and not mine and that's why I asked that it be added to the agenda so that we can have an actual discourse about it thank you for your time okay so what I'm hearing is the towing people are more important than the rest of this 20 people that came out to represent the community and to say there was a giant issue with this I understand that you did the best that you could it wasn't good enough you for bringing it to our it wasn't good enough thank you for bringing to okay this will not be the last that you hear from us guaranteed chairman yes sir we we do have an animal services committee so I do think that that is where the conversation should start I'm I'm not saying that to not it in front of us I think it should come to us and I I know my appointe for the Animal Service committee is in the audience I I think I would I would love to see this as something that they discuss and maybe review I think they can take that upon themselves to review what happened and see where things can be improved and I think any citizen can go to that it's an open meeting um I don't know what day it is but any citizen can go to that meeting it is a public meeting and I'm more than happy if they they come up with some ideas from that to to me personally to put it on the agenda but not just as a flailing wide open thing let's put this on the agenda with no guidelines at all um so if the service Animal Service committee could come up with things that they think we could have improved when you could give input to that committee on that and then I think we can have it as an agenda item in the future so I think that would make sense thank you Mr Mr Turner Mr chairman I want to apologize for my actions a minute ago it upset me tremendously it upset me tremendously when somebody comes in and they they believe our staff and they belittle our people because they didn't agree with what they did or whatever this just this just goes to show you going to do that this just goes to show you that no that no matter what you do in politics somebody's going to be upset somebody's going to be upset I thought they did the best they could in fact I thought they went above and beyond the best they could I'm just telling you and and so some people are upset that it wasn't handled some rescues didn't get all the dogs where they could turn around and and use the dogs for revenues because they actually use the dogs to help with revenues and I'm not saying okay that's the end of that I'm not thank you I'm not saying one the way or the other except for the fact that I know that they charge for their services and they charge to to to to uh for somebody to Rescue the Animals so the um like I said there's you did fine you just can't do you just can't make some people happy no matter what you do but I'm not going to sit here and let members of the St members of the public belittle staff over what I thought was stepping way up and above what they had to do in their daily jobs to make a bad situation better Point well taken Mr Clerk of the Court Mr R mat the Matt Reynolds I'm sorry my T good morning Mr chairman I have nothing for you thank you thank you County attorney Mr Rich Commando thank you Mr chair so normally I don't have much of a report but being the conversation we had today you know early on in the process related to the animals Miss Young reached out to me and we actually went through the statute as to what the statute required um what we were able to accomplish and we looked at that um 82315 Mr I can't he you I'm sorry we we did reach out to the 823 or look through the 823 3.15 and we did comply with the statute so we um put together written agreements where we could make sure that we were doing everything as a county that we could possibly do at the time so unfortunately some of our internal conversations don't make it out to the public but um as you've described not just did the county staff do everything they possibly could have but under the circumstances they actually um reached out and they followed the law so I just want to make sure that you as a commissioner aare of the steps they took thank you Mr Commando uh County administrative Mr sug I'm sorry I believe commissioner W somebody had a I just wanted to ask a question I didn't push my button go right ahead I'm sorry um one of the things that I don't believe you dis discussed in your presentation Miss Young is the microchipping did we microchip animals dogs before they were released to the public the animals were microchipped when they were loaded at the shelter yes ma'am so every every animal that was microchipped okay all right I knew that was a question that was asked thank you Mr said yes sir Mr chairman I I appreciate the opportunity to speak this morning as well um I understand why everybody left but there are some comments that were made here this morning that as County Administrator I'm going to address directly who made the decision I did County Administrator is responsible for the decisions are made by staff they want to point fingers they want to they want to throw names out I'm just going to try to be as calm as I can here you know Miss Jung's name has been bounced around Mr grimes's name's been bounced around but you know County Administrator takes full responsibility they want to get upset they can email me directly and trust me they have I've seen the emails I've received them you know some of them not very kind you know so uh but you know we're going to always step up and we're always going to do the right thing you know and and I said this I believe Mr chairman the other day you know we're not in the business that's going to make everybody happy but what we are in the business of is doing the right thing we don't manage out of fear and we don't manage out of intimidation and for those folks that want to be upset I have a phone number I have an email address and I have an office you are welcome to come see me email me call me and I'll have that conversation but if if you want to blame my staff that is not going to happen they did exactly what they should have done and they did exactly what I asked them to do I take responsibility and if anyone here has a on my commission is upset with that you can come see me as well but we have to make tough decisions sometimes we have to make those decisions on the Fly you know and we will uh but we did everything we could and I want to make sure that everybody understands that the majority of those puppies and those dogs that were adopted out on Friday have been in the shelter for a long time if rescues want to step up come see us there's no reason for an animal to be in that shelter 297 days if you if you want to step up and help you know it's not about when we need need puppies rescued it's about when we have everybody every animal from cats to dogs in that rescue sitting there for 297 days step up we did our job do yours Mr chairman that concludes my comments thank you I understand the passion and I I really do and it's Julianne Miss Young your presentation today it did make me tear up I don't want to see animals being mistreated I do think it's a personal responsibility I don't think it's government's responsibility but sometimes we're thrown into that situation and we do the best we can when we're there okay commissioner comments commissioner Pickins thank you chairman Harvey um I I'll start with the the adoption event um I do think the staff U put together something in a short period of time that was the best that they felt that we could do um I do think with this event uh this won't be the last one we have um that a little more communication may be necessary I've had a few people come see me to complain um um want to be put on the agenda I said that was up to the chairman or commissioner I actually said the chairman so Mr Harvey If I spoke out a turn I apologize on you're fine on TV but I I suggested to them that um that they talk to staff and hear staff out and they probably would have gotten a lot of this information that was presented from staff today a week or so ago I do think that there is a proper uh uh pattern or um what would you call it to um to move something forward is to go to the Animal Control advisory committee that's what it's for is to make recommendations to us if there's something that we need to change or to look at so that was I would suggest is that's where it needs to start and I think Commissioner Adam Zach mentioned that so with that said I want to convin commend staff um administrator sugs bucks does stop with you okay but the staff worked diligently they worked together there were a lot of volunteers um Bless the people that came in to to help this thing to be a success the sheriff's department is always there for us so that's all I've got to say on that on a lighter note 42nd annual catfish Festival sponsored by the Crescent City Rotary Club is coming back April 6 after a 4-year absence uh it is a little different it's a format of just Saturday from 10: to 5: uh with Swamp Cabbage Gator tail Quail frog legs catfish dinners and Strawberry Shortcake entertainment kigs activity parade arts and crafts and a car show um the parade is earlier this year um it's at 11 o' so if any uh County Employees or County staff want to uh join me in the parade or some of the County Commissioners get with me because you would need to be in the line up by 10:30 so that's all I have thank you thank you commissioner Pickins Commissioner Adam at yeah um so about a year ago when we we had an incident with animal services with it really wasn't animal services but with an animal in the county you know I put myself out there as a commissioner I I had a meeting in interlock and plea that I held personally separate from the commission and uh I had two people attend the one interlock it was the same two people that call me with the same exact thing and they didn't want to solve anything they just wanted to tell me the same thing they've told me 250 times about their neighbor um and I had one person come to the pl one and you know usually you know I with the Uproar that was happening with that event I was expecting to have hundreds of people potentially um but what I'd like to say is this is I would like to ask if we can have an animal services if the committee of the Animal Services Group is willing to do an evening meeting one time in because the next one is until April and I think it would be good while this is freshing people's mind to do one before May in April and I don't know if you would want me to but I'd be willing to facilitate helping with that to have that conversation with the public with all the input people that have from Services um and citizens and uh if that committee is willing to do that so if if the board is willing I'm willing to take that on and do that in the month of April um if we can make it happen so is the I just I guess I would need a wave of support like we've done for other Commissioners on ideas um if for you're willing to do that and the goal of that would be to have a concise list of things that they would request or ideas they have to come back to our board if if they can come up with that not and obviously that's going to be somewhat of a complaint session as well but we need to get through the complaints so we probably just have to sit and listen and then we have to get some answers from that so um there's always ways we can improve I don't have any problem with you meeting with anybody I don't understand they ask you are are you asking for a for that group to come together and to hold a meeting that's at a time that's convenient for everyone and I would attend to run that part of the meeting help understand but what is the goal is the goal to come up with a strategic plan for the county going forward with if we were in another hoarding case like that is that what you're yeah yeah that would that would be the goal see we could have something more formulated and so that we have a reaction plan wouldn't you think the animal services committee would need to be involved in that to yeah that's what I'm talking about that is a meeting of the animal services committee there just isn't one for two months so he saying instead of the normal meeting that they would move it tonight to an evening meeting and Pull It in and pull it in so a Time certain a date certain and and I want to leave that up to Animal Service committee if the chairman of the Animal Service committee doesn't want to do that and wants to wait till May that's what I would like yeah get with the chairman and may yeah I don't think we should override that right no absolutely would have to be that committee's decision to have it all right anything else you have um no it's I I hopefully I'll make it to the catfish festival and the fair the fair is going on through through Saturday that's right so the fair has been excellent um a lot of people yester was a little bit slower but that always happens on the Monday um so see everyone at the fair good Mr Turner thank you Mr chairman I was going to mention the fair of the uh I think tonight is the judging for the um for the swine for the Hogs and so if you haven't ever come out and watch the young men and young ladies U show their pigs and do what whatever is actually pretty neat so I would recommend that everybody does that one time also the uh the accumulation of of a long a lot of work for these young these youngsters or young adults I guess you'd be the better term to use would be the combination is Friday night at the sale where they try to to sell their livestock and and help out with their project and you know I I guess it's been beat Beat to Death today pretty hard but I just want to say one more time that this commissioner appreciates what the staff did on short notice work hard make the best of a bad situation and and I don't care if it's animal services or any other department we cannot do anything around here that we don't offend somebody I've noticed that in all the years so I guess this time around we INF we offended some of the rescues or whatever I apologize for that but still we did the best we could could and I want to commend staff for that and that's all I have Mr chairman thank you Miss Wilkinson thank you I was actually out of state whenever uh this uh event occurred but I do recognize the hard work that all of our staff put in to uh do the best that they could do under the circumstances and 200 plus dogs was certainly an overwhelming challenge for us um you know I look back at this and like any incident that happens you you all step back after that something happens and you take a look and you say you know what what did we do good at what did we what could we have done better and I think that all of us as board members and and I'm don't believe I'm speaking out a turn are thinking the same thing we're all thinking you know this while everything was good what else could have been better it's no different than when a hurricane comes right after a hurricane passes the team gathers up and they say okay this is what we did this is you know what can we do better next time so that's always happens in any kind of incident is that you re-evaluate it afterwards and some of the things that I've taken out of this um event uh first of all was the teamwork and we appreciate the Partnerships we have with all the different um rescues that came out and like commissioner Turner said you're not going to make everybody happy it's not it's not going to happen you know um you can only divide the dogs up so many ways so yes some rescues got turned away and didn't get an animal but that doesn't mean that we didn't also already send out over 170 plus dogs to rescues and then um from what I understand from your presentation this morning a large portion of the dogs that were adopted on Friday on that Friday came from our animal control services shelter that had been in animal services for a long time so that's a positive right that's a good thing that happened in this community but what it also did was that it brought brought me to thinking about the spade and neuter program and when I ran for office I remember standing up and saying you know I don't believe in government paying for spay a neuter program because I'm a responsible dog owner I believe everybody else should be too but then this case came up and I started thinking a little bit differently and I thought you know what if this woman had had some resources what if she would have been able to get these you know what happened was it just sorted one dog you know how it works creates another dog and it just next thing you know you got 200 dogs um so what I would like to do is have a discussion uh similar to what commissioner adamac said about some kind of a strategic plan and with the an animal control Advisory Board and you know what what we can do better in the future I don't think it's a criticizing of what what has happened but more of you know best practices if you will that we could do that we could take forward but pet pet overpopulation is a very real issue in Florida as more people move to the state they bring their pets with them and that's a problem because we continue to have a burden on our community for all of the non-spa and neutered uh dogs and cats that are roaming around and you know I've done a lot of research to try to figure out what we can do and one of the single most important things that we can do to save cats and dogs from suffering and death is an overpopulation is to Spade neuter them um so therefore you know I I've got I prepared a statement but I really don't think it's necessary I know that we are working with Arc to have a mobile um spay and neuter van or truck or whatever but that's a trailer but that's going to be a few months out I know that we've also um um already committed with a grant hoping to get a grant from the state for spay and noodle program but in the mean time we have a gap and so what I'm I'm thinking and what I would like to make a motion on is that we approve a onetime $15,000 allowance for a countywide spay and neuter program to fill the Gap until we receive those uh the grants from the state and I think that that would help we can go ahead and get some animals um spayed and neutered in our community and it's just a one-time thing so that's what I I'm making that motion I'll second it for conversation okay um first thing I want to ask is the the attorney if we did this and I I think this should go through the animal services Committee just to be to be clear um if we did this meeting with the animal services committee we both because it's a publicly noticed meeting we both could attend and speak is that correct yeah I mean you would notice it as though it's a commission meeting as well just because you have two commission but they're normally noticed I believe aren't aren't they the animal services advisor yeah so they're already noticed so they are if we create a new one so you and I could both go to a meeting and whether it's the May one or whatever that committee wants to meet and speak so I'm I'm for the idea I'm not for government paying for SP neuter so I I'll back that off a little bit um I do like the idea of as a stop Gap potentially doing it so I'm open to that discussion um you don't have my vote for that today I'll say that out loud um but after we meet with animal services and see where that conversation goes I think it should be two conversations one about spade and neutering and one about if we ever had a horror event um I had my light lit before you said that and what I wanted to say is you know in my whole time in this County there's never been a horor event like this so you also don't want to over plan for something that happens once in Eon so there there's you can have a great plan but you also don't want to build some crazy thing that it's not a hurricane it's it is different um but so I just want to put that out there too that I don't want to make it so it's some insane process that we have that's doesn't allow agility on the part of staff and the part of rescues if in fact another situation like this happens um so I just want to be clear on that but um today I'm not ready to vote Yes on that um but I will say that uh we may need to do some sort of stop cap I my problem is I I I don't know that our our community is willing to bring their pets in get spade and neuter I mean because I talk to people all the time that think it's wrong in some way it's it's I don't understand it but there's people in our community that think it's wrong to SPID or neuter their animals like there's I know some people who think that their dream is that their dogging is going to have a husband or wife type thing and have puppies that carry on that dog I mean it's they don't know when they're going to do it but that's why they don't SP or near their do and that I don't understand it but they do have the right to have that opinion if that makes sense yeah um so I I'm still have the floor you do um I well I'm just trying to figure a way that we need to address the overpopulation that we have I mean as long as we continue to not have a program and I do do know that there's nonprofits that have some programs available but usually they go through those funds really quick and um you we're in this cycle that we go pick up 50 dogs off of the street we put them in the kennel we get them out to rescues and there's 150 more out on the street and so um that's where my my thought process was going thank you Miss wion would you allow Mr Turner to make a comment Mr Turner would she allow me this is discussion on a motion on the floor she doesn't have to allow me to do anything you do sir right go right ahead okay um I'm not going to be able to support this I think that we gave $25,000 to miss Oakwood to try to get her trailer moving forward and help that out and whatever and Mr adamac is completely correct there are certain people in this County that don't want their dogs Spade or neutered because they have a breeding program I know people that have 10 generations of hound dogs and 10 generations of hunting dogs so if it was up to certain members of the community they should spay everything and just do the best they can they can't raise their dogs for sport or hunting or or whatever so I'm not saying that I'm against spaying neuter if the situation is correct and somebody actually wants their stuff spayed and neutered but they can't afford it but I'll never vote for that the county requires anybody to spay and neuter their pet if they don't want to spay and neuter their pet it's I know it it takes responsibility from that but you know you take this lady that happened next week and I don't think we should do a knee-jerk reaction to what happened I think we should try to like commissioner Wilkinson said earlier we need to take that event and critique it and try to find out if it happens again how to make it better but standing around and trying to be critical of what happened in that event is not good for anybody or any situ situation I think we should use it as a learning experience to try and make things better in the future and I do agree with that part of your comments commissioner um but I'm not going to be able to just kneejerk through 15,000 with no plan or how it's going to be implemented or anything else just throw 15,000 out there with like I said no plan or what we're going to do with it or anything else when Miss Oakwood came in here and asked for her us to support her space n a trailer and we did for the tuna I think it was 25 25 and so when we did that she she had a plan and she had a way that it would help the citizens and she had she had a plan she didn't just we didn't just throw $25,000 at the at the wall and hope it's stuck so I'm I'm not going to be able to support this today and I'm not saying that I wouldn't support something in the future but it needs to go through the proper channels needs to go through animal services and it needs to come back under new business and be vetted just like we did earlier it just doesn't need to be a knee-jerk reaction to a to an event that happened last week so I'm not going to be able to support this today Mr chairman um so just to be clear I wasn't advocating for any kind of requirement or law or ordinance that would say that somebody has to have um an animal Spade or neutered what I was advocating for was a volunteering where somebody could come in and if they couldn't afford or didn't have the means that they could get their animals spayed or neutered um to say and I'm sorry I wasn't clear on that there is a plan and it's the same plan that we would be using for um when we get our grant money in in in a in hopes that we get the grant money and so the plan that the I had already spoken with some people from our Animal Control Mr Helms um and he had already put into place in the grant the the process if you will for a spade neuter program if the county were to to take one on but I'm fine sometimes in this job we tend to plant seeds and I'm planting the seed and maybe we can bring it back at a later time for uh an agenda item or a new Under new business are you withdrawing your motion uh yes I'll withdraw the motion for now but I do appreciate the the discussion and uh the other thing that I want to say is it's not okay for people to attack our our staff it's not okay I understand people are passionate we all have something that we're passionate about but to unfortunately some of the things that have happened is that we've had our staff members um administrators and directors uh yelled out screamed out cursed out and that's never okay civility should always be number one when you're having a discussion and if you can't do that then you're not representing your agency as well as you should and so in my and I would just like to say if whatever happens in the future remember everybody is a human being and talk to them like they are and how you want to be treated that's all I have to say thank you let me remind everybody we are under commissioner comments so Mr Adams that did you have something a new comment you needed to make no not with her withraw motion thank you okay Miss Young you have a comment that you wanted to make or Mr CRI yes sir I just think one thing is worth noting in front of the public is we went on a state call that is absolutely a correct statement that was accusatory of Staff earlier and the word that kept getting dropped in there is we had to exhaust all local resources before anybody would step up to the game and do anything for putham County and that was what was mentioned several times in that call you got to you got to exhaust all of your local resources all these rescues can stand up here and say we said we would take them the numbers exceeded what on that call everybody in that crowd today said that they would take so then we had to put a plan together locally to take care of the need we were still going to be have 60 70 dogs moving into that next day Nate's honor stepped up that night and took 51 nobody during that call when we had a formulated a plan stepped up and says we'll take them all not one single soul so we have to make a staff ability to make a plan to move putam County forward and that's what we did nobody in that call stood up at the EOC that day the state the statement that was made our Emergency Management director had no idea that is totally untruthful he did know we took the first set of dogs from the EOC because we closed our animal control facility it is not large enough to handle it and upon the recommendation from a University of Florida doctor that was on the call said do not allow additional rescues to go inside of your animal control facility because of the potential to spread disease and that's what we did we moved them outside of our Animal Control we closed it down after we did that we still had rescues bombard the gate out at Animal Control and took it upon their themselves to step inside that facility after they were told it was closed so I just want to bring that out to the public that those were events that took place nobody stepped up they told us we had to exhaust all local resources our surrounding counties stepped up to the plate every single one of them around us and gave us resources and all that we didn't exhaust all local resources it was the requirement to get all of the state help so I just want to make it known that we did we did our best to exhaust all local resources and part of the local resource was to hold that adoption event and if we messed up we'll take it but I think that I think our staff did a marvelous job in that event thank you sirree you didn't mess up at all now my comments I just want right I agree 100% with what he just said 100% you can't make everybody happy and some people get passionate especially when it comes to animals they get passionate do what I get passionate about is when those passionate people come in here and show their ass at our staff that's what I get passionate about and so that's what I got passionate about earlier today it was unfounded the stuff that's gone on on social media has been unfounded I mean I'm just telling you they did a heck of a job they really did and I agree commissioner Wilkinson I think that we should use it for a learning experience to help plan just like we would a hurricane to plan for an additional one that if if it ever happens in the future I'm on board with that but we don't need the do things without going through the channels that we have set up which is animal services and staff involved and Brian involved as head of animal services and what have you and come up with a plan and bring it to the board if it's better I'm on board so thank you Mr pick you have a proposing comment yeah and I agree with commiss turn I agree with um all the comments up here today and and our staff did do a great job um administrator sus but you know it the buck stops with you and and you stood up for that today and you stood up for your staff the only thing I regret is that comment that Deputy Administrator uh gr just made wasn't during that presentation it should have been right after that people just have to know they have to understand when Facebook becomes Factbook there's a problem that's one reason I don't do it okay so anyway I appreciate what staff did Animal Control um employees the sheriff's department the volunteers the Vets everybody what they did we can learn from this there's no question because we have the staff that's open-minded enough and intelligent enough and outgoing enough to make the adjustments that we need for little old putham County okay the best County I mean it's the only County I've ever lived in okay we're not just a bunch of out here in the damn Woods you know it's the best staff I've been here almost eight years it's the best staff that I have worked with the commission has always been good to work with I think this is probably the best commission I've worked with okay so that's all I've got to say I just wish that was part of the presentation um I think Mary you know this clarification needed to be stated thank you thank you commissioner Pickins so I love the fact that Facebook is not fat book fact book and we're not just a bunch of hicks that live out in the woods so I appreciate that my comments are very simple uh the other day we got I got word of a um land clearing operation of a gentleman that now owns George's Lake boat ramp I have turned that information over I spoke to the gentleman and as the um commission stated to assigned rich and our administrator to look at a long-term lease or possible purchase and that information has been turned over to Rich and Mr sugs for your um for your understanding also on the animal services I did take an exception to one thing that we don't do a whole lot of our staff doesn't do a whole lot of adoptions commissioner Wilkinson you have taken upon yourself to do many adoptions with our staff at the last moment on some of these events and I appreciate that and we have seen results and staff has my opinion B over backwards to make that work so um I agree with commissioner Turner you know it's it's if you're governed by Facebook or polls and I advise this to all my County Commission people that I Mentor throughout the state then you're setting yourself up for failure because you see 30 people who might live who might respond and 10 people who might live in the county and three of them that vote don't don't kid yourself they don't vote and and for people to walk into a room and you go well there room's full of people they must have a a passion about it but there's 73,000 people that did not attend today so don't govern by Facebook or what commissioner Pickins referred to as they want it to be fatbook it's not it's their opinion and everybody has an opinion so if there's nothing good for the order this meeting is now adjourned thank you