[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] welcome to the second day of the border of County Commission here in Seal County's budget work session today's date is Wednesday June 19th 2024 I would ask that commissioner her lead us in the pledge Alle allegiance pleaseed to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you commissioner uh Mr Gray do you have any opening comments that you would like to uh State sir yes uh just a few things that I would like to just open up with first the the order of the agenda this morning just to update the the board we will kick off we have all the Departments today and they're all here excited about to present their budgets to you few things that we have added that I'll go over here in a a few minutes first we're going to kick it off with Chief Kinley and the fire department then we'll have John Dre come discuss Public Works we've added a sales tax presentation as you all know that we when we discussed the sales tax projects the third gen what I wanted to do on an annual basis is any almost to clean up the projects um you know sometimes we we add funds or we delete funds from different projects so I just want to make sure that on an annual basis that we are uh reviewing our sales tax projects we'll have Parkson re and Mr rur um Emergency Management this morning as well with Allan Harris Fleet and Facilities with Chad wilsky we'll have Johnny Edwards talk uh present the utilities budget and we'll wrap up this morning with Kim orberg and environmental services and as you know we just made an adjustment for this afternoon we'll kick off at 1 pm right Mr J 1M 1 p.m. 1 pm with Chris Anderson our supervisor of elections will be here uh Community Services Alison salth development services uh Rebecca hammock we'll have Andrea Weser Broner present our Innovation and uh strategic initiatives budget Information Technology with James G I always get his name James Smith that's what he tells me Resource Management with Lori Bailey Brown and we'll wrap it up with all the administrative uh offices that myself and Mr J will will do and then we'll end the day with wrapup if there's anything that the board would like us uh to follow up on there's a few things that we want to discuss discuss with you at at the end of the the day um this afternoon hopefully we can get wrapped up by 4 400 p.m. or earlier I know commissioner her has to get out of here for another board meeting uh one thing that I did want to discuss um as the Departments come up just some of the highlights that are included in uh my recommended budget to the board is that we do have a proposed 4% salary adjustment and for all Union non-union employees so um that is already uh included in the budgets this will be the second year that we are um investing in our deferred maintenance I have an addition another $8 million for the HVAC systems in roof roof repairs and we'll be going over those through the different departments um uh Chief Kinley is going to talk about we have $10 million uh towards designing and construction constructing three fire stations that um he'll go over we also have the investment um in the boomball sports complex with a replacement of the turf for about $5.6 million as you all know that we've been saving that up for the last couple of years in our Reserve account to get that replaced and then we do have our seminal forever uh money in there um as well uh so with that I will turn it over Mr J did you have anything I did okay great real quick let me remind everybody to please uh silence your electronic devices your phones your laptops your other technical devices that you may have so that uh we don't have any erupt Ops thank you very much all right Mr JX you're up sir thank you Timothy JX with the Office of Management and budget just a quick reminder like yesterday for each department I'll go over a few of the budget slides you have your budget documents and this morning I did hand out um one report that has all the countywide projects in it it's sorted in order of today's presentation no changes to the budgets that were provided to you in your uh budget document it's just for your reference as we go through so up first first we have the fire department which is led by fire chief Kinley uh they have four divisions within their Department emergency communications EMS admin Fire EMS operations and Fire Prevention the fire fund is the fire department is 95% funded through our fire mstu millage the general fund piece uh at 4% includes fire communication and dispatch Services the impact fee uh slice uh of. 5% represents a new tanker for to cover growth in Geneva and the grant is our EMS trust fund the fire department's base budget which you can see a full detail on page 397 of your work session document the 7.5 million growing to 7.8 million a $226,000 increase which is a variance of 3.0% the adopted budget for FIS school year 24 was 6.4 million the fy2 budgets growing to 7 17.6 7 million which does include uh the new stations that the county manager mentioned all Fleet replacement for all departments uh has been recommended by our internal Fleet and Facilities Department uh so that's that's something that we we we do receive those budgets directly from that department before we propose them to the county manager there's 5745 FTE in the current budget we're proposing two new positions for fy2 bringing the total to 5 1 76.5 and with that I'll turn it over to the fire chief to talk about his positions morning Chief Kinley good morning uh for the record Matt Kinley fire chief just also with me is Deputy Chief of operations B cure and Brian schwitzer our master of math and pivot tables um this budget uh I could not do this uh to this perfection without him um so first of off uh thank you very much uh I'm try to be short and respectful time I just would like to hit some of the accomplishments of this last year uh obviously we opened up new station 11 earlier this year in January um that was a very long project uh uh which has t was very successful in the end um crews are doing great response out of there um it's really impacted some of the turnout times and everything not having to come off of a second floor uh we also received our fire accreditation through cfai um you all are very aware of that uh with a strategic plan um which uh through their recommendations has actually driven some of the uh requests that we have in the budget um I know it was a large topic of conversation last year was the equipment canopy out at the training center um as of today it's 50% complete um and looks to be done by the end of this month uh we have the one side's already done and the second side is being put put in and as you all are aware fire station 39 being built out in the backside of Heath thr Peola area uh moving along very smoothly still on schedule to have substantial completion done in October um if you were to go by you're going to see that U um the least underlayment part of the roof is on and we just got done pouring the rest of the apparatus Bays so moving along very well other highlights uh accomplishments the safer impacts uh if you remember 3 years ago there was a non-matching uh Grant that we receiv received through the federal government to bring on 30 um more firefighters to help with our um erfs our effective response force in areas uh meeting the NFPA standard um at the time we were hitting those benchmarks at 56% of the time uh bringing on those 30 and putting them specifically in the areas that they would have the most impact uh and really in the Altamont area uh that's obviously where the highest population is at uh as of today we've hit 75% um which is phenomenal in the fact that we were hoping to hit 70 uh you'll see later on in the budget that that Grant is coming to an end and we're looking to keep those positions on uh on that with attrition and hiring um you'll see as of today we currently have eight Lieutenant positions that are open uh we're going through a Lieutenant's process right now uh We've exhausted the list so we'll be filling those as soon as that process is over with and we have 18 firefighter openings um that routinely fluctuates uh we were as low as five lieutenants and two firefighters and we were specifically not hiring some of them for station 39 uh it's obviously not open so why have the cost uh so we've been purposefully uh adding uh people on uh throughout the last year um this year alone uh we've currently as far as attrition is concerned uh 25 people have left whether that be to go do another job or through retirement and we've hired 34 so we're gaining on that filling of that station uh with Community paramedicine um obviously again you all are very aware of that just to give you some stuff uh for uh numbers uh since we started that program we' visited all we've visited nearly 4,500 homes um enrolled nearly 500 people and have graduated 155 out and graduated means that they've um been given or connected to the needs that they had uh just in this calendar year since January we've visited just over a thousand homes enrolled um another 126 and graduated 63 so that proc that program is still continuing to work very well um I know that there was a question yesterday about um how we're working with other organizations the answer is yes um we do work with the Department of Health and Community Services it's very synergistic uh with referrals of PE of people with needs whether that's coming from us coming from the Department of Health we'll help them from time to time with vaccinations for homebound bedbound um so yes we are we are working together um last accomplishment uh the Long awaited Lake Harney contract um changes uh as you can as you all know uh we provide services for volution County out in the Lake Harney area because it just takes them so long to get there uh they don't have a station out in that area and in the years past we were um recouping about 20,000 we're recouping $20,000 in cost that's been increased up to $155,000 which is truly does meet what our um true costs are so with uh budget highlights sa for Grant expired um in November uh we will have spent all of that money of 24 and we will spent all of the money that the the government is out federal government has allocated we're looking to keep those positions um as is with the four person apparatus in the areas so that we can continue to meet that uh erf that we we strive for uh enhancements out in the Geneva area uh we have in the budget a tactical tanker uh so I know most of you are are aware if not all of the fireh hawk that we did have out in that area um very robust vehicle military grade uh to get into the areas and deliver water uh in areas that our regular tankers just can't do uh we were looked to referb that in the last and in years past it just was not cost effective and was not cost effective to buy something new and a matter of fact they weren't even building them anymore so with the high water Vehicles the company asella um has provided us with specifications for a tanker that of the same uh with the same way with those military vehicles uh we do believe that that will 100% meet our need uh those trucks have performed very very well um and that'll give us that ability to get that water supply into the areas that aren't on paved roads another surface enhancement we're looking through this budget is a whole blood program uh that's becoming an emerging best practice uh that not a lot of people are doing where we carry whole blood uh on some of our apparatus and areas that uh we have traumatic injuries with that blood loss uh some of our neighbors to the South have just started doing it we are in deep talks with the hospitals in one blood and being able to do that uh we just need some upfront dollars to put the coolers uh and some of the training uh coolers into our trucks and the training positions uh safety officer uh we're a very large organization at this point Metro Siz fire department uh the safety officer is is a there's a lot of reporting training um and yearly inspections that need to be done to meet uh not only NFPA but State Standards uh there's also an emerging uh possibility like very high likelihood that OSHA is going to dip further into uh the fire service uh currently there's a standard out there for fire brigade um that's changing uh and it's working through the system that they're going to have more of a requirement for um us um this is currently being done as an as an added uh um Duty uh with one of our personnel and it's just become too big uh to be able to do it right uh we really need to throw a full-time uh FTE after that the fire system administrator is uh as you all know we have become very reliant on technology we're leveraging it everywhere that we can to U get our calls process quicker get to the calls faster um and compile data to be able to make those decisions shooting them out the dashboards there's a lot of systems uh with our CAD RMS uh TeleStaff uh that all work together uh we need a full-time person that's really looking at all of that and speaks our language on understands our business uh to be able to coordinate that all efficiently effectively 365 days a year um last I will quickly uh go through our stations uh station 25 out in the Castleberry area we're coming to conclusion with the building plans on that going to DRC uh and the transfer of land from the city of Castleberry uh we're slow playing that a little bit um and talks with Christian uh assistant County Manager they're working on some boilerplate uh information uh with semar and looking at how aggressive our construction is going into the future uh the next 5 years uh that will help us be able to accomplish that and hopefully also uh be some cost cutting measures we're working on standardization of the stations uh with all the little things that go through maintenance through the future again to help to cut cost station 23 off of Hal Branch um by action Church as you all know we we bought the land across the street uh that will be the next station that we'll start the design on once uh we've completed the the the process with station 25 uh station 28 in the Winter Springs area um we were looking for land for that um and looking at the area that it was going to be the most effective the county already owned land uh so we have uh 2 and A2 Acres right behind the Aldi off of Tesco Tesco will and 434 that has been earmarked for that station looking at the renovations um station 36 42 24 and 16 are all coming up uh 36 next year and others down the line uh again oldest stations uh they they need some tender love and care uh and we're putting the have going to be heavily and aggressively attacking those stations to to get them renovated um looking a little bit further into the future towards year four and five um station 10 out in the 434 maand Boulevard area uh the city of alamont Springs back when they had a fire department there was a station out there um and that station has since went away um and now the explosion of growth out there it's it's really needed to meet uh those response times uh along with r replacement of Station 22 again looking at our older stations and where the growth is happening and that is all that I have unless you have any questions thank you very much Chief um we'll start at the far end with commissioner Constantine and work our way across thank you Mr chairman U Chief thank you very much for the presentation let's talk about station what you called 10 um is that is would be right on the border of Orange County uh it wouldn't be on the border but it's getting close but it would be right in that and it's more maand yeah and we have matland address in the city of alamont Springs is kind of interesting but maand is ju matland fire department is just down the road there is there any talk or chance that we can do a little bit of cooperation uh with those with with those because I think that within the the mland Area matland Boulevard Avenue area they have two stations very close so and I know that we have that station is it 14 that are right that's right on hadway yes okay so 14's on hatway and covers some of the back area there then so the the there is a possibility like we do up at the University of Central Florida to maybe co-op with uh the city of mland like we do with ar County or is that not possible that I don't think that would be possible we have had some conversations with that on that uh they aren't as close as uh you may think as far as the timing but we have been in discussions with them of the potential of integrating them in with our CAD so that there isn't that uh two to five minute delay and it's really more towards the five minute of being able to dispatch them that's the that's the challenge okay and and maybe I misunderstood I'm I wasn't thinking with their current stations although they have them but the possibility because right along maand Boulevard you've had that explosion of apartments that were there that right used to be the paga uh property um and all that so they might be looking to expand their fire department maybe as a co-op together with a new station is what I was thinking of not necessarily the ones that they had there yeah okay the second thing is is that um I remember when you got and it wasn't you um that that um said this so I want would be fair but the for a former Chief when we got the grant said that yes we would proably you know because we questioned you know okay we got 177 I think is the number of new firefighters or what that 30 I'm sorry the the number 177 is in my mind I don't know what that was but okay okay 30 new fires fire and we were concerned that okay what happens after it's over will we be able to absorb them and I think one of the answers to that was that we might be having other grant opportunities to continue it on have we explored that so you can't yes and you can't go after a second safer Grant to keep uh positions that you already have uh if we wanted to expand what we could have and we looked at that um we may look at that the following year but not to continue to pay for those 30 positions there's no Grant out there for that the only other thing we did talk about 14 someone and this is always Rumors in the neighborhood said that that station is going to be changed moved or whatever because it's right in the middle of a neighborhood what is that situation so we looked at that um and that was and looking at conjunction with 10 and how that would work out and if you would have asked me how to a paycheck that 14 would be more effective moved out to 436 we ran the data it's not it's in the perfect position for EMS calls and if you wanted to to be more effective for fire we would actually have to move it a little further south so no those uh that was a a topic of discussion which is gone well my mother thinks that it's in perfect position for EMS yes well as you know uh the road Network out of there is not phenomenal it's not phenomenal but the road Network in is not phenomenal either so that's the reason for it being there is that significantly large community and it being able to effectively get okay thank you for answering because that was a a concern thank you it's not going anywhere if we could squeeze another Bay on it to put a rescue that's what we might do but we'll see well the city has the property across the street yes possibility thank you commissioner lockart I'll just say great job and um thank you for the constant communication throughout the year leading up to work sessions like this it makes our job so much easier when you keep us in tune throughout the year on the projects that you're looking to expand and and things where you um where we're going to be investing so thank you no questions commissioner Dori thank you Mr chairman chief thank you for your presentation as uh commissioner lockart said thank you for keeping us updated throughout the year definitely want to thank not just your leadership but the leadership of your team as well as the men and women of the fire department they truly do an amazing job on all levels and we as the board truly know that uh I'd like to expand the conversation on your CIP for the future new stations you talked about 25 23 28 10 and 22 uh 10 and 22 do we already have the land for that yet uh no okay I really think that if we're going to be planning for 10 and 20 two in years four and five we really should be looking at purchasing where they go so that we can be ready for them just like we did at uh 23 you know we purchased that property a couple years ago luckily 28 was purchased when they did the widening of Tusk road but you know we kind of fell into that one but land is not getting any cheaper and uh with all the construction out there uh I really think that with the software you have and you've showed it to us many times on how you can strategically place a station and why that station goes in that location that we really should be looking at over the next year or so uh 10 and 22 for future locations and how to obtain those pieces of property and so that would be my only suggestion to the county manager because it's not going to get any cheaper and with all the growth that's out there especially in 10 you really need to be strategic and where to put that and uh we can also contact uh commission Constantine's mom to make sure that she's okay it okay I think she's probably watching and she's now had it from somebody other than her son but thank you Chief thank you for all the uh staff behind you thank you commissioner commissioner Herr so that explains that one person that keeps watching this meeting right I've Wonder All Along I've been wondering uh first of all congratulations on the 4 % vacancy rate which is planned that's fabulous I don't think it was there when I first got here and the work being done to get us to that stage is is really awesome I have no further questions and I'm going to try to pick up the pace here so I'll turn it to you chairman thank you very kindly I'm I'm unfortunately going to slow it down a little bit sorry um the FTE that are vacant fully funded in the budget yes okay and the Lake Harney contract we have a cola or an escalator on that and I appreciate youall finally getting that worked out uh that's that's been a longstanding issue where arguably the taxpayers of this County have been supplementing the taxpayers in uchia county and and covering an area that they're clearly responsible for um I don't want you to go to each page I'm going to mention a couple page numbers then I've just got a general question on line items um and I think I've got my suspicions based on me going back and looking at historical data but on page 397 of the detail we've got a 70% increase in travel and training we've got a 25% increase in uniforms a 400% in miscellaneous technology equipment as we move forward to page uh 401 we have a Medicaid managed care of 53 . 7% if we go to page 402 we have least equipment of 66.7% increase and uh if we go to page 405 we have support of the tf4 warehouse an increase of 26.3 M chair where was that where's that last page you just said that is Page 405 thank you and In fairness there are a lot of line items that have dropped 400% 100% 70% so my specific question overall is more generally to the preparation of this document not specific to the line items because I've gone and looked at the line items is this because we are drilling down on a more specific budgetary process on these line items or is this a different method than we've previously followed and I understand with the cost of goods you know we have some things that have escalated you know arguably 20 25% um Ju Just an overall question sure from that aspect I I'll I'll I'll address that we do track our spend by those line item detail and we every year we try to Che it up to the actuals we we we start with a zerob based attempt at the budget um so you may see some percent increases budget to budget that really are just matching up with the actuals okay the and and I'll I'll also remind that the overall base budget increase for the fire department was in net of 3% correct right with all the ones that you mentioned uh trying to there there may be a couple there where we combine some lines so you're going to have a commensurate reduction in the other uh the Medicaid managed care that's where we're getting money back from the government so the more money we get back the more we have to pay our vendor right yeah I went back and Tred up with previous budget years and looked and noticed that line items were not identical to to what is currently here so I suspect that there was some some merging or TR up in in those categories and I understand was a 3% increase that's when it arguably there's many line items that went down extreme amount my only question is on the least equipment the least equipment on page 4 42 that did have an increase of 66.7% is that equipment that we should consider purchasing rather than leasing or is it not something that is advantageous for us to uh uh purchase for whatever reason uh a lot of that is due to bathroom trailers um with the stations and when we have challenges uh at at the stations that's where the the line share of that is at we have some of those trailers um and we will use them when we can but we've also been using them when we bring in the mass amount of new hires sure for so the answer is yes and we'll definitely look at that so so you believe we we probably could use an additional trailer configuration for that long term hopefully no uh because we're also uh adding new ba adding permanent bathrooms out of the training center this upcoming year so hopefully not pass that but could they not be utilized as well for Community needs and and hurricane uh situations and those kinds of things they could uh and if if uh Emergency Management was not able to get to get trailers uh they they could be uh but then they're not available in the station down that's right I I I would like for us to maybe look at that and see if that's if it's a need that we're clearly going to be continue to spend that kind of money on annually and get a return on investment might be a wise thing for us to look into um then finally um are you able to give us a report on Cross jurisdiction response uh in the city of Ovito Sanford Longwood how often we are covering calls in those jurisdictions and how often they are covering calls in our jurisdiction is that something youall can generate yes we can I don't have that that specific right now I'm not asking for it now I just want to know is that's something you all could do absolutely do you mind uh Gathering that information if it's not too difficult and sharing with the board be very much appreciated great well you all as usual have done great work the community loves up firefighters and and you all continue to um Carry high levels of of professionalism and it it shows and reflects in the community so thank you all very much and very kindly for being here thank you we as you all we've got the best firefighters EMTs and paramedics in the country I they they are excellent oh and by the way Orange County is showing up at the graduation ceremonies handing out the hiring brochures so be aware well the ones that we got from Orange County said they would never go back who brought great Mr chairman before the chief leaves one of the thing that uh Kate Lor County attorney and I and the and the fire department are looking at some of these uh cities that we have that have joined um you our fire department and we have moved in to their you know they've had the stations that they had um we have went back and looked at some of those agreements and we're going to be cleaning some of those up because as we start to do repairs or refurbishing these stations if for some reason something happens and they you know they start their own or pull out or something we want to ensure that we get our investment back out out of those so that's something that the chief brought to my attention you know a while ago and so um M tour's office is looking at it now as well so you'll start seeing those come up over the next year um as we start talking with cities and I uh may need you to help at the like mayor managers type Mee things like that as we go through that but I just wanted to bring it to the attention of the bo Mr chairman just oh I'm sorry commissioner conting just to dovetail on your comment and then uh the county manager has any of the other cities that right now maintain their own personal fire stations gotten into any conversations with this about okay not Chief okay commissioner her did I see your hand you did see my hand I I just want to get on the record and I'm going to just use one example it was the first one that was used because the number was alarming there's a 70% increase in a line item budget the original budget was $10,000 and the new budget is $177,000 so I just want to put it out there that the level of detail that we were speaking about with regard to that is relatively small dollars and Mr je is absolutely correct in that the overall budget increas is 3% I just don't want that to reverberate back and and be a reflection on anything so this is just a level of detail that um is fabulous that you got into but without the rest of the story is concerning from my perspective anything else nope well just on top top of that with that unlike the the um chair of the constitutionals when they put a line item here in our budget they can't just move it around anyway so you know they have to keep it within that line item without requests so understood yeah my my for clarity my inquiry was more from an accounting perspective and not a dollar perspective sure I understand the 3% increase I can follow the numbers pretty good so very good thank you Chief thank you thank you all right next up is Mr dredge in public works we're going to do two presentations we have the public works department and then immediately following will be our sales tax uh program it's our third gen sales tax program and included in your presentation is a full list of all the current FY 24 sales tax project budgets um so we'll get to that after the public works department public works department is led by director John dredge uh it includes the engineering division roads and storm water traffic and the new Real Estate Management division the funding for the uh department is 44% from the Transportation trust fund that includes a small millage and gas taxes it includes uh roads storm water and traffic engineering the sales tax piece represents our Capital infrastructure projects uh the general fund of 3.5% funds our development services review program and then impact fees are two projects uh or excuse me one project for North Street Corridor improvements the overall base budget for the public works department is 7.1 million in the current fiscal year growing to 7, 373,000 that's a 3% increase they CIP you'll notice uh for fiscal year 25 um is dropping and that's reflective of the fact that the third gen uh sales tax Penny sunsets this fiscal year so we have three months of funding compared to last year where we had a full 12 months of funding the current FY 24 budget includes 185 FTE we're proposing three additional FTE in the Real Estate Management division for a total of 188 FTE and with that I'll turn it over to John shred good morning uh I have with me uh Johnny uh Morgan who a finance uh for engineering and I have Tony Nelson with uh the County engineer uh I'm going to go over the budget as overall and Tony will address it go over the uh uh PNY tax Surge and uh overall uh for Staffing we currently have 185 uh FTE uh we're proposing to uh add the uh a new position for the uh Real Estate Management and uh make that Real Estate Management as a division so we can concentrate on the efficiency and expedite some of the Acquisitions uh and also will be managing the leasing contract as and uh and this Surplus uh uh County property uh a vacant uh position uh since last year we had a lot of vacant a lot of uh uh vacant position we F A lot of them especially in Road and storm order we F about 19 positions this year and we had uh promotion about 16 position with ro restore motor we currently in Ro restore motor we have around 14 position vac which is a lot less than less what we had last year and I think we going to the right direction we working with uh HR uh to be uh creative how we uh fill those those position um and also we have uh uh some other uh vacancy in engineering uh it's a small and and also uh uh and uh traffic very small total a total vacancy around 21 uh position overall uh and uh and going I have highlight uh the accomplishment including uh some uh list of project to include all the division with the public work is uh the capital Improvement we had about 30 Bridge inspection and repair what we have in there we have a good program on all our uh Bridge what we do we do the inspection and also un deficiency uh will uh will go ahead and repair it uh also uh resurfacing uh project completed uh the years about 14 of them and five major uh construction project also the uh nrcs project we have eight of them there should be uh completed in uh in uh sometime in October uh and also we have a project in in progress I listed uh about four uh roadway in drainage we have a 12 in the bit construction project uh uh stage we have a two for trail design and we have also FEMA uh hm GP Grant project and also we have a interlocal agreement with with the other with the cities Lake Mary cabber oo uh Alam long wood they taking the lead on those project we we we coordinate with them on those on the project for the tax uh for the penny tax uh in addition uh we highlighted some the traffic engineering World storm model it is a a big uh list uh I'll go through some of them and uh highlight some of them uh I'm not going to go to every one of them but I'll uh uh go to some some of them uh you have as the sign work orders uh we have about 2468 uh uh work order under ground locate about 2400 uh ticket locate we have uh the corrective signal work order 120 and you have one sorry 102 you have the F fiber repair signal travel call emergency uh uh respond for trailer call out Mass arm upgrade new traffic uh Mass arm uh and also itm uh it uh fiber project uh roadway and storm water uh we have work orders closed uh almost 2,000 workorder closed we have around uh 19 uh as I mentioned before a 90y old war stor new higher and and 16 uh internal promotion in that division uh and also uh the ditch cleaning and Canal and uh and uh pipe cleaning as well those those the highlight and uh the budget if as Tim said it is uh it is very lean and uh and we do have a lot of project uh and and uh currently in progress and and I believe this this year there were a lot of busy a lot of accomplishment I'm very proud with the public W this year and I answer any question you may have if you want to wait to the end of the presentation after Tony goes through the penny progam Penny uh sales TK program or you want me to address anything about the thank you very much I think we should separate them in my opinion I'll start with commissioner her thank you chairman first of all I want to say uh thank you for all the work that you've done and the presentation all that good stuff but I am a huge Champion for the additional Staffing in creating a real estate division because I am living it with Midway the property acquisition we have Midway and orange Boulevard and the amount of work that we're doing because we've short cuted the staff that we we're applying to the project is significant and it's slowing down the project and quite frankly it's cost costing us money because the longer we delay shovels in the ground the more expensive the project is so I think that's a great investment I thank you for that um I I never cease to be amazed by the fact that I get a budget book and don't know what something means in it so what is a context sensitive Improvement apparently we did one in Longwood okay the the Longwood it is the Improvement that the project is Improvement of the corridor on 427 uh City uh of Longwood they put uh uh parking on street parking and more like a complete Street type uh type of project got it commission what page is that on that is on the I don't see a page number here but it's the one FY 24 capital in progress right after highlights and accomplishments oh I'm I'm in the big I'm not in SL I'm in the presentation slides and it was Longwood North Ronald Reagan context sensitive improvements which I'm taking to mean that stuff happened around us and we had to go fit our stuff in no that is done by the uh city of Longwood okay and Longwood they took the uh they got with do and do uh funded most of it and and uh and then did not bill it bill us for the part we had $1 million in the penny tax they did not they also spent some money from on the design they never build us for that share they building us now for that for that year but that project has been done is is that project is if you drive on 420 uh 7 from 434 North it is those on street parking and some landscape in Hardscape approvement got it so would I see the detail of that project in the budget Detail no the budget detail uh the only thing is no you will not see it because it it is it is old uh project we're looking back at accomplishments this got it okay thank you and then my last comment is congratulations on the 19 new hires and the 16 promotions the 16 promotions will actually help us retain good team members and bringing blood into the organization is the key to success so thank you Mr delori thank you Mr chairman Mr drege congratulations on not just you but your entire staff all your hard work over this past year and many years and as commissioner her stated uh I think it's the roate thing to do uh with the Real Estate Group uh we've actually removed them from our staff years ago and uh we've been feeling it for a number of years and I'm glad that it's got to a point now that we're correcting it sorry it's the Midway issue but uh it's it basically put a light on it and it's good that we're addressing it so congratulations for that uh not today but at some point I would like to have a work session so we can understand uh the congestion Management in the county to make sure that we're spending money correctly and uh anticipating what's going to happen uh traffic-wise and congestion wise as we move forward but uh John uh I think you and your staff done a phenomenal job there's a lot of people behind you they all should be commended so job well done commissioner lockart so I'm in the I'm in the detail book on page 424 um the tunnels at 434 and 436 um continue to pop up and I just want to make sure that we are in alignment on next steps for this project that we're not continuing to spend money to design tunnels if we don't have money to build tunnels so can you help me with that sure Commissioners all the attention before to leverage some money for the tunnel we have put money for the design and our attention to go to for a grant to through uh metro plan down the road for for the construction last was the 10 of of that uh of that project when we came to the board and we presented it we do not have any construction money in that project but currently we doing the the design the final design the design and you will have a workshop you will have have a presentation uh some sometimes this year on the uh on the status of that uh of that uh project and also during our presentation and the selection for the tunnel you ask us to come back when we have it I believe a 50% of the design to come back to you and we will be coming some to you with presentation sometime this year before the end of this year and that's what I want to miss tell you we're almost at the 50% % designed soon and so that will come back to you this summer when we get to that point for you all to show you what status but really staff we've been uh really trying to see when the grant will be available we we don't have what I call it Construction in the budget for construction because that project it is uh down the road now if in the future if we see some uh a grant and maybe some match fund we will be coming back to you say okay we have a grant we need 20% mesh file or whatever that amount but we do not I don't think is the board or the staff attention to fund that project completely by the county right so Mr drege could you pull your microphone a little closer your your volume is I'm not sure but I'm leaning forward in squinting as if somehow that makes me hear better it doesn't um so here here this is just my two cents um if if we get to the pl we we need to decide as a board how much longer we're going to wait to find this magical grant money that is from my understanding nowhere in the foreseeable future when do we decide to Pivot to a an above grade op option there as opposed to the tunnel because while we're sitting here waiting we have residents who are trying to cross that very dangerous intersection and they've been asking for years and years and years for there to be a safe way to cross those two sections of our Trail so I'm I am very much not interested in throwing good money after bad and continuing to waste time if we do not have a a sure thing in the very foreseeable future of money to fund a tunnel project my dad would call this bet on a come um so I I just want to make and I know I'm probably I may be in the minority on that thought process but I just wanted to get it on the record Mr Constantine and back to commissioner her it explain to me maybe it's County Manager you know cuz I am in I'm in agreement when it comes to the Real Estate Management I think that that's long overdue I also believe that uh um we probably did make a mistake when we took it out but that was another story done by the way oh I'm sorry oh oh go ahead I'm sorry oh I thought you this we were talking about the tunnel no no no go ahead well and my hand raise was related to the tunnel but yeah I've got quite a few more things to do tunnel go ahead I'm sorry no I'm fine do you want to talk about tunnels and I'll do my next item commissioner her go ahead and talk about tunnels anybody else want to talk about tunnels don't know yet okay go ahead commissioner her so this I this was very early on in my tenure and I do remember uh I think it was a 4 to one vote I'm adamantly not in favor of putting a tunnel in I think it creates a staffing responsibility for us on an ongoing basis and quite frankly it's a it's a safety situation I don't know many women that would voluntarily go through a tunnel I just don't um and I still don't and I have new information to bring based on a citizen reporting back to me that the work in the committee for that that has perspective was that they did not want the tunnel that was not their recommendation and that that was overlooked when we did the vote and so I just bring that up that if we put these committees together we ought to be taken the work that they do seriously and I don't know that that's an accurate depiction I do think it's worth looking into um but that that individual actually resigned from the work on the committee because he was so frustrated with us um anyone else on the tunnel I just I I just follow up on the T and that is discussion commiss Mr lockart and I been talking about for quite some time as well and so yes we have committed to bring that back to the board as I mentioned we're almost at that 50% design so we're in the middle of that now so we will we thought we hope that it could have been on next week's agenda but um it will either be in July or the 1st of August we'll bring that back to the board for your cons the board's consideration on how to move forward with it okay great and then on the following page grants and AIDS to other uh private organizations the bike walk Central Florida best foot forward program um 22 and 23 actuals appear to be blank which I thought we had given them money in 22 and 23 and then we have 60,000 allocated uh for next year and and I've I've said continually I'm not interested in continuing to fund this project so I just want to get that on the record as well okay so did we not give them money in we gave him the money yes been in a different position yeah we we gave him the money and this and what we have the budget the same what we gave them before and it is up to the board if they want to continue give us 60,000 or right we we first this first came up in a work session uh many years ago upstairs in 3024 and and the thought was we're going to do it for this year and then we need them to come back and we need to see that there's some significant decrease in um pedestrian accidents and what have you so that we know that we're we're giving them $60,000 a year and we're getting something for it um I know the argument will be well you don't know how many more people may have been killed or injured if we weren't doing this I guess you can always make that argument with something but I have not seen the significant benefit to that $6,000 they are getting money through metro plan so again I don't I don't I'd rather put that money into another project here in the county okay they they come they come every year I know they do I watch their presentation I'm uned um so again just getting it on the record um and then on page 433 um and this is just I'm just curious the increase in this is in um roads and storm water the increase in seed cost is 272 per so we've gone from spending $22,000 a year to to uh $83,000 a year for seed is that because the cost of seed or cuz we're scattering more it is a a lot of it based on the material went up increasing cost material the cost fascinating well I'm going to start saving my seeds well I can I can tell you specifically cuz I plant beia yeah it's gone up 400% in 2 years wow it's Insanity wow yeah I was shocked 50 lb bags 200 bucks now used to be $58 yeah this is where I make my pitch for St Augustine and every goes [Laughter] nuts shaking over here oh my God okay um on page 434 mowing it it appears that we've moved the the mowing line and and this is $700,000 so it's not it's not nothing to sneeze at uh from uh countywide support to Road storm water an additional $739,000 is that just because we've moved or is that because we're increasing the cycle no we have not increased our cycle and the budget went up about 1 Point 5% but we consolidate them we put them under one and we took it away from the other line item which was budget last year okay so we're taking the $721,000 increase yes about 1.5% that's exactly correct it's an $18,000 increase we are trying to consolidate make a little I was hoping we were increasing our our Cycles we're still going to let it grow knee high we're still if you want if we want to increase it we're open it's up to the board but uh we're not this it does not reflect any increase in the cycle this has been an ongoing debate since I was since 20078 since the Great Recession and we went through this whole process of looking at how we could cut costs and I mean we were counting orange cones and how many cones do we actually need to deploy when there's a I mean it was insane the amount of detail that we were going into as staff trying to find ways to cut and mowing um Cycles was one of the things that took a hit and I just I feel like at some point in time we need to make a decision again as a board to give direction on how high are we really willing to let the grass grow in some of our our county-owned properties Retention Ponds um rights of way I mean it gets really we would be giving ourselves code enforcement violations yeah uh commissioner we visited in in uh 2021 and we changed it if uh we change the level we increased it for ex give you example retention Pond we use to do it eight a year and 2021 we increase it to 12 uh not the Retention Ponds that I drive by well but we we going we are Implement that we doing it at 12 a 12 time a year all right I'm going to start taking pictures and texting them to you and saying when was this one last done just like you're going to be my new lyx bus cheer was heard from Orlando but if we want to if we want to have a a workshop and increase that uh level of service I don't want to workshop on mowing I just I just want to have people not continue to call me and ask me why we don't mow our stuff anyway so so we're talking about mowing I I I do want to weigh in on that Mr dredge is absolutely correct this board gave direction to increase the cycles of mowing the roadways retention bonds and so forth it was if it was 20 I was going to say it was 20 late 20 early 21 yeah um I've always had a core belief as I watch this unfold is there's some things we do and it's scattered between different departments Parks and Recreation takes care of some areas uh Public Works take care of other areas and we have contractors that do other areas yeah but I think contractor does that uh uh parking Recreations they do the median mostly said I'm not quite finished yet yeah and so my my belief is that we should be actually looking at the county taking this all back under our control uh and actually doing the Mowing and actually controlling the schedules instead of having it third partied out and and relying on their schedule to get things done because I I've run into the same thing in my area or jurisdiction where residents call and go hey when youall going to mow um um and of course the high growth season is literally you know may through September uh when the days are starting to get longer and the temperatures and the rain coming all that um and so those Cycles should be looked at not necessarily for the entire year but the actual growing season commiss we do that we don't we do not schedule it one every month uh uh public work uh Road and storm that go and they do have a in that area where the grow season they have it is more uh more uh cycle than what you have it for example in December or January they do that and they look at now is it uh the amount is enough depend on the level of service uh some other agency they do it more often uh we'll be glad to look in to it and and come to the board if you want to increase it uh and increase the funding but that's what we have no understood and and the other sidebar to all that is when you get into Bea grasses depending on pH level of the ground you can have be that can grow a foot in 3 weeks uh compared to something that's more acidic and I don't know how we control that but I think overall I I've had a core belief that we subcontract out some things we don't have full contract control over or not able to control um in the cycles of mowing so for what it's worth commissioner her and then commissioner Constantine if we're talking about grass and mowing talking about grass talking about grass and mo see what you're doing uh I think at the same time we're looking at bringing it internal we have to appreciate the fact that most mowing services don't offer pensions to their employees and there's no way from a unit cost perspective Ive for the employee that we can beat what the public what the private sector is doing my thought is that we need to really look at how we control this and I'm going to say it this is a dashboard B item we it if one Pond is more acidic than the other and grows slower than the other then that one needs to be we know when that hits the Mark I mean this is all measurable stuff and so I think we can get the same outcome that you're looking for maybe in a less expensive way and it can be a a marker in terms of how we measure the output of the services that we're providing and change that level of service without changing the level of cost commissioner constain thank you so let's talk about a specific since we're talking about who takes care of the of uh the grass so this year we we took care of we've taken care of the sidewalks along the hatway and this is this is other citizens that have called me about this so I don't want my mother to blame on this one we've had a we sidewalks we took care of the road when we had to do some underneath C uh culverts and everything all right now if you drive down there I've had four phone calls in the last week on one side of the street where we put the sidewalks um beautiful it's it's cut looks great it's on the city Side on the other side the grass where the dot puts all of their um tractors Etc when as far as I4 it's more than a a knee deep it's up to your waist um and there's a sidewalk there too there has been a question of who handles that side of the street uh commissioner are you talking about the rideway and hway or you talk about the right away and cutting the grass okay cutting the grass on the right away on on the street normally it is the property owner they cut in front of the did you say the city the the the county the uh property owner usually they cut them the do then if it if it's do apart in do it's where the do is putting all of their that will be do okay good okay and and and I then we can we can give him a call I would ask you to do that so look at the two sides of the street it's quite different last question yes ma'am uh related to the tree Tri tree removal and trimming um I'm seeing a deduction in that um amount of by $100,000 so from 900,000 to$ 800,000 is that tree removal and trimming only done on County property or is it done for trees that impact our sidewalks and roads it's it done within the ways I'm sorry back our sidewalk so it could be a tree that the trunk is on private property but if the limb hangs over the sidewalk so that it's impassible we are going to go and cut it yes and this is the budget that that would come from yes Ma'am why are we cutting it by $100,000 we not cut it at 500 ,000 I believe we cut that item $100,000 right why are we cutting it by $100,000 okay when we were with the budget we try to stay with certain amount the budget and I talk to the to staff and and how much they where the area we can cut and based on their their uh servicing what they've been expending uh that's was I recommend we can cut 1,000 100,000 because last year we only spent up about 800 something okay so we don't have 22 and 23 actuals in here for that line item so that made it hard for me to know what did we spend what was our actual last year I see what the adopted budget was for 24 but I don't see the actual so I didn't I couldn't see what the rationale was for that okay let me those reports show the actuals by the account line uh when the the spend we try to spend as much as possible to each line item of the budget but when you expand if you expand the history to show the spend by actuals it it brings in additional line items that it makes a little more complicated so we kind of go back and forth but if you look um you should see the actuals at the account line level uh it would the mark history where it says um history that would be the prior years but that that would be the the of all the roll of all so 1.4 million in that total account in that whole account line but we don't we wouldn't know on this report you on this report okay got it we could get that though I I think my concern is and this always goes back to the calls that come into my office right um I I get calls I don't want to exaggerate I'll let Patty say how many calls we get it's a lot for tree trimming trees hanging over the roads hanging over sidewalks um Mr Sorenson is is a um a fan favorite we get calls from him regularly and we get get to the point where you know he's just being told no and I don't know and others and so I don't know if it's because we don't have money budgeted for it or if there's some other rationale that we wouldn't be trimming the trees hanging over the sidewalks or or streets uh commissioner Mrs Fon every time he called we'll forward those complaint to the to our uh staff our staff they'll go as they visit it one on uh each individual and if it's warranted we will we will take care of it if it is we already done it through the contractor we sent our people in the house to take care of it okay so wait let me make sure I I heard what you said so when we get the comp when Patty gets the complaint she calls Public Works Public Works then refers it to the contractor no we refer it to staff if it is something is a block in the traffic we s we sent it to traffic and traffic they will send somebody from their staff they say okay yes we need to trim that area that sent it to Road and storm order and that's how we address it damn that's a lot of that's how we do if if it's something it is over the sidewalk we sent it directly to rad storm M but every complaint will come we ar it to the uh to the uh uh staff who is hand does that uh okay so so it's not because we don't have money budgeted for it that's right all right just making sure thank you that's all I have for for this Great Commission conin yes so to finish the question how's it going to work the Real Estate Management Department how how do you see ITP I I don't I don't want to ask I come Public Works well how is Public Works going to work but no seriously publicly and I and I could just answer that real quick before so U we were thinking actually of pulling it out and being a separate office that actually would what would report up to my office however since the majority of our leases or what we do with RightWay acquisition St as in public works we decided to house it in public works at this point so we'll be hiring a manager plus another position they already have a few supplement the staff that they have have now and we're going to monitor it this year and see how it goes we may pull it out at some point um I know one of the requests that came from the county attorney's office Miss Kate Lor she's like why don't we have a real estate office you know to handle some of this stuff so we are so we're going to operated under Public Works Christian Swinson our assistant County manager is going to oversee it as well and if we may need to make adjustments we will and thank you for that nothing against public works and that but I you know we have a running joke in my staff agenda meetings with um Mr dredge who is always buying something it's usually either on orange or on Midway and he's the biggest land owner in seol County um but the fact of the matter is is that when you look at the management of the land when you look at the possibility of affordable housing and look at all we have all asked before where what property do we own where it is how it is and everything if we could really have an office of Real Estate Management that went directly to you and or the attorney again nothing against Public Works they have their projects but an overall office that's doing that I think we could get more information about you know land that we own and where it is and what it is what be what we might want to sell what we might want to yeah turn over to other okay yeah I'm not going to this is a step by step so you probably will see it come out but okay so I know way more about this than I really care because I I had brain damage the first year I arrived on on trying to gather and and work with GIS on putting a map together of every property that the county actually owned and I quickly learned that there were five different departments in this County that you had to go to to find out because nobody controlled or knew in one centralized location right what property existed and then you learned that well certain things can be done with it because it was bought with certain amount of certain types of dollars whether it be grant money or whether it was bought with Enterprise fund money uh whether it was subject to a bond issue or not so I I was running around all these places going this is insanity half of them are over here a third of them are over there 10% are in the county attorney's office it's like Nobody Knows the entirety and so I I would absolutely be a proponent again no disrespect to Public Works that it really should be in a separate Department leverage on the expertise of of real estate and legal Minds um without the inefficiencies of going through Public Works them having to go through somebody else go to the county attorney's office and and chasing their tail forever and ever um okay so that that would be my input all right any further questions on any of those topics very good next up is our sales tax presentation by Mr Tony Nelson so there's I'm going to let uh Tony do the intro I'll I'll jump in I have a couple comments to make as we go through the uh through the project through the presentation great thank you good morning chairman commissioner Tony Nelson County engineer um first slides So currently we have about 180 active project ongoing and this is a mix of sales stack project and um other project I mean sales tax project that's on the referendum and in addition other projects that were generated based on study that we have done uh it could be Carter study Bas and study that generated these projects so right now we have 180 active project those are project that could either be in a study phase a rideway phase a design phase or a construction phase um as we all know the sales Stacks is um getting ready to be sunset at the end of this year so with the the the sales tax being Sunset we have we still have to budget for project for next fiscal year so So currently we have about $44 million in project that we have deferred for the next fiscal year and I I'll mention that um we did carry forward um about $125 million uh in in to the FY 24 budget of sales tax projects you have the full list of um of projects in your package uh and as of today we have about $98 million in the current year actually spent or contractually encumbered through purchase orders or work orders compared to a projected uh 56 million do Revenue collection so the last fiscal year was October 1st 2022 through 930 2023 um we were still pretty heavily impacted with supply chain you know the construction process was slow um but I think we are starting to see that ramp up now uh and this the slide on your screen this is our major Revenue slide um we do have the fy2 24 ejections of about $5 56.2 million slightly less than fiscal year 23 but still still pretty strong and the fy2 budget includes $14.9 million of Penny third gen Penny tax which is reflective of three months of collections thank you Tim trying to get used to this clicker so for the next couple of slides I'm just going to talk about a couple of project highlights a couple of project that we have done in the different area throughout the county um in the I think the click is moving a little bit too fast in the Y area um we have the econ Lake Crescent project and this is a drainage project what happening when the hurricane came through I believe it was Hurricane Irma um the subdivision Vision got flooded and um we we applied for a grant we did not get the GL Grand so we we're using sales stack money right now to uh design and construct this projects which will alleviate flooding for the homeowners uh we have a Redbook Lake Road intersection Improvement project there was a lot of crashes at B Road and redbug Lake Road we did an analysis and determined that we need to add a right turn lane so and improve the the crosswalk at that area so intersection Improvement along with the right turn lane um to improve safety we also have the 434 roundabout projects over there in avido and this is a project that we um we use the sales tax fund to leverage fdot what we did was we did the the corridor analysis Corridor study and then we did did um the design and we coordinate with fdot and brought them on board and they're doing the RightWay acquisition and the construction of this project so we're working along with fdot by using the Sal stack money to leverage fot to come on board with us in the Geneva area and wi spring area we have done the M Lake Park Road this is an area that was completely underwater when the hurricane came through out I believe it was a hurricane or tropical storm tropical storm tropical storm that came through and it's a private road but we also use the sales tax money to leverage hmgp Grant which is the a azard mitigation grant program through the state which is federally funded and uh we got Federal fund and we did the uh uh the Improvement we did um we piped those ditches and we constructed to the retention Pond and and make the area much better in terms of um to handle flooding we have the Miller Road I think we we removed the Miller Road U we have Lake Ary Circle drainage and old mesro those are all drainage project that we're working on using sales tax funds in the alamon area we completed a flood mitigation Improvement projects um we did some um curb inlet pip in and we also installed a buff box to um to treat the the roadway runoff before it goes into Lake Orienta so that was a very good project um we have the wymer road that's currently under construction that project is a Safety project for pedestrian and motorist we're doing sidewalk we're doing um drainage we're doing crosswalk Improvement Etc we have the similar Waka Trail project and I know that was discussed earlier and I can say that we're applying for a grant for this project next year and we are taking it to the board in July I mean in August we're taking it to Senior Management in July and then we're going to take it to the board so I know you guys asked to bring it back at 50% and we're right about 50% as Darren said so we are bringing that back to the board and we have the wver Spring Road Road intersection Improvement project this is a project that we're adding a turn lane for the school um there's a lot of congestion so by adding the turn lane you can get the buses out of through lanes and we're doing uh we're acquiring right of way to do additional Improvement at the intersection in the Longwood cbury area we're doing the North Street Improvement project we did a corridor Improvement analysis along that corridor in the North Street area and a couple of project came about we're working on phase one right now which is actually in procurement um we're heading brownout we're heading um pedestrian safety which include wider sidewalk Trail race crosswalk Etc and we're working along with Rick dur in Park and Recreation who's going to be um developing that Park do you have a question commissioner I'm gonna wait till the end sorry I should shouldn't have done that okay apologize we have the New Oxford Road Project I know um there's discussion with that one but right now the project is in procurement we're widening Oxford Road we're doing excuse me let me back up we're um doing Improvement in Oxford Road we're heading sidewalk drainage Improvement and we're heading a brand new connection from on F Park between Oxford Road and 1792 uh we have the 434 at 427 intersection Pro 427 intersection Improvement project this is a much needed congestion management project um currently because of preemption there's a lot of congestion there so the project is 90% designed we're working with fdot the county is going to frontload that dollar a month for the project and FD will be reimbursed in the county um we're adding uh a new right eastbound right turn lane we're going to have dual left turn lane in both Direction in 434 and additional safety Improvement for the train crossing we also have the Woodland bulevard subdivision this is a project just south of E Williams Road um we're doing a little bit of drainage improvements in the area and sidewalk connection in the Lake Mary Sanford area we have the C celery melonville Trail project um we here's a project again where we used um sales tax money to do the design it's a lab project local agency program project so we we Lev we use the sales tax fund to level Lev um Federal fund for this project through the Met plan Orlando so this project is currently in procurement um we actually split the project into two because of rideway issu and I know there's discussion regarding rideway rideway is one of um one of the main issue with these projects we're trying to FastTrack this a lot of these project but because of right away we're getting hang up and and it it just slowed down the process a little bit so we're we are going to be constructing a trail brand new trail from seol Boulevard by the lake South and melan Avenue to celery Avenue and then we're going east about 1.4 miles and then we're going to stop and then you know work on the second phase orange Boulevard we're doing Improvement in Orange Boulevard is going to be um um a new Trail um we're going to pipe those dishes Etc Miller Road drainage improvements and with that said I'm sorry thank no no worries thank Youk Nelson um any questions yeah we'll get started I I think it's appropriate to thank you uh I'll start this one off just with a few statements um of clarity for the public which is a false narrative that has been running around that there's allegations that there are hundreds of millions of doar laying around unspent uh and I think what we're seeing here with your presentation uh there's going to be a shortfall in being able to complete all the projects that were completely identified unless there is an additional renewal uh based on the initial list and those projects identified is that fair assessment yes yes okay I would also point out that the numbers are approximately $800 million that have been collected over 30 years with the three generations of which arguably a quarter of it has been paid by people that don't live here but interesting and not often spoke about another quarter of that is matching Grant monies which has allowed us to expand the project list to do additional projects or wider projects or more detailed of the projects that were actually identified um and of course we all understand that the cost of goods and services have escalated since Co and so those costs have gone up so the specific question is um and I also I think it's appropriate to say I've looked at the books each project is its own line item that can detail that can be looked at so if anybody in the public wants to see what project was done what the costs were there's a line item that says First Street sidewalk and here's all the cost Main Street roadway improvements here's all the costs it's not co- mingles it's not mixed up it's not this magic pot of stuff that somebody stirred up and tried to hide something furthermore what we learned going forward in many of these projects and I think it uh first reared its uh its head in commissioner Lockhart's District was a big sidewalk project that was approved by the voters to be done uh and then when we went to do that sidewalk project the citizens did not want it they they they protested did not want their yards ripped up did not want trees moved and that allowed that money to be reappropriated to either an existing project or other projects that the community has asked for or our staff has identified some kind of need for drainage infrastructure improvements traffic signaling or any other necessary need need for the community that's permissible under the regulations and under the statute um so I just wanted to make sure that some clarity was shed on that um because those those kind of statements that that I've heard are just simply not true um and there's very easily a way to verify that don't get your news from Facebook uh come to the county get get your get your uh details we're happy to provide as a public information record so with that I'll start with commissioner her and work our way through I would add to that conversation the fact that we are seeing uh what I would refer to as unprecedented growth in the State of Florida and that certainly uh applies to seol County and this funding mechanism by the time you leverage Out of Towners that provide revenue and the leveraging that happens with our staff and federal dollars that would go elsewhere if they didn't come here uh allows us to stay ahead of that growth so that your quality of life continues to be what it has been despite the growth so I I think that's a big piece of this I think the disclosure that we provide is is fabulous and it's out there now so any citizen can get to it um and don't take your news from Facebook unless you're on our Facebook page just going to say just check the source um but I I appreciate your report Tony thank you commissioner delari thank you Mr chairman and you and commissioner her are absolutely right about uh the projects are very well detailed and uh you're both correct obviously that leveraging the dollars is very key and that's one of the things I think we should always look at as we move forward is how we leveraging local dollars for both city and county both for state and federal because you're right Mr chairman uh that's big dollars that come back to us so you're actually spot on point uh Tony you talked about raise sidewalks I just want to make sure you're raise crosswalk excuse me T make sure you're coordinating with the fire department because that does equate to a speed table and so we have to make sure that we getting the fire department sign off on that so I'm sure you've gotten that done yes we have um with all our project we try to coordinate with the fire department I know we've had issues with speed tables in other areas and that it has to go out to a citizen's vote so I just want to make sure that we're doing all of that for the policy that we have here in the county the other I just want to talk about you talked about Oxford Road that's at least a 30-year project that we've been working on I just want to make sure that the needs are still there for that and we really need to evaluate that before we start spending all those big dollars and I I am actually looking at that as we speak with our County attorney as always you're you're right on point and I just want to make sure that we're spending the dollars as we always do uh to the best interest of the community Y and then Tony last you did talk about uh Lake Crescent and I understand that that's a closed Basin correct yes it is and I'd like to how it's going to affect uh ospry Lake as well as not whole lake if we can talk about that offline I'd greatly appreciate it yes sir thank you and commissioner lockart um I'll I'll avoid being redundant um I do concur with um commissioner zauer that there has been an inordinate amount of misinformation uh out there and and we've been able to trace it back to to just really one source and it it's it's un it's unfortunate and um discouraging so I think you know it's it's important that we continue to be transparent and open and have as much of this information available easily readily on our website where the public can access it um when when these lists are in our budget uh in our um agenda items it it is it is not easy for a member of the public to navigate and find them in a they're there but if there is a way that we could easily link to those so that as we're having these conversations um it would be great if we could just and I think Chris Patton was working on something like that for me before uh a group the other day but that's critical for us to be able to help with that communication and making sure that people are getting their information from the source so that's um for sure I really appreciate the fact that um in this budget forecasting we're we've only forecast what we have and we know and and um that money I I want to make sure something was said earlier about you know we're we're going to be overb or run out I forget what the phrase was but it's not it's not because we haven't done a good job of delivering projects or because we have not budgeted appropriately it's because of the cost of delivering these projects has increased so significantly from when we first um identified them perhaps in some cases 10 12 15 years ago is is that an accurate Fair representation yes okay um great work looking forward to hopefully our community recognizing the the great things have been accomplished with the penny so far and and giving support for the Next Generation because we certainly are not short on opportunities to to continue to invest for for a variety of of needs so thank you question Constantine thank you very much and Tony thank you for your presentation um the not again not to be redundant but the point is is that this has been transformational looking from the past not talking about the future of course we can always put what has happened in the past and relate it to the future but this penny has been transformational and the thing that I think that has been unique about it was the fact that from the very beginning we got all the cities and the count and the school board together and we shared it you know it it it it it is uh just it blows my mind that each and every year that orang County tries to do their sales tax they continue to do it just in transportation um saying they'll set up a not sharing it but doing it all from the county saying that they will put a blue ribbon committee together to come up with what programs they're going to do I've seen two people that came from Orange County in the past and then and then going ahead and saying trust us we're going to come up with good projects as opposed to the 50 2525 everybody lays it out today it was on the front page of the newspaper what the school board's going to do but everybody lays out what exactly is going to what is going to happen you can see it you can see it in action now sometimes they vote for it and then they come back and don't want a sidewalk but the fact of the matter is is that they are voting on something they know is going to happen and they also uh our constituency is smart enough to understand that uh you others are going to be paying forward and they're getting a discount on their own costs thank you very much Mr chairman commissioner just for clarification Orange County goes out for a different Penny even though it's one penny they go out for transportation sales tax we go out for an infrastructure sales tax is one penny but it's two different types of pennies can be spent totally different corre and I want to make sure that we're clear about that at all levels of discussion and you're absolutely right I was just showing the difference between one trying to do with one thing and the cooperation and what the level of I want to make sure that we're clear that they two different pennies serving two different purposes good point B and and to emphasize on that to just to to try to tie that up what commissioner delari and and commissioner Constantine are are speaking about for the benefit of the public the 1-cent sales tax infrastructure here in Simo county is not used for transportation such as SunRail and links it is not used for that at all totally different unrelated um but that said it would be omissive on our part to not identify just at least a couple projects that otherwise would not have happened in this community had this not occurred such as collaboration with the Florida Department of Transportation on road improvements of state roads that they have the responsibility of and because of the way funding is ranked federally to come down to the States and then Florida Department of Transportation has to decide ranking the improvements of those roads whether simal county is more important than Broward or D County or Hillsboro County uh to get money for state roads is all prioritized and it's prioritized on a need and what work or studies already exist to be able to FastTrack those this has allowed us to leverage fdot and federal dollars to get sections of 434 through the Longwood area done that otherwise would have never occurred uh in the time frame that it did current projects are the roundabouts and expansion of the 434 Corridor through Ovito that otherwise would not have occurred uh drainage projects uh both in the Midway area as well as the Geneva area one of them on the list here that otherwise if that money was not there to be leveraged with grant money those would have never occurred um some of those being FEMA funds and other Community Connection funds and so forth so I I would assure you that it's been well spent staff has been good stewards has been uh very transparent in it and and I sincerely appreciate as I know my fellow board members do the accuracy and the uh line item of each item being so easy to follow for anybody that has a question that's Paramount instead of just giving somebody here's all here's the revenue here here here's the costs and you blump it all together nobody knows but the fact that you all have taken the time and trouble to put it on a line item per project I don't know who can argue with that it's there it's plain it's black and white so thank you all very much thank you Mr Nelson Mr Dred we appreciate sincerely thank you thank you Mr County Manager for ensuring that we had this line item um situation in our in our accounting process uh and thank you Mr JX for making sure that happened thank you can we take a five minute recess sure uh we'll take five minutes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we're ready to get started next up is our Parks and Recreation presentation Mr Rick Durr welcome Mr Durr thank you I will say a few words to begin the Parks and Recreation Department includes four division Visions extension services natural lands Library services and parks and wreck their funding is 74% from the general fund which includes Parks libraries Greenways and natural lands the tourism fund piece uh includes 5.6 million for the replacement of fields at the sports complex the Waka Golf Course fund is projected in fy2 to be fully supported through revenues in that fund with no transfer from the general fund impact fees are for Library books and special revenues are donations the parks base budget uh increase is 10 it's it's $10.2 million in 24 growing to 10.8 million an increase of 6.3% you'll note that they had contracted increases for landscape maintenance as well as Turf repairs at Red Bug Lake Park and the softball complex if you exclude those they overall increase was 3.2% for Capital program you can see the largest item is is the 5.6 million for the tourism uh Turf replacement they have 259,000 in Fleet replacement and the other includes uh library books and um natural lands Boardwalk projects there's 175. 4 FTE in the current budget we're recommending to increase one part-time staff member to full-time bringing their total FTE to 175. N2 with that I'll turn it over to Rick thank you Tim um first I'd like to thank our staff most of which uh work on the front lines with our customers uh they're spread out over 17 different facilities countywide U many of them working nice and weekends directly with our customers countywide and the numbers that you see up here on the screen are representative of our four different divisions who are all running probably at a greater demand than we pretty much ever have both from libraries as well as our uh working with our F our partners in tourism uh as you heard back in May at the the tid discussion about we're running at about as high capacity as we possibly can at our individual facilities as well as the Outreach that we continue to have with our partners in extension services uh both at education opportunities for our residents as well as working with best practices across the county we are in the middle of and I'll say right towards the end of our re accreditation process this will be the third time our agency has been re accredited very very few agencies within the State of Florida are and very even less um have gone through multiple re accreditations like we have you can count them on one hand uh as a matter of fact our major interview with our uh evaluation committee is next week so we hope to be bringing that to a quick conclusion couple of things that we've been working on are some projects you may have heard about um the first one being the yardro ranch acquisition uh we are in constant contact with Robbie Parish who leads their the state's um real estate office right now they continue to go through the various steps for closing on that particular property and we've been promised as soon as they have an agreed upon closing date we will be able to get that to you right away earlier in the year we were able to to complete our 10-year Parks uh system master plan along with the updates on our Trails master plan our Ada transition plan and our libraries master plan we feel like we've got a good handle on both our current needs uh for our residents as well as putting the county in a good spot to be able to respond to changing needs over about the next decade and Beyond the last piece of that slide on the right hand side is a seminal forever uh we continue to work with the um the arc that that you had appointed we have matter of fact we have our next meeting coming up next week we'll be coming back to you later in the fall with both the application U application that's been uh constructed working with staff and the arc as well as a timeline and criteria for evaluation of applications all of those will be run through you as well uh later on this fall so that hopefully we'll be able to time the entire roll out of that program to work with the planning that goes into our next year's budget other projects that you've seen um had we've had ribbon cuttings out at Sunland Lake dot Wayside Park uh Midway Park came earlier this year a lot of those were done with various partners and funding Partners from do to community services and and utilizing cdbg funding that kind of approach is taking place at Windwood park right now in East Altamont we had the uh completion of the Deer Run Park Park master plan earlier this year we've just replaced the roof on there so our our blue FEMA tarp um roof is no longer it's a beautiful shingle roof now and we'll continue to move forward on the programming of that piece as we move uh that project forward the Rolling Hills are mediation progress both working with the county attorney's office and our various consultants and FD trying to wrap up that entire remediation piece and bring it back before you will hopefully be coming much sooner than later and the other piece of that is we've currently been working with public works and purchasing and we have a solicitation that will be going out on the street shortly uh it is currently going through the review process within our current um uh County process to get that on in the street so that we can have a uh groundbreaking here uh shortly prior to November is is our goal is to be able to get that project underway the last item on the right side has been a uh utilizing some third gen money on some Trails projects to quickly get those mobilized and completed most of these were were U part of the trails Master Plan update that was done a couple of years ago uh we've had a ribbon cutting just on Monday as a matter of fact out at Lake Mills Park we've had additional uh work that's being done at San Lando and at silven and then we've got safety projects that will be deployed countywide that will all happen within the next several months so be on the lookout for additional work with uh Communications and having some additional ribbon cuttings as those projects uh are are deployed throughout the county and with that we'll be have to take any questions very good thank you Mr dur we'll start with commissioner her and work our way across I was thinking you were going to the other end so I I do you all curveball well you you definitely threw me a curveball it's funny how we as humans get into a rut um in a matter of a couple hours uh a couple of questions for you Rick would you take a minute and address your vision with regard to shade on playgrounds and uh quality of the customer experience for the History Museum and I hope I'm in the right area for that yes yes so the I'll deal with the first one the uh the playground location so we have shade as we've continued to redevelop our playgrounds over time we install additional shade in all of those structures uh whether they be a shade canopy or the structures themselves may have shade components to them uh a number of Parks we're blessed with a pretty large tree canopy Sven is one of them for example where we don't necessarily need additional shade underneath that that very large canopy um as those playgrounds are redeveloped we will add additional shade right now we have one uh playground in our system which right now is one of our oldest ones that's a big tree park that has little to no shade at all as that one is redeveloped we will add shade back into that um the other piece of that is we continue to also plant trees everywhere that we can around the playground so that over time we're developing that shade canopy to help with uh with that um with that particular condition so that's part of our program as we continue to move forward wasn't always such but that's a big piece of what we do as we develop those uh playgrounds the second part with the museum um we have been working with staff and many departments to go ahead and bring in the carriage collection and the building 302 first off first and foremost um we've got a senior staff meeting coming up in July to share exactly what that program looks like and the progress has been made in being able to clean out building 302 next to the museum uh and then we've contined to curate that collection to be able to then move them in as we can um the other piece of that is being able to work with our very overworked uh Museum coordinator who's a staff of one and and has many volunteers who happen to be there when they can be and we're very uh very appreciative of the work that they do um however as we continue to curate the additional collection that we have there we're going to look at both ways to both uh new ways to manage that facility that may be potentially and I'm and I'm just throwing this out there maybe less staff hours in terms of actually o the opening of that facility full-time making sure that maybe we need to price it differently maybe we need to pull it all the way back we're looking at a number of different ways so that not only we're adding Museum space to that but then we're also taking full advantage of and full efficiency of the resources that we have so that will continue to forward here over the next few months and we'll be bringing that back to you as well all right thank you that's it chairman commissioner delar thank you Mr chairman Rick you're staff of what 176 people something like that FTE yes yeah they all do a phenomenal job on many different levels uh to say thank you sometimes doesn't go far enough uh so please you reiterate that as best as you can when you meet with them every time I'm out in the Parks at at events or just at the parks I hear nothing but compliments on so many different levels so to all your 176 folks job well done thank you thank you Mr chairman commissioner lockart so I'm going to pick up on a comment that was made earlier by commissioner her with regard to the tunnel discussion about the parks and Tra trails and whatever that commit what's the name of the committee uh Greenways yeah it's the uh parks of preservation advisory committee there we goack Rick you through either all the luck in the world or very little luck have wound up being the director of departments that have many uh citizen advisory committees and each one of us appoints people who are very passionate about those areas in our community and and I would say that it's you know the main quality of life aside from our fabulous a-rated seminal County Public Schools and um and and our Public Safety um frankly so when we appoint these folks to these committees it is because they are most of the time very passionate about these topics and so when they reach back out to us and say that they've made recommendations and and we don't see the culmination of their recommendations borne out in a in a budget document it there's there's something that's missing and so I don't know if it's because we're aware that the recommendations were made and we've said we just don't like them not doing that we're going in a different direction but then we need to know as the Commissioners who appoint these folks to this committee whether this is worth their time I I mean I have gen I have genuinely had people call me and say I don't know why I bother showing up I don't know what because nothing that I recommend winds up going anywhere um and this is not one person this is not this is you know this is across the board and it's not you I'm not directing this at you it's just the nature of working with citizen advisor committees and then having to so with with that backdrop in mind I do wonder if the historical com commission knows that this budget shows a $56,000 39% decrease in Personnel Services for the history museum $39,000 decrease 39% 30 oh my apologies $56,000 which equates to a 39 almost 40% % decrease in Personnel Services Personnel Services it's on page 3 there only one person which page is that 384 384 make sure we've got the exact line item that you're cost Center 044 500 I'd like to take a look at that we we our office does the budgeting for personnel so I'd have to see what was in the fy2 24 adopted I don't believe there were any changes uh to the Personnel um so let me let me take a look at that commissioner and get back you okay and if I can on that same note if you don't mind commissioner MH just overall almost a 20% cut in the overall budget yeah that was just the yeah yeah so philosophically I think the board probably needs we need to do a better job of communicating to the county manager what our expectations are for the History Museum and for the for the level of service that we want to have delivered for our citizens there because you're taking your cues from us on what it is you want to have happen there and with all respect to buggies you know I think I think our history museum is way bigger than buggies and yet that's where the majority of the money is being allocated um at this point in time so I'm I think we need to have a deeper discussion not today about really where we want to have our resources um go go there frankly CU I'm I'm I'm seeing a I'm seeing a distinct mismatch in the budget document here the conversations that I'm having and the citizens who are uh giving their time to it so that's on the History Museum um shade structures I I it's been a long time since I've had a kid playing in a playground um and I've I've noticed just driving by um you're lucky you've joined the the the of links I'm and now I'm not only looking at linkx buses and now uh grass and medians but I'm also now looking at shade structures um playgrounds and it seems we've got a lot of intentional structures over where parents would be sitting or structures over like stands uh the ball at the ball fields where parents are sitting of course you're not going to have a shade structure over a ball field but I think there's opportunity there for us to look at additional shade structures it's going to some of these kids will be graduated from college by the time these trees grow y absolutely um so that's my two cents on that I I appreciated very much seeing the additional funding in um the Florida friendly yards and neighborhood that additional F portion of that FTE that we have I think we made that decision in a prior board agenda and um you know I'm always going to advocate for Florida friendly St Augustine and that's coming up totally opposite right there is there is a name that is a city right there is Florida friendly St Augustine it exists it's in our code um oh yeah that makes it exist it does it doeses right where are my IAS people they went out the back door they left quickly um great great job those are my only two areas of comment and concern I I well I'll add libraries I think you know we again very passionate group of citizens that continue to give their time talent and treasure to our libraries and I'm excited that if the penny sales tax passes we have a lot of wonderful upgrades that will be um allocated to our library system so thank you Mr Constantine thank you um a lot of things going on here but first on the St Augustine I just want to say Tim from um Cherry Lake Grove says hello I was there just Monday and uh yes and he would tell you that St Augustine and Florida are not the same however on on on the parks and recck lots of things going on here um right so you've got a lot of different thing a lot of a lot of balls in the air so let me just go through the the comments that have been made I concur with we have a great library system that all but we've got a and continue to improve it and I think the fact of the matter is that with an educated um citizenry that we have here in seol County they demand it they expect it and the fact is is that you know we can go through all those numbers and you know statistics lie and this and that but we should continue to find ways to modernize and update our library systems and therefore become more efficient the the shade structure I concur with also I mean I don't think every child needs to be hidden from the Sun but I do believe that there are locations and places that we need to protect the children not the adults necessarily they can take care of themselves um when it comes to the museum I love history and I think we've got a great you know we have a great story to tell and we have uh not only has the commission and the society and all the other groups that do things with the history um in the museum but there hasn't been a focus and I can recall that just a few years ago I lobbied from a half person to a full person we got that but a full person can't go on on vacation and keep the you know the the the museum open I mean we have to figure out a a a the way we can more effectively and efficiently use the resources that we have and whether that means we bring in part-time I've asked Tim already to look at this and he said that he would I think that it's already been mentioned that others have asked for to be looking at it and it is we you know the the buggies is just is a nice but an aspect of the entire Museum and if anybody has not been there it really is a a a remarkable asset that we have that we time's up commissioner is that the three minutes how was it remarkable asset a remarkable asset that we have that I think we need to really find a way to enhance and cultivate it and and use it for our not only our children but our adults so many Transat in seminal County we want to show them the history that we have here I'm trying to get us moving but I'll go back to commissioner lockart and I guess commissioner her you need because we've got one more presenter before lunch and we've got 1:00 hard start so right Mr Lockard go ahead so I will just add to the conversation and say that during the course of this next year I I would hope that we would see if there need to be some midyear adjustments if you're not able to get this figured out right now now if we need to have work sessions whatever that may be but um but we I thought that we were working to commissioner Constantine's point about Focus I thought we were working on a curator document that would come to the board that would give us and this may have been before your time so I'm going to give you that that pass on that that would give that would give the curator of the museum the board's Direction on how we are going to accumulate stuff for the museum just because grandma wants to donate her Pyrex collection after she dies doesn't mean that we necessarily are the place for it to go and um and absent that document and direction from this board I I think our our current Museum operator is is in a bit of a pickle and that yeah that hasn't since I've been here I have not heard that so um I'll defer to Mr dur but we'll we'll work on that to bring that back to the board during work Mr chairman one last thing the people of Rolling Hills would be happy to see the ribbon cutting but there also is some still questions on the parking so I know you're looking at that absolutely anything else all right thank you Mr dur I'm I've got a lot to say but I will just concur with what's been said and an interest in moving things along we ask Mr Harris from Emergency Management to come forward thank you reminding everybody we are going to take a break uh maybe if we get through this in a timely fashion if not we'll work straight through um I've got plenty of snacks up here for my fellow Commissioners if we have to we got a 1:00 hard start I will just remind the board that we said that this is this is a compressed time frame already to try to get this all done in one day because we normally do this in two days so this is our opportunity to have dialogue on this budget with all of our departments and I don't want to feel rushed if if we don't have to no that's what I that's what I said if we have to work straight through we'll work straight through Mr Harris up next is the office of emergency management which is led by alen Harris he has five divisions addressing Animal Services e911 Emergency Management and emergency telecommunications his funding is 79% from the general fund the 19.9% of e911 is from uh tax collected on phone bills which pay 911 services and then he has .5% of his funding from Animal Services donations space budget is 4.9 94 million in the FY 24 adopted budget growing to 5.1 million in FY 25 an increase of 3.0% his FY 24 Capital was 1.9 fy2 were proposing $1.4 million which includes $400,000 for a cooling Improvement project at the animal services building yes 64.5 current FTE with no proposed new FTE in fy2 and with that I'll turn it over to Allan Right good morning uh for the record alen Harris director of the Department of Emergency Management uh with me I have Adam Leaf manager of animal services uh Dena walker uh which oversees addressing an e911 Steven learner uh division manager of Emergency Management and uh Tommy ales uh the division manager of emergency telecommunications I know there's a lot of bullets there I'm going to go super fast because I know we're behind a little bit um I just want to uh bring you up to date on some great things that have happened this year and then what we're looking at uh in the future of course I don't need to even mention the renovations of the 911 centers uh the sheriff's office as well as the fire department that was completed this year uh we're continuing to enhance the unified addressing system making sure there's no duplicate street names uh which of course expedites 911 getting to emergency uh calls much much faster uh We've enhanced our interoperability uh infrastructure here in the county we're one of the few counties still in the State of Florida believe it or not that uh no matter if you're in a school bus government vehicle Public Works truck fire engine police car whatever you're on the same channels the same uh numbers everything matches uh which is an incredible asset here this was an issue at stonem moulas it's been mentioned a couple other uh mass casualty type of events we don't have that problem here uh cyber security we also activated some cyber Security Programs both on the 911 side as well as emergency telecommunications over the uh last year and we're enhancing those looking to the budget year for next year uh we're going to be launching video to 911 very excited about that very huge enhancement uh as we move into the new um technology for 911 silent 911 silent 911 is if you call 911 and you're unable to speak you'll be able to push a number on your phone that will show up up at the 91 dispatcher they'll know exactly what the number is and therefore be able to dispatch appropriately for that particular emergency also uh language translation of course you know we have text to 911 but now we'll be able to do language translation uh in the text to 911 field uh we'll be building out our silent alarms uh infrastructure for our critical infrastructures enhancing our already now cyber security measures again thank you uh for approving that last year and last year's budget we're me remat REM matrixing our 800 megahertz system uh to enhance that and uh we're also in a in a phased approach right now of doing additional lightning protection on our uh towers that we have throughout the county uh just a little bit of trivia in 2022 the highest lightning strikes in the United States was in Geneva Florida 2023 it was in Four Corners so it moved out of our area but in 2022 we had more lightning strikes in Geneva than anywhere in the United States just a little bit of trivia in case you're asked that on Jeopardy tonight for the office of emergency management uh the first thing I'd like to mention is just like uh Rick and I think that you've seen this in departments now just about every department so far uh we are being re accredited this year we're one of the few counties in the State of Florida that has uh accrediation for multitudes of years in the Emergency Management program and we are the only I believe in the country to every reaccreditation on my on some wood have zero findings in our plans our response Tech techniques our recovery measures so uh very very excited about that uh we are still in the the recovery phase of course of hurricane Ian uh we have dealt with multiple emergencies and threats Al though thank God we did not get hit by a hurricane in 2023 although we did have the threat of one uh multitudes of disaster exercises with partner organizations this coming up year we're going to be rewriting the local mitigation and resiliency strategic plan for seminal County as well as we're managing over about 32 mitigation and resiliency grants home elevations uh buyout demolitions returning to the flood plane storm water systems uh all types of things uh through the the different mitigation Grant programs on the animal services side very happy to have our new manager Adam Le uh with us uh he brings a wealth of Knowledge from the ASPCA as well as the Humane Society where he's previously worked uh We've finalized our inmet completed our Renovations thank you this last year uh so all the kennel runs now um I don't have chipping pain or things like that they look really really nice uh we're continuing with the some of the other improvements that are going on there so this year we'll be finalizing some of the greats and the the things like that to make the uh dogs stay with us more comfortable um we launched a diversion program over the last few months where we're helping to keep pets inside of homes instead of pets being surrendered to our um shelter which is helping us uh quite a bit uh with capacity issues of course you know we've been way over capacity in the past we're really close to that right now but uh it has helped at least keep us somewhat stable we expanded our operational hours to allow people to come after work uh for to do adoptions we've seen adoption increases based on that uh we are looking at implementing outcome procedures at intake so we're looking at once the animal comes in as soon as they come in how can we get this uh animal out and in a in a loving home uh we've done dog enrichment programs again thank you all for uh doing that for us this year and uh I think one of the coolest things is our average day uh dog stay in our shelter last year was 30 days now it's 10 to 15 days for our cats 25 to 30 days now 5 to 10 days they're getting out of our shelter so that's because of adoption events that's because of just new methodology of doing things there so really appreciate that that uh this year we're going to continue to expand our ctio program with a partnership that we have with seol State College uh as Tim mentioned uh can start working on our HVAC uh phase one for the uh the dog kennel runs uh to comply with the Animal Welfare act uh expanding our microchip and vaccine clinics for the community to go once a month we were doing it once a quarter but we'll do it once a month now to help again keep pets in people's homes uh and uh we're doing again enhan M of community related events one thing I didn't mention paus and Clause of course a great great event hope uh we're going to continue that forever it was an incredible event so we're going to be doing that uh with with all of our um divisions here that are represented uh we do Capital Improvement uh plans this is the capital Improvement plan for Animal Services the reason we call called this out is we do have a couple High ticket items on our Capital Improvement plan so we wanted you to know about those the cooling centers uh is again Tim J uh mentioned uh in reference to the kennels and then we have uh a very large building project uh this would be the building of the new uh surgical area as well as the administration uh Field Services uh bite investigations all of those uh you may or may not know that we had to expand so we half half of our staff our field service staff is actually down the road now next to fire station 35 they're not actually with us anymore because uh we just ran out of space in our buildings uh the other items are all listed there I I want to be good on time so if you have any questions thank you uh Allan very much and uh we appreciate that that overview um let's switch it up commissioner gari Allan you do a great job H staff does a great job I mean to sit here tell you how great you are and how great your whole dep is kind of ridiculous yeah trying I'm not trying to downplay what you all do you all have a passional love with these animals and so do we uh as well as Emergency Management I'm not trying to take anything away from Emergency Management uh in times of hurricanes and disasters you guys are just camping out doing amazing work uh great job keeping up thank you appreciate it love you all thank you commissioner Constantine same thank you thank you commissioner lockart oh goodness okay um also for deeper discussion at a later date but um in in my in my hierarchy people come before animals and we take care of animals because we we're taking care of people so just from a philosophical perspective Animal Control is in public safety for a reason because they're not just our furry friends who we love they also can be very dangerous and they are part of making sure that our taking care of them appropriately is a part of keeping our community safe that being said um you mentioned that part of the reason why we have fewer animals is not just because we're keeping them in homes but because of a new methodology the diversion program are you referring to you you mentioned because of this this and this and a new methodology can you expand on what the new methodology is sure if we can if we can provide donated Food Services vaccines I'll speak to just for me I just had my I want you to speak to what the new methodology is yeah that's this is it okay so uh I took my Toto into uh the vet clinic it cost me $250 someone that's living paycheck to paycheck that can barely afford food on the table at night if we can provide that service monthly to them and they can get that for at cost $ because that's how much the C the shot costs that's the program if we can keep those pets in in in the homes instead of the owner surrenders what happened after covid was that we started to get an influx of animals people started to go back to work they started traveling and things like that we don't want the shelter first model the shelter first model is we don't have we can't take care of it here you go we don't want that if we can keep the animals in a loving home there's still Animal Control measures there's still field Services there's still things like that that have to take place but we're trying to keep people that want their one of the most difficult things that I do and and then my job is sit in a lob when I walk through that Lobby and you've probably been there too and the person is crying as they're turning their dog over to their I mean it it is heartbreaking if I can say hey can I give you a little bit of food can I do your vaccines for you will that help you yes that will help me let's do it okay so tnvr um on page 480 we have $20,000 advoc uh allocated for it for the 25 fiscal budget according to the actuals from the last three years there has been no money allocated to that um but yet I know we were doing it so help me with that so we you uh the board approved that in 2022 we used uh partner organizations to do that from 20222 really until last year uh the reason that we started to do it is because our partner organizations expressed that they were in the red they no longer had the volunteer staff to do it so this this amount of money helps us to do surgeries helps us to do things like that so does this 20,000 represent the total amount that the volunteer organizations were uh providing I I'm are we completely taking over the costs that the volunteer organizations were are they still doing they're still doing it they're so they're still doing some but not as much correct now we've picked up some of the $20,000 of the slack we were not paying for any of it before that's correct okay but now you approved in January of this year and we had to put money there because you approved the agreement with Spay and Save uh to start doing some of the surgical the surgeries for it it was a 50/50 so the nonprofits are still funding 50% but we had to have and that's what's in the budget line we had to have that other 50% now in some cases the the the nonprofit has said we can't do it we we're we're maxed we don't have enough they're all volunteers understood yeah so we don't have any more volunteers and in that case we do the whole cat you know if you will but this is in Partnership you doing half a cat before you understand I was trying to bring some levity to okay so ERS in space so uh we always work in partnership with a member of the community we're not just returning a cat to a place where there's not already someone there taking care of the cat some Community cat caregiver but they're not affiliate with that nonprofit organization okay does that make sense good I I don't know that this mic works because I never talk but well you're welcome too so I'm sorry to interrupt but um I have spent more time on tnvr than um I ever imagined I am your new subject matter expert so I want to add in Alan just because you and Adam are knee deep in it um we partner with a not for-profit called seminal tnvr they struggle to keep up with the magnitude of cats we in effort to support them pay $20,000 in anou that was exec executed earlier this year to Spay and Save so they do some of these um the the neuter part of the tnvr to assist seminal tnvr because they couldn't keep up with it they couldn't afford it so last year we found money in the food line and moved it over this year it's it's clearly budgeted um we have taken on some of these activities inhouse because we had the bandwidth to do it and it's actually less expensive to do that and um because there is a need for it to be done um and on that note I will just say we have offered to scheduled briefings to your AIDS um about tnvr so that we can spend as much time as you would all like to talk about it offline um rather than than budget hearing that's great and I I think just like with the museum we probably have not had the opportunity to give direction to the County Manager on what our expectations are with regard to whether it's tnvr or picking up dead animals on the side of the road um because frankly that has just been happening for many many years if some if there was a dead animal on the side of the road you'd call and someone would come pick it up again it's a public safety issue when you have rotting animals on the side of the road so um when I think there are some unspoken expectations on behalf of board members and whether that impacts your budget or not is where we need to have these conversations and delivery of service to Citizens that's all I have commissioner her I suspect that one of the reasons why the drop in the dog length of stay is because we had dogs that were part of a very long trial is that so the the um protective custody actually is not part separated out okay so that would have yeah that would have majorly skewed those were with us Ma and I gave up and just decided to ask the question good question have good recall in the number of days but um I I have no further questions I think we have to continue I think when you see those large numbers in there for building and air conditioning Etc we have to remember that those buildings not only house the animals which you know I appreciate that it gets really hot they shouldn't be in extreme heat that's not all year right and so there are there's a good contingency of our constituents that would think that that's okay our employees are in those buildings as well and it's really not good working conditions and so we have to address that so I'm glad it's in there thank you thank you thank you for all you guys do anything else nope well I want to thank you all for everything you've done I know we've we've been quite we've been through a lot of a lot of animal control issues over the past year and uh uh many of which not everybody was prepared for uh things that that occurred that arguably were abnormal uncalled for um and I commend you and your staff and the volunteers for moving forward keeping your chins chins up and moving forward for the best interest of the animals and the citizens of the county um I think it speaks a great deal uh to the character of your folks that that we uh care for these animals and and really looking out for the best interest to them and finally as far as it goes to roadkill you know I'd like to know some more about that uh as as it comes domestic animals and so forth I mean in my district uh protected species feeds on roadkill um and so whether we're going to be picking up all animals some animals whatever that might be I think you know if we have a work session regarding that uh that would be very helpful so that is on our list to bring back to you great commissioner her rolled her eyes out loud definitely don't want to do that hey buzzards got to eat too they do they do absolutely there's a food chain they serve a purpose absolutely all right anything else from the commission on this one all right um do you'all want to continue to work through this or do you want to take a lunch break i' take a lunch break I'm fine taking a break I mean I got some calls I got to make sure all right you want to be back here at uh 12:45 or you want go all the way to 1 you want to get started again at 1 or you want to get started at 12:45 the well the next group is Fleet and Facilities correct right do you envision us taking only 15 minutes with them we start it it'll probably be about a good 30 but depending the presentation and questions from the board all right I'll Back At One whatever okay okay back at one and commissioner her has to leave at 4: hard break right oh that's right I forgot about that no I have to leave at 3:30 I have to be there at 4: well then let's come then let's come back okay cuz it won't take but 30 minutes to choke back a sandwich it's true all right I'm hearing 12:30 going going gone every back at 12:30 12:30 does that work for you Mr wilsky yes sir thank you [Music] --------- I [Music] la [Music] [Music] it's 12:32 we're going to move forward with the fleet and Facilities Tim if you want to introduce Mr wilsky and his team thank you uh up next is the fleet and Facilities Department which is headed by Chad wilsky it includes Fleet Maintenance program Fleet and development and then and also uh facilities maintenance Chad department is funded 85% through the general fund and the 15% Capital fund that's related to $5 million in our 5 Points development project it's essentially interest that's been earned on that uh on that those cash funds um that we have to put into the budget for next year and that's going towards the existing project that's already been approved Chad's overall base budget is going from 16.6 million to 17.7 million it's a 16 excuse me it's a 6.3% % increase uh he did have new Services being added for uh custodial services at some of the SunRail platforms as well as cost to operate the new Court Annex Building so without those two line items his overall budget increase was 1.9% CIP includes a total of $8 million which does include the 5 million for Five Points as well as additional allocations for haax roof and generator maintenance fle facilities has 77 FTE in the current budget with no new proposed FTE and with that I'll turn it over to Chad all right good afternoon Commissioners I just want to I want to thank our Fleet and Facilities team like many of our team they work behind the scenes and uh serving our colleagues who serve the public directly so directly so thank thank them for all the work they do um every day uh first I want to talk about our open positions and um from your presentation what was at the time oh that's not in there okay I thought it was in there it's in the there's a report in your backup with all the V backup doc so at the time um we had eight open positions so me coming on board one was let's just don't do what we've always done let's look at what our needs are and what are the positions to meet those needs and to be the most effective so what we've done in in a very short period of time uh we've actually one of those positions we've advertised and hired that individual will be starting July 1st have four positions on the um website now being posted and advertised and then uh with the uh the approval of the recruitment Services contracts um the past Works work U board meeting going to utilize those services for a divisional manager for facilities as well so we're looking good moving forward from here so it's definitely been a kind of a rough start but it's we know what we need now moving forward and just real quick I'll just add in here that I what both Christian and I have been working with Chad is gave him the opportunity since we pulled Fleet and Facilities out of Public Works him an opportunity to see what he actually needed to run that shop so we gave him car blanch so he's come up with a reorganization plan and now he's getting ready to execute it based on what he just presented thank you do he real estate never know where to end up no sir but I serve at the pleasure the county manager real real estate maintenance yeah so I want to start with the uh you know starting with highlights the Justice James EC Perry Annex and just again thinking the board I mean I come in at a good time this year um with the uh the support and all the the the different things happening and you know that was a a challenging time to make that decision um to move forward with that building and uh so I appreciate that because I'm having a lot of fun with that right now trying to close that project out um but in but end the day that decision has saved millions of dollars of what that would cost to build that building today so thank you for making that decision um um then as well uh we also uh the Johnny po Correctional Facility um connected Chiller Central chiller plant that occurred this um year year as well so the uh Correctional Facility is connected to um our Central chiller plant uh Chief Kinley mentioned fire station 11 again long time coming but uh then a great job by our team to make that happen actually just want to go back to the annex too again challenging time our our partnership with Wharton very difficult time to build materials and also Staffing wise so uh again we have great Partnerships within the county and I just want to make sure we highlight and don't forget those as well uh fire station 39 Chief Kinley said it's we're looking at October 24th and it's it's on schedule and it's looking good this year we had 15 major uh HVAC projects that have been completed or in the progress of being completed and then we have eight roof Replacements that are have been completed or in the Pro progress of being completed as well so a lot of good work um being done so just again thank you for your efforts to provide the means and resources to address some of the Deferred maintenance over the years all right Fleet so I've been told um about our budget office that our Fleet replacement program that we uh that you approved in 2019 has been accomplished completed um and really I tell you again from where I hear where we were and where we're at now great strides forward so I but I mentioned to uh Mr JX is like great job but let's look at what else we can do and um and so what we're going to be going moving forward is again taking the data looking at the analysis of the lifespan of our vehicles and again the data is a guide okay um and we need good information to make good decisions so looking at each of our vehicles bye types and when are those maintenance costs really starting to occur then also looking at um out of service times and then resell value and then from there let's start looking at a replacement time for our vehicles and again it may not be one of those things that we can full force implement but at least we know where the happy point is and let's let the data um drive that decision also going to be looking at vehicle utilization and what I mean by that is that we may have vehicles that we purchased that aren't quite used to maybe what they need to be used so we're going to be looking um at that data as well and then right sizing I just want to make sure from I heard yesterday right sizing my right sizing is not this it's this and um and also that right sizing really what mostly in incorporates is as Leaders you know one of our main goals is to make sure our team has the resources to do their job I look at our vehicles our equipment as that resource so what's the job that needs to be done what's the type of vehicle that is needed and match those two um going forward so those are some of the things that we're going to be working on I'm going forward for um the next uh fiscal year all right for the record Christian Swinson assistant County Manager I help and Chad here with just some uh building building projects updates that are in development these are just some some bigger things that that we're working on um that involve multiple departments or or multiple issues across the county so the first one is the Five Points development plan update um as you'll recall from our uh the April BCC workshop this was a topic discussed there the takeaway from it was let's look at that plan and staff and let's bring back some options I'm I'm actually very proud of of what we've done there we've assembled a team from the public works department with some of our engineering folks we've got Chad's folks in there we meet every two weeks sometimes the meeting seem like maybe a scene from 12 Angry Men but we debate we debate things out and we look at them we're coming up with some some very good work product that I'm looking forward to presenting to the board um just some kind of snapshots of what we've done thus far is we obviously have the the option that that is already approved from the 2019 plan we've got three additional options to take a look at for your consideration we're continuing to refine those options we've done a look at all the buildings that are in the system that were planned for Demolition and come up with a list of ones that we think potentially could be could be Salvage and stayed behind and repurposed perhaps for different usage um also from those meetings what came out was was the original plan has a location for the County Administration Building that requires the demolition of a whole number of buildings in order to be moved forward from that one of the things we heard from the the workshop was hey let's try to get the County Administration Building moving forward so one of the things we looked at is there a faster way to do this we in our options we came up with an alternate location that wouldn't require the Demolition and we could potentially go to design a whole lot sooner so these are all things we're looking forward to Bringing to you in the fall for consideration and uh like I said I'm I'm proud of our effort here I'm proud of our staff's effort here they're really putting a a bang up job and we're enjoying to getting together every two weeks um the next item on our list is the David Moss Building renovation I believe uh Darren and I or Darren or I have talk to everyone about the programming as was discussed at the workshop on that as well was we would go around and visit about the programming and kind of see what what it what it um what it turned up after we were done with that effort originally the building was planned for um a public works programming effort we went through that it was a bit tight when we looked at it so we said okay is there a better use for it we pivoted during that and looked at uses for community services and environmental services as yall were will call Environmental Services the landfill purchased that property originally so it was had some symbiosis with that fit as well those spaces actually did work a little better for it um provideed a little bit more room so um they also in addition to that provide as its Community Services is in a leas space it would potentially provide some future savings to the general fund if they moved into that building um because they would save the lease amount so our plans are to move forward with designs on that um unless we hear any any kind of objections to that um the next item on the list is the Rosen Wald uh project obviously that came before you and there was a direction to move forward with the to let's put a building out there let's get the other buildings taken down let's move forward with that staff has met with a demolition contractor out out on site they've walked all the buildings have answered a bunch of questions they have a scope coming to them we anticipate next week and then being able to fold into that fairly soon um in addition to that staff is working on a scope of services for design of the the community center that was discussed here so after the meeting you know that there was a we kind of just tried to assimilate the information we heard and you know it was like we wanted to you know there was a number of things on the on the the property there was a a uh there was an idea to to do it correctly so we looked at it and we said okay we don't want to get hem down by CCNA rules and potentially not have enough bandwidth in the design effort so from that we decided to write a scope dedicated for that and that gives us a bigger bandwidth to be able to do whatever is necessary out that so that'll be coming out on the street and that should hopefully be relatively soon as well and then the final item on here is a medical examiner building again discussed at the workshop what's happening with that now is we're looking at other um other counties and possible partnership opportunities we talked a little bit about this at the workshop we're continuing to explore those we did as you saw at the workshop have a an idea of what it would cost to build a new building we'll be coming um we'll be coming probably in the fall with with a series of options for you to uh to look at and some more detail so we got meetings scheduled with some of the other partners and just see what flushes out there so so those are the the updates on these I'm happy to take questions on on these items and I'm sure Chad is happy to take questions on the other budget items as well great thank you all very much um breath of fresh air this is one of the areas that I believe uh since I arrived here in 2018 is is one of the Paramount items that needed to be addressed uh of course as you mentioned the fleet issue um but also our our building maintenance issues and how they were or were not being cared for and kept up to date and I know we we all are looking forward to the day that we perhaps are in a new building um we we seem to be often for the lack of better uh examples the parents who make sure our children have clothes and shoes and education before you know we get our new suits and those kinds of things but that's that's why we're here um so I thank you both very much for for picking up the ball and and and moving obviously uh we can see measurable change uh since you all arrived on the fleet issue um and I don't want to get into big discussion on it today but one thing that and you may have already seen this in the automotive World things have changed dramatically in the last four years as far as Fleet accounts Fleet pricing um national account pricing and so forth to the point where you know there was a time where there was a stated price where government entities could purchase a let's say an F-150 Ford and it was a set price for set equipment etc etc etc and of course up until about a year ago that was tough to get you know the prices kept escalating and then when you went to the dealer to buy a new vehicle as a as a private individual you often saw prices that were $5,000 $7,000 over MSRP because there was a supply issue well now what we're seeing is for that same vehicle we're seeing rebates that are in the 78 9 10 12 13,000 range which arguably you could buy cheaper than what the national account pricing is so I just bring that to your attention so that maybe that's something that's considered that we look at that and timing of course in all things is is Paramount um and not getting stuck in a situation where we're having to pay higher than normal because of of chain or supply chain issues um and if we can defer it for a year and watch what the market does and and and save $5,000 per vehicle I think is is is a big thing we need to look at so thank you all very much I'll start with commissioner her we'll work our way down Chad I love the the uh point that you reevaluated the Staffing the positions the department structure Etc you focused on people first and then move to now next step is re-evaluating the stuff the tools that the people use it's right out of the good to Great methodology as is rigorous debate which I suspect that um Christian finds more invigorating than some others but uh but there's a reason there's a reason that we brought you into this mix and that's because we have not had rigorous debate which is typically typically drives a better outcome than you know 10 people sitting in the room and nodding yes and then nine of them walking out of the room and saying well that was a dumb idea and I'm not going to do it um th those are the organizations that ultimately falter and fail and organizations that engage in uh getting the the seats on the bus lined up and then getting the right people into those seats and then having those people uh debate rigorously what the best next steps are and you guys just laid out the book so I'm Jim Collins fan and uh this is the most exciting conversation I've had here for a while cuz it's right out of the leadership methodology and I'm not going to go into any detail on your budget I'm I'm excited with the discussion commission GL okay commissioner lockart so I think commissioner Constantine was only half joking about putting real estate underneath Chad but um for a future conversation and and working groups talking about about transportation and transit in this County um I think you know Mr wilsky run ran the largest Transportation operation in this County um which is our school transportation system moving however many students every single day how many students were there well over 20,000 so five times the number that Lynx moves around this County and he knows every stop and gets them all there in time for the Bell to ring and um I think we'd be really wise to include him in any conversation that we have about that moving forward congratulations Mr wilsky commissioner Constantine thank you and I I just see this and you know you're right I was half joking um because I do see this as the as in addition to the Real Estate Management Department as a function that should have been separated for a long time and I I applaud um the current Administration that has done it that's it very good Kudos on all that all the stuff about the budget um I I think you are on the right track from my perspective just so that the board knows you know we do have these individual conversations and then we all assume that we all know what those individual conversations were but um love the rethinking on this building with Five Points love that we've identified that really The Logical use for David Moss is to include um the environmental utilities uh Solid Waste crew Rosen Wald of course don't have to say much about that thank you for taking that on and the me building I think is just going to be a a longterm work in progress so but I but I'm confirming that you said what we said anything else seeing none uh Mr Gray would like to have a few words thank you and the reason that I wanted Mr Swinson to talk about the especially the project updates is because you know after our Retreat we did get some very direct uh direction if if you will and so as you know I've set up individual meetings with you all we keep I want to make sure you're up to speed and up to date on all of uh the direction that you had given us at that Retreat one thing that U Miss Johnson and I are working on is a project a what we're calling a have to be landed on a major project update report and basically it's going to be at a glance you're going to see it on a one page could be a dashboard at some point I know you're going that with commissioner her um however there are so many moving Parts here uh in the county that's going on um just getting caught up but also what we're doing in the future especially some of these big projects that we want uh you all on a you're going to get this on a monthly basis um and it's a snapshot of what's going on and that we're going to continue to be briefing you on that so it's another uh communication tool for you all in that so we can if if we're off track somewhere that I'd rather know you know earlier than than later so um I appreciate that so you'll be getting that um early next week maybe even Friday but early next week great it's ready oh TR said it's ready Johnson I know you were reluctant to speak early but please go ahead it's ready to send out whenever you're ready all right you'll get it Friday what's ready to send out the major project report update that it's a uh one pager that you'll on a lot of these projects there just four them are on here but there's other ones on there that are priorities of this board that um I want to keep you up up to speed on on a monthly basis great anything else from the board seeing none thank you gentlemen very much and your team we appreciate it sincerely thank you thank you all right we're at 12:53 does do we know if the soe has arrived we just received an email from the soe oh oh wait wait wait did we go ahead if do we have it he says uh be advised Chris will not be in attendance today is anybody from his staff here does indicate anybody from his staff will be here no it just says please be advised that Chris will not be in attendance today and it came in at 12:52 well I find it very disheartening that one of the one of the core preliminary things that we would expect our constitutional officers to do is prepare a budget and give a presid presentation to this board and the fact that they're unable to do so even send a staff member or chief of staff is very concerning to me um that said uh what would the board prefer to do we have a full board here now commissioner her will be leaving at 3:30 do we want to take this up or do we want to do nothing with it what is the flavor of the board commissioner lockart my first thought is we let our staff continue to present they're here now and we take up this situation with the supervisor of elections when we're done with our staff okay if he's not going to prioritize us I don't know why we would prioritize his time at our time with his not being here at this point so i' I'd like to be respectful of our team and have them present I I I don't disagree in its entirety but but if we are not going to be able to engage the Constitutional officer the supervisor of elections then we've sort of put our staff in somewhat of a a pickle giv Direction I don't intend to not give direction I'm just thinking don't do it right now okay all right so we will uh go that I agree I think I agree I think we should you know I mean like we're going to give direction to the staff and what they have to do with them but you know if we have our folks here let's let's go all right well next up will be utilities Mr Edwards a team of one and then there was one my apologies I think there was an expectation among some of my staff that we would be hearing from the supervisor of can you pull the microphone closer to yourself please oh here they come here they come to the rescue to the rescue the boss hanging so up next is the water and sewer utilities Department led by Johnny Edwards this includes our utility operating utility engineering and business office divisions he 100% funded through water and sewer fees the utilities based budget increase was from 43.0 to 44.3 million an increase of 3% the as of the printing of the county manager's proposed work session the 25 CIP is 10.7 million he did initially indicate other projects that could potentially be funded for fy2 but the department is currently working on their master plan so at this time we're only putting in the um base uh Capital maintenance projects um they have additional projects that they may be coming up with uh we're not showing them as deferred at this time because they're not deferred they're just still working on their overall CIP there's 155.25 in the utilities department with no proposal for any new positions and I will now turn it over to Johnny to talk about his accomplishments thank you very much uh for the record Johnny Edwards uh interim director of the utilities department um and I have with me today uh for each of the uh three divisions in utilities the division managers Carrie gr for the business office Bill white for utilities engineering and Elsa Williams for utilities operations you got your clicker oh I get all right um like to start off with highlights and accomplishments um just to some budget highlights and I'd like to thank uh the department staff for you know as as Tim mentioned we got our base uh operating budget uh down to 3% uh increase over current fy2 24 budget and you know there's some pressures that go along with that so they had to definitely had to sharpen pencils uh just looking at the the cost of treatment plant chemicals for our water and wastewater you know they're going up we can't avoid that you know these are necessary chemicals and um the the treatment process um sampling and Analysis of emerging contaminants uh we're doing a lot more groundwater sampling uh than we did previously um looking at uh um making sure that the water quality is is good um budget increase of 4.9% for wholesale Services uh a lot of our customers are on what we call consecu systems they're not directly connected to our water or Wastewater plants uh so we buy services from other utilities like the cities um you know for water and wastewater Services um their prices uh and costs are are going up and we're projecting a 4.9% um increase in that um we will be recommending consistent with last year's uh rate presentation a 4.6 rate increase this year um and we had one last year and one this year and that's fairly consistent with um the the wholesale um price increases that we're seeing um some accomplishments to address and first and foremost I'd like to just say um uh these are project oriented I'd like to acknowledge operations which um you know keeps the water flowing 24 and7 um you know they have staff um you know available all the time as as required and we respond to um outages when they happen um but to look at a few accomplishments from projects the Druid Hills distribution improvements this is one of the consecutive systems uh that I mentioned earlier um re uh the distribution system was replaced with newer pipe and a booster pump uh put in to alleviate some pressure concerns in the area and um you know we have uh friends that live in the area and are greatly appreciative of the improved water pressure that they received uh Southeast Regional water treatment ozone sidest stream safety improvements uh this was a project that was originated for safety concerns uh but as the project evolved we noticed that uh or discovered that there were some uh savings uh in uh treatment process and and electricity use that uh resulted from the project so we're very happy with that uh Four Water Treatment Plant demolitions uh out of 15 20 years ago I guess the uh the county bought Florida water services and got a bunch of small water plants and over time time uh merged into having more of a regional approach in water um Supply um so these These Old treatment plants have been taken offline for some time and we're uh demolishing the old plants um over time uh to make the land available um Lockwood uh Boulevard emergency repair I think every uh each of the Commissioners familiar with this project we had a sewer pipe that was collapsing uh 30 ft below Lockwood Boulevard um so that is uh uh that pipe has been addressed um and uh the emergency averted uh but it did shed some light on additional work that really needs to take place in the sewer system out in the carolan area um the majority of the projects that we do in our CIP are renewal and replacement uh oriented um just to pump stations we have 350 uh pump stations give or take uh in our collection system you know there's a significant amount of um replacing pumps you know lining the the wet Wells um a lot of work that goes into maintaining those pump stations uh the Wastewater collection system you know we have to uh maintain that to prevent leaks breaks things things like that the Water Reclamation plants which are the Wastewater facilities um we had a couple RNR projects recently um at at each of them just you replacing pumps making sure the systems are in good working condition and we also contribute to the Iron Bridge though we don't manage those projects they're partners with the city of Orlando so we contribute to the RNR projects that maintain our capacity there um a few other designs um we have uh ready for construction I'm not going to go into detail really but yeah these are um primarily relocating utilities um in conjunction with ride of way or Road and storm Improvement um projects that we have uh ready to go um looking forward um our master plan as previously mentioned is is is being developed um our Capital Improvement uh projects will continue renewal and replacement type projects uh complying with uh right of-way projects or any rule changes um that we have to uh comply with uh looking at the uh the BCC work sessions is um there's a holistic water policy and and Water Conservation plan that will be presented by Environmental Services the water policy group um we expect that to come to the board sometime in July or August um following that we will present and this is a tentative schedule uh we will have several work sessions with the board on the master plan uh for utilities um looking at different areas specifically each time and uh getting direction from the board on how to move forward um with the master plan uh other challenges issues um Staffing um at as when we made these slides uh we had 21 of 157 positions that were vacant um we've been work work with uh Human Resources last week they had a job fair uh we picked up a couple of uh Wastewater collection mechanics uh out of that job fair we've also hired a couple treatment plant operators since that time so um chipping away at it I know last year uh it was discussed that the training program um a lot of these vacant positions have license and certification requirements um so what we're doing is we're bringing in people and training them uh and helping them get those licenses and certifications um new regulations uh these are the headwinds that we face um there's new regulations passed by the state last year regarding collection systems so we're putting together a collection system action plan uh to respond to the new state requirements uh lead and copper rule revisions uh we have been working on that it's um basically inventorying where lead and copper pipes um may be a concern for water quality thankfully in seminol County we don't see much of that so but we still have to comply with the rule do the assessment and put out public information so you'll see more on that later the summer uh posos uh new regulation passed by EPA I believe last month um calls in new standards that become in effect in 2027 um we are proactive we're taking measures right now to be ready before 2027 um the American Water infrastructure act and cfwi and St John's water uh Regional River uh Water Management District you know all additional um rules regulations and policies that we need to observe and will'll pay more attention uh or provide more detail as we develop the master plan and discuss those with the board uh Country Club Heights uh it's a project that I just in in in the way of challenges you know project that uh was implemented because of constant or frequent breaks and service problems so uh we went in we've learned a lot um from this project and is we have subsequent discussions um in the near future about septic to sewer and possibly reclaim retrofit projects where we're doing construction and residential areas uh underground um we'll apply a lot of the lessons learned from this project uh to those new projects um and with that um I am I'll just follow up on just a few things if you don't mind Mr chairman Commissioners um and I want to thank Johnny and his team they have been through a lot this past year um as you know and I really appreciate the board allowing me to when I say right size in the organization I mean like Poland it apart and then doing and things that really concentrating on uh really look and assessing some of our operating departments and as you know the challenges that our utilities now our utilities departments had is that they have went through many leaders uh leadership changes in that department and so um and I know sometimes we uh you talk about the love of debate uh we debate all the time U with with the team but it's it's they we're getting it right size and we're getting it better and so um I appreciate you allow me to really dig deep into that uh Department we are as Johnny had mentioned a series of Master Plan workshops for you all we we as you know we have Jacobs on board uh doing that so we've got a plan uh with them as well as digging really deep into the operations of the utilities department that um and looking at their vacancies and how we run our plants and things like that so um as you know I've briefed you individually working actually with the Department we're going to be coming back with a plan on the operation side as well so just for the that's still a work in progress but uh just want to let you know that's also part of my major project list that comes out to you on a monthly basis thank you indeed thank you Mr County Manager we'll start with h commissioner Constantine Johnny I just uh you and your staff you got a lot of work ahead of you and uh we appreciate that you've taken on the task we know that this has been a point of concern for quite a while um thank you County Manager for pointing that out excuse me that um this is an area of concern that needs to be um reconstructed and um I appreciate I think that you guys are up for the task and and quite frankly um whether it be you know working together with Environmental Services on more quality in the water holistic I think that this is going to take uh this is going to be a very high on the priority list when we're when we're dealing this year with the sales tax and everything else so thank you very much commissioner lockart um ditto uh thank you for your stepping in and and helping to take over some of what's been happening with um the country club Heights project and uh just in my district it has been um a multi-year nightmare and I think that's probably the nicest I can say about this project for the community um and so I appreciate you all doing the best that you can to try to extricate us from the path that we were headed down and get us on the right path and in as as quickly and painlessly a way possible I also want to thank um cha who has stepped in as a consultant to help with managing the communication with that Community um as with most things the actual Construction and work is one thing but the communication with the citizens is just of Paramount importance so having that teamwork together now I think is going to help quite a bit um lots of work to do um confident that um that we're going to get to where we need to be so thank you if I can in in relationship foret to commissioner delari on commissioner Lockhart's District uh thank you all very much by the way for allowing me to intrude for a day and work with your personnel out there in the field and uh I was taken to the subdivision that you're referring to and it was not necessarily on purpose it was because there was a uh pumping station that had gone down and it was ironic as we were going there the the employee says now look commissioner I'm I'm giving you heads up when we go to this place there may be residents running over here screaming and yelling and you know I'm like got it um but it didn't happen but but I did uh take a quick tour of that general area and definitely a problem looks like a war zone oh absolutely uh I felt so bad for the residents and what they were living through you're absolutely light look like a war zone like certain areas have been blown up you know through this neighborhood where you wonder how do I get in and out of my driveway how do I get from here to there I mean it was insane to me so uh you're absolutely correct good good work on on getting those contractors involved and and moving this forward so it's good work commissioner delari thank you Mr chairman Johnny and your staff I know you're picking up pieces from past and I know it's not easy uh keep doing it obviously it's it's being noticed by not just us by the residents but I look forward to seeing the master plan it's been long time coming and I'm glad that we're going to have some input in the beginning with the assumptions and with the direction of the master plan to give the proper direction and I look forward to seeing the master plan both on Water and Sewer commissioner her I'm going to give commissioner delari full credit because I think in my first meeting you were stomping on this desk about the master plan so that was very well said given that we turned staff over three times yes and however many years before I ever envision myself here so uh it good job it's gross it's good it is it is I just want to point out that with your four new hires that were made with the recent uh employment faires you're down to a 10% vacancy rate assuming no one fled the building as we were talking about your programs while this meeting was happening so that's the lowest that I've seen it since I've been here so congratulations on that and I'd like to point out to uh my fellow Commissioners that if wholesale price increases are 4.9% and the ask is a 4.6% increase to the fees that's a 6.5% Gap in funding just thought I'd throw that out there not for discussion today when that comes up we need to pay attention it yep that's it and thank you for pointing that out that that was something I was going to raise so I sincerely appreciate that we approved that rate fee schedule as you all know um this area is a couple things were said that concern me and only from the rate standpoint but this is an Enterprise fund and it is funded by the rate payers and my concern is at the very beginning of your presentation the statement that we've gone back and sharpened our pencils very closely to get it down to where your expectation or somebody's expectation uh wanted it to be which is a little concerning to me and if if the 4.6 versus 4.9 and we are arbitrarily trying to contain costs at a certain increase what does that really mean and I don't want an answer to that today but I just want to point that out I would like to know a follow-up report what that indicates and and here's my concern twice a master plan was brought to this board while I've been here to be considered twice it was refused by the board because there were certain aspects of it that some of us didn't like so some of that's on us as a board and I say that only from the standpoint of I think we all must understand a master plan is a living document it doesn't mean it can't change next year 5 years from now 10 years from now it is an initial planning document based on what information is available and what demand is expected to be through the region understanding that demand may go up may go down certain regulations both statutorily at the state level at the federal level could change which impact that master plan so I want to remind us up here that it's incumbent upon us if there's 2% 5% 10% of a master plan we just don't like um I I will go ahead and say it I think we're better off to go ahead and move it forward and then ask staff to come back with us and correct or reiterate or reconsider that 10% 20 whatever it is because here's the reality there are documents that exist in this County dating back to 2010 11 12 15 on CIP projects that were planned to be done or engineered to be done or studied to be done that have never moved forward here we are 10 years later and I'm very concerned with this rate situation um of the unknowns of a scaling back to only a 3% increase and I appreciate that I'm not an advocate of let's increase it more than we have to and I'm not saying somebody's done arbit anything arbitrarily I just want our staff to understand at least this commissioner apply your best technical abilities and your training and expertise and bring that to us The Good the Bad and the Ugly if it's 30% come and tell me it's 30% if it's 7% come tell me it's 7% we're going to have to make tough decisions I I don't ever want and this holds true for everyone in in in the Departments I do not want anybody this commissioner does not applying what they believe will be acceptable for an increase or decrease for whatever reason just lay down in the line Raw Pure evidence science-based whatever the case is or or whatever U vocation you're working in your department so those are the concerns I have and I will tell you that I think we've got some real challenges we have a considerable amount of reserves that continue to build um that should be expended on CIP projects so I'm hoping based on the good news we have of what Johnny and the staff has done about bringing people on board and getting things done and what county manager and Senior leadership has identified and and clearly moving this ball forward uh it's going to continue to be an uphill battle uh you know for for some of the capacities we're going to have to rely on other entities I would also Al like us to look at any agreements we currently have with cities uh and how those impact us or impact them uh because we're receiving services from some of them some of them are are have agreements with us and and I would like the County Attorney to look at those agreements and and vet those through with our staff uh so we clearly understand are we on the right path and I think this is a good huge First Step but I think there's a lot of areas in this Department of Division that need to be touched by certain experts outside of utilities to to help ensure um that our infrastructure stays intact for the Next Generation so with that thank you all very much good work keep it up uh I appreciate it sincerely next up Miss orberg Environmental Services and while miss orberg is coming up if I could just add I know we'll talk about it later but of course you know I can't help but add in a few few comments to that Mr chairman and that's one thing about utilities is that is one of the reasons why this operational plan we're going to bring to you all because everything that you just checked off is something that we have been looking at as you know because we've we've discussed so you are going to go through all this with us the Good Bad and the Ugly the other thing with the Departments out there as we set up our budget guidelines and we talk about the the future we definitely we have our revenues and uh the expected revenues and we we we shoot to live within them however the department directors do know that if there are stuff outside of those guidelines they bring to us as well so for you all to make that decision and how to pull dollars so I just want to ensure the board that we're not hiding anything we're not saying something is is delete or we're not given something we both uh Trisha Johnson Christian Swinson Melanie we work with the Departments every day to make it so just wanted to I just wanted and I wasn't making any allegation I was just trying to make sure we understood at least what my expectation was no I get um so up next is the Environmental Services Department it's led by Kim orberg we have three divisions our Solid Waste division watershed management and water policy 84% of the funding for the Department comes from the solid waste fund which covers our landfill and transfer station the general fund includes watershed management and toito control services a sales tax portion uh funds some water quality improvement projects uh the Water and Sewer funds support the water qual uh water policy program the uh base budget for the Department is going from 5.6 million to 5,779 th000 an increase of 2.9% majority of the CIP includes solid waste Improvement projects at the landfill and transfer station and Fleet includes planned replacement for the seven Road tractors and three Road tractors for solid waste totaling a total CIP of $8.1 million there's 103.1 FTE in the department currently we're proposing two new FTE for FY 25 bringing the total to 105.1 with that I'll turn it over to Kim orberg good afternoon everyone thank you um and I've got with me again Carrie grind she she's are helping us with our with our finances as well um we're still sharing those resources she's been great um and I also have Oliver Bond who's our Solid Waste division manager and Shannon Wetzel you all know which is with our watershed management and I also brought along she's in the back key Carlton our new water policy program manager so if you haven't met her yet we will be meeting with you soon so thank you um our two new positions that we're requesting is a hazardous waste technician which will is needed for the expansion of the landfill gas collection system which has expanded over the years um we need to have additional staff to help us maintain it and to keep uh Regulatory Compliance with it the other position we're requesting is an office supervisor that's the an administrative position to assist the director's office with the realignment um and having uh each director's office have a an admin position sorry you the clicker oh I'm sorry I'm so sorry you're driving Kim didn't realize I was driving okay there we go all right now the fun stuff highlights our education and Outreach um so with the the realignment one of the most exciting things to me is the water policy program and bringing together um all of our water related education and Outreach and I know you all know that you know that's that's one of my passions and bringing together our water conservation program and our serve program the seminal education restoration and volunteer program and all of our um Outreach activities uh related to water under one program so we're excited about that we finally completed our holistic water policy plan um and we've we we're meeting have met or meeting with each of you to um and I'll be bringing key with me so we can talk to you all about that I think we have them all scheduled um our ser program so just some some good stats uh last year we had uh around 300 events that we did both education and uh volunteer and Outreach with more than 5,000 um volunteer hours this year were more than 150 events to date and uh 3,400 hours so with that um and also like I said we've we've hired our new water conservation coordinator Abby MRE and she's doing an amazing job and key who just started on Monday so um we've also some of the things we've done as we brought the the you know the new alignment of this department together our Environmental Services sustainability newsletter that's between um watershed management and solid waste to um reach out to our residents and our volunteers and get good information out there we've also um participated or took the lead in the um the Earth Day um St John's river cleanup the for the second I think the second year in a row it's one of our bigger volunteer projects um that both both departments participated in I think we had over 150 volunteers um our fertilizer program we've been working our Watershed staff has been working with um the extension office from Parks and wreck and a d Grant to expand the education for the fertilizer program into the retail stores the big box stores we've developed some training videos for their staff and uh made some videos some training videos for indust industrial industry best management practices so that's pretty exciting um we've also working with the communications team who Chris and his team been amazing for developing the um the leaf it out our new campaign that just rolled out with solid waste to try to educate people and encourage them to use paper bags instead of plastic bags for yard waste or use containers because it keep it when we mulch it it it gives us a much better product and there's a lot less contamination and we don't really want plastic in that so something that we're really we're excited about that um and finally we are working with the communications team and we'll be coming back next year when we draft something um a a a template for a the bear can um a rebate type program I know that's been a ongoing issue and so we're we're working um internally and then we'll be bringing something back to you next year to to discuss so me again all right as far as Watershed um we had our restoration projects I know you all are very familiar with the little Kiva so we're we're wrapping up the um the work all the restoration work we're doing on the Eastern Channel just in time for the um rainy season and we are also so um finally received our EPA or uh uh Congressional earmark from um for that project just very recently 688,000 so that will be we'll be using that for this final cleanup of the and tidying up of the Eastern Channel and we're also working with St John's um Water Management District staff we've met with them a few times they've been out with us on site to come up with a long-term um protection and restoration plan and one of the actual the CIP projects we have that's in the approve you know in our on our CIP plan right now is to identify a permanent um um sedimentation Basin Upstream of the little the area so we're we're looking forward to that um as far as Lake Jessup um our ongoing restoration activities there last year we did Shoreline restoration of almost 400 Acres uh 8,000 linear feet I think we planted more than 23,000 plants and this is ongoing we've been working um little by little on improving the shorelines along there for the last probably 10 years we also um have received last year a million dooll legislative appropriation that we're also working very closely with St John's staff to come up with to to to co-fund to help um cost share with them on some of the in Lake restoration and they've got a couple of projects that they're working on right now one's like in in Lake inactivation and one is um an like offsite in the old Aqua fiber site to do some um like media um bold and gold type of of water quality improvements um next is mosquito control so I know most of you all know this but just for those who may not our mosquito control program uh it serves the entire County it's not just unincorporated so it's it's a lot of are area and we have a a field staff of seven full-time employees and two part-time employees so it's a lot of area to cover um and they do an amazing job and I just want to run through some of the stats um last year they treated over 18 185,000 Acres they performed uh over 11,000 inspections they processed more than 2600 work order requests they collected over a thousand Sentinel chicken blood samples they set 1,200 mosquito traps they collected and ided almost 200,000 mosquitoes as all part of our science-based uh surveillance program and this year to date um they've already equaled or or surpassed on some of those um and we're just really getting into the the mosquito season the rainy season now so um they're doing an amazing job and we're very proud of them so next Our Lake man ment program so our Lake management program currently has 23 Lake management msbu we have three that are currently in process um that will be coming we likely be coming forward including Twin Lake and the West crystal chain lakes with the City of Lake Mary as well as bear goly um we are excited that we finally hired our senior scientists for the shoreline Protection Program and that was an internal promotion and we were able to hire already someone to replace them that position so excited about that uh water quality program you know they do a lot to uh Monitor and and look at the trends for our water quality for our lakes rivers and streams and they collected last year almost 9,000 water chemistry samples and over 5,500 samples this year to date let's see and finally last but not least our Solid Waste team um they've done some amazing things too and I we're excited to have the chairman come out next next Wednesday a week from today just get all that big equipment ready for me to drive all was all those big bulldozers and dumb trucks I'm your guy all the good stuff I'm excited too because I'm going to get to drive them as well so some of our highlights this year we've uh our our landfill to landfill gas to energy uh private public partnership as you all know we expanded our agreement um and extended it and some of the the two big things with that is that they're going to um uh construct a leee evaporation system which will be great on so many things it's going to you know save us costs it's you know when we get into these emerging contaminants posos and stuff like that we're going to be containing that um as well as they are purchasing a landfill gas um flare for us that ours was is reached the end of its useful life so that's saving us $800,000 and um and a better I think um cost share on everything else so um some of the other things that we're doing with capital projects resurfacing of the central transfer station tipping floor which is something that's long past due um that will be brought on our next agenda your next agenda for approval um the expansion of the landfill citizens area which is necessary to improve efficiency capacity and safety um we've com pleaded the refurbishment of the four lift stations that handle our leech aate out at the landfill which were which were woefully over over um do and we're also finalizing the the Telemetry system so they'll all talk to each other and'll be automated which is great um our our team has done a really great um job we have a really really good team I think Oliver's brought together and we've done a lot to improve the efficiency of the operations at both the landfill and the transfer station um and I think we've seen that um throughout we've also are finalizing we had to kind of go back and we have a master plan we're working on with solid waste and we are bringing that for I think we're in the final stages of that we'll be bringing that forward to you for briefings and then bring it to the board um the operations so one of the things too we we kind of I didn't touch on but I think the list had said we had 15.5 vacancies at the mo as of um I guess last week but as of yesterday was down to five and a half 5.5 so about 5% we're really excited about that we've had a lot of good luck working with a temporary agency which a couple of those vacancies are filled with right now we put them in for 90 days and then we ended up you know if they work out well that we hire them we've had really good luck with that with retention of that we had four that started uh Monday and a couple that that are in process so like I said we're down to five and a half so we're really excited about that um the transfer station again I think I mentioned this before we've had improved efficiencies and operation and that that's working a lot a lot better these days um our final thing our final item on my on our presentation is is one of our challenges that we're working on internally as well as with our partners is addressing the recycling costs as you all have know we we've mentioned it previously and we're all as part of that we're also working with the Seven Cities and actually we have two more we have maand and Winter Park who we have exclusive uh interlocal agreements with we're working with them on that to address that as well as modernize the our local agreements they were all kind of done over the years at different times and getting everyone on the same page and making it consistent and fair for everyone so with that I'm finished and if you would like to ask any questions I'm happy to take them thank you Miss warberg uh we'll start with commissioner Constantine well it's kind of like what I said with um Johnny in the last program I mean this is you're on the firing line right now and u it's so important to start out I'm sorry what a way to start out and you know that the the opportunities that we have right now in all of the areas with with what you're doing Kim I I have a great deal of of confidence in you and your staff but um I know the challenges that you have before you and I'm looking forward to I think all of it is um is wrapped around the the holistic water policy and so that is a major you know accomplishment when and if we get it completed and uh I look forward to that and as far as everything else please be safe with with the chairman don't let him drive around and all those that equipment no matter what he says he really doesn't know he may have 15 cars but he really doesn't know how to drive all of this big heavy equipment you ask for absolutely I did let my CDL lapse about 10 years ago so that there there's a problem fabulous Comm Mr lockart you might have to get that renewed I know we might have other duties as a signed for you driving driving buses I might be mowing the RightWay out there bues buses Chad here's your first employee y um so much work how do you how do you eat an elephant right one bite at a time and I think that is exactly where you are all right now prioritizing along with the county manager what what comes next um there is just so much um obviously Lake management and water quality is huge we the just reiterate the one water holistic water water water everywhere but not a drop to drink um is is just so um so critical for us to figure out the Direction moving forward once we get that established I think everybody will then have their marching orders and things will come together much much more um fluidly um I do I do I would like to have and I know we've said work session like six times today and every time commissioner her's eyes roll back in her head but I do think we need to have a philosophical discussion along with a financial discussion about Recycling and I know you're bringing that back to us but it it's it's be it's another thing that is becoming almost sustainable if we don't start doing something a little bit different and just from a personal perspective I would love it if we could figure out a way to do composting so that residents could go and and get comp free compost and what a great way to deal with some of the vegetative waste and um I don't know how long that would take to get something like that pulled together but that would be my my personal little wish list it's such a far drive they could buy the compost somewhere else cheaper no it could be at the central transfer station we've started some um excuse me pilot programs no we've started some we've talking to some of the um local um agencies and some businesses as well so we are we're looking at that we don't have anything enough to talk to you about yet well and as far as it being a far drive a rationally passionate gardeners used to drive out to zelwood to Monterey mushroom and pick up mushroom compost um I've heard so so uh the landfill is not that far great well following the commissioner delari thank you Mr chairman Kim you're all doing a great job and as the other Commissioners said you know there's so much going on especially in your area as well as other areas that it's very difficult to maneuver through all this but I think you're all doing a great job uh when it comes to the compost I know we've talked about company called otown when they actually pick up your kitchen scraps and they deliver compost right to you at a small modest fee so uh hopefully we can look at something like that I think the commissioner spot on on that as well uh we did a while number of years ago have a partnership with DOT on the Watershed uh in soldiers Creek about the Alum system how's that working we spent a lot of money on that we we are um we' had some we'd had a one of the pumps was down but uh it's back online now and so we are it is it is functional now I I know it's functional but the question I have is since it was a lot of money both on the state and the county level how's it working not if it's working it has when it's when it's been functional it has worked well okay we've had we've had some mechanical um issues with it but can we get some in can we get some updates individually on that that'd be greatly appreciated because that is quite quite a bit of expense we just need to make sure we're spending dollars effectively enough but know honestly I think you're all doing a great job thank you very much commissioner her I think you just described most Italian cars when they're functional they are great FES it again Tony um so I congratulate you for not finding the extra six grand to get the 3% number one just got that I got a laugh from the accountant was that a mistake an error um your vacancy rate is a huge Improvement and that's fabulous I would tell you that I think you need to check our insurance policies I know Bill's in the room because he doesn't have a CDL license and he just announced it from the dis and he's going to drive our equipment I'm not going drive for and I just know how that goes on the back end it's ugly I do I actually had recycling on my list of things to talk about I do think that there needs to be some education around recycling that and I didn't see that in the in the discussion I think half of the population doesn't think we really recycle it so they do whatever they want to do in the bins um the other half is trying really really hard and then not 100% certain that it actually gets recycled and there's probably some education that would lower our cost as well and I'm sure that's in the considerations I'm seeing other communities change what's in those bins and I supect that we've not changed it for a long long time and what ends up getting recycled is really not what we're sticking in those bins and I'm seeing is that yeses we actually have a pull your mic there you go we actually have uh one of the lowest contamination rates in the region um and that's part of the reason we've kind of stuck with the the bin approach um when you when you build up to the biger wheelie bins looks like a trash can people treat it like a trash can so we actually have we actually have very good contamination rates um and in regard to the recycling Outreach um last week we actually started uh working with Chris and his team to make a video from Curb to the Final Destination uh we're hoping to even in uh incorporate a recycler at the final end to come up with an end product just to visually show people that you know once it leades that curb you know people see it come in the transfer station they assume it's just one big flaw you know and it's just getting co-mingled and we want to kind of uh expunge that myth so it's fabulous that is all I have great thank you well the first thing I'll say is on the water quality issue I think Kim's done done great work there and I think we're we're we find ourselves in semal County ahead of the curve if you will because we have funded so many Lake nutrient studies through through the county which arguably many counties have not done um and and we deserve credit from for that from our state and D when it comes to what we're entitled to receive through that um the other thing I'll say about the St John's tributaries like like uh Jessup and those unfortunately as we saw on the news don't swim in those tributaries at night because alligators are everywhere um I will tell you that this I know this sounds weird and sort of corny but I'm thrilled about the Tipping floor yeah I mean long time coming because my second year here I was asked by Fleet to come visit and showing me all the damage that these trucks were taking because they were doing the omen work and the additional work of unhooking connecting trailers off trucks and so forth I'm like this is so inefficient where's the Tipping floor we don't have one I'm like really so I'm thrilled that we've got a tipping floor so this is like four years coming um that's great news uh fantastic Oliver I can't say enough how how good and well you have done out there I've heard it from my citizens um for those that are not aware uh Oliver actually has uh his staff go and actually pick up trash along the roadways on Oola road which is in my district because that's where everybody's hauling the trash and we're hauling the big rigs out there and things are flying out in people's yards um so good work I sincerely appreciate that a lot that's been a a real sore spot in in in my districts um you know because everybody in y'all's District come out to my district to bring the trash you take your trash out to zener's district and that's all good um but but I I do want to know are are we going to be enforcing these covered loads uh costs and and I think i' I've had the sheriff's department involved from a patrol standpoint um engage with citizens and I know you've engaged with the citizenry and thank you very much for we actually had because unscrupulous people do what unscrupulous people do um didn't want to go into the dump because of some costs involved and then just went on the private Dirt Road in my district and dumped a dump truck load in the private road that serves 20 other residents dump truck thank you for going over there and picking that up those people you you have no idea how thrilled they were um my office was really thrilled too because they were all just wearing deor out on you know and and how bad the county was and we've got to do something so thank you very much uh for that oversight could I to that I'm I'm sorry I just want to spread that thanks to my team because I don't do this alone we got a great team right absolutely you know we got there the people on the ground doing the picking up but we understand you know we're part of that Community we got to act like it and be responsible with what we do you know there's some inevitable trash and everything that's going to happen but we try and do everything we can to mitigate that and keep everyone happy and uh like you we've had some great feedback so we're really happy that that's paying off good again thank you very much for that that attention Mr I what you had done thought you were done I would also share a story Oliver may not know this cuz he was not here and the the then landfill manager who's no longer here I had made a promise to him not to share this and I I feel I can share this now because he's no longer employed but when I was first elected I was given a tour of the landfill and I was given a tour the landfill one of the F150 four-wheel drives and he's covering showing me all the territory you know the Boris Nest property and all that which is adjacent it was Solid Waste intention and he got the truck stuck and I said well just move over and let me have have a go at and he's like I said I'll get it unstuck and he's looked at me and and Deborah was with us my Aid and she goes oh he'll probably get it unstuck he's like well you can't tell anybody this is so embarrassing and he says I don't want to get a commissioner all dirty and muddy I said I've been in worse places than this trust me we got it unstuck which was great he was thrilled to death he was fearful they were going to have to call somebody else come out there pull us out him be exposed for all that um it it was a great adventure um those things happen it's it's it's typical normal stuff but then finally in this in this recycling thing um I don't have a lot of information on it so just's get a briefing in the fall in in my private sector business I work with other experts that have other professions and vocations and one I work with is a chemical um scientist and uh he was sharing with me uh that he has been working for several years with a big Corporation who has now supposedly found the solution for recycling to where the costs are either completely eliminated for the municipalities that they actually will set up a facility at the landfills take all these recyclables and they actually have found a technology to turn them into other products at an efficient and coste effective rate that they can turn a profit as soon as I get that I'll I'll pass it on or or maybe we can go together or whoever wants to go um that's supposed to happen in the fall um so I think there there is emerging Technologies I know we and I don't know if we're still using the glass to cover roads as as as one benefit of getting rid of glass but it ends up being a cost issue uh you know people always think and if I think you have the regular citizen oh everybody recycles plastic and it gets built into something else well we got to pay to have that hauled away in most cases where it didn't used to be that way um so thank you all very much we sincerely appreciate it I've gone on long enough thank you yes mrman I just have one quick question if I me yes commissioner I think delari was asking earlier than Constantine whatever uh since we're talking about the Tipping floor I know that the fire pressure system and the transportation has been out for a number of years is there any schedule when you think we'll be able to repair it I know we've been working with facilities on that for the last few years uh I know um Oliver told me this morning that there's a preon meeting for that project so sometime soon yeah and I've actually at when you uh we were talking at the bre commissioner delar and I was so I have them briefing uh you right after this as well thank you or get on your calendar however you want to do it and I just wanted I just want to re reiterate on your point there's a lot of emerging technologies that the state and everybody's working on on on recycling so I you know we don't want to you know I I I really hope that we're looking at all the possibilities CU I think that it's just about ready to turn the corner that we can start seeing a positive outcome on this as opposed to what has happened over the recent past uh the one thing that I wanted to add to this because we were all getting these uh we're coming into this summer season obviously the rainy season but we're already seeing some blue green algae reports and everything where I mean are we are we prepared for that are we ready to you know are we ready to go out and Tackle those things because that's that can be the worst thing that can happen in a in a a lake like Lake cow and other places like that where you know just the whole summer they're they cannot use their lake or their or the other water facilities so are we um what do we what do we see coming down the line Shannon want a watershed management um so we continue just to coordinate the D takes the lead with the harmful ELO Bloom sampling and they post all the results on their ELO Bloom dashboard um but typically we work hand inand with them if we get a report from a citizen we'll go out and confirm they'll come out and Sample and then there's an sop that alen Harris's group has put together too with getting the notifications out to the residents around that Lake um how we typically see a Blu green alga bloom in that Cove area of l h about once a year um and it's still they just sampled last week so it's still out there so they've got a warning um because they do have some toxins but we try to message that's an msbu Lake as well so our Lake management folks have been in communication too just to let people know you know it's not Lake wide luckily um but still people just have to use caution so but we're staying on top of De also um you know to make sure that we you know the worst thing that can happen is is that people go out see the Blu green can't use their Lake and you know they just get frustrated um so we have to be aggressive at it it's not only the informant but also I know it goes across different areas of the of the county um when I'm talking about uh departments but I mean coordinating this to make sure that we have a a response as quickly as we possibly can yes commissioner lockart um back to garbage on the side of the road so while we're talking about um the co the needed covering for the transfer trucks and the fees that were associated with that if we're not covered one of the things that I see in my district a lot is um particularly outside apartment communities people have put their trash bag on the roof of their car on their trunk of the car thinking that they're going to remember to drop it off at the dumpster on the way out and they forget it and they drive out and it is strewn all over the side of the road um I can name really you live terrible I mean it am I is it just in my District No I can tell you I've seen that frequently uh you can tell the community where they have a centralized garbage disposal because you'll see that quite frequently so yeah people don't want to put it in the car they just check it on the roof or on the trunk they drive out newart inally have the valet garbage service they have they they have accounted for it but these older communities where there is just a dumpster and you've got to go dump your garbage in it if you forget on the way out it's all over it's up and down 46a it's down 1792 it's it's wherever is there anything from a policy perspective that we can look at um to remind people to to keep the apartment communities accountable how do we because it's I don't I hate to think that it's our our teams that are having to go pick up trash on the side of the road because someone forgot I just I just want to throw that out there for discussion for future how we can help mitigate that because it it's a significant problem um in in my circles the only thing I could say that we're doing right now is we do have a a several I don't know how many off the top of my head but there are multiple roads in the county that that are you know we have the adopter road program and so we have multiple um groups that do that have adopted roads and I I I know the state roads have the the same kind of program too but that's just as far as you know going out quarterly or I think it's um at least quarterly to go out and pick up trash along the road yeah and that that fls outside of our area the actual private collection in those communities um you know we we handle the residential um so I'm sure there are potentially regulations or something that could be passed to kind of help with those um but it's not something we have any control over right now um the appropriate storage of garbage within a private apartment community is handled by the Department of Health uh EAP 3 teams will occasionally respond just to kind of help um because what you often see is that the community may skimp Pond collection how frequently they collect um and you'll see a buildup a trash and that you know that encourages that behavior people might say oh I'm going to go dump it somewhere else and it doesn't make it that far okay all right thank you very much we could we could work with Chris's team as well though to come up with some you know an education or Outreach or you know targeted as far as that goes it's almost like leaving your baby in the back seat with the windows up I don't think it's anything like that I'm talking about being forgetful about what you've just done um just saying so I I I think when we build a Department complexes we ought to have signage that's required that says please don't drive off with the trash on the hood of your car or whatever it may be cuz some not all of them do have that ballet service um depending on what we're building in that was my attempt at recovering probably rather Fe next up Community Services thank you all thank you thank you bad we're waiting poor Allison I almost had a president welcome to your 1:00 meeting said break return at 1: p.m. yeah break [Music] return everyone sit up next is Community Services led by Allison Thal we have four divisions community Assistance veteran services Community Development and Community Health the funding slide for this department uh it's a little unique uh the grant funds are an estimate as of the printing of the document we don't have all of our grant funds included but we are estimating about 60% general fund and 40% Grant funds for the department when we have the final adopted budget so to commissioner zembower's point um we did have some increases in the department that could not be absorbed into the 3% so uh if you remove the unfunded mandates for Medicaid medical examiner Health Department uh the other budgets in the department did grow from 830 to $856,000 or 3% but the overall budget increase for the Department is 5.9% the uh this slide shows the budgets for the unfunded mandates um totaling uh $10.2 million and there um their non-base or Capital program we have a total of uh $ 2.77 million as of the printing of this document and it includes $500,000 for the attainable housing program total FTE uh in the department are 51 in the current budget with the proposal for one new FTE bring up to 52 and with that I'll turn it over to Allison thank you Tim good afternoon Allison Thal Community Services director and with me today I have my team Stacy Smithwick uh my Community Development Division manager Kelly Welsh Community Health division manager Jason Al housee our veteran service officer and Carrie longsworth my community Assistance division manager um so just this new position this is fingers crossed the very last of the American Rescue plan act money this is from our home Grant um home is one of our HUD projects so um HUD has given us um a little bit of of ARP money to apply to the home program we are asking for a limited term Grant funded position to help us spend our home funds we actually have until 2030 to spend the money so it's a good length of time uh it won't take us near that long to spend it so that's my that's my one FTE so going into my highlights we're going to start with Community Development um I know you had a big we had a big presentation on this last week but our just to talk our cdbg funds have been able to assist with five of our nonprofit organizations with some of the larger capital projects such as big roof Replacements and bathroom renovations to help meet ADA requirements and as Rick dir pointed out we were able to assist Parks and Recreation with performing upgrades at two of the county parks we worked with Jamestown Park and the Kanani Park our home funds um have helped subsidize construction of seven affordable homes for first-time home buyers ship down payment assistance helped eight first-time home buyers purchase homes and um lastly we had 15 existing homes throughout the community that have been reconstructed or repaired to restore a health and safe um um a healthy and safe living environment for those residents and on the community assistant side our team was able to provide permanent housing and intensive case management to over 80 homeless families these 80 families represent over 300 adults and children um over and above assisting our homeless families we've also assisted 12 chronically homeless individuals actually increased their income through part-time work and Social Security benefits um our standard individual assistance program assisted over 200 low income households for rent and deposit assistance and our storefront continues to be a true huge benefit to our residents as over 900 individuals have visited the office with 228 actually utilizing our on-site computers for application assistance so this um my next slide hold on I may have skipped for oh sorry no I'm catching up with myself so my next slide actually shows the work that we have done for an elderly bookertown resident um who had limited Mobility historically she would actually call fire rescue to help her enter and vacate her home um so our ship funds put in place an electric chair um a concrete landing pad and we were able to help widen her side her side entry doorway our veteran service officers um all three of them continue to assist our veterans and their dependence on a daily basis assistance is provided equally um effectively whether it is in person or by electronic means and as a result of our direct contact our veteran service officers have secured over 6 6 million in retroactive monetary benefits to hundreds of our veterans the additional Financial benefits are over and above what our current monthly benefits are for these for our our veterans who we have been helping on the community health team they have been busy infiltrating all corners of the county by showing up to Community Health Outreach events presenting at clubs and organizations making inhome visits to provide case management to assist with securing services such as fall prevention food insecurity assistance and medication management um as a result of our encounters with our residents over 2,000 referrals have been made um additionally with our pool safely Grant over 500 pool safely door alarms and eight pool alarms have been distributed this grant has also been able to provide survival swim lessons to seminal County children ages 6 months of age and up and approximately 25% of the registered students are either Autistic or have other developmental disabilities super cool program finally we've been able to continually work with our collaborative Partners to finalize the initial launch of our opioid settlement funds this slide identifies the four proposed categories our funds shall be applied to we are currently in the process of having briefings with each of you to provide further detail and we also shared this information with the sheriff's office so our formal request for approval for the launch of this is actually going to be on the June 25th commission agenda that's it thank you all very much for being here and and Allison I will um say that I saw you come down here with your staff and didn't miss a beat you you were not anticipating some loud voice becking out making some statement so and our apologies for that by the way and and we appreciate your you're taking that as for what it was and uh as always you all are doing great work um I continue to say it uh from where we originated from and when you all came in and what's what type of work's taking place today as as well as collaborating not only with the other teams within the county but those stakeholders that are not part of the county just speaks volumes of your attention and your willingness to work through that uh the Veterans Services I don't know there's a whole lot else to say there that you know that we're very happy with with what's going on there that what services we provide to them and and the events that we have and honoring those that make it available for us to be even here today so we sincerely appreciate that very much commissioner her I I have nothing to add job well done great work um I would offer to my fellow Commissioners that when the item I've already had my briefing when the item comes before us for the proposed use of the opioid settlement that you keep a keen ear out toward prevention we spend a lot of effort on after the horses left the barn so prevention needs to be where we're focusing just just a little bit of food for thought commission gari thank you Mr chairman your staff always done a phenomenal job every one of the different divisions of your department I've not yet had my briefing that's coming on Thursday I'm looking forward to it and uh well done commissioner lockart would an additional veteran services officer be appropriate it would and we've actually been able to make that happen because I do have a vacancy that I am reclassifying that is already already have um funded um that I'm actually reclassifying for a veteran service officer so thank you yes I I love the events but I I do hear that you all do a lot with very few people you see a lot of a lot of veterans who have needs and um it's it's tough to get them all through in a timely way and and give them all the time that they need we know that they there's not a quick conver ation um when it comes to those um those citizens who who need help and time so okay great commissioner Constantine yes Allison now all of you are doing a great job we talked earlier this week and um I'm just so proud of what you're doing I I do appreciate the fact that we're really trying to bolster the the the trust fund for in uh affordable attainable housing um and how important that is uh to to work on that I I I concur with I I haven't gotten my briefing but I concur with all the aspects that I've been um involved with with the opioids that that prevention is so important right now and it's not just once they're there housing them everything and and so I'm I'm excited about our grant and what we're going to do with it and uh you know obviously continuing to work with the state and and federal um on on what we can do so thank you very much and uh let's try to get back on schedule yeah so uh just a quick follow up to commissioner her's Point that's the exact discussion I had with staff in my briefing um and and the traditional models simply just don't work um so uh hopefully I'm glad to hear there's others that appear to have the same belief that I do that you know the standard what we believe is recovery is not necessarily recovery it's long-term recovery is what we're looking for which is the prevention part and ensuring once they've gotten all those services that they find their way with some oversight to get integrated back in so great work thank you all very much Mr Gray Mr Gray has some comments to make on this matter as well yes just one just one comment um and yes you all if you haven't already we'll be getting the opioid settlement funding briefing it is on next week's agenda but if you remember during December workshop with the sheriff we had talked about the what we call the hope and healing 2 we call it that building that's at alamont Springs you know that um we have separated that out of this uh discussion uh Trisha Johnson and I are we've already had a a meeting I've actually had a couple Trisha joined me this week a meeting with uh both Advent health staff um with the CEO of the AL hospitals uh uh Advent Health hospital as well as the sheriff staff and um one of the directions just to make clear that you all had brought to me during or told me during that discussion was that if that goes through say if that building goes through at the end of the at that 5-year period of the lease that they have with that building that we're not left in a sense holding the bag and off and then okay how we going to fund these operations so I have been talking with the sheriff you mentioned the if you remember the sheriff mentioned that yesterday he I I took it from him in a sense so so we're leading that that piece Trisha and I both are leading that piece so that will be coming to you in the next couple months about if there is a plan and if there isn't what what the next steps for us are so I just wanted to give you a update on that great thank you very much thank you all very much enjoy the rest of your day next up is going to be development services does anybody need a break or anything for any reason yeah we move on oh I'm fabulous is this your idea to do two in a row Darren I don't know historically I thought we got through these in the day no no no I'm talking about mult different weeks they were different weeks well we we decided to bring them together with the Constitutional yeah do know duly noted yeah let me know who decided that was a good idea up next is the development services Services Department led by Rebecca hammock we have two divisions uh building department and Planning Development and then they also are responsible for countywide impact fees funding for the Department is 71% from the building fund and 29% from the general fund which covers Planning and Development base budgets so this slide shows an overall base budget reduction of 22% I will point point out that in the Planning and Development Division that does include a um Arbor violation trust fund balance um so it's not a true total reduction of 105,000 um they did have 148,000 reduction in the building fund and a small increase in the uh Planning Development Fund excl excluding the arbor violation uh there in the fy2 proposed budget we have two replacement vehicles um for building inspectors totaling $73,000 and the current FTE are 82 and we are proposing no new positions for a total of 82 FTE in the FY 25 budget that I'll turn it over to Rebecca good afternoon chairman and Commissioners Rebecca hammock development services director I'm here with Lori Meeks who is our financial manager for the Department I'm also here with Dale Hall who is our Planning and Development Division manager and Randy RI Randy Sandy Riley who is is our building division manager I'm renaming you Randy so just to go through a few highlights um for the Planning and Development Division um as you know we did adopt the ear-based comprehensive plan amendments this um this year and we also completed the comprehensive Land Development code updates finally um and we should be they shortly should be caught ified through mun code um so we are reviewing the proof now and the ordinance itself is up online so we're getting very close um to that being finalized and we have begun the rural Enclave small area study that is in process um we are working with our consultant kimley horn on that project and we've had our kickoff meeting we've had one follow-up meeting where they've begun to do some research get some GIS data as well as some utility data and we do have uh site visit set up with them next week uh the three areas that we are planning to study are Lazy Acres the Oak Hollow area which is uh just north of mullik uh north of Orange County which coincidentally is just North of the rocking horse rural Enclave in Orange County and then the other area is the orange Boulevard um area um on the uh west side of the county so from the table um you can see the number of projects that the planning division this is just a sample of the number of projects that the planning division has um processed over the um last years and um year to date um as you can see the rezonings have decreased um our site plans have actually increased um and variances are are about about the same oh before I move on to the Building Division I also did want to mention um as part of the planning division highlights one of the accomplishments that we have um done this year is we have created a better process with with the tax collector's office for the tax deed Surplus um so we have a much improved process where we are making sure that we're notified of any uh tax deed sales Surplus and we have received over $120,000 now um to go towards code enforcement leans from that tax deed Surplus um process so moving on to the building division um some of our highlights this actually just came to the board where we updated chapter 40 in the code of ordinances uh to reflect the changes that were in the Florida bu in Florida building code um we have selected a preferred vendor for our Land Management and code enforcement software we are still we are still um going through contract negotiations and finalizing our scope of work um it and our consultant plant Moran is working very hard and being very detailed oriented um so we're hoping that process is going to conclude soon and then we can bring the uh contract to the board and the other accomplishment this year that I wanted to highlight was Nuance abatement um we have been successful in bringing uh through three properties uh to the board which includes e Williamson and 120 uh South Crystal View so EU Williamson has been demolished and um retro fitted and uh 120 South Crystal View is in the process of having their demolition permits issued for our for our contractor to perform the demolition so as you can see from the table here our number of permits uh for building has decreased over the years um as well as our number of of inspections the the building department has a dedicated funding source 93% come from of that Revenue comes from building permits which Rebecca mentioned are down you can see we're projecting $5.9 million in FY 24 uh and we are project projecting something similar in FY 25 we are looking uh it's important to make sure that the fund is sustainable over the long term so we are looking at some different options to make sure that that happens so as Tim mentioned we are having um some building fund challenges um at the moment and which is causing or is due to decreased building activity and the decreased building activity um is in part due to the very high interest rates there are very high Equity requirements from borrowers currently and there is a lot less available Greenfield development in simal County um in the urban area we're looking at a lot of infield development and a lot of Redevelopment um and the other factor is um especially for for single family residential development is the insurance crisis in the state so in order to address the deficit in the building fund um we do plan to increase building revenues through a proposed fee increase uh the current fee resolution does allow for a maximum of a 3% increase or or the CPI whichever is lower um with ultimate board approval um so we do plan to come to you later this year with proposed fee increases for for building permit fees as well as some of the planning fees um so we'll be proposing those at a later date we have uh Frozen five positions um in the building division currently um these are mainly through attrition uh retirements or people moving on to different positions um so our plan is to closely monitor our expenditures um and the fund in general and then bring to you an update probably in the second quarter of this next fiscal year um to let you know where the fund stands and what our plan is to move forward and with that that concludes um my presentation and and we'd be happy to take any questions thank you very kindly Mr GRE thank you Mr chairman before we um regarding the building fund this was actually put on my radar probably a couple months after I I had gotten here actually Rebecca Trisha both had brought it up to you know to my um attention so what we are we've been monitoring I've been working with Mr J and and the team have been monitor it we're a good year out um so one of the um things that we're actually going to be bringing to you is just what Rebecca had had mentioned to you we're looking at different different options monitoring the building activity um and there's some of the things that we'll be able to do through attrition and other things that through the the building department but we're keeping a very steady eye on it um and I will be bringing that back to you at a work session in a couple months just to okay look to if we need to look at other options sure uh real quickly thank you for allowing me to come work with yall last week as another one of my that wasn't a dirty job though CU it was inside air conditioned and all that um I I'll give some observations here shortly commissioner her so if we bring the building fee back midy year can we actually impact it for this budget year you could um if you if well what Rebecca said we're to bring the building fees to you before the new fiscal year starts um we're doing some research now on surrounding counties just to see where where we are we know that we're probably still in the lower tier of building fees but and I don't know the philosophy of this board that so I'm just getting so before we get even into that we were going to bring that back to you with what the current state of the building uh fund is and then a couple options that we could look at moving forward for impact in this fiscal year okay that was the piece that that was missing with regard to the new vendor for I think I heard Land Management and code enforcement right um I just want to make sure that part of the contractual requirement is connectivity to whatever dashboarding system we're using yes so that has been discussed um a lot of the firms um that we had demonstrations have their own types of Dash boards but my understanding when we discussed it um with the different um vendors is that we can use and maybe James would be the better person to I think it's an API to interface with whatever dashboard that the county chooses and the new software okay so in the contract was my request to just make sure that we don't end up they say they can do it in the presentation and then they end up not doing it or there's hidden fees for doing it because that's very common yes and those fees escalate outside of the contractual Arrangement and then 2.4% vacancy rate and that's fabulous thank you for everything you do oh thank you commissioner lari thank you Rebecca thank you and your staff for all your hard work as many times I'm sure the other Commissioners feel the same way that we have questions and you're always very attentive to address the questions and I hear nothing but compliment from uh the citizens when you talk about the 104 account I understand that the revenue is going down but so is the amount of permit can you address that as well so we've seen a significant decrease in building activity especially new development um so I can understand why the fee why the revenue is going down because the permit numbers are going down exactly yes and so are the not all permits are the same I mean if you're getting a fence permit in reference to a house permit is totally different permit so we're going to be looking at that so we can actually see the numbers so we can compare Apples to Apples sure we can and you're correct so with a single family home there's a numerous emails or I'm sorry um numerous permits that go with a new single family home and so a lot of what we're seeing and and maybe Sandy can speak to this is because of the high interest rates a lot of people are deciding to do additions or they're doing accessory dwelling units and they're doing alternative things instead in staying within their existing home and so yes there's different type permits less permits um than you would traditionally see with a new structure but I'd also Imagine with the technology that we're trying to purchase to reue revolutionize the department there should be savings to actually process things quicker that would actually help the uh cost of the actual expenditure side agreed I definitely think we're going to see efficiencies on the building permitting side where the technology is going to take a lot of the burden off of staff and it's not always about raising fees it's about being more efficient so I'm looking forward to seeing that yes and that will be helpful to us if we do have to freeze additional positions in in the future through attrition okay thank you just a clarification on that uh I'm watching the trend and what's been supplied to us but I note as of this year at the end of the first five months you're at over 60% of what it was last year seven month was seven months going still to go I'm just going by what St what staff just said staff saying that permit number is down correct oh that's right correct and our revenues are down our revenues are down too so they both trending down I can see why that's happening yes and that's what we're bringing to you in a couple so we're we're looking at all of that so to all the trends all the permit the data you like a fence permit's different than a house permit absolutely pool permit's different than an addition right so we need to look at all of that and compare apples to apples right thank you and and since the permits are based on the permit fees are based on valuation of the work so we could have a high number of permits but those permit fees may be low because it may be for something that's not at a high valuation I'm going to maybe disagree respectfully because with the high cost of construction the permit fee should be going up because of the value of construction and labor is going up maybe we're not assessing it correctly commissioner lockart so I would just say having been through a permitting process recently for um a structure at my house the homeowner gets to determine what the value of the work is some people may not be terribly honest I'm just saying I mean I've I've seen people write on their permits you know that they were able to do a whatever you know 400t addition for $20,000 so they got to Ed how much their fee was by valuing the work themselves and you and you did what on your application I was very honest because I've seen other people in this organization in the past and building permits and public records so um and how how much did it cost to build a chicken coup I'm tired I don't know permit for the chicken coop because it was under the square footage required yeah this this was for the uh for the summer kitchen um which you can't cook it in the summer cuz it's too freaking hot so it's actually a winter kitchen um so do do we ever look at that number that someone's put down there and go why don't you try again they do yes yeah so they they do and if it's completely unrealistic I know that the um building official will question um the the amount of the evalu of the of the valuation I don't know Sandy can you address that anymore yeah a lot of times what will happen is um they use an ICC table to determine the valuation um and so that's one way that we have found that the fees have not the valuations have not been correct on the applications and we will take then and use the ICC table valuation um as well as uh the building official had looked into some of the miscellaneous permits that were coming coming in um such as a rewire for a house and they were telling us that they were rewiring a house for $1,500 uh he reached out to some of the um contractors to find out what the actual valuation was and so he has given us a uh dollar amount to times the square footage of the house to determine what we believe the valuation should be and then that is typically what is used they always have the opportunity to provide us with an estimate that was provided to uh the homeowner for labor and materials and if it's proven to be less than that then we use that cost okay um so couple of different things the the most recent example that we had relating to the cost of construction it's not just with pulling your permit but also with what the doubling of that fee would be if you neglected to pull it to begin with did we ever find out what what that how those fees are determined or what percentage or there was a there was a an unanswered question from the last board meeting that was supposed to come back to us so Bob did inform me at that meeting he went back and did a quick calculation that based on the valuation of the work his permit fee would have originally been about $500 so the double fee will be approximately a th000 and so the $500 original fee was based on the fact that he declared that the work on the dock was going to be so it would have included the sighting the new sighting on the boat house the dollar I'm trying to figure out what the percent is what's the per what what are what's a multiplier right yeah 10% 2% .5% let me find that out and then I'll email that information that way you have it in writing it it um it dovetailed into the announcement that building fees are going up and I was like they are so are these the building fee are the the building fees that were referenced in the public meeting are is this what's coming to us or is that a separate situation of building fees going up that's unrelated to the direction of the board one and the same um so we are proposing um to bring forward to the board for discussion increasing the building permitting fees and um some of the planning fees um and so we wanted to the the way the resolution reads now is that on an annual basis we can bring forward increases to the fees um that equal CPI up to a maximum of 3% with board approval okay and maybe what we ought to do is just regularly proactively rather than having the building department decide when when they might want to that we take the proactive approach of saying we want to see this every two years y the directors and I have already and Mr J have already had that discuss question um and we have pieced it this year like you've seen we're going to have that as part as the budget process on we're we're going to have a fee resolution with and a directory with all of our fees in there we're going to be looking them at an annual basis and if any of them need to be updated it's going to go through the budget process so you all see it during the budget work sessions as well we've had those discussions so this year we just kind of piecing them together next year you'll see that as part of the process okay and I know you know the fluctuation and the roller coaster of building is I mean that's just the one thing that's a constant is that it's not constant and you know we we scale up and then we scale down and then we scale up and we scale down and so I think if if we're at a point in time where we know we're not having a lot of Permitting regardless of the type of permit what a great opportunity to do some of the um structural changes and modifications when things are kind of a little bit slower so you know with the whole never waste a good crisis um that would be that would be my my thoughts on that um relative to uh credit card fees and it's not just for for this or for this department but I've seen it in all of the others are we recouping those fees or was that a legal opinion that we cannot um pass those fees on because I've seen them in almost every single budget for each department I don't I can find out do you we do charge a convenience fee if someone uses a credit card so we have to budget for them um for the credit card fees but we do recoup it through Revenue can we confirm that the recouping is actually paying for the fee sure yes we'll find out I can say there are like with animal services we do not charge a fee there were a couple areas where we were considering it a cost of business but in the building department we do charge a fee and at the time that we said it it did Cover but we we look at it okay all right and then the last thing since we brought up the chicken coou um I know that we're waiting on mun code to upload the our latest chicken code which uh we did over year ago so in January it was adopted in January um it was just January 24 oh my gosh time flies in your but we are chicken yeah but we are bringing um to you at the next board um in J at the meeting in July to remove it from chapter 20 um that's caused quite a bit of confusion so maybe moving forward when we when we adopt something new just bring to us the repealer of the old yes agree we yeah yes the county attorney and I after you brought that to our attention we looked at it um we've talked we've discussed that so we're working on a plan all right fantastic thank you so much commissioner Constantine thank you so On a related issue you know since we're going to be looking at the building uh fees um where are we in in relation to the next time we look at impact fees actually Rebecca can answer that I I asked the same question recently and she provided that so we we've been keeping track of um we have a table so we wouldn't So based on what the code requires for um every four years this coming fiscal year is really when the study should be performed and then the following fiscal year is when we would bring them to you to consider if we want to increase the impact so at 2425 is when we're going to do the study and then then and that is in the budget yes now yes in fact Rebecca had actually sent that out to the affecting departments that to make to ensure they included that in the budget because just to reiterate all of us agreed that we're not waiting another 20 25 years for their impact Fe study I think we made it pretty clear yeah in fact what I'll do we'll send you that table because it was just sent to to me a couple weeks ago when I asked the question so I'll send that to all of you so you see where it is the impact fee and where it is in the process in fact didn't we incorporate it in the ordinance it is yes that's what I thought that's so we have to do the study yeah but I wanted make sure where I wanted to know where it was CU we're talking about building fees and usually we do the building fees first and then the impact fees but it sounds like we're going to do them at the same time the other thing that I was wondering about is um we have private provider discounts we do yes how does that affect the the impact I mean the the the fees that we're doing and the cost and the budget and everything else like that and should we take a look at that also since we're taking a look at building fees if we should take look at the discounts that we do for private providers yes absolutely um they do work instead of they do inspection inspections you know the legislature passed that U some AG that they can do that so part of our at the same time we do give substantial um discounts and I just want to know how that is affecting everything within the context of the building fees be so when we're looking at one we should be looking at the whole that be a part of it yes yes so if someone you can choose to use private provider for plan review or inspections or you can choose to use for plan review and inspections and then we have percentage discounts if you do use the private providers um however one of the things that has come to our attention that we do want to look at with the fee updates is that it's still a lot of Staff time on the administrative side and so we may need to look at um charging an admin fee for the private providers and I just wanted to bring that up since we're doing the one that we should look at all of it including that because I do understand that you still have work despite the fact that they come in they provide it you've got to you know verify exactly and then um but private providers still make up a very small percentage of overall permits okay thank you anything else commissioner commissioner Constantine you're good yes thank so thank you um couple things to the some of the questions that we already asked to elaborate and I point out to my fellow Commissioners you heard some of the answers on how things are calculated and and I will tell you my concern is this I had a case in my district related to this where IC values were utilized this was after Hurricane Ian arguably the ICC square footage is not accurate for this geographic area um I ended up calling multiple contractors and even the the um Associated building contractors Association just to get an idea what what the square footage would be to build a similar structure here in the center Florida specifically simol County area and it was 38% low from the ICC number to what the actual cost was here so when it comes to how we calculate to commissioner Locker's Point cost of permits and so forth I think we may want to do a little more due diligence on specific for our geographic area um that is also and I've had the conversation with the county attorney we have some ordinances that actually use the ICC code which caused some problems um and how that's valued versus what are the other opportunities we also heard which I've always had a concern with is a putting putting staff in a position that will never be consistent when you ask a building official how much for this wiring project right and he or she picks up the phone and calls two or three of the common contractors about how much would this be how do we ensure that every building official carries that forward in the same context at the same level and how should that be updated or do we just call randomly just every time that question comes up I don't think that is a viable way to or efficient way to do it I I I think we should reach out to I don't know Associated building contractors somebody or or some other entity um Urban Land planning groups or somebody that might be able to point to and then some way to update that whether it's every two years four years five years or whatever the case might be because as we know the cost to build something today when the economy turns could drop 10 15% in two years um and working on the honor System I get it um but to commissioner Lockhart's Point some ridiculous numbers out there and of course you know do we really want to put our our employees in the position of questioning that without some measure direct measuring device that we can point to and go well that's not correct um so so that's my thoughts on that um the other issues are the infill development um and Redevelopment projects and we just recently had one of these before us at the last meeting with a shopping center to be converted to storage and I think myself maybe someone else had the the conversation then if we know we're going to have Redevelopment and that's really where the focus of simol County pretty much is going to be for the foreseeable future would it not be wise for us to look at certain areas and try to identify what could occur what might occur and what may be planned in the future either through the long-term Transportation plan uh or the central Florida Regional plan as to what may impact that area in what we should consider at some point uh or you're going to continue to have every time an infill comes in you're dealing with land use regulations that were designed for something that was built 40 years ago um so that's my thought process on that outside of that um what I didn't see in here was some technology for efficiencies of what I observed when I was visiting with you all last week I was shocked how many filing cabinets are there and I'm like what's all in these filing cabinets well those historical records are they are they all scanned and electronically well somewhere at one point but they're not completed and I'm like so you got to come to these and go find some record from 2030 yeah and I'm like no no no no this is insanity um so I would like to see us do some technology funding um you know dashboards I'm all into all these things but we have some issues with technology through the Departments um that we should and then finally from the inspection process are we doing anything with remote inspections on a cell phone Building Inspections we can give the option the inspectors can give the option to use FaceTime um and they have done that some um and it was utilized some during the pandemic um and the reason I asked that apparently some municipalities have gone to that solely unless it's some extenda circumstance that the building official has to be out there um just a thought you know of cutting costs and and those if we can leverage technology in any way shape or form uh we should be doing it so long as it's cost effective so anyway thank you all very much we sincerely appreciate it keep up the good work thank you thank you so for future reference I think Commissioners get Punchy by the end of the day long day and um commissioner her is intentionally trying to annoy me right now and I just want to she squeak she squeaking her pen I just wanted to see which one I would upset first it was like he's I'm not touching you I'm not touching you does this bother you I'm fine I would point out that I think permitting software should have cost estimators in there that would be G graphically adjusted and if we had the right technology we wouldn't be relying on three phone calls to but I decided not to say that until we got off track all right sgtv right now is having an absolute cor I'm sorry I'll stop Innovation and strategic initiative Department Andre Wester Broner is the office of innovation and strategic initiatives uh that's led by Andrea Wester Broner she's assigned information technology and Resource Management Department which we'll discuss separately uh divisions under her office or Economic Development tourism strategic initiatives and cultural Affairs speaking of Information Technology our funding is 5050 approximately between the tourism funds and our general fund uh the general fund includes Economic Development and strategic initiatives the base budget increase um includes $35,000 for economic development projects that were approved as part of the FY 24 budget which had direct impact in fy2 excluding those the base budget went from 3.51 million to 3.6 million and increase of 3.6% the total non-base projects uh are 57,000 um which includes an annual um allocation of interest for an inter fund loan that we have at our Sports Complex there's 15 FTE in the office and we're proposing no additional FTE to 15 next fiscal year with that I'll turn it over to Andrea good afternoon Commissioners Andrew S Broner director of strategic initiatives and GE kuna is here with me our administrator of Economic Development and Tourism so uh as I sat here earlier today I realized that I chose subconsciously to match the tablecloth but I think there's a good analogy there because outside of Economic Development tourism which is very external facing I feel like the 34s of what our office represents including it and Resource Management you know we want to blend in to support the Departments we're very much to help internal you know Service uh Provisions we are building resources for our departments um we we lend many hands including writing grants for alternative funding outside of general fund which you'll hear and see especially from Resource Management um and I you know even a springboard for some of the Departments to really think about those strategic Partnerships and hopefully each of you has felt like you could come to me with some external Partners where you're like I don't know what department to send this professional or this business to and that we've been able to perhaps find some strategic um opportunities for them within the county so with that uh just a couple of accomplishments you know I've just celebrated a year last last week so very excited um and you know a couple of things that really our team in the office has gelled particularly since January so in the last six months we've been able to hopefully launch that dashboard that y'all are starting to see in uh Trisha and Darren's upcoming monthly report you will have access to the SharePoint uh link it's really living on our SharePoint and then for those of you that are usually not on the VPN offsite we're going to get some safe um secure website for you as well to continuously see all the updates to the dashboard which will be almost weekly um we've been able to streamline our energy bills and audit what's happening across the county we've already seen a low but six figure uh Kickback so at least one or two FTS have already made their their sung for their bread um with what's been kicked back um thanks to ghee we've launched the tourism approv it District ordinance and and thanks to partnering with Kate especially and her team um and very quickly you will see a district plan and hopefully that petition gets kicked off in the next few weeks that's a big big championship for what has happened with our department and we've been awarded two Broadband opportunity programs for Last Mile fiber mostly in um Chairman's district and certainly in in commissioner deli's um and that almost rounds out most of the homes that had that big fiber digital divide so very exciting and that was really um all on spectrums plate doesn't cost us a dime to get that funding here um very proud to launch the cultural Affairs division which um we look forward to collaborating with you more on and I think we've had some really great overlap with using the staff time of Tourism to leverage the website and some great resources to help our cultural um assets in the county and then um actually this number just because of this month we've now pursued $280 million in federal funding in the last few months this month alone $30 million uh one is to basically try to kick back $10 million of the orange Boulevard Transportation project right back to general fund if we're awarded $20 million is to help make our churches and our nonprofits more resilient with a hope that a million dollars of that can go to the rosenal project on top of already existing funding so in Economic Development and Tourism um what we're asking for in our budget is basically to launch and fund um over a dozen business assistance programs that are supporting the 23,000 businesses in the county we know we have more that's just who pays the tax collector um this year alone Sports tourism has secured 60 million we're thinking we're going to actually make more uh in this next year um our our Leisure tourism group and all the marketing and all the work that they do actually supports 1.2 billion in tourism economic impact again we expect because of those efforts and now the inclusion of what we're trying to do with local cultural assets to even get that higher and make that economic impact higher for example the St John's Art Festival alone brings $7 million um to the county and we never really partnered with them so that's just one example of a lot of things we can do to support them and then we're hoping to launch and fund new Workforce Development program supporting over 10,000 residents that could be kids as well as um you know residents that um need a a higher wage and then the Strategic initiatives Innovation group we we look to cultivate the dashboard roll out like I said we have several new updates from the last time you saw it including expenditures and actuals are now available to you um we are constantly developing new procedures policies and prioritization tools for countywide adoption um most particularly is looking at what's Antiquated in the admin code and really working with the departments on having again extra ears and and heads to do some research on those fees and what's competitive around the state and the country um we're deploying organizational development employee leadership training which I look forward to talking all of you about a lot more we're bringing in those new Partnerships and grants as I mentioned in community projects and I just gave an example of what we're trying to bring from the federal level to Rosen Wald but many other projects we've worked very closely with Chad's group as well as with Public Works in particular and then finally the roll out of a sustainability internal working group um to keep going with those efficiencies cost savings and some really interesting Partnerships that could bring new revenue streams to the county um and with that we'll be coming back to you in July with a uh update on sustainability and then that's the conclusion of my presentation thank you very kindly uh I'll try to be real brief um this is one of my favorite ones it's the one in my opinion that most resembles private Enterprise uh looking for new as stated Innovation and and strategies uh to leverage other Technologies and other funding to move the entire mission of the county forward uh as well as developing uh new initiatives and and Cutting Edge technology stuff which is pretty cool stuff so thank you all very much keep up the good work we appreciate it commissioner her I would say ditto I love the energy around seeking grants that we haven't had um isolated in a separate Department from the Departments that are doing all the work looking for the grants which is just a difficult spot to be in and so I think there's great things that can come from this um and it a with a lot of our uh key strategic priorities so I I think it's great stuff thank you commissioner delari thank you Mr chairman uh I see your highlights that you have development of cultural Affairs division I've not really been briefed on that yet correct right it's it's just in its infancy so we will definitely be coming back brief so we haven't really vetted it yet oh yeah there hasn't been enough of and actually it was it fell cultural Affairs fell under uh R's group before and so we just moved it under Andrew what our brers group okay cuz I'm I'm sensing right now that this is something that unless I missed a briefing I've not heard that much about it right there hasn't been much and we we've been talking about when to bring that to the board so you're correct want to make sure so cart and horse yeah yeah and those were just the little some of the shifts same thing with training you'll notice that training's on here we we just looked at that we have uh in Human Resources I had been working with Christina to focus on the recruitment efforts and the employee relations bring it up because there's been a couple things today that have not yet been briefed on and I've made notes right and we will we will do that those are a couple tweaks that we were okay that we're making I just wish that we'd be briefed about it before it becomes part of the budget hopefully you were briefed on this budget but um I will I'll follow up on that we will follow up on that yes commissioner lockart yeah um so because of the shift and departments moving and and things now being under one as I'm looking at the budget detail and Tim you're going to have to walk me through this and we're probably going to have to set up another briefing to go through some of these it appears that if it was not if it in the 24 adopted budget but it whatever it is is in the 25 proposed budget the variance is showing at zero with a 0% increase so um as an example um commissioner I know you're speaking about it would be an error mathematically if it was divided by zero so we did set it up so instead of seeing all that error and message on the report we showed it as zero okay so my strategy of going down the right column is not working um I I would love to see the budget from the cultural Affairs and I see what's in here I see it's Wayne Dench it's the seminal Cultural Arts Council um so I get that we're just we're now doing it under the name of a division essentially yep yep so can we just not create stuff to create stuff I mean we talked about this a little bit before and I'm not it is the end of the day and I'm and I am feeling Punchy so please don't take this personally but you know I love big Vision but sometimes creating a big Vision makes it appear that we're creating bureaucracy that isn't actually there so don't take a bullet you don't need to take cuz you're about to get one of why are we creating a Division I didn't even get a presentation on I don't know what we're doing right so it sounds wonderful but sometimes especially in this organization you're just going to catch flak um and I and I don't mean that you I mean me you no I mean I'm just saying I don't I don't want FL so that's good that's good advice no um so so uh there was it there was something else that caught me a little I was a little surprised it was an addition of a new oh gosh where did it go it was an it was a new something for $50,000 and it hadn't been spent in Prior years and I just wanted to know what it was and I forgot to highlight it we come back to you commissioner The Entrepreneur Center no we talked about that oh Innovation lab that was it $70,000 for an innovation lab what's that it's a not Innovation lab it's Consulting and it's basically um okay sorry but it should be it should say Consulting and so what it is is a um RFP that we launched to do some of this training that we're talking about and it basically teaches 1500 employees how to do outside the box design Theory and you know think think think outside the box curriculum if if you will so it's curriculum in tools towards our training efforts so maybe we need to hone in a little bit more on which employees actually need that type of training because I I love every one of our employees but I'm not sure that all 1500 of them need that training can we change I'm sorry can we change the title on that well we will please if it's over a course of a number of years or if it's over I mean we've not done training in this County for years so if all of a sudden now we're going to teach of all of our employees how to be Innovative I mean we need we're we're we need to hit some Basics like how to answer the telephone in some cases in some departments and customer service and I mean we're we have we have so [Music] um we have cut our employees so short for so long with basic training that to launch right away into how to be Innovative I think is is probably just going to be too much and it's much more than just Innovation it's it's it's training you're shaking your head but that's what I'm being told well I I think we are getting late in the day and we're actually uh I had moved this under uh just under Andrea Wester Bronner's um uh department just recently to look at ideas to bring back to the board on our training program because we don't have a training program as you as you stated so um so that would and we uh used we were thinking about doing an innovation lab last last year that's probably why it's named that we're like okay let's change it to something that what do we really need um for our employee base and so that's Andrea's group has been looking at all different types of trainings with Christina assistant assistance as well and so all that actually is coming coming back so um we're not there yet but we will come bring that back to you before we launch anything of course okay and so this first step with the RFP was just to get ideas out there to you know to to look at it but we'll we'll bring all that back before we even move forward I clearly haven't had a briefing so well we'll get with you okay fair with all of you okay that's all I got okay commissioner Constantine thank you um AWB and ghe I think it's great I mean I you know I I I truly believe that um that bold moves bold initiatives are something that can be so healthy f organization to strive for and so therefore I I you know I know you're still trying to find your footing in that particular sense but uh I'm all for you I think that's I think that's great one thing I will say is is and it's been mentioned there are there are associations out there when in the Arts and Cultural thing that when they see something like that they think you're trying to take it away from them and I think that's what we're all sensitive to that we have organizations that have worked for a long time to to build up what their I don't want to call it Thief them but you know they their priorities and their programs and so to say you know that you've got a cultural thing and never hearing about it that says uh oh what are they trying to do they're trying to take us over so just tread lightly when we're talking about that and bring them into the discussion as opposed to just putting something out there but but the idea that this county is going to you know go out for and and try to come up with new and Innovative approaches as uh commissioner zimbauer said you know that mean that's very much you know something that makes you know the private Enterprise so um so successful and I'm so and I'm excited about it thank you thank you uh just a follow up on that um on the discussion of and I know it's getting late in the day and we've had two days here and we're all getting tired so I don't want any of my fellow Commissioners to take this wrong but I have no interest in advising or telling our management what to call a particular department or where the particular Department should go or be under or assigned to um at the end of the day that's all on you and if you decide that a particular program needs to go in this department that's your that's your management decision uh from the standpoint of how that should be done or what you believe is most efficient um I do believe however that the board should be briefed on how those movements are going to take place if nothing more for us to understand what what what that is and what division there but I have no no desire to be in a particular space or not particular space so just for clarification that is not at all what I was saying I was we were being presented with a PowerPoint slide that said a new division had been created when in fact when you look at the actual budget it's not a division at all it's a function it's a function so I was just making sure that we're communicating what's actual and not aspirational and making it look like it's something that it isn't Sir Mr chairman from my perspective I wasn't trying to circumvent staff I was just wanting to know if I missed the briefing it's wor slip through something Mr I think first of all I think this budgeting process despite the two back-to-back days that we're clearly not capable of attending to um I got a text from somebody outside of the organization saying that they were searching their office for the squeak so I apologize to the funny I didn't even hear it yeah um Eagle ear we'll go with eagle ear to the base of my brain I think one of the steps for next year is that if we're moving stuff around from the Department to Department they're aut to be just like you handed us hey guys here's the easy cheat sheet for so you don't have to go binder to binder that that department to Department document could exist as well and just get us because you can't leave the Z you can't leave the form formula in there it'll show error and you'll get yelled at you know like no so the I think the way you did the numbers was great we just can't map it so I get it give give us the breadcrumbs and the and just real quick the reason we did these backtack is because the feedback I got from the board last year about having them one month apart we lose the continuity of the budget and the revenues and all that so we'll I'll I'll work with all of you and get your input and we next year when we set the schedule up we'll we don't have to do it all two days yeah I I don't necessarily know that it's the backtack the back toback with less than an hour for lunch and no real breaks is is that's the issue is that okay we we just got to pace ourselves and quite honestly we we have lots of discussion that's outside of a budget discussion and that's probably not what we you know we prepared for so amen agreed and we've had one moving Target yeah um thank you all very much we appreciate it uh it is getting late in the day and late in a two-day session so we are getting a little Punchy and grumpy and last couple of yes James G it how howy I like that better James G yeah up next is information technology it's led by James gusos and you can see the vision flash services that fall under the IT department on the screen uh 91% of the Department's funding comes from the general fund uh the tech fund is a subf fund of the general fund we break it out separately because we do receive revenues from our fire department and our cities they manage some of the um refresh of the mobile devices on on some of the vehicles the overall uh base budget in the department is going from 4.3 million to 4,449 th000 which is an increase of 3% the technology uh non-base budgets include $1.9 million uh in fy2 which is primarily related to um standard technology refresh there's 69 FTE in the department with no proposal for new FTE and with that I'll turn it over to James thank you Tim good afternoon chairman Commissioners County Manager County Attorney James Gros Chief Information officer joining me is Miss Laur REM our Department's fiscal coordinator and with whose help she helped me create the budget so I want to thank her for that it's a lot of work to to get this done and I'm going to try to be as brief as possible so uh just as you see on the next slide which I have my handy dandy clicker oh I'm going backwards there we go um since last time I presented information technology has been able to uh support uh 8,000 service requests through various means whether it's uh we've taken over the old clerk uh accounting area and that's our new help desk area and so people can come to the counter they've through email phone calls service requests um and you know that's been a I think we've done a really good job improving since the board approved us insourcing our it area we've also added uh 37 new Services which are basically projects with the help of the Departments we serve with regards to vacancies um at the time of the uh report we had seven vacancies I'm glad to announce that um two of them have been filled two of the positions are brand new intern positions and uh two of them have were vacated uh last month so we do have one position that has is longer than 90 days which is our Benchmark we want to fill a position within 90 days is so I have my little report here so doing pretty well with that some highlights as far as accomplishments working with our the Departments we sered we uh completed the animal abuse registry the law office automation uh it was very nice to give Kate an opportunity to have a new system with her ring her new uh area and I think it's been pretty successful so far um the carrier replacement as many of you know we had a previous carrier uh that caused a lot of issues we've replaced that and that's actually because of that technology upgrade we we you'll see in the budget we've saved some money uh you can see tremendous de increase in our telecommunications costs because of that uh cyber security enhancements this board has been extremely supportive of our need to make sure that we're secure as possible and I appreciate that and we've uh put a lot of money uh and time into it including supporting the new Florida statute that requires counties and local governments have a cyber security awareness and a a a framework for us to uh support uh cyber security measures and Camera deployments again both physical security and and uh cyber Securities were supporting both of those efforts so one thing I wanted to spend a few minutes on um when speaking with the county manager is discussing uh kind of a follow-up from our board retreat uh where what's the vision of it going forward um as for since the time I've been here this board has been very supportive of Technology we've grown the department we've identified needs the board has been very receptive to uh figur out ways to improve the county through technology and with the arrival of Mr Gray uh and then creating an innovation group that Andre leads um it's very clear that there are three parameters that we're trying to improve upon one the board wants to be as transparent as possible there's a lot of information that's available uh that could be available but it's a challenge to get out aka the dashboard and so uh how do we take this information that citizens want and present it in a manner that's uh understandable and convenient to them um innovation in general uh I know Andrew is very passionate about it um we we've been a risk averse in the past and I think uh and cost conscious which is again laudable when Financial constraints but as we continue to look forward our citizens demand services and if we're going to do that we need to be Innovative and take some risks that we had in the past and we're seeing that with some of the new programs and it needs to be prepared for that and finally the the county manager has uh told all of us we need to be ambassadors to our citizens and residents and that means service quality and that starts with the technology whether you go to the website whether you use an app whether it's the field staff working out there if they don't have the technology to get their job done that affects uh service quality so what is our vision we want to be the the engine of innovation here for the county we want to provide just like the chairman said if there's a technology solution he wants to see it you all have mentioned it if there's ways to become more effective and efficient using technology that's a great thing and provide stakeholder focused services so the goals of this new organization I you know as I briefed you all there's basically four uh Dimensions to this there's we want to increase capacity moving us to a high-tech uh model versus a plan build run model uh we want to increase our capacity again we don't want to staff up to the Peaks we want to have a sufficient level to manage and then build uh whether it's Staffing or business Partnerships so as projects come online if those staffs are staff is temporary we bring them on but we don't have to retain them permanently thus thus not having the overhead uh a key part to this is resiliency I know many of you have talked about how do we get this information and leverage it and not just from 8 to 5 but 24 hours a day and resiliency is going to be necessary one example when we had a um one of our vendors had an issue with uh phones a number of months ago cellular service because we had set up three redundancies um the the fact that we had that third redundancy allowed us to get back online quicker than we would have in the past well that kind of mentality needs to continue spread out throughout the organization not just for the fire department and utilities and other critical systems we need to do that all around and then as far as uh service quality uh commissioner her when was at the uh board retreat and she said you know I love that we have a coner service but I want it for everyone uh you know we want our field staff to have the same level of service that I have and and we want to move towards that as well so how do we do that in a cost-effective manner and make sure that everyone's getting the technology they need at the right time so as far as new capabilities first and foremost is business intelligence as you've seen from the demo of the dashboard um we have the technology uh just like the $6 million man but now we need to look at the data and figure out that's an old reference if you know six- men d man um if you uh no silence okay um so maybe the Boomers only remember that that's right but uh the data in itself needs to be of a quality that you can make actionable decisions and I think what we're going to find uh is that some of the data is great some of the data that the systems that are being capturing the data it was not purpose-built to do dashboards and so we're going to need to spend some time ensuring that the data is not only being captured but transmitted in a way that will make for decision uh we talked about a Skunk Works team uh the county manager called it a fix it team uh bringing people from out the county regardless of discipline to solve a problem and to support that we need very high-skilled technologists beyond their you know Niche or Niche uh skill set so we have a lot of generalists we have a lot of folks who are good at a specific job with regards to network or servers but what we're going to need is folks who can take a multi-disciplinary approach work with folks throughout the county and come up with these Innovation Solutions uh capturing Telemetry um is another key area if we're going to start collecting from sensors and remote systems we need to capture that in a in a manner that's uh almost real time or real time so that it can be effective vendor management one this is an area we again I think the Synergy of of uh having strategic nives uh it and uh resource management is vendor management specifically we do a good job of procurement purchasing does a great job but once the Departments have it it's on their own to manage them and sometimes that's great and sometimes it's not with regards to it um we focus primarily on the the scope of work we talked about the requirements but what happens when the marriage ends and how do we manage that contract throughout there I I would like to really increase that and make sure that we hold vendors accountable to the their terms and service and build a negotiating team that's something that Andrea have talked about you know maybe it's not just purchasing that doesn't negotiate we find subject matter EX and come up with a way to really address the challenges that you have as we rely more on vendors to produce the solutions that we need and ultimately we we're going to need to get to a 24 hours uh operation today we are on call 24 hours a day if there's any need you know we have folks that are on call but that's uh you know a one or two hour turnaround when by the time they wake up and figure things out that's not a 10-minute or instantaneous that's what a 24-hour uh Service uh operations would do and finally uh telecommunications one of the things Andrew and I have talked about is she's asked me because she's been running the Broadband well who is in charge of telecommunications I so well uh emergency telecommunications is has part of it I have part of it uh traffic has part of it um it's kind of all over the place and so what we've established is a monthly meeting to kind of coordinate the efforts but ultimately we want to build that up because the backbone of everything we do is telecommunications and whether it's uh providing Advanced Services to the citizens that are at our buildings providing opportunities to improve Broadband as as we are through the federal government that's going to be necessary for us to really show the value as we move forward so as far as create new capacities um this board has approved last year interns we we have posted our two interns we have one for cyber security and one for help Des so they're being recruited as we speak um I see us moving with more educational Partnerships we working with UCF I'm part of the cow cyber security uh working group Advisory Group now um again there's there's a lot of uh areas that we can that it is traditionally not played in and this newer realignment has allowed us to kind of say going beyond our service role really be partners with uh the community and as far as business Partnerships you know working with the three cellular companies that's been the immediate need not only from a Broadband perspective but uh ensuring that you know when you're in this building regardless of your cell phone provider it's going to work right now Verizon is our only provider that provides in building repeaters our goal is to have all the providers in all the buildings uh because this way citizens demand that not only from a safety perspective but from accessibility so the thrust of this 5-year unfunded plan is to first start at transforming the organization that we have from being a plan build run to being a high-tech organization which is reclassification looking at uh skill skill sets attracting the right Talent putting in the governance and the culture that's going to attract and retain the staff that we need to move forward the second part of the first year is business intelligence again bringing data scientists uh when you all were discussing the potential to do an audit uh and commissioner Herz said I I don't think our staff is capable of doing that I totally agree with the commissioner we don't have data scientists here who could do a forensic audit I think if we move continue to move forward with business intelligence we would have that skill set and we will we will get there so with that that is my presentation I thank you for your time and I'm available for questions thank you very much sir and I will start with commissioner Constantine I think we've gone through this time and time and time again so um uh James you know Laura just let's move forward let's keep it going Comm lockart um talking about vendor management I think that's a huge issue Pro for all of our not not just your department and your wheelhouse where that is you know an opportunity to to get a better bang for the buck thinking back to yesterday and the work uh the development work that the clerk's it Brigade is supposed to be working on could could we not have some type of contract for service with with them to do that work and so that then we can we can manage that contract for making sure that the delivery occurs on a particular project or would that model only work with for-profit outside entities it certainly can work commissioner the the problem anytime you do an interlocal and there's it's hard to penalize it because ultimately you know you're talking about tax revenue between one of the group other so you know if I have an agreement with the property apprais I don't do it sorry it's still going to cost you that much because we're we're part of the family I think it can be accomplished it's just um you know the challenge always is you know as someone who worked at the sheriff's office when I look at the phone if the sheriff's calling me or the county manager calling me I'm picking up the sheriff first I the clerk's folks they're going to pick up sorry well work for the sheriff sherff now I picking up yours and I think for the clerk staff the clerk's obviously their priority is going to be there so it's but as far as um building a contractual relationship that either we provide services or we support or they Ure yes that can be done the animal abuse registry was one that came to mind because there was a lot of this going on of you know who was actually paying for it who was doing the work where and and so I just feel like if there's if there is a legal way to have a tighter Reign on that so so that um the money that we are allocating for a product we have some way of knowing where what the benchmarks are in delivering the product regardless of who the delivery person is I just anyway and and I would say in the past that amount of money in that service would be done pro free we would we do services for them all the time they do services for us that that's that shouldn't have come to that threshold in my opinion that should have just been hey we have this need that needs to get done this is a relatively small ask we do that on the telephone side we don't charge them extra we just get it done so but I think for larger efforts absolutely uh some type of interlocal would be required for that and it's a good idea if we had given $180,000 to a private firm to produce a software product or some and and you know that would be they would be in breach of contract correct so I just want to get a clearer understanding of of where we are with those types of projects commissioner dor thank you Mr chairman James for a number of times that you've sat in front of us through the budget process I've been very critical about your department uh I've seen I have just I'm talking about the past I'm not talking about today I said a number of times in the past I've been very critical about your department and I've seen a significant if not totally different direction in the positive I want to thank you and the leadership I know you report up to Andrea and I know that uh with that leadership and you you've done a phenomenal job with your staff and I want to thank you your staff and Andrew and her staff for all the hard work that you've done over this past year I have no criticism at all you've made a turn thank you very much for your hard work thank you sir thank you Andrea commissioner her can we talk about this slide sure yeah so I will tell you I was I was going to after he finished tell you about this uh however I thought let's go through the questions first and then I'll do it at the end what I tasked James to especially after our Retreat and the ksps um that you had that it was on there from when before I got here and then you reinforc that in April with your Last Retreat I told him I was like if funding is not an issue and you know what the board where we the board wants the direction we want to go to map out now this year one do is not doesn't have to be next year but map out over A Five-Year Plan where in your mind do we need to go that we can share with the board so we can you know so we're we're going in the right direction um that you want us to go to based on the KSP that you had put in so I'd asked James to uh go through a uh you know one to go go through this put this together he's met Andrea and James and I met a couple different times over uh the last couple months and I just wanted him just to share it with the board of that the direction that make sure we're going in the right direction um with with our planning it's a and and we could get more 6.3 million and I'm assuming these are recurring that's correct I mean I don't know about you all I'm surprised it made it passed all of you to this but I I don't know that that's doable unfunded we don't know what year it starts well I know but planning to never do something you should just not plan so I don't I don't want to be back there that's where we were this is real so I I I I think this is worthy of a whole separate conversation that needs to happen where detail is put through here and then we start striking stuff off of the list cuz you know a run rate of $9 million a year roughly is probably above where our tolerance level is given the size of the budget and I don't know that you would think that's the wrong answer given how fast you nodded your head given if you run a billion dollar budget should you be spending 10 million a year on technology on top of the base Budget on top of the base budget Tech that's already in there corre yeah very good point probably not and so so that's a dream list that has to be worked through and but so I don't just want it to let it sit there and then us not o openly have a conversation about it so I'm supportive of the conversation that it that so the unfunded 5-year plan itself doesn't bother me initially uh because it is quote unfunded I understand the exercise that was undertaken um um but this this would have to come with a Roi for me um and look I'm all about technology and it's the old adage be careful what you wish for be careful what you ask for uh which we've clearly asked for higher technology but is it the level of technology that we really need to build the efficiencies but at the end of the day this department could arguably be the most important one in this organization because without it nothing really can get done uh in addition to that if you can leverage technology and I think bring to this board that certain efficiencies with technology have a payback over a period of time um returnal investment uh then I think we can have a dialogue and good candid conversation but at the end of the day you know It ultimately ends up in a pushpull benefit scenario uh with new technology comes resistance of Staff uh who have become acclimated to a certain process a certain software a certain way of doing things um and that's being pushed and and eventually when they're forced and 60 90 days later after they've gone through the brain damage of of learning the new system uh it's like oh this is great I've got much more time to do something else um that's typical and so for me it's all about great exercise uh I'd like to know more detail what what are the benefits uh what are the drawbacks those types of things but otherwise um I think we're we're moving in the right direction from a technology standpoint much further along the way than 2018 for certain um so that's the only comments I've got thank you very much appreciate it anything else from board commissioner lockart just a quick followup um talking about back when we had planning up here discussing files and the need for digitizing what have you do you have in your budget the digitizing needs of departments no so we used to use Pride to do all of that sort of thing if I don't know if any of our departments still use them I I don't know but we can look into it okay out it's a we'll find out it's a you know cost effective way to get all of that stuff at least back backlog done we have the capability on base is the document management system it's used throughout the county various groups use it to sustain but catch up that would be a good example of using it service to kind of catch up the challenge is it's still an effort because you want to index it because if they just throw it into La La Land you'll never find it again so agreed I there but but once it's indexed absolutely to have someone physically put that in it's a great that's a great maybe we buy a big scanner and bring a bunch of interns in it interns sounds like I need need nightmare let the prisoners do it sounds like a UCF project thank you all very much thank you so much uh commissioner her I think you're departing I'm packing okay um I would like to squeak the pen one more time before I'll it have a rest good luck it's almost over thank you commissioner her thank you next up is Resource Management Miss Lori Bailey Brown and if uh one of my fellow Commissioners will if needed control what happens I've got to take a quick break all right you're next to next okay geographically wor I get that uh we're hearing from uh Resource Management uh Mr Tim jackon would you take us off I'll say a few words up next is the resource management department led by Lori Bailey Brown you can see the divisions under her Department financial management grants msbu purchasing and contracts print and mail center and risk management the total funding in Resource Management it is uh skewed towards msbu it's representative of all of the mbus that they service we also have our internal service funds which include property liability and workers compensation and the remaining 7.9% comes from our general fund the Department's total base budget uh increase is 3.7% but if you look at our msbu which is a function of uh revenues that have been collected and this is really a troop of fund balances available for on those Lake Management Services and MSB and solid waste mbus if you take those out the overall budget in the department is reducing 6.3% uh we are still looking closely uh within risk management at the um that's that's a self- Insurance Fund so um that may be updated but you can see across all of her uh programs she did um have budget reductions the um mail center print shop reduction that's a a function of um the election and and some printing that we do um related to that excuse me Tim you got a minute commissioner so we had in in your budget printing for the election was that done for the supervisor elections The Print Shop does uh perform some printing fun and mailing and mailing yes and so do we Bill him for that we do we do have internal cost allocations we do um it's it's they're both General funded programs but those those cost it's not part of his transfer budget but it is part of the um total program budget for the supervisor so what I didn't something know that me either this is good for me so that might come into play in our conversation later yes I know where you're going yes I let let me work with them and I'll bring that back with you up thank you Mr my my understanding gav's yours that it was captured and this is me this is not them they I my understanding then when we did the charge back charges that it was captured in the supervisor's budget so I'll let I'll get clarified on that and then we will you will all right and and certainly update the chairman because the Epiphany occurred while he was out of the room yeah and I'll just add his major contract uh billing there are major prints that we can't do inh housee but the smaller things we do do okay right understood thank you about the printing yes yes so the onetime budgets for resource management the what you can really see here in FY 24 is the final arpa um budget stabilization you know that that that was why it was sort of overstated for FY 24 um the uh there's an inventory management software in the fy2 budget for $88,000 there's 41.5 tees in the current budget we're proposing no new positions and I will now turn it over to Lor talk oh excuse me there is one new position uh there's also a reduction of one position so it's net no FTE one Grant funded position being proposed that's right thank you Tim Lori Bailey Brown Chief Financial Officer and Resource Management director I'm here I'll introduce my team I've got Michael een who has our msbu program manager as well as Bill tail Camp our risk manager Steven Co our purchasing and contracts division manager and behind me I have Ryan schwitzer who's the financial administrator for fire services and Swan win who is the financial administrator for public works and to start things off to talk about Staffing one of our highlights for our Department is hiring our new uh purchasing and contracts division manager Steven C he has hit the ground running and brings a wealth of of knowledge and expertise in contract management um and he's helping us bring that purchasing policy to the Finish goal to the Finish Line uh in the next month we're briefing with all of you again uh for one final rally on the p on the purchasing policy and we see some improvements the thresholds are really going to help move things through he's also worked closely with Public Works of late in construction management and bringing contracts Construction contract specific speically through procurement and the solicitation process so that glad to have you Stephen yes we are yes um some other highlights uh here are the the grants um Administration uh George Woodring couldn't be with us he's in a training right now but he's been working very closely with the office of strategic initiatives uh and has administered this year 32 Grant applications with 20 Awards Ed totaling 26 million uh there's 12 pending at 240 million and we're also working on the Grant Management policy as well with the office of strategic initiatives to get that refined it's it's due uh for revision and that will bring some efficiencies to the process of Grant applications as well as getting them approved um on the msbu front we are about to bring forth our 24th Lake management msbu with the Twin Lakes um for a total of 379 msbu U most of those are the street lighting districts um Michael and his team have been working closely with communities um with these street light conversions with FPL and Duke and just making sure that communication is clear for those uh residents involved in the upgrades and we've had 10 of those this year they're really picking up I'll add on the risk management front we're very excited to be nearing the end of our process for obtaining the new risk management information software that's going to significantly help risk management with their efficiencies and maintaining the information that they use on a daily basis it will also help all the Departments countywide and submitting their incident reports to the risk management um electronically and addition to that I'll mention the work groups that we've started this year uh one being the payroll work Group which is improved communication between the clerk's payroll office and human resources and certainly Resource Management just making sure the issues are addressed and um communication is fluid as well as our criminal justice information system workg Group which we've been able to share information across many um areas that didn't maybe get together and discuss those previously um discussions have been enlightening uh I'll mention that James grutos is also a major player in that work group and is helping understand the needs and where we want to go in the future with criminal justice information oops that's the end of my presentation we're here for any questions thank you very much commissioner Constantine good job commissioner lockart excellent job um the only question I would have is related to mbus um we sometimes use msbu as um an interrelated term for Lake management it's just kind of how we wind up doing that um the and of course the Lake management team was here earlier and I should have asked this question but for sitting down with the lak Liaisons and developing their budgets and we talked about this a little bit in my office last week or the week before who who sets the timeline to determine when you meet with the lakely aison to determine what the year's upcoming budget should be and and how can you walk me through that because I I'm I'm hearing conflicting reports on how that works okay I'll start with that that in the beginning of the year usually January Michael and his team prepare they get together with Liaisons they they certainly communicate to organize those since the pandemic they're doing those virtually now which has made it a lot easier than the face tof face iners meetings we had um so they uh Michael's team the msbu program um organizes the time and U then they're doing them virtually so at at some point the Lake management team would need to be included in that to have the yes absolutely I I apologize that's right the Lake management team is also at those meetings it consists really of two parts the the financial part but also the plans from the lake management team on what's to be done with the lake so I think there might be a cart horse thing because I would think that the Lake management team would help determine what the plan should be that would help inform msbu what the funds should be and then talk with the citizens about whether or not they want to keep their rates the same or increase their rates depending on what projects they may want and then present a budget because I I think what's happening is that budgets are getting presented to the lake Liaisons and they've already been potentially identified and then they're like here's your budget for next year and the liaison didn't have the opportunity to give input with Lake management on what it was that they might want to do does that make sense it makes sense and I know you mentioned this to me uh recently as well so um I'm going to I'm going to follow up with Kim orberg and the whole process so we so we understand and the right uh I guess the in the right um sequence everything should happen right because if we're starting in January with that process and the budget and here we are in June there's that's only six months to get all that done before it comes here and that's a lot to get done in six months so it maybe you need to start in November right or October or you know for the following year rather than waiting until that year there's just think there's this opportunity for communication Improvement right thank you for that feedback and process Improvement there too yes and I would say the the budget that Michael and his team are bringing is like kind of their proposed based on the information they have and they do try to keep a dialogue with the Liaisons you know if there's something they don't like about it that would be the opportunity to amend it to bring it forward but I I certainly know that we can take that feedback into consideration and move the move the timeline up or whatever it's for commissioner delari I'm good thank you um couple things on the msbu for Lake programs I haven't set I was a lays on at one point up until I don't know nine years ago the way it historically happened was that the county staff would put on a presentation based on their analysis of the conditions in the lake they would invite the community in including the aison have a work session answer the question of the residents etc etc give a care and treatment recommendation and the cost associated with that and then determine if that was going to fall within the realm of the collection that was anticipated as it was last year whether it be an increase or decrease and then that whole dialogue would happen and then aison would ultimately make a decision based on the input from his community um if we're going to go back out and and have all everybody vote on it again I think that's going to be a long drawn out process no I understand I'm not I'm not saying that's what you said I'm just making it clear to them that's not the expectation I think that anybody has but when I was it was all pretty seamless Our Lake people uh msbu people were there and it was an evening meeting uh for the community answer any questions uh F FWC was there D would be there answering questions about certain things okay we've never had that treatment by the way unless it been special for you no it wasn't special for me actually Mr chairman you mind if I interrupt you for a moment no sure go ahead CU it actually took place in Lake picket that's where one of the times I met you the first time this board before I was elected appointed me as I and then the other one was Horseshoe Lake as well correct those are the two lakes that that process actually took place correct yes that I know of and Kim orberg M was 100% involved in that process way back then I believe like P like berquet was another one if I'm memory correct and then on the picket and berquet there was a joint meeting there was a an additional meeting because Orange County had part of the lake seminal had part so there was an additional meeting of the citizenry the lons and staff from both counties to come together to agree if they agreed upon treatment recommendation and the cost Associated what made it more complicated was Orange County was was doing mstu we were doing msbu right correct so they were paying compli they were paying 25 times more than our residents because it was based on their tax assessment um so that's that and I think Kim urn would be a good resource historically to understand how that all sh was here too um Mr Tel camp in your division um and I and I preface this with I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to tell somebody how to do their job because that's not the case I'm acutely aware of before I'm accused of doing that um but here I go I I have a concern about onmobile insurance claims um low-speed impact collisions and how we are processing those as far as a decision whether there's going to be a paid settlement versus we are going to push back on that um and and actually defend uh a particular claim uh since I've been here there's been I think only two or three that have come to us that were larger numbers um but it doesn't come with the technical detail and for me it's more about the technical detail of making the decision um and so that's just an observation I have uh I'm not sure how that process is working through the county attorney's office um in your office but I would like a briefing if possible on how that process is working from the time that the claim is made what data are we gathering before a decision is made to whether we're going to defend that case or whether we are going to just arbitrarily write a check for x amount of dollars if that if that's something y'all could help us help me with certainly be happy to brief you on that great bring examples along perfect thank you um and then when it comes to procurement uh procurement has bid a a long overdue um in need of some assistance in my opinion um some areas that are have been troubling to me since I've arrived here is when rfps and rfqs go out and they come back in um and then we have a group of individuals here at the county who sit on a ranking and review panel uh and I'll just arbitrarily take I'm not I'm not saying an exact example but I'm going to say um building a new fire station and and how that award and how that's going to be ranked and awarded and and I look and I'll see somebody who's sitting on that ranking panel that arguably is a clerical position uh or is um expert in administration and I go what does that individual know about construction what do they know about delivery methods that's concerning to me I think there should be sub subject matter experts sitting on that likewise a civil engineer may not be the best person to sit on some other RFQ or RFP that's not related to civil engineering um what I would like us to consider is is our staff look at a procurement model with certain thresholds that maybe the county manager has authority to approve um there could be some staff level at a lower level but anything over a certain level should be brought to the County Commission board qualified unranked for the board of County Commissioners to make those bigger decisions is what I'd like to see just food for thought thank you that um chairman commiss delari we used to do that it worked out fine that's how we did a lot of the big projects if not all the big projects that I can remember uh for a number of years in this County and uh I'm talking about all the water plants all the additions that we had on utilities as well as boomba as well I on and on and on all the large projects came unranked well I won't go into all the examples but some some examples that I will tell you that concerned me is we have some fire station examples that have arguably not gone well we have in commissioner Lockhart's District a infrastructure project that hasn't gone quite well um so there's a lot of concern there to me and I also have a core core value opinion as an elected official if I have to answer to the voters and the taxpayers of this County then I as an elected cting official should be the one on the hot seat making tough decisions for large financial decisions and not at the staff level that may cause problems for upper management and so forth Mr chairman yes sir I have a fundamental difference and I will say you I understand that the hot seat is here up here and I would agree with you that any one of the Commissioners can take something and pull it out and say okay I'd have to I'd like to have an A a harder look at that as I recall you did when we went ahead and looked at the sustainability right but the fact of the matter is and I I agree with commissioner Glory this is what we used to do and I think that's wroth with Peril when they used to come up here with a little sheet of paper with five of us oh I remember that and and and and say okay which one of these groups do you want when the fact of the matter is they may not be total experts at it but I definitely don't feel that I am when I wasn't there for the whole thing and then I'm just going to make a decision on a piece of paper as to one two and three now if we want to have a little bit more input or information I understand that I think we can do that through the county manager if we want to pull something out I think that we have the right to do that as a commission but I certainly don't want to go back to where we were and we were ranking them ourselves and we were doing it that you know when it comes to something like engineering air conditioning I I could go I I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on this in you know in different areas I'm just saying that I have to rely on the county manager and the staff doing their job to come back to us with a recommendation if we look at all the details within the context of their recommendation and we feel that we need a um a closer look I'll be 100% in agreement that we we could have the right and should do that but on a on a daily basis on individual decisions on big ticket or not I think that we still deserve a recommendation and if that recommendation is sound with the input I don't want us to be ranking them like we've done in the past I think that that quite frankly I would rather you know take it and say I've got the right to to take it off of the agenda and have a deeper look then I would like to do that as a regular basis that we do it every single time I always felt so to be clear I'm not advocating we have a ranking sheet like you're like we did thank you cuz that's living daylight and I realized that was uncomfortable for you to rank those well it should be uncomfortable for all of us it really should be I'm not advocating that at all they should come to us already qualified meaning every one of those are qualified every single one of them are qualified for the position and then the board could either ask for a presentation from the top three five whatever that number is um and then make a decision from there commissioner lockar then commissioner delari so this is really not related to the budget that's where I was going um well we we've talked about a lot of things today notated the budget I understand I understand but this we also are missing a a a board member who might have a very um strong opinion about this conversation and I think it it warrants its own disc s um as a part of the purchasing admin policies possibly which we're working on I we yeah we've been waiting on that for a minute sorry that you're the delivery person here um I I I don't say this very often but I'm with commissioner Constantine on this why do you say you don't say this very often because I don't 90% of the time this one this one I'm with you on so so I just think I think there are there are pros and cons and I just don't don't want to Hash them all out now and that's the one just real quick the purpose of us getting ready we're starting briefings again because we have a couple options that we'd like for you all to consider so that's what's coming up for you um and then that's coming that will come back to the board for a full presentation commissioner lard do you have anything more on that Mr chairman I was just going to say that this deserves a deeper dive when we have uh a little more information so everyone can be briefed and I'd like the attorney to weigh in as well I'm not disagreeing with you that's what I'm saying a full briefing everyone can participate instead of at 3:50 in the afternoon this is a budget hearing this is not a a policy hearing I can give you pros and cons on both sides and I'm not going to do that today but uh I could and uh I just think that we should be weighing at this at a different date anything else that's it nothing thank you all very much we appreciate it sincerely next up Administration final Department go ahead this will go quick yes so the uh administration department uh includes the board of County Commissioners uh the county manager's office the County Attorney the Office of Management and budget office of human resources and the office of communications it's 100% funded through our general fund the base budgets um you see a 1.8% total reduction the bcc's budget is 2.5% reduced the communications budget has a 3% in increase flat budget for the county attorney County Manager based budget is down 2.9% Human Resources is down 1.8% and the Office of Management at budget is down $1,100 uh we knew that fiscal year 25 was going to be a challenging budget year as we moved away from arpa and into funding SunRail uh it was important that uh we set the tone uh as the administration department um the county manager's office uh was very heavily involved this year Darren and his team we had um probably 20 me meetings to to cover the budget which is one of the reasons why I would I would beg that we not move the budget work sessions up too much further um it takes a lot of work the real work being done is in April and May um with our offices and it just takes so much time uh and when you start to add meetings like this uh you know it can pull our attention away from some of the details so um it is helpful to have that time in April and May the uh non-base budgets um are primarily uh related to some um employee programs in HR 152,000 in the fy2 proposed budget there's 63.5 FTE with zero proposed changes and that concludes our presentation okay any questions start with commissioner Constantine work way across no commissioner lockart let's hear it for the attorney yeah yeah yay oh I I I'm I don't have any questions I mean it's it's a it's pretty straightforward I I will say I don't know if you're going to ask for wrap up closing comments before we move on to the soe conversation but i' I I do have a couple wrapup comments to make okay commissioner delari on this topic I have no comments good job Tim I have no comments other than say thank you very much for all the work that all of you done to put this together um t a and sincerely appreciate it so we will move away from the budget and I will start uh with commissioner delari and move across uh any closing comments before we take up the S soe topic yes I do have a closing comment you all should be very proud of yourselves we all provided us a balanced budget we've all done some very hard work over a number of months and uh it can be very demanding especially working with all five of us and uh you've kept up your normal operation of your jobs and the public is no complaints to the public because I don't see anyone here right now but I will tell you that uh you should be all giving yourselves a pet on the back not just the ones in the room but the ones that are working at their desk and there's too many of them to list and uh you've all done a phenomenal job this year please don't take if there's any comments back and forth that we're asking questions don't take them negatively uh please don't do that that's a mistake we're all very proud of every one of you all and uh this a great County great employees you're doing great work go team go far and I will ask for public comment before I'm to do so wanted to say that yep um all of this is wonderful Echo what commissioner delari said so all that so so here comes Hard Hearted Harriet negative Nelly whatever the moniker is you want to give me there are there are needs and there are wants and wants are good and and they have they have their place and they help to make this organization more robust and more well-rounded and I'm not saying this as a threat in any way shape or form but I think we have to be really really clear with our team that if the sales tax does not pass in November we are back here having some really tough conversations so just because it may make it through this process whatever your it may be does does not mean that it will still be a priority in in at mid year and and I and I I don't I genuinely I'm not trying to be negative or or fear-mongering in any way shape or form but it's just the reality of what we're facing is that we're we're adopting a budget for a year when we don't really know what's going to happen so I don't I don't know if that's fair if if the budget manager is going to find me out in the parking lot but um you want security walk yet I don't know I might be able to take them yeah where's that pen where's that pen that Pen's right there I know no I I just there were look I saw the list of all the Deferred items I get it there are tens of millions of dollars worth of things that have been deferred that we recognize need to be done in this in this County but um we may need to defer some more commissioner Constantine well I guess I don't always agree with uh commissioner lockart but in this case I do uh the fact the matter is folks you did a great job faced with a c certain circumstance that we don't even know what the you know what it's going to look like in a few months Tim [Music] um your growth has been phenomenal from the time you first came I mean you were always good but you you continue to amaze me as as you progress um through this whole process and how you have taken this on not single-handedly with the help of everybody but how you have taken this on and have made it your own and the fact of the matter is that right now um you know there's been I I've been through a lot of difficult budget decisions in my lifetime but folks you know the the the what's coming before us with this sales tax will make or break what this county is going to be over the next decade and um and uh you know we hope that in the in the spirit of that I I believe that you've made very tough decisions already um and uh and hopefully we're going to be able to move forward and and you know together and and continue to make this County the best place to live in all of Florida so with that I um just also want to say I don't want to go back to all the things that we've talked about today individually but you said at the beginning of the day Darren that you have good note takers so there's note takers I don't see them but there's not takers out there and we also are on on tape so let's um let's move forward and let's get some of this stuff done and I'm looking forward to it thank you um I have a little different view surprising um I tend to believe the glass is half full instead of half empty um I would tell you as it ains to the the infrastructure Penny um the citizens of this County have showed us three times um that they're wise enough to see the value uh in approving themselves uh to pay for this that doesn't automatically mean it's going to happen and I agree with my fellow Commissioners um but I but I have a good belief and sense that you know we've been good stewards of their money they've seen the benefits of it and could there be a problem certainly uh no different than if tomorrow the stock market crashed we'd have to come in here and have a big discussion about the world came to an end and what are we going to do that's that's basically why we're here to make those hard decisions um that said I think I have couple very distinct observations and I understand one of them and and I made that statement a little earlier today the statistical probabilities of multiple budgets in multiple departments coming out to exactly 3.0% increases not lost on me and I understand that I I understand uh we want to be conservative we don't want to bring to this board crazy numbers um and and I know the struggle that staff's in because quite frankly the Deferred projects that commissioner lockart referred to have existed before her and I arrived here and we continue to defer which means you continue to push those down the road um and there's going to come a point where you can no longer push those down the road as well as the core principle that taxpayers dollar has already funded something that we've now decided to ignore or put off instead fund some other project a new project uh really doesn't pass the straight fate test when you're having a discussion with a constituent about how you're carrying for their tax dollars that's differ than something that has to happen to make sure all services are presented to to to our constituency so I'm glad to see that we're chipping away at those deferred projects and I think a lot of those deferred projects quite frankly were because of the thought process of ultimately like in this building it would not be occupied as long as it has been and that each subsequent board County Commission said well don't spend any money on this building because we're moving out well that's been going on for 30 years and so you put a patch on the AC you put a patch on this you do this you do that when I walk into some of our departments here at this County and they have their lights off in their office I'm like including my office my Aid I'm like how do you guys have the the lights off they're like the lighting's terrible it bothers our eyes it's the old fluorescent it's sort of indirect and indistinct I'm like okay um that's a problem and so um I think Tim you've done a great job Darren you and your senior staff have done done a great job you've brought some good people in place I think this is a a good first step and heading the right direction to to find our way to slowly getting back to a point where hopefully we don't have deferments uh hopefully we don't have to have those tough discussions it's one thing didn't have a need to have a tough discussion because of some event whether it's a a 1-cent sales tax initiative that doesn't pass or some huge downturn in the economy but when you stack that with deferred Capital Improvements on top of that you've dug a hole so deep that you may never come out of and so that's why it's so imperative that we deal with those uh and move forward and and I I suspect notwithstanding some catastrophic event you've got the staff in the right place to start making those things happen finally just a suggestion we had a lot of dialogue today and yesterday uh all good dialogue we perhaps should have a conversation and maybe staff should review this was supposed to be a budget hearing or budget work session which it was but it also ended up being a accomplishment work session and then of course the paril of that is when you put it in the hands of five people to discuss it up here we have all kinds of personal opinions and ideologies of what you should do or shouldn't do etc etc and that's really not the intent of a budget work session um maybe we're better served to have a debriefing at a per certain part of the year what each department has accomplished um and what they would like to accomplish in the upcoming year and then have a separate work session financially from a budget discussion standpoint and I understand the two are going to are going to blend a little bit but we've really gotten off in the weeds and a lot of discussion about trying to give guidance and Direction and what we should do and shouldn't do and all those kinds of things which is good dialogue um but for efficiency for the staff us and so forth I think we'd be well served to to try to do that I want to thank everybody for being so patient with us I know we've we've kept a lot of you here for a long period of time um but I want to make sure that there's nobody here from the public to speak on any of these items we've discussed today or yesterday nobody here from the public I have three written public comment forms oh you're the new clerk fantastic if you they're written only they are okay if you would if you do you mind reading them into the record uh Ashley Woodard from Sanford is in support of shade structures at the playgrounds she's in full support for UV blocking shade structures at our playground and Equipment will improve safety and enjoyment Don EPS from Altamont Springs is in support of an additional FTE for the Museum of seminal County History to prepare for the transition of the buggy collection to the museum and building 302 additional staff is needed to handle the new workload and Ashley Woodard again from Sanford is in excuse me oh is in support of additional FTE for the museum she would like to advocate for the additional FTE for the museum to ensure smooth operations and enhanced visitor experience okay anything else no one else here from the public to speak so we'll close public input on that matter is there anything else before we move to the final topic for the good of the order on today's budget discussion seeing none um I think it's appropriate that uh we put on the record that the supervisor of elections has failed to um arrive to give us a buzz budget presentation um make sure we have on the record that this board and our staff have communicated uh trying to facilitate whatever schedule was necessary uh and that's moved from the the latest was at 1:00 today and then we heard just briefly before that that uh the soe would not be attending and not would would not be given a budget proposal um we do know that staff has been given documentation uh from the supervisor's office I received a briefing as I spoke about yesterday which was not the full presentation but just a one onepage Ledger if you will of a propos osed budget and I asked for additional detail and I was told our staff would be getting that and then the staff has shared with me uh accordingly so I I would go to the board and and ask the board what is what is the flavor of the board or do you all wish or desire to take this up or do you want to put this in the hands of staff to um talk to each office and cour with the soe or how would you like to move forward I'm Mr lockart I'm kind of putting Mr JAX on the spot here do you have the spreadsheet that shows the S soe's budgets for prior years going back I was looking through prior presentations and trying to jot it down myself if you could give me a minute to bring it up I have it okay that'd be awesome um you know I think every year we've even prior to this uh s soe the the budgets fluctuate based on Election cycles and um I think absent uh a dialogue um here publicly to ask questions and what have you that might be the easiest way to look at um a number and go back in time to whatever was a a a post um presidential election year and look at that can you zoom in a little bit look at that year um significant amount of lap salary dollars I would imagine in that budget um that could be accounted for so I I think the I from my perspective the requested uh proposed 2425 budget um should be a greater reduction than 12.6% um so the correlating post election year would be be so 2021 was 3 3.3 was a reduction of 14% And then uh 16 17 was 2.5 so anyway I that would that was something that I was going to ask to look at in my making a determination of what would be a reasonable uh number my input on that is is we we went through a dialogue last year that arguably we didn't get a lot of detail that could be answered um and and we went with a number and then of course apparently that was more than enough money because there was monies expended for things that were not anticipated in the budget we also have the what I will call the uh the uncaptured portion which is the printing uh portion that occurs um and I and I've spoken to staff and and there is the capability uh if needed to come back for a midyear adjustment um so I I would be I would be a proponent of dropping back to either the 2018 or the 2021 number initially with the understanding ending um that mid year you can come back and and make adjustments or plead the plead the case of exactly what's necessary and what's unfunded and those types of things just my thought Mr chairman commissioner Constantine I like I think everybody else is disappointed that Mr Anderson decided not to come today but I I'm not prepared to arbitrarily move his budget up or down um because we're talking about it should be especially in the midterm because it should be most of the expenses are going to come right around the election which is going to be in November um and you know right after the the um you know our fiscal year uh begins so um I would rather because we have trusted our own staff to sit there and work within the context of all of our different departments have them go back and look at this budget and work since he's got to work with somebody I'm I'm I'm like I said I I I would hope he would have been here he decided not to um but I'm not going to on the dis here today say okay let's let's just pick number I would rather get our County manager and Mr um Json and sit down and and work it through talk to them then they bring it back to us as to what they feel is the right number um and I and go from there and maybe over the course of the next month or two Mr Anderson will change his mind and want to work with this board um and U hopefully he will but let's first give our our staff the opportunity to sit down and and work with them and bring it back so my question for staff is you've already had dialogue with the S soe's office in requesting information is that fair that's correct and and if you had what you believe to have all the information you believe you need or is there additional information you'd like to have or do you feel you're not getting all the detail that's necessary for a recommendation or consideration by the staff or do we even know they provided a line item budget uh similar to what was provided last year to back up the $4.7 million okay so you feel you can have dialogue and and make a decision and bring a recommendation back and I'll tell you that the the issue I and I don't want to speak for Mr J I know you speak with the staff it's you know we could talk to staff but it's then it has to get approve through the soe for his staff then to get back with us so we can get as much information we can from his staff and make our own assumptions because we they will only go a certain way we can make our own assumptions and then bring back to you if you will a couple different options based on our analysis um and meet individually with the board members and then then bring it back to to you all which is fine I mean and I understand what commissioner Constantine is saying I mean the reality is this is a constitutional officer that if a constitutional officer as part of their duties is not able to show up and have a budget discussion and give wise and why not and have that back and forth dialogue and discussion um that's a big concern to me mhm huge concern um and it sounds like ultimately if we give it to our staff It ultimately is going to be a dialogue between staff and then cleared through the soe and whether soe wants to clear his employees to get back with us and so forth so at the end of the day what is the deadline on what we can make a decision on I mean is is there Tim a a drop dead time that you're able say look if if this stays dormant and we decide to do nothing that's a Peril and none of us want to be clear none of us want the elections to not be funded that is not the issue at all we want to be clear there needs to be ample funding to pull off a proper and efficient election there's a lot of questions I think some of us have that have not been answered um and so the fallback for me has always been you got a midyear adjustment you can do I mean you can always come back what if if this board will pick some arbitrarily number based on nothing you could still come back at mid year and go well here's why uh we need x amount of dollars for a and C Mr chairman commissioner gari thank you uh I think it'd be prudent since supervisor of election is not officer is not here it is disappointing we should have dialogue with that office as we help set the budget because we're responsible for the dollars uh I can't speak for staff but you know we approve our budget in September so we do have some time yeah what that time period is you'd have to ask staff uh I think between now and that time period I think staff can research what that time is uh have some dialogue and we can actually try to make an educated decision and instead of just an arbitrary decision and I think that would be prudent for us to do commissioner lockart I don't disagree with having a little bit more time to ask some more questions the lap salary dollars to me is an issue I think we've seen in the last couple of years with with this constitutional officer a a fundamental struggle with the budget process there there was a there was a um to me a a lack of um understanding of some pretty basic budgeting principles and at one point there was such a a great frustration last year and I don't know if it was an attempt to just make it you know our fault but he just said you figure it out right so he said you know you you all figure it out you figure out what my budget should be and he threw it back at us and and um you know that's sometimes something when when someone is is frustrated or are struggling with coming up with their own conclusion and solution that tends to be a a means of going you know what fine then you just do it and I I think that's what happened last year and I think potentially not being here today is the same type of situation where it's out of it's out of the Wheelhouse and um and that's probably why staff is really the one that you've been interacting with and you know what have you so I'm projecting and um and we'll probably get a late night email about that but um I do think that at some point we may be in the situation of making a decision for this budget like we do our own budgets and looking at the same things that we would look at for our own budgets what are the lap salary dollars what was the unexpended amount at the end of last fiscal year what has the history been um um I I know from uh contractors in the community that at the end of last year fiscal year there was a a fast and furious attempt to spend every last dollar um so that so that there would be no money to give back to the board um there was an attempt to uh do internal modifications to the building that we don't own in order to spend those funds so um couldn't get it done fast enough though so you know there's it all culminates into a very um unfortunate unprofessional situation but it's one that we found ourselves in so we may we may have to be willing to just make the decision at some point but if you want to give it yet another try um I'm not sure what's going to be different but I'm okay with waiting further well I'm happy to do whatever the board desires to do I made it pretty clear yesterday that I was ready to move forward um I went along with everybody and saying hey let's let's reach out let's find out let's let's get it scheduled in move our schedule around inconvenience our people uh get it scheduled done uh yes we we'll be there so we did that we did that today and once again failed to show we are down a commissioner I happen to have brought last year's presentation to the point of really what is happening a lot of questions need to be answered that I think only the soe can answer or somebody in on his staff but just just one one example the document that was sent to us for this budget hearing has a page that says serving 345,000 simol County 345 726 last year we were given a document that says 346 377 so the voter role has substantially dropped um by a thousand give or take whatever it is so one of my questions is why do it drop are we cleaning up the roles probably new state statute are we not registering as many people I don't know we we've kept saying that in advertising that we're registering so many more voters so I'm not really sure there but it's those kinds of things um and then we look at the core information was given to us last year um and it looks like some of those numbers swapped for the 2324 that was given to us last year um we had the core cost at 3, 9744 and the election cost at 2.58 million and this year we we get a actual of 2324 of about $500,000 Less on the election costs and the core portion about $300,000 more so I'm not sure what those are the kind of questions that I I would have as to why this switch this whole dialogue we had last year was because we have a presidential coming up we've got to Gear Up we've got to do all these things etc etc and we were provided with another sheet of historical data of how many FTE per cycle which is this document that talks about 2018 1920 going all the way forward and we went from 16 employees in 2018 at 303,000 register voters to 2020 in a presidential election of 335,000 voters register voters was 17 workers and we've grown to 23 we've added six more now when I did have the interaction with the soe in my office indicated there was going to be a 14% reduction uh because he had come aware that the paper goods that he had printed were able to be preserved and used for this cycle that's great that's fantastic but who paid for those paper supplies and printing which we're doing some of that that's not even his budget so you take the number that was approved in his budget you add the others it's actually more than that there's just a lot of unanswered questions I I'm okay to to try to continue to work with the supervisor of elections um and allow him to fulfill his duty to the taxpayers uh and the citizens of this County to come in and have a budget dialogue and help us and the taxpayers understand how that money is going to be allocated why it needs to be allocated um and especially since we are down one commissioner um I'm happy to do that let staff try to work with find out I guess just keep us in in informed uh Mr County Manager as to uh you think he can come in and have a disc discussion with us at the end of a board County Commission meeting or set a special date or Mr chairman I hear your frustration and I I understand it and and I'm just as frustrated with you as you are as far as him not being here but I am not ready to allow anyone to abdicate the responsibility and put it on their hands especially something when it's a presidential election and so that's already done it's not if we ARB rarily make a decision and and I know you're not saying that but I that's the whole point I think that by doing this we are giving ourselves you know we are we're giving the opportunity for him as you called it to fulfill the duties his responsibility and U so I'm I I I guess I'm agreeing with you I just wanted you to know that I I hear your frustration I accept it I don't think anybody here is not frustrated but at the same time I I I don't want anybody to be able to come back and say well the elections weren't done right because the commission arbitrarily put a number out there well he's going to say that anyway oh no well he's going to say anyway commissioner you've been doing this for a lot of years people say a lot of things that we do or don't do uh but I understand what there's a justification there's there there's you know they do it and then they it's it's not true I agree I'm trying to give it that it's not true I agree I mean totally it would not be my desire to do so and and and that's unfortunate that we're in this situation so I I advocate we let staff have further conversation keep us in the loop when we have full commission if we can get the supervisor here to have some candid dialogue um I would also make sure that everyone is briefed on the printing costs that are being assumed by the county that have not been in his budget um so so everybody knows what the real costs are um and also make sure that everybody clearly understands that the budget that we're talking about now what election cycle that's for right right because it's already funded for the most part for this year uh which is the presidential year election right the reason had the 20 some odd percent increase last year was to pay for the presidential that's paid for that's done exactly that's right right so um and we can meet with each of you um and we could go over again because we do have some backup so Tim and I can go over it we can meet with each of you go over it with you if there's additional questions that you have we can then start the dialogue again right with them and then maybe I know it's a little extra work but go back and forth that way if he doesn't come in front of us no that's right and that's that's what so disheartening to me from an efficiency standpoint our staff has plenty of stuff to do plenty of work to do and we want to do the people's work but when we have someone that is obusca their their duties that is going to cause us more work and more inefficiencies and more cost to the taxpayers is just very trying right to me it goes against my Total Core principle and grain of how we should be conducting business on on behalf of right the people um at the same time it puts us in somewhat of an awkward position um which I will not be put into and and we ultimately will will have to make an ultimate decision uh at the end of the day what we're going to do for the best benefit of our community regardless of if the soe decides he's going to have dialogue or not have dialogue and if you remember last year and correct me if I'm wrong Tim I always have to say this because sometimes I do get it wrong um that the public hearing last year in September we reduced his budget the Su supervisor's budget um because of what commissioner Locker just remember when we brought uh Mr Anderson back he basically said you do it you know you you look at it make Cuts we went through it we made some additional cuts and then we presented that at the at the sept the first budget public Hearing in September so we do to your point we do have some time to work on this and then present if any Cuts we can do it at in the public Hearing in December sure that's just one that's and so I I would look at that in that context and then observe what has actually been spent and what things that were spent on Y and if you start that and start backing out it's probably a good beginning but I'm not going to tell you what the budget should be um uh the other thing that's a little bit concerning to me is have we we're off the budget discussion now but have we had discussion with the S soe about the building itself and the building is actually leased to the county and under contractual lease agreement we cannot be changing things on that building without notifying the owner which is the airport which did not happen uh when The soe Wanted about changing his signage and logo and all that uh is there Clarity on that now yes we've actually uh reached out but if you if last year uh we've right there's not Clarity but that last year if you remember myself and uh Nicole Marts the uh you know executive director of the airport we met with Chris Anderson to talk about any type of improvements at that time if you remember there was maybe an addition that he wanted to do to that building or there were internal things that he wanted to do so I was there when Nicole walked through what he had to do to go through the airport before it even came to us you know to see if that was something that they could do so all that was laid out uh last year between us three it was Mr Anderson myself and Nicole that actually in writing uh no we had a conversation we all sat in the meeting and had a conversation so the lease is between the airport and seminal County us not between the airport the supervisor directions correct I think it would be prudent for us to make sure there's Clarity to the supervisor we could do that that you can't be remodeling the building and changing things it has to go through us and then the airport yes Le then the latest thing that you talk about the signage that also was something that needed to go through the airport as well um so anyway see we've had the dialogue but we'll put it in writing I think that would be prudent yeah any further discussion on any of these topics or any other topic for the day thank you thank you all very much I know this was a long- winded day and I hate to keep staff here that long and we are coming up on the witching hour of the end of the day so thank you all very much for your patience and uh we we apologize for the inconvenience or some of the the movements we had to do but we were truly trying to accommodate our people outside you know entities and and our apologies so thank you all very much we will end the work session thank you [Music]