##VIDEO ID:sZXS3qCHJuk## [Music] [Music] [Music] good afternoon and welcome to the bard of County Commission meeting here in seol County the date is August 27th 2024 I would ask that each and every one of you check your cell phones any other electronic devices you may have on your person and silence those or put them in a in a state where they won't disturb the presenters or anybody from the public which is speaking including the commission we'd appreciate that very much we're going to move into our public hearing agenda this afternoon and I will be looking to my fellow Commissioners for proof of publication so Motion in second all those in favor I oppose like sign seeing none uh each commissioner if you have any exp parte please disclose the nature of any of that you may have and which item it may be related to Chairman I have none to report M chairman I received various emails and uh phone calls like to submit it to the clerk if I may I Reed no expart communication on these items Mr chairman I received phone calls and emails uh concerning the Tula Avenue uh proper and I have submitted them Commissioners the chairman has received no expar communication on any of these items I will now ask the County Attorney to read the rules of public participation Miss borer if you would be so kind thank you chairman while the board welcomes comments from all persons with an interest in these proceedings Florida law requires that the board's decision in quasi judicial actions be supported by competent substantial evidence presented to the board during the hearings on the applications competent substantial evidence is such evidence as a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion there must be a factual basis in the record to support opinion testimony from both expert and non-expert Witnesses persons presenting testimony May rely on factual information that they present information presented by County staff information presented by the applicant or un factual information included in the county staff report to support their testimony all persons who Present written materials to the board for consideration must ensure that a copy of such materials is provided to the clerk for inclusion in the board's record of proceedings and official minutes thank you madam County attorney uh Dominique if you would hold up one of those speaker forms for me please if anybody is here from the public and wishes to speak on any item today you need to fill out one of these forms the clerk here is holding it up you can find those in the lobby we'd ask that you do that now we are not going to permit or allow last minute filling out to juggle in line please get those filled out get them to Dominique here immediately upon arriving and you want to speak also if you don't want to speak but you have a comment that you want entered into the record there are other forms green and color out there that you can fill out also give those to Dominique they'll be entered into the record uh so they become part of the public record on today's hearings with that said I would ask that we move to item 52 our first item is a seminal County Port Authority budget presentation this is item 2024 1087 it will be presented by Mr Andrew van Gale with the Port Authority Mr van Gale the floor is yours uh thank you Mr chairman good afternoon Commissioners staff nice to see you guys uh I'm Andrew van gaale 239 North Avenue and with me today is Chairman Matthew Chiswell and board member Mr Bill Spivey here representing the Port Authority today we're here to present our Port Authorities fiscal year 2024 2025 annual budget the Port Authority approved this budget in June of this year and recommends approval to the board of County Commissioners and if I may um briefly go over a few accomplishments uh from the Port Authority this year and highlight a couple things um ports new investment policy and strategy is increased revenues from participating local government investment pool by over $171,000 this year alone we've conducted a market rate study and rate adjustment plan uh to bring our Market rates up to Sone County industrial uh uh Market averages with this the port anticipates increased annual revenue based on this plan eventually increasing revenues by nearly a million dollars per year the 3 Acre development site development site we've talked about a little bit is completely uh constructed in place with the the water sewer drainage fire suppression and we're ready to start working on our new facilities we're going to add 24,000 square ft of leasable space at completion of this project will'll generate we're predicting a minimum $300,000 a year extra for the three buildings we maintained an occupancy rate of just about 98% for the entire year in our Commerce Park uh our longtime attorney Mr Steven cver retired this year so we retained an attorney uh Mr Darren elkind very competent and professional local government attorney from Dand he been a great asset to our team and uh recently we've uh approved a lease compliance agreement with our tenant the bo Tre Marina uh that establishes performance criteria and Milestones to completely replace all of the docks at the marina by September of 20202 so I can get into that later if you'd like now on the 2024 2025 proposed budget in summary the total scope of fiscal year budget is 6 million 6783647400 over the current year budgeted operational expenditures are $ 3,938 th000 that's an increase of 18% over the current year part of the problem of the expenditures we have Capital Improvements and Rising construction cost to build our new facilities uh in addition to the regular operating expenses this budget includes a capital Improvement plan budget of 2, 675,000 primarily for constructing two uh new 6,000 ft uh industrial buildings that we can lease out hopefully the following year and you all have your budget package I know you've gone through that and uh based on our planned expenditures complete really to complete the Redevelopment and and uh manage the port a surplus fund contribution in this budget to the county is currently budgeted at $150,000 uh and with that we respectfully request adoption of the SEO County Port Authorities fiscal year 2024 2025 annual budget and chairman and I are here to answer any questions in may have thank you Mr vanil Mr chriswell do you have anything to add your name and address for the record Matthew chrisell uh 779 Bear Creek Sur Winter Springs 32708 I don't have anything to add Andrew's done done a good job we've had a couple of hiccups obviously rising cost and a few things have have um spiked what we thought we were going to spend but other than that we I think we're we've maintained a pretty good facility out there great thank you stanby any inquiries by the board commissioner Herr I I know you are the appointee to this board I am thank you and I'll be glad to do a wrap up if there's any other inquiries I have some inquiries but I can't you first okay cuz you may address my concerns right didto so probably not would you two prefer to go before commissioner her or commissioner her I would prefer for them to go first okay why don't we go with commissioner lockart and then commissioner delari and we'll let commissioner her commissioner Constantine do you have any inquiries not now okay he reserves the rights otherwise I would just started that in and work my way down I'm waiting for the other questions all right commissioner lockart not serving as the representative on this board you know I I hear bits and pieces of what's going on and some of the um challenges that you've alluded to um certainly we want to make sure that the budget is going to fix some of the concerns that have been brought to our attention um in terms of Capital Improvements and some of the infrastructure that needs updating and I'm just not sure if the lease agreement that you identified is going to fix all of the issues or are there should there be something reflected in your budget that the port is making improvements as well well it's it's kind of two different issues uh commissioner the leas compliance agreement deals solely with a marina tenant just the docks and the facilities the rest of the industrial park the rest of the uh you know the half a million square fet our Master drainage system all the infrastructure is completely place even for our new building so infrastructure at the Port Authority in our Commerce Park is is is 100% uh the deficiencies we've come across now is our 30 40y Old Marina with an operator in a very long long-term lease and that infrastructure primarily being docks uh CD and E three major docks are planned now with our least compliance agreement to be completely uh uh demolished reinstalled actually new docks in place with new electrical new fire new Plumbing by 2025 is September so we have a an agreement with the current uh lease holder and keep in mind these are 4 25 year lease extend this is 100 years still left on this Master Lease that is uh kind of tied up and it's happened back in the day in the local governments leasing these properties out so the infrastructure itself the Port Authority does have funds we've got a pretty good uh uh Reserve fund we do not intend per se spending capital on on the docks however we are prepared to take that over if we need to we're prepared to you know Finance docs we also in this lease agreement we understand the marina operator batry marinas may be selling the marina baby on the market so along with this agreement uh this requires an estro account uh for The Replacements of the docks if the marina were to transfer to assign to sell that leasehold so we have have an agreement in place where a new buyer would put in uh uh funds to complete the docks uh based on Engineers or you know certified Engineers costs plus 15% contingency so we feel pretty prepared and we we think this may happen we may get a new owner and and with that a escro fund just to give you an update not only these docks supposed to be completely renovated or actually demolished and replaced 100% we also require complete designed and Engineering plans to be submitted to you seal County and FD for per permitting by October 30th of this year 20124 so they're diligently designing uh uh new docks and these compliance Agreements are you know really really written out well by our attorney and and the the uh um the Marina's attorney so they've all agree to these milestones in place so we're pretty confident on that we're prepared if we have to to you know in okay and I don't want to get into the business of the marina but it does directly impact the finances of the marina if that lease holder isn't um doesn't come through so I just if if you have prepared financially in this budget for that eventuality I you know that's what I needed to hear I think commissioner her wants to comment as a representative on that board we have not in this budget contemplated that the lease will be broken we have not correct okay okay so what's what's the backup plan well well let's work through that the timing of that should the lease be broken it's not like on October 30th that they fail apart we then go to court so it would be next year that we have to start thinking about that at the earliest next year at at the earliest well we would start thinking about it next year in PRP for the following probably two years worth of budget so it is not imminent okay and the it's really important to to point out that the lease was done way before any of our times right um and what they're paying in rent contemplates that they are obligated to keep that infrastructure up to date it was not the port's responsibility to keep the infrastructure up to date it was the tenants MH and so we now have to hold them accountable for doing that based on where it is today and that is what we're doing supp to port in a very difficult position y we are in a very difficult so if the you know what hits the fan we won't have to worry we worry that will not be reflected until next year's budget you're correct okay all right great thank you commissioner lorri thank you Mr chairman and I appreciate that input as well as from the representative and also commissioner lockart but when you're presenting this to our staff make sure you're taking life safety into account and they may have to make uh temporary uh adaptations to that plan from a life safety standpoint and I'm sure all the professionals will be looking at that and the proper sense of what it's supposed to entail and I'll stop there yes sir thank you commissioner and I'll I'll let thank you commissioner commissioner her wrap this up since she is the aison appointed to that board but I do have some thoughts um as spending I think three years on that board representing the county um for first I want to applaud you all for all the Capital Improvements that you've made over there without bonding them without financing them doing so through General Revenue funds uh and it appears we're winding that down notwithstanding some of the increased cost because of chain supply and contractor cost and so forth but I truly am notwithstanding what happens with this problematic lease that you've been discussing uh really am looking uh in the near future when we're going to start returning more dollars to the taxpayers of this County from the Port Authority uh I'm also happy that I know we started talking about it I don't know five years ago when I was on that board about getting the rates closer to a market rate I'm glad to see that's happening uh I'm glad to see you now have new Council which appears to be assisting and helping move things along um so from that aspect Bravo good work I do however look forward to the time in the near future where we're putting more Revenue back into the taxpayers Coffer so yes sir if I may just touch on that our total so uh Surplus fund contribution from 2001 to 2024 24 years is 12,330 th000 that averages $513,500 300,000 range and there was years that were in the million doll range um so I I get it as a businessman understood but now that these capital projects appear to be winding down my expectation would be as rents have gone to market rate yes sir taxpayers should see a a better income stream to help offset their tax and of course the adoran revenue is matches that so really you know we're kind of a million dollars a year contributing to the to the greater e here we're working on that and we'll see how the building construction goes we'll see what the bids come in at we'll see if we pay cash or Finance but those are things for our board to to figure out too great I think it' be remiss to say that not without Capital expenditures and without moving we also have to think about what we've done in the past and keeping that up to to day two so not only are we you know redoing our our waterways and our drainage we have to think about the buildings that are old that we haven't looked at in the past 10 15 um and we we haven't done any marketing for the port authority right it's just the simple paper stuff so there are things that we could do to capitalize a little bit more and give more money back but it also we have to put that back into understood to operating Capital 100% we have a really good set of board members now I think I don't we haven't had any turnover in 5 years and we have some for 30 so yeah you're welcome we Appo the board members that's awesome that's a great it's a good team that's good I'm glad that's working out go team go big and you guys are part of it I think I've been involved with with the county more this year than the last 20 years so you're welcome again not not that I wanted to but it's it's there but thank you guys to thank you the Chiefs and and Trisha and and um Miss Diaz and of course M we we certainly appreciate the uh the relationship and and helping us do that Commission L I know a lot of things been happening out there this year we all know about it and I just want to not just thank you but our staff the building department of Fire Marshall I think they've all done a phenomenal job and uh you know as you move forward you know life safety is the primary issue out there yeah don't sleep a lot on weekends I'm it's it's you know I'm I'm there almost every weekend just trying to well as well as as well as our Sheriff's Department which done fantastic work over there how about I wrap this up if you could bring this in for a land it'd be very much Landing we have a full audience today I'll I'll start with the Marina's lease first of all safety has been the priority of this board since the day this all started and I will tell you that I think we can congratulate our staff for the work that they've done and I would also tell you that it has taken some leadership involvement to eliminate some of the confusion that our team has created for your team we need to acknowledge that publicly that we are here together and we need to to all continue to row this boat in the same direction I appreciate you recognizing that we are debt-free uh and that that is part of the reason why the returns to the county have been minimal uh I cannot say enough good things about the new attorney Darren elkind has done a wonderful job at literally steering this ship into the right direction he has a great working relationship I see the team over here is like it we are really in a good place from that perspective um that 1 million per year increase is phased in over time I just wanted to say that out loud again so that when we come back here next year we're not expecting that that turned on a dime we have to be respectful of the tenants that are out there they also are in the middle of el leases so they will escalate over time one person's wrapping up a capital Improvement is this person's we're just starting the shovel hasn't hit the ground yet so don't be thinking this is going to pop out of the ground over the next 6 months and we're going to have renters in there it's not it's going to happen probably it will take longer than that probably for us to permit it so let me just point that out that as we do the permits the longer we wait on them the longer that we don't have rent in those locations so there's my heads up to our team and I am going to give a big shout out to board member Bill Spivey who really drove the process home for an investment policy and moving things out of no interest paying accounts into interest paying accounts that is literally Revenue that that is uh fallen from heaven and to our chairman Mr uh Chiswell excellent job this year at navigating what has been a difficult year we have a really good team I am really happy with the report and super happy with Andrew in terms of being able to flip the switch and do Market studies and go out and ask for increases that are higher than we've ever asked for before and we are worth it so it's really Been a Good Year thank you truly a diamond in the rough we are great I thought you were talking about and say he's a lot bigger than you you might want to tune that right is there anyone from the public Miss Dominique here to speak on this matter no sir okay we'll we'll close the public hearing portion go to board action move to approve second motion to approve second in any further discussion seeing none all those in favor I oppose like sign seeing none carries unanimous thank you gentlemen for being here today thank you and congratulations Mr Mr chairman he usually brought the check with him you know that's October Year's not over yet remember remember we shifted gears wondering where it was our books we we shifted gears to getting budget presentations much sooner for obvious reason well thank you all very much we appreciate it all right next we're moving into our public hearing quasi judicial portion of the hearings I will remind everyone everyone once again if you are here to speak on any of the items on this agenda or speak after the meeting in open public speaking you will need to fill out one of these yellow forms that Miss Dominique is holding up here you found in the lobby bring them forward we're not going to wait until the the item on the agenda has started to have people run down here and say oh I got to fill out a form we want to be respectful of everybody's time if you don't want to speak and you want to make a comment for the record there's green forms out there just write what you want to go on the record we make sure that all the Commissioners review it it will become part of the record I also want to say proper deorum is expected today I know some of these issues can be emotional for neighbors and and people that live in a general area we would ask you and we will tell you we will not tolerate any yelling out it is not time to have dialogue back and forth between the public and the Commission on these hearing items we also will not tolerate waving signs or jumping up and down and and screaming uh we understand some of these things are emotional and near and dear to people's hearts we would just ask you to be professional conduct yourselves accordingly if you like what a public speaker is saying just simply hold your thumb up if you don't like what they're saying hold your thumb down we also want to encourage folks do not try to be duplicative in what another speaker is saying in the interest of time we we are hearing we're paying attention all the commissions are are focused so if you have somebody that wants to talk about traffic on the same item there's really not a whole need for another two or three or four people to speak about traffic we got it um I will give as much latitude as I possibly can but if it gets too far out of hand I will cut you short my apologies in advance it's non intentional it's out of respect respect to the board as well as the general public so thank you we're going to move on to our first item which is item 53 the Castleberry Public Storage ssfl Ma and PD rezone item 2024 0944 Miss Annie silway will be presenting Miss silway hi good afternoon for the record Annie silway with development services the applicant is requesting a smallscale future land use map Amendment from commercial to plan development and a reone from C2 General commercial to PD plan development to redevelop the existing 3.91 acre Min storage facility site to a self- storage facility the subject property is currently developed as a non-climate controlled mini storage facility with 16 storage buildings that were permitted in 1986 at that time the existing commercial future land use and C2 zoning classification allowed Self Storage as permitted use due to revisions to the simal county comprehensive plan and Land Development code over the years storage facilities are now considered in industrial use and no longer are and are no longer permitted under the commercial future land use and C2 zoning classification the applicant proposes to redevelop the site with two climate controlled storage buildings with an overall maximum floor area ratio of 1.25 a gross floor area of 158,159 and three stories with which with a maximum Building height of 45 ft for the main building that faces State Road 436 and for the second building a maximum Building height of 15 ft located behind the main building there are approximately 2 Acres of flood plane on site and Redevelopment of the site will address storm water runoff and provide compensating storage for the mitigation of flood plane which will be efficient compensating storage due to the flood plane issues the existing communication tower on the northwest portion of the site will remain and will have legal access the applicants request for the plan development future landuse and PD plan development zoning classification is due to the proposed F of 1.25 exceeding the commercial future land use f limit of. 35 in the simal county comprehensive plan under objective 4.4 and Chapter 30 part 25 of the PD zoning classification there is no limmit for f as each development is reviewed on a case-by casee basis the property's small acreage presents a challenge regarding the Land Development code requirements related to the maximum Building height of 35 ft to the proposed Building height of 45 ft the reason for the increase in Building height is due to the Redevelopment of the site to mitigate for the substantial flood plane area these two items limit the area as to where the storage buildings can be placed due to the limitations on site the applicant has agreed to the following site condition designs to mitigate any impacts to the surrounding uses and properties outdoor storage will be prohibited the applicant has provided an architectural rendering that shows mirrored windows that will face State Road 436 that will be placed in the development order as Exhibit C the applicant will provide two electric V vehicle charging stations um entrance bay doors to access the main building will not be visible from State Road 436 and will only face internally to the site and the applicant is meeting the building setbacks in the C2 retail commercial zoning designation the site is located in the city of castleberry's utility service area and will be required to connect to public utilities for water and capacity is available a gravity sewer main is not available in the area and the requirements to install a septic tank will be determined at the final development plan as an engineered site plan staff finds a requested PD zoning classification to be consistent with Comprehensive plan and compatible with the trend of of development in the area along State Road 436 which consists of General commercial and high-intensity Commercial uses including big box stores for example like Walmart the proposed development will provide an upgrade to the visual appearance of the current Mini Storage on the property and is similar to the public storage facility located south of State Road 436 approximately a half a mile south at 1355 State Road 436 in Castlebury the applicant conducted a community meeting on April 99th in 2024 the Planning and Zoning commission met on July 10th 2024 and voted unanimously to recommend the board of County Commissioners adopt the proposed ordinance enacting a smallscale future land use map Amendment from commercial to plan development and adopt the ordinance and acting a rezone from C2 to PD plan development and approve the associated development order and master development plan for redevelopment so final conclusion staff re re the board of County Commissioners approve the requested smallscale future land use map Amendment and concurrent rezone as per the following one based on staff's findings and the testimony and evidence received at the hearing the board finds the request meets the identified portions of the comprehensive plan and moves to approve the requested smallscale future land use map Amendment from commercial to plan development and two based on staff's findings and the testimony and evidence received at the hearing the board finds the request me meets the identified portions of the simal County Land Development code and moves moves to approve the requested rezone from C2 retail commercial to PD plan development and any Associated development order and master development plan and that concludes my presentation thank you Miss silway thank you any questions or inquiries to staff at this point please stand by uh Mr margado uh is he here and wish to make any presentation or statement sir if you'd come forward your name and address for the rec you'll be allowed to give a presentation uh we'll take input from the public afterwards uh you'll be allowed to rebuttal if necessary and if you desire to do so so proceed good afternoon Mr chairman Commissioners I'm Tom Sullivan with the great Robinson Law Firm 301 East Pine Street in Orlando I'm just here on behalf of the applicant um just wanted to thank staff for their detailed presentation uh we work well on this project excited about the Redevelopment opportunity as they said and happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you you any questions for the applicant seeing none Miss Dominique do we have any public comment no sir we close public comment on this item we will go to the board for board action this is commissioner Lockhart's District commissioner thank you I I just a couple of questions and and put it on the record and p uh Mr suan maybe I I I didn't know if the staff was and silway also um when you said septic tank wasn't available what does that mean is it I mean you said sewer was not available what does that mean is it not it was not within a certain area is it not in in the opinion of the staff and or applicant not financially feasible what does that mean that it's not available cuz there is there is sewer in cast cry yes um Castlebury does have sewer lines just not for this location um my statement was that it will be determined at final development plan as an engineered site plan as the plan shows right now there's an existing septic tank on site and the applicant wants to keep the existing septic tank but they were unsure if they would need to either install a new one or relocate the existing one so that's why I said um that it would be determined at um basically final engineering thank you and I do understand I'm just have a serious question and I do understand that it is that we always talk about when when you change from a any zoning to a PD what are we the citizens getting for that in this case I think one thing that you mentioned is it's it looks nicer yes that's that is the one thing that it's said and it is going to help with dra drainage situation yes sir but you said that the height was based upon drainage but miss Mr Sullivan would you not say that it's really based upon you're going from 68,000 Square ft to 153,000 square ft and going from a Florida area ratio of. 35 to 1.25 well you're right commissioner Constantine mean certainly were the existing site I think it's 12 or so single story buildings it's I think it was built in 1986 so it's it's pretty Antiquated and kind of outed so the new the new building as you saw the image of which I appreciate the um reference to it being more attractive than what's there now which we certainly agree with but that's why we're we're essentially you're right the square footage is increasing um the and because we're really going up the three stories I think actually the um the actual amount of the land area that's being used is shrinking by a little bit but we're we're picking up the additional square footage uh with the requested in in in height and I think that height and the resulting square footage is I think you'll find it's in keeping with newer storage facilities that you see so I just wanted to get that for the record because it's really not just for the drainage it's so that you can increase the yeah I mean the site I don't disagree with you I mean the site like as Andy mentioned it's there's only so much area you can use because of the flood plane so they're sort of interrelated but we are going up the to the three stories yes maybe it would be helpful for us staff to reiterate what was said initially about the Pud and Industrial zoning under the new comp plan Provisions I think that was covered in a very early portion of the statement as far as floor area ratio so you want to just repeat that again so all the Commissioners get to hear that hi uh Annie sway for the record um yes so um self storage units are typically allowed with the future land use of indust industrial and a Flor ratio fla ratio that they're proposing is 1.25 um industrial allows in our comp plan if it was industrial future land use of 65 understood yes great thank you okay any further inquiries seeing none we'll go to the district commissioner commissioner lockart this is your district for guidance thank you very much um I'd like to make a motion based on staff's findings and the testimony and evidence received at today's hearing um to move to to approve the requested small scale future land use map Amendment from commercial to PD and the um uh approve the requested rezone from C2 to PD and any Associated development order and master plan development second motion second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor I oppose like sign seeing none Carri is unanimous thank you thank you silway thank you Mr Sullivan all right our next item up is item 54 this is 80 Wayside Drive special exception item 20 24-9 Miss Angie Gates will be the presenter Miss Gates good afternoon for the record Angie Gates planner with development services the applicant is requesting a special exception approval to operate an assisted living facility that will care for 12 non-driving residents located at 5080 Wayside Drive in Sanford in the A1 agricultural just zoning District in 1998 the board of adjustment approved a special exception for a maximum of 12 residents at the subject property the seol County Land Development code states that when a use of land um as for a special exception has been vacated or banned for 180 days or longer the use of the land shall revert to the permitted uses in The District in which said the land is located ated in 1998 the special exception expire or excuse me in 1998 special exception expired when the property became vacant for over 180 days sometime in 2021 requiring the current owner to apply for a new special exception the requested use is compatible with the character of the surrounding area and is consistent with the trend of development the surrounding area consists of single family residential multif Family Apartments and Retail commercial the proposed Ed use meets the criteria for granting of a special exception and will allow the applicant to reinstate the same use that was previously in place for approximately 23 years in compliance with the community meeting procedures the applicant conducted a community community meeting on October 31st 2023 the details of the community meeting have been provided to the in the agenda package and on July 10th 2024 the Planning and Zoning commission voted unan unan ly to recommend the board of County Commissioners approve the special exception to allow the assisted living facility with 12 residents staff also recommends the board of County Commissioners approve the special exception and Associated development order for an assisted living facility with no more than 12 residents this concludes my presentation and I'm available for any questions you may have thank you Miss Gates any inquiries to staff at this time see none as the applicant present and wish to make any statements or presentation come on down sir give us your name and address for the record please sure say zi for the record and we requesting this building um we're requesting to have um permission from the county to set up this assisted lifing facility um quick statement um there's a critical short shortage of a a alfs these days um challenge of providing good comfortable housing for elderly um with Supportive Services for some of the most vulnerable group of our society you know folks who are at 65 years or older um there are Florida health officials are tracking about 243 unlicensed alfs at this point in Florida 40 of them are in our neighborhood um unfortunately uh with the state sitting at number number two at at at highest for those uh age 65 and above we are in dire need of alfs which are licensed which have the capability and and um facility uh that can provide good quality support to our elderly so we're requesting for that and if there are any questions I'm here thank thank you very much any inquiries for the applicant seeing none all right sir if you'll stand by do we have any public comment on this Miss ninic no sir seeing then we'll we'll close public comment and go to board action and inquiries any inquiries dis point from the board seeing none this is commissioner her's District we'll go to commissioner her for Direction first of all I'd like to start by saying I'm thankful that you're coming to the neighborhood and doing this and it's licensed it's small and it will bring a service to the community I happen to be the benefactor of a situation like this when my mother was in need of this care and we were blessed to have somebody that did this in the neighborhood so with that I move to approve the special exception to allow an assisted living facility with 12 residences in the A1 agricultural District on 1.44 Acres located on the north side of Wayside Drive West of International Parkway second Motion in a second any further discussion I I would only say my comments are this is this I believe is a great asset to the community I have a core belief that people who raise their families and run their businesses in a community should be able to find a way to age in place within their community and not have to go to the other side of the county or outside of this County to receive these services and by the way 65 is not old I was thinking you were going to pick up on that chairman you're right 65 is I'm not there yet but I'm pretty close so and and I plan on being around for a few more years but uh yeah we we sincerely uh have to really take a look at these hard as we move forward in this county is you know it doesn't make sense to be driving family and support services of family all over the place to be with their their loved you know aging relatives so with that I will move uh all in favor I oppose like sign seeing none carries unanimous thank you very much thank you so much I just want to say my father is 75 and he won't hire a lawnmower guy so I'm like he keeps doing it by himself he'll stay young good thank you all right our next item up is item 55 Tula Avenue right of way vacate this is item 20 24-10 one3 this also will be presented by Miss Annie silway senior planner Miss silway you're up hi good afternoon uh for the record Annie silway with development services the applicant has petition the county to vacate and abandon an uncut portion of the public right of way known as Tula Avenue of the Des panar acre subdivision as recorded in plat book page 12 uh plat book 12 page 52 of the public records of simal County Florida the applicant owns both Parcels adjacent to the north and south of the right of way subject to the vacate and proposes to incorporate the subject 66t right of way into their property as part of a future proposed development there is an existing private access billboard easement that is by and between greater Properties Inc and landmark infrastructure holding company LLC located within the uncut portion of rway which will remain intact at this time the right of way is a culdesac and does not provide access to any surrounding properties and will not result in any Parcels being landlocked the applicant has provided letters of no objection from all applicable utility compan companies and Public Works has no objection to the requested vacate at the request of the sunshine water utility company the applicant has provided a utility easement agreement for the subject property a notice was published on August 11th 2024 2 weeks prior to this public hearing pursuant to section 33610 point10 of the Florida State Statute the RightWay vacate request meets the requirements of section 35.1 184 of the simal County Land Development code in section 336.00 n Florida Statutes I would like to bring it to the board's attention that staff received 21 emails of opposition after the agenda was printed the letters of opposition were distributed via email this morning to all board members as well as the clerk of the court staff has also received additional letters of opposition this afternoon um that I have submitted to the clerk to be included as part of the record so my conclusion to this is Staff requests the board of County Commissioners adopt the resolution vacating and abandoning an uncut portion of the public right of way known as Tula Avenue as recorded in plat book 12 page 52 of the public records of seminal County Florida and that concludes my presentation thank you miss silway any inquiries with staff at this juncture do we have a representative from the applicant uh I suspect we have yes Mary solic yes solic welcome good afternoon Mary solic 121 South Orange Avenue S 1500 Orlando Florida I represent the property owner Everglades College Inc this is a very narrow issue in front of you today and that is simply the vacation of the the public RightWay that really serves no um public use uh any longer you have a lot of people here I think that want to speak to this item and I would um respect F request that you hear them and then let me come back up and respond to that citizen input unless you have questions for me that's the way we operate we'll give you a rebuttal okay does anybody have any questions for me that I can answer any questions from the board seeing none stand by please okay Miss Dominique uh we have anybody from the public wishes to speak on this matter and if so I see you grinning and holding paper so tell tell me how many we're going to move through here quick 15 speakers 15 have any of those individuals indicated they are speaking on behalf of a homeowners association or a group as a whole no sir okay so what we're going to do is we're going to call the first three names we're going to ask those first three to line up against the wall back here so we try to move you through again what we we want to hear what you have to say but we want you to be courteous and aware of the time of your fellow citizens who may have children in school or other obligations we we hope that you will not be duplicative in what each person wants to say again I'm going to give you as much latitude as we can but if every person comes up here and says traffic traffic traffic I'm going to cut you short so please be respective and responsive to those requests again we know it's emotional on these M matters thumbs up if you agree with the speaker thumbs down if you don't we'll all get through this real good so miss Dominic please call the first three John Higgins Daniel Sharon and Lynn Sanford all right if you three would line up and please indicate to us whether you're in favor or against as you come up and you want to give us your name and address my name is John Higgins and you'll have three minutes to speak okay and I live at 130 Hunters Trail Longwood Florida 32779 and I am 7 27 years old uh in case anybody wants to know do I get a prize or anything you might uh I've lived for 45 years with my wife and raised my family along markam Wood's road which this property uh is very very close to um and during that period of time I've seen the traffic volume increase tremendously it's difficult as things stand now for people to get out out of their development to get on to Markham Wood Road there's so much traffic and on days when I4 is backed up and people get off I4 they use markam Wood Road as a shortcut and uh that makes it even more difficult this proposed project it's it's my understanding is to approve about a thousand students in a new University to be housed in this property um and adding twice a day about a thousand cars up and down marham Woods Road and E Williamson we think would present a problem I say we because I've talked to several of my neighbors about it um for 10 years I was involved with the Markham Woods Association I am a past president and I know how our 3500 residents can get upset about a subject I bring back to my the septic tank proposed legislation and uh which we had to get a lawyer to help us resol um but in addition to the traffic we're very concerned also about both the quality and the volume of the traffic quality because they will be young students college students driving in a 45 uh mph Zone on Markham Woods Road and there are several schools in the area one Elementary School within a quarter of a mile which is Woodland's Elementary and Rock Lake Middle School where children from both the South and the north side of e Williamson cross all the time and that road would be trafficked by these younger perhaps not as experienced drivers that will be new to the area so we earnestly ask you to consider not giving this group its first approval which will require more and more variances before they find the get approval but we ask you not to give them the first approval to discourage them from proceeding thank you thank you very much sir uh I want to remind everyone that uh although we may be able to speculate what might be requested at some future date uh in this area we're here to talk about a vacate of a RightWay there's not a project in front of us there's not a building or zoning change in front of us so we're here to about hear about the vacate of the RightWay just so we're clear although we might want to talk about what we think might come or what could occur or who may be driving in that area um we're here strictly to consider a vacate of right away so chairman would it be helpful if I talked about the criteria for vacation for right away vacation absolutely go ahead um RightWay vacations um the criteria for approving those is simp simply um based on what the County's departments whether or not they need the right of way for anything um you know utilities or access or anything like that and whether or not the vacation of that right of way will cut off access or affect anyone's convenient access to their property in this case it's a you know a just a sliver of a road that was cut off at one time by I4 and that has a cold AAC at the end and doesn't connect so there's no access issues there and really those are the only items that the board really looks at when reviewing um vacation requests but I will also say in that same breath that it's completely within the board's purview to determine under the Florida Statutes whether or not you want to vacate a road right right of way that's been dedicated to the public but those are what the code says that you know are looked at in this case thank you yes sir your your name and address for the record please my name is Daniel Sharon and I live at 890 for Drive which is two lots up from uh the proposed vacation um we're concerned about the proposed use of the property if the vacate is approved we see no um benefit to the public to approve the vacate and um the proposed land use um would be detrimental to not just the four houses that were noticed within 500 ft but thousands of homeowners in the surrounding area um I'd like to know who benefits by vacating versus not vacating and is there any way to set limits on the traffic impact to match the existing traffic density of the users that are already on the roadway IE homeowners I'm guessing not being an engineer it's two to three cars per acre and if you apply the same traffic density to the proposed project it violates everything in the surrounding area as far as land use there are churches schools homes pedestrians a bike trail and the natural beauty of the area that would be dramatically altered by the proposed use by um not approving the request to vacate it sends a message to the land owner that we as a community are opposed to the potential use and they might want to put the property up for sale and we can get a less traffic intense land use in that property doctor's office Memory Care Facility something that does not require a th000 or 2,000 cars a day to access it the other thing is we all know that if a university gets 2,000 students they'll find a way to accommodate those students so right now they're talking about a th but they can add hours they can add classrooms you know they'll start you Mr Sharon I'm going to ask you to try to keep on the scope of the VAC okay all right I'm also concerned about the uh potential liabilities for the citizens the the county officials and other parties that are involved in this decision process I think it's dangerous and Ill advised thank you thank you Dominique if you would call the next three up please Raymond Bowen Mr Bowen Larry Jerry Larry Jerry and Robert Turnage and Mr Turnage okay good afternoon ma'am good afternoon my name is Lynn Sanford I live in 1868 Arlington Court in Longwood um I know we're not supposed to be concentrating on the traffic situation I think most people realize it would increase traffic dramatically but one thing some people might not have realized is the traffic heading south on a Williamson at this point trying to turn left onto markam woodz road which I believe is South frequently is so backed up this is before any additional traffic that they come into my subdivision Arlington Court Arlington Park and they try to manipulate it so they can make a right turn it's very annoying to have extra traffic in a subdivision that only has 14 homes and that's thank you very much for your brevity and again I just want to remind everyone again we don't know we can all speculate what might go on this property there are going to be plenty of times for the public to weigh in on anything that may be proposed to go on this property and of course those individuals will be noticed through the regular agenda process as well as the surrounding community so let's try to let's try to keep it to the scope of what we're here today yes sir my name is Larry Gary I love the 12 five Court mandering State subdivision this is right across from uh uh this property in question where they're going to want to vacate this uh one road which means this is like the first step they're taking so they can develop this into what I understand is that this property is owned by everglazed University and so we're all concerned that if they're going to be put in a a college there I've heard it's going to be a junior college I don't know what it's going to be but we're all concerned about that and the traffic again uh I don't understand why these uh Board of County Commissioners don't make these people develop out away from residential areas and make them you know if they want a college put it out in the on the uh County somewhere and uh you still get the revenue from the county um because we're already jammed up on traffic everywhere you look as the the roads are all jammed up because we have way too much development I'd like to put a more time Banning any more development period if I had my stal and that's about all I have to say Thank you Mr Gary okay thank you next up is Mr Turnage are you next up sir I am welcome thank you and I'll keep this brief in respect of your time thank you sir we I understand that the request before you today is very limited to approving the request for vacation of the RightWay and that planning has recommended that you do so we're recommending the 3500 homes I'm president of the Markham Woods Association 3500 homes along Markham Woods we're recommending that you deny the request today because the in 20123 Everglades bought this property they had a pre-application Comm meting where their state of their plans are to build a 40,000 ft office building 1,500 students with the appropriate staff and professors knowing that this property is completely terrible for that it's not fitting in it's A1 it's estate homes it's surrounded by state homes there's no way to get in and out of it right now and it would have to come out to e Williamson right next to the bike trail which is a major Crossing that would endanger everyone Crossing E Williams on the bike path so understand that you don't have a PD in front of you yet but they've stated that those are their plans so we would it is within your power to deny this today and that's what we're asking that you do and that's all I need to say thank you thank you Mr turn if you would real quick just give us your full name and address we didn't get that on the record Robert Turnage I was trying to keep it brief I understood seven Trilby Branch Longwood Florida 32779 and again president Mark and woods Association thank you sir next up and Dominique if you'd call the next three next three Eric Duncan Duncan Judy Woodward Woodward and James dun dun if y'all would be so kind to line up over here we'll get you all through here yes sir thank you for the opportunity to speak my mind um I'm not sure exactly where where I need to go but I own a reside I'm my name is Raymond Bowen I and I reside at 1223 Sunshine Tree Boulevard in Longwood 32779 I'm an honorably discharged Marine who served during the Korean conflict of 54 to 57 I firmly believe that a man's home is his castle and that no man or business should be able to infringe on his rights Everglades University is attempting to do that just by asking to vacate Tula Avenue which is just a short piece of road currently being used as a parking lot with Tula Avenue vacated it would allow them to build their University which is purported to expand to a th000 residents uh students plus staff and we know that young folks are going to be driving cars so we're talking about another thousand cars that are on the roadways uh several years ago the School of Arts asked for VAR variances to enlarge their student body it was approved despite our protest now once uh our once quiet and Serene neighborhood is overrun by traffic we now have double pain into lines running down the street electronic speed signs stop signs and speeding parents who drop off and pick up students daily except for weekends in the morning and evening the cars are backed up around the block I bought this home because I wanted to retire in the neighborhood that provided a Serene country atmosphere we now have what is what we tried to avoid I'm almost 90 years old and more morning is not an opt and moving is not an option the proposed site is surrounded by The Woodlands Mandarin and several other large enclaves which includes Woodland Elementary W wooden Woodland Elementary is jam-packed every day uh traffic backed up waiting to get in um there are two main roads leading into the site in question they are e Williamson and Markin Woods Road and they're already bogged down with traffic there's a two-lane Bridge Crossing I4 which cannot be handled the traffic and more people use use uh our complex to miss the light at the intersection of Williamson and Morin Woods most of the students will be driving vehicles and our roads are not capable to handle the increased traffic please list me in my taxpaying estate as objecting to the proposal to vacate Tula Avenue and to the construction of the new University and I signed it at Raymond William bone thank you Mr bone thank you thank you for your service indeed so I I just want to remind everyone again we want to give you the opportunity to speak we've heard about the traffic we've heard about Young Drivers we've heard about the speculation that there's going to be a un University campus built there um if if you can find it in your heart of hearts not to be redundant on what's already been said we' sincerely appreciate it add anything new that you want us to hear would be very beneficial to us so sir if you'd give us your name and address for the record please and proceed my name is James dun live at 1201 pelo CT Longwood 32779 I promise not to mention traffic um this is this is basically about money um I was a builder they want you to vacate the street so they could build a bigger a building and create an office building in a community that has no Office Buildings there's also a drainage problem you add square footage like you were talking about with the um storage unit there is no vacant land for them enough to to whole put drainage water water retention pond on the property so if you vacate the street they'll build a bigger building taller building and they'll be able to make more money so as a taxpayer in Long I think this should not be about money this should not be allowed because they're going to build a commercial building in our neighborhood thank you thank you next up please can I um inter interject this is Annie silway for the record um with development services I just wanted to give a little brief history on the VAC the portion to be vacated and why it's being requested I don't know it's appropriate at this moment but okay let's let's hold off um we'll come back to staff inquiries let's let's get through the public comment thank you Miss Sila yes ma'am good afternoon my name is JY Woodward I live at 1218 Sunshine Tree Boulevard in Longwood and I concur I'm not going to waste lot of your time because I concur with what everyone has said regarding traffic and congestion and whatever the one thing I guess I want to say is sunshine Tree Boulevard crosses e e Williamson where the access road would be for any future development on that piece of property we have the trail right there we have e Williamson we have we have one School of the Arts which nobody has mentioned they travel through there they come in and out of our subdivision so it would just be a nightmare at that intersection with Sunshine tree and this and E Williamson and like I said you don't want to hear a whole lot more about traffic and congestion we don't want any more of that in our area I've been there 38 years I've seen a lot of changes so that's it thank you m Woodward I I think I think all the citizens of this County would would agree that we don't want any more traffic or congestion anywhere in this County but um we unfortunately that's where we find ourselves yes sir hello my name's excuse me Eric Duncan I live at five stonate north Longwood about 1 mile North on Markham Woods I'll keep it short and simple I went to the location area about 2 hours ago I drove there I like to drive around make sure I understand the facts I took a dozen pictures in all different directions okay the main concern I would say is don't allow any of this because I wouldn't even allow one extra car the reason being Woodlands is onethird of a mile away from this area our kids walk down those new sidewalks the safety of those kids is more important and I think there's many other choices where these people can go I know that's a future discussion by the way I would go to the Simo Mall repurpose it and that's a great place to go plenty of parking a lot of roads to get there thank you very much the safety of our kids is my concern thank you all right Miss Dominic all right folks please next three please Ken smart Laura Clen and Maria T smart Clen and Tomlin yes sir appreciate you guys being here and listening to us uh my name is Kim smart I live at 750 Fern Drive in Longwood and I received a notice in the mail because my house is within 500 ft of Tula Avenue uh we purchased property 10 years ago with the intention of building a home on it because it's nice and quiet in the area and yet it has proximity to uh a lot of the places that we frequent and uh recently the Publix has moved in on uh the other end of e Williamson that's a real benefit uh uh my business is located in Longwood next door to the post office and I come home via a Rangeline Road and recently I could not make the left onto e Williamson because traffic was backed up from Woodland's Elementary which is over half the distance you know to this school and so uh I'm not going to reiterate traffic in any large degree but I will tell you that I contacted the engineering department for the simol county and I got a response from a uh a Michael blind who uh is with the simol County Traffic engineering and public works department he gave me the tra trffic reports which I'd like to submit to the county uh these were done within the last six uh months for Markham Woods Road and E Williamson and also for Rangeline Road in E Williamson and they show uh on the Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday uh that they did this report an average of 18,99 vehicles at the intersection of Rangeline in at Williamson and then an average of 19,8 79 vehicles daily at e Williamson and Markham Woods Road so you wanted facts these are the facts for small single Lane residential roads and um when I turn on to E E Williamson I'm within 100 feet of the intersection of Mark and Woods Road so I I just can't get out when it's busy and neither can the neighbors to the left and to the right of me and so I'll stop talking about traffic because obviously it's an issue uh I will also say this I'm in favor of development I think it's important to the county that we develop our properties that we develop them responsibly and I think there are a lot of types of businesses that can be within a residential community and bring Great Value to that Community uh be it doctors lawyers uh uh accounting agencies uh dentists uh there are so many types of businesses that it it is appropriate to develop and yet the traffic of course would be less with those businesses uh the fact that the school will have start and stop times of classes similar to a school uh creates more of a dilemma as well uh we talk about uh Mr delar you talk about life safety you're concerned about life safety at the Port which is important of course um we have many Mr SM expired wrap it up real quick your time's up uh life safety is an issue and that trail is going to create an issue thank you very much next please hi my name is Laura Clen um at 120 Parsons Road in Longwood um I'm about half a mile from this section I have uh been there my family has owned that property since 1980 the only time I was away from then was when I was in the Army um back there I've raised my I have gone to school here at Rock Lake Middle in high in Lake Mary high school and my kids have gone to Woodlands Elementary and and Mark a middle and Lake Mary high school and I've also taught at Woodlands Elementary so I know what the commute is like and I know we aren't supposed to talk about traffic but I do want you to look at the fact that once you vacate this section of road which does nicely connect to our Trail I believe in that area could be used for County purposes instead of something that's public good instead of allowing use in an area that is not appropriate if you also will notice if you see that picture trees we have a lot of trees which help mitigate some of the noise coming off of I4 which I never used to hear at my house but I do now and so once you take away that little plot that's owned by the county that opens it to development and knocking down trees and allowing more noise to us in The Residency my understanding as long as I've lived there and I have several Acres I used to ride my horse all over the area can't really do that anymore but at least we have homes on one acre because we're in the Watershed to w River so if you're not familiar with that area right in front of this property facing e Williamson used to be the Sheridan pool which is where Lake Mary High School used to have their swim meets back then there was a golf course across the way um all the roads leading into Markham were dirt um and that traffic wasn't a problem at that time because that was the kind of low use Road not that many people coming in and out we also had um a gym which turned into a daycare after school but we've never had anything that required a lot of vehicles in that space there's a veterinary's office you might see five cars out front at a time so I really would like the county to look at this and say is this for the good of the people that live in this area and I think the answer is no so that's all thank you all right next three speakers please David Thompson Thompson lesie grubble grubble and verdell rice and rice if three of you all would come on down and get ready looks like we only have two call three more uh the last one that we called previously was Maria Thompson Thompson we have a Maria Thompson no Maria Thompson present okay if you just note that yes ma'am come on down please thank you very much gentlemen ladies I appreciate your time I'm lesie gille I'm from 1841 mistor Place Longwood Florida and I would just say I'm going to relinquish my time but I want to say that I I agree with everything that's been said here I do live in the area and I would like to have the respect of our community I appreciate the Markham Woods Association particularly and their comments thank you very much thank you Miss K yes ma'am good afternoon everyone afternoon my name is fale lbert rice and I own the property um A40 F Drive I just wanted to say that I also object I agree with everything everyone has said here something else I wanted to bring up we are not we're talking about that this is a limited space but it does lead into other things and you cannot unring that Bell once that's open we haven't talked about the environmental impact like we talked about the trees right now I can say we do not have flooding we do not have those issues but when you start opening things up like that we can't unring that Bell the other issue that I wanted to talk about is I know we all talked about traffic I'm not going to talk about that but let's talk about how that impacts the value of our home when we have all this traffic one of the beautiful things about that community and why I bought it is the peace it's quiet there are trees there's Open Spaces where you can get to know your neighbors but guess what if you needed a break you can do that too when you have all these this this these individuals coming in like that it changes the environment this is our home we made this investment because we believe in SEMO County We Trust what you all do and we ask that you consider us please and do not allow this to happen cuz once it happens then whatever else happens we have no control over it thank you for your time thank you Dominique any additional speakers no sir all right we will close public comment at this time we will go to the applicant if they desire to make any rebuttal comments and by the way any way thank you all very much for your cooperation we got through that pretty seamlessly I think the message was heard loud and clear by the commission and we sincerely do appreciate it yes ma'am thank you chairman and I I want to iterate too that I appreciate the citizens coming out today to share their opinions and I've I've listened to it all I've taken copious notes and I will be taking that back to my client but I do want to reiterate as you have pointed out you have a very very narrow issue in front of you today and that is the RightWay vacation and there really really isn't any valid um County interest in maintaining that right away it's right away that doesn't provide access to anybody um we're going to take care of sunshine water they do have a water line in the western edge of the property but if they don't have an easement to be there we're going to give them an easement in the after uh after the rideway is vacated hopefully and I want to point out that no matter what use that property is put that rideway needs to be vacated whatever goes in there the right away is an impediment to anybody's use of that particular property do you have any additional questions for me that I can answer at this point we meet the requirements of the code in the statute your staff has recommended approval we would request your approval today any inquiries of the applicant step commissioner Constantine yes uh ma'am is there any reason that you have to have the vacay today nothing would stop you now we know that goes right between the middle of your property on the North and the South why you know why do you um or not that why do you want it because I understand why you want the vacay now but the question is would that have any impediment to you bringing forth your plan of Redevelopment for that property that that land that that property would not be given to you today in other words simultaneously we could give you a v as you come in and ask for a Redevelopment if we felt that it was a good Redevelopment and a good change of zoning because you will have to ask as you know for a change of comp plan because the comp plan I believe today is Suburban Estates for that property so you're going to have to ask for a comp plan you're going to have to ask for a um um a zoning you're going to have to show what your development is you have put in a prea which you withdrew but the preapp before was for 40,000 to two story but is there any reason that you have to have the vacay prior to you coming in and asking for the change of zoning and showing what your plan to do on that property I think there's a two-part answer to that question commissioner and the first part is it was a matter of timing I don't know that my clients are certain when they want to proceed with the development of the project the next and we didn't withdraw our prea we we we had a prea meeting with the staff um the advice we got from the staff is that we don't need a comp plan Amendment we either have to do a PD rezone or special exception educational facilities are permitted under Suburban Estates but um either way we would have to come in with a site plan a PD rezone or a special exception and we would like to develop the site plan knowing that the right away is vacated I mean it's right in the middle of the property so we didn't do it all at once because I'm not sure the clients really wanted to do it that way I'm not sure what their timing is they directed me to go ahead and get the RightWay vacated it's generally a pretty perun exercise when the RightWay is not needed it's not used it's not open it's not improved it doesn't provide access to anyone and this generally these are um perfunctory applications Mr chair any other inquiries commissioner delari yes Mr chair I have a question for staff okay thank you m slovic you'll just Tang in case there's any other inquiries uh staff Annie can you come to Annie if you'll come up and looking at the sketch and the description that's in our packet uh I see the wer seal wver Trail I see utility easement to the uh I guess that would be the east of it and then I see this property but the culdesac uh B accepts the utility easement uh once we vacated the utility easement will be cut uh can you tell me why we didn't leave the utility easement in whole chairman I think I'm probably better to answer that question if I I think that would be appropriate so the the utility easement that's shown on the sketch is done by a separate o book and page and so this is vacating the portion of Tula Avenue as it is on the plat it won't vacate another easement that was put in place by a separate document it only releases whatever interest that the county has within that right of way okay all right thank you and then thank you sorry Miss borker um it's not it's it's not quite accurate the the easement that was given both to the utility provider on the east side and the utility provider on the west side is a lot description and so it only it did not include the legal description of that easement does not include any area within the RightWay it's specifically this is aot platted subdivision maybe the survey but the water company does not have any right to be in the water in the right away now their legal description is all the way around it so [Music] um which is yes it's interesting I see M but we have agreed to get but there is a w Sunshine water does have a water line that runs down the Western Edge and so there is a water line in the RightWay but they don't have an easement to be there but we're going to give them one we've I've already negotiated that with um Sunshine so actually they're going to be in a better position when this is done because they will actually have an easement to be in that little section of the rideway that they don't have an easement right to be in now okay does that that answers my question that was my understanding when I reviewed the plats yes right I have another question for staff if I may miss so Andy when we looked at this you looked at all the different you spoke to all the different uh departments has Leisure service looked at this to see if we need any more access to our cross Seminal Trail uh yes sir I did reach out to the natural lands department and I did enclose the email from natural lands stating that it would not encroach or affect seal K would TR I understand it but do we ever need additional access to the trail no not from my understanding no okay but but it would be up to at the time of development which has no reference here at the time of vacate as far as what the applicant would be requesting for Access is that where you were going with your question no my question is clearly does leis of services when we do work on the trail we need additional access in the future to the trail that is my question no said no you know I can I can find out further I'll try to bring that in for a landing okay I I I personally believe uh regardless of what Leisure Services needs or doesn't need as far as access to the trail MH I believe it is a viable option for Supportive Services to leave leure services for something in the future whether it be bicycle parking whether it be uh the community to gather whatever it might be uh could have a ancillary benefit Mr chairman that's the point I'm trying to make that's what I thought I I didn't mean to take that from you but you are the chair you had the right was trying to get get there and likewise you want to give us a little bit of history in the background of of this right away why why you're there yes um so Tula Avenue was part of the desz paner Acres plat that was recorded in 1952 and around 1958 is when the construction of Interstate 4 happened um so when they built Interstate 4 they cut right through Tula Avenue and left this remaining culdesac um you know a portion of RightWay that leads to Nowhere will never be paved will never you know be used so for roadway for roadway correct so that is why the the application for request to vacate we are presenting today is because it leads to nowhere and Mr chairman and as a followup we have several Trails a lot of trails around this County we're always looking at expanding them we're always looking at different ass aspects of it to provide additional assets to it and this is a RightWay that this County could use in the future for that trail and for the amenities of the community I just want to make sure that our staff has looked at every possible aspect of this RightWay to make sure that our County in the future cannot use this or doesn't need to use it for access to the trail that's what I'm asking and I've not heard that yet I I don't I don't think access to the trail is is no what our people were considering and I think the answer was they don't believe they need that for that but we'll ask uh Leisure Services if they want to come down and and address commissioner deli's inquiry as far as access to a trail here General call out to okay well I think I know the answer to that based on what we've heard thus far but I don't want to speak further on their behalf Miss hammock sure um good afternoon for the record development services Rebecca hammock development services director so as Annie stated we did reach out to Leisure Services Bill pandos and he did state that um they have no objection to the easement being vacated I don't know if specifically he looked at um anything related to Future access to the trail um but we what we have done in the past when there are proposed PDS on the trail is we've required the PD to provide a a trail head or access um to the trail um so that is an option um for the board to consider if the PD does has moveed forward um but with regards to the vacate itself it is when the applications do come in it goes through our development Review Committee process and it is distributed to the different departments for review it's mostly a public works review and then we process um the application through the board of County Commissioners understood and I think and and again I want to speak for commissioner delari but I think his inquiry is what questions were asked meaning is this of any benefit to access the trail or is this a different question which is is this a benefit for some ancillary use at some future time for the community to access the trail or as ancillary support for the trail and and none of us I think are know that question uh and how it was asked I think my observation is the way these go commissioner lockart I'll be right with you uh the way these typically go is it sent out to our folks right there they look at it they mle it over and make it decision whether they need it for drainage whether they need it for a roadway whether they need it for some utility purpose or infrastructure um I don't know that we get that deep of a dive um you know with with those Parks and Recreation type assets correct so the question that was posed to bill was do you have an issue with the rideway vacate since it touches the S on Waka Trail and that's as specific as the question was and I was just advised that our our director is at the state conference for recreation so oh getting an award yes so uh commissioner her had her hand up first then commissioner lockart no I was just going to read what Rebecca just read oh okay so you're good for now okay commissioner her I would just tell you that I don't I don't know that I necessarily this isn't going to sound right care what the staff said about that very nebulous question to the like agreed the the issue from my perspective is that this right now is in essence a county asset which is in essence a citizen's asset and it touches the trail which is another citizens asset the bigger issue is there is really no real reason for us to do this today that's correct it cuts the property in half and the reality of it is is is that it could happen at a later date should the rest of it move forward and I'm not saying it will or it won't but there are a lot of reasons why it would be wise for the applicant to start breaking the pieces apart so that the steps start happening to facilitate the end goal and the end goal is is questionable at best so I would I would just say we can nickel and dime over the touching the trail or not touching the trail the bigger picture is why are we here today and let's just call it like it is okay commissioner conine I am ready Mr chairman you ready to make a motion sir I am please I am well ma'am ma'am you've had plenty of time you've had your re I was just going to suggest that we continue it well Mr chairman I think we get to vote on that yeah I I got I have is a district commissioner willing to consider a continu I think that when and if they ever come back to look at this property and want to put the two sides of the North and the South together we can consider it then so I don't want to continue it indulge you know a vacate is a is a functionary as you have said um Miss solic and therefore we can consider it when we see what you want to do with the property and therefore I vote to I move to deny the the my motion Sol we appreciate it it looks like your answer is there thank you very much we have a motion and a second any further discussion commissioner her I'm just going to go down the path I I know this is possibly going to frustrate you but it's it's almost not fair to you not to give you some true feelings here we have not interacted before on this issue this does not belong in this neighborhood this idea is a bad one and I will tell you that you guys were pretty gracious about the impact of the neighbor neighborhood but the the fact of the matter is is it just we can't accommodate it in what's been talked about today which may or may not be accurate I am just giving you my true this is commissioner Constantine's District it is my neighborhood I travel these roads every single day and the thought of what I hear is being proposed is probably not going to fly well and sharing my thoughts and and that my comments are going to be somewhat similar which is I'll just be forthright to you um I'm never going to support vacating this um for all the obvious reasons that I've already stated secondarily in regards to the public and where we find ourselves today and I and and I want to be I I I truly want to have an honest conversation with the public as a native to Florida I can remember when your homes w not there and I could ride my horse all the way through there I can't do that anymore now here we are 40 some years later 50 some years later ironically with the people who now live there complaining about what somebody wants to do today there were plenty of us complaining then that we wanted no houses built there so from the standpoint of traffic and this is my piece of paradise I get all that I truly do but we do have to fully understand at the end of the day who has the say on what happens with someone's property is it the people that started this County back in the early 1900s is it the people that moved here last week last month 5 years 10 years 20 years ago or the people that are going to come here 10 years from now so I hear these and I and and I do TR truly get it but at the end of the day we do have to understand for our fellow man that people do have property rights they do have the ability and the right to develop their properties uh within the context of the comp plan future Land Development and it's always an emotional thing and so many times it's the last person whoever develops in the area that takes all the heat from five generations of people that have developed and in some people's minds spoiled the land because they built a house on it um so I just want to point that out um but I honestly I could never support this I think it's an ancillary piece that our Parks and Recreation really need to be taking a hard look at and the problem is once the county forfeits a track then guess what we'll either never get it back or it's going to be so costly to the taxpayers to replace some asset that we would want to use for ancillary purpose for Parks and Recreation that doesn't make sense so with that said I the last word because you know I I've heard that speak before and I love it but at the same time let's remember so I've lived here for over 60 years also and the fact of the matter is that this would need either an special exemption or or a reson so so private property rights doesn't come into play here as much as it would if it was already zoned and it could be done and everything else this is this is completely different aspect to this community we all live or live and drive and you know work along Markham Woods Road and I it's the wrong place and you know that's why I I moveed to make sure that it does not happen so we have a motion a second all those in favor I opposed like sign seeing none it's denied Mr chairman can we take a 5 minute re recess please uh sure let's take a 5 minute recess [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] we're ready to move forward our next item up this afternoon is item 56 mm Lord's first edition to Citrus Heights RightWay vacate item 2024 -10 18 this will be put on by Caitlyn apgar Caitlyn welcome You' got the floor hello my name is Caitlyn abgar planning and development services if I can figure this out from there I'm okay with it thank you sorry about that worries haing take the batteries out right give it to me um this is a request to vacate an uncut portion of an unnamed public rightaway as recorded in plat book 3 page 87 of the public records of seminal County Florida for a property more particularly known as 4369 Francis Avenue Sanford Florida applicants Kimberly Frank and Linda Van martyr have petitioned the county to vacate and abandoned the platted unconstructed portion of unnamed RightWay lying between lot 28 of mm Lord's first addition to Citrus Heights subdivision and lot six of rector's revision of a part of mm Lord's first edition to Citrus Height subdivision applicant Kim Kimberly Frank owns lot 28 of mm Lord's first edition of citrite subdivision therefore the southern half of the subject area to be vacated that is abing the northern property line of lot 28 will be incorporated into lot 28 applicant Linda Van martyr owns lot six of director's revision of a part of mm Lord's first addition of citrite subdivision therefore the remaining portion of the vacate will be incorporated into lot six the applicant has provided letters of no objection from all applicable utility companies and Public Works has no objection to the requested vacate this request complies with the requirements for vacating a ride of way under Section 35.1 184 of the seminal County Land Development code and the authority of sections 33609 of the Florida Statutes staff requests the board adopt the resolution vacating and abandoning an uncut portion of the unnamed right away as recorded in plat book 3 page 87 of the public records of SEO County Florida that concludes my presentation thank you Miss Hagar um any questions or inquiries from the board see none are the applicants here and wish to make any statements if you do please come to the podium give us your name and address for the record my name is Kimberly Frank my address is 1809 East Broadway Street PMB 403 oo Florida 32765 I purchased the property to as a rental and was shocked afterwards to find out that there was 20 ft going in between there I have two grandbabies one just born yesterday my family lives in that home and I'd love to see that road vacated because the neighbor had a fence already put in the back so I had no idea there was a road there and the next thing I'll be doing do is coming and getting the whole neighborhood who has taken up the 15 ft of alley all between both streets they put their fence on the Alley so when I got my survey I found out that the fence that's already up on my property is in an Alleyway so I'm going to construct it properly and then come back with the alley to be requested to be vacated since everybody has fence in the alley and I wouldn't have bought a house knowing that there was a 20ft road in between when I got a 2-year-old grandbaby and a brand new baby going to be right there so I'd appreciate it if you would approve it so I can go see my grandbaby thank you so much thank you um do we have anyone from the public to make comment no sir all right we'll close public comment any inquiries from the board have your neighbors brought cookies to you yet I don't live there so I don't know but they're at the hospital they're coming home they them out this is my district so I will move to adopt the resolution vacating abandoning an uncut portion of unnamed public RightWay as recorded in plat book 3 page 87 of the public records of seol County Florida for property more particularly known as 4369 Francis Avenue Sanford Florida second motion second any further discussion all those in favor I oppose like sign seeing none motion carries thank you very much next item up is legislative public hearings this is going to be item number 57 purchasing policy update concerning ordinance amending chapter 220 of the SEO county code of ordinances item 2024-25 this will be presented by not Lori Bailey Brown Steve Co yes Steve why would they put Lori Bailey Brown name she's the department director well I know she's the chair but yeah yeah she's a director so she she puts you in a in a hot seat yeah I'm in the hot seat I get it very good sir move forward all right good afternoon chairman and Commissioners Steve C purchasing contracts uh division manager and uh we are here to uh talk about the purchasing ordinance and the purchasing admin code so what's uh being brought before you to consider is uh essentially repealing chapter 220 uh the purchasing ordinance and adopting a new chapter 220 and then the resolution is essentially got three pieces to it uh you'll be adopting a new admin code for purchasing and moving a couple of key pieces from the purchasing admin code uh to the Parks and Recreation and to uh Community Services so I'm going to just have a short presentation to go through this so a little background again we started this process back in July 2021 uh taking three documents and condensing them down into two so essentially what we'll have moving forward is a purchasing ordinance and a purchasing admin code or purchasing policy uh there will not be a county manager's policy moving forward uh we went through a number of iterations drafts uh met with the Commissioners and there was a board work session last month so with the the purchasing policy itself uh we'll go through this real quick so again we're taking chapter 220 uh and and um adopting a new chapter 220 we're taking the administrative code uh section 3.55 uh essentially it is a complete rewrite of the policy uh it's got the update to the purchasing thresholds and approvals that we talked about previously uh it's got specific approvals for Parks and Recreation and community services that are moving to their respective divisions coming out of the admin code uh for purchasing policy uh we did do some updates since the work session uh we updated the evaluation committee uh employees with uh I'll just give you a little bit on the update uh basically it includes employees with operational experience or subject matter experts um defined as County Employees with qualifications in a particular field of work process we also clarified attractive items to make sure you it's understood that that we're talking about electronics and generators uh things that are referenced in the uh Ford admin code for the next two sections we didn't necessarily talk about them in detail at the work session but you can see that uh section 28.454118 but this is for essentially uh contracts program uh instructors sports management and program entertainment um it will also update the name of the department throughout the section 28 for Community Services it is a little more substantive with the uh with the approvals uh what's going on is uh we're moving some of those things from 3.55 to 12.1 which is community services uh we are updating the thresholds and approval similar to what is in the purchasing policy um the director of community services will have similar Authority as as the purchasing manager up to $100,000 for the uh County manager will be up to 250 and this these changes pertain to all federal and state Grant programs administered by the community services department and the last thing on here is requires an annual NSP and home reports instead of monthly so with that those are the three changes that are part of the resolution and again the the the public hearing is to update the the ordinance chapter 220 so uh what's what's being asked what the requested action is uh approve the ordinance um that repeals seminal count county code of ordinances chapter 220 in its entirety adopts a new chapter 220 again the purchasing ordinance and then the resolution that's got three sections to it uh approved resolution that repeals seminal County administrative code section 3.55 in its entirety and adopts a new section 3.55 uh and creates new sections 28.454118 portion of the hearing and move for board action Commissioners commissioner her chairman I'm going to make two motions vote on them separately so that we do this appropriately move to approve the ordinance that repeals seminal county code of ordinances chapter 220 in its entirety and adopts a new chapter 220 purchasing ordinance yeah let's handle that one separate second have a motion second all those in favor I oppose like sign n okay we have four to one second motion second motion is to I move to approve the resolution that repeals seminal County Administrative Code section 3.55 in its entirety and adopts a new section 3.55 purchasing policy which creates new sections 28.454118 second second any further discussion seeing none all those in favor I I opposed like sign he 4 to one thank you very much Mr Co we sincerely appreciate it Miss Brown we appreciate all your hard work that you and staff have put into this next item up is item 58 non-ad valorum assessment roll item 2024 -104 Tama Morton will be presenting this item thank you good afternoon Tama good afternoon to mik Martin um msv program this public hearing is to provide an opportunity for public input prior to the board adopting and certifying the Consolidated non- adorm assessment role for the tax year 2024 the assessment role is a listing by partial identification number of Assessments um levied to fund public services that are offered through the msbu program the public services that we offer does include Street lighting um residential Solid Waste Lake management as well as some Capital funded projects typically these services are provided in response to the property owner's requests the 20124 non-ad tax rule includes annual variable assessment rates and capital assessment installment Billings which are associated with all active msbu the um assessment rates for the 2024 the variable rates those were adopted via the resolution that the board um approved on June 11th 2024 as required by Florida statute both published and mailed notice for this hearing were issued the assessment role presented today reflects the data that was mailed to Property Owners via the non- adorm assessment notice which was sent out on July 15th 2024 the final role to be submitted to the tax collector has to be done by September 15th to for inclusion in the 2024 um property tax bill which will includes some minor updates to accommodate for property record changes as well as residential Solid Waste um service option changes following public input it is requested that the board approve the resolution adopting the 2024 non-ad valorum assessment role and certify the tax role to the sem County Tax Collector um this concludes my presentation thank you m Morton any inquiries to miss Morton seeing none is there anybody here from the public to speak on this matter M Dominique is that a no she just not hearing you Dominique anyone here from the public to speak on this matter no sir very well then we will close the public hearing and move for board action okay Commissioners um motion to adopt the non-ad vorm assessment Ro as presented second motion second any further discussion all those in favor I I oppose like sign seeing none motion to carries unanimously thank you m have a good day you as well next item up is item 59 this is satisfaction release of leans amending chapter 40 building and construction chapter 53 chapter 95 health and sanitation chapter 168 nuisances and chapter 250 traffic of the semal county code of ordinances and creation of a new subsection 3 20c in the simol county Administrative Code provide new administrative process for release of Code Enforcement lanss when paid in full countywide Miss Rebecca hammock will present item 202 24-158848 code enforcement chapter 95 health and sanitation chapter 168 nuisances and chapter 250 traffic of the seal county code of ordinances and a proposed resolution creating subsection 3.20 C in the simal county administrative code to provide a new administrative process for release of Code Enforcement leans when paid in full code enforcement leans run in favor of the board of County Commissioners currently all satisfactions of Code Enforcement means are approved by the board of County Commissioners thus requiring preparation of an agenda item for the board of County Commissioners consent agenda the proposed ordinance and resolution will allow the county manager or design to execute a satisfaction or release of lean if the original violation is remedied and the total amount due on the lean is paid in full the administrative process put forth in the proposed ordinance and resolution is a more efficient and costeffective process for both the county and Property Owners the proposed process will help reduce time frames for real estate transactions and produce the cost savings to the county since the agenda was published changes have been made to the various sections of the proposed ordinance and resolution to create consistent language in both regarding what constitut payment in full the language that was changed reads when recorded code enforcement leans are complied and paid in full including all applicable cost interest admin ministrative expenses and attorney's fees um at the conclusion of my presentation the deputy County attorney um can also add to that explanation of the proposed changes um with that staff requests the board approve the revised ordinance amending chapter 40 building and construction chapter 53 code enforcement chapter 95 health and sanitation chapter 168 nuisances and chapter 250 traffic of the seal county code of ordinances and the resolution creating subsection 3.20 C in the semal county administrative code to provide a new administrative process for release of Code Enforcement leans when paid in full and staff recommends approval of the revised ordinance and the revised resolution thank you Miss hammock any inquiries of Miss hammock on this matter seeing none do we have any public comment forms Miss Dominique no sir seeing none we will close the public input and move to board action commissioner her uh first of all I'd like to thank staff for including I was the reason for the clarification of the language just because it could be read differently The Way It Was Written and I didn't want us to be debating that in the future so the clarification is perfect I move to approve the ordinance amending chapter 40 building and construction chapter 53 code enforcement chapter 95 health and sanitation chapter 168 nuisances and chapter 250 traffic of the seminal county code of ordinances and the resolution solution creating subsection 3.20 C in the seminal County administrative code to provide a new administrative process for release of Code Enforcement leans when they are fully complied with and paid in full second motion second any further discussion just chairman just a clarification that's with the revised language correct revised language yes thank you all those in favor I opposed like sign seeing none passes unanimously thank you Miss hammock thank your staff for all the work you all put into this as well as tolerating all of our inquiries for all five of our offices all right next up county attorney's report hello NAA borker uh Deputy County attorney um I don't have anything to report other than we do have a new attorney in our office her name is Cassidy Purdue she's sitting right over here Cassidy's waiting W welcome welcome she comes um to us from the state of Florida from Tallahassee and we're very much excited to have her here she has a wealth of knowledge and litigation and I just wanted to introduce her to everybody great thank you welcome all right County manager's report nothing to report Mr chairman oh that was so easy that was so easy all right we will move into the district Commissioners reports first up is commissioner her as well as I'm told you have some board appointments is that correct yes okay you want me to do that first uh either way you want to handle it I just want to make sure I didn't have that wrong you do not have that wrong although I feel as though I may have surprised you with it so let's just let's just acknowledge that I'll start by moving to appoint Donnie Casey to the sky board to fulfill an existing term expiring 1231 2026 and to send a letter of appreciation for Sky board for service on the sky board to Tracy Wallace second second any further discussion all those in favor I oppose like sign carries unanimous continue M commissioner her attended the state of our schools hosted by the seal County Chamber this is the first year that it was done in partnership with the chamber and uh it was facilitated through uh coordination between one of the chambers board of directors that I'm uh exceptionally close with uh and we had a turnout of twice as many folks and folks that are outside of the normal school district Circle so I was really really pleased for both organizations to SP start to spread the good word beyond the normal Circle uh for the school district uh I did do the Orlando Health hard hat tour and that is going to be an amazing facility if you haven't done it I would recommend that you do it I did speak at the business connections networking breakfast at the Sanford Chamber of Commerce always an interest interesting crew uh always challenging questions and and it was delightful so I appreciate the invitation I also spoke at the crew lunch in uh which is the commercial real estate executive women and it's all of the associated individuals and that was a collaboration between seal County Lake County and Oola County speaking mostly to Orange County businesses it was a really nicely done environment um want to point out that I know we've talked several times about the rescue Outreach Mission uh event the Fishbones event and the total raise for that exceeded all of our expectations it was $47,000 and so it was really amazing and I would also like to call to your attention and I believe it was passed out so correct me if I'm wrong that there was a seminal County Library Advisory board that uh was asked that we consider improvements to the seal County website and we have shared that with the team and the team is amenable to doing it we have been talking about this for a very long time I know the website is under development but I just want to put it on the record because that Advisory board has worked really hard and brought forth a lot of suggestions and it is in play now but it's taken a long time and then I am going to end my my uh discussion with the fact I'm really excited that I got to go first this time just so I can say Lake Mary little Le I don't know about you all but we were 100% consumed watching this all weekend long and literally feeling like I parented those children um thank God I didn't parent all those children but but I will tell you this the most wonderful part of that win was was not the win I know the kids aren't going to to think that but it was not the win it was the fact that the coach and our kids consol the losing team I get all choked up about it because that doesn't happen today n it doesn't happen in sports it's good parenting it's good Community it's good coaching and it was heartwarming to see absolutely agreed done cuz I can't talk anymore have a chocolate it'll comfor listen I I couldn't make the last motion because I had a milk DT in my mouth that's why I was laughing commissioner delari and you have some board appointments uh no I don't not today okay well that part's wrong okay go ahead your report but thank you Mr chairman and uh commissioner har I do agree with you uh congratulations to Lake Murray Little League it was quite quite an event over the last two weeks to actually see a majority of the games I watched many of them and to see those young men play was just very instrum I mean it was just amazing I mean to put words to it you really can't and so I definitely congratulate them I also want to congratulate another young man from the city of aito uh Omari Jones Omari Jones won a bronze medal in the Olympics with boxing uh his weight class was 158 uh to see that young man uh we had a send off for him at Round Lake Park uh back in early June I think it was before he went over to France uh to talk to him and to see how uh his well-managed disposition is just amazing but when you see him get in the ring it's a totally different individual and uh uh my hat's off to him I congratulate him uh on his hard long journey and uh it's quite an accomplishment to get a bronze medal in the Olympic so congratulations Amari Jones also uh Mr chairman I know that many of us have been following Sunshine uh utilities yes uh they have uh an issue that they're addressing uh they had a number of fills there's a consent order that uh they have to uh spend uh number of fines that they have is about somewhere around 1.2 million Andre to op not to pay that they're going to do some improvements in the district understood they're going to be doing septic to uh sewer in the neighborhood and uh I compliment them for doing that as well as D for allowing them to do that but I have also heard that uh I don't know if it's a 104 fund or 4 109 fund that they're going to be asking for D to pay for the connection fees uh that's taxpayers money uh I think that we have no jurisdiction over it but we should encourage the EP that since it is punitive uh that they're trying to fix uh they shouldn't be asking for federal or state money to do that or to Aid them they should be paying the whole thing and I'd like to see if what the direction is uh order options are to encourage the EP that uh when you go to septic to sewer in that area that sunshines should pay the whole thing and not uh use D money to offset some of the connection costs they should be paying all the connection costs as well uh like to ask our attorney as well as Kim warberg what are options could be that's something you all can look into and get with commissioner delari when you've had an opportunity to look into that is that okay commissioner that's fine I just think that since it's a fine and that they're mitigating they should be paying for the whole thing yeah quite frankly you know my meeting with the CEO and his new introduction I'm still waiting for the list of grandiose things that he indicated to me that they were undertaking along with all the projects they were undertaking fine so M chairman that's another I can't speak to that and Mr chairman that's another thing because of all these issues that have been taking place I know they have to fix them but I don't see a timetable sure and I think that's another concern so I'd like to meet with our staff and get back to the board at the next meeting okay if there's no objection to that no objection okay and then uh we have Labor Day coming up this next week and I want to wish everyone a Happy uh Labor Day and I wish everyone thank you very much for a great summer and that's the end of my report thank you sir go Lake Mary yay next up commissioner Constantine District three first of all with um commissioner delori whether they get um money from a grant or not I concur with you that they should still pay all the 1.6 million which is what they understand that's why I I know and that's why I'm I'm agreeing with you uh also I just wanted to you know so maybe they could do more in that project also um yeah it is is tough to go third this week because uh all of us were so proud of that that that team and and and commissioner her is correct it wasn't just about the victory it was about the way they conducted themselves in a especially at the end of that game going up to the little boys from Taiwan and hugging them and it would it just you know it gives you it just gives you a great sense of joy that um there are children like that in our community and uh I I need to tell you that also you know there are a number of different um Youth Baseball clearly little league is the most well-known and and it's so wonderful to watch them on ESPN but also um alamar's Baseball Academy they won the 11 and under uh uh Championship Cal Ripken and Cal Ripken which is part of the Babe Ruth program and so we're you know for Youth Baseball we are the center of of the world right now and that's just wonderful and I just have to say that uh one other thing is we talked about uh you know length of stay here at seol County I'm I am and before any of you say that I was there I I was not I was The Graduate for the first class of the new linman but this year Lyman High School which I am a graduate of is celebrating its 100th year and so I just you no I wasn't I I was there for the opening of the new lineman and I was first graduating class he was the second class and with that um there's a number of other things people have here today but I just wanted to tell you those just a lot of wonderful things to talk about here in seol county and I believe we're also going to hear from a young man later on Mr Watts is here today uh getting his um Eagle Scout with a with a a pro or trying to get his uh uh Eagle badge with um project that he's got and we're going to hear him later so congratulations young men that's it thank you very much commissioner lockart District 4 all right well it what district report would it be without mentioning Lake Mary little Le so what I will do is say congratulations and everyone come out Saturday morning at 10:00 to downtown Lake Mary 4th Street we'll be having a parade the City of Lake Mary is hosting it and coordinating it but we would love to see everyone come out and support these kids I don't know how many of you realize but there are students on that team from Markham Woods Middle and Sanford middle and orangew wood Christian that the it's a team that's comprised of students from all all over the area so it's truly a coming together of the whole community and we'd love to see everybody out there um I had an opportunity to do the tour of Teen Challenge in Sanford as you mentioned a couple of meetings ago commissioner her um they will be having their annual banquet I believe uh in a couple of weeks down at the Orlando World Marriott and the speaker is Tim tibo so as a diard seminal I have given up my seat to someone else who might be more excited about hearing from Tim TBO um but they're a wonderful organization and um was a fantastic tour uh the I also met with a couple of our firefighters and our team at seminal State College uh the foundation for seminal State College talking about opportunities to put together a scholarship to help improve um and and increase the number of the number of applicants coming through the program that are not typically um in our in our ranks we we have a a goal in this organization to have our fire force look more like the community they serve and this scholarship would be an opportunity to help achieve that and so many thanks to John Gillan and president Georgia Loren for their um taking first steps and talking with these folks about what that might look like I know that they've reached out and talked I think first steps with uh Darren gray and and Trisha Johnson about how we can collaborate together on that um just Chris Baker and um Marcus Gomes uh two of our firefighters who have really stepped up and and stepped into this space much needed and I'm very grateful to them for the time that they've taken on their own time to pursue this so thank you gentlemen for that um so Patty puts my report together for me and she's so good about I just don't even know what this bullet means do like I do just skip it I think I'm going to skip it that's what I do I know I know I'm supposed to know it this means just sharing my practices with you she's going to she's going to give me what for when I get back up there okay um attended the new uh SunRail uh station opening in D land what an incredible turnout oh my gosh that Community is beyond ready to have that station there hundreds and hundreds of people and um we're keeping an eye on that uh ridership and it's you know it has dropped off a little bit the the new excitement has worn off just a little bit but it's it's definitely the community has really supported that and come out um as many of you know uh a giant in our community Zach Hudson um passed away recently he had been with the Lake Mary police department and served in a variety of capacities in nonprofits mostly supporting um seniors and um he was with um had been with Orlando Health as well and so his P his passing was very unexpected and and a huge blow to this community and to his family so um sincere condolences to his family and uh to everyone who he impacted just a life well- lived for sure blera in that same theme those of you who knew Blain Dara another giant uh former president of the um Heath Master Association uh HOA and legislative affairs chairman and and just every time you turned around bla Dera was sitting in those seats um giving us advice and and really genuinely being supportive of the work of this board in the community and so to his wife Pat and their family again sincere condolences he was he ended all of his emails with keep smiling and and when he text he would say whatever whatever whatever and keep smiling just just such a a great a Great Soul um his service um will be an open house style Saturday the 7th from 1: to 5:00 at oaklan Memorial on 46a and I know his family would love if anyone who knows him and wants to come and share stories about him um that they would be very welcomed um okay so lynx and SunRail thank you so much for those appointments you're welcome um I figured someone else needed to get their tip tip their toes in the water well I'm starting to feel like I'm developing a reputation for being the person like who will pull the pin in a grenade or something like here let's put Amy on this committee she'll pull the pin um so have you got their attention yet is that what I'm hearing I I think maybe I you know I have still have lots of questions and our staff has done a tremendous job of digging in I I all I do is ask the questions publicly and try and and get answers but our staff really has done a tremendous job of working toward getting details to help us better understand their operations and our obligations and what that means to the taxpayers of this community because it as you all know from our budget briefing it's it it's outrageous um where we're looking at at heading so one of the things that I brought up most recently at this last board meeting is and the two are so intricately intertwined and I I think that that is a a blessing and a curse hence why I appointed you to both yes so um at the lyx board meeting we have discussions as the links board and there is is a a reasonable request on the part of the chairman to please keep keep links board discussion to the links board and bring up S commuter rail Commission questions at the commuter rail commission but they are so in inter intertwined that a vote at one impacts a vote on another and perhaps we should at least be contemplating them so I did get confirmation from the attorney uh who's uh Pat Christenson but Jim Goldsmith was filling in for him that having those conversations is not in any way shape a violation of sunshine it it just you know whatever so I did get that confirmed um there is a a an official working group for the central Florida commuter rail commission that is made up of Staff members um Tech a technical advisory committee and and we have many staff members that attend and and serve on that committee and then there is an unofficial working group that is made up of the funding partners and and the conversations and the decisions that are happening at one don't necessarily trickle to the other and they certainly do do not necessarily come to the commuter rail commission uh for for contemplation and so there's a lot of opportunity for improving cross communication and and sharing of of practices and and um expectations I'll give you an example the commuter rail commission gave um direction to the working group to go back and look at the banking contract that was brought forward from from the piggybacking of the links contract and we said please go look at other potential contracts that could be piggybacked on because they had not looked at any others well whoever was made up of in that working group um talked to someone in their organization and came back and they said you know we really we really can't look at any other contracts it really has to be apples to oranges and we really wanted and so I was frustrated because I felt like the direction we had given was go find some other contract so my question was who do we hold accountable what what during this threeyear long transition process as the central Florida commuter rail commission I know at seminal County if this board gives Direction I know I hold Darren gray accountable correct at the central Florida commuter rail commission I don't know who would hold accountable and that's something that we need to figure out moving forward as our five separate entities what our expectations are um there there seems to be some additional holdups that we're finding out about um for FTA funding and bres I bres took off he didn't know I was bringing this up so it's not like he escaped intentionally but um we've we've learned that there are some boxes that need to be checked in order for the central Florida commuter rail commission to be um authorized to receive FTA funds to be a direct recipient of funds somehow that escaped everyone in this process moving forward to to get to that place it's going to be at least 18 months to get through that process so the idea that we will be able to financially fully accept responsibility and be paying the bills out of a cfcc banking account by you know in the next several months is is that's off the table at this point so there are just some things that are happening that we're finding out bits and pieces that there could be a potential delay um in the intent I expressed and I and I if the if this board does not agree with me I will go back and and do a Mia culpa uh but I expressed that our expectation is that while we are currently looking at links as being the administrative uh organization that that the CFC CF CRC would contract with to operate SunRail when this operation phasing gets done that that we aren't there yet number one and number two just because Lynx does it me does it doesn't mean the CFC RC is going to do it it should not be a a foregone conclusion that because Lynx has a particular contract well then for ease of efficiency or whatever that the cfcc would necessarily do it we are too even though we are the same people except for valua we are too V very different entities and um and so I'm trying to continue to express that publicly to my fellow cfcc members who are also links board members and it's just um it's complex we're going to have to we're going to have to step in and and be take up a little more of the oxygen in the room I believe to make sure that we're getting to the right place for this m multibillion dollar Adventure I don't disagree and and I always thought this was moving at a pace so rapidly towards the end of when fot was pushing this forward as I looked at things and with lyx being the administrative you know uh arm and running and and doing this that it was all moving too fast and I I suspected that there were a lot of things behind the scenes that had not been well thought out or considered you're just confirming what I feared and what was my concern and hopefully with f doot involved and and all we can get to the bottom of it and move forward so good thank you commissioner delari thank you Mr chairman commissioner Lockard I appreciate you bringing this to our attention uh I've sat on that board before it can be very frustrating so it's not that I'm happy that you're there I'm glad that someone else's experience he's happy he's not there that's one of them but I think they you're right and I've expressed that same concern about and I really think that we need to as a region see who is the best operator it's not always going to the one that's the easiest one to go to that we know which is links uh there are other operators out there and uh when I was on that board other people didn't want to hear it and I expressed that we we talked about it here and uh I truly at this point unless I'm prove it otherwise I don't think Lynx is the right operator for sun rail because they have very limited experience when it comes to rail so right now do manages SunRail via contract so the if the idea is that we would just be transferring the administration of contracts from fdot to another agency perhaps Lynx perhaps another agency that doesn't sound that bad that doesn't sound that difficult because you're administering contracts um that being said I I am a little concerned with some of the things that I have seen um as as a partner in links with funding formulas and the the the laxidasical um responses on some things are are just give me pause and and you know you can't you can't let contracts expire with the FTA and you can't always do emergency procurement with when you're dealing with federal funds so it is a different animal and I just want to us to be very open and honest about the future and um you know I'm I'm sure I am not on many Christmas card lists right now and that's okay I'm okay with that um but there it's just I I think we should stop acting as though it's already a done deal and one more final note there are other areas that have got other agencies I know that Atlanta as well as Toronto has gone to Swiss Rail and they're running their agencies so there are other agencies out there it's not just one in the world understood okay anything else commissioner as long as you all are okay with me still sitting there doing what I'm doing no just keep doing what you're doing and I was just ask that all right I would just ask staff keep the rest of the Commission in the loop as things move forward and let us know how things are going and what we need to weigh in or not weigh in on as a board um and anything we need to weigh in bring it to the board and we'll give direction to staff which we'll give direction to our L on um so we make sure that's Mo the right direction and I honestly do believe both lynx and SunRail um and and there's probably at least one other it's long overdue for some tough and hard discussion um of what's really going on and and and like I've stated I think a couple minutes or a couple meetings ago which was you know we're on a fleas we're a flea on a flea's butt on the back of a dog compared to the region I mean we we just face the facts that we're not the gorilla in the room um but that does not mean we should be treated any less or any better than any of our partners uh it needs to work seamlessly and equitably for all the partners so and then I'll be real quick commissioner Locka I just want I'm not saying this your information I'm saying for the folks that may be watching which is the our funding Partners I respect your opinion I expect the hard work that you're doing and I'll be taking your recommendations as you present them here if they make sense I will be supporting you so they need to realize that and when you speak you speak for all of us and I know you know that they need to know that Mr chman yes just to follow up on that it is my understanding and as you know I was out for two weeks so I don't don't hold me to this but the county manager is planning a work session with respect to links and SunRail in October October that's my understanding upate yeah great very good thank you all right I'm going to start with two board appointments on the committee and aging and I'm going to incorporate District Two in the Chairman's report all in one as I typically do uh I'd like to uh appoint Christy Bernard uh from hospice end of life services for a term of um 1123 through 12312 to continue that on and Leslie grubble local senior resident started in 1124 continuing on till 12301 126 second motion second any conversation seeing none all those in favor I opposed like sign seeing none thank you to both Christie and Leslie for agreeing to continue to serve on those boards we sincerely app appreciate it so the big news is I am a grandfather now for the third time woohoo yeah congratulations so um Alexander James Bower was born on Sunday and James just so you all know is spelled j a y Mees he's going to be explaining that as whole yeah I know but that was that was my daughter so that's number three and and uh it trly is blessing so we we continue to to follow those grandchildren um but back to County Business unfortunately I hate to announce that Big Daddy's organic farm is closing permanently in the Ovito Black Hammock area um they have found it too costly to continue to farm organically and and have their you know organic products available to the public uh it's really been a staple and an icon in that area for quite some some time and unfortunately uh the cost of doing business and and like farming around this entire country has come to the point where it it's just not coste effective unless you've got the scaling of major corporate Holdings to do tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of Acres which then of course is not necessarily organic type crops um so we're sad to hear that and understand that is is unfortunately occurred um it was brought up I think just a little bit by the county manager last time but I want to confirm the Ybor Ranch purchased by the state is in fact finally Inked all things are done the family will be out of there in short order and all materials and ranching equipment has been removed from the property so that's 1276 Acres more that have gone into conservation for the Wildlife Corridor um good work by our staff good work by my fellow Commissioners putting up with me being so persistent um and thank you to our governor and cabinet uh who ultimately decided to fund it and and get this done for the betterment of future of our great State uh update on the uh Sanford Orlando Airport um flight counts are now arriving above pre-pandemic levels and continue to grow we also have some good news there's going to be some additional destinations that are coming out uh this summer it's going to be Las Vegas Nevada Rapid City South Dakota Key West Florida Provo Utah niiger Falls Toronto Canadian side and Little Rock Arkansas operating income continues to increase um so those are destinations that were previously not served or were served then taken off and now back on um so those things are are happening uh I did have an opportunity to spend some time with representative Susan Placencia for town hall meeting on uh cost of homeowners insurance and what the legislature is doing um along with uh Mr Bankston and several others including uh Emergency Management director I can't remember his name but anyway from the state of Florida was there and told us what was going on with uh scaling back and we are going to see cost decreases in uh that there's now 11 um providers in the State of Florida are actually requesting a rate reduction um which they believe is directly result of the litigation uh measures that they uh passed statutory oversight with so that litigation will not be happening to the level that it once did which is good news uh let's see outside of that I wanted to bring to the attention uh of course everybody knows I was sitting on the canvasing board for the last oh several weeks um and I want to give Andrew lenus a big shout out for on behalf of the County Commission and the and the citizens of this uh County as being the legal representative for the canvasing board uh from the county side and I will tell you everybody interacted professionally and um you know everything went fairly well there was a few things that we could argue may be done better or not as good but um all in all everything turned out just fine and this weekend will be the final um verification of of the equipment to make sure that everything was accurate uh we did certify the official results of the elections last week and all that came in as well but I also wanted to bring um as many of you know I wanted to bring to the board's attention this whole scenario that we've unfortunately come to understand that happened I guess a couple months ago when the supervisor elections after being told once in writing by our County attorney that in order to do any modifications or construction to the building that we do not own and the county leases um turned around after receiving that letter and unbeknownst to us until after it occurred had actually contracted for another $80,000 worth of building renovation which was immediately brought to the county attorney's attention which the County Attorney then wrote a letter to the supervisor election stating that it's a leased property it's leased by the county not the supervisor of elections and the requirement of the lease requires it has to be approved by the county first then it has to be approved by the owner of the property which is the Sanford Orlando International Airport who is the owner of the property and that includes blueprints plans etc etc and they have to sign off on any permitting to approve those repairs unfortunately not knowing that the clerk of the court had already cut a check for $155,000 to the contractor in advance without us knowing that um and I spoke to that contractor uh that contractor does have a signed contract with the supervisor of elections unbeknownst to us which the county uh attorneys have been made aware of addition to that we come to find out that uh the schedule to move forward was scheduled for this past Monday without approval from the sanf Orlando International Airport uh it will not be moving forward my conversation with the contractor uh was to submit all bills to uh Darren gray our County Manager for review by him and our uh County attorneys and it appears that the citizens owe another $8,000 to the contractor uh for work that's already been performed in the way of Architectural Review civil engineering design etc etc so the bottom line is the supervisor election has spent approximately $223,000 taxpayers money without approval of the county without approval of the airport on a no bid contract that was not permitted under the terms of the lease um so what I'm asking uh the board to support in with the county attorney is it's obviously the supervisor elections Uh current cting supervisor election will not be reelected uh Mr Anderson lost the primary and pursuant to Florida Statutes 129 specifically 129.0 6.5 which dictates that the supervisor election cannot expend more than 112th of his budgetary once he is deemed not to be reelected as well as can no longer do non-line item transfers other words he cannot transfer funds from one part of the budget to reallocate it for another part of the budget and I would ask that the board support me asking the County Attorney to engage that immedi immediately and make sure none of that occurs so that no further taxpayers dollars will be expended for items that are unnecessary unapproved and inappropriate as well as to discuss that with the clerk of the courts who is the person who disperses the checks on behalf of the Constitutional officers um so I'm asking for direction and support from the board to direct the county attorney and County manager's office to ensure to engage that so no moreone money goes and I realize $23,000 in a grand scheme of a billion doll budget may not seem a lot but to me it's a playground set for our kids at one of the parks that needs to be replaced it's shade covers at the parks for some of our children um it's sidewalks somewhere that need to be done it's any number of things but if we don't get a hold of it my fear is additional things are going to occur so I'm asking for support to direct the county attorney and County manager's office to make sure that they dig into that so my question is do I have Direction and support to ask them to do that and report back to us short answer yes from my perspective um I think I I read that same statute actually um uh Miss borer and I were having a conversation and she mentioned the statute uh and I looked it up and there's there's a um a caveat of without permission of the board of County or D without direction of the bard of County Commissioners so there would be a provision sure if there was something reasonable and necessary for the operation of that office that could come to us that we could allow that but um but absolutely I think we're in a tedious place right and um there there is a a pattern of you know not thinking the rules apply and so and and frankly it may be that the that the clerk of the court who holds the supervisor of elections checkbook doesn't know that that provision exists in statute so we want to make sure that he understands that every before any check is cut that needs to be double checked with County management and uh budget right and I'm not I'm not trying to interpret law but I'm just asking to support to have our legal team and our County management look at those to me the statute's pretty clear as to what it says are you familiar I am yeah it it it is it is clear I'll just make one correction there that um it's the date the candidate is no longer you know up for reelection or October 1 whichever is later so in this case it be October 1 when it's implemented um just that's the only that's the only uh correction that I'll make there okay so the direction would be to have our folks look at that report back to the board uh to make sure that we are doing whatever we can as due diligence wise protect the taxpayers wallet uh at the end of the day commissioner her so I I agree with all that and then I would also say that it would be beneficial I'm going to leave statute out of it it would be beneficial for the clerk's staff and our team to work together to make sure that we have as many checks and balances as we can on our side of the equation so that we're actually protecting not only the public but the individuals that are in this together there has to be multiple sets of eyes on things just so that we are doing everything that we can from a due diligence perspective not only from a statutory perspective sure okay so it sounds like we have Direction everyone's okay with that commissioner conin procedurally I would say that you go to the clerk as commissioner her said just let them know that uh if there's any requests to let us know fair enough okay do you all feel you have Direction yes sir in anticipation of this our budget director is already pulling uh information together and uh Mason and I will coordinate to speak with the clerk okay and then uh finally on um quasi related to item 50 today the lean um code enforcement lean I want to make sure that the decision the county made this this board made today uh interact with the clerk of the courts to ensure that money that's an escrow in fact gets sent to the county and verify to get sent to the county because I do not want to happen to this what happened earlier this year when the clerk which was arguably one floor up had escrow money claiming to send to us undeliverable to the county which was literally one floor down they could have walked down and handed it to us was in fact sent back to the original property owner as unclaimed by the seal County border County Commission that's I don't want that to happen again yes sir that was $60 some th000 That was supposed to come to the county they went back to the original violator of the property um I I whatever it takes we we we again to commissioner her Point whatever checks and balances need to happen if we need to send somebody up there every day and go hey is there any thing in escrow from the clerk that belongs to the county tell us now and just give it to us uh and go deposit in the bank on behalf of the taxpayers I think we have a speaker running down to the podium and while she's running I would like to say I think Dominique's out on the canvasing or observing the canvas board as well so you get to get thanks all of us for that at the last minute that's right yes Miss hammock sure if it's okay I can just address your last comment um related to The Code Enforcement lean reduction yes so the the amount of a lean being held in escrow isn't with the county it's not with the clerk it's with the real estate um transaction because the property sold and so when the property sold they said okay you have to hold the lean and escrow and so what will happen then is the title company or the um the representative for the estate will pay the pay the lean with that that amount that's being held in escrow but regarding the process that you were also referencing we do have it in place we have met with the clerk so we're fully informed and we've been um requesting those and we actually have gotten several um uh satisfactions 100% paid and some partial paid from from that so so you're confident we now have that process tightened up to the point where absolutely yeah they didn't they were the letters and the notices were being they didn't know where to send them and they were being send to the wrong people and so all that's being straight we one floor down in the same building I'm not sure how that occurred but just saying but it's all it's all been worked out yes great great thank you very much and Mr chairman the highly anticipated code enforcement work session is September 24th mark your calendars fantastic we'll be here for a while on that one should I bring the popcorn machine down please do um birthday cake yay also to finish up um a other other event at the airport which is uh those who are familiar with America American Builder Supply uh is extending their lease for an extended period of time and are going to invest approximately 5 to10 million in improvements of their facility uh so that's good news for the Sanford uh Orlando International Airport so with that said that's all I have on my report so that wraps us up for that we will now move to the um public comment portion of our meeting which is at the end of our meeting so this is a time where we allow public public input of citizens that want to come in and talk about anything in general um related to County business or uh anything that they're seeing in their Community they want to put on our radar again same rules apply it's it's not a time to jump up and down and clap and scream and yell and uh have dialogue back and forth it also is not the time to wave signs and uh make aspersions or attack Haack individuals we expect proper decorum and professionalism and anything that you're about to say when you come up you'll be given three minutes to speak uh on your topic and you will just say your name and your address and Dominic we will call them up um three at a time so we'll try to move through this as efficiently as possible we also would remind you try not to be redundant in what other speakers are saying because if you are are our public comment remains open for approximately 30 minutes so we will work through that as quick as we can with as amount of speakers we have because of that we want as many people to be represented if you are hearing something you like thumbs up if you don't like what they're saying thumbs down but it's not like Yay no and screaming back and forth um and as well make sure that you as much as you would like to say the same thing that three or four other people have said by the time the third or fourth person says it we're all hearing it um because we we only run this for a 30 minute event at the end of each meeting I'm going to probably cut most of you short if you get a little too long- winded or you're duplicating the same thing um so with that said um let's start with the first item commissioner her I would just we have an eagle scout in the room that's been sitting here for a while going to be first okay I just want to make sure we're doing that gotcha y William Watts oh sweet thank you um welcome Mr Watts hi good afternoon um my name is William Watts I live in Longwood Florida and I was here approximately like a year ago to I'll present my Eagle project this is just last clarification to any of the new stuff um so the project proposal um last year was a memorial for Sergeant First Class Allen cash and Staff Sergeant Miller in Robert Miller um they are actually listed on the back of the her's Memorial um at the S County Courthouse um um they are native to semal count well sorry they're accredited to semal County and they both earned the Congressional M of Honor uh in the war on terror um my project well the project is the two bronze plaques and I was asking for permission to um place them on the back of the hero's Memorial uh pointed uh where my my finger is um that is where I'd like to um place them and I'm here today to um ask for permission um I also here to um ask your opinions on the plaque designs that I've created for both Staff Sergeant Miller and uh Sergeant First Class cash um here are options one and two and here are options one and two for uh cash Dominic can you start the timer please thank you that I was going quick sorry um so here are the two designs um that I have and then um the project completion installation and ceremony next steps um it would be to get your permission on both the designs uh and then go to both the cash and Miller families um for their final um say on the plaque design um and then I'm currently working with the American bronze Foundry on the plaque designs and they will install it uh with your permission of course um I'm going to continue fundraising then finalize the payments um with the bronze Foundry uh and then I will install the plaques on the heroes Memorial um and then I will play the final ceremony uh are there uh fun sorry fundraising um I've currently raised about $1,800 and I was generously given a match of up to $5,000 by V3 Capital also located in Longwood Florida I will continue to sell challenge coins um I've used them as fundraising and they're sold for $15 each um and I will also continue to solicit donations as well um are there any questions I don't have any questions I would urge you to work with our our folks continue to work make sure that this young man is connected with everybody that needs to have a say so on how it goes placement uh get all the data to our offices we're happy to review the plaques and designs and so forth but uh yeah this is this is probably not the not the setting on how we approve certain things but I sincerely admire your fortitude in moving this forward thank you very much thank you sir and Mr chairman second commissioner her so uh I I might get you there feedback cuz you came asking for feedback I will give you feedback uh so very nicely done I would tell you that I think it's up to the families to pick the style of the plaque that from a county perspective I think it would benefit us that they land on a design so they are not different and then you will probably be setting the pace for any of these that come forward so that's kind of cool uh and I think if we work through staff I certainly would support doing this in honor of these two uh gentlemen sure yeah Mr con did you want to say anything did okay that's what I was going to say yeah just just so we're clear this is typically not the time we have a lot of Engagement it's for the public to come give us their opinions but I understand um accordingly well I'll just say lock well I'll just say great job in in taking on this it's a big project and I remember when you came and presented it to us and um it's just so heartening to see young people in our community doing doing great things for the right reasons and so I I'll Echo the process pieces um that have been shared by my colleagues in terms of working through staff but thank you um thank you for stepping in and seeing um a need and filling it so we'll look forward to next steps M chairman if I may I would also commend you for your hard work and your uh ability to come forward and I would agree with the Commissioners that uh we should ask the families what they want it's just stay a loss anyone else thank you good thank you thank you very much have a good night we appreciate it all right Dominique if you will call three at a time I I got that one a little ahead of head of the ball game there and if as you come up give us a brief description on what you want to talk about uh and then we're we'll get your name and your address for the record um and we'll get things moving Dominique please first Chris Buchanan Gail nean and Vera Clark what was the second name Gail nanal allies Inc okay and and I'll remind you if anybody is here to speak on behalf of an entity I would urge you to speak on behalf of that entity and the rest of your entity would not speak because you're speaking on behalf of them so you'll be given six minutes if that's the case but your rest of your folks would not be speaking on behalf of the organization so please proceed and I am speaking on behalf of um the organization te with some concerns that we are having um with seino County Animal Services okay you'll have six minutes if you'll just repeat give us your name and your address my name is Chris Buchanan I reside at 647 short or Court in Sanford just a little bit about the tears and um seal County background semal County Animal Services background teers has been supporting seminal County over the last 14 years we have provided multiple Capital Improvement assets including shade structures um kennel fans anesthesia machine a dental machine um nebulizers for the foster homes and over the last couple years two uh blood machines that the shelter needed we have facilitated facilitated the adoptions of just over 2700 dogs and cats over the last three years we have we have been responsible for 21% of the cat adoptions through our volunteers social media and off-site Petco adoption centers that teers has been partnered with since 2013 we have covered the cost and volunteer needs of the on off-site Petco adoption centers which has been no small feat as it requires a volunteer to visit daily to clean feed and check on the health of the cats each day the way that tears has provided goods and services to seminal county has been extremely effective in filling in the gaps that the county budget could not be meet it's a very unique relationship that we have with SEO County and to date providing over $500,000 to to uh the animal Shel shelter I want to talk really quick about the Petco adoption program in 2013 tears was approached by Petco to keep the adopt to um provide uh adoptable cats and kittens in their care we worked very closely with Bob Hunter and Diane Gagliano at that time and figured out a way to do that and in doing that what we decided to do was to take the little liability out of the shelter's hands and put it into ours and be able to Showcase cats and kittens for adoption up at Petco so we've been doing that um and again in doing that 21% of the cats and kittens that come into simol County are adopted in April of 2014 we came well in February of 2014 we came Under New Management with Adam Le um and in April of 2014 I started to um some things got um brought to my attention and I did have concerns about the empty foster homes and the low intake of cats and kittens this was directly affected by the offsite um adoption program I met with Adam and Alan Harris Adam leth and Alan Hann Harris to introduce myself and talk about how we could all work together incredibly at this meeting it was suggested that if we needed cat cats and kittens for this particular program that maybe we had um maybe we should look elsewhere and to move our resources to another County or to another organization this was a problem for me for sure um since then Adam and Alan have made it have made it very difficult for this program to continue they want us to operate as a rescue and adopt cats and kittens immediately upon intake and take on the responsibility of all medical care including spay neuter and microchipping we were able to meet with Darren and Trisha and with their help we're able to go back to business as usual but it is not business as usual has turned into being allowed to adopt once the cat is available to the public and on the adoption floor he does not want them to go back to foster care he meaning Adam does not want them to go back to foster care which has the foster homes concerns sometimes we don't have space at Petco right away and so they are placed back with their foster home Adam will tell you it's best for the animal be to be to be in a foster home instead of the shelter but for us the animal has to come back to the shelter to be adopted so we're confused on which one is it he keeps going back and forth um Allan and Adam have stated both that tiar should be following the protocol of other Rescuers and managing the care ourselves however I ask you what other rescue has given over $500,000 to the County shelter there's probably not one um severing the relationship with is just one piece of what Adam and Allen are doing and when you look at the very aggressive approach and changes that have made to the shelter since February it's clear that the agenda of best friends have been put into place despite the number of times you have told best friends in semino county is not interested in partnering with them Adam says he is not affiliated with best friends but how do you explain the multimedia campaign promoting him and thanking our County for hiring him the sharp increase in or sharp decrease in intakes and the addition of promoting TNR or SNR are to any Strays including owner surrenders indoor and friendly cats they are selectively taking in highly adoptable dogs instead of those in need eliminating shelter as a resource for residents to safely bring unwanted or found pets to and instead increasing the amount of resources and shelter the shelter provides to Residents with food and vaccines with the idea that anyone surrendering an animal doesn't really want to they just need a bag of food he is so hyperfocused on the numbers and on reaching that 90% no kill status per best friends let me talk to you about some of these diversion programs that they speak about by the time a person has decided to bring their animal to the shelter they are out of options people usually have reached out to family and rescues by that time these local res rescues are often run by volunteers and a sh shering budget and do not have the vet staff facility or a county budget from which to operate you are being told the intake numbers are low because they are providing resources to keep pets in their homes with the families this is a diversion program they speak of this is only partially true they are not telling you about turning animals and residents away and about increasing TNR efforts to include indoor owner surrenders and family cats yes this has been going on we have several documentation that um with the TNR that um one owner actually surrendered his cat it showed back up on his property another um Resident was told to put the baby kittens back outside in her backyard um and after fighting with Adam and Allen was allowed to bring them back into the shelter um several instances of of different um being away citizens are being told that we are full we can offer to make an appointment for an evaluation but no guarantee your pet will be accepted we cannot take any animals now we in the future and of course we are full and not accepting animals indefinitely this is not what our County shelter is about we're not an open shelter right now we are a limited intake shelter and that's going against policy thank you thank you next up please let's go ahead and call three more names Miss Dominique please if y'all would just listen for your name to be called please if you would just go ahead and line up Charlie peoli Jenna Delgado and Janette rowlings all right if you folks would go ahead and line up yes ma'am please proceed name scale Nan I live at 4242 Shades CR L Sanford um yes M Megan I have a small organization animal allies and I don't have much to say can I give three of my minutes to um no ma'am we don't pass minutes please proceed let's try to wrap it up okay um I moved here in o02 and found that um Animal Services was very behind the times so um myself a lot of citizens approach the Commissioners and um happy to say some County Animal Services had a lot of great improvements they never used to spay an UDA before adoptions then they started to um they had not one volunteer now they have hundreds and um volunteer coordinator they have tears um well they had tears I should say and um you know I was very happy for the progression but now it's very upsetting the things I'm hearing and um why would to get rid of an organization that has done so much like tears and um a woman Andrea hubs has done so much saving feral cats from euthanasia and um a lot of them weren't really feral they were placed in homes for adoption and I heard that they also satiz with her as well and um I want to say three of the best things that I think has happened is Dian Magano tears and Andrea hobes and um they've done so much for the county and um I want to say one a couple of things that need to be done for us to go no Hill is that the Commissioners have to approve some things we really need a lowc cost lowcost spay noodle or even free for people that can't afford it the county does nothing itself to help with fixing the animals that are not in the shelter and to stop them from ending up in the shelter we have to fix the ones that are outside every other County around here has something we do have um spans Save which is great but they're very overwhelmed there's a very long wait for people and um the other thing is if the county would help with TNR promote it as something good that we need to do and maybe even have employees that do it we used to have a $25 rebate for every animal that we fixed and had a RAB show had a Raby shot but that was taken away because somebody thought that we were um making money off of it meanwhile we have thousands of dollars worth of vet bills and food and everything else so um those are two of my recommendations for the county um it's time we do that and I'm very proud of how much we progressed since 201 three and now it's time to do a little more thank you yes thank you m chairman just for the record Gale used to sit on Animal Services Board sure understood yes sir hi good afternoon um my name is Charlie Pei I live at 1330 GFI Street Orlando Florida I own a for-profit business named otown compost that collects and recycles food waste from over 200 seol County residents businesses and event venu use we work together with a decentralized network of farmers in the region who process the food waste into compost paying them tipping fees and buying back their product today otown compost is a financially sustainable business collecting composting 150 tons of food waste per month with a fleet of seven Vehicles employing 10 men and women with competitive pay and benefits our team is passionate about protecting the natural environment and conserving its resources we view food waste as a feed stock rep replenish our soil and not trash that takes up the landfill space the time has come I feel for seol County and other Central Florida municipalities to develop a short and long-term Solid Waste Management plan that prioritizes waste diversion over landfilling the negative externality of landfilling our waste isn't fully being realized yet and we're kicking the can down the road to Future Generations who will one day have to deal with a disposal crisis when the landfill inevitably runs out of room how do we move seal County towards a low waste Society I advise we start with addressing organic waste which makes up around 45% of the landfill or the Lion Share composting organic waste can't be looked at as a feel-good service but instead ought to be viewed as a utility along trash and recycling the county can adopt public policy that's already proven to work in other municipalities like rebates for businesses who Source separate and divert their food waste and incentive programs like a pay as you throw variable rate trash Billing System utilized in Gainesville which rewards residents that produce less garbage with a smaller garbage can the sooner we move away from the current status quo the longer we can forgo a disposal crisis in Seal County will remain resilient to change thank you thank you commissioner lockart um just for for the good of whoever might be listening um not to engage but um just just you know uh Kim orberg and her team have been working on something very similar um and I think it's exciting I have talked about compost up here in the past and I think people look at me like I'm aula Bell because I do compost my my kitchen scraps and what have you but I I think there is great opportunity there and I did not know that there was a private entity um doing that in this region so that was awesome to learn great yes ma'am your name address yes my name is Jenna Delgado I live at 628 Sharice place in Sanford um I'm coming to you as a concerned citizen what I'm hearing about seal County Animal Services and what I know to be true is incredibly concerning what is happening with best friends and the policies that they are implementing should not be tolerated in this County and it actually has been expressed by this Board of Commissioners that it will not be accepted here Adam leth being hired in February of 2024 this year in such a short amount of time has caused such damage I'd like to present some numbers to you that has been a matter of public record from February to August of 20122 there were 3,819 animal intakes in that same time period in last year there was 3,377 this year in February through August there has been 2, 318 that is not a miracle of TNR that is not an act of God that is because constituents are being turned away citizens are not being allowed to turn their animals into the shelter and as was stated before that is their absolute Last Resort they're not coming there because they can't afford a vaccine they can't afford food they are coming there because they have no other choice I am incredibly disappointed at what has been happening I'm disappointed Ed at the employees who have felt forced to leave their jobs as a result of his management and all that we're asking is for your support I understand that you can't be involved in the hiring and firing of employees but the county manager's office is we are asking for your support we are pleading for it we are urging for it not on our own behalf and for our organization but for the animals of seminal County they deserve better the people here that are in support of what we're talking about today feel the exact same way nobody likes to see this it doesn't reflect well in our County best friends has demoralized and has ruined shelters across the country because of their policies and we have hired a manager that they celebrate for doing the exact same thing here we should not be setting an example of being another shelter in America that has fallen victim to poor management and the actions of Best Friends Animal Society we need to set the example for our County for our state and for the great people that live here that it absolutely will not be tolerated a 90% save rate at the expense of the welfare of animals is not in their best interest it is in the best interest of somebody who is acting on those policies but really in regards to anybody else it carries absolutely no weight I am disheartened and it makes me sad however we're coming to you today urging this upon you and we're requesting your support because the animals and the people of this County desperately need it thank you for your time thank you m Delgado uh I want I want to just mention something for those speakers that are about to come up I would urge you do it your own Peril if you're going to name names and accuse people of doing certain things that have not been proven out you're certainly a welcome to your opinions uh I would just caution you in saying certain things but but by all means say whatever you'd like um but I will not allow us to attack people by name or or organizations what I will tell you is County management is investigating is looking is checking it's nobody's being ignored nobody is saying this is some myth somewhere but we have to do our due diligence and it is happening it may not be happening on your time frame but I will tell you government does not move quickly uh and that's often good in some cases bad in others and I would tell you there's not a commissioner here that desires any Peril come to any of our animals so rest assured our our management team is digging in and investigating so with that said I would just ask you tell us your concerns try not to make aspersions or things that aren't factual or have no factual basis and you name names at your own Peril so please continue okay great my name is Janette rowlings I live at 279 sunrise point in Lake Mary and I'm here as a representative of cats can cat rescue which is one of the rescues that's been affected by some of the changes at seol County Animal Services and as a Foster and volunteer for um pet Alliance in the past cats can currently and I have also recently fostered a litter for seminal counting animal services in the spring so I have a perspective on a few things um first it does appear that what's going on in seino County Animal Services is straight out of the best friend's Playbook and so I agree with those others um we know that people are being turned away that animals even who have been adopted through Animal Services um are then not being accepted for return one being left in the adoption box in the parking lot um so those there some things that I you know have heard about um last Wednesday uh one of the changes that was made that really concerns me is the posting up for adoption six week old baby kittens on the website at SEMO County um these kittens were currently in a foster home so they were being cared for being raised to be you know healthy cats with good behavior um and it was available for anybody to Foster to adopt in other words any seminol County resident or whatever who had the money could come in and take home a little baby kitten whether they knew what they were doing or not and this kittens not raised with the benefit of their litter mates or their mothers do end up having behavior issues such as extra scratchiness and biting issues so that's just one thing with the Foster program that bothered me I was also directly told that um this was in April that kittens don't need kitten food they can eat whatever ever they have there at the shelter um so I feel that a foster program is a really great way to keep animals out of the cages and out of the shelter to reduce the infection um that could happen when cats are all together in the shelter uh and also help them to become better pets and animals so I really would like to encourage you to look into whether the Foster program is being encouraged and promoted um and I think think Diane d gagiano has served very well in that capacity and I hate to hear that uh she has had difficulty remaining in her position and may even be terminated as as of this point now the other thing is when people come in and want to relinquish their pet they are given a list of options um and our rescue is one of the rescues listed on here and we have been directly impacted by this we have seen the number of people coming to us who have been turned away have has has increased so um ma'am you're out of time yep thank you very much next three please Brenda sanbor Jennifer Thomas and Mark Thomas Sanford Thomas and [Laughter] Thomas I am Brenda Sor my address is 540 old Geneva Road Geneva Florida and I am also a newly retired seminal County Animal Services employee I'm not a disgruntle employee so I'm not here for that reason I don't want you to than that I am here to back tears on everything that they said they're a wonderful organization anything good I was there for 18 years and anything that was good that happened for Animal Services was thanks to crisp you Canon and tears um I do want to also say that what is being said that is not here say it's not gossip I'm not going to name any names um I was planning on retiring the end of the year but due to policy changes I moved it up a little because I did not agree with the policies and one of which was um my position was the animal bite investigator but whenever dispatch would take their lunch break or when they would leave at 4:00 I would sit in for dispatch and I was repeatedly told that if people call would surrender animals to bring them in no matter what their reason was I mean there would people people would be on the phone crying because they were getting booted out of their apartment and needed to surrender their animals to us and I had to sit there and lie and say I'm sorry the shelter is full meanwhile later in the day you walk through the shelter we're not full you can walk through the back end of the shelter there's plenty of kennel runs you walk into the Stray Cat area there will be plenty of open cages for for surrender animals so to sit there call after call and tell people I'm sorry we're not accepting animals and then we would have a list of rescues trying to pwn the animals off on rescues which we know those rescues are overwhelmed um and also [Music] um I just lost my train of thought but um that's where I'm going I mean it's absolutely the truth this this is going on and the employees are by what she just said are being told to do this the customer service front uh front desk people are being told when people come in and say they want need to surrender their animals they can't they have nowhere and so what people end up doing is leaving them chained out in the backyard and just abandoning or letting them loose they'll let them loose on the streets because what else are they going to do and and the thing is is they're not doing that because they can't afford a bag of dog food that's the truth I don't want to repeat that cuz she already said that they're not they they're not getting rid of them they don't have the money to take the animals to the vet for rabies shots thank you we're out of time okay thank thank you next speaker please hi my name is Jennifer Thomas you must be the first part of the Thomas yes yes I'm the first one Speaking please go ahead um I live at 11823 Grove VI way I am a foster for seminal County Animal Services only for seminal County Animal Services so I'm here to tell you a personal experience um before I do I would like to read a statue from the a statute from the seal county code of ordinance chapter 20 animals and foul under um article one animal control it says Animal Services Division the division of semal County government responsible for the following and it starts with the care of the animals inside the County shelter when I became a foster I received a packet and inside this packet it says if you become a foster parent scas we'll provide you with with food medication and shelter vet care for your Foster animals for the longest time this was happening but now I want to tell you the story of Twilight um I picked up twilight I'm sorry on July 27th with another kitten to Foster it started out like any other Foster um but Twilight ended up getting sick um he didn't he had a physical deformity that he was born with I brought him to the shelter because his breathing was labored um I had contacted Diane the head of the foster care she was the she is the foster care coordinator on August the 6th to let her know the issue um she told me to bring him in on August the 7th so I did um I brought him in the veterinarian did an x-ray found that what she called a hiatal hernia and said said treat him this way and when it's time to neuter him we should be able to repair that by the next day it was obvious that it was not he could not wait so I continued to contact and Diane kept trying to get me back into see the veterinarian again on Friday August the 9th I brought him in for Diane to look at she said the veterinarian is not doing surgeries today Diane gave me medication in hopes that he could survive the weekend I was going to find and pay for a veterinarian to fix them with my own money which I do not mind doing part of the reason I got into fostering with seminal County Animal Services was to help take some of the burden off of them I had been a veterinary technician for 8 years prior and um I was I'm very familiar with Animal Care on the surface um he ended up dying that evening he died at an emergency clinic on the surface it looks like it was the fault of the veterinarian but on Monday Diane was brought into a meeting written up and spoken to by HR for providing me with medication to give to this kitten to try and keep him alive thank you thank you Miss Thomas Mr Thomas I believe here yes yes sir Mark Thomas also at 11823 gr you way um I want to give you the perspective of a family member of uh part of the Foster Care Program like my wife is the official Foster my son and I help raise all the Foster kittens that we get and it's um a really challenging but rewarding job to do that so we know sometimes they come in they'll often be sick um and we'll be able to get him through sometimes not we're through no fault of anyone else but um when one comes along and is sick and could have been helped by the people who own the kitten Sano County it it was a really discouraging thing for us because to take a kitten and raise it and prepare it and one that's feral maybe and get it ready to be adopted is a a big long process because you end up getting attached but you know you're preparing it for a new home and a new family so we've worked a lot of our kittens have been adopted through friends of ours or through uh tears especially and I can tell you the thing that's really gratifying is when I hear from my wife that there's a picture of someone at Petco who adopted both kittens that we had dropped off there and there's a picture of a a smiling couple where she's holding both kittens and they're both giving her a kiss on the cheek that's what we really live for and that whole process is really in danger right now we we've developed a partnership with the animal services with tears with us us all working together is a great example of our government getting along with the citizens in a fantastic way and that's really in danger because the part of that partnership is just being destroyed so I would encourage you to to push forward for making things to go back the way they were because it's not too late to to get things back to the way they were even though the relationships are are getting bad I I really hope that you do whatever you can to to make things right again it's entirely possible and um we're ready to keep fostering with a good relationship with scps any questions thank you Mr Thomas all right thank you very much for being here we appreciate it how many more speaker forms do we have five okay let's get uh let's get those five lined up let's read them all Michelle Duval Ruben Ruben Blair Walters Walters charotte Ward Ward Andrew hubs is that hubs hubs and Wendy Jennings and Jennings all right we'll bring this in for a landing ask before before my time starts I have two questions that I think several people would like to know the answers well we're not here to answer questions ma'am this how do I get the answers you can interact with we'll make sure you can interact with our staff so please proceed okay my name is Mich alal ruin I reside at 4017 Shady Oak Court in Lake Mary Florida the two questions are so they're out there is I'd like to get a copy of the operating procedures for seal County Animal Services I as a resident have had an impossible time finding these and then number two I'd also like to know how we get on the agenda so we're allotted more time some of the people that came to speak had to leave so that's that all right um I would like to know who gave this authorization to make changes to the policies of the way seol County Animal Services operates since they no longer take in items or animals that are lost or owner surrender per Florida state regulations and laws stated under Florida rod.com item number 17 or Florida animal rescue act if an animal is abandoned by its owner it must be taken by the public Animal Control agency and as we can see that's not happening next this is tied into who gave authorization to seol County government for the website to change to say that that residents must call to make an appointment to relinquish animals I believe this is an outdated practice left over from Co era it did not used to exist according to Florida statute the must accept Strays we want to know that how is it possible that the shelter's being telling residents that again it's full sorry I'm trying to jump around here volunteers have stated that there are empty dog runs Etc as we heard this ties into where do I go here okay that trying to make it fast now okay we also know or it is rumored that the management here at seal County Animal Services has told their officers that they must call in to get approval before they can bring in or pick up an animal reported us astray also that theyve being told to take animals being deemed they're going to let loose in feral communities that were previously indoor pet animals this according to Florida Statutes is animal abandoned and I as a resident would be subject to a $5,000 fine for doing such so is management at seol County subject to this fine because this is repeatedly happening okay uh and also I my understanding that this one individual is also deeming animals dangerous without going in front of the animal control control board which is again against Florida regulations another thing that I'm concerned about is I seminal resident and P Foster and volunteer have requested the public records for the distribution of the foster homes partner rescues and volunteers twice but have yet to receive it what do I have to do if I'm sending multiple public records requests how long should this take all right and the references to best friends I dropped off a bunch of information is there but if you search you'll see that actually he is quoted Adam leth is quoted on the best friend's website so there's obviously connection there thank you m HS if you would uh staff if you would uh get with Miss hubs and direct her to where our codes at located at so she can her Leisure be able to get access to that yes ma'am next I'm charlot Ward I'm a 1145 Twin Oak Circle ofo Florida yes ma'am um I've been a simal County resident for 19 years and volunteering with simal County Animal Services for 12 and I help by taking the cat and kitten photos and you put them on Pet Finder um been doing that for 12 years uh in March of this year I noticed a drop in the number of cats available to photograph and put on Pet Finder and I was told we had a new shuttle manager so I met with Adam the beginning of April to see what changes he was implementing if I'm volunteering I need to know what's happening in my you know who am I volunteering for um he told me the officers were not picking up cats and kittens in the field which I said how does that help animal overpopulation and he said they would not necessarily take an animal I bring in even though on day one of volunteer orientation I was told smle county is an open County shelter and will not turn away any animals he uh referred to a lot of best practices and a a 90% live release rate I also voiced my concerns um I left after I voiced my concerns I left feeling um discouraged especially as he ended the conversation with a comment about estrogen and letting my emot getting the way honestly I was shocked by his statement in late April I photographed a cat I don't know if you've heard of him Wolfie um he was a 22b owner surrender his owner had pass uh he was scared out of his mind at the shelter um I read on his card that if he does not get adopted that they would SNR him which I didn't know what that was it was a new term to me but basically it's a TNR but it's a Sheltering already um so then I thought oh my gosh they're abandoning this this 22lb cat Outdoors how is he going to survive and then I thought how many other ones have they done this to um and then other not other comments on the cards I I was seeing okay to take or left at the front door left at the gate left in the lobby and um find her unable to hold so I'm guessing they've been asking people to hold animals for them I decided to attend the animal control board meeting in June to see if there was any mention of the things I was seeing I noticed when I'd never heard of them before change sa simal spoke and they commented on how great the numbers were at the shelter um so I spoke with one of the members and that member told me that um they knew the past manager was not willing to work with them um they knew that Adam was an advocate for no kill and they asked him to apply this led me to research who change safe Z more was because I had no idea and it says on their website they are with Best Friends Animal Society so now I'm very confused at what's going on um are they recruiting people to come to our shelter I'm hoping that you will look deeper into this I know you said you are because if things are changing residents and volunteers have a right to know what's going on um and I'm here today speaking for the cats hopeing they get more homes and we'll feel was adopted thank you hi my name is Andrea hubs I'm at 411 ipswitch Street alont Springs uh 32701 um I run the nonprofit nonprofit group simal County tnvr and I'm also a simol County resident um just for the record we're separate from simol County Animal Services in Spain save because a lot of times people think we're intermingled and we're not um we started our group in no November of 21 to help residents and business owners tmvr Community cats at no cost to them we became a nonprofit in June of 23 and we also became an official rescue partner with simal County Animal Services at this time we started with three volunteers and now we're up to 28 volunteers so we've grown quite a bit since we began in 21 we have tnvr approximately 2500 cats and kittens for residents and business owners um and that's all out of our pocket um and since um September of 22 we have tmvr 878 cats and kittens from simal County Animal Services um and adopted out 290 of them through various rescues until March of this year esess was delivering all of their tnvr cats to Spain save on Thursdays where my group paid to get them spayed and neutered vaccinated and ear tipped and then I would recover them at my house after surgery and then spend hours on the weekends um releasing them back to their neighborhoods they were outdoor cats that had feed um if I found adoptable ones um those are the ones I would adopt out through um different um organizations so the cost was $63 a cat um that was a Spain neuter package with flea meds and worm medicine and um and that's if they weren't sick we did get a lot of them from animal services that up had upper respiratory and we were responsible for supplying the the meds for that they would not give me any meds we also um you know had to buy our own food and litter they since then they've given us about five donations of food um Al Adams he's he's awesome he's been doing that um so we have spent approximately 157,000 on community cats for simol County residents and approximately 53,000 on community cats we've receiv received from simal County Animal Services when Adam Lee took over at as shelter director in March um in March they started teen vring their own cats I thought this was a great idea until I started hearing some disturbing stories from various sources one story I confirmed was with an ESC employee that said they were releasing the owner surrenders outside this is a huge problem since a lot of owner surrenders have only lived their lives inside and none of them would be able to find food and water I've also learned that they are releasing teen VR cast as some Woods off of State Road 434 in noo according to the ordinance passed in April of 2022 senal County Animal Services is supposed to be working with a rescue Department partner for training in T tnbr I reached out numerous times to help and they never um taken me up on my offer to help um in the past few months they've also been directing a lot of calls to us that do not pertain to our group okay I'm sorry you're out of time ma'am okay I don't get six minutes no ma'am we've gone way past half hour of public input I appreciate your patience what I can hi Blair Walters I reside at 138 Williams Street in Edgewater Florida one or 32141 um I am one of the originals with the seminol county tmvr program I've spoken to y'all before and um I'm the call Taker and I dispatch our calls when we have cats that people are needing help to tmbr them I'll dispatch them out to our team um I used to get an average of like you know five calls a week I don't do it full-time you all of us have jobs and families and this is a volunteer thing that we all do and I I take to handle the phones because I don't live locally anymore I used to live here for 25 years in tmvr in seminal County so my call since March man my calls have like doubled and I'm asking people I started you know Wonder like why are all these calls going up so I thought I'd start asking people you know why are you you know how'd you get our number and they go oh seminal County Animal Services gave it to you and I'm like why aren't they helping you I mean this is this is who they are you know they always helped before I'm like why are they giving you to us and they said and and I'm getting VAR you know excuses it's like well they don't take cats anymore I said what do you mean they don't take cats anymore that's part of an animal you know and their Animal Services they go yeah they're not taking cats anymore I said well you just need your cat fixed they fix cats I go no they're not doing that anymore either I'm like well you know what are they doing and people calling us because they want to surrender their cats or they want a colony to disappear and they go oh call call simol County tmvr program they do all that they can relocate them for you we don't relocate you don't relocate cats you know you don't they just they they're not that easily you know acclimated to a new area and it's not what we do anyway and if you speak to your resident and explain to them the cat colony and you know how to work with it and let's get the cats fixed because I think once all the kittens stop appearing which is what really pulls at people's heartstrings is watching the Hawks pick them up or having them disappear to the coyotes and everything else people tend to say okay if you'll get get them fixed you can bring them back cuz I don't mind feeding them I just don't need you know I had three last year and I've got 17 now and I'm like yeah next summer you're going to have 38 and so let's start fixing them now and you know people are like oh okay I'm good with that but it just takes a little bit of education and I really appreciate you chairman saying you know that y all love animals because we the people have been trying to get attention out of this County and no one's listening and that's why we're here because we we are listening trust me okay well we need your help and we greatly appreciate your comment because we didn't think anyone was listening no we're listening trust me you know and I didn't mean to get off of that but you know and we need you know we're we're a 501c3 so we truly do need funding because we can't you know afford to to tmvr you to pay for everybody's SCS a lot of the community kicks in but you know we have a lot of seniors that are on fixed incomes and they love feeding the cats so you know we try and help everyone and all the cats we can but please help us get these cats fixed so that we can all live together and thanks again for your comment we greatly appreciate it and we need your help thanks absolutely all right our our our grand finale don't expect that much Wendy jannings 100 Amberwood Court Longwood Florida 32779 um I would like to just say that I you know an animal have have worked in many animal organizations through the years and in semal County in particular the both the domestic and wild animal community is pretty well connected and the networks are only as good as the leadership and the volunteers and I know the volunteers are awesome I think the leadership right now is in question I'm not going to go into any more details you've all heard all the same things I personally have dealt with tears of seminol and they are amazing the most incredible organization I've ever seen top to bottom no matter what I have two tece kitties right now my 8-year-old midnight is now Midnight Rider and you can't catch him he was born feral and because Chris um um determines the personality of the cat with the adopter she knew that we he would be a good fit for us and he is incredible even though he probably wouldn't make it in some settings I think the questions we have here on the addressing of the management at the shelter are one thing that everybody in the animal rescue Community or the animal community in simal County always wants to talk about is people go oh no seminal county is to kill shelter they'll kill your animals and everybody wants to say no take them there they will not kill them that is the first place that a person with a lost animal is going to check for their animal but now nobody is allowed to bring their animals to the shelter so somebody that has that finds a lost animal basically has to hold them at their house put it out to some kind of social media networks and until they can no longer hold them and often times that animal will never get seen um I think part partnering with the giant non-entity nonprofit whose name we will not mention again who has a CEO that makes over $200,000 a year who is going around the country partnering up with very small County Animal Services buildings for reasons we don't really know yet I think maybe that needs to be the question of how we can save seminal County Animal Services which was until a few months ago an incredible service service entity to the county right now the county is not serving the residents of seal County that's all I have thank you all right we'll end our public input and I'm sure others will have something to say but the befor mentioned unnamed big operator with the befor mentioned unnamed CEO uh not on my watch and I I suspect that's my fellow commissioner's perspective as well that we've we've already visited that that movie and I thought we made ourselves perfectly clear I I do want to assure everyone that again government moves slow um I come from the private sector it's a whole different ball game I can walk into my private business I can pull a couple people side and say you're fired you're fired and you're fired go away I don't care why I'll bring somebody else in and get the job job done government doesn't work that way so so I would ask that each and every one of you we have seen your emails we have filled your phone calls we are aware of that our Management's aware of our management has made us aware of this and so let us do our due diligence let us sift through all the items that should be sifted through so we can vet in and vet out what's being alleged what's actually occurred so we can get to the bottom of it and heal the animal community and all those that have assisted the county uh I would ask that you be patient with us uh and I assure you we'll get to the bottom of it I I will assure you that none of my fellow Commissioners would desire to have anything but that uh but again it does unfortunately move at a snail's pace um but we'll get there so with that does any of the other Commissioners have anything that they wish say commissioner lockart um I would just say when we first had that organization from out of town come here um and after there were some individual interactions and public interactions we made it very clear to the county manager and and his team that this board decides who we partner with um and we said that that was not an organization we would choose to partner with similarly I would say this board chooses who we partner with and we've got multiple nonprofits with seminal County Citizens who are being treated differently and um than they had been whether it's policy or practice I think that remains to be seen and I think we we are interchanging in our conversations the difference between policy set by this board and practice that's been enacted by by County management or County staff and so that's important that we understand you know the border of County Commissioners and our policy setting us up here and practices and procedures are typically not in our purview and so we probably as a board at some point need to talk about what do we want to have be the direction of the board um never thinking in a million years we would be getting into the minutia that is being brought to us um today are there always ways to improve absolutely um if you're an organization and you say you've already got it figured out and we're perfect thank you we don't need your help there's something wrong with you right um we know that but um when people who have been volunteering in this community for decades come forward and say we have a problem I'm much more apt to pay attention and listen than when someone comes swooping in from out of state and tries to um create a problem in order to solve it provide a solution yes and so I will just reiterate to the county management that um I I ex I expect I not us but me I expect um that our citizens and volunteers will be treated as they are used to respectfully yeah commissioner her so there were a lot of things that were said today that absent of an answer to that stop being a misconception and start being a truth and I think we have a few of them that we need to get on the record that I I just I have been assured are inacurate and so I'm going to do it again on the record are we an open shelter Deputy County Manager we are you can look on our website and see our intakes for the last 6 months we average between 3 and 400 animals a month last week we took in 89 according to my records yes and do you have to have an appointment before you can do it you do but that's a practice that's been in place for many years it's not new so if I show up at the shelter with a dog in my hands what happens they won't turn you away but what some of the folks you're talking about are diversionary programs those are new not Everyone likes them that may be something we want to talk about at the board level um if they uh someone comes in and says that they can't afford to have their animal um we will try to support them with food if uh someone comes in and um says they found a dog in the neighborhood we will try to could you Foster the dog in case it's one of your neighbors that lost it but what I have been assured is that no one has turned away and if someone says I cannot keep the animal um for whatever reason we will take the animal and so is it a bag of food as there several references to a bag of food bag of food doesn't solve a person it doesn't solve a problem I can't speak to the magnitude of food so I I don't want to continue doing this but I will just from the perspective of this perception that we've done nothing about this I think that you've spent hours doing full-blown investigations at the senior management level in the organization to figure out how to get to the bottom of this I will tell any of you in the audience that if you can give me an eyewitness send them to my office but I don't want hearsay and a lot of the emails contained hearsay I heard it was here today I'm not saying it's not true I'm just saying that doesn't help an investigation I also would say that we live in an innocent until proven guilty country and we are an innocent until proven guilty workplace and that should be how it is um so to and I realize also that I use the example of a dog being surrendered and the same goes for a cat but I never imagine myself walking with a cat in my hands cuz I can't touch or breathe near a cat so uh if I walk into the shelter with a cat will they take the cat yes all right a couple of things that I think we need to reconcile first of all I think the website might be a little bit misleading because it says call for an appointment which may the statement was made several times today that look on your website it says I can't take it in there there's a leap of faith that's happening that's probably a public communication problem and then I would also tell you that I cannot reconcile I see all the numbers and I cannot reconcile that we only have 16 cats up for adoption on on the website today and the number of dogs is relatively low as well but I see the intake numbers and so we have to get to the bottom of this in a public forum I hate that we have to do that but we do other than that this becomes truth and if it's not that's that's not fair to our employees and if it is it's not fair to the citizens or the animals we just have to reconcile it I would agree with all of your statements and though I don't want to speak for the county manager I'm confident that what his recommendation will be will be to bring back practices and policies for the board to learn more about and then if the board would like to modify them change them um that's certainly uh the board's perview to do so thank you I can't give you a time frame on that yet um Mr Gray has a meeting actually with Chris Buchanan and alen Harris next week and once that meeting concludes that will'll give him some further direction again I would just ask that everybody be patient let us work through the process investigate let's find out what's right what's wrong but the comment was made earlier about letting your dogs loose in the neighborhood so they run off I will assure you my two dogs if I let them loose anywhere they would come running home immediately they've got it too good um so if there's nothing else better for the good of the order all right we are we will close the meeting for today and we appreciate everybody's time and patience with us today and we sincerely appreciate youall coming to to share your concerns so thank you all and have a good evening oh [Music] n [Music] --------- ##VIDEO ID:5FASO291KFQ## l [Music] meeting Tuesday August 7 27 2024 if you'd please take a moment to silence your cell phones any other electronic devices that you may have so that we can be respectful to uh the speakers and the presenters today that will be before us we're going to begin our day with invocation by Reverend Jared Jones of the Holy Cross Episcopal church and the pledge will be led by Mr Timothy JX please rise let us pray almighty God who has given us this good land for our heritage we humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will bless our land with honorable industry sound learning and pure manners save us from violence Discord and confusion from pride and arrogance and from every evil way defend our liberties and fashion into one United people the multitudes brought hither out of the many kindreds and tongues end do with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy name we entrust the authority of government that there may be Justice and peace at home and that through obedience to thy law we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the Earth in the time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness and in the day of trouble suffer not our trust in thee to fail all which we ask through Jesus Christ Our Lord amen amen please join me in the pledge I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America the for it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and Justice all thank you Mr J and thank you uh Pastor Jones we sincerely appreciate you coming down and blessing our proceeding this morning first items up will be proclamations and presentations the first Proclamation proclaiming chief petty officer Gary shering United States Navy as Simo County's August veteran of the month will be read by commissioner Andrea Herr it's my honor to read the following proclamation of the seminal County Board of County Commissioners recognizing United States Navy chief petty officer Gary Christian shearing for his outstanding service to the United States and seminal County whereas the brave men and women of our army navy Marines Air Force Coast Guard and space force demonstrate a Resolute spirit and unmatched selflessness reminding us there are few things more American than giving of ourselves to make a difference in the lives of others and whereas throughout our country's history generations of service members have answered the call to leave their families their jobs and put their Futures and even their lives on the line to Val iant L defend our nation and whereas for many service members the sacrific has ended in permanent injury or death yet their Spirit remains in the continued preservation of our freedoms and the promise of Liberty and whereas there are more than 30,000 living veterans in seol County who served our nation in times of peace and War through their service they kept America strong and whereas chief petty officer Gary sharing enlisted in the Navy in October oober of 1963 and served honorably until his retirement in February of 1984 he was deployed to Vietnam in the late 1960s on the USS NOA serving as a sonar technician and whereas chief petty officer Gary sharing moved to Sanford in April of 1987 where he worked for the seminal County government as a traffic engineer until his retirement in 2008 his responsibilities included maintaining the electronic components and timing of the traffic signals in seol county and whereas chief petty officer Gary shearing was instrumental in the conversion of copper wiring to fiber optic wiring for all of the County's traffic signals which allowed faster bandwidth and transmission to all traffic signals and whereas chief petty officer gar Gary sharing was the C certification chairman for the international Municipal signal assoc Association for the State of Florida where he was the certifying official for all traffic signal technicians in the state and whereas chief petty officer Gary sharing was the treasurer hold for it of the Lake Mary little league and coached both baseball and softball youth teams in early 2000s and whereas chief petty officer Gary sharing has brought great credit and distinction upon himself the United States of America the United States nav and seminal County now therefore be it proclaimed that we the board of County commissioners of seal County Florida express our gratitude our admiration and our utmost respect for chief petty officer Gary sharing for his outstanding service to the United States Navy and the residents of seol County be it further proclaimed that this Proclamation is presented to chief petty officer Gary sharing along with our sincere congratulations and recognition as seol County veteran of the month adopted this 24th day 27th day of August 2024 second motion second all those in favor I oppos like sign seeing none carries un n congratulations Mr sharing we appreciate you being here today [Applause] and please come to the podium and have any words you wisdom you'd like to share and hopefully it's not on traffic lights I've talked about traffic lights enough and uh one of the fellas that I wanted to mention is Robert Fitzgerald he's a guy that does all the timing which is why you sit at the side of for so long that's Robert Fitzgerald I'd give you the phone number but there's three guys in the back from the agency that wouldn't like that uh I want to thank the commission for taking this uh time to honor a veteran uh there's many here and uh it seems like we come in we do our job and go away and go do something else which is what I did I did 21 years in the Navy and then went worked overseas for a while and then came and worked for S old County I was fortunate I was uh taken under the wing of a fellow named John Harper who really taught me a lot about traffic signals I knew green yellow and red and basically what they meant when I started and uh he was a good instructor a good man and rather simplistic individual who is really what we needed I uh was fortunate enough to be working at traffic engineering when our first real traffic engineer some of you will remember him Bob Zuni was hired and he did quite a bit to uh modernize and and uh push forward the goals of traffic engineering which were clearly defined to everybody who worked there he was a type of uh leader that uh I enjoyed working under in the Navy and I found that out of the three uh Traffic Engineers that I work for all three of them possessed a good trait that I refer to as lead follow or get out of the way and all three of them possess to some degree that uh that trait that they had good people they hired good people and then they let them go and do their job which quite frequently isn't true in government uh I wanted to uh mention Bob because he was a very controversial individual as some of the Commissioners will remember uh after he left uh a lady named Melanie barington took over and she was a a different person different type of leader still very effective still very true to her cause and she ended up working in Washington DC uh and it kind of moved up the ranks pretty quick up there and uh the current uh Team Charlie Wetzel and Steve Douglas they they carry on that tradition they' Charlie's a good traffic engineer he understands what the heck he's talking about he's got a noble assistant Steve and they they work together to make things better uh I think char is the one that kind of enforced on me uh with with a lot of a group of people sometimes you have the higher Achievers and the lower Achievers and uh he told me how to get one of the lower Achievers to move a little bit he said lead follower get out of the way and uh don't take any prisoners thank you thank you Chief if you would stand by for us we're going to get some pictures here after this next Proclamation sir thank you very [Applause] much our next Proclamation is proclaiming Bonnie sprung as seminal County's 2024 artist of the year this will be read by commissioner Lee Constantine thank you m uh commissioner zimbauer and uh being that this is the 30th anniversary of the SEO Cultural Arts Council um I take great pride in moving the proclamation of proclaiming Bonnie sprung as the recipient of the seminar County Board of County Commissioners 2024 artist of the year award whereas the seal County Board of County Commissioners and the seal County Arts Council acknowledge the significant role that the Arts play in the quality of life of the residents of seol County and support the artist of the year program and whereas seol County Board of County Comm Commissioners wishes to acknowledge the contributions of individual cultural artists performers visual artists historians and authors as artists of the year who have contributed to the enrichment of seol County and who are active in the community for the advancement of the Arts and whereas SEO County Board of County Commissioners will honor local artist Bonnie sprung who is a set and Stage designer photographer scene painter graphics artist magazine writer Fine Arts painter and art instructor and whereas Bonnie a resident of alamont Springs earned an associate of Arts degree at fluna Community College and a Bachelor of Arts from Hoffer University in New York ultimately with a major in Theatrical production and a minor in graphic design owns uniquely sprung art studio and is known throughout Central Florida and New York for her hundreds of innovative set designs which are in high demand for both large and small theaters and as a Creator a creative theatrical manager employing her expertise in makeup prospective drawing scene painting two and three dimensional design Drafting and layout and whereas Bonnie sprung is a freelanced as a photo as a graphics artist magazine photographer and writer m mastered the art of theatrical photography including actors head shots and capturing bodybuilders on film and has photographic Works published and now owns muscular motion gym in pursuit of her love of fitness and whereas Bonnie has had more than 30 years experience curating and judging art exhibits and high school thesbian competitions shows her own award winning paintings including large portraits mixed media works and photography as soul and graph and group exhibits creates and sells wearable art and being green-minded produces unique disc art from CDs and DVDs conducts art demonstrations and workshops and has her Works in both public Galleries and private Collections and whereas Bonnie is the past president and member of the Florida chapter of women's caucus for art was on the red chair Orlando project and has been an indispensable member of the seol County Arts Council board for more than 10 years volunteering for every fundraiser and event in support of the seol County Arts Council and art and culture in seol County now therefore be a Proclaim that SEO County Board of County Commission Commissioners wishes to commend Bonnie sprung for her promotion of Arts throughout seol County in Central Florida and be it further proclaimed that this Proclamation be spread upon the official minutes of the clerk of the Circuit Court in and for the county of seol and presented to Bonnie sprung with the best wishes on her selection as the 2024 artist of the year second said so second Motion in second all those in favor I oppose like sign hearing none carries unanimous congratulations Mr BR a and we have commissioner Anthony armadilla from the city of Castleberry which will give us about a two-minute presentation chairman Commissioners uh my name is Anthony AR D I am the President of the seminal culture warts Council as you've heard uh it is our 30th Anniversary this year so this is uh one way that we're kicking it off um as you've heard as well we are the recipients of the state-of-the-arts license plate so all those funds go back into the community so I stress to everybody if you support the arts and culture in SEO County go ahead and apply for state-of-the-arts uh license plad and our biggest fundraiser is going to be held this coming year February 1st at the cbury Art Center as well and um I wish to see many of you there now we're going to go ahead and do a small little clip on who Bonnie sprung is AP we were expecting him to do the presentation first video so the presentation was cor now he had two minutes he's down to 30 seconds move on sometimes there's a lot to be said for old technology this will be one of those moments when you says this is sometimes paper says it all that's right here we go oh that's a good sign how about that Lake marry little leg indeed Bonnie sprung may have been born in New York but she's the pride of SEMO County she's lived in alamon springs for almost 40 years Bonnie has always described herself as having been born with a paintbrush in her hand she's a talented artist who's favored diverse mediums from photography to painting to the creation of mixed media art installations like her award-winning this Arts series she also has extensive experience in Graphic Design Within Digital Arts Theater production with a specialty in set design and makeup and many other creative Endeavors in between the seminal culture Arts Council selected Bonnie as artist of the year for many reasons however two of the most compelling things about Bonnie that contributed to her selection were the breath and diversity of her design portfolio and her long-standing record of service within the community quite simply Bonnie is everywhere she's participated in countless cultural events over the years like the Orlando French Festival she served as a volunteer and judge in many student art exhibits at Valencia College SEO State College and for semal County Public Schools she's also a member of the Florida chapter of the women's caucus for arts and a longtime supporter and board member for as CAC simply put Bonnie is wonderful and we're also proud of her as president of the seminal Cultural Arts Council I am pleased to introduce Bonnie sprong at seal County's 2024 artist of the year thank younie Miss sprung would you like to have a few words quickly welcome well I want to thank everybody thank you CH thank you seal uh seal Cultural Arts Council I'm overwhelmed and just thankful and grateful and this is really a surprise and just thank you fantastic this is great thank [Applause] you all right if the commission would uh meet me on the floor to have photographs taken with uh Chief Gary and uh Miss sprung we'll get that out of the way where our investment advisor getting keyed up [Music] [Music] all thank you all for your patience and as we're waiting for the chambers to clear of those participants we've got our investment adviser Mr Scott McIntyre approaching and is now ready to give us a presentation if you're ready sir please am I'll be respectful of your time it sounds like you guys are in a bit of a rush today and that's great that's fine inflation continues to slow down it continues to cool that's good it's not cooling as fast as the market is priced in labor market concerns have recently emerged so the FED is now concerned about uh the deterioration of the labor market although I think that those concerns are overblown the economy appears to be slowing a little bit but uh at the beginning of August recession was all over the headlines recession does not appear to be uh on the horizon the FED meets on September 18th so we're getting pretty close to the FED meeting the question is what whether they cut 25 or 50 they're going to cut they've signaled that uh last week loud and clear um the market has seems to have gotten ahead of itself yields are quite a bit lower in anticipation of a series of rate cuts the market is now priced in 225 basis points of rate Cuts between now and the end of next year which is which is fairly aggressive given the fact that the FED is pledged to be patient one of the reasons that um the rate cuts are all queed up is because inflation seems to be moving down but you can look at the tail end of that graph and see that the moving down part has not been all that dramatic inflation is still going to be sticky um home prices are still at record highs um we've been really really lucky as far as what's going on in the Middle East because we haven't seen it spike in gas prices and we'll hold our breath on that because energy has has managed to to pull inflation lower instead of moving higher so we'll cross our fingers on that this is something you can look at in your own time I'm not going to go over all this but this is the Bloomberg survey as of about a week ago these are 75 Economist it's their opinion on where the 2-year note will be the the overnight rate will be the unemployment rate will be Etc and um again it doesn't show the economy collapsing it shows that uh GDP is expected to be around 2% roughly going forward out six six quarters it also shows that the unemployment rate which actually got down to um are up to 4.3% at least in the mind of these economists has peaked so you know the idea that the labor market is going to deteriorate when we are essentially still a percentage point below full full employment is is probably again a case of getting ahead of itself so that brings us to where rates are and as you can see I try to do this um to where I leave up the yields as of the previous meetings and if you focus on the 24mon to your treasury you see that were're almost 100 basis points lower than we were several meetings ago um that doesn't mean the FED is cut rates it means that the the FED is anticipating cutting rates so the market again is is two steps ahead always fortunately we have gotten out and when yields were higher we did a lot of investing um and right now the Bird in Hand is a 550 overnight rate you're about 85% fixed 15% floating so you're you're relatively well invested for a drain period the market has moved so fast in such a short period of time that my recommendation whoops my recommendation is to Hold Steady in until September and and hold steady means that we're not going to jump out and invest at 390 or 370 we're going to stay overnight at 550 and I understand that in September that's going to be lower it's going to be lower again in November it's going to be lower at year end but I expect when year end with the overnight rate still above 5% so uh we also have the flip of the election and that's going to have ramifications both both uh candidates are expecting tariffs which are inflationary so um I do want to mention one other thing if you look at the portfolio statistics as of the last good date um the portfolio yield is almost $490 it actually moves higher despite the fact that we're not doing anything in August because two maturities come off with lower yields and they go into higher yields so I expect that your portfolio is going to be yielding close to to 493 at the end of August and uh you know so so we're moving back up um we've gone from a period in 2021 where people talked about negative interest rates we we we peaked up at above 5% we're moving back downward so moving back to the recommendation which feels like a paint by numbers throwaway but the idea is we're going to adhere to the Bird in Hand at 550 um because we feel that the market right now is a little bit expensive and we'll be back in September Mr chairman commissioner like to make a motion to implement the recommendation of our financial advisor based on the report submitted today and recommend the clerk Implement said board recommendations second motion is second any further discussion all those in favor I oppos like sign hearing none motion carries unanimous thank you very much Mr McIntyre thank you all appreciate your attention to those matters all right up next we're going to move to our consent agenda uh I also want to mention that we have a couple new faces on the Das today we have Deputy County attorney NASA bogert and we also have Deputy County Manager Miss Trish Johnson with us today they're going to be acting the Ste of uh their leader so we'll go to Miss Johnson do we have any updates or changes on the consent agenda yes Mr chairman we have one add-on item item number 6A related to IA local 3254 a unit collective bargaining agreement the documents are in your folders okay 6A is an add-on no deletions or removals yes sir okay any questions on any of those seeing none I will move to the I do to pull okay I'd like to pull item 26 just for discussion item 26 for discussion by commissioner her any chairman yes I was going to wait to see if there was any public but I also like to pull 14 item 14 by commissioner Constantine okay any other commissioner have a desire to pull anything else no okay seeing none we will go to the county attorney to read the rules for public participation I also will note that our fine sheriff is here today uh we appreciate him being here he will speak on items 17 18 and 19 I would ask in in uh respect of of his time that we actually allow him to go before the rest of the public speakers that may need to get here so he can he and his folks can get back out there and keep our our community safe so M bogert yes thank you chairman Florida law provides that members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on propositions before the board of County Commissioners except when the board is acting on emergency or ministerial matters or conducting a meeting exempt from the requirements of Sunshine Law individuals shall be permitted 3 minutes for each public comment or 6 minutes when the individual is an official representative of a formal Association or group the chairman May modify the maximum time for public comment at his sole discretion when appropriate public com comments on quasa judicial or other public hearing items will occur during the board's consideration of those items this afternoon public comments on pending procurement matters or on non-agenda items shall not be permitted at this time members of the public Desiring to make comment on the consent agenda must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff forms are available in the lobby thank you very much be sure if you want to speak on any cons send agenda items please bring your forms in give them to the clerk Miss Dominic here at the front desk make sure we get you set up to be able to speak Dominique is there anyone here that has filled out a form no sir anyone here for public input that does not fill out a form other than our great Sheriff seeing none Sheriff the floor is yours sir please come on down and welcome and thank you for being here sir well uh good morning uh chairman Commissioners it's a it's an absolute honor to be here on this very important day in our history uh the greatest responsibility that we have as a society is is to ensure that those who serve and and pay the ultimate sacrifice are never forgotten is from that moment that their families and our communities watch what we do and I want to thank you all because you have gone out of your way to ensure that these heroes are memorialized you've attended our Memorial ceremonies you have been strong partners with us and for that we are so incredibly uh thankful uh this allows us to have six names of Our Heroes all six who have uh been killed in the line of duty and I specifically use that because four of Our Heroes were killed by aerial gunfire and attack and and two others were killed during the performance of their duties one jail fire and another in a Pursuit vehicle with a another motorist pulling in front of them dating back to 1922 Deputy uh Cleveland Jacobs uh 1975 uh Deputy Robert Moore uh 1977 Deputy George file uh 1989 Deputy Hugh Jr 1998 Deputy Eugene Gregory and 2011 Deputy Matt Miller all heroes this is why we wear Roman Neal number six on our uniforms this is why we have the Roman Neal six on the back of our patrol cars uh making sure that communities who have never had the opportunity to live with or learn from these Heroes that their names last forever and our history is so incredibly important so this road designation uh by our incredibly generous board our legislative body and and uh State Representative Bob Cortez and now SE County Sheriff's Office uh senior administrator for government Affairs Bob Cortez has really gone out of his way because he's played this on both sides as a state uh uh legislator he brought this and made sure that our heroes are never forgotten and he continued to work uh with our governing bodies to ensure that that that sixth name is added uh so every person who passes by every person who sees that name know that there is some hero out there that served lastly it is incredibly unique that the location of these designations are areas that these Heroes served so the the the people living in those communities the people who pass by those signs uh know that that it's sacrifice and service above self and for that we're incredibly grateful thank you all for your leadership thank you for the support not only the men and women of the sheriff's office but but Public Safety professionals period you are all great ambassadors of our military our firefighters our police officers and our Deputy sheriffs and for that we have a lot to be grateful here in subo County thank you so much thank you Sheriff very much we appreciate it any others from the public to the desire to comment that have not filled out of form no others Dominique no sir we will close public input Mr chairman Mo I move consent agenda on um item number four constitutional officers and 5 through 49 including 6A but not including 14 or 26 second motion second any further discussion all those in favor I oppose like sign carries unanimous first item up is item 14 that was pulled by commissioner Constantine thank you very much just to be consistent and you know as I done in the past this was an item that I voted against and U I feel that to be consistent I will vote again against uh the final plot other than that I have nothing to say about it Mr chairman I have a question for the commission if I may please do okay so commissioner you're against the zoning but you're not against the technical aspect of the plat itself correct since I am against the zoning I against everything about the uh the position but you have technical information against the plat no I do not have anything against Mr chairman i' like to make a motion to approve item number 14 as presented second motion and second any further discussion all those in favor I oppos like sign I okay carries four to one commissioner her item 26 yes I just like to bring this item forward for clarification purposes uh there is a Signum medical renewal that is happening and it was not mentioned in the board item I do know that the item was mentioned in terms of what the payroll deductions for the employees would be I do know that Tim JX has projected the budget item but I wanted the commission to be aware of the fact that there should be a contract that comes back forward once signant renewal does come through and I also wanted to notify our team that I would expect to see improvements to the pharmacy contract at the point that it comes through that might be more of a notice for siga than anybody else and then I would expect to see some of the additions to their contracts that they're putting in across the board and some of their some of them are simply programmatic um I would also like to point out that it it would be my recommendation in the item it mentions that we shop Dental which it is time to do that but I would add the work site products to that that Etna policy and the All State policy it is easier for our teams to have coverage all with one place so having those two in two different locations and I can tell you how it happened but I won't do that uh probably should be cleaned up at the point that you're doing the dental you probably can just do all of that and the last comment that I would make is that because we no longer do those work sessions and I'm not saying that we should go back to that and that committee it was not it was not a good setup uh but at some point we do need to be getting regular updates in terms of claims information on the plan it is just too much of a budget it for us to be uh not not getting regular updates there should also be an annual Signa cap report which I would love to see when it comes out and that's all I have anyone else commissioner lockart um I'm I'm so glad you you pulled this item to make those clarifications I had a conversation with um Christina brandolini and uh Charles about and and for Charles he was in the car and moving and we were in and out we were losing each other so we we are setting up an additional meeting to to go over many of the items that you just mentioned um we need to find a way for us to stay updated um more regularly other than how it had happened in the past and I don't know I agree I don't know exactly what that looks like um but it it is imperative from my perspective so that I can kind of understand where we're headed from a budget and angle uh and not just be hit at the gate with a with a number um so I concur I would I love to have regular um updates and I think we've already addressed that and and I think they maybe the next one has already been scheduled but from the county manager's perspective I'll leave that to you all to figure out the best way to keep each of us updated moving forward thank you commissioner duly noted and our team will reconvene to discuss what those updates look like anyone else okay seeing none commissioner with that I'll move to approve the item as stated with the adjustments that we mentioned just now second motion second all those in favor I I oppose like sign seeing none carries unanimously thank you all very much we will now move on to our next item which is item number 50 on our regular agenda reduction of lean request consider the request of a reduction of the code enforcement board lean of $56,500 to $5,000 under case number 20-1 18- CB on the property located at Leonard Street alamont Springs 32701 tax parcel ID 18- 21-30 d509 00- 0270 Joshua El Moses is the applicant and we will have Alexis brani given us a presentation Alexis for the record good morning my name is Alexis brignon I am the clerk to the code board I'm presenting item number 50 which is a request from applicant Joshua El Moses the estate of Chester A Vander pill the thir for a reduction of the C enforcement lean from $56,500 to $5,000 the property is located at Leonard Street Altimont Springs it is listed as a vacant parcel on the property appraiser website partial ID number 30-20 D30 D300 d0180 000000 for case number 20-8 DCB um in summary the property was cited on August August 19th 2019 by the cut enforcement officer concerning the violation of SEO County chapter 95 section 95.4 as defined in section 95.3 B uncultivated vegetation the original respondent at the time was listed as Chester A Vander pill III and on the notification from the con enforcement officer corrective action needed to be taken no later than September 6th 2019 or this information will be brought before the board the co enforcement board at potentially a fine of $250 per day to start AC crewing pending a hearing this matter was indeed brought to the board and a findings of facts conclusions of Law and Order was done by the board on January 23rd 2020 concluding that the original respondent be in compliance no later than February 7th 2020 at 5 a day as the fine would be imposed for each day the violation continues or is repeated um these are the photos in the beginning so the photo to the left was taken by the code enforcement officer in 2019 showing the uncultivated vegetation and at the time of the meeting in January showing that the violation had been remedied and the grass had been cut on February 4th 2021 a reinspection of the property yielded a result of the violation being repeated a notification of this was filed with the clerk and an Affidavit of repeat violation along with a notice of hearing was sent to the original respondent on June 9th 201 21 to appear before the board on July 22nd of 2021 on July 22nd 2021 in order finding non-compliance and imposing fine lean on a repeat violation was done by the board concluding a fine of $7,100 for 142 days of non-compliance from March 4th 2021 through an including that meeting date July 22nd 2021 at $50 per day we'll have a will continue to occur for day the violation is repeated past July 22nd 2021 the order was sent to be recorded in the official records book and Page 10002 SL 941 942 and then these are photos the fee continued to acre until April 4th 2024 as the applicant remedied the violation after contact with the c enforcement officer assigned to the case the C enforcement officer submitted an Affidavit of compliance after repeat violation on April 22nd 2024 and a letter of notification with the total amount of thean went out to the the applicant as he was handling the estate of the original respondent on May 10th 2024 the property was sold a stipulation of the sale required holding the total amount of the Lan escrow this is the administrative C code criteria for the deputy County Manager to determine if the request will fail or not um in reference to the bullet points a b and c the amount of the lean is compared to the value of the property the lean is approximately 26% of the value of the property um actions taken or not taken the property by the property owner in attempting to debate the cfor the code violation the estate brought the property into compliance upon taking ownership after contacting the C enforcement officer the amount of staff time expended to bring the property in compliance the offer settlement amount of $5,000 covers the administrative staff cost of $62.5 the applicant Joshua El Moses as executive to the estate of Chester Vander pill II is requesting the code enforcement board approve a reduction of the code enforcement lean in the amount of $56,500 to $5,000 as the property is now in compliance for case number 20-8 CB on the property located at Leonard Street altim mon Springs Florida 3271 tax paral ID $ 18 - 21-3 30- 509-00 d027 zero to be paid within 30 days or the Lan will revert back to the original amount and authorize the chairman to execute the reduction of lean upon receipt of the appropriate payment of the from the application staff has no objection to the to this request and I would like to amend the beginning parcel ID number as the tax parcel ID listed on the requested action slide is the correct taxt parcel ID that concludes my presentation thank you very much M forani um I I do have a a question the the applicant is Joshua El Moses yes and I think a part of the slide indicated he's the executive correct to this estate mhm but the property's since been sold is that is that correct at the time of his application he was still the owner of the estate going through the probate process correct and then like approximately two weeks or so after then it was sold so the property has been sold but yet the requesting party is the executive to the estate and not the new property owner correct okay just wanted to make sure that was clear so everybody understood that any further questions for miss beron seeing none I would ask you to stand by because there may be additional questions from the board uh Mr Moses are you here in desire to make a statement sir you'll just give us your name and address for the record yes sir uh my name is Joshua Moses I'm the personal representative of the estate of Chester vanderp pal III um my address is 14445 Northwest Highway 464b in moriston Florida uh 32668 um I I did not personally know the decedent I've kind of come on um after his passing um he passed in December of last year um I was contacted by a friend of his who asked me to serve as personal representative um so the exact reasons as to why the um non-compliance um occurred I I don't have firsthand knowledge um I've I've had the unique opportunity to get to know the decedent through his papers and belongings and and different things trying to to figure out who he was and what might have happened um so my role has been to secure estate assets and take care of what Affairs needed to be addressed this parcel being one of those things um I do know the decedent lived in uh Cedar Key and passed away at the age of 81 um he was a um 100% disabled veteran having served in the United States Navy back in Vietnam um his property was approximately 3 hours or so probably more um from the the parcel in question um it appears to be a maintenance violation not keeping it upkept mode I assume the distance um took part in some of that delinquency as well as there being a storm that caused some flooding um and damage to the decedent's home it's easy to get distracted from a a lot that you're not close to and can stop by and check on um but once the I was appointed as personal representative of his estate and I did secure some funds to address the issue um prompt action was taken and I do want to thank the code officer Adair for communicating with me um quickly and addressing the situation and allowing me to be informed and address the situation as well as Miss Bron and the staff of seol County who've made this process um a pleasure to work through um I did bring some photos I don't have a slide to give you of just the photos that officer Adair had provided to me when I inquired about the condition sure we can get staff to put that up up on the overhead as well as the photos of the remediar action uh once I was able to um get someone out there to clean up the property um I have two photo can you hear me okay we can you have to get close to that Mike okay um this first photo is just one of the the two photos that officer Adair had provided to me of the current condition property just appears to be overgrown um some grass had had grown up needed to be mowed um I believe it's an ungraded lot so you had you couldn't just go out there with a lawn mower take care of it you had to get like a bush hog or some more um heavy duty mower to do that um second photo was just another photo from a different angle of of the parcel um showing that there was some some growth on the lot this is a photo taken from the individual that I had hired to um clear the lot so that way it was brought into compliance showing that all that underbrush and Long Grass had been reduced another photo from the street another from the street and I have one somewhat blurry photo forgive my printer at home of just kind of looking down the lane of the um the lot um we this this was addressed as promly as the estate could um it has been a process trying to identify what assets were available um so as soon as I was able to secure some funds to take care of the lot this was um first item of business for me um so I hope that promptness in addressing the issue is taken into consideration uh by the board all right Mr Moses thank you stand by for one second any questions Mr Moses commissioner lockart um thank you so much Mr Moses for your willingness to talk with me um when this item was first brought before us and I had some questions you were um very willing to to talk through them with me the storm that you mentioned in the letter that you sent as a part of this request was that um [Music] hurricane I I don't know exactly which one it was I think it was Adalia was the one that you mentioned that's that's what I expect it is I don't know exactly which one it was that was the one that was mentioned in the letter I believe and so that was in the fall of 2023 and so there were there were two years prior to that storm I just wanted to make sure we were clear that um what storm it was we were talking about there right yes um that I don't have any further questions great thank you Mr Moses stand by if you would please anyone from the public here to speak on this item Dominique any speaker forms CNN will close public comment we'll go to the district commissioner for their recommendation commissioner lockart this is your District yes it is thank you um several things that I have considered in and I've I've dug fairly deep into this item um while it it is a brush and overgrowth issue the neighbors who live immediately around this vacant lot have been living with that for many years um not just the overgrowth but but the critters who have been um H inhabiting it um it's very easy unfortunately to ignore Lots in certain neighborhoods in this County and um and I'm I feel like this would have moved along more quickly had it been in a different neighborhood um Mr Vander pile was able to bring the lot into compliance at one time from a distance and um as we all know Bush hogers are um easy to find by calling and contacting from out of town town and so I I don't believe um that was really as much of a a problem from a distance two things that I looked at specifically in terms of our policy regarding um Financial uh hardship or medical hardship neither were claimed on on this particular item the the value of the property compared to the uh amount of the lean is is less than what we would uh normally consider um and I do appreciate very much Mr Moses bringing the property into compliance as quickly as possible for the sake of the neighborhood um I do recognize that um but it was because I my belief is I surmise that it's because we were trying to quickly settle an aate and sell a piece of property that that occurred not because it was needing to have been done for quite some time so um I am going to make a motion to deny the requested lean reduction for those reasons we have a motion we have a second I'll second for discussion purposes second for discussion go ahead commissioner har so I have the same struggles with this in in the sense that I see it all over the county that the just disrespect for the Neighbors is is tough and I think at one point in our history we had the opportunity to ignore these Lots because there were a lot more of them and it felt like woods but it doesn't anymore when you have a random lot in the middle of a neighborhood and it's let to become over grown and then it becomes a site for quite honestly drug activity Critters that crawl through it and the neighbors have to deal with it so where I struggle is with this notion I mean $5,000 doesn't even touch the impact that this had on the neighbors and we we see this time and time again where it's been our history that we just forgive them and I can't figure out why that benefits the community it only benefits in this in this instance the the the erors and quite frankly and I don't know the situation but in my in my opinion family has a responsibility to take care of a disabled veterans properties as well so I really really struggle with the notion that we leave these neighbors holding the bag we decrease their property values as we let these sit and then there's abs absolutely no penalty at the end of it $5,000 is not the right number I I don't disagree um and there's a couple things that are very striking to me and and and we've touched on this with our legal team is you know the actual costs were depicted here earlier which were 900 and change I'm going to tell you that comes nowhere close to the actual real cost of the fuel the vehicle the retirement the payroll the employees time and all the support staff that are behind the scenes working with us and I understand legally there's only certain things that we're allowed to assess but the reality is that's not even close to to the scenario secondly our code enforcement folks through the Sheriff's Office have always tried to assist these type property owners in getting them some additional services in this case we have a veteran veteran services through some of the faith-based groups and allowing you know some 501 c3s to come out and maintain the property once in a while and get it back into compliance this has not happened um and I like commissioner her believe that although we all realize government tends to move slowly uh all the while it's the community that is taking the brunt of what's happening because of an owner uh and honestly the landscape that I observed there it looks like to me a simple $50 $100 a month could have had a lawn service just go out and do it so it never got to the point where it was was quite frankly there um I can't speak to you know why that didn't happen happen or or or any of that but um I will be supporting the district commissioner's motion um as we move along if there's any other comments we'll go to those any other comments seeing none all those in favor I opposed FL sign seeing none carries unanimous thank you all very much Mr Moses thank you for coming from Levy County great County I enjoy spending some time there self thank you if you should have have any questions let get with our staff all right folks our next item is we're going to go to our work session which is scheduled today this is going to be item number 51 this will be presented by Steve Riley and Daniel Rutland from Jacobs and Kim orberg for Environmental Services this is simal County's holistic water policy item 20241 69 miss orberg good morning and for the record I'm Kim orberg the Environmental Services director here at semal County and the purpose of today's work session is to present the County's long awaited holistic water policy um and and I know you all know we're very excited about this and we're excited to have the opportunity to present it to you today so our agenda is laid out as follows um we have the past the present and the future so I'm going to give a brief history of the past of the development of this water policy and then Dan Rutland with uh project manager with Jacobs will be presenting the foundation and details of the policy and the plan and then last but not least key Carlton our new water policy program manager will wrap things up and by talking about our next steps so here's our policy timeline um since 2020 when uh the holistic water policy was identified as a key strategic initiative or key strategic priority sorry um for the county but I'd like to start a little bit prior to that um in 2014 the central Florida water initiative or cfwi was developed by state and local agencies to address long-term sustainability and protection of our upper Florida and aquifer and I know you all know this very well but it is the pristine the most pristine source and virtually the source of all drinking water in Central Florida as well as a source of our outstanding Florida Springs like wakaba so the cfwi focuses on drinking water supply or water quantity and impacts the County's consumptive use permits or cups which are the permits that allow us or limit our withdrawal from the upper florid and aquafer to provide water that we treat and then distribute to our residents and then in 2016 the Florida legislature adopted the Florida Springs and aquafer protection act that with a goal to protect and enhance or improve groundwater quality for our aquafers and springs with this regulation it requires the stakeholders local governments to develop plans to reduce or eliminate groundwater impacts caused by septic tanks and fertilizers to our groundwater sources and our Springs as well and it was with this knowledge and forethought that you all had Board of County Commissioners to adopt the holistic water policy as a key strategic priority back in 2020 then as you can see on the timeline it also includes in 2020 the Waka priority Focus area septic tank feasibility analysis which is a mouthful but that that focuses on groundwater quality um impacted by septic tanks and then the update of our cons our water conservation plan in 2022 which focuses on water qu quantities so then in 2022 we hired Jacobs to assist us with this project and we began working together to develop a truly comprehensive holistic water policy which brings us to where we are today presenting the plan and with that I thank you for your time and I will turn it over to Dan Miss orber Before you depart there uh just one real quick question I want to make sure this is a living document correct yes sir this will continue as time progresses to be updated this is not engraved in stone this is subject to change based on legislation based on environmental conditions based on lot of things that we are not aware of at this point just want to make sure is that correct that is correct great thank you very much you're very welcome good morning sir all right good morning can you guys hear me we can all right thank you for the introduction Kim I'm very excited to be here today to talk about the holistic water policy um Dan if you give us your name and address the sorry uh address as well yes please uh Daniel Rutland um I live here in I I I stay here in Ido give your office address work address work address is fine okay all right uh 200 uh South Orange Avenue um Orlando Florida all right are we ready County Citi right right all right um so I'm very excited to be here today talk about the holistic water policy um uh and share some of of the insight and great work that's been done to help simol County uh continue to lead the state in uh Innovation and protection of water and natural resources so our agenda today um I'm going to go over the background of the holistic water policy and its scope we're going to go over the approach and the framework and category specific to the county that were developed as part of the holistic water policy and we're going to go over some of the developed programs and policies and the implementation plan um that was developed as part of the policy as well and then we'll have some closing comments so for the background of the holistic water policy um it was identified in 2020 by the board accounting Commissioners as your a key strategic priority as as Kim discussed um the holistic water policy was developed to provide a long-term Vision uh and sustainable plan to meet all Water Resources needs and protect natural systems and also to break down water resources across departments and jurisdictions within the county and broaden Water Resources development it's also meant to integrate with the utilities Master Plan update that's currently ongoing with a work session that's scheduled in in September but we also Incorporated the 2022 uh water conservation Plan update uh and also identified specific programs and projects to meet the holistic water policy goals so when we were asked to start the holistic water policy um you know we knew that we were about to Embark upon something that was new and as part of that one of the things that we do is we do a literature review when we start a project to kind of ascertain what's going on in the market you know what are the industry standards what are the best management practices that are are going on today and one of the things that we found is that many onewater projects are narrow in scope they focus on a single Water Resource instead of focusing on a holistic approach and then they incorporate one waterer principles as a secondary effect so the holistic water policy has developed is a unique um project it is a true holistic approach to one water policy and a broad uh assessment of Water Resources across the county as we said the holistic water policy plan was Guided by the 2022 ksps um it we included uh a county team of public Public Works utilities parks and rack Communications environmental services and planning and development and we worked with the county to develop a road map for implementation of the holistic water policy as part of this we develop five policy and program categories including enhanced water conservation developing alternative Water Supplies enhancing Water Management mitigating septic tank impacts and implementation of water utility projects and programs and all of this is rolled up in into overall goals of enhancing water conservation protecting enhancing uh healthy waterways maintaining a reliable and resilient water utility while achieving a paradigm shift in how water is managed throughout the county for the enhanced water conservation program we incorporated the 2022 updated water conservation plan if implemented on its current schedule it has the potential to decrease water use from its current level of 137 gallons per day per capita to the uh to the recommended level or or goal of the 115 gallons per day per capita within the cfwi and this could be potentially 11 years ahead of schedule um on the the the reg cfwi regulatory schedule benefits of conserving water include reduced withdrawals of uh limited groundwater resources deferring or eliminating costly alternative Water Resources development uh reducing energy conservation protecting and improving spring flows and mfls which is a regulatory requirement and extending utility infrastructures useful life for the development of alternative Water Supplies we identified that the 2020 cfwi Regional water supply plan found that withdrawals from the upper Florida aquifer are projected to cause environmental impacts by 2025 as such alternative Water Supplies will play a role in meeting future water demands in simal County Beyond this 2025 date and the county should continue to promote water conservation and reduce groundwater withdrawals while planning for alternative water supply projects where possible and this means having the ability to move forward on projects as they're as they're necessary in the future basically having that lever to pull for mitigating septic tank impacts the W the WWA Springs and Brock Springs Basin management action plan or or bmap estimates septic tanks contribute to 29% of nutrient pollution House Bill 1379 enacted in May of 2023 prohibits new septic systems requires long-term planning and Reporting and strengthens bmap requirements as such the regulatory requirement priorities for simol County include the Waka Springs priority Focus area under the existing Bap and the Gemini Springs Bap ration management action plan this means that the Sim County should continue to develop and implement the septic to sewer program to address some of these Regulatory Compliance issues for the enhanced water man watershed management program the goal is to reduce pollution to the County's waterways and protect water resources and simal county has been doing a phenomenal job of this already uh several programs have been implemented to address water quality protections and improvements and I'm not going to list all of them here but some of them include the shoreline Protection Program the ambient water quality monitoring program and the seminal education ation restoration and volunteer program or the serve program for implementing water utility projects and programs the reliable drinking water and wastewater uh Services represent the highest level of water management responsibility administered by the county and the implementation of projects to support the water utility are crucial to the holistic water policy success the utility master plan is currently being updated to assess water and waste water and reclaim infrastructure through 2045 and it's critical that the holistic water policy be incorporated as part of that overall development and it's intended to to do just that as part of the holistic water policies development we identified and assessed over 40 policies and programs and we're not going to go over all of those today because we can simply just don't have enough time but we looked at all of these we evaluated based off of the um we evaluated them based off of impact ease of implementation estimated costs and synergies with other programs projects and policies and then we pulled all of those togethers to organize them based off of priorities and their synergistic benefits and if you look at the chart here to the right you'll see the conservation uh plan or the conserv enhanced conservation sections implementation and impact Matrix where up and to the right represents projects that are more attractive and the smaller dots represent lower cost projects and the bigger dots represent higher cost projects and this this analysis was completed across all five of the the individual programs and we we developed recommendations and priorities to guide comprehensive Water Resources management but establishment of those Pro these priorities um doesn't mean that one project is better than the other um because all projects are important to the overall goal of the holistic water policy just some have a little higher priority due to cost Effectiveness or ease of implementation we also looked at the synergies between these projects an example of this would be the septic to sewer increases reclaim water availability U for irrigation that can offset portable water demands uh and improve water quality for adjacent Springs and water bodies one thing that was important here is that the holistic water policy is intended to be actionable um the we developed an implementation road map uh to outline solutions for short-term and long-term management and Kim was instrumental in this process um these are tangible projects that can be completed and measures uh and measured for performance using ksps and dashboards for things like water conservation actions like Audits and controller rebates or septic to sewer tank inspections um for inspected repaired or removed um so as part of the success or one of the keys to success of the holistic water policy is establishing um management um strategies associated with the holistic water policy um a successful implementation requires departmental cooperation and a County advocate for the holistic water policy and a departmental cooperation can include a holistic water policy panel or committee comprised of uh the county department Representatives but we also need a leader and so we identified that the holistic water policy needs a a program manager um and key was recently hired to head up the water policy program manager position and she's going to lead the implementation of the holistic water policy Bridge departments for inter disciplinary projects commit to the policy success communicate the policy's vision collaborate with internal and external stakeholders and report to the board of County Commissioners on the status of the program implementation engagement is also a key component of holistic water policy in connection with stakeholders and establishing Partnerships as Paramount so the holistic water polic is designed to be inclusive of all municipalities and utilities within the county in coordination with local and Regional municipalities can help create solutions that benefit the entire County the county can increase Regional coordination with water management focus groups with stakeholders like residents and Rays private water utilities Regulatory Agencies uh the the simal county uh Soil and Water Conservation District and the department of Advisory board for instance if there's anything you know associated with the uncertainties with planning one thing is certain that things will change the holistic water policy has been developed as a living document so that we can update the implementation plan and project list every comprehensively every 3 to 5 years it is also designed to integrate with the master planning efforts and policies and programs should be included as part of the County's comprehensive plan um going forward including stakeholders along the way and last but not least decision making will need to be flexible because we need to be able to to address the challenges with that as we move forward with that we don't see today so in summary we reviewed the County's vision for creating the holistic water policy and the framework of the holistic water policy and its guiding principles we reviewed the five programs and policy categories and the results of the development process and lastly we reviewed the implementation road map including the short-term and long-term management measures of Performance Management of the holistic water policy connecting with stakeholders and finally adapting for success and with that I'll hand it over to your new water policy policy program manager ke Le hello chairman and Commissioners I'm key Carlton the water policy program manager good morning can you hear me we can okay awesome so I know it was said already but the holistic water policy plan is truly forward thinking and I really thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to be the one to implement such a robust plan um our team is ready and we're excited for the next steps which is related to stakeholder engagement so that was kind of in the the last part of Dan's presentation it is key um with such a robust and ambitious plan to collaborate early and often with the stakeholders so um what we're trying to do now is form a um stakeholder engagement plan so this involves um creating a list of agencies organizations and groups in our region that hold interest in water and that list is quite long and um ensive so I'm really excited to kind of Dive Right In and start talking to our community um engage with regional Partners such as the Water Management District and D um the cities uh that we serve and um the development Advisory Board Soil and Water Conservation District and other environmental groups such as the um friends of theiva and Friends of Lake Jessup um and we would love any suggestions that you guys have as we you know dive into the stakeholder engagement but that is our next steps and after we do some engagement get some feedback from the community and these organizations we will come back to you guys with an update and um ask for the formal adoption of this plan so thank you very much any questions from staff commissioner lockart um just a couple of quick suggestions I'm so glad you're here um glad to see us moving forward with this it's been um a labor of love mostly love it's been a labor I know um in terms of Engagement with various stakeholders um the daab is is certainly a group that has interacts with the county regularly I would also recommend reaching out to um folks who are involved in the outside collaborative there are many folks in the private sector whether they be Landscape Architects um developers that aren't necessarily involved in the dab um different folks in the process that that are involved in the process of bringing a development to fruition that have different viewpoints and I would love to see some way to include them as well all of the other you know agencies utilities and St John's and all they're all fabulous um I think we need to balance it out with some more private sector folks awesome thank you for that suggestion commissioner her uh just a few comments and thank you for the presentation I I actually think this was um done quite nicely from the perspective that we started at 100,000 ft and didn't get too far into the weed so nothing that I'm about to say should drag us into the weeds just for the record but I would at like to understand what the timing is for the financial implications and I would presume that the recommendation is that we start working in the upper right hand corner most effectively costly and so how do we map that out over time I I imagine that's somewhere to come I don't need an answer now but that's we have to start thinking about that now uh because there's too many other initiatives that are on the table from a financial perspective and if we don't start putting the money to this we will lose track and not get it implemented um it cannot become a plan that sits on a shelf that's I guess the most important message there somewhere along the line I need to understand detail around the comment in here around we should monitor the performance of existing septic tanks because that is a quagmire and that was a gracious word to use because there's others that I could use that would be appropriate that would be appropriate on this topic but there is this happening there's like four sets of fingers all pointing at each other when you start to raise the issue of I think I have septic tanks that are problematic no one wants to touch that quite literally so we need some specific guidance around that and we may in fact need changes to our current legislation I'm not sure but it it's right now not not in a good situation and then with regard to stakeholders I would throw a couple others that were not mentioned on here I think we have to get start getting in front of HOA presidents um and Boards certainly some of the highest usage p of the county resides in my district it's HOAs that you know the minute you have a brown spot on the grass somebody sending you a letter so we need to get in front of those organizations because they believe they're doing the right thing by enforcing the quality of life in their communities and in fact may be causing the neighbors to violate the rules um and then the last one that I would throw in there is pbas they are just a good group of ambassadors and I'm not saying that we need to get input from them but I am saying that we need to keep them very well informed of what we're doing it is a great Ambassador group and uh and easy easy to access and that's it thank you chairman commissioner uh Constantine did you have your hand up I thought I saw you but I do want to say something go ahead commissioner Constantine and commissioner delari well first of all to Jacobs um good good analysis good U First Step or second third fourth fifth step because I know that we've seen other variations of this and it seems that you've really put together with the input from our staff you know a truly holistic program that now has to be implemented and we know the difficulties of doing that to our new water policy Guru I I I will just call you that um I think your mother is going to be very happy because she she she came up to me at a Mee said I want to bring my daughter back to seol County because she was working in another County so I just wanted all to know that this young lady is a seol County resident from the beginning so we're getting another individual that um understands the community and so therefore we're really excited to have you and I look forward to working with you and Kim and the whole staff on this because as you've all indicated this is truly unique um Forward Thinking um you know everybody tries to do aspects of one as they call it one water but basically it's just looking at a individual slice of the pie and if we can truly coordinate and implement this as a holistic water policy we will be so far ahead of the curve and so I look forward to working with all of you and I think that every one of our policies that we do when it comes to water has to be balanced on this plan making sure that we are everything we do is is part of this overall water policy so congratulations and I look forward to seeing more things come down the line commissioner delari thank you Mr chairman first of all thank you I think it's uh it's nice to uh get going with this I know we've talked about a allw for a while I appreciate uh the new staff member coming on board I also appreciate Jacobs for what they're doing uh and I think the direction is uh most appropriate uh first of all uh I've been looking for this for the past couple days because we've been getting our briefings for the past week this is the first time I've seen it I would like to get the presentations ear so I can actually read it and digest it the reason why I say that is because in looking at the presentation this text here I really can't read yet I need a magnifying glass and so I'd appreciate either a larger text or the presentation earlier so I can get the magnifying glass to look at it commissioner if you actually bring it up electronically you can expand it up oh I understand that but I don't this is all I got today understood okay this is what I got today uh and looking at our plan from from uh 2020 it actually said that uh we were at 118 gallons per capita and now we're at 137 gallons per capita any idea what happened uh the cfwi numbers they found the real numbers those were cfwi 2020 numbers no in the report from uh Corolla it says that was per capita not the that number oh I the the report from cor may be looking at different um analysis um I that those numbers were cfwi based numbers um so that comes directly from the 20120 cfwi uh water use our regional water supply plan okay all right uh thank you Mr chairman absolutely I do have a few comments um some for the benefit of the public eventually to help especially some of those in my district to understand how this hopefully is is not going to impact them um sitting on the cfwi myself what I would tell you is this is a great program but simal county is light years ahead of a lot of other jurisdictions I was I guess not surprised or Ma on cfwi what other jurisdictions have not done around around the state and where they're ultimately going to unfortunately find themselves if they can't get their ducks in a row on their cups uh and how that will be impacted in fact that's why we had to Advocate legally not to be penalized from FD uh here a few years back based on we had already deployed many measures to protect our water as well as cut back on water usage not to say that we're perfect not to say there's not a lot of room for improvement which there we would argue I think all of us that we we've got a long way to go it has to go into the comp plan and here's one fear that I know specifically folks in my district and and commissioner deli's District are going to have when you start talking about this septic to sewer scenario I think all of us agree that's that's a a good thing the fear becomes in the rural area if you're going to run infrastructure in to eventually one day convert those septics to sewer then the argument is the infrastructure is now there to promote future development into areas that we do not want developed so it's going to be Paramount that we delineate that appropriately in the comp plan in anticipation that we protect the areas that the citizens of this County want protected as the rural area I've got a whole list and I won't go through them I've probably got a dozen or two stakeholders that should be engaged I would only caution that engagement with those stakeholders probably should be undertaken initially to find interest and value because the reality is you get too many stakeholders at the table that are given opinions and you cannot arrive at any GR grand scheme of moving forward um but everybody should be heard and those who will want to participate and should participate and some of those can group together perhaps uh and represent as an industry um so with that said I I'm I'm glad we're finally here I'm glad we understand this is a living document that will be updated from time to time I actually would like to see us and I don't have to have an answer today that we actually insist this be updated at least every 2 years and not wait out 5 years or 3 years I think in a 2-year turn this issue is it was abundantly clear to me see on cfwi this is a fast moving train and it's going to move faster and with development happening at the pace it is in areas outside of seminal county is going to cause us to have to react much quicker and the good news is is those that came before us sitting on this board had the initiative and staff to do some things to get us ahead of the game so we're in a pretty good place but we need to keep moving we probably need keep moving pretty quickly but need to be updated every two years I like the idea of of keeping the board apprised uh I I would Advocate quarterly or at least by anually uh at a minimum depending on how things go so that's all I have to say on that anyone else thank you all very much is there anybody here from the public that wishes to make any statements on this topic see none is there anything from the county attorney's office or County manager's office before we break for our midday break I have nothing chairman nothing Mr chairman from the commission anything else good for the order sorry other than go go Lake Mary little leag we'll be in recess to 1:30 thank you all thank you [Music] all [Music]