--------- [Music] person [Applause] [Music] all you body [Music] I got an address well that's want you to get your address
[Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music]
you a kind [Music] you ask Jer name [Music] [Music] I think we're ready to get started if
everyone [Music] stand father we come again thanking you for life health and strength come blessing your name so your name worthy to be blessed father we come right now praying for this County this city this country
and come praying to these folks our constituents we thank you for what you going to do for them and we thank you for what you've done to us for Lord we know it to be worse but as it is right now father we have to deal with it and let us make the
best decision for all our citizens we thank you right now for what you're going to do again and we bless your holy name now in Jesus name I pray amen amen I to of the United States of
America and to the Republic which stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all to our meeting this Tuesday February
28 February 18th 2025 6: p.m. we have a conference line set up number there is 1917 91022 access code 32347 P this is not a tollfree number and you may be subject to long distance charges
according to your long plan when the chairperson the meeting comment please follow me below instructions if you wish to speak please the moderator will unmute your L your turn to speak and notify you by announcing the last four digits of your
telephone number please announce your name and address you'll be allowed to speak for three minutes any person wishing to address the board regarding an agenda item will be giving 3 minutes for comment a commenter may only speak one time for each agend
item that said as move on to item three that everyone see the amended agenda for item 17 move yes questions a motion to approve the agenda
second all favor move to our consent item everyone had a chance to look at your consent items there any questions discussion from the board mtion to approve motion to approve F second by
commission Moody all in favor go down to our bids and public hearings item 13 theard for Fire Station 2 design Bill set for this day at 6: p.m. or
all right two statement of qualifications the first one three three three and the first one is from Ram Construction and development in Midway
Florida Dan who's on youre it's going to be Kenneth Dudley Danny oin and myself it means that we've only received three they will probably all be shortlisted but we will review their qualifications um just make sure that
they there's [Music] [Applause] nothing all right so the M Leal this is qualifications SO2 second qualification proposal for qualification
is from Gray Construction Inon Florida so they've submitted their and then the Third CU is received
from Oliver sper Renovations and Tah [Applause] [Music] so this this is a public hearing so we will open up sorry no we're just receiving um the statement of qualifications and then the committee
will bring a recommendation back to the board 14 the board to receive proposals Professional Services for the doctor Memorial Hospital Rec project set for this date at 6:05 p.m. or as soon thereafter as possible yeah so we
received seven bids before the deadline there was one bid that we received after the deadline be returned unopen to the um bidder so the first one [Music]
the first one is from peacock Architects and Fort Fort laale FLA [Music] here the should not be a price on that oh there not price is this a it it says proposals that it's a no cost proposal
okay right Melody correct okay okay so that was the first Mr chairperson um for this committee we would like um myself Melody
um to repres representatives from dmh um Lauren um maybe yourself and Sarah yep okay melody was there anyone else no that was the four of us okay all right the second request for
proposal uh was from amtech Solutions tassy Florida who y e Sol [Applause] [Music] the next one is from West Point engineer
LLC grandford Florida [Music] the next one is from alw Architects Lewis and Whitlock it says they based in t Florida [Music] this one's from being professionals b a
m profession professionals Jacksonville Florida my ch this one looks like mldb Architects out of
Florida Florida [Music] on this one's from Hoy start Hy start architects all right there [Music]
it public hearing sees this day at 6 10 p.m. or as soon there after as possible to consider application to amend the future land use map to change classification agricultural rural residential to Industrial this is a public hearing and
it's for their ordinance so this is a public hearing so we're open it up to the public read the title first either one which want oh well
um it's not my decision but it might be good for the public to hear the entire ordinance in I mean it'll take a while because it's got a legal description on it you can summarize what it is it's a a
reclassification the property so we have a motion and a second to read the entirety yes all in favor here we go an ordinance of Taylor County Florida amending future land use plan plan map
of the Taylor County comprehensive plan as amended relating to an amendment of more than 50 acres of land pursuant to an application CPA 24-1 by the property owner of said acreage under the amendment procedures
established in sections 163 3161 through 163 3248 Florida statute as amended providing for change the land use classification from agricultural rural
residential less than or equal to one dwelling unit per 5 acres to Industrial of certain lands within the unincorporated area of Taylor County Florida providing severability repealing all ordinances in conflict and providing
an effective day whereas section 12501 Florida Statutes as amended power empowers the board of of County commissioners of Taylor County Florida here and after referred to as the board of County Commissioners to prepare adopt
and Implement a comprehensive plan whereas Section 163 3161 through 163 3248 Forida statutes as amended the community planning act empowers and requires the board of
County Commissioners to prepare adopt and Implement a comprehensive plan whereas an applic ation for an amendment as described below has been filed with the county whereas the planning board of Taylor County Florida here and after
refer to as the planning board has been designated as the local planning agency of Taylor County Florida here and after refer to as the local planning agency whereas pursuant to Section 163 3174 Florida Statutes as
amended and the Land Development code the planning board serving as the local planning agency held the required public hearing with public notice having been provided on set application for an amendment as described below and at said public
hearing the planning board serving as the local planning agent reviewed and considered all comments received during said public hearing and the concurrency management assessment concerning set application for an amendment as described below and recommended to the
board of county commissioner approval of set application for an amendment as described below whereas the board of County Commissioners held the required public hearing that's what we're having here today with public notice having been provided pursuant to the procedures established in Section
163 3161 through 1633 248 Florida Statutes has amended on set application for an amendment as described below and at said public hearings the board of County Commissioners reviewed and considered all comments received during
the public hearings including the recommendation of the planning board serving as the local planning agency and the con currency management concerning set application for an amendment as described below whereas the board of County Commissioners has determined and found that set application for an
amendment described below to be compatible with the land use element objectives and policies and those of other affected elements of the comprehensive plan and where's the board of County Commissioners has determined and found that approval of set application for an amendment as
described below would promote the public health safety morals order Comfort conf convenience appearance Prosperity or general welfare now therefore be it ordained by the board of County commissioners of Taylor County Florida
as follows section one pursuant to an application CPA 2401 by namu Perry Inc to amend the future land use plan map of the comprehensive plan by changing the land use classification of certain lands the
land use classification to hereby change to agricultural R from agricultural rural residential less than or equal to one acre per 4 acres to Industrial on the property described as
follows this is a legal description hang in there folks a parcel of land line within sections 17 and 18 Township 6 South Range 7 East Taylor County Florida being more particularly
described as follows commence at the southwest corner of said section 17 V run north 0 deges 20 minutes 31 seconds West 6557 Ft along the Westerly line of said
section 17 then North 90° 0 seconds 0 minutes 0 seconds South 0es SEC
zero degrees 0 minutes zero section seconds East 90 ft to the southernly line of said section 18 then run 88 degrees 54 seconds 41 minutes West 13
3972 ft along the southerly line of the said section 18 V run south 89 degrees 5 minutes 34 seconds west 1354 35 ft then North 0° 25 minutes 14
seconds west 13 39.86 ft V north 0 de 27 minutes 54 seconds West 13457 Ft V North
88° 50 minutes 36 seconds East 1349 33 ft Den North 88° 50 minutes 40 seconds East uh
2,684 57 ft vents run North 88 5 minutes 0 seconds East 13374 ft to the Westerly right of one right of way line of County Road
361a open parentheses Pucket Road close parentheses then South 0 de 35 minutes 40 seconds East 6439 ft along said Wester RightWay line
of County Road 361a Pucket Road V South 89° 33 minutes 20 seconds west 13536 ft to the Westerly line of said section 17 dense South 0 degrees
20 6 minutes 31 seconds East 1,1 12213 ft along Westerly line of said section 17 V run south 89° 26 minutes 56 seconds West
73141 Ft V South 0 degre 37 minutes 49 seconds East 867 ft. 87 ft to the point of the beginning containing 25079 Acres more or
less section two severability if any provision or portion of this ordinance is declared by any Court of competent jurisdiction to be void unconstitutional or unenforceable then all remaining provisions and portions of this ordinance remain in
full force effect con section three conflict all ordinances or portions of ordinance in conflict with this ordinance are hereby repal to the extent of such conflict section four affected dat pursuing to section
12566 Florida Statutes as amended a certified copy of this ordinance shall be F filed with the Florida Department of State by the clerk of the board of County Commissioners within 10 days after enactment by the board of County Commissioners this ordinance shall become effective upon filing of this
ordinance with the Florida Department of State the effective date of this plan Amendment if the amendment is not timely challenged shall be 31 days after the state l plan planning agents notifies the local government that the plan Amendment package is complete if the
amendment is timely challenged this amendment shall become effective on the date the state land planning agency or the administrative commission enters a final order determining this adopted amendment to be in compliance section
five Authority this ordinance is adopted pursuant to the authority granted by section 1251 Flor statutes as amended in sections 163 3161 through
1633 248 far statutes as amended passed upon the first reading on the sixth day of January 2025 if y'all recall that that was the first reading so this is the final reading do pass and duly
adopted upon second and final reading in regular session with the quum presid and V vo by the board of County Commissioners this 18th day of February 2025 we haven't passed it yet this is what this public hearing is about yall
to take comments from the public and then yall can discuss it so WRA that up this is this is to is about the expansion of the nmo facility
and the acquisition of that property so now we open up to the public is there any public comment questions discussion where exactly is this land if you didn't know how to read survey is
done do you know where the Namo facility is at I'm sorry the do you know where the Nar facility is located do you remember the Martin Electronics facility off a fck yes that's the facility they've expanded
that operation adjac to where they are they are today got thank you anyone else from the public any question one question they do anything it's in there for them but if they contaminate the land and say they want
to give it up and not make ammo or whatever they're doing there that they responsible for a clean up and something because I don't know what they're blowing up over there good question your your question is is there anything
that's in there for have like money off to the side for clean up or something if there's contamination you know massive lead or whatever there I mean this point I would correct if I'm wrong it's it's their property and and they do have guidelines I'm sure that they have to go
by and and put any substances that they may be dealing with and you just the same as some of this meal Clos that went on that there's a proper way that with d involved that they do have to close
these typ facilities if they are deal I just don't want to see Taylor County gets stuck with a big cleanup bill you know pull out that's why we've been involved with this to make sure that doesn't happen with this me that's currently closed
down as well I'm Jo Fuller what exactly does Namo do and if you can I had wanted to speak on on the item 14 yeah one of the guys here so so Namo the old you mentioned uh
marttin electronic keming it is a energetics facility so we make defense products for the US Military and other buyers guns and grenades uh no ma'am not not guns these are energetic so um this facility is a solid rocket motor
facility that we're talking about expanding presently we have the grand opening of the red back charge um so these are large caliber uh supplies that we make we don't necessarily make the Munitions for them we Supply the
energetics that go into the proportion of them okay I still don't understand but thank you I had wanted to speak on 14 all we did was open them I wanted to say something about that that's fine you I'm Jo Fuller I
live at 502 Harbor Street my phone number the last for my number 2 oh I don't have to do that okay sure it ain't easy but oh I'm sorry all right all right wife you're fine
there now okay don't ask me to get back up doctor's Memorial Hospital from my understanding the city owns that hospital and we lease it to them for $150 a month is that correct or incorrect the
county owns the the facility and I believe the the lease is $150 a year a year yes ma'am that's even worse but we're responsible for fixing the roof um at $150 a year they roof so they
apply for some Grant funds to to repair or replace the roof but the funding has to go through the county it's called the cdbg mitigation Grant so because they were unable to to receive the funds directly to them since the building
technically belongs to the county the funds are coming through the county so it's it's Grant funds it's not County funds it's paying for these this repair of this roof so it's not costing the county anything okay and shouldn't we consider $150 a
year come on now surely they can do better than that sure we can do better than that that's how long that years and years and we just recently signed a new lease but that we didn't
ask for an increase um and in that lease amount at that time y'all know where I'm at yes ma'am I'm down with [Music] that other
comment it 15 motion to approve on the line is there anyone on line no sir okay another discussion we have a motion approve by [Music]
commissioner y' got any comments no it's aoll before we go SP fromo how many jobs will we be adding that's still being developed but we anticipate to double the workforce
that's presently at the facility which is between 100 and 150 people that'll be additional people to the facility okay thank you commissioner Moody yes commissioner Newman yes commissioner fagel yes and
commissioner D move on to next item hospital it 16 the board to consider approval of request to build an outdoor rehab track on D property
[Music] thank you very much for having me I apologize I'm getting over the cud that's going around um as we just discussed you all own the dmate property and building and so therefore I'm bringing forth a very rough sketch not a technical reading of our property to
show you we did receive another Grant from the Florida Department of Health this is not costing the county a dollar um to install an outdoor um rehab track for we have many patients that have Orthopedic procedures and are with us for several weeks that need physical therapy
and so we will install this track if you're looking at the hospital to the right amongst those beautiful trees out there it'll be an outdoor track the community can enjoy as well um that will be ADA Compliant where wheelchairs can be pushed on there as well for our visitors and patients to use um we're
working on the scope of work right now determine what kind of would be the best surfacing to use for that um but we wanted before we move forward to get your blessing kind of on the schematic of what will be installed there we did have a tree survey done there's a couple dead trees we have to have removed a couple limbs from the storms that we're
getting trimmed back to ensure the safety of the track so I have one question maybe staff if this was approved will the engineer be involved in our engineer be involved in
the is it we already have an architect that's working on this with us you all could be I mean yeah I mean that's not you wouldn't CA it work on that is what I was trying to say we have somebody
else designing it for us but yes any questions for Mr CL I have a comment so presumably then if the County engineer is going to help on that is the grant going to cover his labor hours for
his help or is it truly at no cost to the county because that the County engineer is doing that on County time it's costing the county money we not decided that the count that the engineer is going to we just kind of briefly discuss those are considered we're
paying for all the labor okay the grant Will C yes sir are you not payant the grant will yes thank you forar no property buy or nothing like that no what no property to buy no no
extra just going amongst the trees am for that we will take care of all of that question for the [Music] board favor item 17 Mr to provide Taylor
County Development Authority update those the a I apologize that the screen is not working I assume everybody be able to see the presentation uh we do have it turned this way so for those of you who can crane your neck and see it you will see it here uh I just all I did
there was give the Commissioners a copy so they can see it firsthand messed it up already T it again thank you for your time tonight the tcda board representative Michelle Curtis lella and I appreciate the opportunity
to meet with you and to and to get together tonight let me set a little time expectation I anticipate taking about 10 minutes and I'm leaving time for questions thereafter obviously if you have a pressing question go ahead and interrupt get it out there but I
have allowed time for that 6 months ago when I joined the tcda team I met with each of you and committed that first we would work tirelessly to bring industry to Taylor County and secondly you should never feel like you don't know what
we're working on my purpose tonight is to provide you a thorough update on what we have been doing seek your input and answer any questions I can I'll just move it from over here let me know say next slide please
good night appreciate your patience we're on the TC board of directors and all I've done here is remind you who our board of directors are because I intend to use your time wisely and leave enough time for your comments and your feedback and your insights we have an excellent
board with diverse backgrounds experience and insights they have been extremely supportive of Laura and my efforts providing timely insights and perspectives I could not ask for better equally important you have been very supportive I've met with each one
of you individually and several view on multiple occasions and you always and invariably in the conversation with what else can we do to support you next slide please so our tcda priorities remember
our efforts always focus in three areas first is support existing industry Taylor County does not Le need to lose any more industry even as we seek out new industry we need to support our existing industry and be easy to do
business with with a how can we support you best approach at the same time supporting our existing industry alone is only part of the solution we must Recruit new industry to Taylor County and while I will touch on our efforts to support existing
industry our primary focus tonight is in this area Recruit new industry and finally interested companies must have properties available to come to so in our efforts to support existing industry keep going with okay there you
go thank you since August 11th tcda has met with numerous companies in Taylor County both large and small including the largest employers we're seeking to understand what are their challenges what are the opportunities what's in the way what are
the hindrances and how can work together to support those efforts while we do not and will not color outside the lines make sure you hear me we do not color outside the lines and our assistance we can be focused on generating Solutions
it's not enough to say the company can and cannot do something rather we must approach with this with approach of what might work how can we get this done how can we be successful in our efforts because at the end of the day all of of
us are in Economic Development I had the opportunity to tour Big Top yesterday to see their expansion where they are doubling their capacity and by the way for you County Commissioners van parrot the general manager asked me to invite you as a board to come and see their expansion
and learn firsthand what their vision is for Big Top operations in Taylor County this is an example of working with existing industry the expansion is well underway they're doubling capacity and you can see when we look at the next
slide how fast they're working that building did not exist 11 days ago what you may find more interesting though if not as impressive of the photos is when you walk in the door of the main office and you see the job postings that they have because they're
recruiting for people to work there people to go out and sell the new structures and people to travel the world building them surely a win for Taylor County another thing I've been focused on is building teams here inside of Taylor County working with anybody that'll
answer the phone so Lauren who was sitting here and I have met Pat barbery and I have met I can just look around the room and think about the people in addition to you all that I've met with we've reached out to our utilities Duke Energy Tri count electric with Georgia
Florida railroad we've connected with key infrastructure with Do's Memorial hospital with Big Ben Technical College Taylor County school system connected with the community I will speak anywhere they will give me a chance to have a platform because I want to build teams
so we can work together that when the time comes we're all sitting on the same side of the table per Women's Club The Garden Club rotary and Kanas clubs I've met with a County zoning board without asking them for anything just to talk about working together in the Taylor
County pastors group learning from others we didn't invent it here and we aren't the only people who know about it met with Diane head and spent lots of time with her at Career Source on how we can staff and train Stacy Bertrand at Duke Energy and you know we'll talk
about sight Readiness in a minute and now I've been asked to serve on the nedp board for obviously I get to Rob elbows with a lot of other people in Economic Development with a lot of valuable exper uh experience so we're heavily involved in building
teams let me shift to the industrial recruitment process where do leads come from leads literally come from every one of these sources city and county officials
Florida commerce Laura deell Hurricane Relief responders local citizens direct industry contacts site selectors Consultants literally all of these have fielded and some of you look at me you know you fielded uh leads to us you know I've been told that you never want to
see sausage made especially if you love sausage but one of my goals tonight is for you to understand the process we're going through to get these leads to vet these leads and to see how we can make them come to Taylor County then we bet the
leads Laura or I reach out often we'll set up a conference call early in my time here Tim Johns of Florida commerce told me there are three types of groups that are interested in coming to Taylor County charlatans dreamers
and those seriously capable of delivering and what he said is watch out for both of the first two so while you might think there's a difference between charlatans and dreamers only their motives are different the results will be the same and it won't be good for Taylor
County multiple companies have not not made it through the vetting stage Florida commerce gets involved in the vetting they look at it from a reputational and economics and a real kind of Real World Experience where do they exist are they for real do they have boards do they pay their taxes do
they have annual reports they do the kind of vetting it would be hard for me to do and not everybody makes the cut multiple companies have not made it through the betting stage but for those who do we track them leads get tracked Laura
and I alone have a master spreadsheet where all the Bible leads are getting trapped you really can't share that why not because a confidentiality agreement Florida commerce has a has the paperwork under which the agreements occur tcda is
sheltered under that agreement so it's between pida Commerce and the incoming industry and we behave within that nonetheless wait one second I've got mind nonetheless I have sanitized that spreadsheet to just project names
project interest investment and jobs this is our active project spreadsheet that I'm sharing with you it's a mod VI verion it doesn't violate any of the confidentiality but you know I came from a background where it's hard to find out what's going on in Taylor County
regarding recruiting industry and I don't want you to leave tonight not knowing what's going on recruiting industry so you can see and for those of you who can't see project Grace Project Bravo project Boron project Magnolia Genesis gamma Omega Bastion Sigma Bingo
Delta these are real World Industries and here are their General interests you'll see there's not one thing here that Taylor can't do and can't do well Light Industry Munitions defense Munitions defense wood manufacturing wood manufacturing Munitions defense
heavy industry Light Industry wood manufacturing heavy industry and what's that potential investment well you can see it for yourself and what are the numbers of jobs you can see them for [Applause] yourself additionally if you come to
Taylor County you're looking for a site and we have sites we have grams leg leg y site and again I'm not the real estate agent so when I say we I'm talking about Taylor County but that's the Andy Jackson site 273 Acres properly zoned ready for sale or subdivision the city
of Perry property of course is in Taylor County it's not in the city it's the 51 Acres from the bio nitrogen and that is actually the very next thing in the Duke uh Energy site Readiness so you realize a couple of years ago Graham's Legacy went through that whole thing and that's how we got where we can talk about it
today and as of April 1st only two uh properties in the State of Florida got approved for the Duke Energy site Readiness and one of them is here in Taylor County and that's the city Perry property in addition we've got the Taylor County vacant properties and I
want to give a shout out to Mitch Stevens and David Goodman when I got here and it was like find property and I'd go to the tax M and I would click and back up and click and back up and click and back up ad nauseum and I went over and I talk to sha said there has to
be a better way now I have a spreadsheet of every vacant property in Taylor County and I've got tabs I got what Taylor County owns and I've got what everybody else owns and someone says I want to be three miles from the airport I can click and sort someone says I want something eight Acres or bigger I can
click and sort someone says I want something less than 40 acres I can click and sort and I can do it just about any way you want and if I get it over my head I've been fortunate to have Kenneth Dudley and uh and David Goodman MCH to work with and answer the Fone when I
call and I want to tell you that's part of the team building I'm trying to make happen there's still the tcda site options approach which we have there's still four rivers with those two large tracks of 33400 Acres with the proper Business
Development land use designation I've met with Travis more than once and they are still amable to honoring that we bring them a property and we brought them many not a property bring them a business and say Here's a business want you to talk to them and see how much land they want and how that could work
so for Rivers has been certainly we've been able to work with them and then it be kind of beg the question to this and not mention the Foley site of course I've talked to you before probably three months ago where we're at on that is the
asbest identification which is a prerequisite I heard you ask a good question but permits to operate a mill include environmental remediation they have completed identifying the asbest and now they are out for bids for demolition demolition is supposed to
start April 1st we're going to take the mill to the ground with the exception of the procurement warehouse and the brand new converting Warehouse they're going to leave the railroads intact to the best extent they can so when that site is ready to be
sold not not now but years from now two years from now it should have the railroad that so many companies are asking for and it should have an existing Warehouse so that's where they are today for me to tell you more than GP uh has told me you know they also
change from time to time so I hate to write that down and chisel it in concrete so in summary we have followed up on lots of leads that never made the list we get new leads on a regular basis but this is the pipeline of projects
we're working in out of 20 plus projects 11 remain active we've had six site visits to Taylor County well why do we lose them well I mentioned the bedding process sometimes they've selected another location when they say they're coming here they don't say they're
coming here they say we're looking at South Georgia Florida Texas other counties in Florida you know it's always a a it's a it's a competition and we are in the running on these project not approved we had one
where the hurricane risk factor was too high when they waited into their economics it was just a risk they W willing to accept I already mentioned the span of light and heavy industry wood manufacturing and Munitions defense and I'd look at you and say these are things that you and I both know we can do this there's nothing here like
nuclear Vision we can do this investment range from a low of 15 million to a high of 2.5 billion employment range from 15 to 700 emplo obviously let me end where I began six
months ago when I joined the tcda team I met with each ofie and committee that first we would work tirelessly to bring industry to Taylor County and at second you should never feel like you didn't know what we're working on obviously we have no ribbon cuting yet didn't come to
promise what I can't deliver what I promise is work tirelessly and that's what we have done are we in a valley yes but we have zero intention of staying in the valley we're not going to build a house here
we're not going to put a pole bar in the valley this is a Launchpad for Taylor County to come out of and to do what we know we can do we're in a marathon there's plenty of interest in Taylor County I can tell you that and it's just hard for me to give you enough
examples to show you but we got I got an email today from secretary Kelly not from his admin not from someone who reported to him but from him how can we help you let us know what we can do so I know everybody is working like I said
getting leads from everybody but we have the eye of Florida looking on Taylor County there's tremendous County city and state report support you all know the support you've given me you know I've come to you and ask questions ask for help help me get around a brick wall
over it or through it because I don't stop when I see one I just try to figure out City's me the same support and Florida commerce is there they are there for us I don't want to get religious on you but I feel like I'm living in the parable of the SE so I want to kind of
close with this we're scattering seed every day and some of it falls on good soil and some of it doesn't but some of this good soul is going to Bear Harvest for potato count mark my word
last slide we are going to wrap up and what I'd like to ask but you've heard what insights do you have what advice would you give what's your perspective is there any kind of communication you wish you were getting you're not getting or
any other thoughts you would share with me or with Michelle or with Laura while we're here tonight we any question I have I have a question statement to make continue truly only the hunter brings in
the game that's right none Hunter don't we looking for the game hi I'm so glad you spoke today um I do value everybody's contributions because we're all working so hard and
none of us expected any of this um but I I want to say um let's look back 10 years ago where we were so focused on the industries that we had and yes we had disputes about which Industries to bring in and and all that kind of stuff
but when we're looking at today um we notice that all of the bids that are being supplied to us to to build infrastructure to build these roofs all these things these bids aren't coming from Taylor County businesses they're
not coming from Taylor County business owners who have lived here their whole lives seen opportunities and been able to develop a sustainable business that would be marketable someplace else or even in
Taylor County um my concern is that in between step between graduating high school and becoming an industry leader our our our children basically have to go someplace else to get a
marketable skill for example we don't have Engineers they have to go somewhere else for that education we support 4 in building all these things but we don't have an agricultural program we have a
big tourist industry but we don't have tourism and Hospitality education we have all of these things that require leaders but the programs that we offer are cosmetology H back you know that
there's kind of a a huge gap and while these these companies will bring in some wonderful jobs and not everybody can be at the top of everything there are going to be people that need regular jobs throughout their lives when it comes to wages and the
things that people need in in between this time there's there's going to be a bit of a gap and right now it's going elsewhere we're all going to Tallahassee for Specialized Care or bringing someone
from Tallahassee down to do it I I'm not you know criticizing what we're doing I'm saying we also need to build for the families here to become leaders in 10 years I'm not sure that everyone on this board is still going to be active on the
board or even 20 years and are we considering what youth in Taylor County is going to be in a position to replace and to lead the next 10 years so while we do have all this attention on Taylor County and we're considering how we're
going to rebuild and get things back to where they were with the things that we are doing let's consider going beyond that to where we can offer to um other counties where it's like the bids are coming from Taylor County hey these
companies these engineers in Taylor County these agricultural leaders in tayor County the you know the industry leaders in tourism and things like that I would just like to see that educational Gap filled um to support business growth
kind of organically instead of pulling in or going out does that make sense it does but I don't feel like that turned into a question for me but it certainly cly into a thought for me the whole thought of keeping our existing
industry Evergreen keeping the aluminum welders here keeping the the U the big tops the namos the super Puffs those are all things that give our children something to do something to Aspire
towards even as we try to bring in new businesses so that's why we cannot neglect the industry that we have the industrial base that we have while we're working on bringing in new industry so I think it all plays together I did neglect mention
of course the West Fraser Sawmill site and the sale event and the opportunity that it provides because I left it off of my sites but that was by accident it's a key site we've had multiple interests in that site so I would I just left it off by accident so I meant to do
that I appreciate anybody else want to share West Fraser what tell me again West Fraser was a sawmill that ran on the mill coming so what it has is someone
has is buying it to clean it up so they they what they do is clean right now it's full of planers and kilms and saw equipment and they're looking to clean it up make sure all the environmental remediation done is done and all of the equipment is out and sold it'll be sold
for scrap and then because no one's running the onas are shutting down over the state so what they're looking at is bring having a clean industrial site to bring other Industries into we've already had a couple want to look at that site specifically for when it is cleaned up we'd like to use the building
when it is cleaned up we'd like to use the yard but so we have no Sawmill interest at all we need a sawmill here right and it won't come into the West razor site they will not sell to a competitor I didn't say necessarily that
site I said we need a saw me yes and I am sorry if you thought I only for that you were called on the list of companies three of them were wood manufacturing so I agree with you and we have three of them looking at Taylor County let me ask
question commissioner well you know time is very important to us right now and I know that you all are doing everything that you can and our best hope is and and you all you and you are been wonderful I know
you're working so hard but once someone is identified that they're going to come here from that time how long will it be before they will be up and running and we start to
see some com in you know my least favorite answer is the one I'm going to give you it depends there are companies that are looking to come in and start doing something quickly and there are other companies that the very scope of what they're
doing is require extensive permitting extensive construction and those companies are easily two years from when they say I'm coming to when they make their first payroll but that would I'd see that on the outer end but I would
not be willing nor would I commit to any kind of timing for any of these projects except for a couple them if they say we're coming in a couple of months will be there working but that's not typically the norm there are I think the one to two years it's early two years
for the V think I am very sensitive and I anticipated the question but again it it depends Laura would you like to take us just one second Laura you have a vast background in this would you have an Insight or anything you'd want to share
I I agree I you know wholeheartedly with what Bob said he's he's very artic in that I we do have a few that are are relatively TurnKey pretty immediate that are looking for existing uh space but the best that we can ask for you know at
this point with in in terms of immediacy is is really focusing on the retention strategy and helping out the big tops as much as we can helping out the namos and accelerating you know these timelines so that they can get ramped up because it's the construction labor that will you know add to the workforce and all of
that but as far as our projects are concerned they will um you know again it will take it will take a little while for the large ones especially as Bob said the two and a half billions you know and and such but the
the there there's a ramp up time period you know obviously while these projects are are underway that that Revenue will be seen and jobs will be seen rather immediately upon the the announcements being made so it's not um it's that you
will see nothing for you know for an extended period of time activity will happen rather quickly um on on any on any matter no matter what the timeline is but where we are you know Taylor County where we're at I don't want to say at a deficit is that we don't have the standing inventory that these
companies need in order to essentially turn on the lights and start operating immediately we're we're working very hard to get Georgia Pacific to give us their warehouse uh for for users and we having great conversations with them so that they they're they're opening up to
that that possibility I don't want to speak for them it could change tomorrow but we are working with them on um on the right user that will support their needs along with the the users that are out there having the West Frasier um
property be uh uh taken down and essentially uh ripened for development is the best they can ask for and that's going to happen rather quickly so um you know the right now the the groundwork is being laid for for some pretty quick uh
ducktail type of of Plug and Play employment so um I would like to say within the next 12 months we going to see the the landscape will look very different here because of what's happening today well you know um for any
industry that would come in that were they were going to obtain new land and start from the ground up we have a lot of En envir mentally sensitive areas in Taylor County and I know from past experience that uh you can get tied up
with environmental stuff and and take a long long time so you know a lot of people uh and you have a lot of connections so if that were to happen would you be in a position to try to
speed that along you bet you bet and and we and we have we have made sure like uh like Bob had said we have all eyes of government government on this County and every every agency head is aware of the
the needs that that we need to to Really turn things around and quickly here so um we're just one phone call away from from really a lot a lot happening if there's anything that is being slowed down on that front or any other front for that matter please use us as a
resource and we will make sure that that action is had I just want to say that we're so grateful to have you I I I just can't tell you how how grateful we are that you're here to help us thank
youer do you all feel like you have adequate land identified that you could entertain to potential businesses I do and I think that because of what we have and the willingness to subdivide what we have so you know when we look at
273 Acres that we already have prospects for a smaller piece of that to go to a company so so that gives us the kind of thing where we don't think that's one that's not necessarily one industry that could be three Industries that's how would I like to have more
absolutely did I anything else you add on the lands correct me if I'm wrong but I think I heard you say we have committed companies coming is that correct no that is not what I said we have committed companies interested in
Taylor County but they haven't said we are coming to Taylor County they have said we're looking at Taylor County and other counties I know the drill yeah no I I just want to make sure you didn't I did not want to mislead you or anyone else in the room doesn't mean they can't get to that step but in this in this
game of Monopoly they're not that far around the board so the ones that you're looking at and asking what kind of Industries are they I can tell you no more than what I just told you Munitions and defense wood manufacturing light and
heavy industry you don't know what some of these manufactur if I knew I wouldn't tell you I'm I am under a non-disclosure agreement and I can't share information here and I hope you appreciate this is a very good question but nobody that wants to come to Taylor
County or any other County wants to read their name in the newspaper Friday that would kill it it would stop it right then so if I knew it I wouldn't tell you and I I don't mean that in some weird way I'm trying to say I'm I'm sharing more than I've ever heard shared in the
15 years that I've been associated with Taylor County and and yet I've met with my lawyer before I came here tonight to make sure I could ma'am does your agency work with like these colleges or even Taylor Technical College to try to bring
something like agricultural classes that would teach these kids something instead of them leaving okay let me answer that uh with in the context of Taylor County Development Authority I work with Shelby and I worked with jod before her we have toured there we have brought companies
interested in coming in kicking the tires on a piece of property they've gone and sat an hour and a half with them telling them what they would do and wouldn't do if you understand their mandate and I want to make sure I don't move into we have an education board and I am not that group they pivot towards
what's coming so if you say I might bring in Munitions and they need machinists they say we will absolutely train them all make sure you hear that we will absolutely train them all but we won't train one of them before they come we're not going to go divert our money
our resources to train machinists when you don't have a announcement you haven't had a ribbon cutting so they're extreme ly easy to work with but they are like the rest of us they are resource constrained they spend all the money doing all the amazing things they do and so if they stop and say we're
going to do 60 people in The Machinist class that means they won't do 60 people in welding and we've got three aluminum welders in town right now that need those welders make sense does that help and if I could add to that one of the things that we've um heard from the
industries that are looking at the area is they are very very impressed with our Taylor big bin U Technical Institute now it's now the college but um and and how willing they are to tailor make their training systems to produce what product
and and have the skills by the time they get here so it we uh and the state has recognized this as well the state is very very impressed and that's really one of our key selling points is that our Technical College is putting out
skills that our industry needs but they don't want to be you know training people up to leave the county we'd like to let's figure out what's what's wanting to come and they those people are seeing that we have the schooling we will put it together for you and we will have them trained for you and by the
time you get here but um and right now what we're training for is what there are skills needed in the community for and and even even then people are leaving with those great skills making big money elsewhere hopefully when we get more industry they'll come back home
to the other thing I wanted to build on what Laura and Bob said already is there have been particular situations where um existing Industries have been trying to grow that when when there were some Buffs in the road Bob and Laura stepped
in with some of y'all's help and with commerce's help to make sure things moved along so that we could move through the process as quickly as we could to support the existing industry growing so I wanted you to know that they're they're working on that as well I just want to say one other thing
and and I don't want to minimize the the efforts and and the hard work of the other board members like Michelle Michelle you work all the time on this don't you just just my husband said I reti hours that other board members like
Michelle I put in and I just want to tell you thank you also Michelle want to say the same thing I'm thankful that she doesn't know how to spell the word retirement she uses it but doesn't do it so we don't want her to change any other question thank you so much for your time I really
appreciate it to our 17 a our business the bo to discuss State Housing Initiative Program shipped the last meeting we were discussing the the ship program and all the issues that we've had with that
company uh at C and the $1.3 million that we're sitting on um since that time more issues have Arisen um as yall know I've been trying to help this one person in particular
and he's calling me all the time um the last thing he called me with uh just a few days ago was that um what they're doing now is they want everybody to provide proof of how they
spent any money that FEMA awarded them well a lot of these people said going on two years these people all of them don't have receipts to to to say yes this is what I did with the money and and then
before they called me and um he said that they were wanting warranty deeds so it just seems like to me that uh they just they keep coming back and coming back and requiring something different
it seems like on a weekly basis they've added something else for some for these people to go and do so you know I I wonder what else is going to come up different next week that they're going to that they're going to require and and
for a professional or a company that is supposed to be professional I would think that they would have known to ask these people for these things in the beginning instead of waiting to to here we are a year and a
half later with nothing done we've got nine or 10 houses that we uh thought we were going to go out for bids on and I guess everything has just stop because these people obviously can't get their
stuff together so um it it just blows my mind and I tell you and every time they ask for more things like this this is slowing the whole process down and I don't know if we're at a standstill
right now of where we are with this except it's just it just I I see a lot of delays um I see a lot of delays and and then you know we went through this whole thing that they said well they had
not received applications and all these people that you know said that they had s their application I know they did so if you remember last time um when Mr sheets and
Tara were on the phone and I said that there was a lady that was out was going to meet with her I found out later it was her um that this lady had sent her application off certified meil and
Conrad says well she should have a green um receiving slip where they received it well guess what they had that green slip Conrad because the next morning I called Joseph
sheets and you know it was just it was a continuation of of the the meeting and so I said uh I I said you know that the lady has her green green slip and he says yes we know that so I said so you
knew this last night she was this lady that had turned in the application by certified meal actually spoke to Tara that day and told Tara that she had sent a certified meil and this Tara never let
her didn't say a word about it so Joseph sheets the next day says oh yeah we we know about that and so I said y'all let on last night like you didn't know anything about it so what's going on with this and so um he did tell me that
uh I says well who was it that received it and he said our office manager received that application now this doesn't make me have a warm and fuzzy feeling with these people at all
um so I I I don't think that we have any business at all dealing with this company uh I think that they have not been straightforward they've not done anything uh I I I don't like where we
are with this we've got $3.1 million people are needing homes like never before and um I don't know when this this um grant money Runs Out Lana do you know when the deadline is to use
all this money I believe not off the top I believe we have at least a couple of years I think their contract is for 24 months if I'm not mistaken would you verify how much
time is left and and they're on the line um well when I get through they can talk but um I want to know for sure how much time is left because with the way they're Lolly gaging around and not
being up front I'm afraid that the time frame is going to run out and the people are not going to get homes and we're going to have $3.1 million that we have to turn back well you don't ever want to be where you turn back grent money
because that may be the very last time that you get it you know if they give you that sum of money which to me I we not to my knowledge that we've ever received that kind of money $3.1 million before so
um I couldn't get them when they were on the phone last time I could not get Mr sheets or terara to answer my question but beat around the bush even the next day when I talked to him he was reluctant to answer my questions so um
here's where I'm here's where I am we need to fire this company as soon as possible and and I don't want to wait until we can go out and find another consulting company let's give our Grants
Department a chance to try to do this and we get Melody on the phone and see if she thinks that's possible for them to do this but uh time is of the essence right now and um um Conrad I do want to
ask you a couple of questions if we decided to to fire this company um we we would want to make sure that we got all these applications back and who knows where they are or what kind of
mess they're in by now but we want we' want to be assured that we would get these all applications back and any work that they have have done if they've done any that we would get we would get that
information sent to us and in a um uh in a in a timely manner we have to set a date so what would be what would be the process for that and since they've already been paid a lot of money for
nothing basically um could we retrieve some of the money that they've been paid for doing nothing well we can certainly try um in answer to your question uh if the
board decides that they want to terminate then of course they would have to tell me to send them a letter that um an email that they're terminated and also uh demand the applications that
they have in their possession of course if they don't send those applications to us then of course the other alternative would be to contact everyone that's filing application and get an get another application to them immediately
you know uh this is cdbg right it's ship ship ship cdbg very similar stuff that I don't been your county attorney
for 35 years maybe and we had these kind of Grants all the time that and I would I'm G to mimic what you said that we've never had this problem before that I recall even
when it first came out um uh there was some what we call some bugs in it but we were able to get through it uh with the uh people that that we hired there was a man out of Tallahassee that we hired um
and then I think he retired and we got another company and so forth never had this problem in my view well I don't know you know it was GSG is that it was them and then they must have sold out to this
outfit and and it's just not working for us it is not working for us time is of the essence and we need to help these people we need to be able to spend that 3.1 million well the green card that we're talking about is when you send a
certified return receipt requested letter attached to the letter is where you attach the green card and they don't get the letter until somebody signs the green card and then the green card comes back to the person
who's mailed it to them and you you have it we send out certified return receipt requests at all the time I told you about double clutching what we do in my office we'll send them a regular mail in also certifi return receive requested so
um I'm hoping that your person that you talked about uh has U possession of that green card they do and you know was it just stamp that it was received or did someone sign it it doesn't matter a lot
of times government encies just stamp it but it's still good evidence that the entity um has in fact received that uh that letter with with the application
and also I'm going to finish real quick uh also with regard say if we decide we want applications reapplications if a person sends in an application keep a copy of the
application that you have F that you have sent in with along with sending it certified and regular mail so you make sure that uh you've got the application and you just said here you
know hit now show it to their face this is the application that you got don't be telling me that you didn't get it or that you didn't do anything with it well and you know uh we've been in a Workforce for many years where you know
we know to make copies and we know to do all that stuff and and sometimes people don't think of about that of course they don't and that's why I said it that's why I said it out loud Mr sheets told me the next morning
that yes he knew about that Tara knew about it when she was talking to the lady and said that their office manager signed for it now I don't know if if she signed or if she stamped it but he said the office manager was the one that
signed for it so you know we can't string along with this company anymore it's too important to our people you know and it's too important to us because I don't want to lose credibility as as a board of County
Commissioners that we couldn't that we couldn't take the $3.1 million that was granted to us and put it to use that that that makes me look bad oh I do got couple of questions so
on the applications I know you mentioned that there was a couple of that come back and asking for more info so surely these folks have an initial application that they're filling out so if the question is on there I the
question should be on the application out the gate if it's a valid question I mean surely they're not coming back later and as an add-on and now they need this they are adding on Just for instance the warranty deed information
and uh this um now they're requiring them to go back and look up proof that how they spent the money that FEMA gave them now this is I know that this is happening is this the company that's asking for this or is this the actual
company that's asking or is this at Cent ACC the one that took over for GSG the people that were're dealing with the people that called in and evid the guys on the phone now they are the ones that keep adding this and a professional
company they should have gone for this first started that they needed this stuff why are they coming back now a year and a half later and and asking to get this and slowing down the progress and putting us
in in this situation how much money got what was it we said last time 150 30 no total is 175,000 for or maybe in process or under
construction so there are there was initial group of 10 applicants and of the and one of from what I understand one of the applicants there was an issue with ownership of her property so they're going through
probate of the first nine applicants um in an email they sent to today three have provided sufficient FEMA documentation are good to go they're working with four of the applicants on obtaining FEMA documentation and two are not eligible
for hhrp assistance because they spent their home repair funds on ineligible costs which means that they would have to they could only qualify for funding if they were able to pay those cost to the county to be held in escrow then there's eight
additional applicants four have provided sufficient FEMA documentation and are good to go pending side inspections and O reports and they're still working with the remaining four applicants on obtaining FEMA documentation so they
have a group of 17 applicants that they're working on from what they said today final documentation to be on for at least a part of them to be on the next agenda for to go out to to go out
to bed is what they said today so you received that today yes ma'am now was this after I had asked for this to be added to the agenda no I emailed them last night when I got you talk to him today and ask them to send anything
today no I emailed but yesterday I received an email at about 5:00 and I immediately responded and ask about the theme of documentation and then there was another question I asked today and we got the
response at 253 well see here's what we don't know we don't know what's going to come up tomorrow or Friday or next week that they're going to want and set this whole process back can you get Melody on the
line and see uh if she thinks if this Bo decided to does she think that they could administer this program would you do that I think she's already on the line if I'm not i' like to speak to her and and we have discussed administering
the program I think the only the only hold up would be you know she only works part-time and I don't I don't think she can fit it in with the 28 hours a week that she works so ask her because she's got an assistant that that that could
maybe help too but Melanie are you there can youall hear me yes did you did you hear my question yeah I it would depend on what kind of condition of files are
in um you know I want to say we can do it but I don't want to say I'm sure we can do it because it would you know be on condition on what shape the files are in and what we would need need
to do to pick up and leun with it I'm sure would need some kind of assistance um you know I know we could do probably the 23 24 portion of it but
honestly I I would like to say we could pick it up and run but it would it would depend on you know what's turned over to us and again we would need um some kind of assistance I
believe I believe um we hav f uh June 2026 to have the funds in believe that June 2026 to encumber all the funds that's basically only a year and a half
that's just to encumber the funds not for construction to be complete right Melody because then there's a whole process have the funds encumbered and you know be ready it wouldn't have to be final construction but we would have to have
the project well underway okay so by next but you know I mean I we would have we would we would have to have some assistance but I mean we're going to do
whatever direct to do you know I I would be interested to know from Mr sheet since he's um I'd like to know from him if they have the files are the files together
are they strung out or are they in a mess and how quickly they could get those files to us if he's on the line that's what I want him to answer for me not sure which one I have two callers on the line and I'm not sure which one is
him BR one of them okay so caller 303 4 3034 if you will state your name and address hey good evening this is Joseph she um I would actually like to um PA this over to the uh the other representative that has their hand
raised um I believe that should be number 9232 that's going to be Cory burbach okay 9232 say Cory yes sir yes good evening everyone can you all hear
me okay yes Miss Cory yes sir yeah well good evening everyone appreciate the opportunity to speak here tonight um have uh heard um everything that uh has been communicated for quick
background um my name is Cory burb I lead the strategy Grant compliance group um that has been the group that has served Tor County as GSG and then Thea acquisition answer in now ex centure so um one of the things I want to start by communicating is is understanding the
the nature of these dollars having been you know uh Boo in the ground just St after Helen and Milton and uh hurricane Ian very much appreciat that the sentiment around the concern for these dollars and getting them exended um if
if allow I wanted to confirm one thing for for the board and and that is you know in my position and being made aware of the concerns that t County have um have been engaged with our team to understand the the nuance and details associated with how we got here today um
as it relates to the SEMA inquiries and validating the duplication of benefit process uh that's process is something that we go through on all of the dollars that we manage for you all across that Federal spense specifically to the
dollars that we're speaking about today um probably important to note that on January 31st we started a process with Michael chy who's a technical advisor for the state to confirm the eligibility and the plan that has been designed for Taylor County it was during that process
so two weeks ago that we inquired around the eligibility in the plan and he provides guidance that due to the nature of the fact that we are doing a compl demolition and rebuild it is required and it was updated guidance from the
state that we have had to include in our duplication of benefit to receive the records of where the them and dollars were spent now it is something we could have done on the back end but after we received that guidance on February 5th
is when we had the engagement to say hey this is probably a a situation in which the recommendation would be to postpone one board meeting to the next board meeting to ensure we get that documentation so just uh probably important to note that that was a
relevant and and most recent new guidance that was issued on your behalf our goal is to ensure that any guidance that is issued is apply to the program so that when the monitoring process does occur that we're there to prevent and mitigate any challenges or repayment
That Could Fall upon the beneficiaries in the county in this type of situation I got a question so when did these new requirements come into being so as part of the program Administration guide with the ship
funding um we have followed the duplication of that the process the program when we were reaching out to understand the Nuance around and the confirmation from the technical advisor at the state in detailing for him in in
you know very plain like here's what we're looking to fund he provided the recommendation and the guidance that the duplication of benefit can not just be unmet need but funding and what I mean by that is
if we're going to fund the complete uh rebuild and a mitigation effort we and they have received thema funding then we do need to get that documentation process going where we demonstrate some proof of payment I completely
acknowledge that it's frustrating um but that advisement came to look on uh in the beginning of February this came into being the beginning of February you're saying you just heard about it the beginning of
February no so I want to clarify that with any type of federal funding or state funding um there's a p program Administration there guidelines that are set for right when we have Nuance around the duplication of benefit yet as we're
going to administer the funds we have an acav that assigned what has been what was provided is that along with the aidis in this case within the hrp funds we needed to supply some proof of record that the thema funding that was received
or any any additional funding that was received was in fact spent on the intended use so in this case the home repairs now if they were if they work on the home repairs as they were attended there is no duplication of benefit
concern if we were to spend the whole amount if they were not Mr advises us as the county or the recipient would be ATA of the duplication pment process and those fund would need to be provided in order to receive the full amount in
these situations as you can imagine when we're talking about a complete rebuild it's very hard to differentiate the percentage in which what would get built and what would not get built if the recipient could not provide those funds and so in an effort to mitigate that
concern because from a lived experience perspective we know that the funding if there wasn't identified shortfall would be promised at a later date that would cause a lot more compliance risk if those funds were not able to be established our attorney has attorney uh
Mr Bishop got a question sir you said that you uh you got this uh the first part of February was it in writing an email a text or was it just verbal from
uh that you were supposed to uh get the information from the various applicants with regard to what they did with Fe of money I want to know it was in writing sir is in writing can you provide that to the the county please I I would be happy to um and I
apologize you know I I will say up front that um it it is um infrequent but we we Mi it um so as it regards to the certified mail issue um that is completely my fault that we had an eror
that someone did not file a paper appropriately I verified with our team when that occurred and I'll continue to do that due diligence but I would be more than happy we're not perfect I'd be more than happy to supply uh the recommendation and writing that was
received by Mr Jam um I also want to um I understand the frustration we do this for across the country be happy to engage in a way that would allow you all some
board um with my personal involvement being up when M Mr Bishop last when would you provide the information to the to the county so my understanding and again I apologize as I'm getting caught up here
um is that received that an email so I will get on the phone with her either tonight or person tomorrow and have it to you buy one tomorrow but my understanding is that it was in email that been again you don't know that
it you said you said you first said it was an email now you're saying you don't know whether it was an email sir it was an email sorry I apologize for the confusion on that response respectfully request that you um listen very closely to the question
and and give a a a cachent answer is my understanding that you said that you would get it to uh miss leanda our County Administrator tomorrow what
time I I can commit to having it to you by by lunch time um if that if that works for you does that work for you surea thank you that's all the question I have right
now okay so if I can ask question so you know I hear you saying that you make mistakes and and and I get that um but when I was talking with Mr sheets and
terara during the last meeting why didn't you all come clean then why why I mean you you you avoided my question and I was talking about this lady that had sent her application
certified Mill and two people sat there that knew all about it why didn't you come clean was that another mistake so I I know and and since I've been made aware of the issue is that and I can't speak because I haven't had a
opportunity to be ter yet IEM speak to that Joseph learned about it after the meeting when he investigated what had occurred um but irrespective of of when we learned and how we learned of of the timing of it um I apologize that it was
um not remedy earlier it's a it's something that I'm going to investigate in terms of our processes and how we're accounting for that wait I want to say this you all have not performed very well we we're sitting here all this time
is going by and until just a very few weeks ago when I brought this before the board I don't know what y'all were doing but it seemed like to me you were not doing anything at all now all of a sudden you know all I hear is excuses
and I'm done with y'all and I still I still am going to make a motion that we fire this company I do have a question on this uh Cory on this uh funding in the requirement of the theme of funding what
would if you're doing a complete rebuild what is the reasoning behind wanting to know where the funding any feem of funding for this hurricane stuff was spent or is it is it that they
were want them to hold on to the money and maybe give it to someone is that I mean is that man just trying to figure out what's the logic behind the what's the fame of money du due to that they they dispersed due to the disaster
what's that got to do with this Housing Initiative yes sir and very good question and uh so someone who life administering and and maintaining compliance with Federal funding sometimes I I question a logic
myself but the way that I I'll boil it down to is when we as our responsibility as your administrators um to be compliant with the governance Department have to run a duplication of benefits and so at the onset of that is the
establishment of the total amount of needs and so for example if we were working on a house and a FEMA or Insurance uh company provided $2,000 to help fix a roof of a total
estimated scope of damage of $10,000 we can only provide up to $8,000 we cannot give them all $10,000 because there's been some supplementary funding that has been provided what's unique in this case is that because FEA
Mundy has been provided but we are completely uh moving on to a different asset class in terms of a mobile home to a permanent big structure on slab the confirmation and where this started with the technical advisor was
to confirm that there would be no duplication of benefit issues having that funding not count or not included in the duplication of that so another question is I mean I'm not
sure understand but not sure that I'm be on the same page there but uh the information that was provided to the administrator with the homes that are in process I think I heard her say there was
17 how soon do you see breaking ground on these homes and so unfortunately I can't give you an answer on that right now um and it's not because we don't have the information
I would just want to compile to you and I think it's something I over to all theard members the complete timeline with the email tomorrow by so you don't you don't really have any [Music]
many oh yeah got seven eight of I know well there was there was nine and then this FEMA documentation issue came up okay so they're working to resolve that three have provided FEMA documentation and are ready to go to bid
is is that cor will y'all jump in if I'm incorrect please yeah I I don't know if Joseph can be off M as well um I again apologize that I don't have all the information right now but I'm working tonight to get it um but that my understanding that is
correct okay and then of the first nine three have provided sufficient doc theme of documentation so they're ready to go the next four they're working with the applicants on obtaining the FEMA applicant documentation two are not
eligible because of the way that the the money was spent then of the next eight applicants four have provided efficient FEMA documentation and are good to go pending site inspections and O and
reports and then they are working with the other four on obtaining the FEMA documentation so it sounds like out of the 17 there are seven that are ready to go is that correct to go out to
be I thought he said yes on the on the four from that from that second wave again we're just we're just spending site inspections and O reports um we can have those uh scheduled very quickly um in that first sign right
there's three that provided the the information and are um are ready to go uh the next steps in the process then there's four that we are uh working closely with to obtain their documentation uh we've been speaking with them on an almost daily basis to
help them get the information that they need um and then of that second wave there's uh another for that uh that we're working with to obtain the proper people documentation as well so so there's seven that are
basically ready to go uh just a few of those just site inspections o reports there's eight that we're working with daily to get the required documentation um and uh and there's there's two that
um as of now would be ineligible due to the usage of the them of funding um or would need to again pay that that duplication um you know up as part of award so folks let me tell you out of 40
applications in all these months he can only say that they've got three that's ready to go and can you trust what he's saying why has it taken so long
and well he said they've got four they're working on daily they've only got three that's actually ready to go from what I understood him to say so out of 40 application in all this time and they have
$175,000 in their pocket for three three that are ready to go I've lost faith in these people that don't come through and that our people that are are are suffering and need a home might be in Jeopardy of
not getting it because how long does it build how many houses the $1.3 million will build once we go through them whenever they do if they ever get through with it then it's got to come
back here then bids have to go out and time is clicking and we've only got a few months left to do this I'm done with with them months it's um yes commissioner Fel it's
2026 it's June of 2026 for the funds to be encumbered yeah yeah that's what 15 months from now to be encumber months right well I75 for
what I think we probably I I know you don't know me mam but um I I've been looped into this process now um and I apologize if it was too t um one of the things that I would propose and work with the County
Administrator on is um whether you wanted personal um credentials and um question for me um I I'm going to take over the the leadership of this project um at no cost to you all obviously still
rely on my people um I know we're very close we spend a lot of time to do the design and stand up of this process so that the funding can be administered um but that that would be something that should you all choose to consider um would be the direction that we would
take um and again acknowledge that I'm just a voice on the phone for you all right now and if it uh was supported by either references or past projects that I've worked on be Happ to apply that and again no cost sir you're a dollar late and a dollar short and a day late for me
I can appreciate that we I I was with GSC um and you know I've work with the GSC folks and we have a long relationship with Taylor County so um that's just part of of my understanding our path and appreciate that
so certainly would not want to F just about to have homes in the process to be built but I do understand and I don't disagree with uh I can understand
question yeah I don't I don't disagree with the frustration that commissioner Fel has as well so would it be feasible that we have this on every agenda meeting and we can see what kind of updates I know she's shaking her head
but we are the ones to make this decision nobody but us five this company has proven to us I'm I'm ask I'm asking would it be feasible so we don't jeopardize all the work the work that these
citizens and provided the info that it just I'm just going to tell you I mean at the end of the day I mean you fire me I'm likely I don't know that I'm belong to have to turn over the information to you we got an attorney right there though that can make it happen and that's what he he can right
conr he can get those for us and what where I'm coming from no matter what he says I'm looking at their past performance over the last few months I'm not disagreeing with you on that part at all and I'm worried that these people that you're talking about and that I'm
talking about that they may never see a home anyway no tell them what else is going to come up so if we if we could take this program and get our lawyer to get the the applications and all the what we
need and we have a fine Grants Department and I know Melody and Jamie do a very good job and I think they're capable her say that she thought she could and we know for sure then we have
control we have control over what's going on versus some company that won't even answer your questions I just concern that we're going to prolong these citizens even more say they're not going to be prolonged anyway but but if you
terminate this agreement then you're not going to I I would not see you getting the information very quickly can you answer
that we try to get it as quickly as we could you know I can't guar you know any lawyer that guarantees the results of something is either a flaming fool or he or she hasn't done many cases and then I say I know I don't look like it but I've done a
few um you know me well enough that that I would give it every try possible uh I'd like to see what happens tomorrow um with regard to what I requested that they said that they would
get to um leanda by noon that being uh the uh requirement in an email from FEMA with regard to folks using the FEMA money for
something other than the repair of their home and then of course that's you know the theory behind that is good in that if you use the money for something other than repair of your home why should it
have to be paid again should you follow what I'm saying sure you know that Mak that makes some sense but uh you know like to know that this just came up because
uh you know ad Delia was a good while ago yes it was if if you know and then we've got the other two that you know they weren't yesterday yeah yeah I mean if this just came up then if they
were doing a due diligence with all time prior to this and we should have had some some things built already so uh I I'd be in agreement to see that email and maybe I know we have a workshop next
week but I wouldn't mind even if we did it at a special meeting just in reference to the ship program to see where they are and for an update and do it at each meeting and then I mean we'll see if we're not seeing any progress then
I don't want a lot of time to elapse before we we take action of of some kind now last meeting we got 10 ready to go okay so we're excited about that now this meeting I don't have 10 to go we
got three to go and he's working on some more so that's not progress that's that's that's what is the word regress is that is that a word in other words spinning your wheels say again I call it
spinning your wheels that's exactly right and we've got these four people that have been waiting and we have let our people down I'm telling you I feel responsible and every staff member and we should feel responsible we have let our people
down go ahead question with regard to the contract that you have with this company what is in your contract for termination for cause convenience breaches of contract cure notices how is that laid out because you should be following that contract issuing cure
notices and putting deadlines in there for them to follow and then if not contracts terminated it's not laid out exactly that way but the contractual language um is for cause or no cause from whatever call I have it in front of me with a
30-day notice and the records would have to be provided to us but I don't believe that I saw a time frame for that can I ask y'all to table the the voting until you find out the answers to all
these questions because if there's some to go within a month's time they should be done just asking you to table it until we actually see if what that man said is true
that Grant be extended from work time that'll take care of all the problems then there you go has to be committed by the 20 by 2026 right there's that's what the statement is you got till June of 2026 to get those funds there's no way you can
extend that everybody I'm sure they would pass in I think it has to be committed to projects at that point so that it's all um alloted if you will to those set projects as my understanding you got to remember there are people in Desperate situations
waiting we shouldn't have to try to extend a gr this should have already been done they've been paid good money we not to pay them another dime as of what they've already received but it it it's not about extension for me it's about trying to help our people
that we've had money for and we have not helped them because we're stringing along with these people disagree with frustration one more one more we'll move on I know that the county didn't get the money the month after two months after 6
months after it's been what more than a year so why are we just now worrying about how to spend that money I didn't even know how to file for that but I had holes this big in my roof if I have known that I would
have filed but now my roof and house is gone so can I go back and file for that I got the pen to show that I got the hole I mean maybe have to get with maybe get with lwanda and look at the
application process maybe so I I I knew nothing about that I've asked about the mitigation money when I was up here but was told it was not for us that it was for something else if you think you qualify for that that
time the books have closed on thatth I don't well we have other ship money coming so let me I'll have to check and see which application she would need mine I have your number I I'll check in with you on that if that's
okay well I mean my roof is no more but I have the 10 did you reach out to Emergency Management answer an inspector come okay and he saw the the stuff in the
roof where we had to redo the the ceilings and I like the foot being finished with the living room when the name made an appearance but yeah I I approve I think
I got 300 for food and 7 for something else no I mean for the for the housing program did remember I said I gave you a phone number to call for for the program I've called so many numbers till
uh can we connect after meeting on this side and maybe you get the information that you need I I'll call you tomorrow miss mat so think moving forward with uh 17A Cory on the line we're going to look for this email
information on this notification that you received that you requiring this uh FEA info and then I think we probably would add this item to our Workshop to uh
upd yeah our Workshop is uh Tuesday the 25th all right we'll move on to cash St item item 18 the board to review and consider approval of amendment number two to agreement number LW 719 between Florida
Department of Environmental Protection in Taylor County to extend the project completion date for the renovation of Hodes Park to August the 30th 2025 with all close out docents submitted by 30th
2025 agenda by the grant Rider meie hey hey everybody this is this is an extension for the land and water conservation portion of the grant this is retroactive
Back to December 31st 2024 as it all got held up in some federal um issues um with Grant contract being put on hold I am in hopes that if we have the project
substantially underway we can possibly get another extension but as you know we at the last board meeting you approved a budget here is um request on restore funds to increase that budget to make
sure we have sufficient funds also in addition I talked to B moral group this week and and they are reviewing that budget new so hopefully that will go through soon but in the meantime to move this land and water conservation along I
will go ahead and um prep prepare a statement of qualification and have it ready to go so we can go ahead and design or prepare for the engineering design and permitting of the project I I think um
if it's acceptable once that's prepared we could even go and advertise that and um be ready to move fairly quickly um on on this project we could even advertise before we have the actual
approval um from moral because we know we're going to get that approval but we could actually go ahead and and advertise so that we're moving in along question what's that total amount of money for that hard is the 200 and
all that what's m commission ask on this on land and water conservation it was $200,000 but on the budget amendment we submitted to restore it was $1.5 Million
because that included the Engineering Services and project management a question Melody do you remember what year that we started planning for this renovation of Hodes
park it would have been 2019 okay six years ago and I remember when we submitted all this we had plans to I believe start
construction the the next the following winter so that if if correct me if I'm if I'm wrong to so that we would not interfere with um you know the spring and and the summer when a lot of people
were were using it and there's just been setback and again this is just one of those things that there's been a lot of setbacks setbacks setbacks and so do you really think that that uh that this date on this is going to be the right date
the final date I I do not believe that we will have the project completed by December 2025 I don't believe that because we're we're going to have to have the design and engineering and permitting completing and by the time we prepare
those documents go out for bids you know it's not I mean I would be dishonest to you if I said I thought it would be done by December of this year I just it's not
possible and that's why I said I'm I'm in hopes that if if we have the project at least underway like some of the construction perhaps we can get another Landon water conservation extension but
we do have an extension to December 2027 with the restore act fund so you know we we do have that funding available and um you know hopefully since we've made the decision to you
design bills that will move it along quicker too yeah you know we're in another decade and you're talking about maybe 2027 it's just been Hing for a long long time questions with oh oh I I I hope we
have it done well before 2027 um you know I'm in hopes that we have it started this year and and have it completed in in 20
2026 um but you know I don't want to I don't want to leave anyone and say oh yeah we're GNA have it fing for 2025 because I I just I I just don't believe I'm not expecting too much
motion to approve chairman motion to approve by commission D all in favor thank you m well item 19 the board to consider approval of request execute formal purchase agreement vacantly contract
between Robert doer and MNS property investors LLC and T County for the purchase of the site known as spring Warrior GED by the grant we are required I know we have a
willing seller statement and we've discussed numerous times the the purchase price and the price value we are now required to have a formal purchase agreement which has been drafted I um will turn that over as soon
as I have it back to the B moral group they are doing the final review on everything that we submitted it looks like everything's going to go and once they review this we should be able to Moet move forward with the closing documents they have approved everything
else that's been submitted so hopefully um we'll be able to wrap up spram War here pretty quickly like I said once I submit this to B moral I talked to Mr D today we been emailing that things have
been going very well on this project and um once I submit this to them I I expect to have approval to move board with the closing documents U very quickly question a motion to approve
approve second fav thank youie thank you move item 20 the board to consider approval of dra traffic signal and flashing Beacon maintenance
agreement Amendment authorizing resolution agenda by Hank public work this is a standard agreement for um Traffic Light maintenance is just under staff items because the resolution
so read the resolution by title only or motion by a resolution authorizing execution of a traffic signal and flashing Beacon maintenance agreement between the State of Florida Department of
Transportation County we have a motion to approve the agreement motion to approve the agreement second second all in favor I have a motion to approve the resolution
moiss approve resolution second by Moody all in favor all right that on that all right we will move on to County Administrator
items1 the board consider approval of FM turn key coverage election forms aged by the this is uh anou with um our insurance company in order to authorize the repairs to the recycle building the
total amount of the deductible is $3,875 the anticipated amount of coverage is between a half a million and a million dollar to repair that building the deductible is 43,000 so we would pay the deductible and they would pay for the repairs and
actually um take do the repairs on our behalf is this budgeted no but none of the storm damage is so it would go so that would be charged to the storm
account any questions questions we'll obain a motion to approve approve motion by commission Moody do we have a second second by Commission in favor to item 22 the board to consider
approval of community technical assistance grant program agreement agenda by the County Administrator this grant is for phase two of the community technical assistance grant um that we received we've received part of the funding
earlier this year and the initial um final or excuse me the initial Economic Development strategic plan was a product of that this scope of work is to you know to basically complete that exercise
with particular emphasis on ensuring the full environmental remediation of the now closed GP P Mill site so that's really the meat and potatoes of this agreement if you approve this then we will immediately turn around and request
um proposals and move forward any questions for the board motion to approve all right to discuss informational it I just wanted to make the board aware that we are having some difficulty with our some
of our rolloff trucks we have three who are actually that are actually being repaired now um for various mechanical issues one truck is on the road we are actually working with pop sanitation they've provided another truck for us um
for part of the week we're hoping that we have one of the trucks back on Wednesday um from from the shop one and it's just apparently bad luck so we have been limping along this week with having
some many trucks that are having mechanical issues and just to add to that we're advertising for another mechanic for that Department Public Works is is helping us with some of the mechanical work but with these big trucks a lot of times they have to go to
next TR you know we can't necessarily do the work in town or in house so it's we are it's it's been a challenging week as far as the number of trucks that we have on the road we are trying to get um to
we're getting um quotes for either a new truck or maybe to lease two trucks and we're trying to go through the proc procurement process now so we can hurry up and get some new trucks so one back
on the road by Wednesday like tomorrow I'm hoping yes that's the hope is this one of the trucks that was going 75 miles down the road uh recently so as I answered your email earlier today that was not our truck huh that was not our
truck oh I didn't see that email I I emailed you back that was not our truck okay so I've emailed Al the landfill to ask them if they recognize it so I can alert that County um but the our tags are not on the front of our trucks and the
container color does not match so they know whose it was then I haven't received a response but I did ask all right thank you all right we'll go to item 24 comments and concerns from the public for non
agends you state your name and address good evening Tina Roberts 1101 Ste Hatchy coveway Ste Hatchy Florida so I've got some comments and some questions with regard to a public
records request that I made that has been acknowledged though I have not received any information about cost or being able to come down and look at the records so I wanted to come in because it's just when I get this information it's just going to necessitate additional questions and I want to go
ahead and ask them and figure out where we go from here so my public records request was with regard to the special roadway assessments that are charged to a variety of different sub divisions um and specifically I'm
questioning those that are in Steen Hatchy and do we have them for all subdivisions or is it only one which it appears that it is only one Steen Hatchy Acres but in the process of asking this information I was also told that Quil
run Kings Creek that they had HOAs that take care of their roadway maintenance issues so I've done some research on that found out that Quail Run does not have an HOA it was disbanded I think in 22 King's
Creek does not have an HOA and I don't know that they ever had an HOA and even if they did have an HOA the county fixed a pothole in front of 453 453 Kings Creek circling was more than just a pothole it was a sinkhole about 1
and a half to two years ago so I'm trying to figure out why we have a special assessment in Steen Hy Acres we have the thought that maybe HOAs are taking care of roadways but they're not and what is the millage rate out
there for roadway projects do people who don't live in a special area payability rate for roadway maintenance are we getting roadway maintenance my specific public recers request was for the Last 5 Years what have been the revenues that
have come in and what have been the expenditures because where we're at we're not seeing any sort of Maintenance being undertaken we've got stuff sitting on the side of the road we just bought our house at the end of November and when we bought our house there was storm
debris laying on the side of the road that is still there that continues to grow day over day actually two on our street and you know what are we paying for what does it cover when can I get the public records information that I've
asked for I mean I don't even have a cost for it yet so I don't even know that the data's been collecting and how long does it take I know under statutes it has to be a reasonable amount of time but I don't think that 5 years worth of revenues versus expenditures takes more
than 10 days because this was acknowledged on the 6th of February to pull that type of data I guess the the public record request probably come to the clerk's office I would assume I mean there's Robert did you submit
that to the clerk's office because my questions through leanda and then based off of you know how we went through our email chain she's like I'm going to consider this a public records request and then it went to Tracy R
Tracy and that was the six she did acknowledge back on the standard form that she received my request and would get back with me shortly but I mean it's been 12 days I hav heard anything check just follow up get information that uh you were looking for and then
you know my other question is you know why why do we have this special assessment and it's not just in steamy Acres I find out it's in other areas of the county and how long does this go on one how much money do we need to collect for
this and how is it spent and do we use a true zero base budgeting where the money's come in we spend it at the end of the year we go back to zero are we rolling It Forward what are we doing it's roll forward every every msv is a separate department so I don't Gary
you may want to answer this I'm sorry okay so every msbu is set up as a separate um cost center or department so so and those anything left over is carried over till the next year and I think it um to answer your question
about the HOA I believe believe that at the time a subdivision is constructed if there's an HOA in place and they will those are considered um basically almost like a private road so
I live in a subdivision um the HOA has not been in existence for many many years I pay an msvu and it only covers certain things it covers you know the RightWay mowing the lights things like that it does for
my msvu the way it was set up it doesn't cover for future um if the road needs to be repaid the homeowners would have to come up with that funding to repave the road so I think um it just depends on how it's set up at the time um and I
believe pristine ay Acres your msvu is like is it like $213 a year or something something and that actually was adjusted just a few years ago I think it was adjusted it was adjusted down because for that
particular subdivision if I and y'all help me if I'm saying this wrong I think that the majority of the subdivision was paved maybe but there was a balance that the homeowners could not come up with so the county basically facilitated Paving
those roads and this is this is for future maintenance so it may be for that particular subdivision and I'm just speaking in generalities it may be for that particular subdivision that it's to save for future Paving so
it may be to pay for RightWay for lights for RightWay Mowing and and future Paving it brings up I understand that but it brings up an interesting concept with regard to lights are lights street lights supposed to be included in the fees that we're paying it it depends I
would have to look at that particular that particular msbu and see how it's set up I know for for mine it is um but it may not be the same for every subdivision to the budget okay so um and I know that we had some
emails back and forth and I apologize I misunderstood your original question and I know I sent you a plethora of information because I I thought that that's what you were asking as far as just msbu in general but um so is that something then that is
ongoing to Infinity I mean I believe so yes until well it's something I will send Miss Tina now it's something that the board approves every year as far as as part of the budgeting process so um once and I think wasn't that loan
satisfied and that's why the MSP okay several years ago I believe because we read vertis so if the homeowners and I'm just again I mean I'm just speaking in generalities if the homeowners if all the homeowners did not
wish to further pay the msbu and wanted to to I I don't know if that's something that could be considered um well one is that subdivision considered a private
subdivision not well because I I don't understand I don't understand then why if the homeowners say we don't want to pay that anymore then you're going to turn the maintenance over to us but it's not a private subdivision right it's still County Roads correct I believe that it's considered once when it's
under msvu then it's considered a a public road right so like in my subdivision we couldn't put we couldn't put a you know a gate or something and not let people in correct so correct and I believe with now with most subdivisions I think that
um you know the roads can be dedicated to the public and that's part of the that's recorded on the plat and I know they're all different right so with that being said um we requested for the street sign to be updated properly because it was I think
it was missing correct it was missing so the street sign that we ended up with is a blue street sign with white lettering which connotates privit road um and it says coveway not Steen coveway so street
sign is now completely wrong okay so well that's something that we can put if you don't mind it's can I inject on this right here I'm Tim Roberts um one of my questions about it was where the asphalt ends in Ste Hatchy
acres and it goes dirt road all the way to Quail Run if this is a private subdivision or HOA and we're responsible for the roads but we're not we're not no we are not okay so you're saying the county is
responsible for the road yes because the county is responsible for the road why we pay these these taxes any agreement with the developer so is the people that's on the asphalt road only ones paying for this or everybody on the dirt road all the
way to qua run only the folks that are on the pave portion of that road use that asphalt road to get to the main road whichever direction attach people that's on the asphalt roads and allow everybody else to use those but
don't get tax for it that doesn't make sense you got people coming from 51 from King's Creek comes through there to the dunp you got people that lives on the dirt road that comes through there to go to work why are the people just on the access or on the asphalt roads being
taxed while everybody else is using it that doesn't make sense to me this should be a county road which is maintained by County taxes everybody in this County helps pay for that you're allowing people to use this road that
doesn't pay taxes or maintenance fee for it that's not right does anybody agree with that is that fair I think when it originated the road ended at the C side well you're probably right well I am right and that's the reason why that's assigned to
those Parcels because that was the agreement with a developer in the county at that time so that's still private property at the end and the County's not allow I mean the county that's a private property matter just like it would be in the h the county doesn't maintain her own
anything to take care of Quil run that's not a county roadway it's not up to County specifications it floods so the area that I think you're talking about on the beach road side is the section that was agreed upon with
the county and the developer and that's what instituted those costs to get the road to that point but is a section between because you have sugar heill that goes all way through and you've got well run where the asphalt ends and
you've got Steen Hatchy Acres where the asphalt ends we now have development going on whether I don't know whether it's in Steen haty Acres or if it's in Quil run but it is development going on for development yes ma' I think it's three different Landers because you got
the folks in the subdivision St acres and 12 May three different if you're going on the premise from pave road to pave Road they're paying the taxes but dirt road people are not they have to use those unless they have a helicopter or an airboat they have to use those PID
those dirt roads to get to pave roads to get out to the main road so we are paying a tax for roads that we want maintained but we've got other people who live off of these roads so it's a dirt road who are not paying these taxes to help maintain the roads they're
driving on those people that are coming down at Dirt Road park on the county property freers m it shows that it's a county road but it's not a County Road all that dirt part is not a County Road and what I've been told several we're
not we're not concerned whether the dir County Road or not we're concerned why we're having to pay extra taxes to maintain a road years other people are allowed to go on it but not pay taxes that would be kind of like me saying I want to drive on
beach Road you say no can't drive on beach road cuz you don't pay taxes for being truck other words you got that doesn't make sense other words you got people between your piece of property and the main Highway out there it's not paying taxes and y'all are down at the end on the end of the payment y'all hav
to pay taxes are you on pay we got friends we got friends that live in King Creek and when they go to the dunk they come through Steen Hatchy acres and when they come to see people in Steen Hatchy Acres they come through Quail runs they don't come around the other way and all the
people that live on the dirt road are qua run if they come that direction they're using that road you're telling me that a County Road everybody in this County should be sharing the the cost of
it not just people living on the asphalt road because they're not the only one using it that doesn't make sense to me but when it originated it ended at the cite and that's why the agreement was made the development so so it wasn't to say hey we're just going to tack on this
fee it was for the agreement as I understand it with the county and the developer to have that road brought up to that pay for that understand the when you drive through Kings Creek I can understand why why it's not a county maintained road because it it doesn't
have proper drainage and whatnot and the problems they have with drainage are well everybody inek I can assure you most people live in King Creek count tell a lot of people come to you and ask
those questions I live in King Street why is my road this fad I don't know why don't you go see the Commissioners if it's not a County Road these people are expecting something to be done on a road is not a county road because they'll tell you this is not a private road they
live on it that doesn't bother me that's them I live on a road and I'm paying extra taxes on that everybody in the count is using and I'm having to pay the taxes on it and then with the you know the assumption that that King's Creek is
supposed to be private but yet County work was done on it that doesn't go well fed in a sinkhole sinkhole back when last year it's a year and a half two years ago so the County's doing maintenance on the road that's private it's private that don't sound
too good either I believe Kings Creek is listed as County maintained I don't I I'll check that address I'm pretty sure it's County maintained which is why that me it's a safety issue on County Road I was told that it was a private subdivision certainly yeah I'm not sure
who told you that far but I'm I'm pretty sure that Kings Creek is County maintain because I know we've done striping and other things in there part of the engineer let me see if I so I mean that that's why I would say that I think that's two different concepts in respect
to um St Acres its origination and the agreement made with the developer so that it was brought up to the day standard with that my understanding is there's not a sunset term in that agreement because it wasn't agreed upon
with the developer you acres and you drive straight through where the dirt road starts okay what does that what does the county involve on any of that is that not County don't own the dirt road no sir
County don't own the asphalt road the asphalt road if you're talk talking about um coming in from the beach Road yes yes sir that's County maintain those funds that that's what those funds that's what we're trying to understand why we being taxed with for a county
you're tax because the developer made that agreement with tayor county in order for that to be a county maintained roadway for the additional growth that came on when that subdivision came to existance that was the agreement and and to understand the road stopped at the co
act that was the end of it because that was private property and that's why it doesn't go any further and it's still private property today it's it's an open roadway but it's private property so there's a lot of roadways that are not County maintained that are not County
property that are open tell me at the end of the asphalt when it hits dirt that's private property yes sir anybody that lives on the dirt road that's private property it is everybody that lives on each side of that road owns part of that dirt road I don't know they own I can't tell you that part I can
tell you it's not owned by the board of County Commissioners in Tay County that road could be blocked off then keep people it was it was for years if it's private property where the asphalt and the dirt meets like me
everybody I'm paying for a road that somebody else use them the reason I say that is from both of those directions where the payement is there are folks that are paying or did pay for those roads to be in those conditions I understand that decades that was clim
Rock Road or sand dirt road because it was just private property it it was closed so any suggestions here because this could go on forever and this is not this is not the way it should work allowing any and everybody drive on a
road that a handful is paying for that the maintenance I don't know if there's been any maintenance done on there or not to be honest with you there's there's Mowing and upkeep annually yes so probably what we need to do just to answer everyone's questions
is let me well let me back up just a minute King King Creek in Ste that is a county maintained Road yes so it is on the list that's why we would have that's why we would have done something so all that being said let me find the original
documentation I'll get with the engineer and see if we can go back to when the subdivision was originally built and that's great and we still want the information pulled for how much money has been taken in how much has been spent where it's been spent what it's been spent on this has been going on for
how long 20 years money if it had been used well just understanding they took out a loan to money had to be utilized to pay for the payment and then the maintenance up to date and I believe on that like I said I
believe that particular msbu amount is to is to allow for future Paving so the burden is not on the homeowners but let me let me double check that that's just what I seem to recall and we haven't talked about it in a number of years and
you're 100% sure that dir V is private yes sir that's all I got appreciate it thank I appr any future data thank I still haven't got an answer from any
of the sources I've applied to for Disaster Assistance as far as rebuilding my home um the $1,500 for plans the $1,000 for the
permit I'm not building yet because I don't have the fund so I'm going a wait position so I'm asking again is there any way you can extend that free $1,000 permit I know when the senator and are
when they were here they said that they were working to um reimburse Y is that true well that's what R show had alluded to is maybe looking for some
funding to alleviate that for but I don't Ian we would just have to follow up with rep show to see if there there is any funding out there I'm asking again can we either extend it or I hate to be just the one and only
person but I to me there's nobody here else here saying that they don't have the money to get the uh or have a free permit and have the plans to do their building and have the money to rebuild their house I I don't I'm in a wait situ
yeah it's from previous conversations the board has not Tove forward with uh no cost on any permitting we did that for some time and then the time ran out
and we have not there one there was not a appetite to extend that any further well how about just for me then knowing that sooner or later if I get the money and that see that's the only thing I'm waiting on if I get the money
I'm going to BU but I don't have money in I'm not starting the building now and what I do it's going to be another $1,000 for the permit right I don't know what cost
per well that's what I was told it cost I got I'm not sure based on the structure I guess that you're building it maybe maybe it is $1,000 I'm not sure so there's no help it off for me you heard Rift show he did
mention looking for some funds to maybe relieve those permitting fees for I don't know what the Dynamics would be around that but I guess we would just have to wait and see what kind of
funding he come up with if any at all so you process right he did say it won't be tomorrow oh I know that I'm sure be tomorrow I like I say the all the prrams
I've applied for so many of them I don't I have to have a book for the username and password and then they on site do the messaging so it's like okay I got to
check every day and yes I did check one time it's a good thing I did because he he had a question so I answered that so now I move to another step yeah I would just say at this time maybe just stay in touch with M leanda
on any potential you know funding that may have come up for these permitting fees okay all right thank you thank you ma' all right we go to 25 board informational it
debr one of these questions will be for you um do we have a specific time yet for completion of of picking up the debris I do
not what are they saying how many trucks do we have um I I will I will have to ask I I haven't received an update this week but I will ask how many daily trucks that we have I know they were very um concentrated in Ste Hatchy to
try to get everything cleaned up for the Fiddler craft festival um and then now that that is over um you know I'm assuming that they'll move on to the other trouble spots okay um I'd like for you to stay
on that and and and push them um so again the the trash that's Left Behind who's going to pick it up we and uh where will that funding come
from well we're just trying to handle it inhouse now until we get a better idea of exactly what we're dealing with um so far I think we've picked up you know I know one day we picked up over 50 tires and we took them to to the landfill and
they'll be recycled um I believe on on um maybe here is some blue Road there was one container so we're you know we're trying to absorb those costs but if I see that they're becoming exorbitant you know I mean at some point
I'll come to the board and we'll have to ask for you know that to come out of the hurricane um you know what's being charged to the hurricane yeah so um physically how are we doing that I mean do we have our our um Solid Waste
people or road department who's who's doing that we have the lightning loader so we have the equipment to do that but if you'll recall we were um given permission to hire three people um as the hurricane Cleanup Crew so we're
utilizing them now another idea that Hank and I discussed was and this may be the best thing to do just to try to get it done as quickly as possible um on the roads that our mowing crew takes care of
you know we we did not utilize one of the Cycles in October because of the storm normally we mow around October for the year um they gave us a quote for um for debris removal trash and debris removal which would be about the cost of
a cycle so we that may be the best way to go and then that way they have the ride of boy cleaned up to their satisfaction where it will not damage their their machines now that's not every County Road that's just the roads that they mow but that's probably going
to be the best solution just to try to throw as much at it as we can instead of just depending on a three-person crew to clean up the entire County and um so I've had some complaints about code enforcement that are going around uh and
giving citations to property owners that they say that their their debris has never been picked up the first time who who told uh code enforcement to do that well I'm not aware of that I'm not aware of any citations being issued now the
only code enforcement followup that I've heard of is possibly land clearing so if someone hired a contractor to do land clearing and it was not storm related and that debris was placed on the RightWay they may have
gotten at an a visit from code enforcement or the Sheriff's Office depending on where it is but I'm not I know one of those um said that that it was definitely from the storm if it's the person I'm thinking of that got
pictures I sent that to do and I'm waiting for a response but I would say um that there are other individuals there are people who are hiring contractors who are doing land clearing and they're putting in the right of way
and that is not eligible not eligible are you following back with f about this particular okay so what are they telling you they have to get back with their monitors when their initial response was
they felt like it was Lane clearing and I sent them all pictur and every email that I had received and asked them to follow up with me I have not received an answer yet but I will I I know it's I will now I know she's anxious about it
okay and um you know I'm still getting the reason I'm asking all this is because I'm still getting calls all the time from one end of the county to the other um and this this one came from
some of the people calling from the south end and they're saying that other counties do not look like ours they said for instance go across the bridge and go on go to Dixie County that they don't have that and other neighboring Cy so
how if that's true and I don't really have any reason not to believe these people but if that's true how can other Counties have theirs done and ours is still all over the place I don't know and and I just don't
know I don't know that other counties had the devastations with the home Dix did I don't know how many homes were lost in Dixie I have no idea but I don't know that it was I know horseshoe was devastated but I don't you know I don't know County mm yeah but I don't know
what Dixie County look I haven't had time to leave are you refering to debris or just just trash in general are you refer to debris piles or just trash in general debris debris and trash because there you know and everybody's saying this they talking about the county look
like a dump and it does it looks every County that I go through every County that I go through ball has kicked off so I've been in all the surrounding counties here in the last two weeks and Madison they all look
pretty rough all look pretty rough with debris and just trash in general just I was looking at somebody these Road sides and they do well this the last person that called me I think was on last Friday from down at haty and he he said
Dixie County does not look like and he said I've been to other places but I'm just I mean if that's true then I'm wondering how come our our county is lagging behind or we I mean what would be the reason we don't have enough of
trucks enough of workers or we're really not I mean I travel Dixie County all the time I'm horsey Beach attorney I go down those roads um and go to Madison County there there's trees that are still not even
gotten out of where that they're falling down all over the place I I I beg to differ whoever's calling you um I don't think it was talking about trees I think it was talking about all the trash well I'm talking about trash too okay um uh
like I said I I do Drive these places not looking for trash because I'm trying to do do my job but I've noticed that that uh we're not any worse off than anybody else as far as I can tell I'm just the messenger yeah well like I said
I I have people all the time coming in and telling us how how uh you know our schools are bad blah blah blah blah blah blah well I you know my son graduated from Taylor County High he's a lawyer my grandson graduated from Taylor County
highs a lawyer I get real tired of people down in us when it's not not true I really get tired of it yeah well you know and and I understand that Conrad uh but you and I are in different roles you know when when people the citizens call
me as a commissioner then I feel that it's my responsibility to to you know to to forward that complaint or sure absolutely or whatever it is uh now did I get in my car and drive down there and
this was Friday night because I want to get tied up in all that that was going on down down there I don't do that but um you had calls from other people you know saying the same thing not necessarily all of them from that area
but there's a lot of people that are are complaining and it does look bad I'd just like to say I know there was a a great team effort through our do Partners our County staff and the commit and the Chamber down there and the
business owners and the people there was a great effort numerous times to go through and pick up and clean up and it's not completed that part I'll say but I I I would dispute that the efforts
aren't moving forward and in some ways that they're not ahead of other places there's still more work to do I'm in total agreement and I want to see it finished but I also understand the efforts that went into that despite
um let's say the challenges and difficulties whether it be snow or SLE or freezing or everything else um in between so um I respect those residents that called you commissioner FAL and I certainly appreciate them voice and
their concerns but I also understand and and I'm in continual contact with the folks as they're making that progress so um if we can uh bear through it a little while longer I think we'll see some
escalated efforts maybe we're okay maybe we're okay we're get but the longer it stays there the worse it gets and it's going to be out of our budget that we don't have the money to uh next year to expand that budget there but you know uh
I'm the messenger and when people call me I'm going to I'm going to bring it up San Pedro Bridge I've got people calling me about that they're concerned that they're going to the bridge is going to give out on them so when is the start
date I will have to let me ask I got an update let me let me check get an update compl you want me to wait or to and you get back with me before the meeting is over yes ma'am let me see I thought I
had it handy but let me double check I'll I'll text it if that's okay or give an update before we leave if I can get an answer and and then one other thing that I I feel compelled to say concerning this consulting [Music]
firm and when he said this this person that we were talking to said that they make mistakes and I I wish I have thought at that time to ask him was it a mistake to not acknowledge receipt of that application when they knew Goodwill
that they had it or not that we were talking about it that is disturbing that they that they didn't come forward and and um be up front about that so I just want to say that um you know before
you're convinced to keep this company we need to think a long and hard about it just all we got to do is look at their history that's all for I don't want to say nothing because I got baffled last Meek when I said I
didn't have anything to say but I do call the Wonder all doing the week and tell her the things got here she goes and take care of it so what I get to meeting all the time I don't have a list you know I call her immediately after DIN and she's seem to
be doing pretty good that's good not only that the 150 things she got to see about and got other folks help her with my hats off to her this is something we this kind of
never witnessed before three storms and two me never witnessed it before so all this stuff coming up now is something new to us and we going to have to bear like
everybody else Madison went through the same thing when uh the uh processing plant left you know yeah was left U I was working Swan Lama company when they close down so
that's some things that's happening to us that if you not old and you haven't been through it's something you going have to live with there's no easy fix there's no quick fix I don't know whe the government works slow I know individuals sometime work
slow because nobody sitting up there with me and sitting up in the pocket ready to deliver dish it out to you so I do have some patient sorry I'm trying to get it all
okay but that's being said to all the people that my constituents and whatever if you have a problem tell us about it give us a name so we can run it down and we can't help you if we don't have a
name but if you give us a name we run it down and we can come with some results yeah I I want to just say this that I'm in contact with L often yeah uh relating a lot of these problems to her so why don't save everything to the
meeting yeah okay so um I do talk to her very often okay Mr yeah I just U you appreciate all the efforts that have went into coming to this point with clean up or recovery and and housing and all those kind of things
and um we're looking forward to seeing that that level of work increase and um appreciate those that have helped us all along the way to get to this place thank you Moody uh talking to one of the people
that's in the cleanup business for the roads yesterday restant and he said there's still a lot to get U and he said they working on as hard as they can they ready to get out of here too but realized they got to get it all before he leave you know and I talked to some
people from Steen Hy today that said they had a big time down at the buer Crab Festival and everything went good down there you know so people people didn't let the storm business mess up the festival down
there they had they said they had a bunker crowd what I were you know it was well attended yeah Y and they still cleaning up down there I've had people call down there in in his district called me because they could you know
they they didn't know how to call in they knew my number they called me and they're still cleaning up down there big time too and and so it's going to come to past people just going to have to have patient and I'm like Mr Bishop I've been in Madison County Dixie County B
County and they still got trees Ling in ditch that never missed all off even almost out to the pavement so we not behind we just U we got the same M they got you know it's going to come fast it's just going to take
time that's all I got all right nothing else a motion to motion have a second second all in favor we take a short break and we'll go
into the the budget Workshop Part: 2
[Music] I don't have any [Music] [Music] problem thank I think I'll okay I started
[Music] stand come again now just thanking you and blessing your holy name right now father Lord this is we enter into this little budgeting process help us we thank you for what you're going to do in advance pleas
bless all other BL ask in Jesus name amen [Music] the stands Nation indivisible [Music] Justice welcome
everyone this Workshop Tuesday February 18 2025 we have a conf line set up number there is 1917 91022 access code 32347 P this is not a number you may
subject to long distance charges according to your long distance plan the chair person open the meeting for public comment please follow the below instruction if you wish to speak please di star five moderator we unmute your L your turn to speak and notify you by announcing the last dig of your
telephone number you I'm sorry please announce your name and address you'll be allowed to speak for 3 minutes any person wishing to address the board regarding an agenda item we'll be giving three minutes for
comment a commenter may only speak one time for each agenda item that we'll move to item three the board would further discuss the fiscal year 2025 2026 budget and I do
believe you want to wait okay all right so uh to discuss the budget um who want start I know the last time we met I think there mention of back with
some numbers as far maybe [Music] 20% I I can start if you would like I have some information prepared um and I may need the clerk's help with some of the ideas that we' discussed but
um Danielle did um give you a list of departments in the general fund and line through the Departments that we cannot change the amount so it's either statutory or um by contract which
doesn't leave a lot to work with so what I did was I took all of those I'll talk about the general fund first um I took all of the general fund departments that are basically budgets that um I prepare
for the board and um and identified the percentage of the total budget that is personal services and the number of FTE because I don't exactly that that was the only way I really know to to kind of
attack this so just as as an example um so the board of County Commissioners which is the first department on the list 97% of that is personal services so that is the cost of you know the paying
and all the benefits that are associated with it so that only leaves 3% that could be reduced and I wasn't exactly sure how you wanted to look at it but that's just the way I try to dissect the information in front of me so not much room for
deduction in that department um and so I've basically identified the Departments that have um more than one FTE because if if you're looking at this as far as a reduction in force there's a
couple of ways to look at this then if if we're going to reduce Personnel then we have to consider reducing the entire department and I I don't think I would um consider that unless you want to reduce
that particular service so there's only a few departments that have more than one FTE that's funded by the general fund and um Administration is one of those um the library has three FTE that
um paid out of the general fund um County Extension has 4 and a half um FTE that are paid out the general fund now um I did meet with Lori Wiggins and she felt like that we could reduce for
seasonal employees um for the day camps and have that run by volunteers so that would be a savings of $220,000 um um County or solid waste recycle has three employees I don't I mean that's
something that you could consider again the library has three um and every other department in the general fund um besides concessions only has has one FTE um I did Identify some other
operational costs that you could consider out of the administrative buildings um we can reduce by $110,000 that was for some repairs to this building this year and County Extension
um the the thought that we had was reducing the you wouldn't really reduce the budget for utilities but we would charge people to use to have the air conditioner so in other words if the
school wanted to have graduation there um where we would normally wave the charges we would charge them an hourly rate for utility usage because that that bill is quite high for electricity um that was an idea that we
had um you may want to consider um the Senior Citizen Center I believe is given $30,000 this year that may be a consideration the um big bin transportation shuttle is
$57,600 um that is not anything that's mandated that's something that the board does um snap transportation is 5,500 we can we feel like we can reduce red the library budget by
$1,500 and ask for the Consortium to pay for demonstration materials and and books next fiscal year um and again that is a department that has multiple FTE depending on on
what point we get to with this with this process um Southside Park we had increased the budget this year for lights um that's $2,300 that we may want to reconsider um at the sports complex
there are two um areas that you may want to consider one of them is for field lights I know in the past that when anyone wish to reserve the lights we charge them an
hourly rate so in other words say the soccer association wanted to wanted to use fields for season so we charged them for field paint and for light usage and I believe at that time it was about $25 an hour that may be a consideration to
to pay users you know to charge users for that and again these are just these are just things I'm throwing out just for you to consider um I do believe we need to consider getting out of the concessions B business at the sports complex we um that either that or
sharply raise the concession prices because originally when um these the parent run leagues who have been a lifesaver you know part of the agreement was that they would eventually take over concessions
and they would keep the gate fees well that has not come to fruition because it's very difficult to get volunteers to work in the concession stands and at the same time we're not getting the gate fees and the minimum wage mandate has come into effect so we either need to
again and really increase the concession prices which may make concessions unaffordable or just get out of concessions business alog together um and that would also reduce all the concession workers and the part-time lead
position um and those just what I have listed off is about $200,000 in savings and then if you want to consider a reduction in force for general fund departments with
multiple employees um that would probably be another $200,000 I'm not recommending that I'm just you know that's the only way I really know to approach it the last part for which point what was that for um second
$200,000 for a reduction en forced so reduction in what enforced that would be that would be laying people [Music] off you know what I was thinking is this I'm not going to tell
you or any of the rest of them how to cut your budget that's your budget you know we have to make Cuts uh we can't keep going the way we are um if we do we we won't last 10 years F rupsy everybody
knows that yes so uh what I'm looking for is just you know reductions so that we um you decide what you you want to and just tell us how much it is what percent is that for you one to do
know umate it talk about something else um now in mstu it's more of a challenge because I'm I don't we already know that we have
an issue with firefighters in order to reach 20% reduction in the fire department we would probably have to I mean there's no doubt we would have to close the station and again I'm not recommending that I you know that's what
we're looking at um Animal Control would most likely require either a drastic change in the way we manage the animals under our control or reducing staff um I I don't think it's plausible
to reduce staff in the building department because we have one you know we only have one FTE for each role code enforcement is a part-time position now Gary and I were talking today about possibly looking at our
health insurance benefits to to try to reduce some of the the cost so maybe instead of having to you know take this step um the board could reconsider what you're paying as far as
as dependent coverage um and do you and do you remember what that final number was if we if if the bo say and again I'm just you know this is our starting point if the board wish to
reduce the amount they pay for dependent coverage from 80% to 50% that would be a sign significant savings I'm not saying there's not going to be a you know there might not be the effect that we want we may lose some of our dependence on
coverage it may be difficult to um to recruit people if we do that but it would it would be a way to spread the burden among all all the people on the plan among you know the board employees
and the you know among everybody's budget and that would reduce everyone's budget a certain amount um I've also reached out to our insurance carrier and asked if they could look at our premiums and offer us some type of discount for next year we
won't get those numbers until later in you know later in the year but you know this is February we do have some time before we we have to bring a these numbers together did you reach out to the other company that um you know we
talked about a meeting or two ago that would like to give us some numbers and everything I don't that's something Gary and I talked about yesterday I don't know if we could ask for like a market quote or if we would have to go out for
formal proposals to try to gather those numbers we did discuss it yesterday to see if there was a way we could you know get some type of idea of what those premiums would look like and I've got the numbers for all of our coverage our coverage is bundled um and I I don't you
know I did get those numbers as far as what we can look at we we have a longstanding relationship with fact and fmit um and I would like to I would I'd like to get some numbers together and
give them an opportunity to see what they could do for us knowing the dire straights of we're in can you um find out the answer to your question if we can indeed uh reach out and get yes I will because you know I think shopping
for insurance is something that we really need to look at even though as you say we've had a long-term relationship with them if somebody else can save those money that's what we need to do I I don't disagree and and I have been talking to our fact representative
for probably about 6 weeks at about our situation and so that's something that I didn't want to just spray in on them so that's something that they could look at um and I know that the insurance committee has discussed several times
our coverage and the different options we have um and I I mean no matter what we do it's you know it may be detrimental to somebody so the way I look at it is well what's going to hurt
I use hate to use the word hurt but what's going to impact the fewest people and give us the biggest return and um so it could be either changing our health plan or changing the amount that the board
contributes and both of them or all of it let ask you something just what do our insurance cost this for you so our bundle coverage for our workers comp our um property our Auto
liability our liability all together is about a million dollars a year I believe does that sound about right or all of it together so your 200,000 part of your general fund departments the 200,000 will be about 5% if you added the
additional 200,000 that you were talking about with the reduction in the workforce would be 10% the general fund your general fund Department I think I have a copy of the enforces as well well I mean there are some smaller
departments like Cemetery maintenance that's that's only about $7,200 that's something that you may want to wish to consider um I mean I feel like no matter what we do it's the impact is a possible reduction in
Services you need to make your recommendation to us I mean I'm not going to go through and pick cut this and cut that that from you I don't mind I I had asked staff to get some information even on I just body
looking at different things and you know even our constitutional offic I see we got most everyone here tonight even the road department I got the I really just looked back at the budget increases from
2018 to current year at what that looked like and really I won't go what the what in in the road department I just got that information this afternoon so I really haven't had time to put it in together on that so you just looking at you know
one of the offices you know we're looking from 2018 to current you know we got we've taken a 30% increase um another one 2 23% increase uh
49% 33% 16% so pretty sign you know some pretty significant and also I mean I know in some of the some of these uh years I
mean I know it shows where there was an increaseed and following year they may have had a reduction and that may have been just an actual item you know that someone had had in their budget but you know I'm chel I mean it's really not for anyone to be
offended I think it's that we're all in the same position with uh serviceing citizens and really just not the answer not being to just raise the milit rate I mean that's not that's not the answer I mean go to
any of these businesses out here and let them lose a piece of business I've been there with us in our business and lose a piece of business we couldn't run to our other customers and just say hey we're going to raise your rates just because we lost this business
we just can't do it so it's up to us to figure out how to make it make sense and where we need to cut over some of this money that we've taken in over the last six
seven years um I mean there's a lot of money I mean I don't know with some of this some of these increases I mean I don't know if they're I don't Services more any more services that we may be even providing for these type some of these type of increases so
one thing that I want to add to is that our county has not grown in population as a matter of fact our county has has um has less people now than it had and
so I do understand that inflation inflation plays a part of that but you can't say that inflation does um I I I I Look to was looking at some figures um
and what the inflation rates were and I was looking at uh one that was 3.44% for Florida since and I think I said from 2010 up until now so you can account for some of your increases in
these budgets for inflation but it's not because our our citizenship has grown I think we've just got used well we've been a yes board and all of y'all know that when you've come to this board and you've asked for stuff and you've
increased your budget we' always said yes we're not really question very much we've always been a yes for it but we've come to the time now that we can't do that any longer we it's it's a responsibility like you said for
everybody to jump in this together and we've got to cut these budgets and I'm not willing to raise taxes and fees and all that until we have was really really cut is it going to be easy no is it going to be painful
extremely but if we keep going the way we're going now we will this County will not last and we will be in bankruptcy and I'm not going to be responsible for that I'm not I'm not carrying that with me so
um very tough but we got to cut does anyone else have anything they want to add now the other thing we heard we heard from uh Lura deel today just this
evening that even if um we had an industry to come to Taylor County it'll be probably a minimum of 2 years before we start getting some Revenue back so we've got and and who knows if
they're going to anybody come or not I know they're working very hard and they're very good at it not and I really appreciate them um they're probably the best we could get but we've got some time coming up where we're not we know for sure we're not going to have Revenue coming
in got to make up for it and I don't want to do it with taxes how would you expect 4 five years I think that was a very conservative number I just don't think we need to get
dependent upon reserves savings we're just asking everybody to help us we've helped you all this time now it's time to let's all jump in and fix this budget I'll go next you're
ready for just come home a good [Music] evening at the board's request I have started reviewing my budget for any possible budget cut first Personnel my office currently employs
three full-time positions and myself due to the upcoming retirement of one staff person if personnel must be cut then I will cut that position entirely from my budget just keep in mind that statutory duties of my office do not decrease based on
the number of personnel on staff there are only so many hours in a day and so many hands left to perform those tasks cutting disos might very will create additional overtime hours for those staff members left to do that
work next I reviewed every line item under operating expenses and tried to evaluate expenses based on obligations man mandated by Florida statute if it's a statutorily mandated then it cannot be cut after that review
I was able to shave some dollars here and there but nothing of Great Value let me make it very clear though these cuts that are being made are not floods these Cuts reflect services that the voters of this County have grown
accustomed to but are not directly statuto required these Cuts will require greater responsibility on the voter to stay engaged with your Elections office to know dates and deadlines leading nothing to an
election at this moment these Cuts will decrease my budget by a little less than 10% probably between eight and nine now I by no way in stating that come June the 1st my budget proposal
will reflect a 10% decrease we anticipate an election bill this session and as has been in the last six sessions I expect election Law changes to happen as with most election bills unfunded mandates are going to occur the
legislative session will not end till May the 2nd so anything and everything can happen between now and then I've also not inventoried my election supplies which will have to be done before I submit my proposal in June I guess one of the curses of having such
great turnouts in Taylor County last year is that all the election supplies were depleted so that is not that is something that's not included at this point so again this is just a snapshot with the possible 10% reduction far from
the 20 that you requested it's the best I can provide at this moment I intend to continue to review and study the budget for other means of cost savings but it's hard to say what the bottom line will be between now and June the 1st
and I would say that I wouldn't every business is different in its own so I wouldn't say that 20% across the board may be feasible for you or you any any I think if any other additional cuts are made it's going to
have to be another person and then I'm down to two people at my office which really jeopardizes the Integrity of the elections process at that point I I just like I said like like what's feasible for and based on like the increases over
the years may be 8% 9% to you or it may be 10 12% to some another office you know so uh yeah I would I would have agreed I'm not 20% across the board well you know if if people if they don't want to cut their budget at all
that's fun you know we can go before the governor if we have to or we can just go with it and we can spend all our reserves and we can raise those taxes to the 10 mills and we can do these things and when we're out of
money we're out of money but I do know that we should be following just like just like the governor and just like the president are doing right now the governor is cutting a lot of the employees out of the state of Florida
he has said you have to cut your budget the president is doing the same thing and local government must do the same thing and there's fat and fluff in every budget fat and fluff in every budget some more than others but you can't tell
me that when these corporations say cut they mean cut and they cut so I appreciate what You' done and uh we'll go from there Mr chair if I could to just
to even if if 10% is offered if we are able to negotiate a reduction in our health insurance premium that will be an additional percentage to that budget and the same thing with the with our insurance so it it may balance out much
much closer to 20% at that time I don't know um but that's that's why I kind of sto where I was to see the impact of reduction in premiums because I do believe we can accomplish that okay so go ahead okay so you know
first of all I just want to clear up um something that I said at the last meeting and um give the complete statement again so at the last meeting I said that I um could not cut 20% and that I would make cuts and I would look to see what I could do but I knew that
it wasn't going to be 20% and so that's the complete statement that I made um the clerk has over a th000 constitutional statuto required duties I was elected to provide those required services to do as efficiently as possible and I take that responsibility very seriously and I've worked to
accomplish that to the best of my ability since the first day I took office the only budget increases that I've taken are the cost of the employee raises and the two years I took a little bit less than the cost of those this last year I took 5,000 less um I've
never looked at um just the next year I always look at multi-year planning that's the way we do it in my office I've been able to cover the cost of all technology and operational increases through better practices multi-year budget planning fee reviews to make sure that we're charging people that are
using our services paperless records eliminating a couple of part-time positions and administrative assistance assistance and just for example this current year I absorbed a 100% increase in the maintenance of our jury management system it went from $7,000 to
$14,000 I got quotes and there ain't nothing cheaper that's it and I absorbed out of my budget this current year I've done all this while decreasing my request and returning more money at the end of the year the last year before I became the clerk the return was
$750 and since I've been the clerk it's been 27,000 17,000 30,000 and 71,000 my office is already efficient and I will continue to operate it this way because it is what's best for our County and it's who I am my phone number is
838-8113 for anybody who wants to call me my lines are always open my door is always open I will anybody has any concerns can please come by and talk to me and I will explain um everything to you 86% of my budget is for personnel
and 9% is for the maintenance to maintain the computer systems in my office we can't cut that because it would probably take 10 or more people to do that job that those computers do so that leaves 5% for operations um just just about four
business days ago in my office just last week a lady came in and when she came in there was four people in my office and my staff was busy helping all four of them we didn't have nobody else to help her and she walked in the door and she seen that
there was nobody to help her because they were all busy helping everybody else she said y'all need to hire more people in this office that's the expectation she had not after waiting a minute not after waiting 2 minutes she expected it to be immediate now I know that's unreasonable and I don't expect
that I think if someone has to wait three or four or five minutes I think that that that's reasonable so but that's but that's the expectation that that I hear in my office is I want the service just the services that I provide
are required and they're essential can't tell people that we can't do some of these services and I'll just name a few of them of the Thousand but accounts payable for the board we can't say we're just not doing that payroll for the board recording Deeds marriage licenses
minutes for the board mean child support uh you know if someone needs a domestic violence injunction for protection I can't just you know we can't that's just a service we can't cut if someone needs to Marksman act because somebody in their family is on drugs and they need help I just those are Services
we can't CU that I can't tell the judge that you know we're not going to have a jury this week because we don't have anybody to jur do jury management we already operate efficiently passports are the only service that we provide that is not required and I've been down that road before and I know that people want
passport services in this County because they've told me now I've been shifting responsibilities around and asking employees to do more uh so that I could eliminate one unfilled position in the next in next year's budget so I've already been making those plans and I've already been asking my people to do more
and currently I'm asking employees to do even more um so that I won't have to replace an employeer that's retiring soon then I'll be able to limit that made that position in the future the cost of almost everything has dramat dramatically increased over the
last four years and me and my employees have working very hard to add more services and better services to our citizens while absorbing the increase of those cost so me and my employees are very disappointed when the county commissioner chooses to use social media to try and portray me as one is not
willing to make cuts and that proves that that person has no knowledge of our office and what we provide to our citizens and I look it as an attempt to create division I've mentioned several jobs that will no longer be available to the CI of our County that have been eliminated through attrition I can't
afford to lose three or four more it's just not possible I want to say thank you to the Commissioners that are willing to listen and gather all the information promoting unity and progress that is the kind of leadership we need trying to find real solutions let's
don't go backwards let's move forward the people we serve want better not less I believe in this County and we will rally and follow your leadership so let's do it all together that is what we are elected to do so we we I feel like we operate efficiently already but we're
going to do what we can we're going to be looking at the budget and eliminating what we can eliminate and we're going to submit a budget to you that's the best we can possibly get you I want to address that I am the one that uses social media so
you might as well go ahead and say it okay and I have been reaching out to my constituents and everybody else about this budget because people need to understand where we are and where we're going and I said that you said I'm not
cut my budget by 20% I never mention your name I don't do that but I said there was a one constitutional officer that said I'm not cutting my budget by 20% did you say that I did I would appreciate if You' put the complete
statement that that you you said it so Own It own it I did I just said it but do you think that the people in Taylor County that are already suffering that they would rather have their taxes raised and their fees raised
and everything else because they don't want to wait 5 minutes or whatever my guess would be that most people would say I'd rather wait a little while and if they have to wait they'll have to wait I don't like to wait either
but there's some things that's going to that needs to happen that none of us is going to like here and another thing I appreciate the money that you turn back in every year but that tells me from the day that I took this job that your
budget is overinflated or you would not be able to to give back that kind of money year after year year after year yeah that just shows that you don't that you don't understand how we go into every year approaching it to cut
as much as we can and be as efficient as possible that's why we turn back more money I don't know anything about your office I don't cl to know anything about your office the only thing that I know is I'm charged I'm charged we're charged with having a balanced budget and I know that
I'm not going to be the one to bankrupt County because somebody doesn't want to wait or you have a budget that's over inflated or whatever the reason is and you know what when it comes to lecture time they're not going to look
at you they're going to look at us because we're the ones that's going to either pass this budget or not they're going to look at the five of us it's going to be on our backs wait to see but do what you can
what you said so far Gary what kind of what percentage you came with I don't think you come up with another yeah I didn't I didn't come up with I would tell you that the one you know cutting the one position I know it's already been that we've already covered would be
um around 4 to 5% but we're going you know we're going to look see what if we can do more than that you know I will saying over the course of the last from 2018 to now your budget is probably
the least is set increase by 16% is that was the least of all the I just said I do do know in the in the numbers that I gathered from uh 2018 to current that the clerk's office was
probably the least uh increase over the course of those years at like 16% to current [Music] good evening four years ago I came before this board and gave the following
warning and suggestions my exact words were there is no time like the present to get ahead of what is coming in the next few years how are we going to solve these long term concerns here and now we can't rely on a
millage increase we must think bigger and outside of the box I even made a suggestion to invest in a roal planning coordinator To See Vision 2060 through I ended with this statement doing the right thing for the people is
the ultimate goal for us all my office is responsible for providing an accurate tax roll to each taxing Authority every year this includes assessing all properties in the county maintaining records of property ownership and parcel boundaries
administering exemptions maintaining GIS maps maintaining a cam system to gather store and analyze the large body of data necessary to arrive at a fair market value and a fiveyear mandatory physical inspection schedule to determine any
partiel changes that's among many other duties the County's just seen the wor worst natural disaster in its history natural disaster in its history hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed and our office must review every single
one this year in order to provide an accurate assessment for the taxing authorities and most importantly the taxpayer not replacing our now retired Position will leave us with one full-time field
person all that being said the decision to not fill the position will reduce my office's budget by around 10% this decision is to support our County in its greatest time of need the task will be Monumental but I have no
doubt my staff and I will get the job done and done well like I said before and we'll say it again doing the right thing for the people of Taylor County is the ultimate goal for us all we advocated for these measures four years ago to try and prevent the current
situation this County now now faces I urge you to prioritize decisions that support the rebuilding of our residents homes and businesses as they're the backbone of this County and its future success that is all I have for y any
questions or [Music] anything thank you ma' welcome well um the sheriff couldn't be here tonight so he asked me to to come um as we all know the sheriff probably has the largest county
budget um but statutorily we have requirements like Gary does of injunctions things that we can't get out of and the governor just gave us another huge mandate we have we have to house all the illegal aliens that are arrested in our
County put in our County brought to our County we have to have agreements with ice we must provide those Services the governor made that very clear at the sheriff's conference that those that do not want to participate he's looking for an example to make so we have to do
this five minutes in Gary's office might be one thing but five minutes knocking somebody knocking in your door and you're waiting an extra five minutes for a deputy is another whole thing the only way the sheriff would be able to cut is to cut Deputy positions and we're already stretched
with the number of calls that we respond to in a month and a year uh we we run our office as efficiently as we possibly can the sheriff also gives money back and I'll address giving money back because we also go after lots and lots of Grants
every year these grants are prefunding by our budget and then we're reimbursed we never know exactly what that amounts going to be so we can't tell you what the final budget's going to be that's why you get varying degrees of money back at the end of the year but the sheriff always gives money
back and we we will continue to run as vicious as we can but we still have to equip our deities we have to have vehicles to to use to get to the to locations that we're going to and we have to service the citizens as they call for service now if this this
board's mandate that we have to cut a budget by a certain number then the only place that we can cut is in Personnel Morty let me tell you something I have never advocated for law enforcement that's our deities and also
for our firefighers people like that we have to have we we're short we're short with firefighters and so for our First Responders we need all that we've got
and I would never ask I would never ask that those people be reduced cuz we have to have those okay so I want to make that clear not only for you but for every everyone else uh but
but most every organization office you find somewhere where you can cut something and it doesn't have to be I wouldn't think that it's only option we have is to cut deities because nobody nobody is going to want that I
understand and we will review our budget and and we'll we'll present a budget that I mean the best we can do is review it cut some areas you know I I can't say that we don't have any non-essential Personnel everybody we have has a has a function
and a job and like I said it's going to be tougher for us I know that you guys read see the news the same as I do the governor just gave the state law enforcement officers a 25% increase what do you think that's going to do to us every single Deputy we got is going
to be looking for a state job because 25% increase is going to get them starting at about $70,000 a year firefighters too firefighters too firefighters all their emergency service with the state it it's going to unless there's more Equalization from the state
to like they do now you know the governor gave us that money that brings our Deputy salaries up to be halfway in line with what the state was uh starting out at but now all new State starting jobs that are in law enforcement or fire
are automatically a 20% increase over what the starting salary was plus season officer season officers get 25% it's going to decimate M you know unless there's some sort of Equalization from the state so we're already
struggling just to keep what we got but Marty you you understand that we've got to cut somewhere we cannot make up this loss with taxes you can only go to 10 bills I understand that's it you're you're you're topped out at that and yes
ma'am and also hold on just a minute our reserves we're going to be struggling along for a few years even if they get somebody tomorrow that wants to come here so we're in a predicament just like
everybody else and we have we there's got to be cuts to make it work yeah but maybe we should also look at other funding opportunities let's let's talk about travel trailers for just a moment talk about what travel trailers and these travel parks and RV parks that are
out here tels I went by there today about 75 trailers in that Travel Park we go there if I pull the cad report I guarantee you we respond there three to four times a week for a call they ain't paying nothing for that
service there has to be a system there has to be something to where you can bring in some revenue from that I drove down 19 got to the 19 South RV park 35 RVs in that one Park not one of them paying anything I don't think we that
that's probably not on the table as well but I think that you know looking at like I would I would just encourage everybody to take a deep dive into your budget I mean yall's budget particularly you know you're talking 2018 6.4 million today 9.3 million so I mean I would
encourage a lot of that will salary increase to keep deputies and so I mean I understand and like I said when I got up here we understand the sheriff's office is the largest part of the county budget we understand that but we are also the largest emergency responder in
the and you know and the calls for service are increasing they're not decreasing and the costs for service are increasing in these RV parks and all this other stuff that there could be some sort of a fee that they would have to pay to this County to be able to continue to get
these kind of services we have to service them regardless of whether you charge them or not but just realize that that comes as part of the bud I'm not disagreeing with you there we talked that a month ago among ourselves but I would just you know I I've been here a long time
commissioner a long time in the County government in the system I know of Two Fire assessment studies you guys have done and nothing's happened with that you spend the money to have the assessments but nobody nobody institutes what they recommend
why do you think that happened why do you think that happened why do I think that happens I don't know why that happens okay but I mean some sometimes you just have to I mean an assessment is an assessment they do it in LEF County they do it in Madison County they do it in Dixie County all
these things are done to help fund these areas we still got to cut well we might still have to cut but we also got to be looking to the Future too because it's not always going to be uh you know we don't have the Buckeye anymore and we don't have West Razer anymore so we got
to find other opportunities as well all we got to say thank you yeah if we hadn't had frasia and buck left but the storm the three storms came too yes sir I I understand that we've had we've
had a lot we've had a lot yeah we had a lot like I said the governor's mandates and things like that on the sheriff and everything else is coming down it's I you got to look at other funding opportunities as well me
sure all right see I I want say this before you get started you know and and I understand special assessments and raising taxes to pay for all these inflated sometimes I I shouldn't say inflated but the budgets that increase
every year but at some point in time we've got to take more responsibility with our budgets versus okay let's just add more taxes let's have more assessments so we can keep getting everything that we want you know and I'm
not saying you're doing that but I'm just saying we can't keep putting that on the citizens back to charge them more so we can increase our budget year after year after year when our citizenship is
not increasing it's decreasing I would like to point out one more thing though that a special assessment everybody pays not just Property Owners so every household pays an assessment whereas in the General Revenue it's the property owner that's
that's correct so I just wanted to point that out you're right those Campa treil pars he's talking about it's not P County people most of it it's people that's come here slep down here seen a nice quiet place to stay and it's cheap
and they hear and like said they get calls every day to all that and they're not paying anything well we could we can do that but the problem is that I know in my district
that I've got people that are living in a camper or sometimes it shed because that's all that they can do they can't do any better and they got that own mama or Grandpa's property because they don't have the money to buy property so the
best they can do to keep from being homeless in a lot of cases is to stay in an RV now if they're that destitute adding an assessment to them would just make their situation worse if
we somehow could and I know we can't but if we could save those people and not not charge them and all these out oftwn people that you're talking about charge them but I don't think it works that way I think you could use the poverty
guidelines I mean you could still use the poverty guidelines even on assessment as to whether if they fall below the property guideline or this guideline that they would be exempt from the from the assessment do you think Marty that the people that you're seeing out there
do you think that are they do you think they're on the poverty level some of them probably are but all them think a lot of them are just well whatever I say yeah some
driving $500,000 motor home yeah yeah and and they're not p no taxes into County and they'll go and they get sick go to the hospital and don't make a bill who ends up with it yeah but I bet they're not the ones that he's going to
see two or three times a week they're upstanding citizens commissioner they're upstanding citizens and to answer to answer that question that the the person who lives on their mom's property um with an RV which has a landfill you guys do set
poverty guidelines and we do take that off now they do have to come in um they do have to do that um so I I went back to 2020 I didn't go back to 2018 um and my budget increased only
because of the raises that the board gave and by the way thank you employees thank you very much um so and we had an insurance um increase one time two that's where my budget increased um but
you'll see what you got there um last year my budget decreased um by 6.37% I have the smallest budget I'm I'm I'm sorry it's just the way it works right good with your budget so
um on the back no no this is what it is um we're we're fortunate in the fact that that um we're able to create fees and generate Revenue um
so that's a big thing um so I'll be brief I know it's probably 10:00 by now almost I know everybody's hung we sure we pizza or something e at 10 o00 well I'm in My fasting period right
now I have my Kracker is out there about 745 so um so just just a a brief overview of what what the tax collectors office does everybody probably knows this but I just want to make sure everybody's aware
of all that we do so collect taxes dispers money to taxing authorities that's a given collect special assessments we create the roles for this uh collect and administer business licenses for the county inspect mobile homes for yearly decals we send reminders when they're not um people
hadn't done it um collect tourist of development tax um and administer that um while I I want I do want to give you those numbers I have the RV numbers too thank you're welcome um so tourism in
2022 we brought in $680,000 uh for the uh tourism fund 2023 brought in 719 almost 720,000 so really quick if you guys remember I came about
a year and a half ago there's a company that's out there that does this for 11 how they make their money they have a computer program they catch all the airbnbs and and the vrbos and all that stuff so I said to them I said well what do you think our County should be
collected they said I probably about 630,000 and I said well I don't think I need to pay you 30,000 to tell me that when we're collecting more than that uh the realtor work well with us um so good things are happening so there there's a
positive there um unfortunately that money has restrictions um so we have to be um cognizant of how we use that I guess is the word L that I should use for that um we also do the boat ramp decals um
and that's something we do at no puls to the to the county at all we buy the stickers we buy the the little dates we do it we submit sales tax on of the board we we don't we don't charge the board anything for that the board doesn't pay anything for that uh we administer the
tax certificate sales each year on unpaid taxes uh administer unfortunately the catastrophic refunds uh I signed 91 checks today so if any of your constituents are waiting hopefully they run that first 91 um I think Sean is
still here no Sean's gone I think we probably have another 200 100 um they're in process so they have to actually go out and inspect each one of them um so I did not sign
one I don't think yet um so but we're working I did sign today um but they are they will be out in the mail um which is a lot sooner than we thought um we handle the first
portion of the tax deed the clerk handles the rest of the tax feed so we're we're a team on that um then what we do for the citizens um pretty much everything above helps the citizens out right driver's license issu clearing of
driver's license tag and title issu it's conceal weapons we do the new and renewals hunting and fishing licenses I've said this to y'all before if you want to get in business and lose money deal with FWC doesn't matter if you come in and buy
Marshall a lifetime license for $1,000 we made 50 for every transaction that we do for FWC so I suggest not getting involved with FWC um so our first quarter transactions
uh for October to December we did 22,27 transactions in my office now 80% in their person when your Ecom so over the
Internet doesn't matter if you're Ecom or not we still have to do something with the Ecom whether it's mail the tag renal out what or mail the boat ramp sticker out whatever it may be we still
have to physically do something so you it gets you to almost 89,000 transactions in a year if it continues the way it is hence why I need people um I'm at 84% Personnel um and I have one
coming up on retirement that I will not replace um I would have to lay another off to get to the to the 20% um and we I mean in this time do we want to do that we may have to we don't know it's going to hurt we're in a tough
position um and I mean I think we you know like said earlier we try to run our office as efficiently as we can um we changed tax program two years ago uh to a cloudbased um so in the
event of another hurricane got bid in the courthouse something's wrong with it we're able to to still work we go to the forest Capitol Hall hopefully that's our our our coup as we go there and we and we work um State can bring in a bus like
they did did during the Hurricanes so here are some things that we've been doing uh for a while um and we we always look for ways every time I have a meeting with my folks it's how can we be more efficient what can we do to make us
more efficient um to help the people um I mean you had to wait for for if it was Marshall or if it was Hunter that had to get their license first I can't remember which one but I mean you hter Hunter okay all right so Hunter I always want to call a Marshall and Tucker like the Marshall Tucker B I don't know why but I
always do but hunter so I mean he had to wait you know to to get his license um that was fine it didn't work right absolutely absolutely and your mind was was clear for a little while till he got on the race so I understand completely um so right now we have three offices in
the county we have my office property appraiser and Supervisor of Elections office that use the finance director from my office to do the finance so if that was not the case and miss sovin and miss Beach had to hire
somebody to do that that would be a huge amount of money even if it was part-time because CPA and accountants they don't they're not cheap so that's something we've been doing for a while and and it's working out really good I
hope that's not one of the items that is having to cut all right great good sounds good afford to cut that one all right good deal um at our driver's license office we decided to close for lunch and so we have three people out
there um and so the reason we did that is because if somebody's out and you only have two you have to let somebody go to lunch it's unsafe for one person to be out there by
themselves they're so far out it's just not a good idea and I don't feel good doing that um so that's more protecting my people than anything um we contracted this year with our printer who does our tax bills to do our installment bills
delinquent bills and reminder tax bills for one reason and one reason on it postage the board is responsible to pay this and it was cheaper than me doing it if I subed it out to them because of the
bulk rate that they get so it's going to be a huge save and postage to the board so that's something we did this year and that's what with the increase that we have with postage here recently um we have not replaced an employee in the tax department um so basically we
have we have five FTE up there with all the I mentioned earlier and we have three people doing it one of those people's going to retire next year and I don't plan on replacing that person so number have two um this is why for quite
a few years you you all know that I've tried to get out of the pouse and get in one building bring staff down to a certain level if I have everybody right there together um it would makes it a little bit easier
um during the uh tax certificate sale what we did was we negotiated so somebody doesn't pay their taxes by the end of May we have a tax certificate sales the big advertisement in the paper right so what we did they were charging us for
for everyone that was advertised on the auction site and so I I called them and said hey look there's got to be a better way because if if I'm not selling them you know we're wasting money so we cut a deal where we only pay for ones that
sell we don't pay for all of them that are that are advertised on the auction site now we still have to pay for the ones that are in the paper um generally we sell 90 to 95% of those certificates the other certificates are
left are struck to the board um last year though we only sold 8.64% of them but here's a bright spot Swan County only sold 48% of theirs and
they're larger than we are so um we're doing something something good there um we do our best just like everybody does to to hire qualified people um we're handling 33 million almost $34 million for the board
alone and you need qualified people to to handle that kind of money um there's a lot of accountability there we handle 9.1 million for the State of Florida um so you're at 42 43 million that we're
handling through our office so those people have to be qualified um they they have to they have to know what they're doing so it's it's it's just really really really really important that that
we that we have good good folks and and good folks are here and I heard Insurance good folks are here because of the benefits we we have we have great benefits you guys have done an awesome job allowing that to happen um I really really hope that
we can you know not have to do some of those things but we we may have to and and we understand that have three employees that were affected um by the meal closure directly um so they've
stayed with us they haven't moved they've stayed in Taylor County and they've stayed to raise their families um and you know they they understand they understand and and we we all
understand what we're under everybody understands it um you know that's working in the court because we're all one I mean the board the Constitutional officers we are we're all one um and and if that's just what we just need to to
work it out of me it's tough I I don't I don't like the I don't know I'm not I'm maybe I'm not a peacemaker but I'm I'm just trying to say we we we just got to work together and and if we we don't want to place blame on any particular entity at all we want to just
work together and and that's what we want to do um sorry I got off track let me let me finish this I know you guys are tired uh what time do we have to reconvene if we go to a certain time keep going midnight okay uh I would say we do an outstanding job of collecting
money for you um you can look at your fund balances in tourism land field reserves um our team uh takes what we do very seriously and strive to right the first time is as can be seen by our clean and no no finding audits over the last 12 years this doesn't happen by
chance is the team effort my fellow employees are like family and work hard to find and retain these type individuals as I said earlier takes competitive wage and and good benefits to this point we've been able to do that um and we and we've done a
good job with the board's Health it's device of an employee who can deal with the public and and be a money manager as well um I have great people working on my team as all the Constitutional officers do uh I care about them and their families and I know you do too I
know you do um it's going to hurt um so just just two more paragraphs uh I would like to add that in all my years as tax collector or as a commissioner um been in your spot and I've been through some 8% cuts and some 5% cuts and I've
been some some some Lu of times um also um so I I I do I do have a sense of what you're what you're dealing with but in that time I've never seen the Constitutional officers in the board um have any issues working together we
as constitutional officers or or when I was sitting up there other constitutional officers that were here at that time um always helped the board balance their budget to the best of their ability um the division that's that's being created
basically saying that the Constitutional officer of the problem it's just it's just not right it's not that's not the problem um you know I mean we we're trying I mean we there's so many mandates Gary's got a thousand Marty's and the sheriff
has however many too and and we do too and I think I think you guys you understand that that's where we're where we're at um but I do I do need to clarify one thing um and this is not your social video post someone else's um
I would like to address the fact um as being stated that I said I would not cut my budget that again is not the truth in fact I gave you that night of the last meeting what the impact would be to the tax Cutter's office I was also not
advocating for raising taxes I we meaning the other constitutional officers were only giving the board some ideas to help with the loss there's not going to be we said this there's not going to be one thing you can do to help of the loss it's going to take many things we're going have to put
everything on the table um to accomplish our task I'm here to serve the people of this County to the best of my ability and to do so in a responsible Judiciary manner with Integrity the division is being created is not right the people
deserve better and they expect better from their elected officials so with that I'll will tell you I went through my budget I need to tell you one one thing so my my fees that I send that I send
back so over the last 10 years $562,000 and you had mentioned well maybe we gave you too much right up front or to one one ction officer not necessarily because sure I do
business with uh 21st Mor morgage um based out Indiana um that's part of my 22,000 transactions in a quarter uh I do all their mobile homes for the State of Florida and I'm currently doing all
their foreclosures or repay I guess you would call it um First Advantage we do their work a lot of Fleet work that we do and it's businesses that we have gone after so tomorrow another tax collector's
office because we all charge the same fees another tax collector's office could steal that business away from me um I did have one NHS company that didn't send us as many one years so I emailed them and said hey what's going on you know you got a problem with what we did and and they're like we we'll
know and then they sent the rest of them to me um so we're able to generate generate more money um so so looking at my budget I mean I the closer we get uh you know forecasting out right now but
the closer we get to June I'll have a better idea uh five to 10% is probably where I'm at I'm not telling you that's what it's going to be right now June will tell the tail but I mean that's that's kind of where I'm looking
um the issue would be that if if something else comes down the pipe that's um you know mandated that we have to do we just you know all of our boot stps to do it um we do have some legislation
that we're working on to get bigger fees from from DHS andv the the issue with our fees is as long as it doesn't affect the General Revenue Fund in the State of Florida they're more than likely going to going to help
us out um but that's that's kind of the tail all so we've got a few things in the legislature right now that hopefully you're going to hopefully you're going to go through um so pretty I mean that's that's where I'm at um if you're ready
for those numbers of RVs this is from today you want the most current that's pretty current thank you this is this is the most current I can get was today at 10:57 a.m. unless something happened between then and five
um Recon yeah we'll we'll reconvene so our uh 1853 hookups or RVs which according to our ordinance are have the potential to create garbage are 486 so those are the most most current
numbers I have um any than sir absolutely absolutely any questions oh and Sean the left and hold on you did ask for something else you asked how many we're not paying all right
ready this a parcel counts don't pay anything 133% tax range $1 to 1,000 50 7% 101 to 28% 2001 to 3,00
6% 3001 to 4,000 I just give you that [Music] 3% you said 3% yeah 3% 4,01 5,000 1% greater than 5,000
2% that's by parcel count what y wanted those numbers so 57% pay a dollar to $1,000 in taxes justment what wein
yeah1 2000 uh 10012 18% and I can I'll I'll share this I'll just send it to Wanda and then she so the majority pay between majority pay between a dollar dollar and a thousand yeah
yeah that was just just something else that you guys had asked [Music] for I remember that that's pretty much it unless yall got any questions for me Mark I really appreciate what you
said tonight and you know there's no doubt in my mind that you know you don't that you that you do look for opportunities to save and when you said you you talked to your employees and and you asked do you see any other way that
we could that we could save and I I appreciate that and that's what we all need to be doing um but need to be defensive about I mean just you know that's that's just being prudent but um
and I I I recognize that everybody you know has a lot of different tasks like work that you do in your office I mean I don't know what all you do I don't know what all anybody any of y'all do you know you come over
anytime you come home I don't need to know I mean I don't need to know the only thing that I'm doing is I'm just looking at where we are how are we going to how are we going to do this how are we going to keep the county afloat without going to the maximum
millage and you look at the counties that have gone to the maximum and boy they don't they don't have anywhere else to go they I mean you know really because that's the majority of the revenue that comes from there so you know you know I wish we didn't have have
to do anything you know I mean but that's not that's not where we are you know and um whoever said something on uh something maybe about you it wasn't me no no no
man um so um but I appreciate what you're doing and I I I think you're doing a really good job as well as I think some of the other constitutional officers are doing a really good job I I don't see anybody not doing a good job not that's not where that's not where
I'm at you I'm just I'm just as frustrated and worried as anybody else about our County and how are we going to make it how are we going to make it and I appreciate the uh suggestions Marty that that you came up with um that's
good and anybody else that has suggestions um thank you thank you you don't come up with any questions please don't call me email call a cell phone everybody's got
it call looking for efficiencies thank you Mr chairperson Mark before you leave just to update the board and and I'm not I'm not suggesting assessments I just want to
give information that if the board wants to consider any type of of any anything that's collected um on the tax on the tax roll or tax bill tax bill we would have to you would have to adopt
a resolution of intent by March 1st and it would have to be approved of approved by you and the property appraiser and I know we did that one year um where you had to send me a letter and because we
were and I think that was the and I think that was the fire assessment maybe that we were considering but if that's something you even want to consider that has to be accomplished by March 1st and that includes that would
include any type of assessment or if you are considering any type of fee for RVs any type of Permitting where it would be collected on the tax bill that's something that would have to be adopted by the board by March 1st unless I'm
mistaken that's that's my understanding we don't do this very of no if you don't have to set a dollar amount by the end there uh no I think it's just isn't the resolution of intent just I think daating that you may you
may want to collect whatever it is on the tax bill and because it wasn't adopted by January 1st that the tax collector and the property appraiser agree to I think it's just a schedule
and certifi Ro certif yeah and um we used to do it and you probably still do it um in January 1 you you you say hey we're going to we're going to do this I think it was fire assessment I was I think it's because we we did the board did adopt a resolution of intent several
year two or three years in a row just in case that's something that you wanted to do I know there was one year we were late and and it may have been Solid Waste I can't recall right that is a deadline that you have to keep in mind if you if that's something you even want
to consider um that has to be accomplished by March 1st a question is it legal to pick out um a section of people and say just like for instance
the people that have the RVs to say okay you have an RV so we're going to charge you more and be or you have you live in a brick house so since you live in a brick house we're going to charge you an extra fee is this legal to pick out to
pick out somebody and say we're going to charge you more just because whatever they do it in neighboring counties huh they do it in neighboring count maybe they do but my question is is it legal what he saying they don't RV is not P anything but I mean is it leg is it
legal to take one uh well the houses are paying something but our we are not and the PO bars only pay when they build get a building ber that one it well now the RPS that are on your private
property you're paying property taxes yeah well that's all there's no value to the dwelling in part all my question is is it legal to pick out somebody or if we were to say if you live in a brick house we're going to charge you more
just because you live in a brick that's all is it legal I believe that if they were considered residential remember that the residential dwelling units I do remember that if they're considered a residential dwelling unit which is the same that we had to consider for the
solid waste assessment because for the solid waste assessment they are considered residential dwelling units and even if there's a power pole they have the potential they have the potential to create solid waste so they are assessed
so I do I just want to get clear then because um you know you he said that you know you pay your property taxes and your house is valued isn't the RV valued at something fig in there that's part of
the Gap it's not because the homeowners do pay that increased amount because of the value of the dwelling but I believe RV only purchases a decate if so the county only gets a minimal a dollar or two they can be is
that fair Mr Tomkins yes so that's part of the Gap and it you're paying a value on your taxes and land value because you have improved property right but your dwelling is not a fixed to that so your
RV is not valued in it's not figured in on on a tax rate so it's like there's no Equalization between a homeowner or an RV or mobile home owner that it has value but they can purchase a decal through the tax collector
$30 a year and the county gets a doll and a half that's all you get may have to own the land and the mobile home now let's RV let's push RV let's say mobile home they have to own the RV um or the mobile home and the property for to be
real property okay so if if the majority and I don't know but if the majority of the RVs were in a park then that fee would be uh the
responsibility of the property owner to pay not those people that are in there and of course they could go up on their rent or right you know yeah it would be their choice yeah yeah yeah but is there a way that you could um just say we're
going to put a a fee on the park on parks that have RVs and all and not people that are struggling just not be homeless could we do that could we pick those people up AR wor of them like you're talking about in these parts it sounded like a
lot of people yeah I mean I don't know the legal answer to that question but I mean the Swan River Rondo at Le County I mean the county assesses the park for the number of spots they have so I'm sure you could assess a
feed I don't know if we could single out I I have noide yeah I don't can we find out if we could do Parks you know I just struggle with yall know you know the people that
live check with other counties and see how they do that but again commissioner I think that you at use the poverty guideline to exempt those that you we have that provision in the solid waste ordinance and I can't remember the
percentage I don't know and I don't have I thought you had that memorized most of it I do that particular part I don't is already losing his head yeah I mean it's I turn around spot and one of the issues now when we when we say let's
let's talk to other counties is a lot of other counties don't do you know tourism and for the board and and don't do Bo decs for the board and don't do um business licenses for the board and Mobile Home Inspection so it's trying to find those counties trust me I have
looked I I mean I Baker count Baker County is having the same issue that we are having Lori was on a zoom meeting with the University of Florida with the ceds from around the state in the chat box after they and I
don't even know what they're discussing because L and I really don't I don't understand a lot of of of what they do she she's Tau me a little bit more about it but in the chat box the CED from Baker County said hey what are your counties
doing about RVs and you know nobody answered so Lori called and she said what are you talking what's your you what are you talking about and she said well RVs are coming in here by the droves so Baker County's dealing with this um also um
we're we're on the coast so of course we're and y'all heard the stories I mean there's somebody on YouTube telling people how to do it right um to come in and there's nothing wrong with it there's there's there's not a thing wrong with it Franklin County uh Franklin County if you if you look at
Franklin County you will notice that uh there's not a single RV on St George Island they have beautiful RV parks on 8 on the right side they are beautiful they're expensive they are beautiful and
they're full they are full um I joked with leanda kind of sort of joked with her I said this County got some land we can just create an RV park I don't have a problem with RV I didn't laugh she did not laugh she did not laugh you said absolutely not I told her I said wait a minute to become successful somebody
will buy it you know I mean we do need revenue streams um but uh you know it it's yeah I'll be more than happy to reach out to some and see see what they're doing with RV parks um if there's a certain a certain fee for them
um do we collect bed tax yes so they already yeah they're already contributing to the tourism they pay the bed tax yeah they pay the bed tax from the fee for Mee and fire or ambulance absolutely because yeah that money can
be used for that corre not at all and Mark now if I'm not mistaken I thought that there was a little bit of Revenue collected on pole bars not the there's probably a structure there's a structure
just to be absolutely clear there is yeah there's probably an improved structure shaa could tell you better than and what what's I'm not sure what the price would be I mean um do we know anybody that has has just the I'm just saying what's the why are we doing that
why are we doing that it say it's um improve property improve property so shaa would assess I Bas on that I I could look if somebody knows if somebody has just a Florida one um but I'm sure there is there's one that's
that's improved and pass my bedtime but um I'm sorry I just thought of one more thing I want to get in front of you guys about Pace it's a company comes around and they do things for homeowners who can't
afford it Pace hard a pace stay away do not sign an agreement with them in any way shape or formed um I don't know what's going to come out of one that they've done in this community right now they did one person who is a
um completely disabled veteran no tax bill except for the Landfield 178 and then if they prove what poverty level then of course we'll take it off don't know what they did I don't know if they did air condition don't know if they did Windows don't know if they did soort
panels um but it's a bad thing um it's a very bad thing um we were on the agenda for the workshop in July of last year and I was the only thing and I said I'm not bringing you up here just to listen to me pontificate about not liking Pace
but if Pace comes across your desk please call me please don't sign anything it is not good for the citizens the issue is this gentleman and his wife are completely exempt so they have no tax now they have
a let's just say they have a $155,000 bill for an AC and that or solar pend whatever it may be if it goes on that tax bill which I've already told the guy it's not going on the tax bill so I might get sued that's fine we we've got
attorneys to handle that um but there's a potential that they lose their home based upon having something like this done and it is that is bad it's bad so
if you see anything could be years yeah I mean and the percentages that that are that are on these loans to these folks it's unbelievable you want to know the worst part of it the gentleman who was behind most of
Florida Pace beat the Sarasota tax collector and is now a tax collector he was a commissioner before he beat a 32 year 28- year tax
collector and now he's part of us there's no stay away from them please it sounds like it's explo in this case the disabled there should be laws against and and the elderly I mean they go to your door and they tell you hey we'll put solar pounds won't cost you
anything you know or we put it on your tax bill you just pay with your tax bill you ain't told you told me who to quot that's right nothing's free I've had him come to my house and talk about putting them on there I said well you son a 25 years Le I say 25
years stay away from place please of them please every one of them Marty before before yall leave I just have since we're just throwing things around so if there was a change in our health insurance benefit
structure so say we kept the same the current coverage but there was a reduction from 80% to 50% or whatever that number is in order to you know to give us the cost savings and get us you know I think we're all sitting about 10%
without a huge reduction in force is that something that would that would affect you your that would effect being able to recruit and retain employees yeah I mean it it would probably be a minute effect on that our biggest thing
is going to be salary competition coming up um all the counties around us we we have better Insurance than all the counties around us that I mean even some of the bigger counties don't contribute as much so I I don't think a decrease to from 80 to
50 requiring a little bit more from from the for the family coverage I I don't think that would be a killer for us but um I mean obviously any any little thing can can affect it but I don't know that we have that many on the family
plan um with the Sheriff's Office Gary do you remember how many we had total was that 43 so the family plan is 37 and if you go to 50% of for a family if you went to
the employee had to pay 50% that would be they have to pay $47.77 more a month I don't see be a $700 a month 784 yeah that's pre
tax which right now they're paying three just three3 so it would double wow that would hurt that would hurt very badly but do you think that would be
more palatable than having a a much leaner plan that's hard to say it's really it is hard to say I mean I mean I mean it might be better to have a higher deductible um Everybody pay a little bit yeah we
increased the deductible last year right year current year that we're in and I think we we have increased the out of pocket max a couple of times we've made a few little tweaks to the pharmacy plan but nothing really D you know ER
copay something that would affect the fewest number of people I just don't I just don't know you know in some of the counties around us uh they don't pay 100% of the employee either like the employee has to contribute I mean there's there's I mean
there's several options that you can look at heard nobody have to pay anything probably the only only people that do that you know it is one of the biggest expenses
out there that that can be looked at it's just it's one of the most important things to the employee too when it gets down to it I mean it really is so it's a it's a thin you know the other thing I didn't have a chance to look at the numbers and I wanted to and I will eventually but I
mean the FRS contribution increases well I have mine I have mine hear I mean you you have to fund that I mean it's not something you can you can't say not fund it you knows you have to pay it and those have been from the last went up every year
for I mean a lot yeah yeah a bunch um sorry e y but and we also had a pretty significant increase in our um Danielle and our that was that mainly our property yes taxer I mean property
insurance so retirement costs from 2021 to 2025 um my office has going up from uh 134,000 to 188,000 [Music]
and we have no control over that do you understand what what Gary saying with that so just my salary we're paying 54 something per into F FRS it's not
going into my f FRS it's going straight into F FRS so I mean it's it's significant and it is it's only gone up and up and up and up and Bill monford told me the reason
for that was that if everybody retired at the same time you know you be able to pay everybody out but that that is a fixed cost that or not even fixed cost it's just the cost we have to pay so it's I know everything's against
us shiff Association I mean you know they have their own health insurance company plan too and they've been presenting to a lot of counties lately so if y'all decide you want to listen to them we can have them down here to talk to you we need to do that they they have a plan Madison's on
their plan now they changed over the entire County so we all should shop around for insurance will that put us in a larger yeah yeah because it's quite a few of the through
the uh FSA risk management yeah so the more people you add the bigger the group then the better the r yeah absolutely I mean when when you guys came on that was that was beneficial to our to our land but anyway I mean you
know nobody wants to do anything unless everybody's going to do it that's what yeah absolutely Mr but it wouldn't hurt to listen to them I make a suggestion that we for this for our future budget meetings like this that we don't put them in conjunction with a
meeting this is very late we're tired and um you know it's just just not good you know uh everything gets on edge and um it just be better if we have a separate meeting at 6 o' just for that and only
that and I as far as the sheriff's concerned we'll make oursel available anytime whether you do a day meeting or evening meeting it doesn't matter to us if you want a resolution of intent I mean we only
have 12 days like 10 days I mean but I need some direction and conr would need to prepare it and I'd need to get question is do we want a resolution of intent for RV assessments potential RV I
guess it would be I guess s RV not stting an actual rate but stating the intent that we may want to do that we have to [Music] do before before
March so had a special meeting before the workshop I mean if we were if if we're wanting to do that then I would say we would have to have a special meeting prior to the work shop would that be feasible so was that one thing Mark we talked about years ago and we got we got
um put down on it was about the boat route Fe yes sir we we need to go ahead and go up on that I mean you're the lowest in the state we sure are by far by far we can only use that for maintenance of the
boat ramps and we have 200 you got a pretty good you got pretty good chunk change in there but we use that for paying off duty deputies like during scallop season and maintenance of the but I think we would have to
demonstrate that we need more maintenance money wasn't that something they said Mark yeah so so I I went down the road with FWC on that and basically FWC since we we used money
from them to build the ramp they were not going to allow us to to change the fee for out of town people um so I could I saw the writing on the wall about 3 weeks into the conversation and said I'm not going to waste my time anymore so it's change it for everybody
or nobody that's right right and it's been I think we've tried twice or three times we have we we've tried a couple times and the problem I said to them is I said well you're you're going to charge a you know if I go to Georgia my hunting license is more because I'm a Florida resident and and vice vers but
it didn't matter to them they weren't listening they got plenty of money yeah yeah yeah I mean yeah they got pay me50 Cent to sell $1,000 worth of stuff I mean there who wouldn't well that but I would say after the Hurricanes you got quite a bit of Maintenance to do on the boat ramps I mean they're all
destroyed all the FL dos and everything yeah could we go up on the the boat rep fees enough that it would totally cover are the are we responsible for paying part of it so we cover so could we go up
on the fees enough to to to cover our annual expenses and everything and not have to take money out of our uh pot so to speak I I think are we required to pay something other than what we
would get in fees you don't know what I'm saying I think we do collect enough to pay we do so we do we break even with that then because and even with paying the deities and everything well then going up on the fee wouldn't talk people
that fish all over the tournaments everywhere and they say we the cheapest place we ever seen put in a [Music] boat but that that'll be covered by those
fees M you have to hold the trash off you had to read John that's already included it's already included well put it in general fund not when that's a [Music]
special why mother place you charge more then that's what I want to know yeah really well they may have more employees I mean we do Carell is one of the the ones that's very expensive might not be a bad idea I
mean I can reach out to them and ask them hey what all do you use this this money for cuz it's it's out I mean it's it's crazy what it cost I know it's it's really really high so well and remember too now we've received grant funding for
that infrastructure so that's money that we're not expending you know we got we got Grant funds for the finger dogs and the you know all of that in Steen Hatchy and probably some for Katon so we save so much money on infrastructure maybe we
don't need as much that may be part of it could very and Care Bells might be priv own too we'll find out somebody might own it board to have a special meeting at the workshop for the workshop
to for the in potential I I'll get with Conrad or whomever I need to to get a draft resolution of intent and then that way whatever y'all decide you'll have that um we'll have that ready should should
we add the fire potential fire assessment in there also would yes is a possible it might not be a bad idea I'm just I mean not that we have to do it but just it's there should I I'm just asking whatever the pleasure of the
board is that would only be used for the fire surface fire department well I think what what Mark say excuse me the the tax collector is saying fine I'm Mar that we need to have we probably need a separate resolution of intent in case
the board wishes to to also adopt a fire assessment but what would those fees be used for can they used only for fire the now the resolution of intent we're talking about for RVs would be for everything but then
how would we what would we how would we separate out they just wouldn't go into the MST might Madison has a I think they call it a public safety assessment fire and EMS from a special assessment
so I know that you're funding some of the EMS out of the 1 cent Sal it does and the other half comes out of the general fund we can do that okay so what what I need to do I'm sorry so is so we want to also
add uh the for a fire assessment is that what I'm here yeah we TR it before we got voted down on we really needed fire department short we short and short of money so I
can ask if the I mean the study was completed I can't remember five two or three years probably more than that yeah five years ago I can ask if that can be updated um or if we would have to start from
scratch okay what you think to add it to the okay special meeting with the intent and then I need to also ask if I would assume we need some type of study if the board is even interested in imposing any
type of fees for RVs I don't I would assume we need a study so we could justify where that number came from are you sure about that I don't think Dixie K did no study they just got
Jam didn't you say that they just like the commission decides if you can put rual decision they have to they don't I mean they get the money I don't think no I'm [Music]
another for another budget let's do sep don't you come up for some dates and just email us all we all look at our calenders [Music] something